A Place to Succeed
Meet a few of the students, alumni, faculty and staff who have found success at RIT/NTID.
Seth Terkhorn
Seth Terkhorn uses several wake-up alarms, but not to help him get up for class. Seth, 21, a second-year, Computer Aided Drafting Technology (CADT) student from Ironton, Ohio, volunteers at the West Brighton Fire Department near RIT and occasionally is rousted out of bed for a fire emergency.
Seth’s interest in fire fighting began when he attended a fire department open house as a small boy. Then, at age 13, while attending a mainstream school, he joined a junior firefighters group.
In addition to volunteering at the fire department, Seth attends fire specialty courses part-time at a local community college and holds down part-time jobs with RIT Campus Safety, the RIT Ambulance, and the Student Life Team.
“I enjoy helping people in emergency situations,” Seth says. “And I have two of the important characteristics it takes to do that: the ability to be calm and to follow orders.”
One of his brothers, himself hard-of-hearing and an RIT graduate, encouraged Seth to visit and to consider RIT/NTID for college. Seth, a three-time scholarship winner, highly recommends first-hand experience when making a college choice.
“Be sure to visit and see what the college has that might fit your career interests,” Seth says. “Then get involved in things that you enjoy and that interest you. I have found many of those things right here.”
Seth currently is taking full advantage of his RIT/NTID courses and local resources to help him prepare for a career in the field of fire prevention.
“My CADT major helps me create, read, and understand blueprints,” says Seth. “These skills may help me become a fire marshal some day.”
From the Fall 2005/Winter 2006 issue of FOCUS magazine