A Place to Succeed
Meet a few of the students, alumni, faculty and staff who have found success at RIT/NTID.
Luane Davis Haggerty
“Theater is not a major here, but it is of major importance,” says Luane Davis Haggerty, visiting part-time instructor and support faculty in the NTID Cultural and Creative Studies Department.
Read Luane's Story
Gerald Bateman
Prof. Bateman, director of the MSSE program, recently received a prestigious award for his work in preparing teachers of students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Read Gerald's Story
Kathryn Schmitz
One of the things this professor of English loves about working at RIT/NTID is "the range and mix of students who come here with individual challenges."
Read Kathryn's Story
John Panara
Born hearing to deaf parents, Prof. Panara's goal has always been to teach deaf and hard-of-hearing students. He says of the students at RIT/NTID, "They keep me young."
Read John's Story
Bonnie Meath-Lang
Her grandfather was a Vaudeville performer, and her father an actor and radio/TV performer, so Prof. Meath-Lang knew from a young age that theater would be a major part of her life.
Read Bonnie's Story
Harry Lang
Lang, seemingly destined for a career in a Pittsburgh steel mill, found himself on an entirely different path after meningitis left him profoundly deaf in his sophomore year of high school.
Read Harry's Story
Paula Grcevic
The Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching had never been bestowed upon an NTID faculty member more than once — that is, until it was awarded to Prof. Grcevic for the second time in 2006.
Read Paula's Story
Jim Fugate
After graduating from RIT/NTID in 1987, Prof. Fugate spent 11 years at an architecture firm before returning in 2000 to teach in the Computer Aided Drafting Technology program.
Read Jim's Story
Charlotte L.V. Thoms
This Business Studies professor, who has been a teacher at the high school and college levels as well as a principal of an elementary school, believes that teaching is her destiny.
Read Charlotte's Story
Joe Hamilton
Joe grew up admiring MacGyver, the TV character who solved problems with unconventional, makeshift tools. Today, this Theater Department shop foreman is known as "the guy who can fix anything."
Read Joe's Story
Adrienne Morgan
When she was an RIT/NTID student in the 1990s, Ebony Club helped Adrienne find her "niche" as a college student. Today, she helps current students do the same, as NTID's multicultural student programs coordinator.
Read Adrienne's Story
Todd Pagano
If you happen to walk by an RIT/NTID classroom and notice a professor wildly flailing his arms on a table, there's no reason to be alarmed — that's just Prof. Pagano helping his students better understand molecular vibration schemes.
Read Todd's Story