Farewell Dr Destler

Dr William Destler is retiring this month after 10 years serving as head of President of RIT. When I arrived at RIT I thought that the role of university president in the life of a university must be very different to that of the Chancellor at Australian universities. Dr Destler was very visible to students at the university. He always attended hockey games and never failed to walk through the corner crew to say hi (always to much chanting an applause). He attended student events, ate lunch with students in the university commons, created student challenges that focused on innovation and collaboration, and walked among graduates and families greeting them at commencement. Also an accomplished musician and songwriter, Dr Destler gave concerts at RIT including enjoyable and insightful songs such as Alternative Facts.

I now know that this is not typical of American culture. This is President Destler and RIT.

Mural from the RIT tunnels

#youarewelcomehere

In early June I was invited to participate in the new RIT video on the theme #youarewelcome here to show the diversity of RIT and our welcoming spirit. You can see the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTmmpfDabOc.

Showing my spirit in RIT orange

Hamid making his pitch with Dawn interpreting

The Student Alumni Union is a welcoming place for international visitors

It's official! I am RIT staff!

I have been extremely lucky to be able to extend my visa to stay another year at RIT. In this year I will continue working as a postdoctoral scholar with Professor Marc Marschark and the team in the Center for Education Research Partnerships. I am deliriously happy to have this opportunity to continue learning and studying here. As of today, I'm officially an employee of RIT!

Rink side research

I spend a lot of time in Rochester at work and at the rink. Sometimes, I work at the rink as well.

Rochester Red Wings

It's a big weekend for sport. This is Memorial long weekend and the Rochester Red Wings baseball team are having a retro weekend with all tickets $5 and all hot dogs .50 cents. My first ever baseball game was enjoyed on a gorgeous Rochester spring afternoon with friends I met through CERP Liz, Zac, Jessica, and Andy.

Awesome seats to see the Red Wing victory over Philly

NCAA Lacrosse Finals

Pep Band road trip to Boston today! There were only 25 of us who could make it to Boston for the NCAA Lacrosse finals but they were 25 members of the finest pep band in the land and we played out hearts out at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The crowd attendance was 31,560 which is the biggest audience I think I will ever play! Unfortunately we were defeated 15-7 but the Salisbury University Seagulls.  

I am no closer to understanding the rules of lacrosse but I'm excited for season and determined to at least work out some of the rules.

Gillette Stadium, Massachusetts

RIT Tigers!

PeP Band selfie with our new conductor Megan

The End of my Fulbright

Today was the final day of my Fulbright Fellowship. During my Fulbright I have collected data for five studies examining:

1. Semantic fluency skills of students who were Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing (DHH), hearing, and users of English and/or American Sign Language.
2. Students’ perceptions of word typicality related to category membership.
3. Students’ categorization skills and their cognitive flexibility in re-categorizing words.
4. The speech intelligibility of DHH college students.
5. The sign intelligibility of American Sign Language users.

I wasn’t sure where my Fulbright journey would take me, but at the outset I imagined that it would end at a tangible destination. A list of submitted journal papers. Conference papers to present. Future research projects in preparation. A check list of tasks to indicate a successful scholarship. However, as I check the final items off the list, I am overwhelmed by a feeling that these tangible outcomes are not the destination that I thought they were. As Henry Miller said, “one’s destination is never a place, but a new way of looking at things”. That is where my Fulbright journey has taken me. To a world that is bigger and brighter, more challenging and more rewarding than I knew. A world full of new friends, new ideas, and of exciting possibilities that I will be exploring for the rest of my life.