Staff volunteers make Imagine RIT shine

For Jeremy Zehr, volunteering at Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival gives him the chance to give back to the university in a unique way. Zehr, a captioning coordinator for the College of Art and Design, spends the festival as a people mover, driving attendees across campus in a golf cart.

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Jeremy Zehr

"It’s a great event and I love volunteering. I love being part of the RIT community, in general, and being a people mover is a great way for me to get to know the campus visitors,” he said. “We have a very talented crop of individuals that have the privilege of coming to this university to learn new skills, and it makes me proud to be a member of this community to see what they are doing.”

The festival, which returns to campus on April 27, requires an extraordinary amount of support to run smoothly. RIT staff members volunteer at the festival to assist the university in creating an unforgettable event each year by handing out welcome bags, supervising parking lots, and showing campus visitors around the bustling festival, among other duties. Volunteers also have the opportunity to experience the festivities themselves and see the projects students, faculty, and staff put on display.

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RIT

Karel Shapiro

Karel Shapiro, an administrative assistant in the Office of the Provost, says that volunteering at Imagine RIT builds camaraderie for those on campus.‌

“I like the sense of community that being a true Tiger gives me. I also enjoy interacting with other employees that I otherwise would not interact with throughout the course of my workday,” Shapiro says.

Brendon Strowe, Library Applications Developer at RIT Libraries, also volunteers at Imagine, helping as part of the planning committee and with communications on the day of the festival.

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Brendon Strowe

“I think volunteering is important because it gives staff an opportunity to interact with our students and gain an understanding into the work students are doing in the classroom and also using what they've learned to do something they’re passionate about,” Strowe says.‌

More than 200 staff volunteers annually commit their time to Imagine RIT, according to Ann Ielapi, senior director for Events and Conferences and Imagine RIT director.

“I love seeing the internal RIT community come together and pull off something as magnificent as Imagine and to see the students light up when they’re able to display their projects, their research, their performing arts, their robotics, whatever it may be. It’s just an incredible opportunity for them to get to engage with the public and to talk about things that they’re passionate about,” she said.

Ielapi also believes that volunteering at Imagine RIT is the embodiment of a teambuilding opportunity.

“In the past, we’ve had entire offices, cohorts of people, volunteer together and make a whole day out of it. That camaraderie related to working with your colleagues and peers is really a great experience as well,” Ielapi said.