Barnegat Teen One of Three Statewide Awarded NJUA Scholarship

A Barnegat teen is one of three selected from more than 200 applicants statewide to receive a scholarship from the New Jersey Utilities Association.

Danielle Judka, 18 and a recent graduate of the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Sciences in Stafford was awarded the NJUA’s Excellence in Diversity scholarship, a $1,500-per-year prize given to annually to three minority, female or disabled students in the state.

Judka, who will attend the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the fall to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, said the award came as a surprise.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going to win that,’” she said. “Then I got a phone call.”

Karen Alexander, president and CEO of the NJUA, said representatives from the nonprofit business association’s partnering utility companies looked over 236 applications before selecting the scholarship winners.

As a young woman entering the male-dominated field of engineering – a field key to the utilities industry – Judka was a great candidate for the award, said Alexander.

“Our industry is very heavily reliant on people with college degrees and those who have an interest in technology, so we’re delighted,” she said.

Judka said she’s well aware of her minority status in her chosen career path.

In the department at NJIT where she’ll be studying, the male to female ratio is 52 to one – the one being her.

“I went to orientation, and the dean of my department said, ‘You are the ratio right now,’” Judka laughed.

But that’s OK with her. She’s known for a long time that science is where here interests lay. That’s why she decided to start studying at the M.A.T.E.S. school as ninth grader.

“There was more there that was going toward what I wanted to do for my future,” she said. Namely, robotics – that’s where society is going, she thinks. She was a proud senior member of the school’s robotics team, which took eleventh place out of several dozen teams at an international competition this year; graduation ceremonies kept her home, but she was proud of the group.

Being a woman in engineering might make you stand out, Judka said, but that’s not a bad thing.

“It’s a very top-heavy field, so you have to forge yourself to be a leader,” she said. “With engineering there are so many opportunities. It brings out the best in you.”

And she thinks it’s important for more women to pursue engineering careers, in part because they often can bring a different kind of approach to problem solving.

“I think women can give different opinions about certain matters,” she said. “Men tend to go straight for the goal…just get there. Women kind of have a way of going around, adjusting and applying everything from all angles.”

For now, though, Judka and her parents are focused on the challenge at hand: sending her off to college. As the oldest of two, it’s new territory for her proud parents.

“We’re just trying to understand things as it goes,” she said.