Reading, writing and playing - Rochester Institute of Technology

Kosovar dairy farmer Zeqir Lalinovci faces daily electricity
blackouts. He turned to RIT students for help,
including Josh Turner (below), who is the technology
director for Kosovo Wind Gardens. Turner is working
on a mold for a wind turbine blade in an RIT lab.
(Photos by Lum Citaku and A. Sue Weisler)
An international and
multidisciplinary team
Kosovo Wind Gardens is a venture that
includes students representing four RIT colleges,
the University of Rochester and RIT’s
American University of Kosovo.
Lum Citaku ’11, marketing manager.
Citaku, of Pristina, Kosovo, graduated from
American University in Kosovo
last year with a degree in media graphic
communications and management.
Daniel Driffill, business manager. Driffill,
of Irondequoit, N.Y., is a fourth-year management
and finance major in the E. Philip
Saunders College of Business.
Shpend Jusufi ’11, energy law manager.
Shpend, of Presheva, Serbia, graduated from
American University in Kosovo
last year with a degree in public policy.
Matthew Munderville, project director.
Munderville, of Guilderland, N.Y., is a recent
University of Rochester graduate.
Manuel Sosa, sustainability manager.
Sosa, of Caracas, Venezuela, is a second-year
graduate student in sustainable engineering
in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering.
Lindsay Tondryk, market analyst. Tondryk,
of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., is a fourth-year
international business and marketing major
in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.
Josh Turner, technology director. Turner, of
Honeoye Falls, N.Y., is a fifth-year mechanical
engineering technology major in the College
of Applied Science and Technology.
Adam Walker, executive director. Walker,
of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a second-year graduate
student studying science, technology and
public policy in the College of Liberal Arts.
He earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and
philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Walker recently won a fellowship through
the Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman
Fellows program identifies, develops and networks
the next generation of global leaders in
the venture capital industry.
He will serve as an apprentice with a
venture capital firm and receive executive
mentoring.
The RIT/Kosovo Connection
The American University in Kosovo, one of
RIT’s three global campuses, was established
in 2003 to support and foster economic
development in the country after the conflict
that saw the former Yugoslavia separated into
several independent nations.
The university’s first class of 57 students
met in a temporary building that was made
possible through financial donations by Kosovar
Albanian émigrés.
“I think one of the most important, and
possibly interesting, facts is that the university
was funded from the donations of the Albanian
diaspora,” says James Myers, director of
the RIT Center for Multidisciplinary Studies.
“It has actually received very little support
from the Kosovo or U.S. governments. Its endowment
was really a reflection of the national
trust of the Albanian Kosovars, who committed
over $3 million to establish the university.”
Today, the university is thriving. It is
housed in three buildings in a park-like
campus in Pristina, the capital city, and there
are more than 500 students enrolled in both
undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Classes focus on business, economics, management,
information technology, media and
graphic communication and public policy.
With a population of more than 1.8 million
people, in an area the size of Connecticut,
Kosovo is a dichotomy. The literacy rate
of its people is at nearly 90 percent, yet 45
percent of its labor force is unemployed. The
majority of American University in Kosovo’s
graduates are employed.
“American University in Kosovo has been
vital to the economic and political changes
taking place in Kosovo. It
has educated many of the new political and
economic leaders of the country,” Myers says.
“RIT should be very proud of helping launch
this extraordinary institution.”
Michelle Cometa ’00
SPRING 2012 | 19