Alumni News

With the college’s official launch of the Campaign for Morrisville, an initiative that will strengthen resources for generations of Mustangs, there’s never been a more exciting time at SUNY Morrisville. “We’re laying the foundation for the next 100 years of applied education,” said Theresa Kevorkian, vice president for Institutional Advancement. “This transformative campaign is going to change the future of our college.”

Megan Viera ’18 concentrates on her footing as she walks up a wooden ramp leading to the porch of a two-story farmhouse. A prominent sign hanging by the door — “It’s so good to be home” sums up a near decade of perseverance for the 27-year-old Sherburne, New York, resident.

As the world came together to acknowledge Earth Day this year, SUNY Morrisville was planting a new seed — a campus tradition that joined acts of kindness with sustainability to celebrate the day.

The story of George and Barb Elias is a perfect reminder that anyone can leave an extraordinary legacy. George Elias ’70 (instrument technology) endowed a scholarship in honor of his late wife, Barb ’81 (horse husbandry), the Barbara A. Elias ’81 Endowed Scholarship Fund.  Barb left a trail of giving that spread from New York State to Colorado and many places in-between. The scholarship George created will continue her legacy.

As a child, Tweh Johnson would often get in trouble for the numerous science experiments he concocted through his wild imagination. While they didn’t always go as planned, they all played a role in helping him discover his insatiable thirst for knowledge. That same inquisitiveness has now led him to a degree in the field of his dreams, thanks to SUNY Morrisville.

High upon a hill overlooking the SUNY Morrisville campus, students, faculty and staff are working long before the sun rises. Some are milking cows in the college’s high-tech milking parlor, while others are recording data on computers, pushing feed and performing other necessary tasks. 

Wood products technology students are winding down from a productive semester, which included various wood processing and furniture design and construction class projects.  

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville kicked off its Campaign for Morrisville in grand fashion, receiving a $100,000 pledge from college President David Rogers and his wife, Associate Professor Jan Rogers.

It’s a monumental day in SUNY Morrisville’s history as the college announced its first master’s degree in Food & Agribusiness (FAB).

SUNY Morrisville Conservation Tri-Society (CTS) club members were recently busy doing service activities at Camp Kingsley for the Leatherstocking Council’s scouting programs. The students evaluated an area for invasive plant removal, refloated a dock that had been pinned by a beaver-felled tree, laid out a new trail and conducted trail maintenance. 

In celebration of National Author’s Day, the Human Services Institute at the SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus, in conjunction with the Chenango County Historical Society & Museum, is highlighting five authors on Tuesday, Nov. 1. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Norwich Campus, located at 20 Conkey Avenue in Norwich. 

Suzan Harkness is the new Provost at SUNY Morrisville, beginning Jan. 9, 2023. 

SUNY Morrisville’s annual Autumn Review Sale, “Magic of Morrisville,” is Friday, Oct. 14.  The sale, run by the SUNY Morrisville Dairy Club, starts at 7 p.m. at the college’s former draft horse barn at 5000 Hart Road, near the Arnold Fisher Dairy Complex off of Eaton Street.  The sale features 43 live lots up for consignment plus an embryo lot and semen lot.

There’s no mistaking Rebecca Hargrave’s love for arboriculture and all things trees. The SUNY Morrisville professor’s enthusiasm toward the field and her innovative, hands-on learning have spirited students and spread to a campus and community. 

Dylan Rees, a student in SUNY Morrisville’s technology management bachelor’s degree program, is spreading his disc golf talent to the community.  Instead of a usual internship, Rees launched a startup business, Flying Mile Disc Golf, as part of his entrepreneurship practicum in associate professor Tom Pilewski’s class. 

SUNY Morrisville can be spotted throughout this year’s Great New York State Fair, which runs Wednesday, Aug. 24-Monday, Sept. 5.

MORRISVILLE, NY — SUNY Morrisville alumnus Andrew O’Connell is gearing up for a busy year. He  crushed the Men’s US STIHL® Rookie Championships in Little Rock, Arkansas, July 21, taking home a gold medal, setting a national rookie record and landing a spot in the STIHL® Rookie World Championships in Sweden next year.   Training starts now for the world event, O’Connell said in a recent telephone interview. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — A real-life classroom approach is giving students in Eric Diefenbacher’s herpetology class valuable field skills and an opportunity to explore and develop research skills for their future careers. And it led his Fall 2019 class to be published in the Journal of North American Herpetology.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — There’s no mistaking SUNY Morrisville professor Sheila Marshman’s compelling dedication as a teacher. “My purpose is to help others find theirs,” she said. She has spent the last two decades devoting her life to that teaching philosophy.  It’s fueled her as a teacher, spirited an entire campus and shepherded countless graduates to find and follow their purpose. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — The SUNY Morrisville campus was bustling with activity as it celebrated its first successful Earth Day event.  Community service projects and various activities were held throughout the day, helping create new campus tradition to join in acts of kindness that tie into sustainability and inspire them to protect the environment. 

MORRISVILLE, NY — Did you know that SUNY Morrisville’s herd of approximately 160 milking cows produces 95 pounds of milk per cow, per day, some of which is used in the college’s cheese curds? Or that a dairy cow chews an average of 50 times per minute? Learn more about cows, agriculture, SUNY Morrisville’s academic programs and its dairy complex during Spring on the Farm, Saturday, April 30, 2022. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville has been honored once again for its commitment to effective urban forest management, receiving 2021 Tree Campus Higher Education recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — There’s a lot to look at in professor Elisa Livengood’s marine lab at SUNY Morrisville. Colorful rock flower anemones, sea urchins and Aiptasia anemones are new species for student-driven projects in her research in aquatic science II class this semester.  “It’s an exciting lab,” said Livengood, associate professor of aquaculture & aquatic science. “There’s always something different and new focusing on our applied learning approach.”  

MORRISVILLE, NY — Growing up on a fruit farm in Pennsylvania, Charles “Chip” Ax III had his roots planted deeply in agriculture at an early age.  It led to roles with FFA, running a crop farm in St. Lawrence County, becoming a high school and BOCES ag teacher, and eventually found an outlet in the college classroom, where he has been educating SUNY Morrisville students to become agricultural leaders for more than a decade. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Interested in making a game and being part of a global experiment in creativity? SUNY Morrisville is once again serving as a host site for Global Game Jam®, the world’s largest game jam event, taking place Friday, Jan. 28-Sunday, Jan. 30.  During the worldwide event, participants are given a central theme and just 48 hours to create a video or board/card game.