faculty members , assistant professor of musical theatre, and , assistant professor of film, each won $10,000 NYSCA grants for their work.

Kathleen Wrinn

Wrinn is a musical theater performer, lyricist and librettist in the Department of Drama and founding artistic director of the department’s New Works/New Voices initiative. She earned the grant for her musical, “The Bridge, a New Musical Epic,” which was developed with the New Haven-based arts venture studio Midnight Oil Collective and was showcased at Yale University this fall.

Soudabeh Moradian is a director, producer, screenwriter and editor in the Department of Film and Media Arts. Her film, “,” is a psychological horror film exploring themes of trauma, misogyny and xenophobia.

Soudabeh Moradian

NYSCA grants also went to three University arts organizations:

• : $49,500 to support general theater productions
• (Punto de Contacto): $10,000 to support general operations
• : $10,000 to support a project by artists and .

Molina Martagon and McMillan will work in residence at Light Work in February. The project will be a participatory exploration of spirituality and emerging technologies, guiding viewers through a process of body-centered storytelling, digital avatar creation and motion-capture. The resulting work will be exhibited at Urban Video Project next fall.

This year, NYSCA to individuals and organizations. In the last six years, it has presented 302 capital grants totaling $92 million across 10 regions of the state to support visual, literary, performing and media arts organizations. NYSCA also supports individual artists and awarded grants to 426 of them last year.

A scene from “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” at Syracuse Stage.

The Intelligence++ program is an interdisciplinary initiative that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship to enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities. It was established in 2020 in collaboration with the (InclusiveU) and the .

The program features an inclusive entrepreneurship and design curriculum open to students across disciplines which encourages participants to design and develop tangible solutions that address challenges faced by people with intellectual disabilities. Students work in teams to conceptualize and prototype innovations in a hands-on, inclusive approach that blends principles of design thinking, entrepreneurship, and social impact.

Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 works with students from Intelligence++ program in the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries.

The program is supported by the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence, thanks to a generous donation from Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09. This funding underscores a commitment to translating research and creativity into real-world applications that promote accessibility and empowerment for individuals with disabilities.

“From artificial intelligence to digital technologies and physical products, this field is positioned for rapid growth,” says Zaccai, who hopes the program will attract students from diverse academic disciplines, fostering innovation in accessibility. “Participating students can join the leading edge of innovation.”

, introduced as an extension of the program, provides additional funding and resources to commercialize these ideas, enabling students to take their projects from concept to market-ready solutions. Students from all schools and colleges can apply for the Intelligence ++ Ventures fund, regardless of their participation in the original Intelligence++ course. The applications are rolling and will be reviewed as received. Applications are not limited to students in the Intelligence ++ program; however, applicants who have worked with the program can demonstrate the necessary discovery work with people in the field to validate their invention or innovation.

Applicants must submit a detailed project proposal, along with a scope and budget supported by a business commercialization plan that demonstrates a clearly identified production and sales path. Students must also demonstrate that they have a production or manufacturing partner capable of producing their innovation, and/or a technical team in place to deploy a commercial roll-out. Submissions must be beyond the concept stage and should have the potential to be deployed in the market within six months. If successfully executed, a student may apply for a second grant to introduce a new product line. A maximum of two grants may be awarded through the program.

An interdisciplinary group of faculty with expertise working in the disability field will make up the review team for proposals.

More information about Intelligence ++ is available . An Intelligence ++ application template can be requested by email or by visiting Bird Library Room 123.

Madison Manning (Cinderella), right, and Trisha Jeffrey (Fairy Godmother) in “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” (Photos by Michael Davis)

Manning plays Cinderella in the production that runs through Jan. 5 in the Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage. All evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. while all matinee performances begin at 2 p.m. Tickets may be , by phone at 315.443.3275 or in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office.

Manning shares insights into the production and her role.

What can audience members expect from this production?

They can expect a modern twist to it, especially because this is “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” It’s not something that’s very complex in language, and it’s more contemporary in its scene work, general dialogue, blocking techniques and the demeanor to which we perform the show.

Besides expecting a contemporary aspect, they can expect a lot of beauty in the staging, projections, lighting and costuming. Regardless of if they’re following the story or listening to the singing, people will come in and enjoy getting to see such beauty and attention to detail in the visual aspect of it. They can expect to see a heartwarming story that visually, emotionally and mindfully has a lot of love, care and warmth put into it.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your performance?

I’m big on finding inspiration in multiple mediums of art. Most of it comes from other theater, a lot of film and TV, and a few years ago I got into reading a lot of young adult fantasy novels. Even though those stories can be different from the ones told in theater, just tapping into different mediums of storytelling has been a big inspiration for how to tell a story to specific audiences with specific material or storylines.

If it had to be a person, I draw a lot of inspiration from Patina Miller and Cynthia Erivo—Black, female artists that are not only talented but driven and know how to collaborate with other artists. I also draw a lot of inspiration from the faculty at Syracuse and my peers. When you’re in class, watching other people perform, whether there’s solo performances, duets and trios, or scene work, you learn from your peers because you’re constantly watching them grow.

What do you want to convey in the character?

Cinderella speaks with animals.

In the original Disney movie, it literally says that Cinderella was abused, humiliated and forced to be a servant in her own home. Despite all of that, she woke up every single day with hope and optimism. She still showed the stepfamily gentleness and reverence in the face of their hatred and unjustified anger.

The biggest thing I want to convey about the character is that she’s not a damsel in distress and that her strength comes from her ability to choose kindness in the face of adversity. It’s much easier to be mean right back to somebody that’s being mean to you. It’s even harder to show them kindness, continuously show them love and make them a part of your life despite what they’ve done.

What’s the best part about becoming this classic character, Cinderella?

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” co-produced by Syracuse Stage and the Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, runs through Jan. 5.

The best part, besides wearing beautiful costumes and telling such a fun story, is getting to inspire little boys and girls throughout the Syracuse area. When I was a phantom in “A Christmas Carol” [the Syracuse Stage/Department of Drama co-production] last year, I got to crawl up and down the aisles and look into the faces of people. For children’s matinees, there were a lot of Black and brown children in the audience. The first thing I thought when I got cast was, “How great is it going to be for those boys and girls to see themselves represented on stage, not just as a side character or someone in the ensemble but someone who’s playing the main lead.”

Adeera Harris ’25, my cast member who plays Grace, also pointed out that it’s such a blessing to not see the pigeonholed stereotype of the Black girls, the sassy sidekick or the mean girls; rather, you get to see People of Color in our cast play the prince, the princess, one of the step-sisters, ensemble members and the fairy godmother. You get to see so much diversity that I think will impact a lot of children. My hope is that they take away that things are still possible, and it’s possible for them to be a source of inspiration and encouragement for others.

What’s the most challenging part of this role?

The most challenging part is definitely the singing. After doing three previews, I’m still nervous about getting through all 50-plus shows with this score. It’s a very demanding role vocally in a way that I’m not used to. I would consider myself a belter, but this role requires me to use my reinforced mix, which I’m just now developing as an artist.

I didn’t come into college with vocal training. I did choir in high school but never one-on-one training for my vocal instrument, so I always felt a little late to the game in terms of singing. I knew going into this I would need to really prepare and know these songs like the back of my hand, so that even if I was sick or lost my voice and got it back two minutes before curtain, I’d be able to do the show.

To read the full story, visit the .

“This year, we invite everyone to make Syracuse Stage a part of your holiday celebration,” says Robert Hupp, Syracuse Stage’s artistic director. “Stage’s production of ‘Cinderella’ is a magical treat for the young and the young at heart. We’re eager to share our new production with Central New York; we promise you’ll make memories that will last a lifetime.”

Originally premiering as a live television program in 1957 with Julie Andrews in the title role, “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is a magical celebration that proves dreams come true, if only we dare to wish. This “enchanted” version of the beloved musical is based on the 1997 television film, featuring Brandy as the would-be princess and Whitney Houston as her fairy godmother, and boasts a cast of 30 spectacular performers made up of Broadway veterans, professional actors from around the country and students from the Department of Drama.

“This version of ‘Cinderella’ is absolutely joyous and feels fresh and accessible for a modern audience of all ages,” says director Melissa Rain Anderson. “The heart of the story centers on the possibility of making a dream come true and the will to do something incredible with it. This classic fairytale charms with enchanted animals, soaring love songs and hilarious characters to entertain. Come see how we transform a plain pumpkin into a glimmering carriage and dancing mice into four regal horses with magical surprises along the way.”

Returning to Syracuse Stage after appearing in last season’s “A Christmas Carol,” Department of Drama junior Madison Manning plays the title role in this fantastical and dazzling storybook come-to-life. The cast also features Trisha Jeffrey as Fairy Godmother, Darell Morris Jr. as Prince Christopher, Ann Arvia as Stepmother, David Lowenstein (“A Christmas Carol,” “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”) as King Maximillian, Celia Madeoy (“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” “Elf the Musical”) as Queen Constantina, Blake Segal (“Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express,” “Our Town”) as Lionel and Department of Drama seniors Sydney Carmona, Adeera Harris and Zach Asnis as Joy, Grace and Charles the Cat, respectively.

The design team for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” features many names familiar to Syracuse Stage audiences, including sets by Kimberly Powers (“A Christmas Carol,” “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”), costumes by Ryan J. Moller (“Matilda The Musical”), wigs by Bobbie Zlotnik (“Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express,” “Tender Rain”), lighting by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz (“A Christmas Carol,” “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”), sound by Syracuse Stage resident sound designer Jacqueline R. Herter and projections by David Murakami.

Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) were amongst the most celebrated songwriters of their time, with works that helped shape not only musical theatre as an artform, but popular culture writ large. Their first show, “Oklahoma!” in 1943, changed the landscape of contemporary operetta, and ushered in a golden age of American musicals, defined in part by their landmark works including “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music.” Their adaptation of “Cinderella” premiered in 1957, and was their only musical written specifically for television audiences. The show was re-staged in 1965 for broadcast with Lesley Ann Warren in the title role, and again in 1997, notably featuring a multiracial cast. “Cinderella” premiered on Broadway in 2013, with an updated score and book. Oscar Hammerstein died in 1960 at the age of 65; Richard Rodgers survived his writing partner by nearly 20 years, passing away at the age of 77 in 1979. Today, their musicals are perennially produced in theatres large and small, seen on television screens around the world and enjoyed by audiences, young and old, who re-discover their timeless stories anew.

All evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. while all matinee performances begin at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $30 with discounts available for students and groups. Tickets may be purchased online at SyracuseStage.org, by phone at 315.443.3275 or in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office. Pay-What-You-Will performances are Nov. 22–Dec. 1 inclusive; Prologue conversations, three pre-show discussions that take place one-hour before curtain on Dec. 1, 7 and 19; the Post-show Talkback will take place on Sunday, Dec. 15 after the 7:30 p.m. performance. Syracuse Stage has its open-captioned performances scheduled for Dec. 4, 15 and Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. and Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m., as well as an audio-described performance on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. The Sensory Friendly/Relaxed performance is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 4 at 2 p.m.

Syracuse Stage is pleased to announce the addition of Trivia Night, a new event for the 2024-25 season. Free for ticket holders, Trivia Night invites audiences to go head-to-head for a chance to win exciting Syracuse Stage prizes, in a friendly competition hosted by “Jeopardy!” champion Dillon Hupp. Trivia Night will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance are required to participate. Pre-registration at Syracusestage.org is recommended.

The Executive Board for Syracuse University’s Student Veterans of America are all military veterans, and they’re all full-time students at the University. In addition to their academic responsibilities, many also hold jobs, have families and take on additional responsibilities on and off campus. It is because of their desire to be of service to something bigger than themselves that fuels the time and effort they give back to the campus community.

Get to know these impactful��student veterans.

Leonel “Leo” Aviles ’26 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
School of Information Studies

Leonel “Leo” Aviles

Leo, as he is affectionately known among friends and the military-connected community, is president of the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) at Syracuse University. Originally from Florida, Aviles found Syracuse University through the Warrior-Scholar Project and credits the University’s admissions staff, along with OVMA’s staff with why he ultimately decided to enroll at Syracuse.

“The staff at this university has open arms for veterans out there wanting to pursue higher education. The amount of people wanting to help veterans with school is incredible,” says Aviles. “I would highly encourage any military-connected student to reach out to the SVO to find out more about what opportunities are available on and off campus.”

Derick Ramos G’26 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
College of Arts and Sciences

Derick Ramos

Ramos served as a tank crewman in the Marines for four years and is currently the SVO’s vice president. A graduate student, Ramos is pursuing a Ph.D. in physics. One of the biggest reasons why Ramos chose Syracuse University was because of the competitive academic programs available, particularly for doctoral studies.

“When transitioning from the service we may believe that we are behind in some instances compared to other students attending college after high school,” says Ramos, “Keep your head down and work hard, your dreams and goals will come true. Always remember the words of Winnie the Pooh, ‘You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.’”

Jurgen Baeza ’26 – U.S. Navy Veteran
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Jurgen Baeza

Baeza discovered Syracuse University while still in high school in San Diego, California. His journey to Central New York required a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, serving as an aviation structural mechanic specializing in the F/A-18 Super Hornet’s safety equipment.

With an interest in computers starting at an early age, Baeza began teaching himself to code and is pursuing that interest as a computer science major. While trying to adapt to life as a non-traditional college student, Baeza came in contact with other student veterans on campus and quickly got involved with the SVO.

“As I started going to more events and talking to more of the student veterans, I would talk to them about our similar life experiences and I was able to relate to them a lot easier than those students who are a lot younger than me,” Baeza says.

Savion Pollard ’26 – U.S. Navy Veteran
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Savion Pollard

Pollard served in the Navy for eight years working on board nuclear submarines as a nuclear electronics technician. His time at Syracuse has been marked by significant accomplishments, including being the first local hire for Micron and being an honored guest of U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer during the 2023 State of the Union Address��from President Joseph R. Biden L’68.

“I chose to come to Syracuse University because it brought me closer to family, and because of its proclamation as the ‘Best Place for Vets,’” says Pollard, who is currently studying electrical engineering with a minor in computer science. “I’ve grown to love the campus community, the Syracuse city community and the deep connection between the two.”

Pollard has been a member of the SVO’s executive board for a few years and says his biggest advice for new military-connected students is to “buy into the campus culture and to try new things along the way. All of my greatest achievements as a student have been due to being involved and making myself uncomfortable,” Pollard says.

Tojyea “TJ” Matally ’27 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
College of Visual and Performing Arts

Tojyea “TJ” Matally

Matally is a sophomore pursuing a degree in communications design, and he served as a combat photographer in the Marine Corps until 2023, when he opted to pursue higher education and found Syracuse University because of its reputation for providing educational opportunities for veterans and military families.

“I chose to attend Syracuse University because I had heard it was an ideal place for veterans to assimilate into higher education; plus, I wanted to remain in the New York area after being stationed on Long Island for five years,” Matally says.

His advice to other student veterans is to “be honest with your limitations and strengths, and enjoy your new transition. It’s a privilege to pause and invest in yourself for four or more years. Be grateful and lean on your community to support you throughout the journey,” Matally says.

To learn more about the military-connected students at Syracuse University and the programs and services available for student veterans, please visit the .

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members are invited to “Holidays at Hendricks” on Sunday, Dec. 8 in Hendricks Chapel. New this year, tickets are required to reserve your individual seat.

Syracuse University invites students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to “” on Sunday, Dec. 8 in Hendricks Chapel, to experience one of the most popular concerts of the calendar year. New this year, due to the concert’s growing popularity and limited seating in the Chapel, to reserve your seats for the free, in-person concert, tickets are required for Holidays at Hendricks and will be made available beginning on Monday, Nov. 18 at noon EST.

The two in-person performances will take place on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel, while the recorded virtual concert will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. EST.

New and Important In-Person Concert Ticket Details

• Complimentary tickets for the in-person Holidays at Hendricks shows can be ordered from the , beginning at noon EST on Nov. 18;
• All guests will be invited to reserve specific seats in Hendricks Chapel;
• Through this new digital platform, guests will be prompted to create an account, select individual seats and then receive their digital tickets. While tickets will not be made available until Nov. 18, guests can create an account at any time through the Student Box Office online.

Virtual Concert Registration Details

• Registration for the Thursday, Dec. 19, world premiere virtual concert will also be available on Nov. 18 at noon EST;
• Registration is required to receive the link to the YouTube premiere;
• Visit the .

An ongoing tradition hosted by ��and the����in the��, “Holidays at Hendricks” celebrates the sounds of the season and is anchored by the����and its director��, professor of applied music and performance and assistant director of choral activities in the Setnor School.

The student-centered concert features performances from:

• Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra, directed by James Tapia, associate professor of applied music and performance in the Setnor School;
• The international award-winning Syracuse University Singers, under the direction of John Warren, professor of applied music and performance and director of choral activities in the Setnor School, and Concert Choir, under the direction of Wendy Moy, dual assistant professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the ;
• Student organists and University organist Anne Laver on the Hendricks Chapel organ;
• Syracuse University’s big band, the Morton Schiff Jazz Ensemble, directed by John Coggiola, associate professor and chair of music education in the Setnor School and the School of Education;
• The World Premiere of “Gloria in Excelsis” from Christmas Cantata, by Peppie Calvar.

Some musical selections for 2024 include “A Christmas Festival,” by Leroy Anderson, “Winter,” by Antonio Vivaldi, a setting of “Joy to the World,” arranged by Taylor Scott Davis and many more.

is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis in Irving Garage, Hillside Lot and the College Place lot. Those who require accessible parking or would like more information about the event may call Hendricks Chapel at 315.443.2901 or email��chapel@syr.edu.

Communication Access Realtime Translation, American Sign Language interpretation and AIRA will be provided at the in-person concerts. Captioning will be provided at the virtual concert. Doors to Hendricks Chapel will open 30 minutes prior to each concert start time.

For more information, visit��. Hendricks Chapel will also post regular updates about the event through its��,�������Ի������貹�����.

The event, “Lender Conversation in Los Angeles: Seeking Racial Equity in the Entertainment Industry,” was hosted by the and was held at the NeueHouse Hollywood. It was attended by about 100 Southern California-area alumni, entertainment industry leaders and other invited guests.

Moderating the panel was journalist and TV host ’99, an alumna of the (VPA) and its Communication and Rhetorical Studies program. Nottingham has worked as a reporter covering national and international breaking news, entertainment and politics. She was joined by four alumni panelists:

• ’88, president of domestic marketing at Universal Pictures and previous president of domestic theatrical marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Caines is an alumnus of the Newhouse School of Public Communications and an instructor in the school’s Newhouse LA program
• ’85, an Emmy-nominated writer for film and television and a VPA alumnus
• ’07, an actress, writer and producer who graduated from VPA. She is known for her recent comedic role on the hit NBC sitcom “A.P. Bio”
• ’20, an associate attorney in the entertainment transactions group at Mitchell Silberberg & Krupp, LLP. She earned her undergraduate degree from VPA’s Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries.

, Lender Center director, says the conversation “provided valuable insights into how racial inequity continues to exist within the entertainment industry, as well as offering promising paths towards reducing these barriers. We hope to use what we’ve learned here to help craft new paths towards closing the racial wealth gap in other industries.”

The Los Angeles event was the fourth in a series of conversations hosted by the Lender Center to bring experts and thought leaders together to improve understanding of and present ideas to help mitigate the racial wealth gap’s community impacts. Those events and other research initiatives are made possible by a $2.7 million grant from MetLife Foundation. The funding has also supported three research symposia, three postdoctoral scholars and 15 faculty grants for research on the topic.

“Lender Center’s work with support from MetLife Foundation generated important new thought leadership, boosted awareness of racial wealth equity issues and created valuable new partnerships with key institutions and organizations,” says Phillips. “We have discovered many new possibilities for addressing how the wealth gap affects communities, and those ideas have provided worthwhile new understandings.”

These photos show highlights of the event.

Lender Center for Social Justice Director Kendall Phillips, far left, who is also a professor in the Communication and Rhetorical Studies program at VPA, introduces the conversation panelists, all entertainment industry executives and alumni of the University. From left are Danielle Nottingham ’99, Lyric Lewis ’97, Rob Edwards ’85, Bryse Thornwell ’20 and Dwight Caines ’88.

The event drew 100 guests, including numerous alumni and entertainment-�� industry guests. Panelist Dwight Caines ’88, at left, speaks with David Oh G ’00, ’07, now an associate professor of communications at the Newhouse School of Public Communications; and Joan Adler, G’76, assistant vice president of regional programs at the University’s Los Angeles center.

Jason Poles ’99, the University’s director of advancement for the Southwest region, speaks with fellow alumnus and basketball team player Antonio “Scoop” Jardine G’12.

Tari Wariebi ’10, enjoys a reception conversation. The alumnus graduated with dual majors in communication and rhetorical studies from the College of Visual and Performing Arts and writing and rhetoric in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The panel provided opportunities for attendees to hear directly from entertainment leaders about their experiences with the racial wealth gap in that industry. Rob Edwards ’85, left, an Emmy-nominated writer and an adjunct instructor for the Newhouse School of Public Communications, spoke with this guest.

