Campus Champion

A good first impression is important, and senior Parker Arenas leads the way in giving a warm welcome to new Red Dragon students. As an orientation assistant, he’s a friend who nervous first-years and transfers can rely on. In his second summer as an OA, Parker also serves as a mentor for fellow OAs. That outgoing attitude and love of Cortland also shines through in the criminology major’s three years in the Student Government Association. First a secretary and then chief financial officer, Parker will be SGA president for the 2025-26 academic year. 

SUNY Cortland senior biomedical sciences major Ashmita Rasaily has dreamed of working within the health care field ever since growing up in her home of Kathmandu, Nepal.  

This summer, working in conjunction with Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Christa Chatfield as part of the 2025 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship program, Rasaily has been able to fortify her skills and take a step towards accomplishing that goal. 

Rasaily is one of 13 students selected to pursue donor-funded summer fellowship research, continuing a program in its 19^th year of existence. She is a beneficiary of the W. Hubert, Ph.D. and Mrs. Sally Keen Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship to fund her research. 

Managed by the university’s Undergraduate Research Council, the program provides students with a $4,000 stipend, campus research space and housing during eight weeks of full-time study from late May through early August. The Council gives an additional $2,000 to faculty members who mentor a student. The students present the results of their studies at the university’s annual Transformations: A Student Research and Creativity Conference. 

In addition to Rasaily, the 2025 summer researchers include: 

• Shreya Dhital, a senior biomedical sciences and mathematics major from Kathmandu, Nepal, who aims to find new systems to aid in the early detection of diabetes. Dhital’s research is funded by the Daniel G. Scheffer ’96 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship fund. 

“I aim to identify key predictors and improve early detection,” Dhital commented. “This work bridges data science and public health, offering a scalable approach to disease prevention through personalized risk assessment and targeted intervention strategies.”. Dhital is mentored by Keshab Dahal, assistant professor of mathematics. 

• Ithaca, N.Y. native and archaeology major William Kennedy conducts his summer research as a recipient of the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship, and is working with faculty mentor Hollis Miller, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology who focuses on Native American studies.
  

• Minju Kim, a senior chemistry major from Seoul, South Korea, aims for a career in forensic or environmental science. Mentored by Professor Jeffrey Werner of the Chemistry Department, Kim is exploring the environmental fate of sucralose in the environment through chemical analysis and environmental monitoring.
  

“This experience has allowed me to develop skills in lab techniques, data analysis and scientific communication,” said Kim, recipient of the LoBracco Family Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship. 

• Daniel G. Scheffer ’96 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship fund recipient Timothy McGrath studies the rate of cell size shrinkage in polypoid plants using the cell length and floral tubes of different Nicotiana plants with their evolutionary age.  

McGrath, a senior biology major from Lindenhurst, N.Y., is mentored by Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Elizabeth McCarthy. 

• Senior chemistry major and Cortland native Abigail Morse views the summer research program as an avenue to broaden her horizons. 

Funded by the Dr. William M. Hopkins Summer Research Fellowship, and working alongside Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sarah Wolf, Morse focuses on how to improve the stability of small molecule molecular glasses by using nanoparticles, which can make them useful in industrial and medical environments. 

• Haileigh Rhodes, a Jamestown, N.Y., native who majors in geology, is spending the summer in the Tully Valley to investigate a former halite (salt) mining region to determine how the land has subsided and fractured since 2019.  

Rhodes is working alongside Christopher Badurek, the co-director of the SUNY Cortland Regional GIS Laboratory and chair of the Geography Department, to complete this research. “My research is a ‘natural experiment’”, commented Rhodes, “where we can see how the land has been affected due to human intervention.” The pair are funded by the Sandra Laghi Cerulli ’68 and Dr. Maurice Cerulli Fellowship for Undergraduate Research. 

• Funded by the Dr. David F. Berger Summer Research Fellowship, senior chemistry major William Snyder is participating in research surrounding the “Analysis of PET Leachates in Simulated Ocean Water.”  

The Olean, N.Y., native is mentored by Professor Jeffrey Werner of the Chemistry Department, and hopes that this research will propel him to graduate school and, eventually, a terminal degree in chemistry.

• Dhalia Spilka is researching on the history of local activism, focusing on the impact of student movements at SUNY Cortland during the 1960s and 1970s. SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Randi Storch serves as the faculty mentor for the project funded by the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship. 

