Photo Spotlights

Led by RIT, more than 400 student athletes and library staff from seven local colleges visited seven Rochester city elementary schools Nov. 5 to participate in the Giant Read. The event was funded by a grant RIT received from the John F. Wegman Fund through the Rochester Area Community Foundation. MCC, Nazareth, Roberts Wesleyan, St. John Fisher, SUNY Brockport and University of Rochester joined RIT for the event. The student athletes read to first graders and then joined in activities in the schools’ gymnasiums. Many of the colleges’ mascots joined in on the fun. Here, RIT student Jasmine Maisonet, a member of RIT's women's track and field team, reads to children from John Williams School No. 5.

Ken Hansen, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Freescale Semiconductor, opened the 2010 Freescale Symposium on Nov. 4, discussing the company’s newest technologies. Participants attended workshops and demonstrations of the company’s development tools and student projects.

James Carlson, chief executive officer of Amerigroup, was the keynote speaker at the Executive Leaders Network luncheon sponsored by RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business on Nov. 3. Since he took the helm in 2003, Carlson has secured Amerigroup’s position as one of the leading voices on behalf of health care for the financially vulnerable, seniors and people with disabilities.

Congressman Dan Maffei, right, visited the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Laboratory, part of the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Oct. 22. Distinguished researcher Don McKeown, left, explains how the multi-wavelength camera system was used to capture images in earthquake-struck Haiti, while Robert Krzaczek, software architect, looks on. Maffei, along with Congressman Chris Lee, secured $500,000 in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to support RIT’s remote sensing program.

Faculty, staff and students, including Alene Pierro, center, a third-year professional photographic illustration major, helped to turn up the volume on RIT’s annual fundraising effort during ROAR Day, the fifth annual Raise Our Annual Responses initiative, on Oct. 28. Gifts made during ROAR Day help support RIT’s General Scholarship Fund.

In the “spirit” of Halloween, RIT hosted a pumpkin-carving contest Oct. 29 at The Market at Global Village. Prizes were presented to Best in Show, as well as scariest and funniest pumpkin faces.

Leigh Rubin, creator of the cartoon Rubes, met with students from the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences on Oct. 28 during a visit to campus. Rubin critiqued student work and gave a presentation about his creative inspiration and cartooning process. Rubes appears in more than 400 newspapers around the world, including Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle.

RIT Archive Collections acquired the Frans Wildenhain Collection from Robert Johnson of Scottsville. Through his lifetime, Johnson purchased over 300 pottery pieces designed by Wildenhain, the legendary artist who helped create the ceramics program at RIT’s School for American Crafts during the 1950s.

Originally from Bamenda, Cameroon, Annette Charlie Eko Ngakam, has shared a bit about her country both in and out of the classroom. Eko, a third-year telecommunications engineering technology student, is an active member of the Women in Technology organization and a member of the RIT chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She participates in the program’s outreach activities, hosting high school students for overnight programs. In June, she represented RIT at the American Association of University Women National Conference for College Women Leaders at the University of Maryland, College Park, and discussed increasing and retaining the number of women in STEM programs through training and mentoring.

Samantha Huynh, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, and John Hardwick, a fourth-year film student, took advantage of some warm weather and the outdoor seating at Global Village.

White-tailed deer are especially active during October and November on the RIT campus. Drive carefully, slow down and scan the forested areas near roads to avoid any collisions. For more safety tips: When wild meets urban

Donna Gustina, chair of the planning committee for the RIT American Sign Language and Deaf Studies Community Center, became deaf as a toddler and first visited NTID 40 years ago. She’s seen reaction to deaf students on campus change from a novelty to acceptance, and she is providing vision for the new center dedicated to increasing the awareness of deafness on campus.