Jason Poles, ’99, left, the University’s advancement director for the Southwest region, chats with alumni attendees Christina Ledo ’11, center, an international relations major at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; and Tiffany Bender-Abdallah ’11, a communication and rhetorical studies major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The Los Angeles event brought together faculty, staff, entertainment industry panelists and alumni. Kendall Phillips, Lender Center director, at left, and David Oh G’00, ’07, second from left, an associate professor for the Newhouse School of Public Communications, met with Anna Proulx, Visual and Performing Arts program director for the Syracuse University Los Angeles semester program, and right, Allison Gold ’15, a College of Visual and Performing Arts graduate.

Tyler Gentry ’25, a Syracuse University student in the ��Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries, spoke during the question segment of the evening’s event. Seated behind him is Tiffany Bender-Abdallah ’11.

Posing for a finale photo on the stage as the event concluded are, from left, Leonard Garner Jr., Kendall Phillips, panel moderator Danielle Nottingham and panel members Lyric Lewis, Rob Edwards, Bryse Thornwell and Dwight Caines.

Five students will soon begin a two-year research project examining the potential social justice and public health impacts of living in neighborhoods that have experienced the historical discriminatory practice of redlining. That is a practice where, for decades, financial institutions designated certain neighborhoods—primarily Black ones—as poor credit risks, making it difficult for residents there to own homes or improve their properties.

The students, recently named 2024-26 Lender Center for Social Justice student fellows, will work with Miriam Mutambudzi, assistant professor of public health in the , who is .

They are:

• Tomiwa (“Tommy”) DaSilva ’26, dual major in public health in the Falk College��and policy studies and citizenship and civic engagement in the
• Adara (“Darla”) Hobbs ’22 G ‘26, a graduate student in Pan African studies in the (A&S)
• Jamea Johnson ’25, a psychology major in A&S
• Sabrina Lussier ’26, a triple major in geography, citizenship and civic engagement, and environmental sustainability and policy in the Maxwell School
• Shreya Potluri ’27, an architecture major in the

DaSilva, from Newark, Delaware, is interested in promoting health equity through health promotion policies and community-based practices. On campus, he has been involved in the Student Association of Public Health Education and Connect 315. In the community, DaSilva has interned with the YWCA of Syracuse and Onondaga County, ACR Health and the City of Syracuse Department of Neighborhood and Business Development.

Hobbs, of Syracuse, earned a bachelor’s degree in��communication and rhetorical studies from the . She has worked for more than a decade with the Syracuse City School District as a teaching assistant, art teacher and as a diversity, equity and belonging building lead.��Hobbs is currently researching the historical and contemporary impacts of redlining on Syracuse’s Black and Latino communities.

Her project, “The Past, Present and Future: An Overview of Redlining in the City of Syracuse,” examines the legacy of residential redlining and resident displacement from the 15th Ward and the ongoing I-81 viaduct project. She also contributed to the development of themes and aesthetic elements for the Barner-McDuffie house, the University’s first Black student center.

Johnson, from Grand Prairie, Texas, has extensive experience in public service, entrepreneurship and community engagement. She is a Congressional intern for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, working on legislative research, policy development and constituent service. She’s also founder and chief executive officer of Black Girls Garden, an organization that teaches young Black girls and women in low-income living situations to grow their own food to combat food insecurity and poor nutrition.

She took first place in the 2023 Blackstone LaunchPad Small Business Pitch Contest for that startup and also received the 2023 Black Honor Society’s Community Service Leadership Award. On campus, she is Residence Hall Association president and a member of the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble.

Lussier, from the Washington, D.C., area, is an honors student and Maxwell Leadership Scholar. She is a STOP Bias peer educator, a resident advisor for the MORE in Leadership Living Learning Community and has spent the past year working for the Syracuse Neighborhood and Business Development Office.

Her research and academic interests focus on how urban planning intersects with community engagement, social justice and sustainability. Her citizenship capstone and honors thesis looks at the effect of freeway demolition on marginalized communities, focusing on Syracuse’s East Adams neighborhood near I-81 in the historic 15th ward.

Potluri, of Frisco, Texas, is interested in research pertaining to social justice, urban planning and housing. She has researched student learning environments, minority students’ experiences and accessibility to community spaces and facilities in the Syracuse community, along with how architecture is connected to social justice.

Potluri says she wants to determine how architecture can be used to provide people with opportunities and the agency to combat the consequences of redlining.

Miriam Mutambudzi

Mutambudzi’s project examines how Black adults who reside in what have been historically redlined neighborhoods can experience a disadvantaged occupational life course and subsequent health consequences. She says that while redlining began in the 1930s, it has resulted in decades of urban decay and poverty for those neighborhoods that has left a legacy of social and economic disadvantage that continues today.

In addition to Mutambudzi’s role as an assistant professor of public health, she is also a faculty affiliate of the , and at the Maxwell School.

All week:

• Sign your graduating class’s first-generation banner at the Intercultural Collective in the Schine Student Center. The banner will be displayed during graduation season. Participants can also get free first-generation stickers.
• A poster display, “Exploring the First-Generation Syracuse University Experience,” featuring campus community members, will be on exhibit on the first floor of Bird Library. Learn about the history of the first-generation identity in higher education, the diverse definitions of “first-generation” and inspiring profiles of current first-generation campus members. A library research guide will offer a wide array of books and resources by and for first-generation individuals, covering themes such as cultural education, memoirs, celebrations and wellness.

Monday, Nov. 4

• • A workshop on “Crafting Your Pitch” will be offered by Career Services and the Kessler Scholars Program from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in Room 104 of the Tolley Humanities Building. The workshop is tailored to the needs of first-generation students, with a special emphasis on undergraduate students. Participants will discover, practice and leave with branding and elevator pitch techniques to support their career journeys.
  • “,” will be held from 4-6 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, 114 Bird Library. A diverse panel of faculty, staff, students and alumni will share their unique experiences, challenges and advice in navigating college and the professional environments. The discussion and Q&A session will include how to gather support and resources,

Tuesday, Nov. 5

• The Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS), located on the lower level of Bird Library, will hold an open house from 3:30-5:30 p.m. for first-generation students to explore the variety of individual and group academic support services available.

Wednesday, Nov. 6

• Affinity and networking pop-up space for first-generation students, faculty and staff will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Intercultural Collective office in the Schine Student Center. Meet fellow first-generation peers, share your experiences, sign your class banner and enjoy some light refreshments while building a supportive community.
• “Thriving as a First-Generation Professional: Navigating the Workforce with Confidence,” a trauma-informed workshop designed to empower first-generation college students as they prepare to enter the professional workforce, will be held from 1:30-3 p.m. in 103 Huntington Hall. Participants will explore practical strategies for overcoming challenges unique to first-generation professionals, such as navigating workplace dynamics, developing self-advocacy and managing financial independence.

• A on “Building Your Professional Network” will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Learn how to unlock life-changing conversations, mentorships, internships and jobs. Connect with members of the vast Orange community. Open to all undergraduate students, regardless of school/college affiliation.

Thursday, Nov. 7

• An open house will be held in 208 Bowne Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for participants to learn about research, fellowship and other resources and opportunities available for first-generation students with the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA), Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE), Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) and the Lender Center for Social Justice.

Friday, Nov. 8

• A First-Generation Resource Fair will be held from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Jacquet Commons in Huntington Hall. The fair will feature information from�� SOURCE, Syracuse Abroad, Blackstone Launchpad, the McNair Scholars Program, the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and more.
• A First-Generation Celebration featuring “Living Between Two Worlds” with Tianna Faye Soto will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the��Jacquet Commons in Huntington Hall. Soto will focus on empowering first-generation students to explore their identities, celebrate intersectionality and highlight the unique strength each person holds.

The National First-Generation College Celebration is celebrated annually on Nov. 8 to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The act provides equal opportunity for those from low-income and minority backgrounds. The legislation created grants and loan programs, invested in higher education institutions and started the Federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) to facilitate the academic success of first-generation college students.

First-Generation College Celebration Week events are made possible by the collaboration and generous contributions of multiple individuals, offices and units on campus that believe in elevating and celebrating our first-generation community of students, faculty and staff.

New Student Programs maintains the for those who self-identify as first-generation college students. The list serves a visual representation of faculty and staff dedication to helping current first-generation college students build their personal success networks and their eagerness to help grow a campus of support. Students are encouraged to connect with faculty and staff members who can share their personal journeys, insight and support throughout this unique student experience.

The six recipients are the following:

• Dominique Camp ’24 (David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics), founder of clothing brand Camp Collective, will use the funds for the organization’s first collection inventory, photo shoot and mockup designs.
  

  Dominique Camp

• Olutosin (Tosin) Alabi ��’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Diabetech, will use the grant to develop a proof-of-concept prototype for the smart sensor/bandage for diabetic foot ulcer monitoring.
• Aidan Turner ’25 (School of Architecture), founder of clothing brand Grater Things, will use the grant for legal services, including project and membership agreements and privacy policy, as well as website development and product research expenses.
• Antonio (Tony) Goncalves ’27 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), founder of fitness app GymIn, will be using the grant to incorporate and other legal business processes.
• Lars Jendruschewitz ’27 (Whitman School and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), founder of Photos by Lars, will use the funds for equipment.
• Ania Kapllani ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), founder of Sunset Music, will use the grant to register as an LLC and to create a logo and website.

Applications must specifically define the need with identified outcomes to be achieved within a set time. Initial money in the fund was provided by Jeffrey Rich L’67, partner at Rich Michaelson Magaliff LLP, and a member of the Syracuse University Libraries Advisory Board. Rich provided a multi-year pledge of $25,000 per year for five years from 2020 to 2025. “I wanted to contribute in a way that directly supports student new ventures and removes any obstacles to startup development,” Rich says.

The New Horizons Award honors a clear and impressive record of scholarly research; the potential to contribute significantly to future directions of public address through scholarship, teaching and/or community-engaged work; and a record of challenging of disciplinary hegemonies and/or expansion of the domain of public address to include diverse, historically marginalized scholars and areas of scholarship that have historically fallen outside of rhetoric’s traditional scope.

Chuck Morris

In 2022, Morris was inducted as a Distinguished Scholar by the NCA. He has also been the recipient of NCA’s Douglas Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award (2021), three-time recipient of NCA’s Golden Monograph Award (2003, 2010, and 2022), as well as NCA’s CCS and RCT divisions’ distinguished scholar awards (2020, 2016), the Randy Majors Award for Distinguished LGBTQ Scholarship (2008) and the Karl Wallace Memorial Award (2001) for early career achievement.

Morris is co-founding editor of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. His books include “Queering Public Address,” “An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk’s Speeches and Writings,” “Remembering the AIDS Quilt,” and “The Conceit of Context.” His essays and guest edited special issues and forums have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Text and Performance Quarterly, Women’s Studies in Communication and elsewhere.

The NCA advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin, a graduate of the Department of Drama, was among 19 recipients that comprised the 2022 and 2023 cohorts of the National Humanities Medal, which honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources. The manages the nominations process for the medal on behalf of the White House.

“The National Humanities Medal recipients have enriched our world through writing that moves and inspires us; scholarship that enlarges our understanding of the past; and through their dedication to educating, informing and giving voice to communities and histories often overlooked,” says NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo).

Sorkin’s early career began as a playwright. His stage play, “A Few Good Men,” caught the attention of a Hollywood producer, who bought the film rights before the play even premiered. Castle Rock Entertainment then hired Sorkin to adapt to film “A Few Good Men,” which went on to become a box office and critical success in 1992.

Sorkin’s 2010 feature film screenplay, “The Social Network,” earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the film also garnered two additional Oscars and four Golden Globe Awards, including best picture and best screenplay. His other films include “Molly’s Game” (directorial debut), “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Golden Globe Award), “Moneyball,” “Steve Jobs” (Golden Globe Award), “The American President” and “Malice.”

In 1998, Sorkin’s television career began when he created the comedy series “Sports Night” for the ABC network. His next TV series, the political drama “The West Wing,” debuted on the NBC network and would go on to win more than 20 Emmys, a Golden Globe for Best Television Drama Series, two consecutive Peabody Awards for Broadcast and Cable Excellence, and two Humanitas Prizes and Television Critics Awards. His other television series include “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (NBC) and “The Newsroom” (HBO).

Aaron Sorkin (back row, third from left), Drama Department Chair Ralph Zito (back row, fourth from left) and 2024 Sorkin Week students

After more than a decade away from the theater, Sorkin returned to adapt for the stage his screenplay “The Farnsworth Invention” (2007). His stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” debuted on Broadway in 2018 and received nine Tony Award nominations, winning one. He adapted the classic musical “Camelot” in 2023; the Broadway production received five Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.

In March 2006 Sorkin funded and launched the Sorkin in LA Learning Practicum—also known as “Sorkin Week”—which is a weeklong immersion experience for VPA drama students to meet with professionals working in all facets of the entertainment industry, including actors, writers, talent agents, directors and producers.

Sorkin is a member of the VPA Council and has received the University’s George Arents Pioneer Medal, the highest alumni honor awarded by the University. He delivered the University’s Commencement address in 2012 and received an honorary degree.

More than 60 pieces from the institutional collection are featured in the show, housed at the of the University’s Nancy Cantor Warehouse Building at 350 W. Fayette St. The show runs through Friday, Nov. 22. Admission is free and open to the public.

The exhibition, “Libro de Artista,” features more than 60 artists books from the collection at the Argentine National Museum. (Photo by Matias Roth)

The exhibition is a production of the University’s POC) gallery in partnership with the (MNBA) and the University’s in the .

Sergio Moscona’s “Personajes Diarios,” in ink, acrylic and collage, depicting the intervention of facsimile 1956 edition of “La Prensa,” a daily newspaper that was censored in 1951. (Photo by Matias Roth)

Latin American creators represented in the exhibition include artist books by Diana Dowek, Luis Felipe Noé, Lucrecia Orloff, Jacques Bedel, Daniel García, Miguel Harte, Carolina Antoniadis, Marcos López and Marcia Schvartz. The exhibition also includes the Agentinian ���ܲ���ܳ�’s latest accession to the collection, a piece co-authored by Argentine artists Pedro Roth and the late Syracuse University professor and POC founder Pedro Cuperman.

Juan Astica’s acrylic-on-paper piece, “Diversos Conjuros,” consists of 64 paintings. (Photo by Matias Roth)

“It is an honor to partner with MNBA in its first showing of the ‘Libro de Artista’ collection in the United States,” said , executive director of the Office of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community at Syracuse University.

“Point of Contact worked in close collaboration with the Roth family of creators and with the National Ministry of Culture of Argentina in exhibitions at the New York Art Book Fair held at MoMA PS1 from 2012 to 2018. ‘Libro de Artista’ culminates such a project with this timely exhibit as we commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month 2024,”she says.

Andrés Duprat, MNBA director, explains the art form. He says, “The artist book or Libro de Artista is generally not considered a work of art in itself, but for us, it holds great interest because it is in artist books where explorations, intentions, sketches, and even doubts and regrets or new searches are revealed.”

This foldable book in ink on paper, and bound in leather, is by artist Leonel Luna. It’s called “Genealogías del Arte Argentino.” (Photo by Matias Roth)

In terms of artist techniques, formats and materials, artist books take many forms on paper, cardboard, celluloid, acrylic, metal and other materials, transforming into boxes, intervened prints, collages and pop-up books.

One of the pieces in the show, “La Dama del Río,” is a collaborative work with original texts by Pedro Cuperman and illustrations by Pedro Roth. Pedro Roth is a recipient of the 2023 National Award for Artistic Trajectory, an honor bestowed by the National Ministry of Culture recognizing the exceptional path and contributions of living Argentine creators inducted to the National Gallery of Visual Arts.

Juan Pablo Ferlat’s digital print is titled “Golem.” (Photo by Matias Roth)

“Point of Contact, soon to commemorate its 50th anniversary, has much to celebrate with the accession of this piece to the MNBA’s permanent collection,” says Matias Roth, curator of the “Libro de Artista” Buenos Aires exhibition and an exhibiting artist in the show. “As a member of the Point of Contact board of directors and longtime collaborator of both POC and the National Museum, I greatly appreciate that this work will be preserved in Argentina’s National Art Collection.”

At Point of Contact’s exhibition opening are, from left, Tere Paniagua, gallery director; Matias Roth, Point of Contact board member and show curator; Museum Studies Professor Andrew Saluti and museum studies graduate students Paola Manzano and Molly Dano.

Emily Dittman

Following 17 years of service to the , Emily Dittman has been named director, effective Oct. 16. The announcement was made today by Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives Elisa Dekaney.

“Emily’s steady, visionary leadership has already guided the Syracuse University Art Museum along a successful path and secured its place at the center of campus life,” Dekaney says. “I am excited to continue working with her to further expand and strengthen the museum as a resource for students, faculty, staff and the local community.”

Dittman has served as the ���ܲ���ܳ�’s interim director for two years, leading operations, financial and strategic planning, alumni relations, fundraising and communications and marketing, and managing a staff of six full-time and 14 part-time employees. Additionally, she directs the collections care team, overseeing cataloguing, storage, environmentals and the design and function of the collection database.

“I am thrilled to embark on the next chapter of my leadership journey with the arts at Syracuse University,” Dittman says. “The museum’s prestigious permanent collection, engaging exhibitions and dynamic programs inspire me daily with their potential to serve as transformative experiences for our community. I am excited for the opportunity to collaborate more closely with our students, faculty, artists and community members during this exciting period of growth for the museum as an arts destination that is welcoming and open to all.”

Dittman joined the Art Museum in 2007 as a collection and exhibition manager, a role she held for 11 years. In that capacity, she had oversight of the SUArt Traveling Exhibition program, the Campus Loan program, special exhibitions and photography exhibitions at Syracuse University Art Galleries. She also handled communications tasks, including gallery publications and media relations. She later served as associate director for four years.

Dittman has curated a number of exhibitions, including “Impact!: The Photo League and its Legacy,” “Wanderlust: Travel Photography,” “Everyday Art: Street Photography in the Syracuse University Art Collection” and “Pure Photography: Pictorial and Modern Photographs.” She serves on the board of and teaches museum studies courses in the .

Dittman earned an M.A. in museum studies and an M.S. in library and information science from Syracuse University and a B.A. in history from Allegheny College.

Susannah Sayler

The $8,000 unrestricted cash grant, administered by the , is open to New York State photography artists living and working anywhere in the following regions of New York State: Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Capital District, Hudson Valley and Long Island. The support for this funding is provided by����(JGS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the photographic arts.

“Edifice II” by Susannah Sayler, 2023. This work is drawn from a series of photographic collages that consider how to represent the Amazonian rainforest. It is part of a larger body of work titled “The Crystal Forest” (2019-2024), that also includes a video essay.

Sayler works with a variety of media including photography, video, writing and installation—often in collaboration with others, to deepen our understanding of ecology and the poetics of relation. Her work has been exhibited in diverse venues from art museums to public spaces and interdisciplinary institutions such as science museums, history museums and anthropology museums, including MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts; The Momentary @ Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas; Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina; and The American Writers Museum and Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (2023), New York Artist Fellowship (2016), the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2014), the Center for Art and Environment Research Fellowship (2013) and the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design (2008).

In 2006, with her longtime collaborator, Edward Morris, Sayler co-founded The Canary Project, a collective project to produce art and media that cultivate emotional understanding of the climate crisis. In 2020, she co-founded a new long-term project in Hudson, New York, called Toolshed, which gathers and shares tools that empower individuals and communities to live ecologically. ’ archives are collected by The Center for Art and Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada.

The new station, “,” is “a thrilling and significant breakthrough” for the growing Spanish-speaking community in the area, says , executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic community and director of the University’s . “The station is poised to become a vital resource, reflecting the vibrant mix of Hispanic and Latino cultures and effectively engaging these populations like no other local or regional medium does.”

Paniagua and many others at the University were integral to the development of the station. She first got involved in the summer of 2023 when WCNY CEO and President approached her wondering if a Spanish-language radio station was available in the area. When he discovered there wasn’t one, Gelman asked Paniagua to help him assess the community’s interest in filling that void.

Gelman formed a community task force, which he co-chaired with Paniagua and WCNY-FM Station Manager . Over many months, more than two dozen task force members planned the station’s structure, helped developed funding, sought collaborators and generated programming ideas.

Teresita Paniagua, left, the University’s executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic community, speaks to students at an event celebrating Hispanic culture. Paniagua was instrumental in spurring community interest in and involvement to help bring about WCNY’s Spanish-language radio station.

Several University faculty members and instructors from the College of Arts and Sciences, including , associate teaching professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Spanish language coordinator, and , Spanish instructor, participated in the task force efforts.

Also involved in other ways were , Spanish department professor and chair; , Spanish professor; , assistant teaching professor of film in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; , development director for Syracuse Stage; , professor of Spanish at Onondaga Community College; Josefa Álvarez Valadés, ��Spanish professor at LeMoyne College; and , a Newhouse School of Public Communications alumnus and former radio/TV producer who is an associate professor of communications at SUNY Oswego.

As part of the task force’s fact-finding, Paniagua enlisted Whitman School of Management students Nicolas Cela Marxuach ’25, Zachary Levine ’25 and Jonah Griffin ’24 to develop and distribute a community interest survey, which the students circulated to several hundred local residents at community events. She says 98% of respondents supported the idea. The survey also provided insights into audience demographics and programming ideas—including sports, community news, talk shows, music and faith-based content.

There are upwards of 1,000 Spanish-speaking radio stations in the U.S. but Pulso Central is the first of its kind in Central New York. The region is home to some 18,000 Spanish-speaking households, with Spanish-speaking people making up about 10.5% of the area’s population and comprising a segment of the community that has grown 30% over the past decade, according to research done by WCNY.