“This research opportunity has allowed me to recognize that I have a great passion for historical research and preservation, especially as it pertains to local communities,” commented Spilka, an East Syracuse, N.Y., native and history major. 

• Senior archaeology major Anna Tanzman, with the mentorship of SUNY Distinguished Professor Sharon Steadman, is conducting her research at Çadır Höyük in the Republic of Turkey. Tanzman’s research is funded by the Dr. Suad Joseph ’66 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship. 

“My hypothesis is that there will be a change from wheat to barley during the warm period due to the stability of barley over wheat in these climate conditions,” Tanzman said. Her research will focus on investigating seed samples from 900 to 1200 C.E. 

• Zachary Taylor, an adolescence education: physics and mathematics major from Newfield, N.Y., is conducting studies funded by the Michael J. O’Reilly ’58 Undergraduate Research Fellowship.  

Working in conjunction with Chemistry Department Professor Frank Rossi, Taylor aims to build an ApppI molecule with a permeable membrane that can have an impact on future research, including the potential of assisting in cancer and osteoporosis treatment. 

• Natalie Thibodeau, a speech and hearing science major, is leading a project titled “Teaching TAs to R2AAP,” which evaluates training teaching assistants a modified communication strategy short for “read and remove, ask, answer, prompt.” Working with Nimisha Muttiah, associate professor of communication disorders and sciences, the research relies on adapted shared book reading with preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“The main objective of this research is to support communication development of students with ASD and expand the limited evidence-based research on TA communication training,” said Thibodeau, a native of Palatine Bridge, N.Y. who aspires to be a certified speech-language pathologist in a school setting.

Her research is funded by the LoBracco Family Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship. 

• Senior archeology and history major Ryan Wheeler joined faculty mentor Steadman and Tanzman in the Republic of Turkey to research 30 samples of Byzantine glass and determining the best avenues for future preservation at Çadır Höyük.  

Wheeler is a native of Ellington, Connecticut, and his research is funded by the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship. 

Can conservation and a growing economy mix? SUNY Cortland students crossed a continent to examine the question firsthand during the university’s first-ever study abroad trip to Colombia. 

The two-week visit, Colombia: Ecologies, Economies, and Culture, brought seven students, including four from Cortland, to three regions in the country with distinct academic goals: 

• Central Andes: Students worked with the local population and made connections between local conservation efforts and sustainable economies. 
• Amazonas: Participants examined the ways that successful ecotourism can reduce resource extraction in a region. 
• Medellín: Students focused on innovative urban development. 

As part of the program, each student wrote a paper on their experience and earned three credits for the Special Topics in Economics class. 

Associate Professor Ben Wilson, chair of the Economics Department, led the trip with Tompkins Cortland Community College’s (TC3) Kelly Wessell, professor in biology, and Jorge Orejuela, an adjunct assistant professor at TC3 and, in Colombia, the director of Cali Botanical Garden and a professor in the environmental sciences department at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente. 

Wilson noted that Wessell and Orejuela had run the program at TC3 for more than a decade and that Cortland was able to join this year thanks to the efforts of the university’s International Programs Office. 

“I have worked with Dr. Wessell on a couple of other projects including my Adirondack Economies course that takes place up at Raquette Lake,” Wilson said. “We have wanted to bring that type of interdisciplinarity to the Colombia trip for some time now.” 

Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund. That landscape has created a growing interest from tourists. As visitors increase, so does the importance of the question: can this new industry expand and benefit the country while current communities and ecosystems stay healthy? 

The trip of more than 2,500 miles to Latin America let the group learn and grow in ways that can’t be duplicated in a classroom, according to Wilson. 

He described the students who made the trip as “curious, kind and energetic.” They embraced going outside their comfort zones in challenges that included swimming the Amazon River, hiking in mountains and rain forests, and navigating Medellin’s vibrant urban environment. 

“The immense scale of the Andes Mountains, the smell of an Amazonian fish market or fresh arepas cooking in the streets, canoeing in the Amazon River, picking and roasting coffee beans before drinking an espresso, watching break dancing in Medellín’s Comuna 13 and learning about the city’s extraordinary transformation through public art,” Wilson said of the sensory experiences that helped bring their academic studies to life.  

