Snow schmow

Today I met with a potential summer intern and her mom, and gave them a tour of the building. These kinds of meet ups are probably my favorite aspect of my job, especially when they are as enjoyable as today's. I have had such great experiences at RIT because of the Center for Imaging Science, and I love to share this background with others. It is also a lot of fun to talk about all of the amazing and varied research projects we have going on here in CIS. It is especially exciting when I can sense my visitor's own enthusiasm for RIT, much like how I was when I was in their shoes. I sensed a warm, friendly, and eager connection today, and hope that we can welcome this bright and talented student as one of our own in fall 2012!

A Behind the Scenes Look

So it has been a while since I've posted. The main reason for this is that I have a lot of things quietly going on behind the scenes. There are some exciting new changes to be unveiled soon, including a new look and feel on the CIS webpage. Some of these changes have already been rolled out, but there are even more to come. 

Also, I've been working towards the next issue of the CIS Imaging Connection alumni newsletter, which should be getting out by break week. Speaking of alumni, some upcoming Alumni Receptions are in the works, so be on the look out for those! 

I have some visitors coming in next week to see CIS and RIT, which I am looking forward to. It's always a lot of fun to show some fresh faces around campus and share with them my wonderful experiences here. Two of the girls are students I presented to at Midlakes a couple weeks ago, so it will be fun to see them again! I'm very proud to have had such an impact on them. One of my other visitors is a potential summer intern - speaking of which, I've also been helping organize the High School Summer Intern program for 2011. This is something I am really excited about, especially because that is how I first got involved in Imaging Science, myself! It is both easy and impossible to believe that this summer will have been 10 years since I was here as an intern myself - man do I feel old! (Shh, don't tell anyone it's been that long already... Though I guess I just did.)

Well it's back to work for me so I can get everything done before I am out of the office for a few days. Will you be catching pink hair in the crowd of the Daily Show next Tuesday??? I know I'll be setting my DVR...

Oops

There is an RIT Young Professionals group just starting up on campus, which I am looking forward to being involved with. Unfortunately, their only meetings so far have been lunch-time on Tuesdays - which for the past 2 weeks I have had a meeting scheduled during that time. Today's lunch invitation included this link from CNN/CareerBuilder.com about the benefits of taking lunch breaks away from your desk - which, coincidentally, I read not long after eating my lunch solo in my office :-(. It is an interesting read and I suggest you check it out! Luckily, my usual lunch activity is half an hour of open skate at Ritter (noon-time sessions are free for students, faculty/staff, and alumni!) - which might explain how I manage to be such a productive Outreach Specialist, hmm?

Speaking of our grad programs...

Now that promotions are ramping up for the REU, it makes sense to also spread the word about grad school offerings in CIS, since both would be aimed at the same audience (current undergraduates). As you may remember, a new postcard has been created toward that end. However, as in the same case as the REU postcard, there was a demand to create a flyer that could be quickly printed on campus to be able to hand out in the mean time while we wait for the postcards to get printed. Presenting....

Ta-Da

 CIS grad program handouts. Now available!

REU frenzy!

Wow, this past week has been a total whirlwind. With our new REU program comes a whole new set of supporting materials and websites that need creating; and since we are a little behind when it comes to Summer 2011 REU programs, it all needed to get done FAST.

Things started with the postcard I posted a little bit ago. But since that will take some time to get printed, I had to also quickly mock up a flyer to hand out:

One thing to note here, however, was the website at the bottom for more info - It didn't exist yet! So, I spent many hours painstakingly creating the Imaging in the Physical Sciences REU Information Page, as well as all of its subpages. The site includes a description of the program, and links to the following: a list of the participating CIS laboratories; supplemental activities for participating students; program benefits; additional background info; and of course a link to the actual application form (the one component that I did not create).

After becoming familiar with all of the aspects of the program thanks to putting together all of this, I have to say it sounds like an amazing opportunity! Unfortunately it is not really something I can include in my main line of work, since it is a program for students that do not go to RIT; so I can't exactly use it to recruit students into the Imaging Science undergraduate program. But hopefully some current ugrad students from elsewhere will have a great experience and want to come to RIT for our graduate program offerings in CIS.