News by Topic: Global Engagement

RIT and St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India, are partnering to provide training and scholarship in global behavioral health.

The Rochester Beacon talks to Paul Keller, director of international enrollment, about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international student enrollment.

Professor Bob Barbato joined RIT in 1979. Since then, he has taught courses in leadership, entrepreneurship, and business ethics in more than seven countries–first taking his wife and kids with him to Ethiopia on a Fulbright scholarship, and then to RIT’s international campuses in Kosovo, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Beijing, and Dubai.

A celebration honoring the 200th anniversary of the founding of the first Mechanics Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, will include a virtual conference this fall. RIT Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Ellen Granberg serves on the international advisory committee for Mechanics’ Institutes Worldwide 2021, and is encouraging RIT faculty to submit paper proposals.

A pioneer of one of RIT’s earliest study abroad programs and a founding member of the biotechnology and molecular bioscience program has retired. Professor Robert Rothman from the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences taught his final courses in Genetics and Evolution and Creationism this spring, capping off an RIT career that began in 1984.

RIT Dubai completed phase one of construction on its state-of-the-art new campus and began officially operating out of the new location in the Dubai Silicon Oasis earlier this semester. The new campus was built with an overarching theme of interactive learning and spans 129,000 square meters with collaborative teaching and research spaces designed to accommodate up to 4,000 students.

RIT students have had a banner year in securing awards from the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program. RIT has a record four Fulbright finalists plus three alternates for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Tyler Pugeda, a master’s student with concentrations in cell biology and healthcare entrepreneurship in RIT’s School of Individualized Study, will travel to Germany in September to fulfill the requirements of his Fulbright Research award. Using post-mortem human brains afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, Pugeda will investigate treatments to slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

After graduating this year, Matthias Hausman, a mechanical engineering and international and global studies double major from Abington Township, Pa., will travel to Saxony, Germany, to teach English this September. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, he will be placed in a German classroom to provide assistance to a local English teacher.

Hira Abid crossed continents to come to RIT. The chemical engineering student from Pakistan will make another global connection when she begins graduate school in Turkey as one of RIT’s newest Fulbright awardees.

Emi Moriuchi from Saunders College of Business and Jessica Hardin from the College of Liberal Arts have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards to travel abroad and conduct research at partner universities.

Sarah Sabal secured two prestigious international scholarships—a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) and a Boren Awards Scholarship—that will allow her to spend a year intensively studying the Chinese language in an immersive setting. She is one of several students who contributed to a record-breaking year for RIT in terms of securing funding for international experiences.