Work experience and people skills give exercise science graduate a leg up

When Paige Wright changed her major to photographic sciences, she thought photo microscopy was an appealing niche to pursue. However, ironically, her view of the field was narrow. She anticipated working behind a traditional microscope—and she certainly didn’t think scrubs would become part of her work tools—but enrolling in two ophthalmic imaging courses as a third-year student opened her eyes to a new career path. Ophthalmic photography is a highly specialized form of medical imaging dedicated to the study and documentation of disorders of the eyes. These visual records assist medical professionals in diagnosing ocular conditions and monitoring disease progressions and can support research and education. “I’m still using microscopes to make images, just in a different way than I thought,” said Wright, a fourth-year student from Wilmington, Del. “I’ve always had a fascination with eyes. For such a small part of your body, they are so important and play such a huge role in your everyday life.” After graduation, Wright will travel to New York City for an internship at Vitreous Retina Macula Consultants of New York (VRMNY). As an ophthalmic photographer, she will work alongside accomplished doctors like Richard F. Spaide. Spaide is one of the most cited retina specialists in ophthalmological literature, having authored over 300 peer-reviewed articles on ophthalmology. Learning directly from an expert like Spaide was an opportunity Wright couldn’t pass on. “Dr. Spaide is a world-renowned retina specialist. Even though I had an internship last year at Flaum Eye Institute and felt confident I would get a job at home, I knew this experience would make me a more valuable candidate and could help me to get a job almost anywhere,” said Wright. The internship at VRMNY came to Wright through alumni connections. Sarah Armstrong ’05 (biomedical photographic communications) contacted Christye Sisson about the opportunity with Dr. Spaide during an ophthalmic imaging conference. Sisson, director of RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, shared the opportunity with Nanette Salvaggio, who then encouraged Wright to apply. Salvaggio, director of the undergraduate photographic sciences program, met Wright during her first class at RIT, bright and early on a Monday morning. Salvaggio said watching Wright grow from a “reserved” first-year student into a highly accomplished graduate was rewarding. Specifically, she noted Wright’s “exemplary leadership, characterized by her proficiency, professionalism, and unwavering dedication.” “While we facilitated her introduction to Dr. Spaide, it was her composure and the extensive knowledge she acquired during her time with us that ultimately secured this remarkable opportunity,” said Salvaggio. “She serves as an inspiration to others, fostering a collaborative and productive learning environment.” Once Wright completes her summer internship, she plans to move back home to Delaware to seek a position at a hospital or large private practice. In the long term, she aspires to get more involved with research, potentially returning to academia to lead an ophthalmic imaging department.  

Tunmise Raji came to RIT with a vision to harness technology for global good. He’s leaving prepared to advance energy solutions for underserved communities. Raji, a Ph.D. candidate at Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), is one of 56 people who will be honored at Commencement on May 9 in the doctoral hooding ceremony. A native of Nigeria, Raji grew up in a nation known for power insecurity. In some areas, frequent power outages due to aging and overstressed infrastructure and a shortage in supply result in residents going weeks without having access to electricity, a common challenge in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. After studying electrical engineering abroad, Raji completed his master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon in 2019, where he studied under Professor Nathan Williams. After earning his master’s degree, Raji worked in Uganda for two years, developing renewable energy projects aimed at electrifying small villages across East Africa. He was eventually invited to apply for a new Ph.D. opportunity in GIS by Williams, who joined RIT in 2020. “From taking his class, I knew we had a shared interest in Sub-Saharan Africa and data-driven research, so it felt like the perfect opportunity,” Raji said. Raji’s research focuses on using sustainable infrastructure development to drive progress in the Global South. In one recent study with Williams and fellow Ph.D. student Courage Ekoh, he examined the Nigerian energy landscape, advocating for a hybrid approach that blends centralized grid and off-grid sustainable solutions to create a more resilient, inclusive power system. Raji credits much of his growth to the mentorship and diverse learning environment within GIS. Along with the direct impact that Williams made on him, he also highlighted the impact of Professor Callie Babbitt’s classes, which emphasized the three interconnected legs of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social. “Being in GIS, you’re able to interact with people from all walks of life,” Raji said. “It really helps you to put your research in the right perspective. It’s not siloed in one particular field, but actually more applicable to the rest of the world.” Outside of the classroom, Raji has attended and presented at conferences in Morocco and China, organized a two-week training on remote sensing for the National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda, and landed a pair of fellowships through the Environmental Defense Fund. In those fellowships, he helped develop a transportation electrification plan in Durham, N.C., and examined strategies with Element Fleet Management to shift the company’s fleet from internal combustion engines to electric fleets. He plans to continue that momentum beyond graduation. “Tunmise has been such a pleasure to work with,” Williams said. “He is full of ideas and so driven by curiosity. He really made my job as an adviser easy. It is fantastic to see our students not just pushing scientific boundaries but also using their skills to benefit the global community more directly.”  

