NYIT Enrollment Team, Schools Rolled Out the Red Carpet

Pictured: A prospective student at Open House at NYIT-New York City.

During the fall of 2018, NYIT rolled out the red carpet for prospective students, their families, guidance counselors, and other members of the community. NYIT Enrollment Services re-engineered traditional recruitment events like open houses and information sessions and welcomed a record number of attendees as a result. They also took the opportunity to engage key influencers at events held on NYIT’s campus by local and regional guidance organizations. Other schools and departments followed suit in educating the community about NYIT, its academic offerings, campus resources, and expertise. NYIT School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education, for example, hosted an all-day hackathon for the next generation of college applicants. Here’s a quick recap highlighting NYIT’s myriad outreach efforts in the name of heightening awareness of NYIT in the local community and beyond:

• NYIT’s fall Open Houses in New York City and Long Island offered “the hottest ticket in town”—the Long Island events experienced an 31% increase in attendees, who enjoyed one-to-one conversations with faculty members who were on hand to represent their academic programs, personalized academic and financial aid advisement, and campus tours. “We ramped up our awareness campaign to invite potential students and their families to campus,” said Nada Anid, Ph.D., vice president for strategic communications and external affairs, who also notes that students are much more apt to enroll once they have visited campus. “We also saw a great deal of faculty participation, and I think our guests really enjoyed connecting with them.”

• This year, the Nassau Counselors Association chose NYIT de Seversky Mansion as the venue for its annual holiday party on December 11. Presentations by Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karen Vahey, Provost Junius Gonzales, M.D., M.B.A., and Associate Professor of Hospitality Robert Koenig, Ed.D., were welcome additions, with one counselor commenting positively on NYIT’s focus on outcomes and as a school “that really cares about its students.”


Members of the Nassau Counselors Association attend the annual holiday party at NYIT de Seversky Mansion.

• During the same month, Enrollment Services hosted the Suffolk County Directors of Guidance’s regular meeting, also at NYIT de Seversky Mansion. Nearly 60 directors of guidance from high schools throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties networked and shared industry insights while also learning more about NYIT. Vahey provided an overview of NYIT’s programs. “School counselors are very influential in student’s lives, and we’re partners in terms of finding high school graduates a good fit,” she said.

Nearly 60 directors of guidance attended the Suffolk County Directors of Guidance meeting at NYIT de Seversky Mansion.

• Representatives from the New York State Education Department gave a presentation on graduation requirements and diploma options, and Carol Dahir, Ed.D., chair of the M.S. in School Counseling program, conducted a workshop on changes to school counseling regulations coming in July 2019. “Hosting this group provided a powerful venue to discuss those changes,” said Dahir. “The counselors in Suffolk County have been very generous in welcoming our students. Nearly 80 percent of the members have partnered with us.” One counselor in attendance, Justin Arini (M.S. ’12), worked in the admissions office at NYIT when he was a student and is now a counselor for the South Country School District.

• The School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education partnered with TeenHacks LI to introduce Long Island high school students to the Dexter reconfigurable robot arm. Held within the Innovation Labs at NYIT-Long Island, the hackathon included presentations by Interim Dean Christian Pongratz, M.Arch., NYIT students, and executives from Haddington Dynamics, makers of the highly customizable device. The day began with an introduction to the technology used to program the robotic arm, followed by a quick lunch before the young coders broke up into small groups to discuss potential uses for the device. “In the end, some of the amazing ideas were using Dexter to help build the foundations of a building, track the stars in the sky by countering the movement of the Earth and help people with disabilities get around,” said Wesley Pergament, co-director and founder of TeenHacks LI.

For a full list of NYIT events, including academic conferences and admissions events, go to nyit.edu/events.

Long Island high school students learned about technology and how to program a robotic arm.