Around the SUNY Oswego campus

An enthusiastic SUNY Oswego team took part in the two-week deployment that began July 29 in the ongoing NY Stands with Puerto Rico Recovery and Rebuilding Initiative. Joining SUNY and CUNY schools volunteering with the All Hands and Hearts disaster response organization, other Oswego members on that team included Student Involvement Coordinator Maggie Rivera, Student Association President Eusebio Omar van Reenen and Oswego students and/or recent graduates Brooke Ebersold, Rananjaya Gamage, Kimberly Smith, Olivia Botting and her father Howard, an Oswego alumnus and technology teacher. Olivia Botting posted a #LakerTakeoverPR on the @sunyoswego Instagram account. An earlier deployment featured 15 SUNY Oswego students under faculty team leader Joanne O’Toole, as the college was designated a lead campus by SUNY in this effort.

Two young students proclaim four decades of the newly rededicated Sheldon Institute for Barbara Shineman Scholars during Sheldon Showcase performances Aug. 3 in Sheldon Hall ballroom. The institute is a two-week educational enrichment program for students entering grades 2 through 10 that runs each summer on the SUNY Oswego campus and is designed to meet the academic and cultural needs of motivated and creative students.

Professor emerita Barbara Shineman, a co-founder of Sheldon Institute, praises students and teachers for their efforts this summer and thanks the college for honoring her by rededicating “the Sheldon Institute for Barbara Shineman Scholars.” College President Deborah F. Stanley (left) introduced Shineman following the Aug. 3 Sheldon Showcase, thanking her for her many contributions to the college. The Richard S. Shineman Foundation, founded by Barbara in the wake of her husband’s death, made a $1 million gift to endow Sheldon Institute earlier this year. An alumna of SUNY Oswego (1965 as an undergraduate, with a 1971 master’s), Shineman served on the faculty of the School of Education’s curriculum and instruction department until her retirement in 1989.

A group of the inaugural Barbara Shineman Scholars celebrates many of the values and attributes that have helped define the Sheldon Institute since 1978.

Sheldon Showcase exhibits include those of students replicating the famed double helix of DNA strands in the main-floor corridor of Sheldon Hall. The institute -- dedicated to using some of the interest income from the Shineman Foundation endowment each year to improve and sustain programming -- plans more opportunities to interest young students in science, technology, engineering and math.

The Educational Opportunity Summer Program’s first EOP Poster Session, July 26 in Hewitt ballroom, attracted scores of attendees to see and hear several dozen research presentations on the college’s Grand Challenges: Fresh Water for All initiative. This research team of entering freshmen recommended a source of money to help modernize water systems in places like Flint, Michigan: the companies selling billions of dollars' worth of bottled water. From left are accounting major Tramar Wallace, broadcasting and mass communication major Cordell Bennett and public relations major Jahee Davenport.

Tim Nekritz (holding paper), SUNY Oswego’s director of news and media, gives some background about college founder Edward Austin Sheldon before leading a trolley tour group Aug. 20 during New Faculty and Staff Orientation. The leased trolley from Great Lakes Trolley, with Nekritz and Nancy Concadoro from the Office of Human Resources acting as guides, was a new feature this year during two days of orientation for new full-time faculty and professional staff.

SUNY Oswego welcomes new faculty and professional staff in Penfield Library and new tenure-track faculty in the School of Education including (top from left) Bryan Schuff and Juan Denzer, both of Penfield Library; Deborah Howard of curriculum and instruction; and Deborah Bauder of Penfield Library; and (bottom row from left) Lynne Rhys, Morgan Bond and Katherine Jones, all from Penfield Library, and Elizabeth Keida from health promotion and wellness.

SUNY Oswego welcomes new tenure-track faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Communication, Media and the Arts, including (top from left) Alan Martin from music, Roger Guy of criminal justice and Daniel Kraus of mathematics; (second row from left) Nicholas Sard of biological sciences and Zheng Hao of mathematics; (third row from left) Jenna Currie-Mueller of communication studies, Gi Woong Choi of computer science, Rasika Churchill of mathematics and Michael Riecke of communication studies; and (bottom row from left) Daniel Baldassarre of biological sciences, Renqian Yang of art and Jessalyn Bolkema of mathematics.

SUNY Oswego welcomes new professional staff, including (top from left) Eric Frans from Career Services and Richard Merritt of Purchasing; (second row from left) Drew Spriggs of the Educational Opportunity Program, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Rodmon King, Kenneth Ayhens of Environmental Health and Safety, and Jessica Slack and Anne Benjamin, both of Financial Aid; (third row from left) Stephanie Burdick of Student Accounts, Joseph Samuels of Campus Technology Services, Deborah Furlong of Institutional Research and Assessment and Kerisha Lewis of Alumni and Parent Relations; (third row from left) Margaret Henderson of Accessibility Resource Services, Kelsey Gillett of International Education and Programs, Cleane Medieros of Agricultural Testing Labs/O-Team, Kristina Donzella of Extended Learning, Sharon Griffin of Graduate Studies and Lorraine Burrows of Extended Learning; and (bottom row from left) Yoshiko Guy of the School of Education; Megan Kropf of International Education and Programs; Tami Bullard of Campus Technology Services; Lowell Hutcheson of Artswego/School of Communication, Media and the Arts; Amy Maxam of Human Resources; Honghua Zhao of International Education and Programs; and Tara Allen Magner of MBA programs.

SUNY Oswego welcomes new visiting assistant professors, including (top row from left) Jared Peterson from philosophy, Janak Joshi of mathematics, Taylor Miller of linguistics, Samuel McCarthy of biological sciences and Sarah Berry of English and creative writing; (middle row from left) Whalmany Ounkham of chemistry and Jake Nickell of communication studies; and (bottom row from left) Kamal Jnawali of mathematics, Donna Greene from art, Ahmed Abdelfattah of computer science, Heidi Rivera of psychology and Deborah Quick of curriculum and instruction.

Sculptor Bob Turan of Earlville (top) adjusts the pinwheel on “Square Dance” on July 18 as assistant Phil Restaino looks on in the maple grove between Penfield Library and Marano Campus Center. Turan’s kinetic sculpture went up as the first of six in the college’s third biennial exhibition of outdoor sculpture, and others have followed with an eye to completion by the end of August.

As a SUNY Oswego signature sunset melts into Lake Ontario, so does summer break. New students arrive Friday and classes start Monday for the fall semester.