Venessa Mitchell '02 graduated from RIT with her Masters in Human Resource Development in 2002, and began her RIT career some 6 years later. She works in the Mechanical Engineering Office where she works diligently – assisting students, faculty and staff in financial matters, which we all know, can be tricky (smile).

Venessa knows the meaning of a college education, and has, for the past several years, been RIT's team organizer for the City of Rochester's "Pillars of Hope". The Pillars of Hope initiative brings teams of minority role models from the community into city schools with a simple message, "We've done it, and so can you!" She has successfully managed 7–10 trips, per school year, to RIT's adopted school, Nathaniel Rochester School #3, in the Corn Hill area. Each month, a team of RIT volunteers heads to School #3, with a range of information from introductory ASL, or extracting DNA from a strawberry to entrepreneurship. In addition to her Pillars work, she's also a diversity champion here on campus, as seen with her role on the Executive Board for RIT's AALANA Faculty and Staff. Venessa Mitchell is driven and committed to making a difference as an alumna in the community as well as on campus.