The SHED marks its Imagine RIT debut April 27
It’s a banner year for Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival, and one of the most anticipated exhibits is the building it inspired—the SHED.
Visitors who attended Imagine RIT last April saw the building under construction and surrounded by fencing. Now, the public is invited to walk through the maker- and performing arts spaces, and the large-scale classrooms that make the SHED a one-of-a-kind place on campus.
Early in his administration, RIT President David Munson identified the intersection of technology, the arts, and design as a unique RIT quality. He envisioned a multi-use building to display RIT’s student creativity during Imagine RIT and all year round. His idea became the SHED and “the new heartbeat of campus.” The facility opened last fall, and this is its Imagine RIT debut.
“The SHED is RIT on display by nature of its design and architecture, its glass, and its proximity on campus,” said Michael Buffalin, SHED makerspace director.
Buffalin described a late evening in the SHED that would have made Munson smile.
“We had a group practicing ballroom dancing in the atrium on the A-level next to students juggling, and a performance team having a meeting in the club space, and then other students were working in the makerspace,” Buffalin said. “Having all that activity within arms’ reach proved the president’s vision and proved that we could do Imagine RIT objectives all year round.”
Interdisciplinary learning thrives in the SHED, according to Sandi Connelly, principal lecturer in the Thomas H Gosnell School of Life Sciences, and interim associate director at the Center for Teaching and Learning. “The innovative design and collaborative spaces encourage cross-pollination of ideas and students to engage in hands-on projects, research, and experiential learning—all of which will be on full display in the SHED at Imagine RIT.”
Tiffany Brodner, SHED executive director, and Buffalin selected the 28 exhibits that will be in the SHED this year. The exhibitors include capstone design teams, a science fair on the third floor, the RIT-Genesee Valley Country Museum Partnership, and the RIT Archives StoryBooth collection in the Brooks H. Bower Maker Showcase. A variety of performances throughout the SHED complex will add another dimension to Imagine RIT.
The School of Performing Arts has taken advantage of the SHED’s flexible performing arts spaces under one roof, according to director of operations Ben Willmott. He is responsible for curating the campuswide performances during this year’s Imagine RIT festival on behalf of the school.
RIT students, including many Performing Arts Scholars will present a Broadway musical revue in the Sklarsky Glass Box Theater, demonstrate different dance styles in the dance studio, and - in the Munson Music Loft - exhibit musical instruments they invented.
The SHED has helped to instill the performing arts deeper within the campus culture. “For the first time ever, due to the introduction of the SHED, performing arts will be showcased during Imagine RIT in a highly visible, dynamic, and engaging manner on campus,” Willmott said.
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- Leave your legacy in the music performance theaterAnyone who would like to make their mark on the music performance theater being erected on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus is invited to sign a steel beam that will be part of the building. For the next two weeks, a 12-foot beam, painted orange, will be on the southeast side outside of the construction zone, under a blue tent. Anyone who wishes may sign their name on it, or even leave a message to future students. It is accessible 24 hours for approximately the next two weeks. Markers for signing are at the site. “It’s almost like a time capsule,” said Michael Dellafave, associate director for construction management and grounds. “The beam will be installed in the steel structure of the building and will live there for the duration of the building’s life.” Dellafave said beams were also signed for the SHED, the Saunders College of Business expansion, and the Gene Polisseni Center. Each had hundreds of signatures. Groundbreaking on the three-story, 40,000-square-foot building was held in September and is the first major theater project in the Rochester area in decades. It will consist of a 750-seat theater primarily used for musical theater productions. The theater will have two balconies and a historic pipe organ as its centerpiece. The estimated completion date is December 2025, and like other venues on campus, it will be available for public use. In 2019, RIT established a vision to become the leading performing arts program in the nation for non-majors. More than 1,800 students have received partial performing arts scholarships since then.
