DDI Good News | March 2023
Victor Davidson, program director, TriO Upward Bound, was recently named head football coach at Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School in the Rochester City School District.
Martha Loucke joined the Division of Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) on Monday, February 28th as the senior staff assistant for the DDI central office. She comes to us from Durand-Eastman Intermediate School where she served as a building secretary. Martha holds an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Monroe Community College. Please join us in welcoming Martha! We are glad you’re here!
Kendall Scott, director, Native American Future Stewards Program is working with students as they gear up for Native American Outreach Day April 14th. They’re inviting Native junior high and high school students to campus to learn more about the programs and opportunities at RIT. The goal is to increase Indigenous student enrollment. There are a lot of events planned including a session with Minett Professor Emeritus Perry Ground (Turtle Clan) of the Onondaga Nation who will share traditional storytelling and talk about his experience with higher education. For more details, contact Kendall Scott.
David Wick assistant vice president for Research and Assessment, has an article published in Frontiers in Education, titled “Measuring the Impact of Student Success Retention Initiatives for Engineering Students at a Private Research University.” He is first author along with six colleagues from Clarkson University where the study was conducted. Wick was an associate professor at Clarkson, in the Physics Department and Director of First Year Physics before coming to RIT. Check out the article here
It was a touch of Hollywood with the RIT premier of Dear Eleanor, the latest film by Tina Chapman DaCosta, produced in partnership with MAGIC Spell Studios and RIT Diversity Theater. Seventy five people attended the private screening in Wegmans Theater February 7th including some of the actors and crew members. Dear Eleanor gives a snapshot view of the challenges Chapman DaCosta’s family faced to become Tuskegee Airmen, overcome identity violence, and take a chance on love in 1940’s Ohio. The audience also got the chance to view the prequel to Dear Eleanor, the award-winning film, Brick by Brick. During a post discussion, Chapman DaCosta shared over 50% of the crew are RIT students or alumni including cinematographer, Dallas Calkins, an alum and former MCAS student. What’s next? Chapman DaCosta plans to submit Dear Eleanor in film festivals. Dubbed “love in the winter time” the event was part of FreezeFest and hosted by the Division of Diversity and Inclusion and the Division of Student Affairs Year One Programs. A reception followed for guests.
The NTID Office of Diversity & Inclusion hosted the annual Johnnie “JB” Brown Black History Month Luncheon Celebration on Friday, February 10th. The lunch began in the early 90’s when Facilities Management Services employees and NTID faculty members had lunch together, sharing cultural traditions based on the food they brought for lunch. Over time, the lunch grew from a few people having lunch together on campus, or at local soul food restaurants, to the lunch this year with over 130 attendees. The lunch transformed into an NTID-wide potluck with invited speakers, but due to COVID19 restrictions this year, lunch was catered from three local restaurants: Country Sweet, The French Quarter Café, and Allah’s Kitchen, featuring BBQ and fried chicken, mac and cheese, corn bread, collard greens, jambalaya, vegan Cajun chicken, and peach cobbler, among other items.
In lieu of a speaker, NTID’s Sunshine 2.0, performed a rendition of 1001 Black Inventions, written by Ersky Freeman in ASL and was voiced and captioned on screen. Combined with dance and songs, the play is a comedy and drama that is both humorous and thought provoking, bringing Black inventors of the past to the forefront. This play allows the audience to see how Black ingenuity is a part of their everyday lives. NTID Sunshine 2.0 members are Shiann Cook, Tyler Fortson, Zain Ahmed, and Fred Beam as Artistic Director, Director of Artistic Sign Language, Choreographer, and narrator.