It was not just the cultural and environmental diversity that made Colombia an ideal spot for the course. Orejuela’s family owns property in the Central Andes named La Dicha — The Bliss — a private nature reserve that hosted the group and gave a unique view of the country. 

“Here they have regenerated a cloud forest, built a permaculture farm and coffee growing system, and built an art lab that highlights the intersections of indigenous life and culture with the environment,” Wilson said. 

That the students were so warmly welcomed by a family full of knowledge and passion for their home area was inspiring, he added. 

The trip is expected to be offered again at SUNY Cortland in May of 2027. In the meantime, Wilson said that the Economics Department also has study abroad connections with Fulda University in Germany and other schools in Turkey. But he recommends that students learn more about the school’s International Programs Office and find out what options stand out the most — wherever that may take them. 

“Studying abroad touches all your senses and changes your being,” Wilson said. “It is an experience that cannot be undervalued. It will change you forever. Part of this is the bonds you will create with your classmates and the places you visit. It is simply a magical way to learn.” 

Starting this fall, SUNY Cortland will offer a new online pathway to earning a bachelor’s degree for students who previously pursued a college education without finishing it.

The program will be the first fully online undergraduate offering at the university.

The new integrated studies major is aimed at nontraditional students and working professionals. It looks to maximize transfer credit and give college credit toward a bachelor’s degree for prior work experience, with students completing at least 30 credits through SUNY Cortland.

More information about the new program is available online at cortland.edu/igs.

SUNY Cortland defines nontraditional students as undergraduates who are 24 or older, the parents of dependent children, or individuals who paused their studies after high school.

“These students are motivated lifelong learners, extraordinary time managers and everyday examples that it is never too late to pursue a college education,” said Kimberly Rombach ’88, M ’93, associate dean of the university’s School of Education, where the program is housed. “Our university wants to create more opportunity for them to benefit from a Cortland education.”

Online courses will emphasize the skills employers report are critical in many professions: communication, collaboration and critical thinking among them. Students also will learn about topics such as ethical decision-making and the importance of creating an inclusive work environment. According to a 2024 LinkedIn survey, nine out of 10 employers consider these soft skills more important than ever, and many hiring managers struggle to find employees who possess them.

SUNY Cortland enrolls approximately 175 nontraditional students who bring diverse life experiences to campus and who reflect a trend in higher education. This past spring, nearly 2.5 million students enrolled in an undergraduate program were 30 or older. That was a 3.5 percent increase from the prior year, according to National Student Clearinghouse data.

Adult learners are returning to school for many reasons: to stay competitive in the job market, to pave a new career path and to acquire valuable skills like the ones provided by this new opportunity.

“For some nontraditional students, completing a bachelor’s degree may accomplish a lifelong goal that was put on hold,” Rombach said. “It may also serve as motivation for future generations. Regardless of where someone started their college education, they can be proud to finish at SUNY Cortland.”

Prospective students should contact Justin Neretich ’17, community engagement and academic coordinator in the Extended Learning Office, at justin.neretich@cortland.edu or 607-753-5772 to learn more about the integrated studies program.

SUNY Cortland’s Student Activities Board (SAB) would make a certain red dragon proud with the new trail its members blazed for event attendance and high-quality student service during the 2024-25 school year.

The all-volunteer student group — which plans entertaining events for their peers to enjoy campus life outside of the classroom — showcased problem-solving and creativity with several highlights throughout the year:

• Faced with a last-minute change of plans, SAB landed A Boogie Wit da Hoodie as its Spring Fling concert headliner, the first sell-out since before the pandemic. 
• They organized a popular 2024 Cortaca Week event series, painting downtown Cortland red. 
• SAB achieved a 137% overall increase in Red Dragon engagement during 2024-25 compared with the prior year.
• Their new SAB assessment committee leveraged data to plan events with greater student appeal.

SAB optimistically set a goal to engage 2,300 individual students, which would have been a 25% increase from their engagement numbers for 2023-24, according to SAB advisor Kyle Cannon, assistant director of campus activities and Corey Union. 

“At the conclusion of this year’s programming calendar, SAB effectively engaged 3,148 individual students, or 137% of their 2024-25 goal and roughly 46% of the student population,” Cannon said.

