May 6, 1999

NJ STUDENTS SWEEP NATIONAL CONTEST TO WIN FIVE-YEAR SCHOLARSHIPS

     NEWARK - Two Passaic County Technical School juniors swept the two top design prizes in a national contest sponsored by New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture, winning scholarships for the full five-year program.

      The first place winner, Ariel Amarente of Paterson, wins a full scholarship for each of the five years he attends NJIT. The second place winner, Adriel Alvarez of Little Falls, wins a scholarship for 50 percent of his tuition for all five years. Both students are high school juniors, and must apply for admission and be accepted at NJIT in order to claim their scholarships.

      The contest, which includes students from across the country, is held to identify promising high school students for NJIT's School of Architecture. This year's challenge was to design a public swimming pool for the student's home community.

     According to Craig Konyk, professor of architecture at NJIT and the faculty coordinator for the competition, Amarente and Alvarez submitted particularly impressive designs.

      "We were quite impressed with the level of invention, especially Ariel's invention of a transparent roof of water that allowed the sun to filter through," said Konyk. "And Adriel showed quite a high level of accomplishment for someone his age."

      Four other winners will receive a cash prize of $250 each. They are:

     Ming Zhou of Piscataway High School, Joseph Buro of Staten Island Technical High School, Rachael Fry, home-schooled in Alamogordo, NM, and Aaron Capizzi of Brooke Pointe High School in Stafford, Va.

      NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students in 76 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science.