News by Topic: Experiential Learning

Residents of a homeless shelter in Rochester are continuing to receive therapy during the coronavirus pandemic from a team of therapists in a clinical internship program at RIT. The doctoral training program began as an exercise in using telepsychology to deliver care to a marginalized and underserved population. When New York shut down in March to stem the spreading virus, the therapists were already prepared to apply the telehealth protocols in the crisis.

Victoria Maung ’20 MFA (medical illustration) is capping her college career with a Fulbright grant that will give her an international experience and a connection to her Southeast Asian roots. With the help of RIT Global, Maung, won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach high school in Malaysia.

Students interested in learning more about building, programming and developing robots and robotics apps will be able to participate in RIT’s annual RoboCamp during online sessions this summer. Camps will be offered starting June 29 through Aug. 14 with several sections to accommodate age and skill level of participants.

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.)

KayLee Steiner knows her way around a research laboratory. Her extensive undergraduate research experience made her an appealing candidate when she began applying to Ph.D. programs. After receiving offers from top-notch graduate programs including Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and others, she will pursue her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine.

RIT student John Fox credits his time in the U.S. Marine Corps for teaching him about accountability, focus, and dedication—all while developing his passion for logistics and supply chains. Fox, who is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, will begin his career in July as an area manager in Amazon’s Fulfillment Center in Rochester.

A multidisciplinary team of first-year students has been working to develop an imaging system that can reveal information hidden in historical documents for their Innovative Freshmen Experience project-based course. But with the shift to remote classes, the students left campus with the device nearly complete. Although disappointed, they shifted focus to the opportunities the new situation would create.

Jeanne Christman thinks classrooms should be noisy. The more conversations between students and faculty, the more success she believes students will have in understanding and applying engineering and computing concepts. That approach to helping students understand and use today’s engineering concepts was one of the reasons Christman was honored with the 2019-20 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Peter Cinibulk was praised by staff leadership for his combination of outstanding service to the program and his peers, his strong academic achievements and participation in, and contributions to, extracurricular activities both on and off campus.

Morgan Mistysyn, who will graduate this May with a Master of Engineering in engineering management and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering, is the recipient of this year's Outstanding Graduate Woman Award for her leadership role in the RIT chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World.

The devastating impact of COVID-19 on national and global supply chains is being studied by experts all over the world. It has also presented research opportunities for supply chain professors in RIT’s Saunders College of Business and created a robust discussion between RIT students and faculty.

When the coronavirus pandemic spread to the United States, RIT faculty member Dr. Laurence Sugarman asked his students to apply their knowledge of placebos and the power of suggestion to the unfolding health crisis.