 “Seeing our hard work pay off — especially with events that reach record attendance or sell out — is so rewarding,” said Abigail Loiselle ’25, a recent graduate in therapeutic recreation from Lynbrook, New York, who served as SAB president in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

This year’s Spring Fling concert, which saw record-breaking attendance, was Loiselle’s fourth and final one with the board.

“It’s been amazing to watch that event grow year after year, and to close out my time with such a milestone,” Loiselle said.

“(Abigail), for lack of better terms, was a rock star,” Cannon said.

“She reshaped how the (SAB) e-board functions. … She was able to reevaluate what the SAB should be doing and what their priorities were. She played a very big role in developing this assessment committee.”

The original Spring Fling headliner concert was booked in late October, but the performer pulled out just before SAB was set to name the act and announce ticket sales during the spring semester. 

Second year SAB music chair Tyler Campbell, a junior adolescence education: chemistry major from Monroe, New York, helped organizers pivot after identifying many students had named A Boogie Wit da Hoodie as their top choice in last fall’s Spring Fling planning survey.

“Tyler, being so relaxed, was able to begin communications about finding a replacement headliner,” Cannon said. “And with the help of Abby and myself, we were able to replace our headliner in about a week. Having a capacity to take things in stride kind of helped to Tyler’s benefit.”

“Overall, the concert was a huge success,” Campbell said. “And I have learned so much from how to book a headlining artist to setting up the show and managing a team of concert volunteers.”

Under Campbell’s leadership, SAB also homed in on increasing student interest by offering free giveaways on their concert promotion flyers. 

“We also switched from selling physical hard copies of tickets to online digital tickets, so students do not need to physically walk into Corey Union to buy their tickets with cash,” he said.

SAB major events chair Madeline Pearce had stepped in midway through the 2023-24 year after a chair had dropped out, so her second year was her first official one in the role. 

“(Madeline) is a persistent individual,” Cannon said. “Once she has an idea, she tends to follow through in a quick manner. She’s very organized, especially in moving the (Cortaca) pep rally down to Main Street. Her role in communicating with the city stakeholders and myself … was essential.”

Some had worried about moving the pep rally to Main Street.

“I think Madeline did a very good job at working with the city to mitigate risks and provide alternative programming in the town surrounding Cortaca weekend, which was both essential and very rewarding, very effective,” Cannon said.

The downtown pep rally brought more than 550 SUNY Cortland students to Main Street to celebrate Cortaca Week with hundreds of Cortland community members.

“It allowed us to truly bridge the gap between SUNY Cortland students and the greater Cortland community,” Loiselle said.

The successes of the past year were no accident. SAB members had gathering extensive information about what Cortland students most want to see, hear and do in their free time.

In April 2024, SAB’s executive board had ratified its new assessment committee, responsible for evaluating the organization’s mission, forming strategies and weighing their program effectiveness. 

Among other data-driven changes, SAB adopted the university’s Red Dragon Wellbeing Model in its programming strategies and worked to increase partnerships with campus entities including Cortland Auxiliary Services, Advisement and Transition and the International Programs office.

International student engagement spiked 247% from the 2023-24 programming year, and for the student body overall, the more senior the class year, the greater increase in Red Dragon involvement in campus activities, with first-year students by 45%, sophomores by 49%, juniors by 80% and seniors by 87%. The School of Professional Studies student body became 82% more engaged and there was a 50% increase in School of Arts and Sciences student participation and a 37% increase among School of Education majors. Even graduate students locked into campus extracurricular activities 34% more.

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On the way to getting a bikes program up and running for kindergarteners in Marathon, N.Y., physical education teacher Sydney Jennison ’20, M ’23 made a new friend.

In late 2022, Shirley Reome Cahill ’66, a SUNY Cortland instructor emerita of physical education, had read an article about Jennison in The Cortland Standard, in which the young teacher expressed a wish to begin a bikes program at Appleby Elementary School in the Marathon Central School District.

The article was mainly about Jennison bringing her class to visit the Marathon Volunteer Fire Department, where she has been a volunteer since age 16.

“My students went to the fire station to learn about fire prevention, and I was there at one station in my firefighting gear,” Jennison said.

“The Cortland Standard had asked what were my next steps — with firefighting, with teaching — and I said, ‘I’d like to get a bikes program for the students at Appleby Elementary School.’”

It turns out Cahill read the article in the local newspaper.

