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Bergen Community College student Juan Ponce is studying engineering to become a civil engineer.
Seeing many students accumulate student loan debt, Ponce, of Passaic, said, “I didn’t want that for myself so I chose to go to a community college, not only to save money but also to make new experiences.” Ponce said, “So if I would go to a community college, why not go to the best one: Bergen Community College.”
Ponce is a Bergen student in the NextGen Program, which received $4.5 million from the United States Department of Agriculture (UDSA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to mentor students in food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences.
Ponce is the president of Bergen’s 4-H Club. “The mission of the 4-H Club is to build the community garden so that in the future, the people of Bergen Community College will be able to freely garden in it,” said Ponce.
Ponce’s personal goal is to rejuvenate the community garden located in Ender Hall and further expand the 4-H Club.
During the summer, Ponce was also a STEM Student Scholar Program intern where he and his team researched, designed and built a Drop Tower to calculate an object’s drag coefficient, which is a number used to quantify the aerodynamic drag of an object moving through air.
“I am fortunate and grateful for everything I have gained,” said Ponce.
If Ponce were to give advice to other students, he would encourage them to get involved and put their name out there. “One important thing, especially during college, is to make connections, whether that be friends, mentors or professors,” said Ponce. “In the long run, they will help you to become a better person.”
Ponce expects to graduate from Bergen by 2025.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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