AES Students on the Move | December 2025
CSTEP and McNair Scholar, Emmanuel Boakye, a fourth-year student double majoring in software engineering and management, attended the AfroTech 2025 Conference in Houston, Texas. The conference focuses on entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation with an emphasis on building community and elevating Black technologists across industries. Boakye was able to attend with support from his school and shared that AfroTech 2025 reinforced his commitment to advancing both his technical expertise and leadership potential.
You can’t miss it. The new mural in International Services is definitely a stand out! It’s the work of Julia Coley, a third-year medical illustration major, with a minor in craft and material studies. Coley was hired for this project and started working on it at the beginning of fall semester. She is seen here with Alex Collins, assistant director for Engagement and Student Success and Megan Kless, director, International Student Services just after signing her signature on her finished work. Coley is active with Women of Character, Honor and Ambition (WOCHA) and LOCS (League of Curly Haired Students), E-board.
Check this! Getajati Langley II, received first place honors and won a $1,000 scholarship prize in the 9th Annual Langston Hughes Poetry Slam: Dreams Deferred: Still I Rise! Competition, hosted by the Theta Omicron Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated last month. Judges looked at things like delivery and performance, content and message, language and wordplay and emotional impact. Langley was also invited to perform at the fraternity’s 70th Annual Clambake Dinner. He is a first-year mechatronics major and took part in our most recent AES Summer Experience.
Oscar Maguina Lazo, a third-year marketing major, was invited to present at the 42nd annual Resident Assistant Conference at Brockport last month. This year’s theme was The Arts “Creating Your Own Masterpiece.” The conference provides student leaders with information on how to work in collaborative ways to promote engagement in residence life. Lazo ‘s presentation, “The Origami Effect: how small creative touches big connections” focused on community building and programming.
Congrats to Alexandria Young, a second-year student pursuing a degree in computing and information sciences, who won the 'Flying Solo' award last month in the HACK.COMS 24-hour hackathon! The event celebrates the computing skills of RIT students. The “Flying Solo” award is for a unique project done by a single hackathon participant who showcased their individual creativity and ingenuity. Young says, “My project was 'Doodle Bug' a web app where anyone can draw on a canvas. The website also included a game mode where, given a random word from a list, the player would draw to the best of their ability the figure of the word. This drawing would be submitted to Gemini AI integrated into the app that'll cross reference the figure you drew to a random image pulled from Google's image search. Afterwards, the AI would give some feedback on the drawing and suggest learning materials to better your skill in the areas it observed needed improvement.”