Why I Chose NJIT - Juliana Schlichting
By Steven Kuerble, Communication and Media ‘22
When it came time to decide on a college major, Juliana Schlichting had a difficult time narrowing her choices down to just one. By choosing to come to NJIT, she was able to double up on her majors and bring her interests together. As an industrial design and history double major, Juliana worked to learn the lessons of the past in order to build a better future.
“Both design and history are studies of humans because we’re designing for humans, so in that process, we get to understand them and see other people's experiences and how that will affect my design and how that affected history and the way things are now. And because we have such a deep understanding of the past we can change now and improve for the future. So history is such a relevant tool for today.”
Being able to craft her own path in this way allowed Juliana to work on the types of projects that interested her and helped her build experience in fields that she’s passionate about. Juliana has a strong passion for hiking and the outdoors — the open-ended nature of much of her assignments meant she could work on projects centered around this passion. Not only did this make her time working on her majors more engaging, but it meant she was actively building a portfolio of work in her intended field that could be shown off to future potential employers.
“For projects, they’ll give you a prompt, but then they’ll let you explore different paths that you like. So for me, my biggest hobby is camping and things like that. So I’ve had projects that I kinda leaned towards outdoor use and nature. I even made a whole hiking backpack for one of my projects. And with my portfolio filled with camping gear now, if I’m applying to certain companies that do those products, they’ll see it in my portfolio and be like ‘wow, you know, you’re really interested in this’. It makes it fun, all of my projects have been pushed towards what I want to do and what I’m interested in.”
By choosing NJIT, Juliana always had access to the university’s state-of-the-art facilities, giving her the ability to be equipped with the tools necessary to tackle any project that she set her eyes on.
“Coming in and getting put into one of the studios, the whole time it was hands-on, which made it so interesting to learn”.
Her time at NJIT didn’t just help her gain experience in the workshop; as NJIT provided Juliana with professional skills in a number of different areas, all of which helped make her a stronger candidate for future employment opportunities. Not only was she working with her hands to build and design new products, but she was also delivering detailed presentations to colleagues, and learning how to market and sell the products that she was making.
“You get to do such a variety of things, that’s why I love the program. Getting to go into the woodshop and get your hands dirty and build something one day, and then other days you’re finding your presentation skills, and we’re learning how to sell the products too. So it’s almost like we’re designers, but we’re also engineers and business majors and everything and anything possible that goes into this whole process”
Equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experience that her courses at NJIT provided her with, Juliana felt a strong sense of confidence for the future, and pride in the work she had accomplished. The opportunities provided to Juliana at NJIT made her ready to tackle any challenges that may arise in her career.
“NJIT is definitely helping me break barriers with those parts that I need to get better at which in the end makes me a better designer and a better person going into the profession. It is just so rewarding and fulfilling at the end to be like ‘I made this, it was hard, and it’s still awesome.’ When we graduate and go into the field we’re not just going to be designers, you know, some people might end up going into more specific manufacturing process jobs, some people might be at some big company doing presentations to the board about their design. We’re a billion majors wrapped into one. I’m gonna be so prepared for the interviewing process and everything that happens when I graduate just because of all of the opportunities I’ve had here.”