A Learning Resource

Pulso Central also provides a unique learning opportunity and “an extraordinary new pedagogical tool for experiential education” for the University’s students, says Ticio Quesada.

M. Emma Ticio Quesada, center, a professor in Syracuse University’s Spanish department, uses WCNY’s radio station studio as an experiential learning space and resource for her courses.

Five students from her immersive course, Community Outreach: Language in Action, are interning at the station. The students, Lailah Ali-Valentine, Adam Baltaxe, Kimberlyn Lopez Herrera, Nicolas Bernardino Greiner-Guzman and Jade Aulestia recently created their first podcast.

Ticio Quesada says she also expects students in SPA 300: Our Community Voices, an course, to benefit from the same kind of internship opportunity. The course connects native and non-native Spanish speakers, inspires them to contribute to the local community, and promotes inclusion and social justice.

Partnering Results

Miranda Traudt, the University’s assistant provost for arts and community programming, says the task force is a good example of the positive outcomes that can result when members of the University and local communities work together to achieve specific goals. “This project continues La Casita’s meaningful engagement with Hispanic communities in Central New York and helps fulfill its mission through work in the arts, media, cultural heritage preservation and research adding to the high quality of life,” she says.

Several dozen community members helped WCNY form and air the area’s first Spanish-language radio station. They included, from left, Mitch Gelman, WCNY president and CEO; M. Emma Ticio Quesada, Syracuse University professor of Spanish; Stephanie Gonzalez Rawlings, content producer; and DJ Lorenz (Renzo Quesada), music host. (Photo by Eric Hayden, WCNY)

Game Changer

Paniagua believes the station “can be a game changer,” not only in providing news and information about and for the Latina/Hispanic community but also by “helping to change long-established stereotypes and present a whole new world of possibilities for the people of this community,” she says. “There are many wonderful stories about people who have established their lives in this community and I hope Pulso Central can be a showcase for those stories.”

Launch Event Oct. 24

An official launch event, “,” will be held Thursday, Oct. 24, at WCNY studios and La Casita.

“WCNY is thrilled to help launch Pulso Central,” Gelman says. “Our goal is to provide a platform that will come alive with music and talk that engages listeners and fosters community connection.”

The station reaches listeners in 19 counties. Pulso Central airs on WCNY 91.3 HD-2 in Syracuse, WUNY 89.5 HD-2 in Utica and WJNY 90.9 HD-2 in Watertown. It is accessible online at and streaming on the Pulso Central app.

The students, led by School of Design Associate Professor��, participated in two teams.��They completed the design proposals as part of their coursework in Spring 2024. The awards were announced in late September.

Surina Archey ’27, Milena Andrade ’26 and Haley Meyer ’26 took the silver award in product and structural design for ��a prescription for eco-anxiety. Arriving in eco-friendly packaging, the prescription provides resources for climate action and education in four capsules.

Offering a calendar of local, environmentally focused events, the action pill encourages community involvement. The giving pill spotlights an eco-organization and contribution opportunities.

The prescription also introduces users to sustainable companies through product discounts and samples in the sustainability pill. It provides a booklet with anti-anxiety practices and a newsletter containing positive climate news through its wellness pill.

Receiving highly commended recognition in , Qizhi Fang ’26, Valeria Chavez ’27, Peter Zejmis ’26 and Jiamin Chen ’26 confronted water accessibility issues. The students designed a water bottle that alerts people experiencing homelessness to the proximity of drinkable water. In partnership with Hydro Flask, the water bottle measures the distance to accessible, clean water sources by color change. The farther from a water source, the redder the bottle turns.

Award winners have their work displayed online and are invited to be a part of the Creative Conscience Community.

“Pippin,” the Tony Award-winning musical, runs Oct. 11-20 in the Storch Theatre at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex.��

Heir to the Frankish throne, the young prince Pippin is in search of the secret to true happiness and fulfillment. He seeks it in the glories of the battlefield, the temptations of the flesh and the intrigues of political power (after disposing of his father, King Charlemagne the Great). In the end, though, Pippin finds that happiness lies not in extraordinary endeavors, but rather in the unextraordinary moments that happen every day.

“We have assembled an extraordinary artistic team–composed of award-winning creators, distinguished faculty, and accomplished alumni–to help us re-imagine and re-invigorate this timeless story of the search for purpose,” says Ralph Zito, professor and chair of the department of drama. “As always, our students have embraced the task with distinction, and we look forward to sharing the results of their creative work.”

Originally premiering on Broadway in 1972, “P����辱��” takes audiences on a magical and miraculous journey, while encouraging us all to find our own “Corner of the Sky.”

DETAILS

‘P����辱��’

• Book by Roger O. Hirson
• Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
• Directed by Torya Beard
• Choreography and associate direction by Kevin Boseman
• Music direction by Brian Cimmet
• Additional choreography by Adesola Osakalumi
• Scenic design by Ningning Yang
• Costume design by Jessica Crawford
• Lighting design by Andy LiDestri
• Sound design by Kevin O’Connor
• Wig design by Dylinn Andrew
• Dramaturgy by Molly Evert
• Stage managed by Maya Rose Zepeda

Cast

• Pippin: Connor English
• Leading Player: Kendall Stewart and Gwendalyn Rose Díaz
• Fastrada: Lili Williams
• Catherine: Emily Pellecchia
• Charles: Nyobi Boddie
• Bertha: Izzy Scampoli

Ensemble

• Samantha Jade Berman
• Emily Castillo-Langley
• Michael DiLeo
• Malvina Lucchini
• Caroline Marchetti
• Justin Roach
• Tobias Rytting
• Bridgette Sanders (Theo)
• Nicolette Smith
• Gillian Stoltz
• Truman Tinius (Lewis)

Swings

• Mallika Jain Cadin
• Cate Gould
• Evan Leone
• Declan Paul McMahon
• Katie Wood

Additional Credits

• Co-Dance Captains: Mallika Jain Cadin, Nicolette Smith
• Assistant Director: Ella Claudine Femino
• Associate Choreographer: Nicolette Smith
• Assistant Scenic Designer: Luke Daniel Blumencranz
• Assistant Lighting Designer: Harry Mullin, Reyna Sanchez
• Assistant Stage Managers: Katrina Barrett, Fotini Lambridis
• Rehearsal Pianist: Dan Williams

The MOST’s giant ear exhibition is visited by the author’s daughter, DuRi Kang, in August 2024.

But its depiction of one organ—the skin—was not as encompassing as it could be.

Now, the has received a much-needed inclusive makeover, thanks to a professor, ., who also is a dual professor in the and an associated professor in the , and his former student, Karyn Meyer-Berthel G’21.

Preserving art

For close to 30 years, Meyer-Berthel has worked as a professional artist, becoming known for her ability to combine paint colors into perfect matches to any skin tone.

This skill came over time, she says. Her start was painting theater sets.

For theater, she painted backdrops and scenery, primarily for opera and musicals. “Musical theater was my favorite to paint because it was usually really dramatic and full of character,” Meyer-Berthel says, who had to stop after an injury. “That kind of work is heavy labor—you’re carrying five-gallon buckets of paint; you’re standing on your feet all day. I loved it, but having that injury, I had to give it up. So that led to a world of figuring out all these different jobs in the arts.”

A slew of roles followed, including working for three different art material manufacturers, as well as a year as a Mellon intern, where she assisted in the conservation department at the National Gallery of Art.

“The work I did there was on painting conservation and understanding what materials last a really long time,” Meyer-Berthel explains. She learned not only how to preserve art for future generations but also how museums can protect pieces from the public, learning which materials work best to seal historic treasures, especially from the oils on little fingers that crave to touch them.

According to her former arts education teacher, this notable professional background combined with her art materials expertise made her a perfect fit to help complete a needed update to the MOST’s human body exhibition.

Rolling—who has taught arts education at Syracuse since 2007 and serves as interim chair of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences—also runs JHRolling Arts, Education, Leadership Strategies, a DEI consultant entity. In his role as consultant, he was tapped to help the MOST make improvements to its exhibitions, with an eye toward equity and inclusion.

Creative placemaking

MOST staff identified models in the Upstate Medical University Life Sciences exhibition as a key area where improvements in representation could be made.

“Our main objective with this project was to better fulfill our core values by making sure that the models and images in our exhibitions reflect the people who visit them,” says Emily Stewart, Ph.D., senior director of education and curation. “Our community is dynamic and diverse, and our exhibitions should be too.”

This led the MOST to Rolling because his consultancy utilizes the concept of “,” a way of transforming a lived environment so it is accessible, inviting, and representative of the community. “That life sciences exhibition was over 10 years old, and it’s striking that there were no persons of color represented,” Rolling says. “Out of all those body parts—none.”

Karyn Meyer-Berthel G’21 helped transform the MOST body exhibition to make it more inclusive.

The Upstate exhibition explores the science of human anatomy with larger-than-life body parts, including a heart visitors can walk through, a brain that lights up and a giant ear, nose, lips and more.

Rolling immediately thought of his former student, connecting the MOST to Meyer-Berthel, due to her materials and preservation skill, unique background and understanding of inclusivity, .

Perfect balance

Meyer-Berthel and staff settled on the MOST’s giant ear display to receive the upgrade. “Different ethnicities have different shape ears, certainly, but this anatomy is a little more streamlined across the globe, so an adjustment with paint can change the representation,” she says. “The ear was the clearest choice, because changing the shape of something might actually mean completely rebuilding the object, and that part wasn’t quite in my wheelhouse.”

But the skill Meyer-Berthel does excel at is combining colors to match skin tone. “No matter the ethnicity, every skin tone includes blue, red and yellow,” she explains. “You can often tell by looking at a person’s wrist what their undertones are … Finding the perfect blend and balance is the joy.”

Because 28% of Syracuse’s population is African American, the MOST wanted to change the ear to a brown skin tone, but the answer wasn’t as simple as mixing up a batch of paint and applying it.

Other factors Meyer-Berthel had to consider were the ���ܲ���ܳ�’s lighting and how this would impact the hue, and how well the paint would hold up to being touched. “The beauty of this exhibition is being able to touch it,” she says, noting that the paint needed to adhere to the material already coating the ear, the composition of which she and the MOST did not know.

After testing samples under the ���ܲ���ܳ�’s warm lighting, Meyer-Berthel first cleaned the existing model, using a micro sanding product to help her paint layer adhere. She chose acrylic paints, because she finds these to be the most versatile, and utilized Golden Artist Colors, a New Berlin, New York-based manufacturer of professional artist paints best known for its acrylics, where she also worked as a commercial applications specialist for three years.

“While house paint is wonderful for painting a house, it’s not going to be good for a museum because it has too many fillers in it, like chalk,” Meyer-Berthel explains. “For a museum model, a piece that needs to be so brilliantly colored, you don’t want much in it besides pigment and resin.”

Lastly, Meyer-Berthel coated the paint with a sealant because of how much the ear is touched, protecting it from absorbing oils and dirt from hands.

“We are so thrilled with the work she has done,” says Stewart. “Her thoughtful consideration and expertise helped us to identify the right paint colors, finishes and techniques to give our older anatomical model a new life.”

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11

London Ladd

An illustrator of nearly 20 books, School of Art Assistant Teaching Professor����recently celebrated the release of two picture books, “” (Harper Collins) and “” (Philomel Books).

Using acrylic paint, cut paper and tissue paper, Ladd employs a ��for his work. Nurturing the talents of rising illustrators, he became a full-time faculty member this year at the , where he earned a B.F.A. and M.F.A.in illustration and previously taught part time.

Motivated by the “beauty of Black life,” he draws a spotlight on relatable subjects. His picture book “” (Harper Collins), a celebration of Black children, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2023.

Exploring the beauty of Black hair, Ladd presents people viewers can identify with in “My Hair is a Book.”

“My greatest joy is when somebody says, ‘That looks like my niece’ or ‘That looks like me as a child,’” says Ladd. “I want people to see themselves, or somebody they know, and connect with it.”

Early in his career, Ladd focused heavily on historical subjects, particularly those from the American Civil War and Civil Rights eras. He has since shifted away from these subjects but made an exception for Myrlie Evers-Williams, a civil rights activist.

“I have tremendous respect for her,” Ladd says. After her husband was shot and killed, “instead of regressing back into anonymity, she made her own name. She’s carried on the legacy that started when her and her husband began.”

Ladd has another book release, “”��(Holiday House), on the horizon. He is also working on illustrations for three other books.

With his sights on the future, Ladd has plans to write his own picture book, branching out into a different art form.

“I’m excited about the writing element,” he says. “That’s the last frontier for me in picture books.”

Story by Mikayla Heiss

Margot Wendice is happily married to Tony, and the couple share a charming life and a modest flat in 1950s London. But not all is as it seems—Margot has been involved with the famous American crime writer Maxine Hadley and is being blackmailed by a mysterious stranger who threatens to expose the affair to her husband. But Tony already knows, and he has just hatched a plot of deadly revenge.

“I’m thrilled to direct our season opening production of ‘Dial M for Murder,’” says Robert Hupp, artistic director. “I am a huge fan of this genre, and we had so much fun creating last season’s ‘Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express’ that I couldn’t wait to kill off more characters on our stage.”

Written by Frederick Knott in 1952, “Dial M for Murder” was adapted into a 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film starring Grace Kelly, and again in 1998 as the loose remake “A Perfect Murder” with Gwenyth Paltrow as the unsuspecting wife. Hatcher’s adaptation, which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe in 2022, gives Knott’s clever original a fresh coat of paint, notably infusing the script with a touch of light comedy and a swifter pace for modern audiences.

Says Hupp, “‘Dial M’ is less of a murder mystery and more of a psychological thriller. While the setting, 1950s London, remains the same as the Knott play and the Hitchcock film, our playwright, Jeffrey Hatcher, updates the storyline to raise the stakes and create even more tension in this powerful, suspenseful story. I think our audience will love the cast we’ve assembled for ‘Dial M,’ and I can’t wait to share this deliciously dangerous play with everyone in Central New York.”

“Dial M for Murder” features (assistant professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Department of Drama) as Margot Wendice, Avery Clark as her scheming husband Tony and Krystel Lucas as Maxine Hadley. The ensemble rounds out with J.D. Webster as Inspector Hubbard and John Long as the killer-for-hire Lesgate. The design team includes sets by Stanley Meyer, costumes by Lux Haac, lighting design by Dawn Chiang, sound design by Tony Award nominee John Gromada (“The Trip to Bountiful”) and hair and wigs by Brittany Hartman, with fight choreography by D.C. Wright. Blake Segal serves as the production’s dialect coach and Yvonne Perry as the intimacy coordinator.

Born in China to missionary parents in 1916, Knott studied law at Cambridge University and achieved the rank of major in the British Army before finding fame with 1952’s “Dial ‘M’ for Murder.” The play aired on the BBC before critically acclaimed productions in London’s West End and on Broadway. Called “notoriously unprolific” in a 2002 obituary, Knott only wrote three other plays during his lifetime—“Mr. Fox of Venice” (1959), “Write Me a Murder (1961) and “Wait Until Dark” (1966)—but made enough from his work to live comfortably in Manhattan with his wife, actress Ann Hillary. Knott’s intricately plotted mystery plays continue to entertain audiences throughout the world with revival productions and new adaptations, including American playwright Hatcher’s stylish updates of “Wait Until Dark” and “Dial M for Murder”.

All evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. while all matinee performances begin at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $25 with discounts available for students and groups. Tickets may be purchased online at , by phone at 315.443.3275 or in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office. Pay-what-you-will performances for “Dial M for Murder” are Oct. 16-20 inclusive; prologue conversations, three pre-show discussions, take place one hour before curtain on Oct. 20, 26 and 31; the post-show Talkback will take place on Sunday, Oct. 20, after the 7:30 p.m. performance. Syracuse Stage has its open-captioned performances scheduled for Oct. 23 and Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. The performance on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 2 p.m. is an audio described performance with Spanish language open captioning. The sensory friendly/relaxed performance of “Dial M for Murder” is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m.

Support for the 2024/25 season includes season sponsors the Slutzker Family Foundation, the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation and Advance Media New York. The community partner for “Dial M for Murder” is the Syracuse International Film Festival.

Nomar Diaz ��’25 combined a months-long internship as a systems analyst for ML Systems Integrator Pte Ltd. in Singapore with Syracuse Abroad’s 18-day program. In addition to his time in Singapore, he visited tech innovation firms in seven countries and business and cultural centers in 10 cities.

Diaz, who is pursuing concurrent master’s degree programs in information systems and applied data science at the , is open to a career in another country. He’d like to do sales engineering or be a solutions engineer at a computing solutions or information consulting firm in the United Kingdom, Singapore or Spain. As a former global ambassador for Syracuse Abroad, Diaz tells students not to second-guess their interest in studying abroad. “If you feel the hunch, just go for it,” he says. “You won’t regret it.”

While studying abroad, Nomar Diaz (front left, in the black shirt) and a group of fellow graduate students visited a landmark on the waterfront at Palau Uben, a small island in Singapore. (Photo courtesy of Nomar Diaz)

Bennie Guzman ��’25 is a master’s student studying art therapy in the , and he works full-time at La Casita Cultural Center. His goal is to be a licensed creative arts therapist. “My dream would be to connect what I’m doing here with international places that do similar work and expand our outreach beyond Syracuse,” Guzman says.

Guzman says the short-term Mexico’s History, Culture and Security program was exactly the right program for him. “Mexico is the place for Latin American art and indigenous studies. I wanted to see how international communities think about art, culture and community health and tie those things together,” says Guzman, whose experience helped him formulate his thesis on how Latino/Latin American communities use art and culture for community well-being.

M.B.A. student Jude Azai ��’25 used a summer abroad program to fine-tune his leadership capabilities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. That interest developed during his bachelor’s degree program in pharmacy at the University of Jos in Nigeria and has continued throughout his work in business and healthcare.

The Business in East Asia program, which is offered by the Whitman School of Management, helped Azai with valuable insights into healthcare and broader leadership structure in countries such as Singapore. He wanted to understand how such nations become global powerhouses and learn how innovation and effective governance can drive economic growth. He also discovered that leadership is not overly complex. “Leadership is about creating the right vision, following through with openness and honesty and bringing people along. When leaders do this, miracles in nation-building can happen,” Azai says.

Whitman School of Management Students, including Jude Azai (far left), pose at the waterfall garden at Changi Airport in Singapore. (Photo courtesy of Jude Azai)

Krister Samuelson ��’25 is pursuing a master’s degree in information systems in the iSchool and sees a future as an analyst or security engineer in information security. His EuroTech experience provided quality time with like-minded people, he says. He attended the short-term program along with recent iSchool graduate Emmy Naw G’24. She says the program allowed her to engage with professionals in the field while seeing firsthand how business operations integrate technology. “I learned in real-world settings, broadened my understanding of global business strategies and enhanced my ability to think critically about how to apply technological solutions to complex business challenges,” Naw says.

This group of students, which includes graduate students Krister Samuelson and Emmy Naw, began the three-credit EuroTech course in Norway. They visited a number of tech companies located in 10 cities across seven countries in the two-and-a-half-week tour. (Photo at the Royal Palace in Oslo courtesy of Krister Samuelson)

public administration graduate student Troy Patrick ��’25 interned with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and participated in the Religion, Law and Human Rights in a Comparative Perspective program. He has studied peacebuilding and human rights and wants to work in the humanitarian field, perhaps one day at the United Nations secretariat, he says.

Patrick used the summer term to maximize his work experience. For his Council of Europe internship in the Department of Political Affairs and External Relations, he was assigned high-level tasks such as running meetings with international leaders and creating talking points for leader visits. The work provided real-world training and helped him better understand how religion, religiously affiliated states and religious groups impact how advocacy actions are formulated to deal with human rights and legal issues.

Learn More

Students can learn more about the University’s wide range of study abroad programs during Syracuse Abroad Week, which started Monday and runs through Sept. 20. They can also visit the Syracuse Abroad website at suabroad.syr.edu.

The is pleased to announce the 2024/25 season, consisting of six productions: “P����辱��” (Oct. 11 – 20), “Twelfth Night” (Nov. 15 – 23), “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” (Nov. 22 – Jan. 5 and co-produced with Syracuse Stage), “A Walrus in the Body of the Crocodile” (Feb. 21 – March 9), “What the Moon Saw, or I Only Appear to Be Dead” (March 28 – April 6) and “Little Women” (May 2 – 10). All productions will run in the Storch Theatre, with the exception of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” which will be held in the Archbold Theatre. Tickets are available through the by phone at 315.443.3275 or in person at the Syracuse Stage / SU Drama Complex, 820 East Genesee St.

“Each of these plays explores the fundamental question of how we become the person we are meant to become,” says Department of Drama Chair Ralph Zito. “Over the course of the season, an exciting combination of student, faculty and guest artists will bring their considerable talents to bear on a collection of stories both familiar and unfamiliar, examining them in fresh and exciting ways.”

Featuring music and lyrics by Grammy and Oscar-winning composer Stephen Schwartz with a book by Roger O. Hirson, “Pippin” opens the Department of Drama season this fall. Originally premiering on Broadway in 1972, “P����辱��” introduces audiences to a mysterious troupe of actors as they tell the story of a young prince setting off on a magical and miraculous journey to find his own “Corner of the Sky.” Directed by Torya Beard, who describes the production as an examination of “the ways young people interact with the tools they have” to “learn more about themselves,” this Tony Award-winning musical runs Oct. 11 to 20.

