Mayim Bialik headlines RIT’s Brick City weekend

Actress Mayim Bialik, best known for her roles on the television shows Blossom and The Big Bang Theory, will be the Student Government Distinguished Speaker at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend, Oct. 19-21.

The weekend typically draws 17,000 participants to RIT’s campus and the Rochester area. It features more than 100 events during three days, including notable speakers and Tiger men’s and women’s hockey games.

Additional events are planned this year to commemorate the 50^th year of RIT’s Henrietta campus, including tours of downtown Rochester — where RIT was based prior to 1968 — and the installation of a historical marker noting RIT’s roots in Rochester. A rededication ceremony of the 1,300-acre campus is planned at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 19, in Ingle Auditorium.

“We have a plethora of activities planned for everyone at this year’s family weekend, especially in this 50^th anniversary year on the Henrietta campus,” said Lynn Rowoth, assistant vice president of special events and director of Brick City Homecoming. “With a wide array of speakers, tours, reunions, athletic events and so much more, the appeal is broad to intrigue and attract our students, parents, families, alumni, staff, faculty and guests.”

Registration is open on the Brick City Weekend website.

RIT Student Government President Bobby Moakley predicts this year’s homecoming “is sure to be a blast. From our biggest hockey game to inspiring features of our students’ work, families will be blown away by everything RIT is up to. Student Government is particularly looking forward to our speaker this year, Mayim Bialik. Mayim is an incredible role model, fitting RIT’s vision of empowering all backgrounds to be contributors to STEAM fields. Mayim’s message is sure to resonate with all audiences.”

Bialik, a mother of two who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, starred in the NBC sitcom Blossom from 1991 to 1995 and has played Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory since 2010, for which she won two Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and four Emmy Award nominations. She has also appeared in several films, including Beaches and The Chicago 8.

She has written Girling Up: How to be Strong, Smart, and Spectacular, and created the website GrokNation.com, intended to be a forum for deep conversations within a community.

Bialik is speaking 2-3 p.m. on Oct. 20 at the Gordon Field House. Tickets are $10 for RIT students, $20 for RIT faculty, staff, alumni, families and are available at the Brick City Weekend website, https://www.rit.edu/brickcity/ or at University Arenas Box Office. Tickets for the general public are $30 and available through RITtickets.com or the box office.

Other highlights include:

• Jenny Fleiss, co-founder and CEO of Jetblack, a members-only personal shopping and concierge service launched from Walmart’s tech incubator, will be the Saunders College of Business Gasser Lecture Series speaker. Her talk, in Ingle Auditorium at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, will be free, but registration is required.
• Suzet McKinney, the CEO/executive director of the Illinois Medical District, a 560-acre area of medical research facilities, labs, a biotech business incubator and more than 40 healthcare related facilities, is guest of the College of Science and B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. She has served as an on-camera media expert as a public health official on issues including biological and chemical threats, natural disasters, pandemic influenza and climate-related emergencies. Her talk will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, in the Golisano Hall auditorium. Admission is free.
• The 2018 Presidents’ Alumni Ball will be held from 6:30 to 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, in the Gordon Field House, with a reception, dinner and award ceremony honoring RIT’s 2018 Volunteer of the Year Kathy Carcaci ’95 (applied arts and sciences) and Outstanding Alumnus of 2018 award winner Brian Hall ’78 (MBA) as well as this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award winners.
• At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, in Ingle Auditorium, RIT President David Munson will share highlights of RIT’s recent accomplishments and offer insights on his vision for the university, which is shaping the future and improving the world through creativity and innovation at the intersection of technology, the arts and design. He will also answer questions.
• A historical marker will be dedicated at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, at Spring Street, across from the Bevier Memorial Building at 42. S. Washington St., in downtown Rochester, celebrating RIT’s origins, which include the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute.
• And returning this year are the popular Classes without Quizzes series, which includes behind-the-scenes tours of MAGIC Spell Studios and topics ranging from fermentation, the Galapagos Islands, Kombucha probiotics, cancer imaging research, visualizing wave propagation in fluids using 3D prints and the RIT Community Garden.
• This year’s featured men’s hockey game is RIT vs. Colgate University, 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester. All seating at Blue Cross Arena will be reserved, with no general admission. Tickets are $15; $13 for RIT faculty, staff and alumni (purchased on the RIT campus – four ticket limit per valid RIT ID); $9 for non-RIT students; $6 for RIT students (purchased on the RIT campus – four ticket limit per valid RIT ID); and $5 for children 5 and under. Tickets are available at RITtickets.com.
• Two games with the RIT women’s hockey team are scheduled against Union College for 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, and noon Saturday, Oct. 20, both at the Gene Polisseni Center. Admission is free for RIT students; $5 for parents and RIT guests; $4 for alumni, faculty and staff; and $3 for children under 12.

Other events and speakers are planned. Visit the Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend website for a complete list and updates.