Although Jennison’s college years had overlapped with Cahill’s university teaching, the two subsequently first encountered one another through a shared beautician.

“(Jennison) talked about a bikes program that she was getting started,” Cahill recalled. “I think I texted her that I was so impressed with that.”

Cahill learned that Jennison — when not teaching, volunteering as a firefighter, coaching varsity boys’ golf, varsity girls soccer, running the Appleby Archery Program for middle schoolers or supervising the Appleby Activity Program mornings before school started — was buying bikes at garage sales and fixing them up.

“I thought it was going to take a very long time that way,” Cahill said.

One day, Jennison’s principal asked her if she had applied for a grant for bikes, noting there was a check for a large amount of money on his desk.

After some research and background checking, her principal, Mr. Hillis, found out the source of the gift, a Cortland Community Foundation grant with the university professor as the source. The school accepted the gift, leaving Jennison to decide how to spend it.

“After some research, I came across a program called All Kids Bike,” Jennison said.

Founded in 2017 in partnership with Strider Bikes™, the Strider Education Foundation created All Kids Bike with a mission to teach every child in America how to ride a bike in kindergarten physical education class. The program cost is supported by the foundation and local donations.

Jennison bought into the program and took the training. The grant purchased 24 kindergarten-child sized bikes, 24 children’s helmets, one adult bike and helmet set for the teacher, and a miniaturized, 24-bike rack.

Jennison assembled the kit bikes last fall during staff days, assisted by the school custodian, her father, brother and an Appleby Elementary physical education coworker, Nathan Sigerson ’23.

Over five weeks during June, Jennison taught the children in groups of 15 in five 30-minute lessons. A helper enabled her to properly adjust seats on 15 bikes and work with 15 kids as they first learned to push forward and briefly balance a bike with their feet on detachable training bars. Next, with actual pedals in place, the youngsters tried riding for themselves.

“A lot of them were naturals, where others might need someone alongside to encourage and help them along the way,” Jennison said.

At the start of the class, approximately five out of 15 students knew how to ride a bike, Jennison said. By the end, that number grew to 12 per class.

The final week, Jennison reached out to Cahill with a video, pictures of the tots on their bikes and an invitation.

Cahill arrived on June 20 with her son, David.

“She just observed, and her son took pictures of the two classes that day,” Jennison said. “At the end, she wanted to talk to them about biking and showed them her bicycle earrings.”

Jennison graciously introduced the important guest.

“I love to bicycle myself, I do it every day,” Cahill said. “And it’s such a cool thing. You’ve got such a great program. And I’m so glad that I got to come visit.”

The children were enchanted by Cahill. The retired college educator in turn expressed wonder at the entire school’s very natural and unscripted expressions of welcome and gratitude.

“Biking will help them grow up to be strong, healthy and responsible in their home, school, community and this great big world they want to experience,” Cahill said.

Jennison said she still has more than half of the Cahill family’s grant money left over.

“I plan to get bikes for the older (elementary level) students so we can teach them the rules of the road, and other important biking things that you wouldn’t necessarily get in a kindergarten physical education class,” Jennison said.

There’s a little more to Jennison’s story. She has always felt pulled in two directions, career-wise. Her mother, Sandra Jennison, once taught Sydney in 11th grade and still teaches in the Marathon district. Her sister, Riley Jennison ’23, also teaches kindergarten at Appleby Elementary. Sydney’s father, longtime firefighter Robert Jennison, is a captain in the City of Cortland Fire Department.

“Around the time the school got the grant, I had an opportunity to leave teaching to become a firefighter in the city of Cortland,” Jennison said. “And I ended up turning it down because I love what I do right now, and I know I’m in the right place. It was an eye opening moment when that check came, like, ‘…This is where I am supposed to be right now.’”

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For eight years, June has been “Aphasia Awareness Month” in Cortland County. Each time, lecturer Eileen Gilroy of SUNY Cortland’s Communication Disorders and Sciences Department has been the force that gets the often-unknown medical condition the attention it deserves. 

And in what’s become a rewarding summer tradition, a naming ceremony held at a local ice cream shop lets her students sit with an aphasia support group and hear their stories of struggle and recovery. 

“It’s a nice learning atmosphere and it’s a good way to show the students that life goes on,” Gilroy said. “People live with aphasia and maybe they’re communicating a little differently or have some challenges, but they are able to still interact and socialize and have fun.” 

