Momentum

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.

Beyond a tattoo on her left forearm, nursing student Shana Prosser doesn’t advertise her military service. She spends her days in class or clocking in clinical hours at the hospital, then returns home to her husband and two children in rural Chenango County.

Jeremy Dupuis ’16 has a knack for breaking things. Dupuis infiltrates sensitive, proprietary and protected information on behalf of Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services company and one of the largest accounting firms in the United States. He is an offensive security consultant, or, as others describe it, a “professional hacker.” The Albany area native never imagined such an exciting profession and a six-figure salary when he enrolled as an individual studies major at SUNY Morrisville.

Sibell pops her head over the stall door, flattens her nose and pins back her ears. If horses could hand out grades, right now her rider would be receiving a C-minus in treats. Message received. Marcus Livermore, the mare’s obedient servant, rummages through the brushes, combs and hoof picks in his grooming kit and fishes out a peppermint. Sibell nickers at the sound of crumpling candy wrapper.

As the temperature soared into the mid-90s during this year’s Great New York State Fair, patrons lined up in front of Gilligan’s Ice Cream stand. A large sign touting premium handcrafted hard ice cream enticed fairgoers as they wiped their brows with napkins and fanned themselves to the beat of music emanating from a nearby booth. Some longed for the decadent refreshment to beat the heat, while others were hopped up to taste test Gilligan’s new frozen concoction: ice cream mixed with beer.

With love and care, Jerome “Jay” Caretti tends to SUNY Morrisville’s portal to the stars. Painted silver and capped with a domed top resembling a silo, the Observatory stands atop a hill off Skyline Drive, on the east side of campus, overlooking Route 20. It is owned by the college and available to both students and the public.

The colorful clusters of red and yellow tulips outside of Mary Cleere’s kitchen window are more than a harbinger of summer. They represent her new life.

Energy, enthusiasm and a desire to learn and give back are well ingrained in Morrisville graduate Luke Martin. Since earning his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business development, Martin, 24, has been making his imprint with GROWMARK, Inc., a regional agricultural cooperative that operates in more than 40 states.

In his classic song, Sir Duke, iconic musician Stevie Wonder sings: “Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand. With an equal opportunity, for all to sing, dance and clap their hands.”

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. Back in 2010, Ax was new to the Stockbridge Valley Central School in Munnsville, New York, when he met a friendly custodian named Randy Mennig. Ax noticed Mennig’s limp, stemming from a motorcycle accident some years before in which he lost a leg. Menning’s dreams of working on a farm were challenged.