- Women’s, gender, and sexuality studies program honors first graduating classThe first class of graduates from RIT’s women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS) program will be celebrated during commencement this month. Molly Kohli, from Rome, N.Y., and Gaby Licona, from Miami, will be the first of many future alums from the program. The WGSS program has long existed at RIT, and, in 2023, the bachelor’s degree program was approved and offered for current students. Starting in the fall of 2024, enrollment will be available to incoming first-year students. Silvia Benso, who has served as the WGSS program director for six years, expresses her excitement about celebrating the first graduates and increasing the program’s offerings through this added degree pathway. “The WGSS degree is very flexible. As a primary major, it opens the way to innumerable careers where people skills and a passion for gender justice are required—from diversity, equity, and inclusion-focused jobs to counselors and advisors in various educational, but also industry contexts to advocacy and activism in various fields,” said Benso. “As a double major, one can become virtually anything they wish—an engineer, a game designer, a health practitioner, an entrepreneur, a political scientist, and more— all with a well-rounded, needed sensitivity to increase gender equity and justice in one’s field of professional activities.” After taking courses in the program for four years, Kohli had completed much of the work required of the new bachelor’s degree program prior to its existence. This experience allowed her to change her major to WGSS once the degree was approved. Kohli says that combining her WGSS education with what she learned through her minor in anthropology and sociology helped her gain a greater understanding of people and how they interact with and react to one another. “When considering people’s different cultures and demographics, you can more easily figure out why they react in certain ways, and what we might do on a cultural and societal level to mitigate negative reactions toward one another,” said Kohli. “A big part of anthropology is making sure people’s voices are heard and that we’re uplifting diverse voices. Using that mentality when approaching women’s, gender, and sexuality studies is incredibly important.” After graduation, Kohli aspires to work in a library in a role focused on community building with plans to pursue a master’s degree in library sciences in the future. Licona, who is a double-major in WGSS and communication, says that she has always been a big advocate for social justice and feminism. She earned a minor in women’s and gender studies prior to the new degree offering, and she is grateful for the opportunity to take on the additional major during her last year at RIT. As she makes plans and goals for her post-university career, Licona shares that her dream job is to work in social media marketing for a feminist or women-led organization that shares her same values. “Being the president of the Her Campus chapter here RIT, I’ve had the chance to write articles related to college women and I've seen what it's like to work in a group with college students just looking for a safe space,” said Licona. “So that experience really pushes me to want to work for a women's magazine or women's organization that provides resources and educational sources for other individuals on women, feminism, and advocacy targeting towards social justice.” Licona credited her success in the program to her close friend Mackenzie Vanacore ’22 (English), who introduced her to WGSS, as well as her work with Advance RIT and senior staff specialist Silvia Caraballo. Both Vanacore and Caraballo inspired her and helped her to pursue her goals. Looking ahead to the next academic year, Benso anticipates that interest in the new degree program will continue to grow. “Molly and Gaby are both emblematic of the various options a WGSS degree offers. They both understand the value of a WGSS education for the present and the future. I like to think of them as ‘visionary’ students, students who, in a truly RIT spirit, have an innovative vision of a better world to come and are willing to take the initiative to make it happen,” said Benso. “I look forward to welcoming more students like them to the program.” For more information about how to enroll in the women’s, gender, and sexuality studies bachelor’s program, go to the department website or email Silvia Benso at silvia.benso@rit.edu.
- RIT graduate pursues Ph.D. across time zonesNastaran Nagshineh is one of the first Ph.D. candidates to bridge RIT’s Rochester and Dubai campuses. Her accomplishment creates a path for future students at the university’s international campuses. Nagshineh completed her Ph.D. in mathematical modeling while working full time as a mathematics lecturer at RIT Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, teaching as many as five classes a semester. She described her Ph.D. journey as “an exercise in perseverance” due to competing demands and long days. Rochester is eight hours behind Dubai, and the time difference meant many late-night classes and meetings. “I saw this collaboration as an opportunity, rather than as a challenge, because my primary adviser, Dr. Steven Weinstein (RIT professor of chemical engineering), and my co-adviser, Dr. Mohamed Samaha (RIT Dubai associate professor of mechanical engineering), both have the same area of research interest,” she said. “They both worked toward my success.” Nagshineh is one of 67 RIT Ph.D. students who defended their thesis this academic year and who will earn their doctorate. RIT awarded 63 Ph.D. degrees in 2023. In 2020-2021, RIT’s Graduate School met and surpassed the university’s goal of conferring 50 Ph.D. degrees during an academic year. That number will continue to grow as students cycle through the seven new Ph.D. programs that RIT has added since 2017, said Diane Slusarski, dean of RIT’s Graduate School. Meeting these goals puts RIT on a path toward achieving an “R1,” or research-intensive designation, from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning. RIT