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James Hall

Motivated RIT freshman Brayden Levangie wastes no time designing his own curriculum to advance his AI and robotic research while at college. Levangie is a first-year student in RIT’s School of Individualized Study from West Boylston, Mass.

Business Insider talks to James Hall, dean of University Studies and executive director of the School of Individualized Study.

Despite overcoming health challenges from a car accident, Bobby Kovach, who recently graduated from RIT, managed to earn two degrees in four disciplines at the same time.

Thousands of RIT students are graduating this week with majors including engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, business, and fine arts. But more than 250 graduates are also receiving customized bachelor’s and master’s degrees from RIT’s School of Individualized Study, which allows students a flexible education pathway of their choosing.

On Thursday, Nov. 3, RIT’s College of Art and Design, College of Liberal Arts, and School of Individualized Study invites the community to a performance by Radical Reversal, a five-piece experimental poetry band.

RIT is making it easier for military veterans and their families to attend college by opening the Office of Veteran Student Success. While RIT has long offered support to veterans, this is the first time a central office and space has been dedicated to support them.

Gap Year Entrepreneurship Fellowships allow students to take time off from classes to focus on their growing business, new product, or compelling social innovation opportunity. In addition to the finances, RIT supports the students with mentoring and progress toward a degree.

It’s been nearly 30 years since T.J. Griesenbrock first attended RIT. But he never could call himself a graduate because he needed just two more courses to earn his degree.

RIT is teaming up with the nonprofit online learning platform edX to create a universal pathway to credit, making it easier and less expensive for people to earn a master’s degree. With this new model, RIT is the first university to enable edX learners to apply any of the 63 MicroMasters programs toward a Master of Science—specifically, RIT’s customizable professional studies master’s degree program.

School of Individualized Study student Harrison Canning and his business partner, Colin Fausnaught, a 2019 software engineering graduate from RIT, formed the BCI Guys, which stands for brain-computer interface technology. They recently launched an online educational series to lower the barrier of entry and inspire others to join the field.

RIT is joining University of Rochester and others in a National Science Foundation-funded project to learn about the different creative skills that tomorrow’s workforce needs. The study is centered on the idea that intelligent machines are replacing the routine tasks that people do and creative skills will become even more valuable for future workers.

RIT is among the colleges and universities from 20 states that are participating in the Degrees When Due initiative, which aims to reach the nearly 4 million near-completers and uncredentialled completers in the United States who stopped college for financial reasons, family obligations or a variety of other reasons. By joining the initiative, RIT will learn best practices in degree reclamation and provide targeted support while re-engaging students who have paused, or “stopped out,” their studies.