News by Topic: Global Engagement

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.

If you couldn’t tune in to this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival which was held virtually on Saturday, not to worry. The more than 250 exhibits of projects, research, and performing arts of more than 800 students, faculty, and staff will remain online for the foreseeable future and are free to access.

Yudong Yan, a 2021 graduate of RIT’s Master of Architecture program, which uniquely fuses architecture with sustainability within the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, has landed his first job with Strabala + Architects.

After a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19, the popular Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival returns virtually on Saturday, May 1, with more than 250 exhibits of projects, research and performing arts of students, faculty, and staff at RIT.

Experts from Australia, Hong Kong, Peru, and Vietnam will join faculty from RIT’s New York and international campuses for a conference on the future of international education in a post-COVID world.

As part of a gameplay and prototyping class at RIT this spring, 25 game design and development students got to participate in a virtual cultural exchange with 30 students at a Japanese college. The teams learned about each other’s cultures and overcame language barriers and time zone differences to create projects for a global game jam.

This year’s recognition of RIT’s Alfred L. Davis Distinguished Public Service Award winners will be a double celebration, as faculty and student recipients from 2020 and 2021 are honored April 13. Luane Davis Haggerty will receive the 2021 Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award, and Bhuvish Mehta will receive the 2021 Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Public Service Award. Thomas Warfield was awarded the 2020 Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award, and Çlirim Sheremeti was awarded the 2020 Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Public Service Award.