Vo-Tech Students Launch Wildfire Safety Initiative

Wildfire safety is not supposed to be a high-school side project. But in Somerset County, that is basically what it has become — and in a good way. Students at Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School are using their nonprofit, NexGen STEM, to push a statewide wildfire-preparedness effort in New Jersey. The news here is simple: this is no longer just a classroom idea. They are already handing out safety kits, visiting younger students, and building a public-facing wildfire information tool. ### Who’s actually behind this? The core group includes Jashith Gorrepati of Green Brook and Rohan Patel of Hillsborough, who co-founded NexGen STEM, with support from Krishay Patel, Guru Puduru, Arjun Buch, and a much larger school club around them. Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School said roughly 50 students in the NexGen STEM club have been involved in the wildfire-prevention work. (scvths.org) ### What are they doing on the ground? The most concrete piece is the safety-kit distribution. These kits are meant for neighborhoods near wooded areas and public green spaces that are more exposed to drought and brush-fire risk. They include basic but useful items — informational materials, N95 masks, first-aid supplies, and other emergency items that actually matter if smoke or a fast-moving brush fire hits nearby. TAPinto also noted a recent kit giveaway at the Butler Library. (scvths.org) ### Why the school presentations? Because wildfire prevention is partly a behavior problem. The students are not just preparing people for fires after they start; they are trying to reduce the odds of ignition and spread in the first place. Their outreach includes safety workshops and presentations for younger students, which turns the project into a kind of peer-to-community education loop — older students learning STEM skills, then using them to teach practical risk awareness close to home. (scvths.org) ### What’s the website for? The website is their attempt to solve an information gap. NexGen STEM says it is working on, and now promoting, a New Jersey wildfire resource called NJ Wildfire Watch so residents can get up-to-date wildfire information in one place. That matters because local risk information is often scattered across agencies, alerts, and town-level channels. A simple, state-focused page can be more useful than a pile of official links if the goal is to get regular people to check it before a crisis. (tapinto.net) ### Why New Jersey? Because the stereotype is wrong. People hear “wildfire” and think California. But the students’ whole pitch is that New Jersey’s woodlands, drought-prone areas, and brush-fire zones face real risk too. ONNJ’s interview with the group framed that point directly — wildfires are a growing concern in the Northeast, including New Jersey, not just on the West Coast. (scvths.org) ### What makes this more than a one-off project? NexGen STEM was already a functioning student nonprofit before the wildfire push. Its broader work includes STEM kits, volunteer programs, and international education projects, so this effort sits on top of an organization that already knows how to recruit students and move materials. That makes the wildfire project feel sturdier than a one-day awareness campaign. ### Why does that matter beyond one county? (scvths.org) Because preparedness usually fails at the boring level — not enough masks, not enough basic instructions, not enough people paying attention before smoke is in the air. This project attacks that exact layer. It is small-scale, but it is aimed at the part of emergency readiness that towns often leave to chance. ### Bottom line? The real story is not that students care about wildfires. (nexgenstem.org) It is that they built a practical response around that concern — kits, outreach, and a public information tool — in a state where wildfire risk is easy to underestimate. That is the kind of local project that can look modest at first, but turns out to be useful precisely because it is concrete. (scvths.org)