News
Maria Richart

Roughly 4,000 RIT students and alumni came to RIT’s university-wide career fair today in search of co-ops, internships, or full-time employment. Recruiters from nearly 230 local, regional, and national companies, including Thomson Reuters, Kodak Alaris, Collins Aerospace, L3Harris, and O’Connell Electric Co., were present.

Nearly 230 companies will visit the RIT campus on Sept. 21 for the university-wide career fair, and around 75 employers stay for the interview day on Sept. 22. The career fair will return to its original two-day format for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Democrat and Chronicle talks to Maria Richart, director, Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education, about the co-op program at RIT. (This content may require a subscription to view.)

As the nation’s reshuffled economy rebounds from the pandemic, RIT students graduating from a university renowned for its academic rigor combined with successful internships and co-op experiences are leveraging multiple job offers into their top choices.

More than 2,200 RIT students donned business attire to meet with recruiters from 160 prospective local, regional, and national employers during Wednesday’s university-wide career fair inside the Gordon Field House.

The spring university-wide Career Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Gordon Field House. Some 3,000 students are expected to attend.

More than 5,000 RIT students receive experiential learning by completing a co-op each year, often getting a foot in the door to a new career upon graduation. Started in 1912, RIT’s successful co-op program, one of the oldest in the nation, is also a resource for companies wanting skilled RIT students to work for them.

At the university-wide career fair on Wednesday, representatives from 108 companies and the military met with students hoping to land a co-op next year, or a full-time position. More than 1,200 students attended the fair in the first hour.

Although they may not be shaking hands this year, Rochester Institute of Technology students will once again be making in-person connections with potential employers for spring co-ops and full-time employment as the university-wide career fair is held Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Gordon Field House.

Students on co-op are picking up more than occupational and professional skills. As the pandemic unfolded last spring and summer, they saw firsthand how companies manage even in the midst of a crisis.

RIT students are still making connections for spring co-ops and full-time employment, even though they can’t physically meet company recruiters this semester due to COVID-19 travel and gathering restrictions.

Friday’s celebration of the Class of 2020 certainly cannot replace the atmosphere of a traditional commencement, which RIT plans to host on campus when it’s deemed safe. But many of graduates say they won’t let the pandemic, or the circumstances surrounding the virtual celebration, define them or their feelings about their time at RIT. (Pictured: Bradley Speck, who will finish his classes online this summer, has a job waiting for him at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, where he completed four co-ops.)