PRESS RELEASE – Each year, the Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) honors its Outstanding Scholars, a select group of students who have completed at least 83 credit hours of study and have established a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.85 for all work completed at the university. (This is only 1% of the RIT student population.)
R.I.T. also honors teachers of these Outstanding Scholars, who are asked to identify a high school or community college teacher whom they consider to be the “best” — a teacher they would like honored as a model for others. These teachers have had a profound influence on their career and have been an inspiration in their life. Melody Kelly, a 2011 graduate from Tamaqua Area High School, has selected Mrs. Lori Remmel as such as teacher.
Mrs. Remmel was honored to attend a reception, award ceremony, and dinner in honor of these Outstanding Scholars and their most influential teachers on April 16, 2015 in Rochester, New York.

Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship Awards
This year marks the 39th year Rochester Institute of Technology is presenting the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship Awards.
Each of the students honored has achieved the distinction of maintaining a minimum grade-point average of 3.85.  All have completed at least 83 credit hours of study, more than two-thirds of the credit hours required for a baccalaureate degree.
In addition, selection of students was based on other factors complementing academic achievement, such as creative work, service on student committees, civic activities, employment, and independent research.
A graduate of Tamaqua Area High School, Melody Kelly is pursuing a BS in new media interactive software development. She completed a software development co-op at Salesforce.com  and served as a Web development intern at American Greetings. Melody is recipient of an R.I.T. Presidential Scholarship and a member of the dean’s advisory board for her college. Kelly was the 2014 winner of the RIT Business Model Competition. In addition, an application she designed has been published in the Journal of Interactive Humanities. After graduation, Kelly will begin work at Apple as a JavaScript editor.

The essay that Kelly wrote about Remmel reads:
“In times of teaching to the test and educational budget cuts, Mrs. Remmel’s classes are an oasis for creative minds. Through various graphic arts courses, I created experimental photographic portraits, got my hands dirty in the world of silk screening, expressed myself through visual journals, and even won a second place award from a local council for the arts. These classes provided freedom for my imaginative mind to run and even led me to push my own expectations under the skillful guidance of Mrs. Remmel. No only were these classes enjoyable but they fueled my decision to switch into a hybrid design and development major after a year in a less visual program.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the classes was learning from Mrs. Remmel. She bubbles with creativity, and she could turn any idea on its side for you to reimagine.
Whenever the time came to review project ideas with Mrs. Remmel, I knew that I would be pushing my plan a step further. She is attuned to the needs and abilities of her students and is equipped with ways to challenge and guide them. Mrs. Remmel is dedicated to her trade, in and out of her classroom. It is awesome to see the work that she does and to know she remains inspired. Her dedication to the art community comes back to the classroom, as guests stop by to talk about their work and opportunities to make an impact on the community present themselves in the form of new class projects. Whenever I drive by the Tamaqua Chamber of Commerce, I can see their logo, designed by one of my classmates in Graphic Design. The Chamber hosted a competition fro residents to design a new logo, and they selected the winning design from a student in my class. Seeing the connection to the world outside of the classroom was incredibly important to me. I could see the value in the skills I was learning, and I could see the immediate impact. With her imaginative spirit, inventive designs, and active involvement in the art world and the education of students, Mrs. Remmel is a teacher that I am grateful to have learned from.”

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Click HERE to view the press release.