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| DeVry's Demetrius Graham works at USA House. |
In a first, DeVry University has sent two students to Rio to work alongside the U.S. Olympic Committee’s IT team as part of the school’s partnership with the USOC.
The Student Immersion Experience, as it’s called, is a creative take on DeVry’s partnership as the USOC’s official education provider. The school isn’t allowed to activate in Rio outside of USA House because it doesn’t sponsor the IOC or Rio 2016. The students, Demetrius Graham and Lisa Cha, arrived on July 28 and have spent their time working with staff inside USA House.
This is the first time DeVry has had students embedded with Team USA at an Olympics. Among the many tasks Graham and Cha have worked on include connecting and tracing Ethernet cords and ports in USA House, configuring printers, making cable cords, and connecting Wi-Fi around the building and on phones and computers, the students said.
“It’s been a lot of hands-on learning with the professionals from the USOC,” said Cha, who will graduate this month. Graham graduated earlier this year.
The program was open to DeVry third- and fourth-year students and recent graduates who majored in network and communications management or computer information systems. The students have been chronicling their experiences on a blog, and later today a video will be posted on DeVry’s website that offers a behind-the-scenes look at their time in Rio. The students fly back to the U.S. tonight.
Though they were tied up with work much of the time, Cha and Graham were able to attend several Olympic events, including swimming and beach volleyball, and they were able to score seats to the opening ceremony. “Which was amazing,” Graham said. “A lot of cultures, a lot of people representing their countries. It was really a sight to be there in person.”
The USOC and DeVry have not decided if the Student Immersion Experience will continue going forward, a DeVry spokesperson said.
“We are thrilled with the success of the Student Immersion Experience at the Rio Games and we’re in the process of determining the future of the program,” said Christy Katzfey, DeVry director of marketing.
