Photo Spotlights

RIT students Tyler Ashlin and Elizabeth Murphy waited in a long line Feb. 18 to get their FreezeFest sweatshirts. There will be more giveaways during the winter weekend along with entertainment, a 5K run, sledding, ice sculpture and more. RIT’s 5th Annual FreezeFest is Feb. 21-23.

The RIT Leadership Institute & Community Service Center hosted the Spring Community Service Fair on Feb. 19. Local nonprofit agencies provided information on their services and volunteer opportunities. Here, third-year computer science student Ryan Serazin signed up for an April cleanup event for the Monroe County Parks.

Joe Vicario—affectionately known as Part-time Joe—is a third-year applied computer technology student in RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. For the past three hockey seasons, Vicario has helped in all aspects of the men’s and women’s programs, from hanging uniforms to cleaning locker rooms to coordinating pre-game meals.

RIT computer science student Zach Lauzon plays pool with some friends in RITchie’s game room in Gibson Hall over the weekend.

Students were treated to a special Valentine’s Day lunch at Gracie’s on Feb. 14. The meal included various filled raviolis, chicken with cherry sauce, strawberry orange pasta, double stuffed pizza and soups. A variety of decadent desserts finished the lunch. An accordion player and a magician entertained.

Graduation Fair 2014 provided students with a one-stop shopping opportunity for all things related to the May 23-24 commencement weekend.

Kindergartners and preschoolers from Margaret’s House created treats and cards for a Valentine’s Day sale on Feb. 10. They raised more than $115 to be donated to the RIT United Way campaign.

Brian Durkin, a photojournalism student at RIT, photographed the Polar Plunge at Ontario Beach Park on Feb. 9. More than 2,000 people participated in the event and raised about $250,000 for Special Olympics New York.

More than 600 volunteers, including about 100 RIT students and 150 alumni, provided the primary light source for the 29th Big Shot image while RIT photographers shot an extended exposure of one of Rochester’s natural and iconic spectacles at High Falls.

John Resig ’05 (computer science) spoke with students on Feb. 7 about how his recent work with Khan Academy is changing how people learn how to program. Resig, the creator of jQuery, a JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML, now works at Khan Academy, an educational website. His talk titled, “Hacking CS Education at Khan Academy,” looked at the structure of the platform and the implementation of the real-time JavaScript editor system.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of social news and entertainment website Reddit, stopped by RIT Feb. 7 to give a talk about harnessing the power of the web for good. The entrepreneur and activist spoke about his new book and talked with special guest RIT alumnus John Resig ’05 (computer science).

Students lined up for FreezeFest giveaways, shirts and pens, on Feb. 5. Here, Daniel Nwosu, a mechanical engineering technology student, just missed getting a shirt before they ran out. Becca Delaney, assistant director of marketing and event services, said there will be more giveaways before the FreezeFest weekend. The upcoming event includes entertainment, a 5K run, sledding, ice sculpture and more. RIT’s 5th Annual FreezeFest is Feb. 21-23.