Essex County College students reach for the stars

NEWARK, NJ — This September, 24 Essex County College students will continue their quest to the stars as participants in the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program.

“These students successfully completed NASA’s five-week online summer program. Now they are ready to go for the On-Campus Rover Competition workshop,” said program coordinator Nidhal Marashi, an ECC chemistry professor. 

Marashi and ECC physics professor Nadia Lvov coached, advised, monitored and mentored students during the summer portion of the program.

“Our students were hard working, motivated and determined to finish the summer course, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Marashi said. She proudly said that Essex County College was the only community college from NASA’s six pilot institutions to continue the program during the pandemic.

All 24 students have received the information for the next step virtual rover competitions, which are scheduled to run from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1.

Marashi said the students will work on the rover project remotely in teams. The ECC students will work with participants from other colleges. 

“That’s a good opportunity for them to interact with students from around the country,” she said.

“I congratulate all our students taking part in this amazing program. We were one of the first six community colleges to participate with NASA and we continue to provide our students with this unique opportunity,” ECC interim President Augustine Boakye said, also praising Marashi and Lvov “on their dedication to the program and our students.”

Computer information systems major Mary Rodriguez found the summer work to be challenging and interesting, and is looking forward to the upcoming one-week rover competition. The Newark resident said she has been interested in the work at NASA for quite awhile.

“I pretty much worked on the assignment every day for a couple of hours,” she said. “After graduation I have been looking into the graphics field, but NASA is a possibility.”

Bernice Bio heard from a couple of friends about the college’s program partnership with NASA. 

“I thought I would check it out and give it a shot,” said the biology major from Newark. “Summer was very interesting and I’m looking forward to the next part this fall.”

  Essex County College, NASA