Up next is Shakespeare’s delicious comedy “Twelfth Night.” Set on the island paradise of Illyria, the play follows shipwrecked Viola as she befriends a duke, a lady and a parade of rascals while searching for her twin brother Sebastian, who was lost at sea. Disguised as the dashing Cesario, Viola becomes entwined in the island’s drama, discovering the power (and lunacy) of love in its many forms. Directed by Will Pomerantz, “Twelfth Night” runs Nov. 15 to 23.

Celebrate the holidays with this season’s annual co-production with Syracuse Stage, “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” with music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs from the teleplay by Robert L. Freedman. Forced to satisfy the whims of her cruel stepmother and stepsisters while dreaming of a better life, Cinderella is given a chance at happiness when a Fairy Godmother transforms her into a princess and whisks her to the Royal Ball. Featuring additional music from the 1997 television film starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, this “enchanted” production of the classic musical is directed by Melissa Rain Anderson, with music direction by Brian Cimmet and choreography by Jessica Chen, and will run Nov. 22 to Jan. 5.

The spring semester begins with “A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile,” a zany, constantly evolving exploration of language, gender, and identity by MJ Kaufman. A lonely subway car, a crowded support group, a stifling writers’ workshop and a raucous frat house serve as the ever-changing backdrop in this nesting doll of a play about the identities we choose to share and the ones we’re forced to hide, even from ourselves. Directed by Daniella Caggiano, “A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile” runs Feb. 21 to Mar. 1.

Next is “What the Moon Saw, or I Only Appear to Be Dead,” a fantastical collage of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales told through a post-9/11 lens, by Stephanie Fleishman. Traveling to Shanghai to celebrate his 200th birthday, Andersen encounters mermaids, a street urchin, a supermodel, teenagers in love, a cabdriver, firemen and husks of humans who appear as ghouls in this “kaleidoscopic meditation on how we move through calamity” inspired by Andersen’s fragile, timeless tales. Directed by Danyon Davis, “What the Moon Saw” runs Mar. 28 to Apr. 6.

The season concludes with “Little Woman,” with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Jason Howland. Following the adventures of Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy and their beloved mother Marmee, this Tony Award-winning musical tells of the March sisters’ adventures during the American Civil War as they discover their passions, endure heartache, and find the courage to persevere in this ultimate coming of age story. Based on the celebrated novel by Louisa May Alcott and directed by David Lowenstein, “Little Women” runs May 2 to 10.

Five-play subscriptions are or by calling Syracuse Stage Box Office at 315.443.3275. Subscribers have access to discounted tickets for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” which is not part of 5-play subscription packages. Single tickets for all shows are also available.

DETAILS

“P����辱��”
Based on original story and characters by Damon Runyon
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Book by Roger O. Hirson
Directed Torya Beard
Oct. 11-20

“Twelfth Night”
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Will Pomerantz
Nov. 15-23

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella”
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs
From the teleplay by Robert L. Freedman
Directed by Melissa Rain Anderson
Co-produced with Syracuse Stage
Nov. 22 through Jan. 5

“A Walrus in the Body of the Crocodile”
By MJ Kaufman
Directed by Daniella Caggiano
Feb. 21 through March 1

“What the Moon Saw, or I Only Appear to Be Dead”
By Stephanie Fleishman
Directed by Danyon Davis
March 28 through April 6

“Little Women”
Book by Allan Knee
Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Music by Jason Howland
Directed by David Lowenstein
May 2-10

The goal was to show students one of the many options that are available when they graduate. “Some students may not know that you can have an actual career as a musician in the military, but many, many people do,” said Brad Ethington, director of University bands and professor of music.

Ainsley Brouse G’26, who is pursuing a master’s degree in wind conducting in the , says the extent of what military bands do was new to her when she came to college. “I think if I had seen that younger, before college, I think it would’ve made music seem more accessible and more achievable that there is not just one path you can go down, but there’s many, many paths that you can go down,” Brouse said.

After their performance, the musicians answered questions from students about what it means to be in a military band and to be a professional musician more generally. “Anytime you can interact with the very best people in your profession in any way, whether it’s just hearing a performance, getting to ask questions, meeting them, that’s only going to be a positive thing and provide benefits,” Ethington said.

Check out other highlights from Navy Week below.

Lt. Conor Sullivan ’15, G’18, L’18, fourth from left, spoke with students at the College of Law about opportunities in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. (Photo by Beth Kubala)

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Josh Jackson (left) and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Parker (center) pose with Chancellor Kent Syverud (right). The two senior Navy leaders took part in a roundtable discussion with the Chancellor as part of Navy Week Syracuse to discuss enhancing partnerships between the military branches and higher education, to offer better opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

Members of the U.S. Navy Band Northeast perform for College of Visual and Performing Arts students in the Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College during Navy Week Syracuse. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

A member of the U.S. Navy Band Northeast performs for College of Visual and Performing Arts students in the Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College during Navy Week Syracuse. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Josh Jackson (right) visited with students in the military visual journalism program in the Newhouse School.

Misty Fox, director of entrepreneurship and small business with the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, speaks during the “Doing Business With the Department of Navy” event, co-hosted by APEX Accelerators National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Josh Jackson, second from right, was honored as the Hometown Hero during the Syracuse football season opener Aug. 31 vs. Ohio in the JMA Wireless Dome. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

The center fosters proactive, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to issues related to social justice, equity and inclusion. It was established with a gift from Helaine and Marvin Lender as a research, teaching and action center and as a national hub for leadership and conversation on social justice issues. Phillips, who co-founded the center in 2017, will serve as director for three years.

“I have been honored to be part of the Lender Center since its founding and am excited to return to help the center move into its next phase,” Phillips says. “Over the past six years, the Lender Center has had a tremendous impact on students, faculty and our community and I look forward to working with all these groups to help keep social justice as the focus of all our activities.”

Kendall Phillips

“Since its founding, Syracuse University has been steadfast in its commitment to advancing social justice and equity and leveraging its intellectual resources to discover solutions to humanity’s most pressing challenges – locally, nationally and globally. The Lender Center for Social Justice is at the forefront of interdisciplinary scholarship exploring how individuals and communities can thrive,” says , vice president for research.��“As a co-founder, Kendall Phillips has been integral to the Center’s pursuit of research that takes our students and faculty out of the classroom and into our communities. I look forward to seeing the Lender Center’s work grow through his leadership.”

The center has hosted an annual symposium and a conversation series promoting dialogue on social justice issues among researchers, practitioners, activists and thought leaders. It supports a new faculty fellow each year for a two-year research project on social justice research and sponsors a team of student fellows to work alongside that faculty member. Over the past three years, as part of its racial wealth gap initiative, the center has hosted three symposia, convened community conversations in several U.S. cities, supported three faculty fellow and student teams and hired three postdoctoral scholars.

Community leaders and University faculty panelists speak at the Lender Center for Social Justice research symposium, “Interrogating the Racial Wealth Gap: Thinking Locally,” held in the spring in Syracuse. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

Phillips’ expertise is in the arena of American film, public discourse and memory, rhetoric and the rhetoric of popular culture. He earned a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University and previously taught at the University of Central Missouri. He is an honorary fellow in the School of Art Whiti o Rehua in the College of Creative Arts at Massey University in New Zealand. He also is an honorary director of the Center for Rhetorical Studies at Shanghai University and a fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America.

Gordon Parks, “Mrs. Jefferson,” from the series Fort Scott Revisited (Photo courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation)

“Homeward to the Prairie I Come” features more than 75 of Parks’ images, examining his wide-ranging artistic ideas. The exhibition not only includes Parks’ documentary photography such as the series Paris Fashions, Fort Scott Revisited and The Redemption of the Champion��(featuring images of Muhammed Ali), but also his thoughts on photography as a fine art medium and his engagement with celebrated paintings and sculptures.

Most significantly, the photographs instigate cultural change by challenging viewers to imagine a more inclusive culture than the one they know: a world where Black skin represents ideal beauty, where an African American athlete embodies the exemplary hero and where an artist of African heritage has a place within the lineage of excellent artists in Western art history.

“This exhibition leverages the power of art to catalyze dialogue about the wide range of issues that Parks engaged with in his photography, from systemic racism to the labor and ethics of the global fashion industry to ideas of celebrity and home,” says Melissa Yuen, the ���ܲ���ܳ�’s interim chief curator.

Interim director of the museum Emily Dittman says, “Gordon Parks was a visionary interdisciplinary artist whose work had a lasting impact on the world. His dedication to continually tell the stories of individuals that were—and still are—too often hidden and overlooked is clearly evident and inspiring throughout his artistic work.”

In this spirit, the museum is taking steps to creating an accessible, diverse and multilingual space for all communities and families. The interpretive text in the exhibition is bilingual, providing both English and Spanish text for visitors, large-type text will be available and a family guide is provided to help youth and families explore the exhibition. An open access digital exhibition catalog for the exhibition will be available for visitors in the reflection area, as well as reading materials on Gordon Parks and his multifaceted career. The exhibition will be accompanied by a dynamic slate of public programming, all free and open to the public.

Co-curated by Aileen June Wang, Ph.D., curator, and Sarah Price, registrar, at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, the tour is organized by Art Bridges. The exhibition and related programs have been made possible by generous support from Art Bridges, the Wege Foundation and the Humanities Center (Syracuse Symposium).

About the Artist

Parks, one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, was a humanitarian with a deep commitment to social justice. He left behind an exceptional body of work that documents American life and culture from the early 1940s into the 2000s, with a focus on race relations, poverty, civil rights and urban life. Parks was also a distinguished composer, author and filmmaker who interacted with many of the leading people of his era—from politicians and artists to athletes and celebrities.

Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man when he saw images of migrant workers taken by Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers in a magazine. After buying a camera at a pawn shop, he taught himself how to use it. Despite his lack of professional training, he won the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942; this led to a position with the photography section of the FSA in Washington, D.C., and, later, the Office of War Information (OWI). Working for these agencies, which were then chronicling the nation’s social conditions, Parks quickly developed a personal style that would make him among the most celebrated photographers of his era. His extraordinary pictures allowed him to break the color line in professional photography while he created remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination.

Featured Events

• Opening Reception and Keynote—Sept. 6, 4-6:30 p.m.; keynote: 4-5 p.m., 160 Link Hall; reception: 5-6:30 p.m., Syracuse University Art Museum
• The Duke Ellington Orchestra presented in partnership with the Malmgren Concert Series—Sept. 22, 4 p.m.; Hendricks Chapel, with reception to follow at the Syracuse University Art Museum
• Community Screening of “Shaft” (1971), directed by Gordon Parks—Oct. 4, 7 p.m.; The Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St., Syracuse
• Community Day—Oct. 5, noon-4 p.m.; Syracuse University Art Museum
• Art Break: Gordon Parks with Nancy Keefe Rhodes—Oct. 16, noon;��Syracuse University Art Museum
• Celebrating the Legacy of Gordon Parks—Nov. 9, noon-4 p.m.; Syracuse University Art Museum;��1 p.m.: Art Break with contemporary photographer Jarod Lew; 2:30 p.m.: screening of “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks” (2021)
• Gordon Parks Community Gathering/Showcase—Dec. 7, timing TBD;��Deedee’s Community Room, Salt City Market, 484 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Visit the for event information. Members of the media may contact Emily Dittman, interim director of Syracuse University Art Museum, for more information or to schedule a tour.

[Featured image: Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, “Mrs. Jefferson,” from the series Fort Scott Revisited, 1950, printed in 2017, gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches. Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, gift of Gordon Parks and the Gordon Parks Foundation, 2017.373. Image courtesy of and copyright by The Gordon Parks Foundation]

is an innovative, interdisciplinary initiative at Syracuse University focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, design and community. It is a partnership between Syracuse University Libraries, the School of Design and , a program of the��. Intelligence ++ is supported through a generous donation by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 and the��.

Trey Augliano

Augliano is the founder of Flamingo Brands, a global e-commerce company. During the past academic year, he served as an Orange Innovation Scholar for Syracuse University Libraries and worked with the and as a tech commercialization specialist. Augliano was a member of the student steering committee for the inaugural program. He previously interned as an angel investment portfolio manager at Shaw Harbor Holdings, a private equity and asset management firm, where he worked alongside the founder and CEO.

As the Intelligence ++ Innovation Scholar, Augliano will assist with , a funding program to help students across campus commercialize products, services and technologies that support people with intellectual disability or who are neurodivergent. The Intelligence ++ Scholar serves as a peer mentor to students from across all disciplines and academic units to help bring their ideas to life and engages with SU alumni who are innovators in this field who can serve as subject matter experts.

The album contains George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and “Rhapsody in Blue,” along with two pieces commissioned in remembrance of those who perished in the bombing, including 35 Syracuse University students.

The Wind Ensemble is the University’s premiere concert wind organization. Possessing an extensive history that includes a series of internationally distributed recordings, the ensemble, conducted by Professor and Associate Professor in the ’ Setnor School of Music, has commissioned dozens of works.

The Wind Ensemble performed the recently commissioned pieces, “Energy and Light” by , assistant professor in the Setnor School of Music, and “Angels Rising” by , during its 2023 United Kingdom Remembrance tour, held in observance of the 35th anniversary of the bombing.

“The scale of that disaster is incredibly humbling and haunting for our community,” says composer Draper. “In addition to mourning those who were lost, it is important to remember that each of the students had a vibrant life that should also be celebrated. With that in mind, I decided to write a piece that was about energy and light—two direct components of what it means to be alive.”

Following Draper’s piece, the listener journeys through the four sections of “Angels Rising”—lament, chorale, ascent and prayer. The work ends with the everlasting question of existence, composer Ticheli notes.

The final album piece, “Rhapsody in Blue,” featuring pianist associate professor and director of the Setnor School of Music, takes the listener back in time.

“This recording, celebrating the centennial of its composition, depicts what was likely heard by the audience packing New York City’s Aeolian Hall on Feb. 12, 1924, when ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ had its premiere with Paul Whiteman’s Palais Royal Orchestra and Gershwin himself at the piano,” says Laufer.

The Navona Records release will be available in both stereo and Dolby Atmos immersive audio formats. It will be accessible for streaming on Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music.

Story by Mikayla Heiss

Syracuse University Libraries has selected four students as the 2024-25 Orange Innovation Scholars. This prestigious recognition highlights their dedication to innovation and entrepreneurship. These four students exemplify the spirit of innovation and leadership that the Orange Innovation Scholars program seeks to promote. The four Orange Innovation Scholars are:

• Ava Lubkemann ’27 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) is studying environmental engineering with a passion for sustainable construction, design and entrepreneurship. She founded “Sustainable Concepts,” a business that sells upcycled clothing to support environmentally conscious organizations. Additionally, Lubkemann volunteers with STEM Explorer, helping local middle-school students engage in hands-on STEM learning. At Syracuse, she has been a researcher at the Dynamic Sustainability Lab, focusing on carbon capture sequestration. Lubkemann is a recent graduate of the summer accelerator program.
• Jair Espinoza ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) is actively involved in several student organizations, including the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Mexican Student Association, Lambda Alpha Upsilon Fraternity and the Syracuse Men’s Gymnastic Club. Espinoza brings a wealth of experience in organizing large-scale events, securing funding and promoting cultural understanding. As a software developer, his experiences have provided him with valuable insight in full stack development, artificial intelligence and mobile app development. He is a recent graduate of the summer accelerator program.
• Aidan Turner ’25 (School of Architecture), a fifth-year architecture student, is also completing a minor in real estate from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. He is a licensed real estate salesperson in Massachusetts. Turner has been recognized as Syracuse University Student Entrepreneur of the Year in both 2022 and 2024. He is the CEO and founder of Grater Things Threads, a premium garment design and supply company dedicated to crafting bespoke, sustainable garments with meaningful designs.
• Thomas O’Brien ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) is an entrepreneur who combines the art of filmmaking with business and marketing. With experience in audience development for music artists and actors combined, O’Brien looks to revolutionize how narrative filmmaking is produced, shared and consumed in the new digital age. His work across all practices has generated millions of views on several social media platforms. He is an Invest in Success Scholar, a member of the ‘CUSE50 steering committee (where he was emcee for last fall’s gala) and a speaker at the ‘CUSE50 student summit.

Orange Innovation Scholars support commercialization programs offered through Syracuse University Libraries, including the and the , along with Universitywide entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives such as . They will engage University faculty, post doctorates and Ph.D. students, graduate and undergraduate students engaged in research, technology commercialization, venture development, innovation and entrepreneurship. Orange Innovation Scholars will also engage with SU alumni who are founders and leaders at top innovation companies. Orange Innovation Scholars work across all disciplines and academic units to build a pipeline of innovation and tell success stories.

Presenters and attendees at the 2023 SOURCE Symposium

Hua, a nutrition science major in the , has investigated the effects of fish oil on paternal obesity and its impact on offspring muscle function. Ross, a neuroscience and psychology major in the , has studied the impact of Cited2 excision and maternal folic acid supplementation among mice on neurodevelopment. And Lu, a music composition major in the (VPA), has worked with music ensembles and experienced the premieres of two of his original compositions.

They are among the more than 250 students who have actively participated in research this summer—both in-person and remotely—through initiatives of the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE) and other programs, including the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP); Chemistry, iSchool, and BioInspired Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs; the SUNY Upstate Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program; the McNair Scholars Program; the psychology SPARC and STAHR programs; Renée Crown University Honors Program; Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)-supported students and others.

As a culmination of their experiences, the —a poster session featuring more than 110 undergraduate research students, will be held Thursday, Aug. 8, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Schine Student Center’s Panasci Lounge. A picnic will follow on the patio of Huntington Beard Crouse Hall. .

Some of the posters that will be presented include:

• Mercury Release From Alaskan Permafrost
• The Role of the Kit Tyrosine Pathway in Primordial Follicle Formation and Cyst Breakdown
• The Effects of the Post-Mating Immune Response in Drosophila on Female Fecundity
• Syracuse Policy Legacy Project
• Testing the Hydropathy of Synthetic RNA
• Polyurethane Foams for Hemorrhage Control
• Supporting Healthcare Outcomes and Access for Refugees
• Effects of I-81 Highway Construction on Freshwater Streams in the Valley Neighborhood of Syracuse
• Role of Rab GTPase-Mediated Ciliary Cargo Transport in Cilia formation and Cellular Polarity
• Validating Hydraulic Flood Control Risk Assessment Using High Resolution Satellite Imagery

“Summer research students make great strides in their research skill-building during these few short months; they explore fascinating topics, engage with existing work, try new methods and techniques and experience deep immersion and focus in their work,” says SOURCE Director Kate Hanson. “We are thrilled to learn about research at the Summer Symposium and grateful to the mentors that have supported them.”

Xuezhu (Stephanie) Hua ’25

Stephanie Hua

Hua’s research is inspired by the obesity epidemic. “Obesity is a growing concern, with two in five people in the U.S. affected. It not only diminishes quality of life but also has lasting effects on the health of future generations,” Hua says. “In our research explores the potential of fish oil supplementation in mitigating the detrimental, we focus on using fish oil as a dietary intervention for obese fathers.”

Hua and her colleagues have found that a father’s high-fat diet during the preconception period significantly impacts the muscle health of their offspring, potentially decreasing muscle function. Conversely, when the father follows a low-fat diet during the preconception period, the offspring’s muscle health is more influenced by their own diet. “Moving forward, I will employ an analysis of variance test to determine if fish oil supplementation can reverse the adverse effects of a father’s high-fat diet on offspring,” she says.

“I would like to express my gratitude to the SOURCE, Renée Crown University Honors Program and WiSE for sponsoring my research. This invaluable experience has allowed me to ask scientific questions, grapple with challenges and find solutions,” Hua says. “What drives me is the potential impact of my research on people’s lives. To me, research is about serving the community. This experience has been instrumental to me in preparing for my Ph.D. studies in obesity and metabolism.”

Hua’s faculty mentor is , assistant professor of nutrition and food studies in the Falk College.

Edward Lu ’26

Lu says his music composition research this summer has provided him with some of the most artistically fulfilling experiences in his career. He attended the Connecticut Summerfest and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival at the Juilliard School as a part of their Emerging Composers Program.

Edward Lu (photo by Isaac Schwalbe)

“Both of these festivals were incredible, and they each provided a diverse array of insights into the business of composition and chamber music,” Lu says.

He traveled to Connecticut in June for a week of lectures, presentations, rehearsals, concerts and recording sessions. “I was paired with ~Nois, a saxophone quartet based in Chicago, who were an absolute joy to work with,” Lu says. “They premiered my piece, ‘Leaf Litter,’ and we also shot a separate professional video/audio recording with the Kinsmen Sound Studio. I loved how much creative liberty I was given during this process, and how much they valued my artistic input. Additionally, I enjoyed getting to know the other ensembles-in-residence.”

In July, Lu spent 10 days in New York City, attending lectures and masterclasses with Imani Winds and the composer-in-residence, Jessica Meyer, as well as other visiting composition faculty. “I was paired with Nimbus Winds, a student wind quintet, and we spent the week rehearsing and workshopping my piece ‘Cloud Shapes,’ which was premiered at Juilliard’s Morse Recital Hall on Aug. 3.” He also had the opportunity to present “Leaf Litter” in a masterclass and share his work from Connecticut Summerfest, bringing his summer research full circle.

