News by Topic: Racial Inclusiveness

The 21st cohort of RIT’s Future Faculty Career Exploration Program was welcomed to campus Sept. 25-28. The program invites exceptional underrepresented researchers and artists to experience what it would be like to be a faculty member at RIT.

Alvarado-Fischer serves as the vice president, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officer at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and volunteers for numerous community organizations. As a result of her own intersecting identities, she has a strong passion for social justice with a special interest in women, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ issues.

RIT is offering a global public health BS degree program and is accepting students for fall 2025. The new degree program will prepare students for public health careers, medical school, clinical health professional programs, law school, and many other graduate degrees.

Nastaran Nagshineh, a Ph.D. candidate at RIT, successfully bridged the Rochester and Dubai campuses, paving the way for future international students. Nagshineh is one of 67 Ph.D. students who defended their thesis this academic year and who will earn their doctorate.

Hosted by the Black Awareness Coordinating Committee (BACC), the event featured Minett Professor Sherry Tshibangu addressing the graduates during the ceremony, sharing that the graduates’ journeys were taken with exceptional courage, and that their legacy is one to be continued.

Orlando Ortiz took over as the RIT Alumni Association president in January, an association with which he has been a member of for 10 years. He is also active with RIT’s Lambda Alpha Upsilon Fraternity Inc. and is a mentor with RIT’s Men of Color, Honor, and Ambition (MOCHA) program.

As a child, Shakierah Smith loved watching Law & Order. Now a real estate associate, Smith says that her success was thanks to her support system and positive experiences at RIT.

To help draw attention to the thriving Filipino community in Austin, Texas, Joi Conti created a new magazine guide called TAYO NA: Austin Filipino Artists & Makers Guide in October 2023.

RIT will host its first Latinx graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 5, at 1 p.m. in the SHED. The event is a chance to honor and celebrate graduating Latinx students and is organized by RIT’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).

Independent research projects can help cultivate critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Whether it’s late nights spent in a RIT lab or a field study in the mountains, research experiences can be a cutting-edge way for students to prepare for the future.

Published by RIT Press, in partnership with the RIT Department of History and the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, Rochester History Vol 81, No. 2 (spring 2024) is a peer-reviewed biannual journal that explores local issues within a national and global context.

An executive director who leads a marketing team that supports RIT Housing and RIT Dining and a Marine Corps veteran who is receiving his mechanical engineering technology degree next month have been chosen to receive prestigious public service awards from Rochester Institute of Technology.