is currently ranked as an R2 institution. Many factors go into changing a university’s status, including research investment and maintaining a three-year average of 70 Ph.D. degrees awarded per year, according to Slusarski. “We have met the goals of the strategic plan, and now we look forward to contributing to the research innovation in the future,” Slusarski said. “We want to help the new programs thrive and win national research awards.” RIT’s emphasis on high-level research is seen in Nagshineh’s Ph.D. work. She applies mathematical modeling to the field of fluid dynamics. Her research has been published in top-tier journals and has gained notice, said Weinstein, her thesis adviser. Weinstein describes Nagshineh’s accomplishments as “a testament to a fantastic work ethic and commitment” and is inspirational to younger students at Rochester and Dubai. “The collaboration between RIT Dubai/Rochester has continued,” he said. “Another paper was submitted a few weeks ago with Mohamed Samaha and Nate Barlow (RIT associate professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics) as co-authors, as well as Cade Reinberger, a younger Ph.D. student in my research group.” Mathematical modeling is one of RIT’s newer Ph.D. degree programs, and Nagshineh is among its earliest graduates. The program has doubled in size since it began accepting students in 2017, Slusarski said. This past fall, the mathematical modeling program had 35 students, with two graduating this year. Altogether, RIT has 13 Ph.D. degree programs currently enrolling 438 students, with computing and information sciences accounting for the largest with 117 students. RIT’s other Ph.D. programs include astrophysical sciences and technology, biomedical and chemical engineering, business administration, color science, electrical and computer engineering, imaging science, mechanical and industrial engineering, microsystems engineering, and sustainability. New programs in cognitive science and physics will launch in the fall. The growth in RIT graduate education—with more than 3,000 master’s and doctoral students—reflects a demographic change in the student population, Slusarski said. “We have a higher percentage of women in the graduate programs than we have for RIT undergraduate programs.” RIT’s graduate programs enroll 42 percent women, according to Christie Leone, assistant dean for the Graduate School. Nagshineh, who also holds an MS in electrical engineering from RIT Dubai, welcomes her role as a mentor to other women students on both campuses. “As a young woman in an Arabic country, the power of women is often underestimated and undervalued, and I hope to serve as a role model to female students, especially those that question their path,” Nagshineh said. She plans to continue in her career as a professor and a researcher. “I would like to pursue a research program where I can advise my own students and teach them more deeply.”
- Students celebrate 5th annual Black graduationThe road to a master’s degree in business administration has been a long one for Emmanuelle Gourene ’23 (management information systems). Gourene came to RIT from Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa. She had to travel thousands of miles from home, adapt to a new culture, and face the COVID pandemic. She celebrated her second RIT degree with her peers on Saturday, May 4, during the fifth annual Black graduation ceremony. “I made lifelong connections here with a lot of people from different backgrounds and I really enjoyed it,” said Gourene. “It’s a celebration of our culture and of our identity. It’s important to celebrate our common achievements.” The graduation event, hosted by the Black Awareness Coordinating Committee (BACC), began with a breakfast in the Dyer Gallery and was followed by a ceremony in the Panara Theatre. Minett Professor Sherry Tshibangu addressed the graduates during the ceremony, sharing that the graduates’ journeys were taken with exceptional courage, and that their legacy is one to be continued. Afterward, a reception with music, food, and dancing took place in the SHED. Black graduation is held to uplift and highlight Black students and unify not just the Black community but the entire RIT community. “A lot of individuals in our community who are graduating and participated in Black graduation are leaders in a lot of organizations,” said Key’mon Jenkins, a third-year computer engineering student and vice president of BACC. “We wanted to make this a big celebration to honor them.” The first Black graduation was held in 2019, in part to acknowledge that Black students face some of the lowest degree completion rates in the nation. After going remote in 2020, it has continued to grow each year. This year’s ceremony was capped at 75 students, but all were welcome to attend. “I think that growth is essential because every year you want to see something different, you want to see additions to graduation,” said Guerline Guerrier, a third-year biomedical sciences major and president of the BACC. “I really wanted to give these seniors a good Black graduation because they were the COVID year. We’re replacing the one they missed, really.” Many intimate graduation ceremonies have started on campus the past few years, including rainbow graduation and Latinx graduation, giving students a chance to celebrate fellow students who they may identify with the most. “Watching this celebration of our Black graduates grow over the years has been great to see,” said Keith Jenkins, vice president and associate provost for Diversity and Inclusion. “It is to be applauded when students recognize the importance of honoring their peers.” The importance of celebrating fellow students resonates within the Black community on RIT’s campus. Many students helped in the planning and executing of the event, even though their graduation day is a few years away. “It is a very integral to build community and hold that strong, and represent from the start to the finish,” said second-year software engineering major Jaime Offeiokyne. “Being part of a community gives you the space that is going to transcend you, even beyond college.”