“At both festivals, I met a lot of amazing people and built lasting and meaningful relationships while learning important skills such as outreach and finding my musical voice and message,” Lu says. “Additionally, I now have two new pieces and recordings to add to my portfolio. Most importantly, I’ve made colleagues and friends in the field of chamber music that will last my entire lifetime. I’m eternally grateful to SOURCE for making these experiences possible for me.”

Lu’s faculty mentor is , associate professor and chair of music composition, theory and history in VPA’s Setnor School of Music.

Kaniya Ross ’25

Ross’s project is specifically investigating the impact of Cited2 excision and maternal folic acid

Kaniya Ross

supplementation among mice on neurodevelopment. Loss of Cited2 (knockout) has been known to cause disruptions in brain development such as neural tube defects, reduced cortical thickness that can lead to microcephaly, and heart and lung defects.

“Based on preliminary research, prepartum folic acid supplementation has been linked to a reduction in�� neural tube defects like exencephaly. It has also been linked to rescuing reductions in cortical thickness seen with Cited2 knockout,” says Ross. Her team uses immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis and cell counting to measure whether reduced cortical thickness is due to increased cell density or decreased cells overall following Cited2 knockout and maternal folic acid supplementation. As microcephaly is linked to learning and memory deficits, they also do novel object recognition testing to measure changes in both following maternal folic acid supplementation.

“This project is deeply connected with my future endeavors as a pediatric neurologist who will continue doing research on neurodevelopmental disorders as well as providing affordable care and treatments in my own private practice,” Ross says.

Ross has worked with faculty mentor , associate professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and graduate student Sara Brigida.

Additional events featuring undergraduate research include the 2024 McNair Summer Research Symposium, which will be held Aug. 9 from 10 a.m.to 3 p.m. in 331 Sims Hall. The Psychology SPARC-STAHR & iSchool REU Program Symposium was held on July 25.

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“Syracuse University is so fortunate to count outstanding teachers, scholars and administrators like Julie and Elisa among its faculty members, and I am truly grateful for their willingness to serve in these important roles,” Agnew says. “Their past leadership experiences and fresh perspectives position them to make a positive impact not only on the Academic Affairs team, but also across the University and in the local community.”

Julie Hasenwinkel

Julie Hasenwinkel

As associate provost for academic programs, Hasenwinkel will support teaching, learning and student success. Her portfolio will include oversight of a wide range of University offices and programs in these areas, including the , the and . She assumes the role from Agnew, who was named interim vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer July 1.

, a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, is currently chair of the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the (ECS). She is also a faculty affiliate of the . She has served as ECS associate dean for academic and student affairs and senior associate dean.

Her professional and scholarly areas of expertise include faculty development in teaching and learning; engineering education and active learning pedagogies; student success initiatives; orthopedic biomaterials; and biomaterials for nerve regeneration. She holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in bioengineering from Clemson University and a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering from Duke University.

“I’m very excited to take on this role and to have the opportunity to work with colleagues across the University and the leadership team in Academic Affairs to enhance our academic programs, student success, experiential inquiry and teaching and learning excellence,” Hasenwinkel says. “I look forward to implementing the goals of the academic strategic plan and exploring innovative ways that we can meet the current and future needs of our students so they can thrive at Syracuse University and beyond.”

Elisa Dekaney

Elisa Dekaney

In the role of associate provost for strategic initiatives, Dekaney will work to strengthen the academic experience through strong connections with campus and community-based programs, particularly in the arts and humanities. In this role, she will oversee University-based cultural organizations like the , and , among others. Dekaney will also have oversight of the University’s study abroad and study away initiatives. She assumes the role from Marcelle Haddix, who was recently named dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

, now the associate dean for research and global engagement and a professor of music education in the , is also a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence.

Her scholarly research focuses on aesthetic response to music, world music and cultures, International Phonetic Alphabet, Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian culture and clinical simulation applied to music education. She holds a Ph.D. in choral music education from Florida State University, a master’s degree in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas, a bachelor’s degree in sacred music (piano) from the Seminário Teológico Batista do Sul do Brasil and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the Universidade Federal Fluminense.

“I am honored to join Interim Provost Lois Agnew and the entire Academic Affairs team. This role presents an incredible opportunity to collaborate with Syracuse University faculty, staff and students in driving innovative projects and fostering a culture of excellence in an environment welcoming to all,” Dekaney says. “I am committed to advancing our strategic goals with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. By ensuring that our initiatives reflect these core values, we can create a transformative educational experience that benefits all members of our community.”

Jamieson Ritter

The University is honoring the memory of alumnus and fallen Cleveland, Ohio, police officer Jamieson Ritter ’19 with the establishment of a scholarship in his name. Beginning in 2025, the Jamieson Ritter Memorial ROTC Scholarship will be awarded to an ROTC student who is pursuing a career in military or civilian law enforcement. Ritter, who was part of the Army ROTC at Syracuse, was killed in the line of duty while serving with the Cleveland Division of Police on July 4.

“Jamieson Ritter’s life of dedicated service represents the very best of Syracuse University,” says Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive director of the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families. “This new scholarship will honor Jamieson’s memory by assisting students who follow his example in seeking to serve their country and community in uniform.”

The scholarship was established in consultation with Ritter’s family.

Originally from Rochester, New York, Ritter graduated from McQuaid Jesuit High School before coming to Syracuse University to complete a degree in communication and rhetorical studies from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Upon graduating from Syracuse, Ritter was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard.

In November 2020, Ritter joined the Cleveland Division of Police as an officer. As a member of the Ohio Army National Guard, he deployed to Syria in 2022 and returned to continue his service with the Cleveland Division of Police in 2023.

Ritter grew up with an aspiration to serve others. “From an early age, Jamieson possessed an innate understanding of selfless service to the nation and a strong desire to serve his community,” his family shared with the Cleveland Police.

If you are interested in donating to the Jamieson Ritter Memorial Scholarship Fund, please visit the .

View-Master viewer with commercial slide disc and stereoscopic viewers for unprocessed film. (Photo by Andrew Saluti, Fisher-Price, Inc.)

The in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design has received a $28,000 grant from Buffalo-based Fisher-Price, Inc. to fund the coordination and digitization of the View-Master archive.

View-Master was first introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair by inventors Harold Graves and William Gruber. In 1951, View-Master acquired film-strip company Tru-Vue and, with it, the licensing rights for popular production companies such as Disney. Since then, the popular stereoscopic viewer has documented millions of three-dimensional images of national parks and international destinations, behind-the-scenes footage of countless movie and television productions, original animation cells, scientific images and historic events that have shaped the 20th century, including never-before-seen images from the Apollo space mission and the coronation of Queen Elizbeth II. The View-Master was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The project is coordinated by Andrew J. Saluti, associate professor and program coordinator of the museum studies program. “We’re so thrilled to be working on this project with Fisher-Price,” says Saluti. “This kind of hands-on, real-world archival collections work is a cornerstone of our approach to curriculum and preparing emerging museum professionals for their careers. As for the archive, the potential for future curatorial projects, research and reference to a century of popular culture is truly exciting.”

The initial phase of the project focused on digitization and interpretation of the mass collection of film positives, slides and other historic types of photo media with the aim of creating a searchable, illustrated database. This important first step will open the door to future projects that will include curatorship and design of exhibitions and other public projects.

Abby Cullen G’24 examines color positive film shot for stereoscopic viewing. (Photo by Andrew Saluti, Fisher-Price, Inc.)

Together with museum studies graduate students Molly Dano ��’25, Paola Manzano ��’25, Hannah Riley ��’25, and Abby Cullen G’24, the team completed five three-day onsite sessions at the Fisher-Price headquarters in May. During these sessions, they digitized and interpreted decades of original film positives, much of which had never been seen by the public.

The range of media includes classic Hollywood productions to contemporary blockbusters. Riley worked on a large collection of set photos from the “Harry Potter” series. “I scanned slides from the set of ‘[Harry Potter and] the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001, Warner Brothers). It was exciting to uncover that many of the props you see in the movie, like some of the floating candles in the Great Hall, are real! The details that these images reveal are amazing.”

The archive also includes original animation cels and film from Disney, Warner Brothers, Hannah-Barbara and more, all created specifically for stereoscopic viewing. “As someone who grew up obsessed with their View-Master, this project is very special and exciting to me,” explains Dano. “Having a background in illustration, it is really interesting to get to look at so much original material, including hand-painted animation cels. Examining the techniques and styles used has not only given me a better understanding about how stereoscopic images work, but it has also been highly rewarding in terms of my own artistic and collections-based practice.”

Cullen and Manzano are drawn to historic images of where they grew up, leveraging their personal experience as well as giving insight into the interpretation of the materials. “As a Niagara Falls local, it’s been really fascinating to see images of this area from decades ago, illustrating how much the landscape has evolved into what we now see and experience,” explains Cullen.

Manzano, a native of Puerto Rico, was able to correct misidentified locations or names immediately. “Working on images from Puerto Rico from the early 1970s, it was interesting to see what has and has not changed on the island in the past 50 years. It makes me feel more connected to my home, even from Upstate New York.”

Salma Mahmoud ’26 (left) and Chloe Mendoza Smith ’26 perform in the Department of Drama production of “Touch(ed),” April 2024. (Photo by Michael Davis)

The Hollywood Reporter (THR) has ranked the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ among the for the second consecutive year.

Ranked No. 23 in THR’s June 19 issue, the department was noted for such outstanding alumni as Aaron Sorkin ’83, H’12 and Vanessa Williams ’85, as well as the opportunities afforded by its relationship with , a professional theater company, and the immersive Tepper Semester in New York City.

The department offers four bachelor of fine arts degree programs in acting, musical theater, stage management, and theater design and technology, as well as a bachelor of science degree program in drama that features a theater management track. The department’s culture of rigorous conservatory-style training at a major research university with a direct connection to the working professionals at Syracuse Stage is of great benefit to students in all of its programs, including the non-performance areas.

Drama students also benefit from the support of the department’s extensive alumni network and additional study abroad/study away opportunities in Los Angeles, London (with classes at Shakespeare’s Globe and Rose Bruford College) and Florence, Italy.

Meetings were conducted with representatives of the University of Seoul, Ewha Women’s University, Korea University and Sungkyunkwan University. The discussions were part of an exploration to consider locating a Syracuse University center in South Korea, according to Pamela Young, director of academic strategic plan implementation in the Office of Academic Affairs.

University delegates participated in discussions with Korea University officials about potential faculty research collaborations and study abroad opportunities.

Young says a center there could provide Syracuse and Korean universities with new opportunities for collaborative research, including projects focused on the semiconductor industry and gravitational wave research. It could also facilitate joint faculty and student participation in seminars and workshops, faculty and graduate student exchanges and the development of new partners that support study abroad for Syracuse students in Korea.

The expansion of collaborative efforts in East Asia is an important part of the University’s strategic vision, says Young.��“There is great interest among many Syracuse University schools and colleges in partnering with Korean universities to enhance creative activities and the research enterprise, including through faculty and graduate student exchanges. There is also significant space to expand opportunities for Syracuse University students to study abroad and engage in experiential learning outside of Western Europe. Each year many students come from Korea to study and earn degrees at Syracuse. Our strong Korean alumni base has many business and industry connections that can provide students with opportunities for experiential learning, too,” she says.

The Korea Center Initiative group visited with officials at Ehwa Women’s University, one of several universities they visited in South Korea.

During the trip, the delegation enjoyed dinner with several members of Syracuse University’s Korean Alumni Association. It also caught up with two School of Architecture students who are studying at Ewha Women’s University and a group of Syracuse students who were in Seoul as part of a new Maymester design course led by Seyeon Lee, associate professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Among highlights of the trip was a dinner gathering for Syracuse University students studying abroad at Ewha Woman’s University along with a group of students participating in a Maymester program focused on South Korean design and culture led by College of Visual and Performing Arts Associate Professor Seyeon Lee.

At Sunkyunkwan University, the delegation heard a presentation from Youngseek Kim G’08, G’13, an associate professor who earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the School of Information Studies. In addition, the trip allowed Architecture Dean Michael Speaks and Daekwon Park, undergraduate program chair, to meet with high school students and their parents regarding program opportunities.

The Syracuse University delegation was also welcomed to Sunkyunkwan University. Among the presenters was alumnus Youngseek Kim G’08, G’13, who is now an associate professor there.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean says he appreciates the opportunity to pursue new partnerships in Korea and strengthen alumni ties.

“I am confident in the potential of these connections and I am eager to work with my fellow deans at the University to develop new opportunities for student exchange, internships and university and industry partnerships in Korea,” he says.

“We all look forward to continuing our efforts to develop new opportunities for student exchange, internships and industry collaborations in Korea with the goal of establishing in Seoul a new Asia center for the University,” says Speaks.

Syracuse University is a national leader in international education, with a highly ranked study abroad program. The University’s Academic Strategic Plan, “Leading With Distinction,” calls for the expansion of study abroad and study away venues and programs and the removal of barriers to make it possible for every undergraduate to participate. In addition to Mortazavi, Speaks, Young and Park, the delegation included Andrew Sears, then-dean of the School of Information Studies; Nicole Collins, director of strategic partnerships and outreach for Syracuse Abroad; and Brian Kim L’19, international engagement specialist, who served as liaison between Syracuse University and the Korean Alumni Association.

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Angelina Lim ’25, a film major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), has been named a recipient of a 2024 Beinecke Scholarship. Lim is the fourth Beinecke Scholar in Syracuse University’s history.

The award provides graduate funding and mentorship for juniors in the arts, humanities or social sciences. The Beinecke Scholarship seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students of exceptional promise to pursue graduate study in these fields. The Beinecke Scholarship works with approximately 135 participating institutions. Each school may nominate one candidate per year; the campus nomination process is highly competitive. This year, the Beinecke Scholarship Program selected 19 scholars.

Below, Lim talks about her studies as an aspiring cinematographer and her future plans.

Those were among many lessons packed into CRS 360, Communication Strategies in Sports. The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) offered the new, three-credit Maymester course for the first time this year to provide a study-away opportunity for student-athletes whose academic year schedules are defined by little flexibility due to training and game commitments.

Emmy-award-winning entertainment executive Kip Konweiser ’85 (center), provided insights about communicating in sports and sports-events production during a classroom session. (Photo by Anna Proulx)

,�� professor and chair of communication and rhetorical studies (CRS), and , visual and performing arts program director for the University’s Dick Clark Los Angeles Program, worked with G’20, assistant provost for student-athlete academic development in the Department of Athletics, to devise the experience program.

Classes, activities mix

The students experienced class days split between coursework, business site tours, discussions with top sports and broadcasting executives and the creation of presentations. They were taught by , renowned award-winning book author, documentary creator and film producer. Students were housed in a Hollywood Hills apartment complex near the . They enjoyed a weekend Dodgers game and a hike to the iconic Hollywood sign, and got to meet with many members of the LA Regional Alumni Council for a roundtable discussion. Another highlight of the course was the tour of Fox Sports, where students visited the set used for several Fox Sports shows organized by alumni Bernie Kim ’01 and Cayden Feifer ’12. Students were able to meet “Speak” show hosts LeSean McCoy, Emmanuel Acho, Joy Taylor and Skip Bayless.

Many Syracuse University LA Regional Alumni Council members who are prominent in their fields met with the students for a roundtable discussion, including Jordan Pynes ’98, Frank McFarland ’94, Phil Netz ’98, Sean Carey ’89, JaNeika James ’05 and Amelia Goldstein ’19, pictured with the student group. (Photo by Anna Proulx)

“This was an incredible opportunity to explore a course in a short amount of time, get a sense of Los Angeles, go on many site visits and meet alumni who are excited to impart their wisdom, who really care about these students’ success and who now are contacts for continued communication,” Proulx says.

Life after athletics

She believes the course’s career-development focus offers a sense of what life could be like after athletics and after Syracuse. “Many of our former players who moved beyond football have gone into careers in entrepreneurship, sales management, investments, NASCAR, athletic design and sports broadcasting. These alumni showed the students that the skills they already have from football are transferable to many different future careers.”

Student LeQuint Allen Jr. ’26, a running back on the Syracuse football team and a sociology major in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says it was “unbelievable” how many people he met during the two weeks he spent in Los Angeles. He says he identified with alumnus Lou Alexander, “whose story is like mine,” and he wants to model the demeanor of alumnus Roland Williams. “I was getting a lot of tips from him, seeing how he handled himself and learning from him, and I felt like I can mirror that.”

Roland Williams ’97, center, a former Superbowl champion, was one of many alumni who spoke with the group of Maymester CRS 360 students. (Photo by Anna Proulx)

A good balance

Kyle McCord, a CRS major, will graduate this December. The quarterback plans to play football professionally after graduation then envisions a career in either coaching or sports broadcasting. He was impressed by the way the course maximized the Maymester timeframe. “It was a really good balance between school and being able to explore LA. Given how busy our schedules are, carving out two weeks and having a very productive trip, I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’ll 100% be able to put what I learned to use right away.”

Marlowe Wax Jr. ’24, G’26, earned a psychology degree in May and is now enrolled in the project management master’s program in the College of Professional Studies.

The linebacker says the course allowed him to learn a lot about public speaking and how to control a stage. “I want to go into professional football, and after that, I’d love to do anything in sports. I really appreciate the number of people I met and I love that I have these people to connect to.”

Students David Clement and Yazeed Haynes practiced pitching their origin stories with instructors Rob Carpenter and guest speaker Lou Alexander at the Dick Clark Los Angeles Program. (Photo by Anna Proulx)

Powell says the course offered a transformative learning experience. “Our student-athletes gained unparalleled exposure to dynamic instruction and industry leaders, that enriched their academics and broadened their perspectives,” he says. “Few student-athletes have the opportunity to benefit from study abroad or away opportunities. This class aligned with the University’s academic strategic plan and our commitment to prepare students not just in their sport but as global citizens poised to lead in an interconnected world.”

More information about VPA’s Los Angeles Semester is available on the school’s .

Students pose at Nakchunsa, a temple on Jeju Island. The structure is one of the tallest Buddhist temples in Asia. In Jeju, Dolharubang statues are positioned at entrances to residences and cities because they are thought to be protectors.

A group of students recently explored the city of Seoul, South Korea, to learn about the country’s historical and contemporary sites and to see how its unique culture and traditions have affected its natural and built environments.

The two-week excursion was led by , associate professor of environmental and interior design and George Miller quasi-endowed professor in the . Nine undergraduate students from a variety of majors accompanied Lee for the new Maymester study abroad course to learn how social issues and various design practices have shaped the country’s landscapes, cities and structures.

The workshop at Yonsei University focused on creating designs that are diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible. (Photo by Seyeon Lee)

The course emphasized the concept of how every space is shaped by its environment and community, apart from design and architectural considerations. Students explored a number of major historic and modern sites in a timeline that followed significant chronological events, from Chosun Dynasty structures to futuristic buildings incorporating high-tech communication and travel modes. They explored Seodaemun Prison Hall from the Japanese colonial era and visited the Demilitarized Zone at the border between North and South Korea to understand how political issues and historical events affect society. A side trip to Jeju, a remote island, offered a perspective of the land as a within the county’s unique rural environment. A global geopark uses geological heritage and other aspects of an area’s natural and cultural heritage to increase understanding of key social issues.

The group joined 32 other students from Ball State University in Indiana and in Seoul for a workshop on the importance of building campus environments that are diverse, equitable and inclusive. In addition to Lee, who also serves as the VPA’s associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, students worked with three other faculty members. They were Yongsei’s Suk-Kyung Kim, dean of the College of Human Ecology; and Ball State’s Sanglim Yoo, associate professor of urban planning and Juntae Jake Son, assistant professor of interior design.

Seoul City Hall Seoul City Hall was built as a sustainable and high-efficiency structure having the largest green wall in the world, as well as geothermal and photovoltaic systems, a rooftop garden and many more amenities for citizens to enjoy, including this futuristic-design escalator. (Photo by Seyeon Lee)

The course is an exploratory one, Lee says, and it was designed in keeping with the University’s goal that all students have opportunities to enjoy a study away or study abroad experience, even one of short duration.

“The goal of this Maymester course, apart from instructing on design content, is to immerse students in the local culture and allow them to experience the intricacies of daily life and the traditions of South Korea. We feel this program enriches student’s overall academic experience and fosters a deeper understanding of the global contexts of their educational journey,” Lee says.

“For instance, when the students visited Seodaemun Prison Hall, they learned how the building represents the Japanese Colonial era and how the Korean people fought for their independence then. The building is a museum now and its exhibitions represent a similar historic presence in Korea the way the Auschwitz concentration camp site does in Germany,” Lee says. “Rather than focusing only on design concepts or elements of the buildings or sites visited, Lee says the group concentrated on cultural and historic aspects of the places they visited and how those components shaped the spaces over time.”

Students who toured the country for the two-week Maymester course were enthusiastic about the experience.

Adam Drafts-Johnson ’25, a design studies major, says the two-week format provided a study abroad alternative that allowed him to complete his major on time. “Korea offered a place that was unfamiliar and where I wouldn’t be in the majority. This class helped me understand the vastness of world cultures and appreciate lifestyles having values not common where I am from. The daily journaling allowed me to focus on my sketching and storytelling skills.”

Leondra Tyler ’24, who will graduate in December with dual degrees in neuroscience and psychology, was previously an exchange student at Yonsei University, so the class allowed her to engage with Korean culture again. “I love learning about social behavior and culture, and this class granted me a unique way to explore that,” she says. “As a STEM major, I felt like this class was inclusive to all majors. I learned a lot about how culture and conflict shape the design of buildings and art.”

