New Social Media Projects

Two new social media endeavors are currently being incorporated into the Geneseo Alumni Team’s social media outlets:

Facebook Yearbook Photos

With our first project, the release of past yearbook photos, it is our hope to completely digitize all yearbooks from SUNY Geneseo’s past.  Currently, one photo from our entire yearbook collection is being released each weekday in hopes of creating conversation about past events and fun activities that happened here in Geneseo.  It is our plan to eventually include every yearbook so we are presently taking requests for any specific year, club, sport, or event that our alumni want to see up on our Facebook!

Storify

Our second project is the inclusion of the social media tool, Storify.  Storify is a great way to create neat and orderly timelines of any event.  Creating these timelines is easy and can be done in both the professional and personal setting.  Storify allows you to drag and drop tweets, posts from Facebook and many other social media sites, Flickr photos and even online videos from sites such as YouTube.  The site was just recently made public in April 2011 and has even been used by the White House to cover important news. The Alumni Team has been working hard to incorporate Storify into our list of social media tools. A Storify was created to remember Bill Edgar and the many thoughts and wishes people sent to his family. A Reunion 2011 Storify is also available with a compilation of all of the great comments, tweets, photos and videos from the 2011 Summer Reunion.

With these new social media projects, it is our hope to continue to keep our Geneseo alumni informed and involved in all that is both currently happening on campus and what occurred in past years!

Thanks for reading and we will see you in 2012!

-The Geneseo Alumni Team

An Improved Alumni Website

Some new changes have been made to the Alumni website that we hope will make it easier to keep connected to old friends and updated on Geneseo news - take a look!

Social Media Page

The biggest improvement is the new Alumni Social Media page, which has replaced the social media directory. This new design includes live streams of what is happening on our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels in real-time, and still includes a detailed list of all the Geneseo Alumni social media around the web!

 
Home Page
The home page has had a some improvements as well. The new components are aimed at making the Alumni home page a one stop spot for all of your alumni information. Here is the new home page, let's break down the new features.

The Upcoming Alumni Events feed has been improved to include event dates and more detail, and  Latest Alumni Blog Posts makes sure that you have the latest news about alumni programs and U-Knight readily available at all times so you can easily get to content like the story you are reading now!

The smallest but potentially most useful improvement is the addition on every alumni web page of a social media shortcut bar.  Our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Blog, and YouTube pages are now just a click away.

The U-Knight Quick Links section isn't a new feature but it bears mention here, since it allows you to find other alumni, jobs, and job seekers, register for alumni events, and easily do a number of other useful tasks like promoting your business and getting a Geneseo email address.

All of these new improvements and additions were made in the hopes of making your experience with the Geneseo alumni website as convenient as possible. Please let us know what you think and stay tuned for even more exciting changes in the future!

-The Geneseo Alumni Team

The Geneseo Blue Knights

As Fall sports here at Geneseo come winding down and beginning finishing up their seasons, now is the perfect time to reflect back on how the teams did, as well as looking forward to the sports coming up in the Winter season.  The Geneseo Blue Knights had another impressive Season, with their six Fall teams.  These teams include: men’s and women’s soccer, women’s field hockey, women’s volleyball, cross country, and women’s tennis. 

            Overall, the six teams have been extremely successful—clinching top seeds in the SUNYAC standings.  Men’s soccer originally became a sport here at Geneseo in 1947.  The team is currently coached by Dominic Oliveri and has an overall record of 9-7-3.  They are currently in 3^rd place in SUNYACs, seated behind Oneonta and Brockport.  Women’s soccer made its Geneseo sports debut in 1981.  Headed by Nate Wiley, the team has an overall record of 14-4-2.  They are currently ranked 5^th in SUNYAC standings with a record of 5-3-1 in the conference.  One of the more recently added sports is women’s field hockey—added in 1997.  Jessica Seren has coached the team to a 10-10 overall record.  They clinched 4^th place in the SUNYAC Conference, with a 3-3 record.  Women’s volleyball first became a member of the Geneseo Blue Knights in 1971.  The team is coached by Jen Salmon and has an overall record of 17-19.  With their 5-3-conference record, the team currently holds the 3^rd place spot in the West Division of SUNACs.  Cross Country first began in 1967 and is now led by Mike Wood.  The team has finished strong for another year in a row with impressive finishing places at all of their meets:

