Mayor Ras J. Baraka and Acting Director of Water and Sewer Utilities Kareem Adeem announced the launch of an educational program for Newark youth at the Newark Pequannock Watershed, located in West Milford, New Jersey. The program will provide middle and high school students with indoor classroom and outdoor fieldwork on water infrastructure, water chemistry, water treatment, biology, ecology and engineering. The program will also include mentoring and leadership components. Students who graduate from the program will be eligible for paid internships with the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities.
The program is part of the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities’ comprehensive Watershed Management Plan. The program was developed in partnership with the Department of Neighborhood and Recreational Services and the Newark Board of Education. Through this initiative, scholars will engage in the program in an outdoor classroom environment located on the pristine grounds of Newark’s Watershed lands. However, during the cooler months the students will spend most of their time in the Watershed’s pavilion.
“This educational program will give Newark youth a unique opportunity to learn firsthand about scientific and engineering fields they could otherwise not been able to study directly. They will learn about many things – biology, chemistry ecology, engineering – and about possible future careers,” Mayor Baraka said. “But the most important lesson they will gain is a greater understanding of the efforts we make at the watershed to provide Newark residents with water, and how they can get involved in both creating a sustainable world and becoming involved in the greatest of all careers – public service.”
The program enables scholars to gain knowledge of water infrastructure, water chemistry, water treatment, biology, ecology and engineering. Through the sciences, the program offers assessments for participants to determine their individual type of learning style. This information provides students and educators with an indispensable tool to aid in the academic success of participating scholars. As an extension of the Mayor’s current Leadership Academy held every first Saturday of the month, the program also has a mentoring and leadership component to assist with personal development and encourage students to be an active and productive member of their academic and social communities.
High school students who complete the full curriculum will participate in an awards ceremony in June where they will be presented with a certificate as a Young Scientific Leader of Tomorrow and be eligible for the paid internship.
“As we tackle current environmental justice issues in Newark and throughout the state and country it is important that we as a City invest in our future by cultivating and equipping the young minds of our own community to eventually be an asset and an ally in the growing fields of science and engineering,” said Acting Director Adeem. “We are excited to embark on this new endeavor and host an educational program at the Watershed that is both academically progressive and socially empowering.”
If you are an educator and would like to have your school participate in this unparalleled program please call or email Tiffany Stewart, Esq. at (973) 733-2690.
