“Overall, I was really happy to be a part of the program, and I highly recommend it to anybody who has an interest in STEM because it’s a life-changing experience,” said Moorestown High School student Neeka Vojdani of the Governor’s STEM Scholars program.
Moorestown High School rising senior Neeka Vojdani recently graduated from the Governor’s STEM Scholars program, joining an alumni network of nearly 1,000 STEM students and professionals.
Vojdani was one of the few students who represented Burlington County and the only one from Moorestown.
The Governor’s STEM Scholars, according to the program’s website, brings together New Jersey’s high-achieving STEM students – from grades 10 through the doctoral level – to connect with STEM professionals and experts, learn about higher education and career pathways, participate in a research/engineering design project and acquire important professional development skills.
STEM Scholars is a program of the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. Throughout the past year, Vojdani and other scholar participants attended four scientific conferences at colleges around the state to explore the state’s vast STEM economy. Vojdani and her teammates also conducted a study on water contamination in the state and coded a fully functioning app that addresses the issue.
The scholars presented their findings to several judges and a crowd of more than 300 people in May at Kean University, where they were awarded for their exemplary service to the public. Vojdani and her teammates won the Excellence in Research Award – given for the best overall research project and live presentation, solution development and public outreach and communication – and placed first out of 16 other teams.
Vojdani is the president of the Moorestown High’s Science Fair Club and has competed in local, regional and national fairs for years. Her research projects have won her first place in the Coriell Science Fair and the Delaware Valley Science Fair and allowed her to present her findings at other invitational events.
Vojdani serves her peers on student council; chairs the high-school’s Soup for the Soul event; and is president of Period at Moorestown, which collects menstrual products for people in period poverty and eradicates period stigma. She is also an executive of Model Congress, a violinist in Honors Orchestra and was the recipient of the 2024 New Jersey State Governor’s Volunteerism Award in Youth in Service.
“Overall, I was really happy to be a part of the program,” Vojdani declared, “and I highly recommend it to anybody who has an interest in STEM, because it’s a life-changing experience and it helps you see the world and see New Jersey’s infrastructure in a different light.
“It really allowed me to network with my peers and see how science can influence public policy, and how you can be involved in the community as a member of the scientific process.”
