News by Topic: Global Engagement

Debbie Stendardi, who retires as vice president of Government and Community Relations at the end of the year, leaves an indelible mark on both RIT and the Greater Rochester region—both of which she has advanced considerably through her advocacy efforts for more than four decades. In a far-ranging interview, the unassuming Stendardi reflected on her longtime career and widespread impact.

RIT has selected Vanessa J. Herman, a higher education veteran, as its new vice president for Government and Community Relations. Herman, currently serving as assistant vice president for government and community relations at Pace University, was chosen after a national search. She begins her RIT duties on Jan. 4, 2021.

When Carla Stebbins redesigned the health systems management MS degree, she included a culminating travel course in Sweden for her students to observe a different approach to health care. Stebbins, program director, built the online hybrid program to educate health care leaders to navigate a quickly changing field and widen their perspective. Even though COVID-19 canceled the trip, Stebbins found a solution

RIT’s annual celebration of graduate research begins this week with an online platform that reflects the new normal during COVID-19. The virtual symposium also expands the content to an audience of international graduate students who started their programs from their home countries.

RIT will celebrate graduate research during the 13th annual Graduate Education Week and Showcase: A Vision into the Future. The virtual event—Nov. 16 to 20—creates a platform for sharing and exchanging ideas during the COVID-19 pandemic, with pre-recorded and live presentations, demonstrations, visual exhibitions, and an alumni panel discussion.

International travel restrictions due to the coronavirus have been an obstacle to study abroad opportunities this fall, but RIT has found creative ways to provide students virtual intercultural experiences instead.

Many of RIT’s international students who were accepted at the Rochester campus but were unable to get to the U.S. because of travel and visa restrictions have found enrollment alternatives and connections to classmates at all the university’s campuses.

While the pandemic touched RIT locally, Ruben Proano, associate professor of industrial engineering, saw it from a global perspective, as part of a year-long sabbatical at UNICEF in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work extended ongoing research on making the vaccine market more affordable and profitable.

Virtual reunions, interactive programs, talks, a 5K, e-Sports, and even Tiger Trivia are just some of the dozens of events slated for Tiger Alumni Week, beginning Monday for RIT alumni, students, families, faculty, and staff.

Jessica Hardin, an assistant professor of anthropology, will be traveling to the South Pacific independent nation of Samoa to study how Samoan people make decisions about how to treat diabetes.

RIT has been ranked among the top U.S. schools for international students to engage in post-graduation employment in both STEM and non-STEM fields. The Student and Exchange Visitor Program named RIT one of the top 100 schools in two lists related to pre- and post-graduation optional practical training.

RIT is preserving a rare collection of Hebrew wood types used by the Jewish-American press at the turn of the 20th century. RIT Cary Graphic Arts will print, digitize, and publish its collection of 30 different wood types of the Hebrew alphabet with a grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation’s Historic Preservation, Restoration, and Literature Fund.