Scenes from Kent State, 2025
A selection of photographs from across Kent State University in 2025. From research labs and performances to quiet walks across campus, these images reflect the everyday rhythm of university life—moments of discovery, creativity, celebration, and reflection that together shape the character of a campus community.
A selection of photographs from across Kent State University in 2025. From research labs and performances to quiet walks across campus, these images reflect the everyday rhythm of university life—moments of discovery, creativity, celebration, and reflection that together shape the character of a campus community.
Students gather on Risman Plaza as the sun sets behind the Kent State Library.
A student leader reacts during a campus event.
Evening light falls across the Kent State gateway.
Students explore the night sky inside the campus planetarium.
Students dance during Homecoming 2025 outside the Integrated Sciences Building.
A graduate embraces the next homecoming king during halftime.
“Trial by Fire” was produced at Kent State with performances Feb. 7–9, 2025, as part of the School of Theatre and Dance season. It was also featured as part of the university’s May 4 Commemoration programming, connecting its themes to broader conversations about activism and education.
If you talk to just about anyone in Northeast Ohio, it’s likely that they know someone personally who has struggled with addiction or mental health issues. Mental health is a broad topic that is constantly splashed across headlines with different trends and ideas emerging on social media usage, teenage anxiety and depression rising along with suicide risk. Regionally, Ohio has been known for opioid addiction in a crushing epidemic that continues to wreak havoc on families and communities. But with all of these headlines come personal stories that have unfortunately become all too common. That’s where Deric Kenne, Ph.D., director of Kent State University’s Center for Public Policy and Health and professor of health policy and management, comes in. Through a slate of different projects, the center conducts research specifically to develop and improve community health, by improving public policy and providing assistance to public, non-profit and private sector organizations across the state of Ohio, as well as nationally and soon internationally. Here is a look at just a few of the projects Kenne is working on with the center, including collaborations with other departments at Kent State.
Walking down Main Street on the Kent Campus, you might notice the beauty of front campus, the Rock, budding trees, and the new business building. But what you might not realize is you would also be passing a world-class museum housed within historic Rockwell Hall. Enter Sarah Spinner Liska, J.D., Ph.D. A force of nature who is rethinking the vision of the Kent State University Museum by increasing student participation and programming and partnering with cultural influencers across the country to showcase the world-class collection that lives right here on the Kent Campus.
Charles Levier decided to start playing piano during COVID as a way to keep busy. He had been a jazz drummer for 18 years, but never played the piano and he didn’t read music. So he turned to YouTube, watching people play and watching their hands move and copying that and then going online to look up the notes and figuring out how to read them. “I'm a lot better at memorizing, so once I read it about three times, it'll probably already be in my fingers, and I can go from there,” Levier said.
A student works on a fashiondesign project in a campus studio at Rockwell Hall.
A student explores virtual reality technology in the Immersive Touch Lab.
Participants walk through campus during the annual May 4 candlelight vigil.
For Ashley Motley, what began as a childhood love of solving math problems — the “weird kid who enjoyed doing math homework,” as she puts it — has grown into a career at Medical Mutual, a Cleveland-based health insurance company, thanks to scholarships, supportive faculty, and hands-on preparation at Kent State University. “There are so many different opportunities you can have with a mathematics degree,” Motley, a Product Line Analyst III, said. “You can go into finance. You can be an analyst. Even here at Medical Mutual, there are probably 10 to 15 different positions involving analytics.”
A bee gathers pollen from late-fall flowers on campus.
Students walk through campus as the moon rises in the evening sky.
A student crosses campus during a winter snowfall.
Students walk through the Kent State Trumbull campus center.
A psychology student sets up an experiment.
!["He was a great player, very gifted. He had all the skill or the tools to be a professional. He was a joy to coach." Kent State Head Baseball Coach Jeff Duncan and his staff suggested the Bananas to Jackson when he brought up being interested in Hollywood in his senior meeting, after a back surgery. The staff knew the head coach of the Bananas and told him about KJ, who went to audition in Columbus. "The rest of history," Duncan said. "They put them on the Visitors [team] immediately... and then within the year, which is amazing - it doesn't happen like this - he was on the Bananas. And now he now he's one of the most popular Bananas."](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/9693c1a5291fbd23f320fe4791740499/408cf81b-4454-4590-a764-eced7774bd9b_rw_1920.jpg?h=c763f26a811f3155092f91d049bb4211)
"He was a great player, very gifted. He had all the skill or the tools to be a professional. He was a joy to coach." Kent State Head Baseball Coach Jeff Duncan and his staff suggested the Bananas to Jackson when he brought up being interested in Hollywood in his senior meeting, after a back surgery. The staff knew the head coach of the Bananas and told him about KJ, who went to audition in Columbus. "The rest of history," Duncan said. "They put them on the Visitors [team] immediately... and then within the year, which is amazing - it doesn't happen like this - he was on the Bananas. And now he now he's one of the most popular Bananas."
“To the makers of music – all worlds, all times.”
Under the stars & in a fog
When Sparks Fly
Follow Ryan on Instagram @brewer.photos
Yes, it's Buzz!
Orion AA-2 Testing at NASA Glenn's Plum Brook Station
NASA Glenn Pilot Kurt Blankenship calls it a day after a research flight over Cleveland.
*Not* a backseat driver
Evaluating the Noise of Future Aircraft
