Scholarship Fund raises $100,000 at Hoopfest
The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children (SFIC) raised approximately $100,000 to fund partial tuition assistance scholarships for underprivileged students attending Archdiocese of Newark schools at its 18th Annual High School Hoopfest in the Roselle Catholic High School gym on Jan. 8.
Roughly 300 spectators witnessed three exciting games featuring some of New Jersey’s most talented basketball players, with five of the six participating teams representing four archdiocesan schools: Roselle Catholic, Hudson Catholic Regional High School, Seton Hall Preparatory School, and Union Catholic Regional High School. Several players on these teams were SFIC scholarship recipients themselves.
In addition to the basketball games, SFIC recognized the academic achievements of a few student athletes. The players with the highest grades on all six teams — including the team from the non-archdiocesan Columbia High School — were awarded with a special plaque in acknowledgement of their classroom accomplishments.
Launched in 2004, High School Hoopfest has become a tradition for SFIC, with many future NBA stars like Kyle Anderson and Karl-Anthony Towns participating through the years. All proceeds from the event’s ticket sales support SFIC’s scholarships, which benefit children at or below the poverty level without regard to ethnicity, gender, race, or religion so they can attend private or parochial schools within the Archdiocese of Newark. To learn more about SFIC and its scholarships, visit https://www.sficnj.org/.
Union City charter school students create Future City
Under the guidance of 5th grade teacher Kelly Fedynich, students at Unity Charter School, in Union City, took part in a project-based learning program to imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future.
Future City, the competition the students are taking part in, is a national competition that challenges students to build a city 100 years in the future that solves a problem. This year’s problem was designing a waste free city. The Future City team has worked hard designing their city, Cambria, building a model, writing a 1500-word essay, creating a presentation and more. The students competed virtually on Saturday, Jan. 15. As the students will tell you, “Cambria’s citizens consist of all ages with a median age of 55 years old (citizens can live up to 120).”
Cambria is appealing for its many activities such as high tech sustainable public spaces, coral reef explorations, cultural waste-free gardens, places to repurpose trash, and boating. Families have multiple choices on what to do for fun such as going to smart based public spaces filled with 3D printed endangered trees or going to the animal reservation center. Residential, commercial, and industrial zones are intermingled. Tourism and engineering fuel Cambria’s economy and make up the biggest industries for residents. Citizens live in houses with catchment systems, smart meters, solar windows, energy storage systems, and integrated smart home systems. Homes are made with eco bricks and a layer of rammed earth allowing them to be energy efficient. Every home has a vertical garden and regular gardens that provide food. The variety of plants and crops also create oxygen and purify the air. The vertical gardens help insulate the buildings and homes from temperature and noise.”
NJCU named Fulbright HSI Leader
New Jersey City University (NJCU) has been designated a 2021 Fulbright HSI Leader by the U.S. Department of State, in the inaugural year of this national designation. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is recognizing the noteworthy engagement that selected Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) have achieved with the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. NJCU is one of 35 HSIs nationally and just four in the state to receive this distinction.
Fulbright HSI Leader status has been conferred on NJCU and the other 34 HSIs due to demonstrated engagement with Fulbright exchange participants during the 2019-2021 academic years and promotion of the Fulbright Program opportunities on campus.
The Fulbright program offers full funding to students from all disciplines to study, do research, or teach English in 150 countries abroad. To date, 20 NJCU students and alums have received this award for study in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Spain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Laos, and South Africa.
This initiative is part of the U.S. State Department’s longstanding commitment to build diversity and inclusion within the Fulbright Program and within all the Bureau’s international exchange programs. The Fulbright HSI Leaders Initiative supports the principle that U.S. participants in international exchanges should reflect the diversity of the United States.
NJCU is recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority Serving Institution (MSI) with an undergraduate population that is 45 percent Latinx and 21 percent Black. Additionally, 54 percent of its undergraduates are first-generation college students.
The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Jersey City resident awarded scholarship
Jersey City resident and Hamilton College junior Obiamaka Nnadika has been awarded a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for study at Cambridge University in the U.K. this spring.
Nnadika is a junior government major at Hamilton College. She chose Cambridge as it offers her the academic courses that satisfy her academic passions of political philosophy and international politics along with the vast library resources to supplement her research.
Nnadika will be part of the Human, Social, and Political Sciences Department. which will deepen her understanding of different political frameworks and the nuances involved in international relations politics. Her interests are in History of Political Thought from 1700-1890 and International Relations: International Conflict, Order and Justice.
The Gilman Scholarship Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, offers grants up to $5,000 to undergraduates for academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange is intended to prepare U.S. students to assume roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.
Students earn academic honors
Jasmine Jonson of Jersey City was named to the Dean’s List at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania for the Fall 2021 semester.
The following Jersey City residents are now graduates of the University of the Cumberlands: Kowsik Dondapati, Jasman Singh Pall, Sravankumar Reddy Tangella, Namita Pandita, Nishant Naresh Shah, Mihir Talsania, Dipen Vijaykumar Patel, Vinod kumar Challagundla, Sai Srujan Gutlapalli, Ketan Gupta, Naveen Ravindran Thevar, Neelkumar Brahmbhatt, Nishchay Wadhwa.
Catherine Gregory and Steven Beck of Jersey City have been named to the Fall 2021 Dean’s List at Nazareth College.
Southern New Hampshire University congratulates the following students on being named to the Fall 2021 President’s List: Kaydiane Jones, Eric Levine, David Morales, Nicholas Preston Ocansey, Tatiana Davis, Gelssy Toatley, and Latish Banks of Jersey City.
Saverio Kaufman of Jersey City has been named to the Bucknell University Dean’s List for the Fall semester of the 2021-22 academic year.
Ariana Weeks and Aroon Kalladeen of Jersey City have been named to the Fall 2021 Dean’s List at Southern New Hampshire University.
Carlos Pepin of Jersey City has been named to the Dean’s List at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) for the Fall 2021 semester.
Springfield College has named Yvan Abis of Jersey City to the Dean’s List for the 2021 fall semester.
Faiza Khania of Jersey City has been named to the Honors List for the Fall 2021 semester at Mercy College of Ohio.
Sharon Pena of Jersey City has been named to the Fall 2021 Dean’s List at American International College (AIC).
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