Alumni News

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville graduates celebrated commencement day with family and friends amid a stage adorned with ferns and flowers grown and arranged by students in the college’s horticulture program. Noteworthy about this year’s graduates is the first cohort of nursing bachelor’s degree students.

MORRISVILLE, NY—Faculty, staff and students are gearing up for two agricultural and dairy events this weekend: the sixth annual Milk Run on Friday, May 3, and Dairy Showmanship on Saturday, May 4. The Milk Run is a family-friendly, five-kilometer run, walk or crawl open to all skill levels. A one-mile fun run begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the 5K run beginning at 6 p.m. in front of Marshall Hall. The Milk Run is part of the Route 20 Road Race Challenge.

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville students Zainab Jimoh, of Staten Island, and Layne Martin, of Cazenovia, have been honored with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.

MORRISVILLE, NY—Did you know that the average Holstein dairy cow drinks 25-30 gallons of water per day? Or that cows can smell something up to six miles away?  Learn more about cows, agriculture and SUNY Morrisville’s programs and dairy complex during Spring on the Farm, Saturday, April 27. The event, which is free and open to the public, is from noon-4 p.m. at the SUNY Morrisville Arnold R. Fisher Dairy Complex, located off of Eaton Street.  

MORRISVILLE, NY— Gilligan’s Ice Cream loves its fans so much, they are letting them choose a new SUNY Morrisville indulgence through a Mustang Ice Cream Contest.  SUNY Morrisville alumni Andy Lagoe ’92 and Gil Hodges ’92 along with partner Mike Lagoe, owners of Gilligan’s Ice Cream, (www.gilliganssherburne.com), located in Sherburne, devised the contest, which lauds their Mustang pride.

MORRISVILLE, NY—The newest member of the New York State University Police at SUNY Morrisville is headed to the police academy. For the next 20 weeks, Bruin, a year-old black German Shepherd, and his new partner, New York State University Police Officer Nicole Wright, will undergo intense training at the New York State Police Canine Training Facility in Cooperstown.

Dual-sport student-athlete Jordan Anderson turns competitive fire into a career A chance attendance of a lacrosse game changed the course of Jordan Anderson’s life. Anderson ’17 had just wrapped up a very successful freshman year on the Mustang women’s basketball team, earning Rookie of the Year status in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) for her performance as the team’s starting point guard.

From her post as a waterfowl researcher at the Forbes Biological Station in Havana, Illinois, Cheyenne Beach ’16 sees the whole country. She can look east and recall her time as an AmeriCorps volunteer on Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia. She can look west to the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge along the Colorado River in Arizona, where she worked with endangered species in the fall of 2016.

Mike ’79 and Stephanie Battisti ’79 have lived their lives in tandem since meeting as undergraduate students at SUNY Morrisville in the 1970s. The couple graduated in 1979 and grew their lives together on a maple and dairy farm outside of Morrisville. They shifted gears after their children were grown, starting a new chapter in the Adirondacks.

Jeremy Dupuis ’16 has a knack for breaking things.

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville’s Western equestrian students wrapped up a historically successful season.   Below are some of the highlights:  

MORRISVILLE, NY—A beer produced by SUNY Morrisville agricultural business students is now on tap at the Copper Turret Restaurant & Brewhouse, in Morrisville, and three other student-made products are for sale at the Nelson Farms Country Store, on Route 20 in the Town of Nelson.  

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville is selling a colorful array of poinsettias. The popular, decorative plants are on sale now through Dec. 7 at the Spader Horticulture Complex on the SUNY Morrisville campus, Monday through Friday, from noon to 4 p.m. The sale is open to the public.

WATERVILLE, NY— SUNY Morrisville student Kristin Dominic has an interest in building tiny homes. Reed Lucas wants to augment his nursery business, and Nick Geswaldo has a desire to learn more about hardscaping. They’re all getting a breadth of experience to help craft their careers through a Masonry & Foundations class taught by Michael Gridley, ’04, assistant professor of residential construction.   

MORRISVILLE, NY—SUNY Morrisville will bring its innovation, animals and exciting hands-on approach to learning to the Great New York State Fair again this year. The fair runs Aug. 22-Sept. 3.

Phil Picard remembers the moment he caught the automotive racing bug.

In his classic song, Sir Duke, iconic musician Stevie Wonder sings: “Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.

Mollie Carter, ’14, remembers the first time she saw the steel sculpture of The Mustang, rearing back on its brick-and-mortar base in front of the Whipple Administration Building. “It was one of the first symbols that grabbed my eye when I started at MSC in August of 2010,” she said. The sculpture made the small-town girl feel “a little bit more like, ‘Hey, I can do this.’"

Morrisville freshman Jacob Ax has taken a chance meeting with a man injured in an accident and turned it into an opportunity to advocate for better accessibility in the farm workplace.

When Barn Sis was donated to the racing program at Morrisville State College, driver Cole Wimmer wasn’t sure that the three-year-old trotting filly would be fast enough to compete on the New York Sire Stakes harness racing circuit.

Ask assistant biology professor Eric Diefenbacher what his special field of interest is and without hesitation he says “salamanders,’’ particularly spring salamanders. Why? Because “salamanders are a great bio-indicator of how healthy an environment might be overall, and that’s really important.’’

Approximately seven miles west of Morrisville State College in the town of Nelson, a small facility has been cooking up big dreams.

After nearly eight decades of prohibition, industrial hemp is making a comeback in New York with the help of students and faculty at Morrisville State College.

“Fast and furious” doesn’t just describe a vehicle’s speed anymore … it is now just as easily the catch-phrase of the non-stop rush of automotive technology changes.

The following photo essay was captured through the lens of Paige Biviano ’17, an alumna of two Morrisville State College programs—journalism and communication for online media and wood products technology – finish carpentry. Through a GoFundMe page, photograph sales, private Taekwondo lessons and cutting boards, Biviano fundraised her way to the Oceans Campus Wildlife and Travel Photography program, based in Mossel Bay, South Africa, from May 30 through July 2.