Billions of Apple devices are used in the world daily, and it’s important for their quality to be consistent. Graduating color science master’s student Andrea Avendano Martinez will be helping do just that as a camera color science engineer for Apple in Cupertino, Calif., starting this June. “Essentially, I will be making sure that for all the camera modules that they manufacture, the color quality and the color capacity are the same,” explained Avendano Martinez. Avendano Martinez feels well prepared to enter the workforce thanks to the connections she’s made with many RIT alumni who are working in the same industry. The Munsell Color Science Laboratory is one of the oldest research centers on campus and hosts the only color science Ph.D. program in the United States. “RIT’s color science is unique in the world in its focus on human color perception and application to modern technologies,” said Michael Murdoch, head of the Integrated Sciences Academy. “The Munsell Color Science Laboratory has a long history of research and application to display systems, including modern high dynamic range televisions and augmented reality systems. Contributions over the years include calibration methods, tone-mapping operators, perceptual image quality scales, and models of spatial color differences, transparency, and brightness.” Avendano Martinez credits the reputation of the program in helping her land a job with Apple. “These companies are looking specifically at the Munsell Color Lab and getting students from these labs because the quality of the education is so high. They already know they are getting good color scientists,” said Avendano Martinez. “They prepared me super well. Getting recognized by these companies is amazing and great to be a part of.” Avendano Martinez came to RIT from Gurnee, Ill., as an undergraduate student to study motion picture science, which was a perfect blend of her interests in creative filmmaking and STEM skills. After graduating in 2022, she did two internships at Dolby. She learned about opportunities with that company after hearing an alumnus speak to a student organization. In her first internship she worked with Dolby Vision for content creation where she helped showcase new technologies. Her second was more focused on color science. “I was a color and vision science engineer and I made my own research project,” said Avendano Martinez. “It was like a mini thesis, and I was able to present my project at a conference. That experience led me to get a master’s degree. Now that I’m ending my time here at RIT, I’m excited for this new chapter and what other opportunities it may bring!”

Hridiza Roy combined computer graphics with imaging science and anchored it in computer science. The result is a winning skill set that landed Roy a competitive 12-week summer internship at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Roy will graduate May 10 with a double major in individualized study and computer science and a focus on graphic programming for 3D animation. “My dream job is writing code for the artists of animated movies,” Roy said. Roy’s résumé elevated her above thousands of applicants competing for one available internship with Disney’s Environment Tools team. This group is responsible for creating the code behind the natural elements in Disney’s animated films. Roy discovered RIT’s School of Individualized Study (SOIS) during her first year, and it streamlined her education by connecting her to faculty in the College of Art and Design and the College of Science. A Khan Academy course she took while in high school introduced her to Pixar Animation Studios and the math, physics, and computer science behind the Toy Story movies. “It was the perfect intersection of all my interests, and I knew at that point that I wanted to work in that industry, and I knew I wanted to create my own major,” Roy said. SOIS helped her navigate across college boundaries, said James Hall, dean of University Studies and executive director of SOIS. “Hridiza has been an absolute role model for using SOIS as a platform to focus and individualize a challenging interdisciplinary course of study.” Roy paired her individualized program with computer science to build her math, physics, and coding skills. “There is a lot of overlap, but I’ve had to go out of the computer science program to find what I really want to do because computer graphics or graphics programming is a very niche field,” she said. Rapunzel’s hair depicted in the movie Tangled inspired Roy’s SOIS capstone project, a requirement for graduating SOIS students. She wondered why the character’s voluminous hair had no knots and discovered that tangles rarely occur in animation. “That makes sense because who wants to see knots?” Roy said. “But maybe there’s an artist who wants to show realistic hair and maybe they would find it useful to have a tool. I spent my semester developing a hair simulation and I had to do it on the GPU (graphics processing unit) because if you have 100,000 hair strands, you need efficiency.” In another ongoing project, she is collaborating with a student in the RITGraph club, which Roy revived, to automate the appearance of brush strokes on digital objects. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Wild Robot popularized a style that is cumbersome to achieve, she said. The painterly look is in demand and Roy is building a tool that simulates painted brushstrokes by measuring light reflecting from the paint in different applications. She has applied for an RIT Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship, administered through SOIS, to continue working on the project following her internship at Disney studios. In addition to creating her own curriculum, Roy benefited from the Napier Leadership Experience, SOIS’ signature networking program created by Partners & Napier. She was a 2022 Napier Fellow and learned professional networking and social media. “Every time I go to a conference, I set a goal for myself to talk to a certain number of people,” Roy said. “SOIS has been monumental for me. It’s not just because I could choose my own classes, but it’s also because of the connections I made through it.”