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects the ability to speak and understand what others say and can also impact reading or writing comprehension. The National Aphasia Association estimates at least 2 million Americans have the condition, including one-third of stroke victims. 

The proclamation, advocated for by Gilroy and her students, began in 2017 as an announcement made during a County Legislature meeting. It coincides with June being National Aphasia Awareness Month. 

After that early work by her class, county officials decided three years ago to bring the event into the community. Since then, it’s been held at Super Cream Dairy Barn in nearby Homer. That change meant a chance for Friends of Aphasia to become a part of the process, bringing SUNY Cortland’s students together casually with some of the people they worked with in the university’s Center for Speech, Language and Hearing Disorders. 

Gilroy and friend Michele Chisholm Clukey ’14, M ’16, a speech pathologist at Guthrie Cortland Medical Center, help lead Friends of Aphasia, which meets quarterly and welcomes people with aphasia, their caregivers, and anyone with an interest in the condition. 

“Some students have worked with individuals with aphasia that come to our clinic for speech therapy,” Gilroy said. “So for those students it allows them to connect with their client in a more social environment and joke with them and laugh with them and see how they carry over the skills that they worked on in our clinic into real life. ... Those are the types of things that really bridge communication skills into functional community-based communication.” 

Graduate student Lauren Crandall ’16 said she was moved by the personal stories she heard. 

“In the clinic, our focus is often on specific goals and structured tasks, so this event was a rare and meaningful opportunity to simply sit, listen and engage in conversations about life with aphasia. I was especially thrilled to see my client from the Fall 2025 semester and to hear about the progress he has made since our time together.” 

Margaret Horn ’24, another graduate student who was at the event, agreed. 

“While we learn all about the impacts, and we do see the population in the clinic, it was a much more intimate experience to sit down and eat ice cream with stroke survivors,” Horn said. “We gained more of an idea of what their life is like when they leave our 45-minute therapy appointment.” 

County Legislator Doug Bentley, who has read the official proclamation the past three years, has direct knowledge of how difficulties in speech can change a life. In 2016, Bentley had tongue surgery that removed the right half of his tongue, replacing it with skin from his right wrist. 

Bentley, who has been a legislator for eight years, noted he did not have aphasia, but he has had trouble with his speech since the operation.  

“I rarely speak during meetings for fear of being misunderstood,” Bentley said. “It takes a bit of patience to listen carefully and understand what I say. If my car breaks down and I call AAA emergency road service, the robot operator can never figure out what city I am in. When I order food in a restaurant, I get a quizzical look from the waitress. The drive thru at a fast-food place does not work for me — ever.” 

Gilroy described him as a strong proponent of Friends of Aphasia and someone who has had success in the university’s speech therapy program. After Bentley was a guest lecturer at SUNY Cortland in 2022, he signed up for treatment. 

“We had maybe a dozen weekly sessions during which I was encouraged to speak with intention, pump up my volume and carefully exaggerate my articulation,” Bentley said. “My speech began to improve. In the spring of 2024 I was invited back. They paired me up with a different grad student and we met each week to reinforce good speaking habits. Last month, I finished my third semester at the speech clinic. I often am told that my speech has become easier to understand.” 

Now, after their experience with Bentley and others, Gilroy said her students will move on to classes the next two semesters that place them in offsite training, alternating between local schools and hospitals.  

Similar to the experience of enjoying ice cream with the Friends of Aphasia, she noted it was a valuable aid to students’ future careers to get a wide-ranging feel for their patients' lives. 

“There’s an approach in our treatment called life participation, so I really wanted them to get a sense of advocacy for individuals with aphasia and learn that if we're going to be providing speech therapy for them,” Gilroy said. “That isn’t just coming to see us and punching a ticket.  

“We have to be their advocates. We have to help design their individual therapy speech therapy plan around what they need and what they want and how what their needs are to communicate in the real world.” 

When SUNY Cortland alumni return to Cortland for Alumni Reunion 2025, hosted by the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association, they’ll celebrate several milestones, including the 50th anniversary of the Athletic Training Program.

Reunion runs from Thursday, July 17 to Sunday, July 20, with between 350 and 400 alumni expected to attend.

