Bergen Community College

Bergen Community College alumnus Sebastian Mattio-Smith, ‘24, studied engineering and earned his associate degree in engineering science with the goal to mitigate and eliminate climate change and its effects.

“The STEM Student Scholars is the best academic program at Bergen,” said Mattio-Smith. “It provides students with hands-on research experience and opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities that will be essential in future job placement.”

During his time in the STEM Student Scholar (3SP) program at Bergen, he served as a team member on the electric go kart development project with Richard Boada Maldonado (’23) and John Griffith (‘23). In summer 2023, the team earned national recognition as finalists for the Community College Innovation Challenge sponsored by the National Science Foundation and American Association of Community Colleges. The team engineered a fully functional one-seater electric go-kart prototype with a top speed of 40 mph and a driving time of approximately two hours at 80 percent power with an adult driver in the College’s STEM Student Research Center – the nation’s only one of its kind at a community college.

Mattio-Smith has also completed a research internship where he worked as a student researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology to develop a process to extract silicon from end-of-life solar panels and reuse them in lithium-ion battery applications.

He credits “the incredible support system” he found in his peers and professors at Bergen.

“I owe a lot of my success and connections to Dr. Ricatto,” said Mattio-Smith when discussing the “unwavering and constant support” of faculty mentor and professor PJ Ricatto, Ph.D. who served as his advisor for two research internships. Ricatto inspired Mattio-Smith to pursue chemical engineering. “I would also like to thank Dr. Joseph Sivo, professor of physics, for instilling in me a desire to settle for nothing less than my absolute best in my STEM coursework,” he said.

Mattio-Smith served as president of the STEM Student Union, a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society and a peer tutor and supplemental instruction leader at the Cerullo Learning Assistance Center where he has tutored mathematics, calculus 3, differential equations, linear algebra, organic and inorganic chemistry, and physics including classical mechanics and electromagnetism.

“The Tutoring Center is an untapped gem at Bergen Community College,” said Mattio-Smith. “It is full of like-minded individuals who want the most out of their college experience.”

“I chose Bergen Community College in order to have the flexibility to explore potential majors while completing fundamental coursework for STEM majors at a much lower cost than four-year institutions,” said Mattio-Smith.

“College is not simply a collection of rooms where classes are taken, it is an environment where learning of all kinds happens,” said Mattio-Smith. “Talk to your professors, your classmates, and your advisors and get involved as much as you can so that when you graduate, you have more to show for it than a simple piece of paper.”

Mattio-Smith graduated in May 2024 and plans to complete his bachelor’s of science degree in chemical engineering.

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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