The Honors College regards service to the community or campus as an essential component of leadership.   Being engaged in service activity while a student provides a unique means of refining your leadership skills and prepares you to make service an enduring part of your personal and professional life.  To that end, each semester you are enrolled in the Honors College you are required to engage in service to either the NJIT community or the wider communities of Newark, New Jersey, or the nation.

Honors community service consists of community or campus service undertaken through the Honors College, NJIT, or one of its organizations, or approved off-campus service. It does not include membership in organizations, clubs, fraternities, or sororities unless you have had a leadership position or done significant community service with them.

Each year, hundreds of service projects are carried out by Honors students. Students may fulfill their service requirement by any of the following means:

1) Active service on one of the Honors student committees. To join a committee, go to that web page, choose a committee, and send an email to the committee chair, who will contact you.

2) A total of 15 hours per semester through either or both of the following:

Service through Civic Engagement@NJIT, a branch of Career Development Services (CDS), which links students to community service activities with non-profit organizations located in and around Newark and throughout the state of New Jersey. CDS will keep a record of your service activity and report to the Honors College. Be sure to tell the CDS staff that you are a student in the Honors College. To sign up, you can either:

• Email cecc@njit.edu;
• Call (973) 596-3642 or 3645; or
• Stop in to CDS in Campbell Hall, 5th floor

Other short-term services when requested by the Honors College, such as phonathons, attendance at conferences, etc.

3)  By actively serving on student organizations such as

• The Honors College Student Council
• The Honors College Passing the Torch Peer Mentoring Program
• The Vector, NJIT’s student newspaper
• NJIT Student Senate

4) By serving as an officer (president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer) of a fraternity or sorority with significant responsibilities, or as an officer of a student service organization with significant responsibilities.

Many Honors students spent their 2006 Spring break cleaning up debris from Hurricane Katrina, rebuilding houses, or helping in medical clinics.