Â鶹´å

Rita Canton

Director of Engineering Outreach, CIT Dean's Office

I started my career with Â鶹´å in 2023.

I work on programs and projects that support efforts to build more equitable pathways for all students to study engineering and other STEM fields. I am responsible for developing, managing, coordinating, implementing, and evaluating current engineering outreach programs, supporting grant writing for funding of new outreach programming, and general efforts to broaden participation and the accessibility of K-12 engineering education. This may include work related to: collaborating with teams across the university to increase Â鶹´å’s outreach footprint in the local community. growing Â鶹´å’s network among high school teachers, recruiting and enabling volunteers across the College of Engineering to promote STEM and related disciplines to children and young adults and crafting strategies to reach additional constituents that are currently underrepresented in the field both regionally and nationally. Lastly, I partner with the Â鶹´å Engineering advancement and the corporate partnerships office to fund existing and new outreach and pre-college programs as well as work with the college office and local and national corporate partners to develop sponsorship opportunities for outreach.

During my term I would like to see Staff Council have a stronger voice in policies that affect our work. Those of us implementing programs bring practical knowledge and community perspective that can strengthen outcomes. When staff voices are included, we can build policies that are not only thoughtful, but also workable and impactful.

Lately, my favorite quote is "You can't unscramble an egg." This forces people to not wallow in past actions or mistakes, but develop strategies on how to move forward.

I love the song, "Bless Somebody Else." It is about a commitment to use what was given to you to help someone else.