Civic Engagement
New York Institute of Technology is committed to developing the next generation of global citizens. We encourage community engagement and public problem-solving through experiential learning, hands-on activities, and field-based learning through our community, institutional, and business partnerships.
Education
Internship Certificate Program (ICP)
This program helps student-interns focus on the academic component of their internship and supplements the rigor of their courses. Our staff helps secure employer evaluations and ensures that students meet learning objectives and develop the soft skills employers seek from our graduates. FACT: Fifty percent of students who complete the ICP are offered continued employment by their internship employers.
Minor In Civic Engagement
Connect your academic, professional, and civic identities with the Civic Engagement Minor, a 15-credit, self-designed program that focuses on your rights and responsibilities as emerging leaders in your fields and the community at large. Courses are offered by the Department of Humanities within the College of Arts and Sciences.
Service-Learning
Service-learning is a way for our students to give back to community-based organizations using their unique skills while earning course credit. By enrolling in a class that integrates service-learning opportunities, students help non-profit organizations solve real-world community problems while learning course material. The experience helps bring classroom education to life and provides students with resume-worthy experiences that will impress future employers and graduate schools.
Civic Engagement
Community Service Centers
Our Community Service Centers help students get civically, electorally, and politically engaged with their communities—where they live and work, as well as at New York Tech. Run by students, the CSC helps organize social justice discussion groups with faculty and staff members, fundraising for community groups and worthy causes, voter registration campaigns, and political advocacy efforts.
Consultants For The Public Good
Consultants for the Public Good offers students short- and long-term project-based volunteer opportunities at nonprofit organizations and government agencies, where they can apply class-learned skills and expertise to solve real-world public problems.
Center For Global Health
The Center for Global Health (CGH) is dedicated to training medical and other healthcare professionals who are empathetic leaders and change agents, ready to tackle the global burden of disease and health disparities at home and abroad. Through a combination of innovative educational curricula, independent research projects, and field-based service-learning initiatives, CGH provides opportunities for students and faculty members to engage in global health research, policy, and practice.
Building Resilient Communities
Building Resilient Communities is comprised of three primary initiatives: after-school programs; a Neighborhood Design Center; and a Community Healthcare Program. Additional foci include affordable housing initiatives for residents, economic development, and adult workforce development. Faculty, staff, administrators, and students from multiple schools and departments are engaged through service-learning opportunities to provide work experience with professionals in their concentrations. Research and skills developed as part of this initiative will be used to advance innovation and advocacy for global communities through future interdisciplinary endeavors.
Projects
Harlem Partnership
The new partnership between New York Tech and Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement Inc. (HCCI) aims to help Harlem’s Bradhurst neighborhood become a more resilient community. The partnership focuses on four key initiatives: after-school programs highlighting STEM-based learning, a community-led Neighborhood Design Center focused on urban housing, a Parent University English language program to help families with the college enrollment process, and a community healthcare program.
R-Cubed: Relief X Reconstruction X Resiliency
R‐Cubed is a disaster relief hub in New York City that brings together experts from across the university to provide short- and long-term plans that respond to disasters. Utilizing research and case studies, as well as expertise in areas like disaster relief, sustainable architecture, urban planning, service learning, and resiliency, the interdisciplinary team can collaborate with organizations in the U.S. and abroad who are seeking ways to understand, anticipate, prevent, and respond to crises and social challenges.
Ready For Takeoff
Ready for Takeoff is a documentary short by New York Tech student filmmakers, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Viscardi-JetBlue flight, where students with severe physical disabilities are given the chance to experience a trip on a commercial airplane. The film was made in collaboration with high school seniors attending the Henry Viscardi School at The Viscardi Center, which offers medically fragile children with severe physical disabilities a traditional education experience. Ready for Takeoff is a community partnership between New York Tech, The Viscardi Center, and JetBlue. It will be shown on JetBlue flights beginning in November 2019.
Research
New York Tech currently has a number of interdisciplinary research platforms under the umbrella of “smart cities,” including cybersecurity, virtual reality, biotechnology, architecture and design, and robotics. These areas of expertise are being translated into problem-solving in our communities.