100 Black Men of Syracuse Inc., in partnership with Onondaga Community College and Junior Frontiers of Mohawk Valley, recently sponsored a trip for 48 middle, high school and college students to the daylong Imagine RIT Innovation and Creativity Festival. The fourth annual event, held May 7 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a creativity fair showcasing 350 interactive exhibits, research projects and hands-on demonstrations presented by RIT students, faculty and staff, as well as a select group of Rochester-area high school students.
The group arriving from Syracuse that morning traveled on a chartered bus provided by 100 Black Men, OCC and Junior Frontiers, who also provided chaperones. The students, clad mostly in jeans and a variety of casual shirts, shoes and light jackets, were among nearly 32,000 visitors who flocked to RIT for the festival. They watched robots perform a variety of tasks, participated in engineering and design experiments, sat for 3-D portrait shots, worked to blend a smoothie using a bicycle and toured the academic facilities of the nation’s 15th largest private university.
“We support and organize this trip with the same purpose as the tours of historical black colleges we help sponsor for local high school seniors and juniors,” said 100 Black Men of Syracuse at-large director Drake Harrison. “We want our young people receptive to the exciting opportunities only higher education can offer and experience another side of student life.”
The trip marked the second straight year 100 Black Men of Syracuse has teamed up with OCC and the Junior Frontiers to take students to the Imagine RIT festival. Photographs from the trip can be viewed in the photo gallery section posted on this website
