Program helps deaf students earn graduate degrees

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Mark Benjamin, RIT/NTID

Peter Hauser, director of the Deaf Studies Laboratory at NTID, chats with graduate students Gloria Wink of Rochester, left, and Gina DeNaples of Greensboro, N.C., right.

A website is now available detailing the partnership between Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing students pursue graduate degrees in science programs.

The Rochester Bridges to the Doctorate Program, established this year with a grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, helps eligible students in a master’s program at RIT to prepare and apply for a doctorate level program in behavioral or biomedical science.

The website has been created to help prospective students learn more about the program, mentors and potential careers in science.

Three students will be selected each year to be Bridges Scholars, with most of their tuitions paid. They will earn a master’s degree from RIT while being paid to work in laboratories at RIT and UR.

They will also meet regularly with mentors who will prepare them for their Ph.D. program, attend at least two professional conferences and complete a 10-week research assistantship at a UR laboratory.

“This is an amazing opportunity for aspiring deaf scholars who have long been under-served and under-recognized,” said Peter Hauser, principal investigator for RIT and director of the Deaf Studies Laboratory at NTID.