EUREKA! Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services

EUREKA! is an annual intensive interdisciplinary workshop with juniors, seniors, and grad students from across the five RIT School of Design disciplines. Students work together in small teams to use design thinking and creativity to come up with strategies and concepts to address social issues. EUREKA! is organized by Graphic Design professor Lorrie Frear, supported by dedicated interdisciplinary faculty, and sponsored by Cause Collaborative.

EUREKA! partnered with Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services in 2018 and as Advisor, I collaborated with Prof. Frear and facilitators to support student learning and intercultural responsibility. Also, three of my former students returned to campus as alumni facilitators: Mike Kelly (MFA’17), Dan Grinthal (BFA’18) and Shaemus Spencer (BFA’17)—and Mike was not only Lead Facilitator but also Design and Innovation Lead from Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services. He has already begun implementing the innovative solutions proposed by the students!

EUREKA! partners with Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services!

Three former students returned to campus as alumni facilitators: Mike Kelly (MFA’17), Dan Grinthal (BFA’1*) and Shaemus Spencer (BFA’17). Mike was not only Lead Facilitator but also the Design and Innovation Lead from Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services!

Tacking problems.

Lunch at Mary's Place, a Refugee Outreach Center located in the Northwest Maplewood area of Rochester.

Casey, Hailey, Dan, and Madison combining design with engineering techniques and showing the crowd their Gantt Chart for implementation.

Team Iris takes home first place with their innovative training and organization design. Their solution will facilitate skill building and ease of use for the folks at RRRs. Congratulations and of course… EUREKA!

Second Place: Htaw, Alex, Stephanie, and Sophia created a new product line and branding solution

Third Place: The Shop Cats