SUNY Oneonta

Seven students enrolled in SUNY Oneonta's Cooperstown Graduate Program traveled to Tenerife, the largest of Spain's Canary Islands, in the beginning of January for an 11-day field course called Museums, Landscapes, and Society in the Canary Islands.

Twelve geology students from SUNY Oneonta recently spent a week-and-a-half in California developing their field mapping skills and putting them to use in the desert and beyond. The week-and-a-half-long trip was part of the upper-level course Field Geology of Plate Boundaries, and students were accompanied by their professor, Dr. Keith Brunstad. It was an opportunity for students to use what they have learned about geologic mapping in prior coursework in a real-world context and build confidence and experience in that area. Students spent several days mapping geologic layers that have been warped and broken in Rainbow Basin in the Mojave desert, near Barstow, California. Amid the eroding mountains and expansive views, students practiced recording geologic observations, taking field notes and sketches, creating maps and geologic cross sections, and presenting summaries of their findings. At night, they camped out, sleeping in tents and cooking their own food. The last few days of the trip were spent at University of California - Riverside's Sweeney Granite Mountains Research Station, which is located in the Mojave National Preserve. There, students got to climb volcanoes and into lava tubes and visit dry lakes where salt is being mined.

The SUNY Oneonta Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society, inducted 36 new student members during a ceremony on December 9 at the Hunt Union Waterfront.

Three peer tutors from SUNY Oneonta's Student Learning Center have completed the necessary training and requirements to attain Intermediate-Level National Tutoring Association certification this semester. This is the first time any SUNY Oneonta tutors have completed this level of training with the National Tutoring Assocation, according to Tutor Program Coordinator Amy Crouse-Powers.

Jared Ciccarelli has been named the 2019 SUNY Oneonta Intern of the Year, a new award sponsored by the Otsego County Chamber to recognize outstanding work by interns at local businesses and organizations.

Six SUNY Oneonta students from SUNY Oneonta's Communication and Media department traveled to the Big Apple on Oct. 24 for the "Classes to Careers" track of the college's annual Backpacks to Briefcases alumni networking trip. Students visited three well-established alumni at their Manhattan offices and heard about their experiences going from students to top executives. The event is designed to inspire students to jumpstart their careers by beginning to build their professional networks. It is funded by the Oneonta Student Association and the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association through charitable gifts to the Fund for Oneonta.

Eighty four SUNY Oneonta students from SUNY Oneonta's School of Economics and Business traveled to the Big Apple on Oct. 24 for the college's annual Backpacks to Briefcases alumni networking trip. Students visited 18 well-established alumni at their Manhattan offices and heard about their experiences going from students to top executives. The event is designed to inspire students to jumpstart their careers by beginning to build their professional networks. It is funded by the Oneonta Student Association and the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association through charitable gifts to the Fund for Oneonta.

This fall, SUNY Oneonta welcomed approximately 1,400 freshmen and 400 new transfer students hailing from across New York, as well as from 13 other states and countries. The newest Red Dragons officially joined the Oneonta family by walking through the historic pillars of Old Main during the traditional Pass Through the Pillars ceremony on the campus quad the night before classes began.

Zanida Banks-Rollins was one of just 32 students from across the country to attend "The Hubb," an invitation-only networking and professional development summit in Nashville where college students learned firsthand from music industry executives. The summit took place Sept. 8 and 9 and was hosted by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles.

One of SUNY Oneonta's CAMP/EOP students, Catherin Flores Granados, had the experience of a lifetime this summer interning with the Office of State and Grantee Relations in Washington, D.C. Catherin, a sophomore from Mountain Dale, NY, was one of six College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) students across the country selected to participate in the National HEP/CAMP Association Internship Program. During the eight-week paid internship, she worked with the director of the Office of Migrant Education and many other offices nearby in the Department of Education.

More than 1,000 graduates were recognized at SUNY Oneonta's 130th Commencement on May 11, 2019. Students who completed the requirements for bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and certificates of advanced study were honored in the Dewar Arena of the Alumni Field House.

From May 25 to June 5, 26 SUNY Oneonta students enrolled in three separate courses joined forces and traveled to Guilin, China together to learn all about cities and architecture in the region and study the history of urbanization and modernization in China and the impact of tourism on Guilin. Accompanied by professors Ho Hon Leung (SOCL 294), Matthew Hendley (WHIS 294), and Wesley Bernard (CART 211), students in sociology, world history and photography explored the meaning and symbolic power of man's influence on his environment from a cross-disciplinary approach. Following the same itinerary, students attended lectures and classes at Guangxi Normal University and visited the 700-year old Longji Rice Terraces, where they were greeted by Yao and Zhuang villagers, who still use the terraces for growing premium quality rice. They also hiked, explored nearby caves and parks, and shopped in the bustling market town of Yangshuo.

