Student Spotlight

Portrait of Barbara Essex
Barbara
Essex
St. Augustine
Florida

I came to RIT because of the mix of the Deaf and hearing communities—two very different worlds that I can enjoy in one place. My major prepared me well for my co-op experience as an intern in the industrial coatings group at DOW Chemical Company because I got lots of hands-on experience with lab equipment in my classes. My co-op provided me real-world experience in coating sample preparation and industry standard performance/applications test methods, and helped me develop my communication skills by presenting to Dow groups and intern cohorts. I also am a research assistant at the Deaf Health Care and Biomedical Science Hub, also known as the Deaf Hub. RIT is everything I expected.  My co-op experience, networking opportunities, extracurricular activities, and all the resources here I can take advantage of are creating the best experiences for me during college.