STEM symposium sustains momentum

11/05/2024

Science mentoring at SUNY Cortland is multigenerational, having occurred both many years ago and as recently as late October.

So reflected John W. Tillotson ’91, Ph.D., an associate professor of STEM Education at Syracuse University, recalling his own experience as an uncertain first-generation college student, during a recent presentation at the 9th annual Michael J. Bond ’75, M.D. Alumni/Undergraduate Research Science Symposium.

“I think I struggled with what’s known as the ‘imposter syndrome,’ which is this feeling that you are not capable or talented enough to be successful at something,” Tillotson said recently. “That’s a common experience for high school students as they make that jump from high school to college.”

Tillotson was the first in six generations of an upstate New York farming family to attempt college. The experience appears to have sparked a family trend.

Not only did the 2023 SUNY Cortland Distinguished Alumni Award recipient present at his alma mater’s Oct. 25 celebration of undergraduate research, but he shared the spotlight with his daughter, Brooke, a SUNY Cortland junior who presented separately at the Bowers Hall event.

Although a full generation apart, the Tillotsons tell remarkably similar stories of finding their home in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at SUNY Cortland.

“Fortunately, I had some great mentors and some great opportunities to get engaged as a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) major at SUNY Cortland,” said John Tillotson, who for two decades has coordinated Syracuse University’s adolescence science teacher education program and directs the university’s SUSTAIN Scholars scholarship program. He received the National Science Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the Association for Science Teacher Education.

The Bond ’75 Science Symposium was created to connect Cortland undergraduates and faculty with alumni researchers, demonstrating that important science careers are launched from SUNY Cortland with the experience gained through undergraduate research.

The senior Tillotson was one of three alumni speaking during concurrent sessions. He addressed “No Longer an Imposter: How faculty mentoring can shape the STEM career trajectory of first-generation college students.” He noted he had been taken under the wing of the late Peter Jeffers, professor emeritus of chemistry, who invited the undergraduate to join his laboratory research.

After Tillotson’s talk, his daughter, who is majoring in biology with a dual minor in chemistry and communications, gave two poster sessions, one on her animal biology research and the other on her plant biology research.

“It’s been a very good experience,” Brooke Tillotson said of conducting research at SUNY Cortland. One poster illustrated her work on testing flowers for genetic color variations in the lab of Elizabeth McCarthy, an assistant professor in the Biological Sciences Department.

“I joined her lab last spring with the idea of helping me decide whether or not I would want to do it as a career,” Brooke said. “I ended up really loving it.”

This past summer, she joined three other undergraduate students conducting biological research on sheep milk production at Cornell University, supported by a National Science Foundation grant. Amanda Davis, a SUNY Cortland assistant professor, and Joseph McFadden, a Cornell University colleague, took the four into their STEM fold.

“It was also kind of interesting because I got to see both sides of biology: plant and animal,” the younger Tillotson said.

Growing up, if she was too sick to go to school, she said she would instead watch her father lecture at Syracuse University. But that didn’t automatically lead her to pursue a science career.

“I always told my father, ‘I hate science, I don’t want to do it.’ But when it came to having to pick my major, I went through all the options. … Through the process of elimination, I realized that I do like science.”

Her dad helped her crunch the numbers to make a good college choice, too.

“From my first two classes at Cortland, I knew I was in the right place,” Brooke Tillotson said. She aspires to become a biology professor with her own lab.

Her father had his own struggles.

“One day when I was a senior, I was standing there in Bowers Hall looking longingly at a billboard wall of posters of graduate programs in chemistry and other science fields,” John Tillotson said. “Dr. Jeffers stopped and asked me which I was applying to. I told him I didn’t think any of them was going to become a reality for me because of the money situation.” Jeffers spent the next 90 minutes explaining the whole process in his office.

“I left that meeting inspired. Ultimately, I was offered a full scholarship to attend the University of Iowa,” Tillotson said. “I really see that as a defining moment in my professional life, but probably that hallway conversation to him was just being a good, engaged professor.”

This fall’s symposium was the best attended yet, noted Mike Fusilli, director of development at SUNY Cortland and a symposium committee member. It drew an estimated 165 students, alumni and faculty to take part in seminars, research presentations, informal networking and student poster sessions.

In addition, a record number of poster presentations, 29 compared to last year’s 18, were shared by students majoring in geology, biology, chemistry, psychology or physics during a “lab crawl.” SUNY Oswego STEM faculty and student researchers presented a joint biology research poster with SUNY Cortland colleagues.

The symposium featured two other alumni panelists presenting at concurrent sessions. They were Carolyn Furlong ’12, Ph.D., an assistant professor in physical sciences at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Alexander Meyers ’13, Ph.D., a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

Two seniors delivered the William C. Baerthlein ’76, M.D. Student Presenter lectures, psychology major Sasha Machmuller and biology major Makiah Poli.

Michael Bond ’75, M.D., who retired as the medical director of Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery in Orlando, Florida, has supported the annual symposium through an endowment created with a significant planned gift.

William Baerthlein ’76, M.D., a member of SUNY Cortland’s Academic Hall of Fame and the Cortland College Foundation board, has made a major gift to support the immediate needs of the symposium.