Lana Verschage, director of Diversity Initiatives and Women in Computing in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, is the 2025 recipient of the Edwina Award. The award was given at a celebration on April 17. The Edwina Award, from the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Resource Center, is given to a faculty or staff member for significant contributions to enhance gender diversity and inclusiveness at RIT. It was named for Edwina Hogadone, who was appointed dean of the College of Business in 1960. She was the first female dean at RIT and the first woman to lead a business school in the United States. “I’m genuinely surprised and honored to be recognized,” said Verschage. “To be seen in this way—by peers, colleagues, and students—is incredibly affirming and motivates me to keep pushing for positive change.” As the first full-time director of Women in Computing (WiC) in the computing college, Verschage has helped grow and sustain the student organization and community that connects people across the university and beyond. In her time, WiC has grown from 10 members to more than 60 and secured more than $900,000 in funding. “I’ve always believed that representation matters—not just in who is present, but in who feels like they truly belong,” Verschage said. “When I first entered the computing field, I saw firsthand how isolating it could be for women and marginalized groups. That experience fueled my passion to create inclusive spaces where students not only see themselves reflected but also feel empowered to thrive.” WiC is dedicated to promoting the success and development of women and all gender minorities in their academic and professional careers. To assist all students, Verschage supported the creation of an Allies committee to discuss gender-related issues in computing and host/support events to help encourage resolution. “One of the first things I think of when I reflect on Lana’s leadership is empowerment,” said Gina Shevchuk, assistant dean for Student Success in GCCIS. “I admire how she grew WiC from a small idea into what it is today by empowering our students to take the lead. The structure of WiC enables the students to lead committees which effectively put the power of the mission right into the hands of the students it aims to serve.” With WiC, Verschage has helped create the impactful WiCHacks program—RIT’s first all-women and gender minority hackathon. The 24-hour collaborative programing event regularly gets more than 200 participants from across the northeast. The group has also offered Girl Scout Badge Days in computing. Verschage serves as the inaugural Title IX Deputy Coordinator for GCCIS and oversees the Computing Organization for Multicultural Students. She was also instrumental in creating ROCGirlHacks, a mini-hackathon for middle and high school students, that inspires the next generation of tech enthusiasts. “The Edwina Award holds special meaning because it recognizes not just effort, but impact,” said Verschage. “It’s a reminder that while this work can be challenging, it matters.”

Ellie Warren has always been interested in anatomy, but an experience in high school changed how she wanted to approach a career in medicine. While studying Spanish, Warren volunteered weekly through her school’s honors program to help Spanish-speaking students who immigrated to the United States practice their conversational English. When one of the students Warren worked with encountered a medical issue, she reached out to her for help. “She couldn’t even get past the calling stage because so many hospitals, urgent cares, and emergency rooms didn’t have a Spanish option when you called, so I started calling for her,” said Warren, from Hilliard, Ohio. “It really gave me a view into the stark reality of what it means to be a non-native English speaker in the U.S.” Warren came to RIT with the goal of becoming trilingual. Now fluent in English, American Sign Language (ASL), and Spanish, she hopes to use her skills to better serve non-English speaking patients seeking care. After graduating from RIT with a dual degree in applied modern language and culture – Spanish option and biomedical sciences in May, Warren will head to SUNY Upstate Medical University to pursue a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.). Opportunities to travel internationally and assist with informative medical outreach gave Warren a wealth of experiences to draw from when pursuing her degree and career. In addition to studying abroad in Chile for a semester, Warren has traveled to Mexico and the Dominican Republic. While abroad, she was able to get a deeper understanding of Spanish for healthcare, differences in conversational dialects between nations, and how healthcare systems outside of the U.S. operate. Much of her international work focused on informative advocacy around women’s reproductive healthcare—and what she learned motivated her to pursue a career as a gynecologist. “It was eye opening how much people may or may not know about their bodies depending on where they’re from. Even in the U.S. there is a lack of medical literacy, particularly about women’s health,” said Warren. Many students planning to pursue an M.D. don’t have time for extracurriculars, but RIT offered Warren the freedom and flexibility to enjoy these opportunities while earning her undergraduate degree. In addition to studying abroad, Warren is part of the RIT Honors Program, serves as the president of the RIT Beekeeping Club, and co-teaches for the Latin Rhythm Dance Club. She also works as a student coordinator for No Voice Zone and as a residential adviser. Warren said that those extracurriculars, and the access services and high-quality interpreters provided through the National Technical Institute of the Deaf, made her education accessible and attainable. While she wasn’t fluent in ASL prior to coming to RIT, the wealth of knowledge and the supportive community at NTID helped her succeed both academically and in her personal goals. Warren’s advice to other students is to dig into the liberal arts and humanities when pursuing their technical degrees. For medical school candidates specifically, she encourages them to consider learning a new language. “I was told that I was the first student to double major in Spanish and biomedical sciences, and that was a little astounding to me,” said Warren. “If more people took the time and expanded their degrees to include liberal arts, we could really start to make the world a better, more accessible place for everyone.”