Cornerstone Talent Initiative

The Cornerstone Talent Initiatives brings curious minds together to examine issues and ideas through a multifaceted lens. Guided by the ideals of interdisciplinary inquiry, our diverse perspectives create new pathways for deeper understanding.

About the Cornerstone Talent Initiative

In accordance with RIT’s mission for students to establish both the depth and breadth of knowledge as well as pursue lifelong learning, the RIT Cornerstone Talent Initiative is envisioned as an innovation hub for students, advisors, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty to come together and engage in dialogues about interdisciplinary inquiries. The aim of the Cornerstone initiative is to support students to satisfy career-related needs while also developing as empathically attentive and civically engaged citizens through curiosity-driven, sustainable interdisciplinary intellectual experiences.

To achieve our mission, we:

Carve out interdisciplinary curriculum pathways that supplement and bolster existing undergraduate degree program, immersion, and minor experiences.
Provoke students to discover and pursue questions that are both personally significant and intellectually meaningful to our communities throughout the undergraduate study.
Nurture inclusive and sustainable interdisciplinary intellectual communities that support and advance undergraduate students’ individual aspirations.

The RIT Cornerstone Talent Initiative was initiated by College of Liberal Arts faculty Dean Kelly Norris Martin, Ph.D., and Professor Katie Terezakis, Ph.D., to revitalize the civic value of education. In 2022, the initiative was jointly funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Teagle Foundation to enhance communication and philosophy offerings. As of Fall 2023, an interdisciplinary Immersion in Analytic and Expressive Communication has been developed and made available to main-campus undergraduate students who aspire to become confident, empathetic, and productive thinkers.

In the face of competing challenges of this era, the new generation— Generation Z—is held responsible for new methods and solutions. Integrating different disciplinary ways to interpret and do things takes time, training, and practice. Thus, the initiative is being expanded to foster interdisciplinary inquiries for faculty and undergraduate students across RIT campuses to provide more profound insight into the persistent challenges that confront local and global communities. Find more information under “Strategic Areas of Focus.”

Strategic Areas of Focus

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Industries and Professional Ethics

Professional ethics is essential for building trust, rapport, and relationship with immediate stakeholders and the larger society. What are the strategies for foreseeing, assessing, and responding to ethical dilemmas in day-to-day choppy seas? The Industries and Professional Ethics Cohort will support students to develop metacognitive skills for handling ethical questions in research and industrial contexts.

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Corporate Governance and Leadership

Diversity of thought can lead to oversights, confusions, and diversions but can also contribute to innovations and advancement. How do we strategically navigate personal, organizational, and societal goals? The Corporate Governance and Leadership Cohort will guide aspirational students to develop into boundary breakers and growth mindset nourishers in STEM fields.

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Ethics, AI, and Multi-intelligence

Artificial intelligence raises both hopes and concerns in the digital age. How can we ensure that artificial intelligence, along with other types of intelligence such as existential intelligence and spatial-visual intelligence, are handled with awareness and care in fields such as health care and museum studies? The Ethics, AI, and Multi-intelligence Cohort will advance our knowledge on human quests like these.