This picturesque scenic is located at a cape on the east end of Jeju Island. The ring with a swing is a tourist attraction designed to be a popular photo-taking spot. (Photo by Seyeon Lee)

Holly Ishiro Randall ‘26, an environmental and interior design major, had never studied abroad before, so the course gave her an opportunity to be immersed in a new culture and country. “My experiences navigating through South Korea and interacting with the people there were incredibly valuable. They expanded my depth and exposure to different design styles and aesthetics. This course has definitely introduced new ideas and inspiration for my future studies and projects.”

Keira Bowers ’27, a biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, says she enjoyed seeing how a different culture incorporates science and technology into daily life. “It was so insightful to see all the eco-friendly practices and energy-saving devices South Korea has put in place and how they’ve been designed into building plans. And after a year of core curriculum courses, it was nice to take a class of my choosing that invites creative freedom in our coursework.”

Paul Parpard

On a winter day 25 years ago, Paul Parpard G’94, then a professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, observed the view from his office in Lyman Hall on campus. From his window he could see the snow-covered turrets of Tolley Hall and the rooftops of Maxwell Hall and Crouse College. Inspired, he snapped a photo, which he then used to create a beautiful painting he named “Syracuse University Winter.”

This year, Parpard’s painting was chosen as the winner of the second annual Syracuse University Poster Challenge. Those who will receive one of 600 numbered, limited-edition posters. The Annual Fund supports the University’s highest priorities.

Parpard, 82, is an accomplished artist, designer, painter, sculptor and wood carver. He lives in Cazenovia, New York, where he also has had an art studio since 1968.

Parpard began working as a graphic designer for the University, creating brochures, pamphlets and promotional materials. Some of his favorite projects were designing the holiday cards for the football and basketball teams. He also created the logo for Syracuse Football’s 100-year anniversary in 1989.

Transitioning to education, Parpard served as a professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts for more than 10 years, teaching communication design, advertising design and computer graphic design. In 1994, he earned a master of fine arts from the University.

“Syracuse University Winter”

Some of his favorite years at the University were from 1985-89 when his daughter, Denise Parpard Harrison G’89, was a student in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Later, when Denise worked in New York city in promotional marketing for CHANEL, Estée Lauder and Lancôme, Parpard planned an annual trip to the city for his students to go to museums and art studios and visit Denise at her job to meet with the design departments.

The Parpard family enjoys rooting for Syracuse sports, especially football and basketball.��Parpard loves to go to games in the JMA Wireless Dome and even celebrated his 80th birthday there at the Paul McCartney concert in 2022.

He is grateful to Syracuse’s advancement staff for choosing his painting “Syracuse University Winter” as the art poster to support the Forever Orange Campaign. “It’s great to think that Syracuse alumni all around the country will have a copy of this poster,” he says. “It means a lot to me to be able to help raise scholarship money for future Syracuse students.”

Claim your limited-edition poster by .

The Retention and Student Success team receives the “Best Use of Results” award from Lois Agnew, associate provost for academic programs. From left: Hope Smalling, Radell Roberts, Lois Agnew, Kal Srinivas, Samantha Trumble, ShawnMarie Parry, Priyasha Sinha Roy ’24 and Prabin Raj Shrestha ’24

Academic Affairs and Institutional Effectiveness (IE) presented awards to several faculty and staff members, students, offices and programs during the One University Assessment Celebration on April 26, in the School of Education, Education Commons.

In her opening remarks, Lois Agnew, associate provost for Academic Programs, highlighted the importance of celebrating the various ways faculty, staff and students have engaged in assessment practices, illuminating our strengths but also reinforcing a commitment to continuous improvement. Awards were given in five categories:

• Assessment Champion: Recognizing campus community members who advocate for meaningful assessment to enrich the student experience and who have made outstanding contributions to the University’s culture of improvement.
• Outstanding Assessment: Recognizing a distinguished academic, co-curricular and functional area for overall robust assessment.
• Best Engagement Strategies: Recognizing programs/units for engaging faculty, staff and students to participate and contribute to the assessment process.
• Best Use of Results: Recognizing an academic, co-curricular and functional area for how assessment results are used in making decisions.
• Collaborative Inquiry and Action: A new award recognizing a unit that collaborates with others outside of their primary school, college or division to use assessment methods and data, resulting in actions to improve student learning and campus operations.

This year’s recipients included:

• Assessment Champion | Academic: Blythe Bennett, program manager, School of Information Studies
• Assessment Champion | Co-Curricular/Functional: Jessica Newsom, assistant director, Living Learning Communities
• Assessment Champion | Shared Competencies: Maureen Thompson, undergraduate director and associate professor, Department of Public Health, Falk College
• Outstanding Assessment | Academic Programs: Forensic Science Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute, College of Arts and Sciences (A&S)
• Outstanding Assessment | Co-Curricular: Student Outreach and Support, Student Experience
• Outstanding Assessment | Functional: Future Professoriate Program, Graduate School
• Best Faculty Engagement Strategies: Human Development and Family Science program, Department of Human Development and Family Science, Falk College
• Best Staff Engagement Strategies: College of Professional Studies Dean’s Office
• Best Student Engagement Strategies: Living Learning Communities, Student Experience
• Best Use of Results | Academic: Film program, Department of Film and Media Arts, College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA)
• Best Use of Results | Co-Curricular: Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE)
• Best Use of Results | Functional: Retention and Student Success
• Collaborative Inquiry and Action: Barnes Center at The Arch

After the awards, 2023 Assessment Leadership Institute participants were recognized for their poster presentations detailing assessment activities over the past year:

• Keonte Coleman, director of assessment and program review and assistant professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Nadeem Ghani, assistant teaching professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS)
• Dimitar Gueorguiev, Chinese studies program director and associate professor, Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Jody Nyboer, associate professor, School of Design, VPA
• Kathleen Roland-Silverstein, associate professor, presenting with Isabel Hampton ’24 and Katie Weber ’24, Sentor School of Music, VPA
• Darwin Tsen, Chinese language minor coordinator and assistant teaching professor, Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, A&S
• Andrea Willis, director of academic programs, College of Professional Studies

Recipients of the inaugural “Student Engagement in Assessment” grant were also acknowledged for their poster presentations showcasing the collaborative experiences of students, faculty and staff:

• Biomedical and Chemical Engineering: Tessa DeCicco ’25, Kerrin O’Grady ’25, Jade Carter ’24, Carly Ward ’24, Natalie Petryk ’21, Bridget Sides ’25, Mia Paynton ’25 and Doug Yung, associate teaching professor, Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program director, ECS
• Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS): Student Success Advisory Council, which includes Eadin Block ’26; Margot MacKechnie ’26; Gary Shteyman ’26; Karen Toole, coordinator of academic support, Center for Disability Resources; Tasha Terzini, advisor, A&S; Kate Bussell, assistant director of academic expectations CLASS; and George Athanas, associate director, CLASS
• New Student Programs: Winnie Naggar ’24 and Butch Hallmark, interim director, New Student Programs
• Retention and Student Success: Prabin Raj Shrestha ’24 and Hope Smalling, functional business analyst, Retention and Student Success

Jerry Edmonds, senior assistant provost, shared final remarks. He noted that Syracuse University achieved “two important milestones this year. It is the fifth annual celebration highlighting the dedicated efforts of faculty, staff and students to assess and improve, as well as 10 years since the University embarked on a campus-wide initiative of systematically collecting evidence to inform decision-making across our campus.” He concluded with thanks and appreciation for everyone’s continued efforts.

Visit the�� for event photos, presentation materials highlighting recipients’ achievements and posters.

Story by Laura Harrington, associate director, Institutional Effectiveness��

Natasha Brao (left), Emeka Ossai (center) and Xheneta Sopjani are among the recipients of the Spring 2024 Orange Innovation Fund grant.

Nine student teams will each receive $5,000 through the , a grant program administered through designed to help students commercialize their research ideas.

This semester’s recipients, who will be honored during a Zoom event on May 23, are:

• Emeka Ossai ��’25 (), founder of Campus Labs, a pilot program launching this summer for ten startup labs in the CampusLabs Nigeria incubator for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
• Xheneta Sopjani G’24 (Whitman School), Fulbright Scholar, founder of Revive by Deinde, to fabricate five units for testing a device that helps with cell rejuvenation and scientifically proven skincare.
• Waqar Hussain ��’25 (Whitman School), Fulbright Scholar, founder of Iconnic.Cloud, a managed cloud service platform providing digital products, web applications and software for small businesses.
• Brielle Young ’27 ( and Whitman School), Leadership Scholar and Renee Crown Honors Program, founder of Aggregate, an agritech company connecting communities of producers and consumers via a digital platform and e-commerce search engine.
• Natasha Brao ’22 () G’23 and G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Root & Seed Brands and Shooka Sauce, for production of a second flavor of her successful Mediterranean spiced tomato sauce gaining popularity among US restaurants and food bloggers.
• Max Sulik G’24 (), Syracuse University Ambulance emergency medical technician, founder of Vital Air Quality Sensor, a portable sensor that delivers real-time data regarding current temperature, humidity, particulate matter and CO levels to users.
• Ashtha Singh G’24 (), Chancellor’s Citation of Excellence recipient, Downey Scholar and vice president of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, founder of Step Ahead Tech, a nonprofit organization that bridges the gap in STEM education, including robotic workshops, for underserved and underrepresented students in four locations in her home community.
• Angelo Niforatos G’20 (Engineering and Computer Science), G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Niffy Drone Solutions, a drone developer and fabricator specializing in military and defense and smart home/building repair detection and analysis.
• Cory Mitchell G’24 (Whitman School), veteran, co-founder of EntreVita, a food tech startup focused on evidence-based human-centered technology for precision health using artificial intelligence.

Funding for the Orange Innovation Award program comes from a gift from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees who is an operating partner of Silicon Valley Quad, an angel investing syndicate.

“The list of this year’s recipients of the award is truly inspiring and a testament to the burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is nurtured by SU Libraries, Blackstone LaunchPad and campus partners,” Rekhi Gill says.

“I am honored to have won an Orange Innovation award,” says Sopjani.” This will certainly be a pivotal moment for Revive by Deinde, enabling us to establish a strong foundation and turn this vision into reality.”

“I am thrilled to pursue the opportunities that the Orange Innovation Fund will allow us. Step Ahead Tech is dedicated to bridging the educational and digital divide, and the robotics program we will be launching brings us one step closer,” says Singh.

“Aggregate empowers producers to share their goods, whether they are artisanal crafts or farm-fresh produce. Funding will support the development of a viable product, working with farmers and small businesses to meet their needs. I am grateful for the support of the Orange Innovation Fund award which will continue to advance our goal of fostering vibrant agriculture communities,” says Young.

“The Orange Innovation Fund takes a major restraint off the development of Vital Air Quality Sensor, while providing an opportunity to expand in new directions,” says Sulik. “The award is immensely valued and appreciated.”

Demonstrating a wide range of student diversity and backgrounds, four of the ventures are led by women founders, five are led by founders of color and one is led by a combat veteran.

The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. It is intended to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept and commercialization, supporting the University’s goals of excellence in research, scholarship, student experiential learning and innovation.

“The call for spring proposals received an unprecedented high number of proposals,” says Linda Dickerson-Hartsock, advisor for strategic initiatives at Syracuse University Libraries. “The proposals from across campus spanned many sectors, from agriculture and food to biology and life sciences, cleantech, medtech, edtech, fintech, hardware, digital platforms and nonprofit impact ventures. A multidisciplinary team of faculty and alumni founders reviewed applications, with recipients selected on the merit of the applications, along with research rigor and the clarity of the proposed project.”

. If you have questions or want to receive information about upcoming workshops and the upcoming funding cycle,��please email��orangeinnovation@syr.edu.

Hareeta Printup ’24 with some of her designs (Photo by Charles Wainwright)

Growing up, Yegunahareeta (Hareeta) Printup ’24 was immersed in the tradition and beauty of Indigenous culture.

Printup, a fashion design major in the , a 2024 VPA Scholar, a Haudenosaunee Promise Scholar and a member of the Tuscarora Nation’s Beaver Clan, was born and raised on the Onondaga Nation, where her maternal grandmother was a faithkeeper. Printup’s parents raised her in the nation’s longhouse in a very traditional way. “I have a lot of memories growing up there,” she says.

She was especially drawn to the music and dance performed during ceremonies to honor their Creator. “It’s the heart and soul of what we do,” Printup says. Although she was an artistic child, her dreams of the future included a range of possible careers, including being a marine biologist.

After graduating from Niagara-Wheatfield High School near Buffalo, New York, she went to community college and dealt with some health challenges. Printup spent some time working, including in Florida, but several circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic, made her think about changing her life’s direction.

Intricate beadwork on a skirt (Photo by Charles Wainwright)

“It really was a blessing in disguise for me because I don’t think I would’ve applied to SU if I didn’t have that moment to reconsider my life,” Printup says. “I was not happy with what I was doing at all.”

Another influence in her decision to go back to school was her dad, Ruchatneet Printup ’23, who decided to return to school and earn a film degree from VPA following nearly three decades in the workforce. “Dad said, ‘Now’s the time, you really should come back to school.’ I really didn’t think I was ever going to do it.”

Hareeta wasn’t sure what she wanted to pursue but realized fashion design was an option. “I thought to myself, ‘This is really something I could do,’” she says. “I’ve always had an interest in clothes, I just never considered it a career path before. It was like all the pieces fell together.”

While clothing with meaning is often seen at Indigenous ceremonies, it is not often seen in everyday life. Printup wants to bring design elements and historical details used and worn by her ancestors and incorporate them into modern and contemporary designs.

“We express ourselves a lot through the jewelry,” Printup says. “But if we had more clothing that had tribal prints, or beadwork or images that reflect us, if we had more options, I think we would lean into that more.”

Hareeta Printup, right, and her dad, Ruchatneet Printup ’23, at this spring’s Senior Fashion Show at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse (Photo courtesy of Hareeta Printup

Printup draws heavily on inspiration from the natural world in her designs. Through her work, she hopes to bring visibility to the Indigenous community. “As Indigenous people, we often find ourselves dressing every day in a manner that does not reflect our Indigenous identities,” she says. “I aspire to create clothes that bring comfortability to my community members and allow them to show up as themselves.”

While Printup found her calling within her studies, adapting to college life during the pandemic was challenging. “It was isolating,” she says of her first year on campus when social distancing was in effect and social activities were restricted. As an older student, she had moments of self-doubt. “I just needed to believe that I could do it,” she says. “I really have treated these four years like they’re my life’s work.”

Printup found a great deal of support from her dad, as the two shared an off-campus apartment during her time at Syracuse. “Honestly, it was awesome. My dad and I are so much alike. We do a lot of the same things, so it really worked out.” As both were engaged in creative studies, dad and daughter often bounced ideas off each other. And dad stepped in to provide support and sage advice when needed.

Hareeta Printup with some of her designs (Photo by Charles Wainwright)

The success Ruchatneet Printup, a University Scholar and VPA Scholar in 2023, enjoyed on campus also inspired his daughter to succeed academically. “I know how great he is, but it was wonderful to see him get the recognition he so deserved,” Hareeta says.

Printup will return to the Buffalo area after graduation. She is excited to see where her journey takes her next. For now, her next big endeavor is becoming a mom. Printup and her partner are expecting their first child—a girl—in August.

“My end goal is to run my own business, to have my own line of clothing,” Printup says. “I really enjoy working with my hands, so as long as I can find something that fulfills me in that way, I’ll be happy.”

What also makes Printup happy is seeing someone wear clothing that she has poured her heart and soul into. “It brings me so much joy, in all honesty. It’s finding myself in the community in a way. Growing up, I was a dancer. I was never the best dancer, but I was out there,” she says. “Now I’m realizing that maybe that’s not my place in the circle. Maybe my place is creating the clothes for the dancer. We all have our places in community, and so I think this is just me making that shift of finding where I belong.”

The symposium included a networking breakfast and panel discussion with young startup founders who have successfully raised funds: Sean Lattimore ’23, founder of Suptho; Aidan Meany, founder of Found Surface; Ben Haber, founder of Monark Markets; and Matt Schneider, founder of e-States.

The panel was followed by an open session where student entrepreneurs learned about the various types of early-stage investors, including a distinguished panel from across the country, including Libraries Advisory Board member and angel investor, Yvonne Hyland; Andrew Schwartz ’20, Zenyatta Capital co-founder; Andy Reed, ESD–NY Ventures director; Sashi Tripathi, Nurture VC managing director; Dustin Doucette, director of Upstate Venture Connect; and David Tsung, co-founder of Oculus VC, a local venture capital firm. The symposium wrapped up with a lightning round of elevator pitches by current LaunchPad student founders to the panelist judges.

Student startups competed for the People’s Choice Awards during the Blackstone LaunchPad’s first Investor-Ready Symposium.

The following student startups were the People’s Choice awardees for the event:

• First place: Sam Hogan, founder of HireBird, from SUNY Albany’s Blackstone LaunchPad
• Second place: Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), G’23, G’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Shooka Sauce
• Third place (tie): Frank Marin ’24 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), founder of Marhold Space Systems; and Yaneeka Nichols ’26 (School of Information Studies), founder of SNDER
• Honorable mentions: Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Tá Beautie; Neil Adams ’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), founder of Band Launch Media; and Chris Cherniakov, founder of Telemetree, from Colgate University.

Funds for the awards were generously donated by Andrew Schwartz ’20.

Prior to the symposium, the LaunchPad hosted a series of workshops designed to prepare students to meet potential investors on the topics of contract negotiation; due diligence-data room preparation; term sheet overview; and financial instruments review.

Faculty members Beth Myers (left) and Don Carr. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Seven student-designed products, services and technologies meant to assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities won recognition and seed funding at the Showcase on April 25.

Fashion design major Shelstie Dastinot showed adaptive clothing having Haitian-inspired designs. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

The showcase is the culmination of the two-semester course taught by , professor and program coordinator for industrial and interaction design in the , and , Lawrence B. Taishoff assistant professor of inclusive education and executive director of the in the .�� They and the students are also supported by co-instructor , founder of entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises adjunct faculty member in the ��and strategic initiatives advisor, .

The interdisciplinary course and the open-call design competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the University, including students studying in the program, and it is sponsored by Syracuse University Libraries. “It’s a unique program,” says Carr. “To my knowledge, Intelligence ++ is the only integrated design and innovation incubator in which students from a program such as InclusiveU work as part of a team to develop a wide range of product ideas.”

As part of the course, students learn about steps taken at the University to help address accessibility and neurodiversity across campus. Myers says the fact that students come from a range of majors and programs helps widen the understanding of access, disability and inclusion needs and abilities.

Policy studies major Ryan Brouchard emphasizes the planned journey for his team’s innovation, AdaptEd, created with computer science student Adya Parida. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

“We’re thinking about disability, accessibility and disability language and content, as well as the possibilities [for] disability and neurodiversity. We’re designing not for disabled people, but with disabled people, so it’s really meaningful,” says Myers.

Shelstie Dastinot ’24, a fashion design major in VPA, says her perspective on disability is formed by personal experience. “I realized that we all separate ourselves from the disabled community, but we can all become disabled at any point. We are all temporarily able, is what I like to say.”

Ryan Brouchoud ’25, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says the class taught him how to think in practical and functional ways about disability needs. “I’m learning about the best way to go about making products and programs that are accessible to all but that are also feasible to create. I’m interested in creating something that fixes problems that need addressing.”

Xiaochao Yu ’25, an interior design major in VPA, spoke to both disabled and non-disabled individuals as he worked on his project, and found the groups had similar concerns regarding public study spaces. “They expressed that the environment was distracting both visually and acoustically. I decided to create a product that would provide the privacy students were looking for.”

His project, Portable Sensory Enclosure, uses low-budget structural elements and materials to create temporary, movable barriers that offer more privacy and acoustic and visual improvements for use in public study areas.

The other winning projects were:

Four members of the team of UpliftU present how their website makes reporting incidents of bias and accessibility barriers easier, with a built-in feedback and assessment system. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Uplift U,�� a website that allows reporting on barriers to accessibility, such as the lack of an access ramp at a building, and issues and incidents related to diversity and inclusion, such as a bias situation.

It was created by InclusiveU students Tanner Knox Belge ’27 an undeclared major; Devin Braun ’27, a food studies major; Sean Bleaking ’24, a food studies major and Arturo Tomas Cruz Avellan ’27, an undeclared major; along with Jasmine Rood, ’27, a design studies major in VPA, Caitlin Kennedy Espiritu ’25, a public communications major in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, and Megan Gajewski ’27, a fashion design major in VPA.

Cuse Up, an app to help InclusiveU students more easily discover social groups and campus activities, created by students Tojyea Matally ’27, a communication design major and Faith Mahoney ’26, an industrial and interaction design major, both studying in VPA.

Shelstie, a line of sustainable, adaptive clothing featuring bright colors and Haitian-inspired looks, designed by Dastinot.

AdaptEd, an educational tech platform that uses AI-powered software to support varied learning styles, created by Brouchoud and Adya Parida ’25, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Echo Classroom, a platform that provides resources to aid in lesson interpretation, developed by Alexandra Gustave ’24 and Charlotte Chu ’26, fashion design majors in VPA.

