Bergen British Invasion: U.K. Partners Visit
PARAMUS, N.J. – The British are coming! (Actually, they were already here).
As an inaugural partner in the “U.S.-U.K. Community College and Technical Education Exchange” program organized by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and U.K. Association of Colleges (AoC), Bergen Community College recently hosted students and faculty from Southport College (England) at its main campus in Paramus for an international learning exchange focused on sustainability.
Based on its record of excellence in STEM education, the ACCT and AoC selected Bergen as a flagship partner for the learning exchange program launched last year with financial support from the Cyril Taylor Charitable Foundation.
“I am truly honored that Bergen became one of only two community colleges selected for this prestigious pilot program,” President Eric M. Friedman, Ph.D., said. “The opportunity to participate in a cross-cultural learning experience has offered our faculty, staff and students access to a unique global initiative that has enriched our campus environment.”
Paired with Southport College, members of a Bergen delegation have worked together to collaborate on sustainability-focused projects, with representatives of both colleges visiting the other during the past six months. The most recent November trip to Bergen included site visits to the offices of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 164, PepsiCo, The Hillier College of Architecture and Design at NJIT, and PSE&G to meet with sustainability experts, conduct field work and participate in hands-on experiential learning in the College’s STEM Student Research Center.
“This partnership represents the very best of international collaboration in further education,” Southport Assistant Principal Shaun Hindle said. “For Southport College, it is an opportunity to connect our students with peers across the globe, broadening their perspectives and strengthening our shared commitment to innovation and community impact.”
At the center of the November visit, Bergen faculty, staff and students worked with their Southport counterparts to collaborate on a culminating project. The capstone organizes the overall cohort into subgroups tasked with a common goal - designing a community impact initiative that addresses real-world challenges such as environmental sustainability or social equity.
The team has focused its project on developing a new, environmentally conscious street design concept for downtown Hackensack to reduce environmental impacts and energy use. The team proposes constructing an electrical microgrid fortified with sustainable technologies such as photovoltaic panels, kinetic paving and SMART efficiencies.
Bergen faculty member Tara Snyder, who partnered with STEM Student Research Center Director Chis Tully to oversee the exchange program from the College’s perspective, provided the foundational concept for the project based on New Jersey's sustainability initiatives and current strain on the electrical grid.
“Our STEM project mentors imagined a hypothetical design based on the most recent technology and electrical engineering designs from across the world,” she said, “to see, first, the cost, and, second, if this would be feasible on a small scale for a controlled area containing apartments, businesses, brownfields or abandoned areas and regular homes.”
The project takes additional inspiration from similar work in Liverpool, England, where sustainable construction has become a cornerstone of Southport’s efforts to support the Liverpool City Region’s commitment to achieving a “net zero” environmental impact by 2030. To achieve “net zero,” the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere must remain equal to the amount removed from the atmosphere. The removal of greenhouse gasses can improve the state of the local, regional and global environment, including air quality.
Bringing concepts learned abroad to develop similarly sustainable initiatives for a U.S. city excited Southport student John “JJ” Nicholson, who learned under College faculty and staff members - and program mentors - Mark Balzarette, Yolanda Sheppard and Joseph Sivo, Ph.D., during the November visit.
“This has helped me understand how requirements differ across countries and how we can adapt our approaches to meet those challenges,” he said. “It has also shown me how students and staff can work together using creative techniques to solve real-world problems and build lasting international partnerships.”
Bergen students will visit Southport College in England in spring 2026 to continue work on the capstone project.
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
Photo caption: Bergen Professor Joseph Sivo, Ph.D., worked with exchange program students in the STEM Student Research Center at the College’s main campus.