News by Topic: Student Experience

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a group of RIT students with a unique opportunity to express themselves. Missing the expanse of his dance studio at RIT, Thomas Warfield challenged his 43 dance students to stretch their bodies—and minds—using small spaces in their homes. The resulting submissions included routines performed inside closets, on treadmills, and in bathtubs.

Relay For Life was preparing for its eighth year to benefit the American Cancer Society when the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizers to change plans. So instead of nearly 1,000 people participating in a 12-hour walking marathon in the Gordon Field House, this year’s Relay For Life will be a five-day online event that will provide entertainment, donation challenges, celebrations of life and more.

Emily Mahoney, a third-year chemistry student from Cazenovia, N.Y., is one of 396 students nationwide named 2020-2021 Goldwater Scholars. The award is based on academic merit and research experience, and virtually all intend to obtain a Ph.D. as their highest degree.

Hannah Sarakin’s artistic flair and sunny personality is going a long way to cheer up her neighborhood in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., with sidewalk art and public service messages written in chalk.

Many RIT faculty, students, staff and alumni are among the collaborations here and across the nation, providing expertise to improve or create much-needed equipment and protective gear for medical personnel fighting the Coronavirus.

A team of RIT cybersecurity students is moving on to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) after taking first place at the Northeast regional competition March 20–22. The students pulled together a win, despite having to compete from separate locations across the country, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LiveAbility Lab is a partnership between RIT and the Al Sigl Community of Agencies, a collaborative network of organizations in Rochester that serves children and adults with special needs. The lab, which is located on Al Sigl’s Wolk Campus, opened in 2018. The goal is to develop a pipeline of accessible technology projects that are conceived at RIT and take root at the LiveAbility Lab on their way to development in the marketplace. 

Gears make the industrial world go ’round. And RIT engineering faculty and doctoral students are working to keep them moving efficiently.

Fourth-year computing and information technologies student Andrew Bentkowski has become the voice of the RIT women’s hockey team on the radio. Announcing the play-by-play action as it happens, he never gets tired of the excitement that it brings him as a fan.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 33: Community partnerships are one way RIT provides its students with experiential learning opportunities. James Winebrake, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Juilee Decker, associate professor of museum studies, talk about a unique partnership between the college and one of the Finger Lakes Region’s cultural gems, the Genesee Country Village & Museum.

Disability is an identity, not a deficit. That’s the message Catherine Lewis, director of RIT’s Disability Services Office, hopes people will remember.