Pursuing What Fulfills You: The Nontraditional Journey to a Film Degree With Ruchatneet Printup ’23 on the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast

Instead of feeling pride over being the first member of his family to earn a college degree, Ruchatneet Printup ’23 felt trapped in a dead-end job that lacked purpose, meaning and fulfillment after earning a biomedical computing degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1988.

More than three decades later, following an unconventional path that took him from an office job in Philadelphia to serving his community as a nonprofit advocate on the Tuscarora Reservation, Printup was driving a truck delivering The Buffalo News when he had a life-changing epiphany.

As he meditated, he realized a need to pursue his passions and return to school to earn a degree in film.

This week, Printup will graduate from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) with a film degree. One of 12 University Scholars, the highest undergraduate honor the University bestows, Printup has made the most of his second undergraduate experience. A Haudenosaunee Promise Scholar, Printup plans to use his degree to ensure more Native Americans’ voices and stories are represented in film.

“My purpose for coming back to Syracuse as an older student was not that we don’t have Native people in film and media, but we’re very underrepresented and we’ve been largely invisible for a lot of years. I think right now with the environmental crisis that we’re in and the Earth right now, an Indigenous voice is needed in the landscape of film and media. I feel like part of my purpose is how can I infuse that in narrative film to expand how we look at the world or how we look at ourselves,” says Printup, who will address VPA’s graduates during the school’s convocation ceremony.

On this Commencement-centric ’Cuse Conversation, Printup reveals how he will make a difference as a film director, how the University’s well-rounded course load made him a better storyteller and why as soon as he walked into his first class at Syracuse, he knew he was where he was meant to be.

Printup, who says he had to venture outside his comfort zone and become fearless while making the difficult adjustment of going back to college later in life, also explores the documentary he produced on Native American boarding schools that served as a springboard to his current career path, and how he inspired his daughter, Yegunahareeta (Hareeta), to follow his lead and pursue her dreams as a fashion design student in VPA.

Check out episode 139 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Ruchatneet Printup ’23. A transcript [PDF] is also available.