Alumni News

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — A photograph by Timothy Gerken, professor of humanities at SUNY Morrisville, is on display in collaboration with Denniston Hill, as part of For Freedoms’ nationwide campaign “2020 Awakening.” The artist-led collective campaign, which launched on Indigenous People’s Day (Columbus Day) Oct. 12, features billboards that appear in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Many touch on pressing issues of the current political campaign process.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — A new minor in agricultural human resources management is preparing SUNY Morrisville graduates to meet the growing demands of the modern farm business. “The diverse nature of the agricultural industry, increased agricultural labor laws and rapid consolidation of the agricultural industry are all factors influencing and creating the demand for this academic minor,” said Sheila Marshman, associate professor of agricultural business at SUNY Morrisville.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville, in collaboration with International Pathway Programs (IPP), has signed a transfer agreement with Beijing Foreign Studies University's School of English and International Studies (SEIS), one of China’s most prestigious universities. SUNY Morrisville is the first college in the United States to partner with SEIS. Students who successfully complete their degree program receive a diploma from The State University of New York.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Kerin Warner left Rutgers University with a degree in history, but circumstances and a lifetime of horses led him in a different direction.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville has been recognized again for its excellence with numerous listings in the 2021 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, a publication renowned for its higher education rankings.

MORRISVILLE, NY – The Morrisville College Foundation has elected three new directors to its 25-member board.  New members, Shirley Crawford, Nancy Roberts and Rita Scharman ’81, took office on July 1. Each will serve a three-year term.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — She’s generally a jovial horse, but Lola is happier than ever these days. Poking her nose through a stall at the SUNY Morrisville Western barn, she nickers at two students on whose care she has come to rely the past few months. Equine students Kaitlin Renschen and Kendalle Booth are equally excited to see their four-legged friend, having a natural conversation with her as they lead her to the Western riding ring.

NORWICH, N.Y. — The SUNY Morrisville Norwich Campus is offering a new human services certificate, which is available online and on campus. The 21-credit program provides education and training to individuals who are looking for a career helping others and for professionals already employed in the human services field who want to advance their careers. The campus also offers an A.A.S. degree in human services.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville has announced its plan to reopen campus this fall, after receiving approval from SUNY and meeting New York State Department of Health’s Reopening New York Higher Education Guidelines. Plans are subject to change due to new information, guidance and/or direction received from the State of New York and the Governor’s Office.

For Angela Marriott ’17, it was a career-defining moment. In the summer of 2015, she observed the daily work of police officers during a ride-along in her hometown of Peekskill, New York. Seeing firsthand how a female officer deftly handled the challenges of the job cemented her desire to pursue a career in law enforcement. “The way she was connected and interacted with people and carried herself as a woman in law enforcement is who I aspired to be,” Marriott said.

Sheneya Wilson ’13 commanded the room. Wilson, a Ph.D. student, Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholar, author and business owner, visited campus to deliver the keynote lecture for Entrepreneurs’ Day, held February 27. 

Julio Torres Santana ’07 didn’t speak English when he arrived in New York City as a teenager. No one in his family had ever graduated from college, and his childhood in the Dominican Republic was marked with poverty and hardship. But his drive to succeed and passion for architecture pushed him to complete an associate degree at SUNY Morrisville and become the school’s first architectural studies student to be accepted into the bachelor’s degree program at Cornell University.

For Tristan Archambault ’22, receiving a scholarship changed his college experience. It gave him the opportunity to take summer classes, stay on track with his degree and be a member of the Mustang men’s ice hockey team.   “I could not have been more proud and honored to accept such a high honor here at SUNY Morrisville,” Archambault said of the Crawford Scholarship he received. “Scholarship support is a very important part of helping students advance their education.”

When Alexandra “Ali” Bland ’09 was pregnant with her first child in 2015, she asked her husband if he could build a radiator cover that could double as a changing table in their nursery. Before long, Thomas Bland ’09 had created a rustic piece with a drawer, small cupboard and an eye-catching herringbone-patterned top made from pallets.

Only a lucky few know exactly what they want to be when they “grow up,” but most figure it out mid-way through college. When Jimmy Sardelli enrolled in SUNY Morrisville’s equine science program, he was still trying to find his path in life.

Justanna Bohling ’13 keeps a bag packed with her firearm, a helmet with night vision goggles and heavy plated armor that will stop rifle rounds. She is trained in searching for fugitives, responding to active shooter situations and assessing radiological threats, and is constantly prepared to be deployed to any part of New York State.

As a business student, Rachel Jackson ’18 came to love the small-campus advantages offered at SUNY Morrisville. She never dreamed that her education would land her on one of the biggest campuses in the world — NBC Universal in New York City. Jackson worked as a campus programs coordinator with advertising sales recruiters for the CNBC network and the popular NBC late-night talk shows, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

At 97 years old, Richard “Dick” McGuire ’42 acts as a living historian. He’s physically spry enough to trudge around in a half foot of snow serving as a tour guide for his 12 museums on his lifelong home of Penope Farms in the rural town of Jackson, N.Y. And he is mentally sharp enough to recollect specific use of 19th and 20th century farm equipment that was critical to the time for food production in America.

A supportive professor who infallibly made himself available to his students, even long after they graduated; A hard-working dean always at the center of the action — that is how colleagues and students are remembering faculty emeritus Joseph Nassimos.

A beacon for generations, no end in sight for professor Shirley Crawford, SUNY Morrisville’s longest-standing faculty member Social science professor Norman Dann, Ph.D., recalls very clearly the day he returned to his office on the SUNY Morrisville campus to find a young faculty member, in her first days on campus, waiting outside his door.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — Before she goes in for her night shift as a nurse, Kirsten Krause does a video chat with her four-year-old son, Nicholas. He runs around the house with the phone showing her his kittens and the puzzles he is working on at home. She tells him she loves him and will be home as soon as she is done helping people, fighting back tears as he blows her a kiss goodbye. The daily calls keep her going.

NORWICH, N.Y. — As concern over the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) for emergency personnel and health care workers continues nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, SUNY Morrisville’s Norwich Campus is doing all it can to help locally.  They’re providing emergency agencies in the Chenango County with use of an on-campus ultraviolet (UV) sterilization cabinet that allows for protective equipment to be used more than once.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville’s woods sport team is readying for its lumberjack season, which starts with a competition Saturday, March 7. The free contest will be held inside the college’s Nancy Sears Stowell Arena on Swamp Road, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — SUNY Morrisville once again has been honored for its commitment to effective urban forest management, receiving 2019 Tree Campus USA® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation.

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. —  SUNY Morrisville is among a handful of locations in New York State serving as a jam site for the 2020 Global Game Jam™ (GGJ), the world’s largest game creation event, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 2.   Registration for the Morrisville site is still open for students and non-students over the age 18 of all skills levels at Global Game Jam 2020.