Thirteen SUNY Oneonta students are touring the United Kingdom for their class "The Philosophy of Life and Death," a course that examines the "big questions" about life and death, including their nature, meaning and value. Accompanied by faculty members Daniel Patrone and Elizabeth Seale, the students have made stops in England, Wales and Scotland, all the while examining important conceptual and ethical questions concerning individual, social, and political responses to catastrophes and other existential threats; the rationality and significance of religious faith and the possibility of surviving the death of the body; and the treatment of the dying and the dead. This is a three-week trip, and students will return June 20. Students have explored and discussed ancient religious practices surrounding death; beauty, illness and patient rights issues; death and suffering in art and entertainment; the meaning of suffering; and end of life care, among other related topics. Students have visited Canterbury, Stonehenge, Bath, York, Edinburgh, Dover, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square, and attended a performance of Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. While investigating many philosophical traditions, problems, perspectives, and arguments that transcend the common cultural and intellectual traditions of the United Kingdom, the students are exploring, in depth, the cultures, traditions, and histories of Great Britain.

SUNY Oneonta student Savannah Compere received the prestigious Diversity Abroad Honors Scholarship from the SUNY Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion this summer. The scholarship helped Compere travel to Ecuador during a faculty-led trip at the end of May. SUNY's Diversity Abroad Honors Scholarship Program (DAHSP) supports opportunities that recognize the transformative experience of studying abroad as students prepare for future careers in increasingly global environments. The scholarship is very competitive and each SUNY campus can only nominate one student per term to enter. Compere was chosen among students from all SUNY campuses. She received $1,000 from SUNY, with a full match from SUNY Oneonta's Global Engagement Fund. While in Ecuador, Compere and 17 other SUNY Oneonta students completed service projects and worked with impoverished youth and families in Quito and Mindo, Ecuador as part of an upper-division Human Development and Family Studies course. The students were involved in three service work projects - building a greenhouse for an elder-care facility; working with a preschool program developing activities and refurbishing a room into an activity room for future use; and working with the mayor in Mindo on a beautification project in a high-poverty district.

Eighteen SUNY Oneonta students spent a little over two weeks (from May 13 to May 26) completing service projects and working with impoverished youth and families in Quito and Mindo, Ecuador as part of an upper-division Human Development and Family Studies course. The students were involved in three service work projects - building a greenhouse for an elder-care facility; working with a preschool program developing activities and refurbishing a room into an activity room for future use; and working with the mayor in Mindo on a beautification project in a high-poverty district. As part of their cultural immersion, students took 20 hours of Spanish lessons and lived with an Ecuadorian family. In their free time, they were able to visit museums, tour communities, visit historical and ecological attractions, attend programs learning about food and the arts, and visit with indigenous populations (primarily Quichua). This service learning program was designed for students interested in learning about sustainable solutions to poverty in developing countries. It offered exciting hands-on work opportunities and meaningful cultural immersion, while encouraging an awareness of the risk factors of impoverishment.

It's one thing to read about water resource problems and environmental issues in the developing world. It's an entirely different experience to see these issues - and the people they affect - first-hand and work toward solutions. Twenty environmental sustainability students from SUNY Oneonta recently returned from a summer international field course where they did just that. The annual field course, called "Water and Environment of Guatemala," brought students to Guatemala for two weeks, where they took water samples and analyzed water quality data from Lake Atitlan and the surrounding drainage basin. The course is led by Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Sciences Tracy Allen. Based on their observations, interactions with local residents, and data collection, students worked to identify sustainable solutions to the area's water resources problems. Students were also able to learn about agriculture while touring a coffee plantation and, later, take in the area's natural wonders, including the Pacaya volcano, which is active. The students went into a Guatemalan elementary school to teach children about the lake and water quality, and they also installed water filtration systems into some of the area homes. Students said these interactions were particularly meaningful and rewarding, and the trip was eye-opening.

Nine art students from SUNY Oneonta were in France from May 13 to 26 learning art history firsthand for an upper-level course on Impressionism. Led by their professor, Dr. Pearlie Rose S. Baluyut, the students learned through a combination of on-site lectures and discussions based on assigned readings and in front of original paintings in major museums and artist studios, including L'Orangerie, Musee d'Orsay, Musee du Louvre, and Musee Marmottan-Claude Monet, among others. The group explored parks, boulevards, apartment buildings, cafes, theaters, gardens and bridges in Paris, and visited historic sites and monuments such as the Eiffel Tower. They also made cultural excursions to Giverny, Cannes, Nice, and more. While deepening their understanding of art history's two greatest stylistic movements, students gained a global awareness and experience as a responsible citizen of the world.

