Momentum Issue

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 college’s Administrative Quad was at the center of kindness as students joined in food and clothing drives, a Be the Match bone marrow registry, campus cleanup projects, a tree planting, cooking demonstration, building birdhouses and bat boxes, making tie-dye bags with natural products and showing native plant sowing. 

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.”

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.

Janis Barth, owner and editor of New York Horse Magazine, shares a firsthand story about donating her beloved horse to SUNY Morrisville’s equine program. Sunday morning. The air is crisp with blue-ribbon dreams and the first intercollegiate horse show of the season is ramping up at the SUNY Morrisville Western barn.

Three pairs of siblings at SUNY Morrisville are bringing more than just their skill and abilities to the game — they bring their chemistry, the anticipation of the next move, the difference in balance that counters the other and the desire to make a difference in Mustang athletics. Despite all spring- and fall-season athletics competitions being canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the siblings shared their thoughts about being teammates.

Shortly after he graduated from SUNY Morrisville, Kyle Clark ’18 returned to his fifth-generation family dairy farm with a four-year degree in dairy management and a plan to resurrect the creamery that once stood on the property, located on Elk Creek Road in Delhi, New York. His vision and hard work came to fruition with the official opening of Clark Farms Creamery on March 1, a venture that put the family name on milk bottles and dairy products throughout southern New York and beyond.

Like most first-year students in 2020, Mo the Mustang’s (they/them/their) arrival on campus at SUNY Morrisville was not what they originally had in mind. Wearing a face mask, practicing physical distancing, picking up meals to go and otherwise adjusting to pandemic life were some of the firsts that the college’s mascot experienced at the same time as other students.

Rebecca Werbela ’04 started an agriculture education program at Morrisville-Eaton Middle-High School in a small room with big plans. As they grew, so did the excitement of her students who are grabbing hold of dynamic lessons — getting their hands dirty building and planting, growing vegetables hydroponically and gaining an understanding about the hundreds of careers available to them in the agriculture industry.

It was going to be a memorable spring break in Morocco. As she packed her suitcase, Jessica Miller’s mind drifted to the mountainous country of western North Africa, a March trip she had planned for months to marry her fiancé, Mouaad Essaadi, who lives there.

One large, ongoing art project is how Taylor McDowell describes his life.Why? Because its elements combine to create a portrait of what the 2015 SUNY Morrisville graduate loves: web and game development, drumming, storytelling, art and music. Each has shaped the life of the 28-year-old New Hartford, New York resident, whose palette is a colorful blend of perseverance and will. Despite being born with 80% hearing loss, McDowell has persisted to become a drumming instructor, pit musician, well-known street performer, and a web and game developer.