Caroline Lomnitzer Attends National Career Exploration Camp

2014 Aug 15

Area high school students are back home after participating in a national career exploration camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Rochester Institute of Technology. About 100 students from as far away as California attended.

Caroline Lomnitzer, of Indian Lake, who will be a senior this fall at Lomnitzer Academy (Homeschool), participated in Explore Your Future, a six-day career exploration camp at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on the RIT campus in Rochester, N.Y. Campers got a taste of possible careers in computer art design, business, health care, laboratory science, computing and engineering.

Explore Your Future, in its 29th year, not only helped the students and their parents decide what majors and careers may best interest them, the experience also allows many to meet others their ages who have similar backgrounds. Many deaf and hard-of-hearing students may be the only or one of a few deaf students in their school. Evening activities included visiting an amusement park, bowling and a dance.

Many of the students used sign language to communicate. Others didn't. But the diversity in communication didn't stop them from making many new friends.

NTID, one of nine colleges of RIT, was established by Congress in 1965 to provide college opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who were underemployed in technical fields. This past year, more than 1,250 deaf and hard-of-hearing students attended RIT/NTID, making it the largest college for deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduates in the country. Hundreds of interpreters, classroom captionists, tutors, and notetakers support students in and out of the classroom, making it the most accessible college campus for deaf and hard-of-hearing students anywhere. Visit: www.rit.edu/NTID.