She wants them to be fulfilled by their work, and that part is trickier than some think. During the pandemic, one thing has become perfectly clear to SUNY Potsdam alumnaLatesha Fussell ’11, ’12 & ’14—family is what matters most. As a single mother balancing a full-time job, while also pursuing a doctoral degree in education, she needed to make a change. Fussell recently accepted an impressive new position modern woodmen of america lawsuit at Cornell University as the director for diversity and inclusion, and in the process, moved closer to her family where she found a support system that she desperately needed. Pursuing a degree at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music is a daunting task in and of itself, butNatalia Buitrago ’21went the extra mile, recently graduating with a double major in music performance and music business.
Despite her initial plan to teach, Jeanne accepted a software engineering job after college, which propelled her into a distinguished career in software systems and national security. Jeanne recognized that her success would not have been possible without her education at SUNY Potsdam. In 2013, she and her husband, Ray, endowed the Jeanne Kimmich Roberts Scholarship to support academically talented female students pursuing a degree in math or computer science at SUNY Potsdam.
Now in its third century, SUNY Potsdam is distinguished by a legacy of pioneering programs and educational excellence. The College currently enrolls approximately 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its challenging liberal arts and sciences core, distinction in teacher training and culture of creativity.
The university provides a Student Success Center which helps students to connect with resources on advising, tutoring, study skills, and special programs. The university offers graduate certificates, master’s programs, undergraduate majors, and undergraduate minors programs. SUNY Potsdam alumnusJohn Alleyne ’14has found great success since graduating with a B.F.A. in studio art five years ago. He went on to work at the Museum of Modern Art, received his master’s degree from Louisiana State University and now works as an artist and adjunct professor at three universities in and around Baton Rouge. During her time at SUNY Potsdam, she became the first All-American in the history of the SUNY Potsdam women’s soccer program.
The College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Commerce, the School of Education and Technical Studies, and the Crane School of Music are all part of it. In the 2021 version of Best Schools, SUNY College, Potsdam’s ranking is Provincial Universities North, # 71. When he’s not running up and down the basketball court as a referee, SUNY Potsdam alumnus David Vroman ’83 & ’91 is busy teaching his sixth-grade earth science students about everything from the plate tectonics to astronomy. Despite graduating with a double major in elementary education and English literature, Megan Bowdish ’88 stumbled onto a completely different career. She now operates Never Tire Farm where she grows vegetables and plants in eight greenhouses throughout the harsh North Country winters and sells them to more than a dozen businesses.
Through the wilderness education program he gained leadership skills that set the stage for a successful career in outdoor education. Now he’s come full circle, back at SUNY Potsdam as an instructor in the same program where he was once a student. A magna cum laude graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and a minor in women’s and gender studies,Serena Rockingster ’19sees herself as a professor and clinical psychologist far down the road of her future. Rockingster could have gone many places for her advanced degree, but she stuck close to the North Country in hopes of setting up a counseling practice that will help bring healing to Vermont’s underrepresented populations. Interest in global learning and social justice on an international level during an undergraduate trip to Cambodia in 2014, part of a SUNY Potsdam travel abroad class examining the origins and impacts of human trafficking. Since then, he has earned two master’s degrees, and has led and coordinated travel experiences in Dubai, one of the world’s emerging cities.