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Donna Burnette

RIT’s summer day camp—Camp Tiger—offers four weeks of hands-on-learning in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. New this year is a partnership with Rochester City Ballet that brings dance programs to RIT’s new creative center, the SHED.

AEOP replaces "apprenticeships" with "internships" in new title and messaging efforts with a rebranding that aims to provide more clarity to the community within the Army Educational Outreach Program.

Dr. Naomi Lee is passionate about involving native youth in science, technology, engineering and math; and to prove there’s a STEM identity and need within the indigenous community. Lee, a Rochester Institute of Technology grad, hosts a program at Northern Arizona University that helps expose STEM innovation and research experiences to underserved students. It's sponsored in part by Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships, which is administered through RIT’s K-12 University Center.

WHEC-TV talks to Donna Burnette, executive director of RIT K-12 University Center, about the center's move to downtown Rochester.

On Wednesday morning, RIT President David Munson, K-12 University Center Executive Director Donna Burnette, and Rochester Mayor Malik Evans cut the ribbon in front of the K-12 University Center’s new home at 40 Franklin St., in the heart of downtown Rochester. This move from RIT’s Henrietta campus to the city will allow the center to greatly expand the connections it has already forged with the Rochester community.

The K-12 University Center's move off campus and into downtown Rochester was made to expand room for more work within the facility as the department develops additional partnerships and programs. It was previously housed at a modular unit adjacent to Brown Hall that has since been demolished to make space for a new science research center.

Thanks to a grant awarded before the pandemic to RIT’s K-12 University Center by the Army Educational Outreach Program, it allowed funds to go toward free, hands-on STEM experiences for middle and high school students this summer through Camp Tiger. Inspired by AEOP’s eCybermission, and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, the camp offerings focused on various opportunities through the U.S. Army-based program, in addition to learning skills needed to prepare students to conduct their own research.

South Dakota Mines, a university in Rapid City, South Dakota, is 1,506 miles from Rochester Institute of Technology. Where the two are connected, however, is with its partnership through Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships.

Rochester Prep High School's graduating class includes 91 students who will either continue their education or join the workforce. Eighty-five students from RIT's partner charter school will attend college in the fall, and eight of them will enroll at RIT. 

The Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships team from Rochester Institute of Technology is aiming to enhance its portfolio of resources for participants that may provide a pathway and sense of belonging in STEM. One of the ideas is to create a variety of interactive and original online learning modules, with a focus to support students along their journeys in science, technology, engineering and math, by offering guidance through these platforms with exposure to various insights in and out of the lab – and with constant support from RIT K-12 staff on all levels.

During a four-day national event in April that featured some of the country’s brightest young STEM scholars, the Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships team from RIT’s K-12 University Center had the chance to be featured as an exhibitor and provide various volunteer services at the JSHS National Symposium in Virginia Beach.

Donna Burnette, executive director of the K-12 University Center at Rochester Institute of Technology, was honored during a ceremony on March 22 at Ingle Auditorium with the Dancy Duffus Award for Outstanding Citizenship. Burnette is also director of Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships that is administered by the K-12 center on behalf of the U.S. Army.