- RIT to offer new pathway for earning MS degree in sustainable systems and MBARochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) and Saunders College of Business are collaborating on an accelerated pathway that provides an opportunity for a Master of Science degree in sustainable systems and a Master of Business Administration. The program represents a strategic response to the increasing demand for professionals equipped with expertise in sustainability and business management, positioning graduates to lead the way in addressing complex global challenges while driving organizational success. The new master’s degree pathway in sustainable systems and business administration combines interdisciplinary coursework from GIS and Saunders College, building upon RIT’s reputation for excellence in sustainability education and business leadership and offering a unique opportunity for students to develop expertise in both areas. “RIT's new master’s degree pathway addresses a critical need for professionals who can integrate sustainability principles into strategic business decision-making,” said Amit Batabyal, interim head of the Department of Sustainability at GIS. “By combining advanced coursework in sustainable systems with foundational business principles, graduates will be well positioned to drive innovation and create positive social and environmental impacts within their organizations,” added Batabyal, Distinguished Professor and the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts. The program's interdisciplinary nature will enable RIT students to explore the intersection of sustainability and business through a variety of specialized courses, including sustainable supply chain management, corporate social responsibility, environmental economics, microeconomics, and strategic management. Through experiential learning opportunities, internships, and industry partnerships, RIT students will gain practical experience applying sustainability principles to real-world business challenges. According to Bill Dresnack, director of Saunders College’s MBA program, the collaboration between GIS and Saunders College was initiated after a student expressed interest in both degrees. “I’m thrilled that we collectively responded to a student idea and built a combined program that can serve businesses as well as communities,” said Dresnack, associate professor in the finance and accounting department. “The need to combine economic growth and innovation with environmental and social considerations will continue to increase, and at RIT we have the collective resources to play a significant role in this work. I’m proud to be a part of this.” The new pathway is designed to be completed in two calendar years, offering RIT students the opportunity to earn two master's degrees in an accelerated timeframe. This pathway enables students to save time while positioning themselves in leadership roles in sustainability-focused industries, including renewable energy, green technology, and corporate sustainability management. Interested students can join this new pathway by applying to the MS in Sustainable Systems program, then upon successful completion will automatically be admitted to the Master of Business Administration with scholarship guaranteed. The program is open to students with diverse academic backgrounds, including environmental science, engineering, business, and related fields. Applications for the new pathway for a MS degree in sustainable systems and MBA are now open, with the first cohort scheduled to begin classes in the fall.
- Resilient students make up class of 2024Graduating from college is a major life accomplishment that is usually filled with joy, some uncertainty, and years of memories. But for many who started their college experience four years ago, those memories didn’t include traditional transitions from high school to college. Thanks to the global pandemic that began in the spring of 2020, many endured quarantine, isolation, COVID-19 testing, and remote learning when they started college. Sandra Johnson, Rochester Institute of Technology’s senior vice president for Student Affairs, said students who started college in 2020 managed to not only overcome the challenges brought on by the pandemic, but learned to thrive. “They persevered and are stronger for it,” Johnson said. More than 4,100 RIT students are graduating this weekend. Those in four-year programs started college in the fall of 2020, when being closer than 6 feet from anyone else was discouraged. At Friday’s commencement ceremony, the Gordon Field House will be filled with 8,000 students, faculty, staff, friends, and family members celebrating the students’ achievements.Provided Iain Roach, who is graduating from RIT this week with a degree in game design and development, is shown here at the Anchorage, Alaska, airport with his parents, Heather and Wade Roach, in 2020. He left home to start his college career during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Iain Roach, who is graduating with a degree in game design and development and a minor in Japanese, will be there with his older brother, Orion, and his parents, Wade and Heather, who are coming from their home in Anchorage, Alaska. Roach recalls that flight in 2020 when he came to Rochester alone to start college. In order to attend RIT, the New York State Health Department required students from designated states not bordering New York to quarantine for 14 days before coming to campus. Roach stayed with a friend’s grandmother in nearby Canandaigua, N.Y., mostly