Johnson and Johnson TAP students ready for final presentations
Sophomore Dianna Cacace gives her final presentation to her classmates in the final dress rehearsal before the Johnson and Johnson Technology Awareness Program final presentation on Dec. 15, 2015.
December 10, 2015
At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 15, the student participants of the Johnson and Johnson Technology Awareness Program will perform their final presentations at their banquet.
In late September, well over 100 sophomores applied for the Johnson and Johnson Technology Awareness Program, and 21 of the applicants received acceptance into the fall session. The program is run by the renowned technology company Johnson and Johnson, and has been running at Hillsborough High school since the 2006-07 school year.
The program selected students, through a rigorous application and interview process, and introduced them to the world of technology and careers in the field. Students were brought on a total of three trips to the J&J facilities in Raritan, NJ, and visited the facility a fourth time for their final presentation.
J&J TAP adviser Geraldine Ryan oversees all of the meetings, and is very influential in the organizing of all the events. She has been running the program since it has come to Hillsborough.
Students in the program were split into five groups and given the task of solving one of five possible business cases. The solution for all the cases was to be found using the technology and other ideas such as security and ethics that were discussed in presentations given by Johnson and Johnson employees. The final presentation is going to be a verbal presentation given as a group on the night of the banquet in front of TAP students’ family along with J&J employees.
Business cases for the final presentation included topics such as cross marketing, mobile health, global health connection, affordable adaptation, and modern workspaces.
When TAP students were not working on their business cases, they were receiving informational lectures on different topics or working on other exercises while in the program. For example, students listened to lectures about topics including business ethics, security and presentation skills. Also, students took part in different activities such as building a prototype of an app or an informational marketing website that promoted different Johnson and Johnson products.
“My peers and I will have a better understanding on how to work with groups in our future endeavors,” program participant Colin Downes said.
Students were able to take away much of what goes on in the business and technology fields behind the scenes.
“I’ve learned many aspects of the business world from the inside, a perspective not many teens get the privilege of having,” Ryan McCaffery said.
The sophomore students who were selected for the fall session of the program are Vishakha Agarwal, Michael Atlas, Matthew Berrian, Dianna Cacace, Alex Cole, Colin Downes, Mathew Fiduk, Nikitha Harikumar, Namra Khan, Adele Kong, Gloria Ma, Ryan McCaffery, Nimish Mishra, Caroline Pabst, Katherine Patton, Ritvik Raj, Arshdeep Saran, Carolyn Song, Lokraj Srinivasan, Emily Weadock, and Du Xiong.