VocaLink, a concept by graduate data science students Dhruv Shah and Sampada Regmi, offers computer-based vocational training. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

VocaLink, a computer-based vocational training and interactive learning tool, developed by graduate students Dhruv Shah ’25 and Sampada Regmi ’24, who are both students in the applied data science program at the School of Information Studies.

Judges were Matthew Van Ryn, a Syracuse attorney; Hanah Ehrenreich, a development associate at Jowonio School who also advises entrepreneurs; Brianna Howard ’20, G’21, founder of Faithful Works virtual assistant and grant writing services;�� and Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09, co-founder and chief designer of Continuum Innovation, who helped establish the program through a gift to Syracuse University Libraries from the .

Team members, faculty and judges gathered to celebrate the innovations presented at the 2024 Intelligence++ Showcase. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

The group enjoyed a public lecture presented by Syracuse University Artist in Residence at the University’s Villa Rossa facility in Florence. Weems was in Italy for the “” conference, which was co-sponsored by the University as part of the in Venice. She participated in the panel discussion, “Black Realities Through Digital Media.”

University Artist in Residence Carrie Mae Weems presented a public lecture titled “Resistance As an Act of Love” while in Florence. (Photo by Francesco Guazzelli)

Jonathan Nelson, a faculty member with the Florence program and a specialist in late 15th- and 16th-century��Italian painting and sculpture, also participated in the conference as part of the “Radical Curricula” panel.

In Florence, Weems, an internationally known and widely acclaimed artist, spoke to the students in their studio and exhibit space and conducted individual critiques of their artwork.

Eight VPA students also traveled to Venice to take in the international cultural and artistic exhibition at 2024. Attending the event allowed them to view art and other forms of creative expression made by people from all over the world.

Artist in Residence Carrie Mae Weems spoke to students studying at the University’s Florence, Italy Center. (Photo by Francesco Guazzelli)

They included Anastasia Cardona (studio art), Mark Casadevall (computer art and animation), Sidney Hanson (studio arts/art history), Madeleine Herberger (illustration), Sarah Mednick (illustration), Rumini Nguyen (studio art), Sarah Skalsk (illustration) and Alissar Youssef (illustration). Accompanying the group were Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives, and Miranda Traudt, assistant provost for arts and community programming.

Another three Syracuse University students studying in Florence participated in the critique with Weems: Paige Esposito (social work), Oskar Kraft (studio art) and Zohra Mekki (illustration).

“It was wonderful for students to learn from our artist in residence in a close-up, informal atmosphere, then see her present on the world stage about a topic that is prominent across America and the world now. Students’ exposure to world-renowned artists, emerging creatives and global thought leaders provided them with experiential learning that brought enjoyment in the moment and lasting experiences that are likely to impact them for their lifetimes,” Traudt says.

Traci Geisler, director of Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries, and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies and Whitman School of Management, co-organizers of the 2024 RvD iPrize and Spirt of Entrepreneurship Award.

Winners of the Raymond von Dran (RvD) iPrize for Student Entrepreneurship competition and the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award were announced at the student entrepreneurship competition held April 12 at Bird Library. The competition was coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries (LaunchPad) and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) and Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

The following 10 student startup teams each won $2,000 in RvD funding:

• Brielle Young ’26 (iSchool), founder of Aggregate, an online platform that enables small-scale farmers to sell directly to customers via the Internet.
• Olutosin “Tosin” Alabi G’24 (Whitman School), founder of DiabeTech, a healthcare startup developing an innovative smart bandage solution for managing diabetic foot ulcers.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Jonah Wassersug ’26 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Alexa Shoiock ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Tomoyoshi Takita ’26 (iSchool), founders of GEN, an AI-powered personal stylist and shopper.
• Waqar Hussain G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Iconic.cloud, offering small to medium enterprises a streamlined cloud server management solution, enabling them to easily deploy and scale their digital products on dedicated cloud platforms.
• Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Latita Wellness (Tà), a virtual marketplace connecting African beauty and wellness brands with the diaspora by making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase high-quality, authentic African products.
• Elizabeth Paulin ’25 (Arts and Sciences), founder of Paulin Ventures, a venture capital firm uniquely focused on investing in early-stage startups founded by diverse and disabled entrepreneurs—an underserved market with immense untapped potential.
• Xheneta Sopjani G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Revive, a powerful skincare device that combines advanced technologies to stimulate collagen, tighten facial muscles and reduce wrinkles.
• Natasha Brao G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Root & Seed Brands, which launched its first product, Shooka Sauce, a commercially packaged good brand that celebrates the mixing and melding of cultural cuisines to promote creative, adaptable cooking and bringing new experiences to the modern table.
• John Bol Ajak Deng ��’25 (Newhouse School), founder of The HumBol Fund, which aims to give academically gifted South Sudanese students from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya a sense of hope through scholarships and a network of private school partners to pursue their education in the U.S.

The Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award is awarded to students who best exemplify the spirit of entrepreneurship. Prizes honor the memory of Hunter Brooks Watson, an SU student who died tragically in a distracted driving accident. The winners of $2,000 each are:

• Adya Parida ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ryan Brouchoud ’25 (Maxwell School), founders of AdaptEd, a technology company that offers AI-powered adaptive learning software designed to support students with different learning styles.
• Bintou Manneh ’24 (iSchool), Maram Ahmed ’24 (iSchool), Marangelis Uben ’24 (iSchool) and Ashley Romero ’24 (Arts and Sciences), founders of BearBot, a stuffed toy that acts as a reading tool for children, fostering a safe and comforting learning environment.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Za’Tozia Duffie ��’25 (Newhouse School), founder of MirrorZ60, an innovative mirror designed to revolutionize personal hair care, providing users with visibility to the back of their heads.
• Jordan Pierre ��’25 (Whitman School), founder of VOICE, fostering a community that empowers and uplifts marginalized students, enabling them to unearth their voices, recognize their collective agency in effecting change, and harness their platforms to cultivate community solidarity—all through the medium of storytelling.

��The award competition highlights the University’s entrepreneurial focus. Raymond von Dran, who served as dean of the School of Information Studies from 1995 until his passing in 2007, was a longtime academic entrepreneur and staunch supporter of student innovation. Gisela von Dran, Raymond’s wife and the former director of the School of Information Studies’ library and information science master’s program, served as one of this year’s judges.

The Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award began in 2018 through the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund. Speaking on behalf of Hunter’s memory was John “Jack” Rose ’24 (Whitman School) of Management), this year’s Hunter Brooks Watson Remembrance Scholar, along with Hunter’s parents, Jerry Watson and Judith Fister, who joined from McLean, Virginia.

Sara Villagio

Villagio is charged with overseeing all marketing strategy, creative and customer service efforts for Carnegie Hall’s three iconic stages, including hundreds of performances each year that represent every kind of music as well as global music education and social impact programs.

Since joining the Hall in 2017, Villagio introduced customer-curated subscription packages, led a holistic brand and visual identity update, acted as a critical leadership team member for the Hall’s post-pandemic reopening in 2021 and developed a go-to-market strategy for Carnegie Hall+, a premium video subscription on-demand channel available nationwide on Prime Video Channels, the Apple TV app and other providers.

Prior to Carnegie Hall, Villagio enjoyed nearly 12 successful years at Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), where she was director of marketing. Rising through the ranks, she oversaw marketing efforts for JALC’s three performance venues, the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and extensive education programs. Throughout her tenure, Villagio successfully grew JALC’s concert-season ticket income, including major increases in subscriptions. Her greatest passion, however, continues to be partnering closely with artists—some established, and many more just emerging—and finding effective ways to share their creative vision with audiences.

Villagio is an alumna of the music industry program in VPA’s Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music and a graduate of the Arts & Business Council of New York’s Arts Leadership Institute in Executive Education. She is also a member of the VPA Council. A resident of Jackson Heights, Queens, she loves taking in cultural offerings of all mediums across New York City. In addition to her love for arts and culture, she is a certified kettlebell coach, enabling her to share her love of strength training with others.

Members of Syracuse University’s military-connected community pose for a group photo with Otto before the 2024 SVO Ball & Awards Banquet.

Syracuse University’s military-connected community came together for an evening of celebration during the annual Ball & Awards Banquet. The formal event, held each year during the Spring semester, acknowledges the accomplishments within the veteran community at Syracuse University and serves as an evening of camaraderie before the academic calendar is overtaken by final exams.

SVO President John Nipper ’23, G’24, speaking to guests at the 2024 SVO Ball & Awards Banquet.

SVO President and U.S. Navy Veteran John Nipper ’23, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, opened the formal portion of the evening by acknowledging those military-connected students who will graduate this year, even if they were unable to attend the festivities. “Congratulations on all your successes here at Syracuse University, you should be proud of all your accomplishments and to now be recognized as an alumni of these hallowed halls. We know that you will do great things in your future endeavors,” Nipper said.

This year’s event featured a Gatsby-themed evening that welcomed the largest crowd in attendance since the SVO Ball first found a home at the National Veterans Resource Center since its opening. The evening features a formal dinner, guest speaker, awards presentation, announcement of the next year’s SVO executive board, music and dancing, as well as a raffle drawing to help raise money for next year’s SVO functions.

Theodore “Ted” Walker

Theodore “Ted” Walker, a U.S. Army veteran and guest speaker of this year’s event, is an assistant professor with the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Walker shared some of his own experience in the military as a U.S. Army ranger with multiple deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Walker also spoke about the importance of having an engaged community for veterans, highlighting the unique camaraderie that exists among those who have served and the underlying purpose of the SVO’s existence.

Each year, both the SVO and Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA) use the event to present their annual awards of recognition. Both organizations present awards to acknowledge the contributions and impact of key individuals, some more light-hearted than others. Among the more impactful awards presented, the following members of the University’s military-connected community were acknowledged:

The SVO Community Service Award is presented to an SVO member who goes beyond expectations in supporting not just our veteran community but extends their generosity and kindness to all those in need around them. This year, the award was presented to Jose A. Baeza-Ruiz ’25, a business analytics student in the Whitman School of Management.

The SVO Best for Vets award is presented to the student veteran who has done the most to help student veterans succeed both on and off campus. This year, the Best for Vets award was presented to SVO Secretary Raul “Rudy” Rosique ’23.

The SVO acknowledged OVMA Executive Director Ron Novack, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, with the SVO’s Staff Appreciation Award, and the SVO Faculty Appreciation Award was presented to retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kubala, executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic and a teaching professor at Syracuse University’s College of Law.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Kubala (left), executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic and a teaching professor at Syracuse University’s College of Law, receives the SVO Faculty Appreciation Award from SVO President John Nipper.

“I’m truly humbled and honored to be recognized by the SVO for this award. Here at Syracuse University, we pride ourselves on cultivating a strong sense of community on campus and in the classroom for our veteran and military-connected students, and I’m really proud to be part of that collective effort,” said Kubala. “I’ve seen first-hand how our programs, like the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, make a tremendous impact by exposing our campus community to veterans, showing others what it means to serve, and fostering a more supportive and welcoming environment for veterans here at Syracuse.”

The OVMA also presents awards at the event each year to several military-connected students who have gone above and beyond in their dedication to supporting the University’s military initiatives.

The Danny Facto Student Veteran Work Study Award, presented by the Office of Veteran Success (OVS), is presented in the name of Danny Facto, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Facto attended the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics with the goal of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and was the first VA work-study student at Syracuse University. Facto died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 2009, his death was felt throughout the military-connected community at the University and each year the OVS presents an award in his name to a current VA work-study student they feel is deserving of the recognition.

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ron Novack (left), executive director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (left), presents the OVMA Student Veteran of the Year Award to Raul “Rudy” Rosique.

This year, the Danny Facto Student Veteran Work Study Award was presented to Andrew Patterson, a 3L law student in the College of Law.

The OVMA Student Veteran of the Year Award was also presented at the banquet, awarded to a student veteran who makes the most standout commitment to the military-connected community at Syracuse University. This year, the award was presented to Raul Rosique ’24.

To close out the event each year, the SVO announces the results of the SVO’s Executive Board election. Those elected will go on to serve in the next academic year to help support veteran and military-connected students as well as welcome all students who wish to learn more about service members, veterans and the military community at large.

SVO Executive Board Results:

President: Raphael Grollmus, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences

Vice President: Marriler Wilson, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship

Secretary: Jurgen Baeza ’26, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science

Treasurer: Savion Pollard ’25, an electrical engineering major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science

Public Affairs Officer: Tojyea “TJ” Matally ’27, a communications design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts

Community Outreach Officer: Leonel Aviles ’26, an information management and technology major in the School of Information Studies

“I first started attending in the Fall of 2021 and have seen a night and day difference within the SVO. The lounge seemed more like a doctor’s office than a place to eat and gather, and socials were nonexistent due to COVID. Every year since there have been new faces, a significant increase in events and overall, it’s been more welcoming. It’s like seeing something being built from the ground up,” said Grollmus, who served for nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to enrolling at the University. “If there is something the veteran community as a whole could benefit from or an event that would be excited to do, let us know so we can put it into action.”

The SVO Executive Board for the 2024-25 Academic Year (from left to right):
Public Affairs Officer, Toyyea “TJ” Matally; Secretary, Jurgen Baeza; Vice President Marriler Wilson; President Raphael Grollmus; Treasurer, Savion Pollard; and Community Outreach Officer, Leonel Aviles.

Photos by Sophia Simmons, student in the Advanced Military Visual Journalism

It is one year after the End of Theatre and 12-year-old Nim Dullyn has just witnessed his first droll—an underground performance of comedic excerpts from famous plays. Seduced by the magic of the stage, Nim joins an illegal theatre troupe and sets out for the city, with the beastly Roundheads—a group of fundamentalists who deem theatre an abomination—hot on their trail.

“Meg Miroshnik is an exciting young American playwright, and this is only the second fully-staged production of this inventive play that imagines a place and time without theatre,” says Madeoy. “It has everything: danger, deception, revolt, romance, comedy, cosplay, poetry, punk rock, fights, songs and spectacle. I’m thrilled for Syracuse audiences to experience it.”

Inspired by the 17th-century theatre closures of Puritan England, “The Droll” is a daring and darkly funny play that celebrates our need to come together in the act of collective storytelling.

Details

‘The Droll (Or, a Stage-Play about the END of Theatre)’

• By Meg Miroshnik
• Directed by Celia Madeoy
• Scenic design by Alexis Wilner
• Costume design by Sofia Pizer
• Lighting design by Mairead Cummins
• Sound design by Kevin O’Connor
• Music composition by Eleni Stavros
• Fight and intimacy choreography by Alec Barbour
• Clown and movement direction by Richard Dent
• Dialect coaching by Blake Segal
• Dramaturgy by Antonia Portales
• Stage managed by Kit Verweij

Cast

• Roundhead……………………………………………………..Jim McMahon James
• Killingworth…………………………………………………………….Anthony Tibolla
• William Rifel……………………………………………………………………Will Nissen
• Margaret Killingworth…………………………………………………….Micaiah John
• Nim Dullyn………………………………………………………………Hazel Kinnersley
• Thomas Dread Rosey………………………………………………….Nathan Ayotte
• Doll Cutpurse………………………………………………………….Sarah Cummings
• Roundhead Spy, Ensemble, Swing……………………………………..Kyle Hejlik
• Roundhead Spy, Ensemble, Swing……………………………………Jamie Mack

Additional Credits

• Fight Captain: Kit Verweij
• Consultants: Meegs Longacre, Tatiyyanah Queen-Asia Hope Nelums
• Assistant Director: Zach Asnis
• Assistant Scenic Designer: Evan Hoover
• Assistant Lighting Designer: James Klemmer
• Assistant Stage Managers: Sami Renea English, Grace Mineiro

Thirty-five students have been chosen as the 2024-25 Syracuse University Remembrance Scholars.

The scholarships, now in their 35th year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the students studying in London and Florence through Syracuse University who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.

Significant support for the Remembrance Scholarships has been provided by Jean Thompson ’66 and Syracuse University Life Trustee Richard L. Thompson G’67 in memory of Jean Taylor Phelan Terry ’43 and John F. Phelan, Jean Thompson’s parents; by Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Steven Barnes ’82 and Deborah Barnes; by The Syracuse Association of Zeta Psi in memory of Alexander Lowenstein; and by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.

Selection Process

Remembrance Scholars are chosen in their junior year through a competitive selection process. Applicants submitted an essay and a reflective response in multimedia, artistic, musical or written format as part of a comprehensive application. The application evaluation committee is composed of University faculty and staff and current Remembrance Scholars. The $5,000 scholarships are awarded on the basis of scholarship, leadership and service to the community.

Additionally, two students from Lockerbie come to Syracuse each year for one year of study through the Syracuse-Lockerbie Scholarships, also in their 35th year. The scholarships are jointly funded by Syracuse University and the Lockerbie Trust. Cameron Colville and Anna Newbould were recently selected as the 2024-25 Lockerbie Scholars.

“Remembrance Scholars represent Syracuse University at its best through their academic achievements, their leadership skills and their contributions to the University,” says Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter. “They reflect the talent and promise of those students whose memories they honor. We are very proud to call them members of our University community.”

The Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars plan the Remembrance activities held at the University each year. The scholars will be recognized during a convocation in the fall.

The 2024-25 Remembrance Scholars, their hometowns, majors and schools and colleges are the following:

• Alba Aljiboury of Syracuse, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), an information management and technology major in the School of Information Studies and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program;
• Linda Baguma of Iowa City, Iowa, a double major in international relations and political science in the Maxwell School and A&S and member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Adam Baltaxe of Arlington, Virginia, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a Spanish major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tanner Boshart of Jackson, New Jersey, an economics major and history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a finance major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Danis Cammett of Washington, D.C., an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, applied data analytics major in the School of Information Studies, a member of the Crown Honors Program and a member of the University’s Army Reserve Officer Training Program;
• Natalie Dolenga of Lincolnshire, Illinois, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Charlotte Ebel of Urbana, Illinois, a public relations major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, a women’s and gender studies and German major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Luke Elliott of Leesburg, Virginia, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School, a public relations major in the Newhouse School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Garbus of Hannibal, New York, a music education major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the School of Education;
• Joshua Garvin of Houston, Texas, a music industry major in VPA;
• Tabitha Hulme of Saratoga, California, a public health major in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and health humanities major in A&S;
• Abigail Jones of Mashpee, Massachusetts, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Rajan Joshi of Dallas, Texas, an economics major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sierra Kaplan of New York, New York, a health humanities major in A&S; a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Kelsey Leary of Mahopac, New York, an art photography major in VPA;
• Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer of Singapore, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a law, society and policy major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sophia Moore of Burbank, California, a television, radio and film major in the Newhouse School, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Zachary Murray of Kingston, Jamaica, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a modern foreign languages major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Ryan Myers of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mark Nzasi of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Cheryl Olanga of Nairobi, Kenya, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS);
• Adya Parida of Odisha, India, a computer science major in ECS and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Jenna Poma of Queens, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tia Poquette of Brooklyn, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S:
• Alekhya Rajasekaran of Visalia, California, a biotechnology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Olivia Reid of Richmond, California, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Romero of Olathe, Kansas, a music education major in VPA and the School of Education, a music history and cultures major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alie Savane of Bronx, New York, a biology major in A&S;
• Abigael Scott of Plattsburgh, New York, a neuroscience and biology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Yifan “Ivan” Shen of Shanghai, China, a student in the School of Architecture, a music history and cultures major in A&S, and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Justine Smith of Somerville, New Jersey, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Joshua Spodek of Wayne, New Jersey, a history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a social studies education major in the Maxwell School and the School of Education and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alyssa Sutherland of St. Louis, Missouri, a public health major in the Falk College; a women’s and gender studies major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Evelina Torres of Houston, Texas, a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program; and
• Leondra Tyler of Cicero, New York, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S.

Graduate-level learning, research and creative activities can also occur throughout the community as students work with local residents of all ages and backgrounds through partnerships with a variety of local organizations.

Graduate-level learning, research and creative activities take place in classrooms, labs and studios on the Syracuse University campus, but they also occur throughout the community as graduate students work with local residents of all ages and backgrounds through partnerships with a variety of local organizations.

The and the (EHN) in the College of Arts and Sciences are two campus resources that help graduate students find volunteer opportunities and carry out community-based research initiatives.

The Shaw Center is the University’s hub for experiential learning, matching student volunteers with community needs. Administrative coordinator says volunteers work at the University’s and other community locations, including the , , and (SCSD) schools.

EHN annual research assistantships and summer and winter fellowships provide arts and humanities that align with graduate scholarship, coursework and community-building. About 35 graduate students are currently involved across a range of programs, says , EHN founder and director.

Lauren Ashby

Lauren Ashby, a Ph.D. student in sociology, works with Data Warriors, a club at SCSD’s Nottingham High School that uses math and mapping to advance social justice and address local issues. She previously ran a summer research program for SCSD students on geographic information systems (technology that creates, analyzes and plots data to a map).

The community engagement and participatory research Ashby’s EHN-associated projects provide are important to her research, which looks at educational segregation and inequality, she says. “I have been able to work with incredible high school students who want to make real change in their communities. I’m diving right into what I am passionate about and I share that beyond academic spaces. Partnering with students pushes scholarship in new directions and provides new insights,” she says.

Lauren Cooper

Lauren Cooper, a Ph.D. candidate in English, specializes in the climate history of the Romantic period and its relationship to Romantic literature. She works mainly with first-generation immigrants, new Americans and other traditionally underserved populations.��Through her work with Write Out, she has helped area youth share their stories��while also enjoying literature. Her “Ecologies of Writing” project, she partnered with to offer students a way to respond to human-induced environmental and climate change.

