AlumniNews Stories

Students from NTID’s Department of American Sign Language and Interpreting Education provided sign language interpreting throughout a Deaf Day of Play event at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. Several RIT/NTID ASLIE alumni attended the event on Sunday, March 5, to celebrate Deaf Awareness Month. Danny Maffia, ASLIE alumnus and interpreting program director, said the event provided interpreting students the opportunity to get real-world interpreting practice, and it provided the Deaf community a more accessible experience at the museum. 

RIT/NTID 2019 criminal justice graduate Cortez Harris launched his career in law enforcement to help people and make a positive impact on his community. He is a passionate advocate for social justice, dedicated to the principle that people deserve equal rights and opportunities and ensuring they get the support they need. 

Daniel Durant, an RIT/NTID alumnus and award-winning actor, made an appearance at RIT as part of the NTID Lyon Lectureship Series for a special screening of the movie “CODA” and Q&A Session with the audience in Ingle Auditorium on Thursday, February 16. The following day, Durant spent time with faculty, staff and students on the RIT campus, sharing his acting experience and journey in Hollywood and delivering messages of inspiration and hope to RIT/NTID students. 

At a press briefing at the Canandaigua Veterans Administration facility on Jan. 4, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced an increase in the annual appropriation for RIT/NTID. RIT/NTID received $92.5 million for the fiscal year 2023, a $4 million increase from 2022.

Recent RIT/NTID graduates or soon-to-be graduates who qualify for NTID support are eligible for 45-50 percent off the graduate tuition rate for any master’s degree program they choose.

The mother and brother of a late NTID faculty member and alumna are paying tribute to her memory by establishing the Skyer Family Foundation Endowed Scholarship to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing students achieve success in STEM-related majors.

To be more transparent with the alumni community and keep you all informed of what the NTID Alumni Association Board of Directors is doing, we have created this “From the NTIDAA Board” update, which we will regularly send out via Alumni News. 

Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend is an annual RIT tradition. This year’s event was October 14-16, celebrating families, students, alumni, staff, and friends of the university with one spectacular weekend. 

More than 30 employers returned to the RIT/NTID campus since the start of the pandemic to recruit a new cohort of talented deaf and hard-of-hearing students and alumni for open co-op or full-time positions.

Alexander Van Hook, a 2016 political science graduate, has set himself on the career path to success in the legal field. An individual with cross-disabilities, Hook is a future attorney and disability rights advocate working to bring awareness of fundamental legal rights of persons with disabilities, accessibility, and inclusion. 

Eleven Rochester Institute of Technology alumni have been awarded Distinguished Alumni Awards for the 2022-2023 year.

Christina Rizzetta-Satterly and Alec Satterly, a couple who met as students at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf launched Wake Coffee Roasters in 2017, a small-batch coffee roasting e-commerce company that sells and ships coffee to consumers online.