May 7, 1999

"New Jersey College Students Selected to Boost Affordable Housing"

     NEWARK - May 7, 1999 - First Union National Bank and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) will honor 23 New Jersey college students on Wednesday, May 12 as they celebrate the eleventh year of the highly successful Housing Scholars Program at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

      The students will receive recognition at a luncheon held in NJIT's School of Architecture gallery from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The recipients include nine students from NJIT, fourteen from Rutgers University and four from Essex County College. DCA Commissioner Jane Kenney and Jim Fitzgerald, Northern New Jersey regional president for First Union, are scheduled to speak at the event.

      The program places college students in paid summer internships with non-profit housing developers, introducing students to the unique issues that accompany affordable housing, while providing much-needed technical support to non-profit organizations. Students are chosen from architecture, civil engineering, management, public administration, computer science, and urban studies departments.

      "This program is a true winner," said Jane M. Kenny, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. "Students gain valuable experience working to help communities, non-profits get enthusiastic people to help them fulfill their missions, and people in need get the benefit of those combined efforts."

      According to First Union regional president Jim Fitzgerald, the Housing Scholars Program reinforces the bank's corporate commitment to build awareness of affordable housing options.

      "The Housing Scholars program encourages cooperation between the public and private sectors," Fitzgerald said. "Cooperation is the key to answering New Jersey's needs for safe and affordable housing. First Union is proud to be a catalyst in this important effort."

     Launched in 1989 as a joint project between NJIT and the DCA's Office of Housing Advocacy, in partnership with Rutgers University and Mercer County Community College, the program has since expanded to include Essex Community College and Rowan University. NJIT's Office of Community and Public Service administers the program.

     Five students from NJIT's School of Architecture, three from the Department of Civil Engineering and one from the university's Burlington County Campus will represent NJIT this year. They are Eric Babanskyj, Ruth Barrowman, Jeff Ingerson Patricia Kristof, and Natividad Perez from the School of Architecture; Vladimir Allrich, Mary Jane Noone, and Angela Quevedo from the Department of Civil Engineering, and Shilpa Gandhi, a Management Information Science major from the Burlington County campus.

     Each student will receive a stipend of $10.00 per hour ($12.00 for graduate students) contributed by DCA, First Union National Bank, and the non-profit agency.

     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.