Community-engaged projects provide a needed real-world lens to balance climate crisis and environmental justice questions against the literary responses to those issues, Cooper says. “Engaged humanities work provides a really valuable mode of making sure we’re centering questions and voices grounded in our contemporary moment and the community around us, even as we conduct specialized research,” she says.

Caroline Dollar

Caroline Dollar, a master’s student in public administration in the , started reading with kindergarteners and second graders at SCSD’s Delaware Primary School through the United Way of Central New York’s program. She travels to and from the school using Shaw Center transportation.

Learning about some of the challenges many SCSD children face, Dollar felt moved to help address them, she says. “I love to read, and I enjoy sharing that love with the students, so I decided to get involved with the community. I honestly just feel good about spending a little bit of my time each week giving back and connecting with the kids.”������

Graduate film student Monae Kyhara leads students in a filmmaking workshop activity.

Monae Kyhara, a master’s film student in the (VPA), helped pilot a filmmaking workshop, “Teens with a Movie Camera.” She worked with Evan Bode G’23, a VPA film and media arts graduate who is now a VPA instructor.

The project encouraged teens to use their smartphones as an artistic instrument and a form of self-expression.

Monae Kyhara

The experience was an enlightening and rewarding one, she says. “It allowed us to expand artist conversations with young artists and was an opportunity for both parties to learn from each other and grow in our love of the arts through pedagogy and practice.

Diana Varo Lucero volunteers at La Casita Cultural Center to read stories with young children. (Photo by Edward Reynolds)

Hosting Shaw Center weekly story times at La Casita Cultural Center helped Diana Varo Lucero, a master’s multimedia, photography and design student in the , stay connected to her community. She is producing a documentary for her master’s project. ��

Diana Varo Lucero

“I chose to volunteer because part of my values as a storyteller and a creative is to use my platform to give back to my community and provide a space for other people to tell their stories,” Lucero says. “I think that to create impact, we must actively become involved with our communities. La Casita has given me the space to learn and become involved. I have met welcoming people, built a supportive community and have discovered my ability to work with different age groups. I’m also still able to work towards contributing to local communities.”

The work of nearly 40 artists aged six to 12 who have participated in the center’s free will be displayed. The opening event and reception take place on Friday, April 19, at La Casita’s facilities at 109 Otisco Street, Syracuse. The event is free and open to the public.

Tere Panaigua

, executive director of the at Syracuse University, says center staff take great pride in the young artists’ accomplishments. “The children’s achievements are remarkable, and programming like this allows everyone involved to gain knowledge and understanding about different creative works as well as about each other. It is a wonderful way to learn more about the many cultures that abound in our city and our region and how people make connections through art.”

More than 200 Syracuse University students serve as interns and volunteers in the programs, working together with faculty members and community artists to help youngsters in the program with a range of art projects and musical and dance performances. The children who participate include residents of the City’s West Side, Syracuse City School District students, and those from other parts of Syracuse and neighboring towns.

Paniagua says the program is valuable for more than just the way it teaches children about the arts. “The children are engaged in a culturally centered, safe environment where they are learning and gaining new skills. They also are working with older students who mentor them and provide them with some amazing role models.”

The event will highlight the work of these activities:

Open Studio (artmaking): This workshop is led by graduate student Bennie Guzman G ’25, a College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) creative art therapy major and youth programming coordinator for La Casita since 2018. Guest artists who collaborated with Bennie in designing and facilitating workshops include , associate professor of film at VPA, who facilitated a two-week animation film workshop; and , a Syracuse teaching artist who exhibited at this year’s Latino Futurism show and who led a comic book illustration workshop. Two undergraduate students assisted in the workshop programming: Sidney Mejía ’24, a political science major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Ana Aponte ’24, Gonzalez, a dual major in communications and rhetorical studies and women’s and gender studies in VPA and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).

Danza Troupe: This dance ensemble will perform at the reception. It is led by Syracuse University student Gabriela Padilla ’25, a biochemistry major in A&S who has been the program’s dance instructor and choreographer for the past two years. She and the troupe plan a show for the opening event that features an about La Casita. The song was written by Alexander Paredes, who recently completed an executive Master of Public Administration at the Maxwell School and is now using his optional practical training year to work in administration at La Casita.

Children in the afterschool arts program study piano with instructor and undergraduate student volunteer piano instructor Myra Bocage ’26. (Photo by Edward Reynolds)

Children in the program’s piano and violin workshops will also perform along with their instructors, recent VPA violin performance graduate student Tales Navarro ’G 24 and piano instructor Myra Bocage ’26, an advertising major at the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Students involved in the dual language literacy programs at La Casita include Andrea Perez Ternet ’24, a human development and family science senior in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, who is completing a capstone internship at La Casita, and Diana García Varo G ’25, a graduate student in the multimedia, photography and design program at the Newhouse School.

La Casita, an arts and education center supported by Syracuse University, was established in 2011 as a cultural bridge for Latino/Latin American communities on campus and throughout the Central New York region.

Marco Campos

Since childhood, Marco Campos has carved his own path, one that took him from poverty to great success. Today, Campos, together with his sister, Deanna Campos-Miller, are committed to creating opportunities for educational institutions and communities in support of student success through their foundation, .

Through the foundation, Campos, whose son is a third-year student in the , has just pledged $2.15 million to Syracuse University as part of the Forever Orange Campaign. The gift will fund a new student center in the . The student center will offer programming designed to attract underrepresented students to the college and support the academic success of all ECS students. It comes at a time of tremendous growth for ECS. As part of the University’s Academic Strategic Plan, ECS will grow its enrollment and faculty ranks by 50% by 2028.

“The Campos Student Center will provide dedicated space for our students with a home for collaboration, community and access to resources that maximize their success,” says ECS Dean . “This space will facilitate club activities that enhance the experience of our diverse student body. More than that, it will be a home on campus that is inviting and welcoming to all.”

The Campos Student Center will be housed on the second floor of the Center for Science and Technology.

Marco and his sister grew up in West Denver, Colorado, raised by a single mother with limited resources. Campos-Miller says her brother literally wore the boots in the family. “Marco got the snow boots, but I didn’t have any, so when we had to walk to school in the snow, he would walk in front of me and pave the way to school,” says Campos-Miller. “He told me, ‘Walk right behind me in my footprints.’”

Today, the siblings are paving the way for student success through the Campos Foundation.

“As a young teenager, I didn’t have role models,” says Campos. “I sensed there was something bigger, but there wasn’t a clear path.” He was talented in math but received little encouragement or support until becoming part of a summer bridge program in his senior year of high school. That opened the door to engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder where, for the first time, his potential was recognized and cultivated. “I never loved engineering and math, but I saw the pathway to a career in an engineering degree,” says Campos. “It was grueling work, but the perseverance and grind ultimately get you there. You have to be consistent and hold the course.”

Campos-Miller says her brother has never forgotten where he came from. “Marco wants to elevate as many people as possible, and he can do that by funding the right kinds of programs,” says Campos-Miller. “Grit, perseverance and compassion are the best ways to describe Marco. He was always a really good dreamer!”

Marco Campos with three of his four children. (Photo by Alex Dunbar)

Campos’ gift was inspired by a recent visit to campus and by the success of an earlier gift made by his foundation to the University of Colorado in Boulder. He says he saw the geography and the demographics of Syracuse and thought he could make a similar impact. He believes the new student center will be a welcoming and inclusive home where engineering, computer science, and other STEM students can go for academic support, financial advice and career direction. The student center is intended to inspire those who have big hopes and dreams but maybe haven’t been empowered in the past, he says.

“This kind of philanthropic support represents a true endorsement of and investment in the vision, mission and strategic planning of the College of Engineering and Computer Science,” says . “I am grateful to Marco and Deanna for their commitment to Syracuse University and am confident this center will have an impact on generations of students pursuing career paths in engineering.”

Campos’ career began with an internship at Texaco during his college years, and he was hired immediately upon graduation. By age 30, he had accumulated enough work and consulting experience, confidence and wealth to start his own company and start giving back. , established in 2005 with headquarters in Denver, offers engineering, procurement and construction counsel for utility, energy and midstream organizations. The company also offers STEM education initiatives through a community outreach program, while the foundation supports summer bridge programs, scholarships and SmartLabs at primary and secondary schools, among other initiatives.

“When I talk about the company, I rarely talk about the business,” says Campos. “Everyone can engineer. Everyone can project manage, but I want to be known for trying to improve the community and improve quality of life.”

He credits his hard-working employees for their commitment to giving back and driving the success of the Campos Foundation. He notes that the guiding principle of Campos companies is, “Our People are our Power,” and the power of philanthropy rests with his employees.

Campos and his sister believe the foundation’s intensive focus on mission through philanthropy, and the recruitment of specialized talent to lead and manage these kinds of student-centered programs helps universities “move the needle” when it comes to attracting students of all backgrounds to engineering fields. “This has become our corporate and social responsibility,” says Campos. “You have to be focused and disciplined and patient in your approach. Working with the University, we set up metrics to make sure the funding is accomplishing our established goals.”

Campos-Miller says the naming of the new student center aligns the hopes and dreams of students with the man who forged an enviable path to success. “Campos isn’t just a name. It’s the story behind the name. It represents possibilities and pathways to get there.”

“We all have a sphere of influence and it’s incumbent on each of us to affect our sphere of influence in the most positive ways we can,” says Campos. “Putting good out there in the universe brings back good, even more than we put out.”

The One University Awards Ceremony, an annual event to honor members of the Syracuse University community who are making a difference through academics, scholarship, creative work and dedicated service, will be held Friday, April 19, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

“Every year, we come together to celebrate the outstanding contributions and tremendous success of our students, faculty, staff and broader community,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “The accomplishments of this year’s recipients reinforce what it means to be Orange. This ceremony also shines a bright spotlight on the work being done around campus, much of which happens behind the scenes. I thank the many members of our community who organized this event and look forward to recognizing this year’s winners.”

Two major awards—the Chancellor’s Medal and the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence—will be bestowed. The ceremony will also include the presentation of the Student-Athlete Award, Judith Seinfeld Scholarship, Meredith Professorship for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Recognition Award, Diversity and Inclusion Award, William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning and Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award.

and�� will also be recognized. This year’s��University Scholars,��, and Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars will also be honored.

All members of the University community are invited and encouraged to attend. A reception will follow in the lobby of the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided at the ceremony. For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, contact Gabe Coleman at gbcolma@syr.edu.

Award Recipients��

The��Chancellor’s Medal��is the University’s highest honor and is awarded to individuals in honor of their trailblazing and extraordinary contributions to the University, to an academic body of knowledge or to society. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The��Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence��recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in four overarching categories:

• The award for��Excellence in Student Research recognizes students who have engaged in collaborative research that has the potential to make a deep and lasting impact on greater society. This year’s recipients are Jingjing Ji, a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (graduate), and Ashtha Singh, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School (undergraduate).
• The award for��Outstanding Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives acknowledges faculty and staff who, through their work, enhance the undergraduate experience for students or make invaluable contributions to supporting and advancing the University’s mission and goals. The recipients are��, associate professor of communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (faculty); , chief operating officer for the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (professional staff); , program coordinator of citizenship and civic engagement in the Maxwell School (professional staff) and , events coordinator at Lubin House (support staff).
• The��Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction award is intended for faculty members who are collaborators in work of intellectual richness that has the potential for future impact. The work of these nominees offers possibilities for collaboration within the University and outside in partnership with others. This year’s honorees are��, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art and Music Histories in the College of Arts and Sciences, and , associate dean of research and professor of Public Health in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.
• Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence, Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors those who have made extraordinary contributions toward advancing all four pillars of excellence over the arc of their careers while at Syracuse University and beyond. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The other awards to be presented are:

• The��Student-Athlete Award recognizes the top female and top male student athletes and are presented to the senior student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point average over the course of their academic and athletic careers. This year’s recipients are Izabela Krakic, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and member of the women’s rowing team, and Julius Rauch, an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the men’s soccer team.
• Seinfeld Scholarship: Each year Syracuse University honors the talents of outstanding faculty or students through an��, a distinguished alumna and member of the University Board of Trustees. Awards are made to those who have been determined by their peers to have made outstanding contributions to the beauty of the world, to have added to human values and to ending human abuse anywhere in the world, and to have demonstrated passion for excellence, creativity and originality in academic or artistic fields. This year, the designation is bestowed upon a faculty member,��, associate professor of advertising in the Newhouse School.
• The��Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorships for Teaching Excellence were created in 1995 to recognize and reward outstanding teaching among faculty. The 2024-27 Meredith Professors are��, professor in the School of Information Studies, and , Bond, Schoeneck and King Distinguished Professor in the College of Law.
• In 2001, the Meredith Professorship Program was expanded to recognize teaching excellence by non-tenured faculty and adjunct and part-time instructors. Awards are given in two categories:��Early Performance and��Continuing Excellence. This year’s honorees in the Early Performance category are��, assistant professor of television, radio and film in the Newhouse School; , associate teaching professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science; , assistant professor of visual communications in the Newhouse School; , assistant teaching professor of Chinese and Chinese language in the College of Arts and Sciences; and , assistant professor in the School of Architecture. The two honorees in the Continuing Excellence category are��, assistant dean of online and distance education and associate teaching professor of social work in the Falk College, and , teaching professor and graduate director of nutrition and food studies in the Falk College.
• The��Diversity and Inclusion Award��recognizes an individual who is integral in helping us achieve academic excellence at a university that is welcoming to all through our investments in a diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable community. This year’s recipient is��, teaching professor in the College of Law and faculty fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
• The��William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning is based in the School of Education and honors national or international leadership in support of lifelong learning. This year’s recipient is ’77, executive director of MidPenn Legal Services, adjunct professor of law at PennState’s Dickinson Law and an alumna of the School of Education.
• The��Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award recognizes individual students, faculty or staff who—by virtue of extraordinary hard work, good values and commitment to excellence—have come to embody the best of Syracuse University. This year’s recipients are , associate vice president of parent engagement and student experience, and , head coach of the men’s soccer team.

Joseph Maxwell Ossei-Little (left) and Ryan McQuay Meredith

Meredith’s composition, “Polluted Skies,” consists of two movements, “Clouds” and “Stars.” The piece mimics a cloudy sky that eventually opens into a starry night.

A massive mechanical instrument, the organ always fascinated trombonist Meredith. Housed in Crouse College’s Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium, a 3,823-pipe Holtkamp Organ is part of what attracted him to Syracuse University. “There’s a lot of magic tricks you can pull off on the organ,” says Meredith. “Specifically with our organ, there’s a lot of options where you can have one hand do an orchestra’s worth of what you want.”

The completed composition broadened organist Ossei-Little’s musicality, allowing him to play with unique rhythms and contribute his own voice to the growth of the organ community. “What really got me interested in the project is this whole idea that my professor has been championing about expanding the repertoire of the organ,” he says. A composer-organist pair themselves, Setnor Associate Professor Anne Laver and Assistant Professor Natalie Draper guided the students throughout the project.

The creation of new compositions can have a large impact on the evolution of the instrument, Ossei-Little notes. When large chords became commonplace in compositions, organ builders reacted, making it easier for players to meet the needs of the pieces.

Available on video via the AGO website this summer, “Polluted Skies” will highlight all the organ has to offer. Ossei-Little plans to premiere it at his scheduled for Saturday, April 13, at 5 p.m. in Setnor Auditorium. “It’s a very wonderful opportunity for us to showcase what the organ can do,” Ossei-Little says. “Not just what it used to do in the past but what it can do now.”

The event will highlight undergraduate and graduate student teams from across campus who have created concepts for products, services and technologies that can assist intellectually disabled people and their families. A distinguished panel of experts will award a total of $2,500 for the best showcase ideas.

Students present their designed products, services or technologies that can assist intellectually disabled people and their families at the 2023 Intelligence++ Showcase competition. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Students wishing to present should e-mail , professor of industrial and interaction design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and program coordinator, at dwcarr@syr.edu before April 15 to secure a spot and to receive showcase instructions.

The event is sponsored by , a collaboration among , a program of the at the , VPA School of Design��and . The event is open to students across campus, and all are welcome to attend the showcase.

Launched in 2020 through a generous donation by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09 and the , Intelligence++ is an innovative, interdisciplinary initiative focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, design and community. The initiative is available to both undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines, including students with intellectual disabilities. A key element of the initiative is a two-semester course (DES 400/600) that encourages students to work in teams to imagine and create products, devices, digital platforms and services for persons with disabilities, culminating in the spring showcase.

Intelligence++ centers around three main concepts:

• Aspects of Design—once a specific need or opportunity is identified, student teams are supported by a group of experts to help develop a working prototype of their design. By taking a build-to-learn approach, students gain real-time feedback while continually evolving their design.
• Understandings of Disability—including accessibility, disability rights and advocacy, disability history, language, disability culture, models of disability and inclusion.
• Entrepreneurship—students learn to develop a commercialization roadmap that moves through problem solving, solution building, testing, iteration, lean business model development, team formation, finding advisors and strategic partners, developing a funding strategy and pitching for investment.

DES 400/600 is taught by Professor Carr, with support from , Lawrence B. Taishoff Associate Professor of Inclusive Education in the School of Education and executive director of the Taishoff Center. , founder of and strategic initiatives advisor with the Libraries,��provides entrepreneurial support to teams.

In addition to the course and the annual showcase, students can seek funding to commercialize their ideas through . Students from any school or college can apply for this funding, and they do not need to take DES 400/600 to apply. However, priority is given students working with research and commercialization programs such as the Blackstone LaunchPad, , , , , , Intelligence++, NSF I-Corps, ��and .

Intelligence++ Ventures funding supports specifically defined projects with clearly identified timeframes and outcomes that move a research project or venture toward proof of concept and commercialization. Funds assist tangible needs through four innovation phases: discovery, testing, building and launching to market.

Directed by Christine Albright-Tufts, performances of “Touch(ed)” will be held April 5-14 in the Loft Theatre at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex, located at 820 East Genesee St. Tickets are available through the or by calling 315.443.3275.

Performances of “Touch(ed)” run April 5-14 in the Loft Theatre at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex.

Set in a remote cabin in the woods, “Touch(ed)” follows Kay, a middle school science teacher from New York City, as she cares for her sister, who has just been released from a psychiatric facility after years of treatment. Desperate to reconnect and help heal what modern medicine has failed to, Kay and her novelist boyfriend, Billy, begin to coax her sister back to normalcy with home-cooked meals, board games and good, old-fashioned rest and relaxation. But when Billy starts taking her sister’s recovery into his own hands, Kay is forced to confront a terrifying prospect: Finally taking care of herself.

“I’m so excited that our students have the opportunity to bring to life a play that deftly explores themes of mental health and suicide with thoughtfulness and care,” Albright-Tufts says. “The play manages to find joy in the darkness while honoring the struggles of those who face these illnesses.”

Savagely funny, unapologetically modern and surprisingly tender, Wohl’s “Touch(ed)” is a skillfully observed drama about navigating life, love and loss in an age of endless anxieties.

Sequential exhibitions will be open to the public through March 30, April 5-13 and April 19-28, providing an opportunity to experience the latest work by emerging artists as they grapple with what it means to make art in this socio-political moment. “Despite the diverse range of ideas, reflections and projects, an elusive yet resonant undercurrent of unsettlement, whether subtle or overflowing, serves as a shared wellspring of inspiration,” says curator Juliana Fagua Arias, Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University.

Spanning disciplines that include painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, film, video, installation and performance, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the artists’ diverse practices and innovative approaches. A complete list of each exhibition’s participating artists, with links to their digital portfolios, can be found on the .

The themes and concepts presented by the artists in this year’s exhibition range from the disruption of archival histories to explorations of intersectional identity centered on gender, migration and belonging. Arias explains, “Borne from diverse origins like the echoes of family history, the winds of political turmoil, the currents of environmental challenges, the shadows of systemic oppression or the reflections on mortality, this internal unease becomes a poetic muse—a force propelling creative resistance, eliciting responses and inspiring reactions.”

Though their interests vary widely, most of the presenting artists work interdisciplinary as they forge new ground through exploratory creative processes. “The challenging exploration of these complex ideas and emotions becomes a graceful liberation, a gentle release from the weight of anguish, allowing for an embrace of a subtle yet empowering sentiment of freedom,” says Arias.

From left: Declan Yurt, “Reveal” (2022); Jasmine Veronica, “Grace of Her Touch” (2023)

The exhibition will be held at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse galleries, 350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse, with upcoming opening receptions April 5, 6-8 p.m. and April 19, 7-9 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the artists, learn about their inspiration and creative process and engage with the vibrant arts community of Syracuse.

According to Arias, “the exhibition is envisioned as an unrestricted stage where artists feel at liberty to reveal and perform their provocative, vulnerable and unbound selves. It is a celebration of artistic expression, offering a space for self-discovery and liberation from the constraints that may have previously held them back.”

“Unsettled, Unbridled, Unbound” is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are daily, noon-5 p.m.

The cohort will exhibit additional works at Novado Gallery, 110 Morgan St., Jersey City, New Jersey, from April 26-May 4, with an opening reception scheduled for April 26 from 6-9 p.m.

For more information about the exhibition, contact Kate Warren, kwarre01@syr.edu.