A total of 196 SUNY Oneonta students earned Provost's List honors for the spring 2019 semester. To qualify for the Provost's List, a student must earn a perfect 4.0 grade-point average while carrying a course load of 12 hours or more.

A total of 1,553 SUNY Oneonta students earned Dean's List honors for the spring 2019 semester. To qualify for the Dean's List, a student must earn a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher while carrying a course load of 12 hours or more.

Five SUNY Oneonta students are having a direct, hands-on effect on the future of science education this summer by designing and creating their own instructional models for use in classrooms. The students are part of the Earth Science Model and Design Institute, which gives pre-service Earth Science teachers the chance to design and build their own models of particularly complex or abstract Earth processes and concepts. Project leaders are Dr. James Ebert of the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and Dr. Paul Bischoff of the Secondary Education Department. Participating students, who were selected from a pool of applicants, will spend four weeks designing and building the models and will work throughout the year to tweak and perfect them. The models are made using everyday items such as plastic bottles, rulers, wooden dowels and index cards, so that they can be easily replicated. Bischoff said the experience gives students a more in-depth understanding of the research process and lets them see the creative components to teaching. The students receive a stipend, in addition to room and board.

Four students received awards at SUNY Oneonta's Lavender Graduation Recognition Ceremony on April 28 in the Hunt Union Ballroom. An annual event sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, the college's Lavender Graduation recognizes exceptional service, leadership and activism on behalf of the LGBTQIA community. Awards honor graduating seniors and faculty and staff members for their outstanding contributions to diversity and inclusion on the SUNY Oneonta campus. Participants are those graduating in May, August or December 2019 who receive a lavender cord to wear at their official graduation.

Congratulations to the 19 peer tutors who earned National Tutor Association Level 1 Certification this academic year through SUNY Oneonta's Student Learning Center. Tutors have completed the courses for which they are tutoring at SUNY Oneonta and have received a B+ or better in the course. All tutors complete a 2-hour training workshop before working with tutees, and they complete additional training throughout the time they work at SLC. Effective Fall 2016, all newly hired tutors are working toward completing National Tutoring Association (NTA) basic level certification.

SUNY Oneonta recently recognized nearly 200 students who have attained leadership milestones through the college's LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) program. LEAD@Oneonta is a comprehensive leadership program based on current research and guidelines from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. All students can choose to participate in the LEAD program, which aims to better prepare them for life after college by providing a comprehensive picture of leadership and the skills needed to be a good leader. Students can attain a silver, gold or platinum level. To attain each level, students must meet a mix of programmatic and experiential leadership requirements, including completion of online courses, attendance at educational events, and membership and leadership in one or more of SUNY Oneonta's 100+ student-run clubs and organizations. Completion of a leadership level is recognized on campus as a credential that can be used, for example, when running for office or applying for STEP (Student Travel for Excellence Program) funding. The program also provides students with a leadership record that can be submitted to potential employers.

A total of 43 SUNY Oneonta students received 2019 Senior Service Awards recognizing their commitment to volunteerism. Seniors who completed at least 350 hours of service through the college's Center for Social Responsibility and Community (CSRC) were recognized during a reception on May 10.

Thirteen exceptional SUNY Oneonta students were inducted into the college's chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon on Friday, May 10. Omicron Delta Epsilon is one of the world's largest academic honor societies with 696 chapters located in the United States and 10 other countries worldwide. Juniors and seniors majoring or minoring in Economics, or any student in the School of Economics and Business completing a Finance concentration with an overall and Economics GPA of 3.0 and higher, are invited to become members.

Over 160 students were celebrated as part of the Kente Graduation Recognition Ceremony. Sponsored by the Department of Africana/Latino Studies, the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Office of Student Diversity and Advocacy, the annual ceremony recognizes the achievements of SUNY Oneonta's diverse student population-African American, Latino, Asian and Native American (AALANA) students and non-AALANA students and allies.

A total of 27 SUNY Oneonta students studied abroad this spring through programs in 10 countries.

Twenty SUNY Oneonta students earned membership in SUNY Oneonta's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta, the National Health Preprofessional Honor Society, during the 2018-19 academic year.

Eighteen students earned membership in SUNY Oneonta's Beta Eta Chapter of the Chi Alpha Epsilon (XAE) national honor society during the 2018-19 academic year. To be inducted into XAE, students must earn a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better for two consecutive, full-time semesters, and must have been admitted to college through an opportunity program (Access to College Excellence, College Assistance Migrant Program or Educational Opportunity Program).

To celebrate the Class of 2019, SUNY Oneonta's Office of Communication and Marketing produced a remake of the iconic intro to 90s television cult classic "Friends" with help from a few of our talented seniors. Because, after all, the friends you make at SUNY Oneonta will always be there for you.