“Alumni Reunion 2025 is going to be a blast!,” said Erin Boylan, executive director of alumni engagement. “Join Blaze and all your Red Dragon friends at this epic weekend celebration. Register today and reach out to your Cortland classmates to join you.”

The last day to register for Reunion 2025 is Wednesday, July 9.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Athletic Training and they are a featured group, Boylan noted.

“Athletic Training existed under Physical Education before it was an official major, so there are a lot of folks prior to the 50th who strongly connect with Athletic Training,” she said.

Some highlights from the schedule of events about Athletic Training:

• An Athletic Training social hour at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Cortland Beer Company, 16 Court Street
• A Re-dedication of the John L. Sciera ’52 Athletic Training Room begins at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Park Center
• An Athletic Training Reception and Classroom Crawl, from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday in the Park Center Hall of Fame Room

In other Reunion 2025 milestones:

• Reunion will feature a special callout for alumni who as students participated in dance, musical and theater performance-based clubs and organizations
• The G.O.L.D. Deal, which stands for “graduates of last decade,” returns for a second year, offering recent alumni — 2015 to 2025 — an affordable package and engaging mixers
• An Undergraduate Research Fellows scholarly showcase will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday in Corey Union Fireplace Lounge

“We can’t wait to share what our current students are doing at the new Undergraduate Summer Research Fellows scholarly showcase,” Boylan said.

Alumni who qualify as G.O.L.D. graduates are offered a $25 package that covers one night’s stay in Glass Tower Hall, a $40 value, free admission plus one complimentary beverage ticket to attend the Brews and Barbecues event open to all classes with a $40 value, plus one complimentary beverage ticket for the Recent Graduate Happy Hour, a free event.

“Not many alumni know about this deal that we created only last year, so we’re still trying to reach out to get more recent alumni to participate,” said Lima Stafford-Campbell ’12, M ’21, assistant director of alumni engagement. “One of our challenges is we are trying to get recent alumni back to campus and funding can be difficult for some.”

Alumni from every class year are invited, but milestone year groups will include: Half century reunion groups (Class of 1975 and earlier); 1960 — 65th Reunion; 1965 — 60th Reunion; 1970 — 55th Reunion; Class of 1975 — 50th Reunion; Class of 1980 — 45th Reunion; 35th Cluster Reunion — Classes of 1989, 1990, 1991; Class of 2000 — 25th Reunion; veterans/active service members. Sigma Delta Tau sorority will be featured at this reunion.Friends at Reunion 2024

“While we hope it is a time to come back, reminisce and connect with your classmates, we hope you always find something exciting,” Boylan said. “This year we can’t wait to see what folks wear to our Decade Throwback Extravaganza. We are encouraging alumni to dress in attire from their time at Cortland. 

“We also have been working with the Dark Horse Tavern to incorporate their 50th anniversary party in our schedule. We have so many alumni that have danced the night away, taken a photo with the iconic dragon wings or worked at this Main Street staple.”

Accommodations at area hotels and on campus are available. On-campus lodging can be purchased through the registration form.

Once again, there is the opportunity to showcase a business or celebrate reuniting with friends in Cortland by purchasing one of the Sponsorship Packages to support the weekend or the sold-out annual Red and White Golf Classic. Returning alumni also are encouraged to support SUNY Cortland, the students and the Reunion Giving Challenge by making a gift to the university when registering. As part of the celebration, alumni are asked to contribute to the Reunion gift for their class or group at Reunion Giving webpage.

Additional information regarding the weekend — including parking, shuttles, attire and more — can be found online.

For answers to questions or to register over the telephone, contact Alumni Engagement at 607-753-2516.

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SUNY Cortland’s Communications Office has streamlined the way it’s notified of campus news and events for the sake of sharing it more efficiently and effectively to the campus community and wider world.

Any campus community-related events, story ideas or other announcements can be submitted following the instructions on the Communications Office webpage:

• Promoting campus events: A new event promotion form should be completed in order to help ensure that events appear on the university’s master calendar. These events also will be considered for campus visual messaging screens. More information about promoting campus events is available online.
• Promoting campus news: Campus community members can email office@cortland.edu to share news tips and Faculty/Staff Activities for the Bulletin. More information about promoting campus news is available online.

Given sufficient notice, Communications Office staff will share upcoming events or news in various campus and news media outlets they determine, including the campus news website, the campus calendar, Bulletin and visual messaging screens.