staying inside, taking classes remotely, and spending time at Canandaigua Lake. “While Iain’s freshman college experience may not look like what we envisioned or had experienced with our other child, it will be a journey on which he can leave his own unique mark,” Heather Roach said at the time. “I think it is going to allow our students to build essential character traits such as independence, problem solving, and resilience. And what a story to tell in the future.” Almost all of Roach’s classes were online during his first semester, which was an easy transition since his final months of high school were also online. “There were a lot less people on campus, and it was a lot more open,” he said. “There were very few people out and about. There were no crowds or anything. Now if you go out during the day, there’s a very stark difference.” He actually credits COVID for helping him transition to college. “If COVID didn’t happen, I would have just showed up and be thrown in the thick of things,” he said. “It would have been more chaotic perhaps. But mingling and interacting with everyone came later, so it may have benefited me, so I didn’t get overwhelmed.” Roach admits he wasn’t happy about the isolation required by the pandemic, but he knew it was not unique to RIT and something to keep people safe. “At some point I was annoyed because that first year is the most important for getting connections and making friends,” he said. “Because everything was online, it was hard to interact with people. But the orientation group that I was in, I met a couple of people who had similar majors and interests that I had, so that helped the first semester, and they remain my friends today.” Roach is applying for jobs back in Alaska and after graduation plans a long road trip home. But first, his family plans to have a graduation dinner in Rochester this weekend, which will include his friend’s grandmother from Canandaigua, who played a significant role in launching his college experience. For Seth Grottenthaler, a finance major from Corning, N.Y., this week’s graduation also gives him a chance to reflect on his four years at RIT, including the untraditional start in 2020. “Coming to RIT, it definitely was a new experience for me, but I wasn’t alone. Everyone was going through it,” he said. A member of RIT’s varsity lacrosse team, Grottenthaler says he felt lucky he had his fellow teammates to hang out with his first year in college. “I had 50 or 60 automatic friends,” he said. “It was good getting to know them, and there was always the team to hang out with each other. It was our only social group, because the coach didn’t want us to hang out with anyone else so we wouldn’t get sick.” Several of the team’s games got canceled because their opponents became sick. Meanwhile, weekly COVID testing was done for RIT students to monitor illness. “It became pretty routine, honestly,” Grottenthaler said. “And it definitely made me happy to know I wasn’t sick.” His team that academic year had a 14-0 record and won the NCAA Division III lacrosse national championship. Scoring a goal in that championship game was one of Grottenthaler’s best memories of college. “Looking back now, we made the most of the situation we had,” he said. “I feel the experience definitely made me stronger, and better socially, talking more to friends and my family on the phone more often.” Grottenthaler plans to return to RIT in the fall to play more lacrosse and attend graduate school to earn an MBA. Michelle Snow, a film production major from Stafford, Va., also plans to pursue her MBA at RIT after graduation. And she says she’s heading into her new chapter of life with more confidence. She remembers “a lot of uncertainty” in 2020, when she had to leave home two weeks earlier than she thought to be in isolation. Snow, her mother, and younger sister stayed at her grandmother’s house in Massachusetts for two weeks, where they did a lot of hiking in the Berkshires and ate a lot of take-out meals. While in isolation, Snow used some creativity to figure out how to make friends, mostly on Discord and through a Facebook group for newly admitted RIT students. “I made a vlog of myself, introducing myself just to meet people at RIT,” she said. “I was always posting random ways to meet people with plans to meet up when we got to Rochester. I was constantly on Discord.” Some of those friends she made then remain her friends today, she said. On campus, Snow even designed a custom mask with a snowflake on it to match her last name. “I made it a fashion statement. I had fun with it.” And she thrived as her time at RIT grew. She became an Honors student, president of the RIT Field Hockey Club Team, director of operations for Student Government, and was a four-year president of the Film, Video, Animation Student Association. Overall, she says she enjoyed her RIT experience. “It wasn’t fun in the beginning, but my college experience would have been different without COVID,” she said. “I’d rather look at the positives rather than what happened. I’m a little more flexible, and I’ve had a lot of growth.” Roach also believes he has become stronger in college, and certainly has his share of happy memories, such as playing intramural soccer and developing a video game, Ninjas on Trampolines. “I think I’ve improved as a person,” he said. “I used to be very bad at speaking with people, and now I’m better with that. I’ve learned a lot. A lot of the scare has definitely gone away with most people vaccinated. But I take illnesses more seriously now. If I get a cold, I’ll wear a mask.”