Senior Success: EOP Students Prepare for Grad School and Great Jobs
When NJIT holds its 103rd Commencement May 21, more than 100 Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) seniors will officially move on from their undergraduate study to begin the next chapter in their lives. While their plans after EOP may differ, the four years they’ve shared in the program provided them all with a uniquely supportive and familial environment.
Here, we take a look at where just a few are going.
Gloria Brewster
Although Gloria Brewster is saying goodbye to EOP at NJIT, she’s not bidding adieu to the university. This fall, the computer engineering technology/medical informatics technology graduate will return to campus to complete her master’s in information systems.
Brewster, who hails from Pennington, N.J., looks to put her education in software/hardware development, project management, web development, database systems and finance toward a career in data analytics. She wants to focus on how data trends can help predict the future of businesses and health care systems.
How does it feel to be graduating?
I could not be more excited to graduate! I have made some great connections and have been able to be mentored by some amazing individuals from EOP. Although I am sad to close this chapter, I feel fully prepared to continue my personal and professional development.
What are your career plans after NJIT?
After graduation, I will continue working with Atlantic Health System as a human resources (HR) technology analyst in Morristown, N.J. The role allows me to leverage my business knowledge and systems expertise to drive process improvements with the HR team, facilitating data reporting and review for the HR, finance and information systems (IS) teams, and coordinating technology-based projects in partnership with HR leadership and IS resources.
Long-term, ideally I would like to continue working in the health care industry and focusing on overall patient wellness. As long as I am learning in my current role, I am happy.
What are you most looking forward to post-graduation?
Post-graduation I am looking forward to completing my graduate degree and volunteering in the Newark area. I would like to work with both high school and middle school students to show them that receiving a degree is possible regardless of their upbringing. These students have never had the opportunity to even consider obtaining a higher education. I will be using my connections with EOP, StreetSquash Newark and the Alpha Phi Omega national coed service fraternity — all organizations that I have participated in during my time here at NJIT.
What will you miss most about the EOP family?
I will miss the warm welcome from my EOP mentors and their desire to selflessly support me during my time here at NJIT. I would not be who I am or where I am today without their generosity and unconditional devotion to higher education. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank each EOP staff member and hope I am successful enough to show them how much every hug, conversation, email, call and text I received made a lasting impression on my life.
Alvin Justin Eke
As a first-generation college student, Alvin Justin Eke attributes much of his success at NJIT to his family for their guidance, understanding and encouragement. The Newark native started out as a chemical engineering major, but switched to theatre arts and technology (THAT).
Eke is thrilled to complete his undergraduate studies and eager to practice what he’s learned in sound design and engineering in a professional setting. One day after Commencement, he’ll go west to California for an internship as an A2 (secondary audio and sound assistant) at the Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria.
What does receiving your degree mean to you and your family?
My degree and this achievement is much greater than a piece of paper, because I had many moments of weakness during college and I almost considered not finishing my degree. Once I was introduced to the THAT program, everything changed for me and I began to enjoy college at NJIT. The THAT program changed my perspective of college, and led me to the end of this process.
What will you miss most about NJIT and the EOP family?
I will miss the camaraderie and companionship and the immense energy on the school's campus. We are a small school, but we represent greatness and that is a major positive to take away as I graduate!
What are you most looking forward to post-graduation?
I am very excited about interning in California and gaining my own experience in a field that I thoroughly enjoy!
What are your long-term career aspirations?
My long-term career aspirations are to be involved with sound design in television and film, as well as to produce for mainstream music.
Kelvin Siebeng
Kelvin Siebeng, NJIT’s senior class president for the 2018-2019 academic year and student speaker for undergraduate Commencement, is heading to Dallas after graduation to begin a full-time position with Texas Instruments (TI). As a manufacturing supervisor for the company, he’ll oversee staff and technology associated with semiconductor generation.
It’s a natural segue for the industrial engineering major, who had similar responsibilities as an intern at TI and gained a lot of other relevant experience through a supply chain co-op at Johnson & Johnson and an internship in process engineering at Whirlpool Corporation. Siebeng calls both Accra, Ghana, and West Orange, N.J., his hometowns, and says he will never forget the “home” he found with his fellow EOP students and the program’s staff at NJIT.
Are you a first-generation college student? If so, what does receiving your degree mean to you and your family?
Yes, I am a first-gen college student. This set the path for my siblings to follow, and provides me with the opportunity to take care of my family while my siblings are in college.
What are your long-term career aspirations?
Within five years, I want to be among the major investors in a leading industry. I also want to acquire a master’s or an MBA, leading to me creating a side business to earn passive income.
How does it feel to be graduating?
It feels surreal to be graduating. I remember not letting go of my mom’s hand in kindergarten and I’m about to venture out on my own.
What are you most looking forward to post-graduation?
Living in my own apartment, and starting life.