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One highlight of the RIT-Rochester Prep High School Partnership is the annual capstone showcase that spotlights student-professor collaborations. Their diverse projects in photojournalism, antibiotic resistance, 3D printing and fabrication, and chemical engineering gave the students experience on a college campus and the confidence of completing undergraduate-level material.

After a lifelong interest in clothing design, Chrystel Anne Clasicas has burst onto the fashion scene, starting by selling face masks in 2020 and showing her work at New York Fashion Week only one year later. Now, she’s preparing to appear again at this year’s New York Fashion Week by showing a collection of designs in collaboration with RIT engineers.

Six graduate programs in Saunders College are now STEM-designated, allowing students the opportunity to engage in technology-based business education.

RIT’s strategic plan calls for adding six to 12 new Ph.D. programs and conferring 50 doctoral degrees every year by 2025. The university already reached the latter goal with 51 Ph.D. degrees conferred in the 2020-2021 academic year.

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.

RIT has an emerging new hotspot for interdisciplinary research about 25 minutes from the main campus. The Tait Preserve includes a 60-acre lake and a private mile of Irondequoit Creek adjacent to Ellison Park, offering endless opportunities for research, education, and conservation activities.

While students have engaged in virtual inter­national experiences throughout the pandemic, they once again began crisscrossing the globe last fall for in-person international education experiences.

The largest construction project on the RIT campus in more than 50 years remains on track to open in fall 2023. When complete, the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) will cover more than 120,000 square feet of new construction as well as more than 83,000 square feet of renovations in two existing buildings.

New chairs for the 27 classrooms in the Student Hall for Exploration and Development and in Wallace Library will be on display in the Fireside Lounge this week. Students are invited to sample the different furniture until Feb. 4.

RIT has been recognized for offering some of the best online programs in the nation, including Saunders College of Business Executive MBA program, which leaped to No. 9 in the latest rankings.

Wallace Library’s first floor is undergoing extensive demolition and renovation this winter, and the makeover will be stunning. The library building will reopen to the RIT community in fall 2023, along with completion of the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) and the Monroe Hall renovation.

Inside Higher Ed features the RIT European Post-High School Semester program.