Host:	Men’s:	Women’s:
Buffalo State	2nd/9	2nd/9
Penn. States	1st/8	3rd/9
Geneseo Invitational	1st/13	1st/11
St. Lawrence	3rd/17	1st/17
Rochester	4th/16	4th/13
SUNYAC Championships	1st/10	1st/10

The cross country team looks ahead to the NCAA Atlantic Regional meet and the NCAA Championships.  With one of the most notable seasons, Women’s tennis, started in Geneseo in 1974 and now coached by Jim Chen, has played their way to 1^st place in the West Division of SUNYACs.  They have an overall record of 11-1 and a conference record of 3-0.

            With such strong performances from the Fall teams, one can only be excited for the potential of another remarkable season to follow by the Winter Sports.  Teams to look forward to are men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s indoor track, and the most recent varsity sport, equestrian.

            There are still final events to catch of the fall sports and even some early games and meets of the winter sports!  So check out the Geneseo Athletics online and we hope to see you all out to support the Geneseo Blue Knight soon!

-The Geneseo Alumni Team

A Golden Opportunity to Help

A couple posts back we gave an overview of all of the opportunities that alumni have to come back to Geneseo and share their expertise.  One of the biggest and most rewarding opportunities is participating in or directing one or more of the 250 G.O.L.D. workshops held each year. 

G.O.L.D. stands for Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development and has been a program here at Geneseo for over 10 years.  Directed by Tom Matthews, the G.O.L.D. Program strives to prepare students for the roles and responsibilities they will be taking on throughout their college career as well as in their post-college lives.  The program has six main areas of study:

• Academic and Intellectual Competence
• Aesthetic Awareness and Knowledge
• Cultural/Social Awareness and Appreciation
• Health and Physical Fitness
• Interpersonal Relationships
• Personal Identity and Lifetime Skills

Geneseo alumni are at the core of the program. Five alumni instructors (all employees) teach regularly about these topics and dozens more have acted as guest speakers, including:

• Greg O’Connell, CEO if The O’Connell Organization
• Barbara Lifton, New York State Assemblywoman
• Kevin Gavagan, Principal at QCI Asset Management
• Bruce Jordan, Actor, Producer and Broadway Director

With around 250 programs, there are plenty of opportunities to help out.  A full schedule of all of the programs offered can be found here.  For further questions about how to get involved, call 585-245-5884 or email gold@geneseo.edu.  We hope to see more Geneseo alumni involved in the G.O.L.D. program soon!

-The Geneseo Alumni Team

                                                              

Parents Weekend- October 21-22, 2011

This coming weekend is another exciting opportunity to revisit the beautiful Geneseo campus and experience a number of fun campus activities—Parents Weekend.  If you are a parent or guardian of a current SUNY Geneseo student, this event is specially designed for you!

This weekend, October 21-22, 2011 will be host to an array of events, ranging from concerts to sporting events. Geneseo will have concerts, performances, workshops and much more. Some of these events include:

• Sporting Events/Games
• Performances, concerts, and Displays
• Kaleidoscope
• Equus
• Campus galleries open for public viewing
• School of the Arts Honors Recital Showcase
• Fall Festival Dinner
• Late Knight Ice Cream Social
• Demonstrations and Displays
•  Wave Tank and Flume Demonstration
•  Pelletron Particle Accelerator Display and Discussion
• Faculty-offered 45-minute college classes
• What is Abnormal? Taught by Jennifer Katz, Professor of Psychology
• What is Digital Humanities? Taught by Paul Schacht, Professor of English
•  Promotion of Democracy in the Post-Bush Era, taught by Jeremy Grace, Lecturer of International Relations
• Evolution and Creationism, taught by D. Jeffrey Over, Professor of Geological Sciences
• You Said What? Exploring Language as Symbolic Action, taught by Meredith Harrigan, Assistant Professor of Communications
• The Immune System:  Friend and Foe, taught by Robert O'Donnell, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Biology
• Why Dante Still Matters, taught by Ronald Herzman, Distinguished Teaching Professor of English
• The Physics of Baseball taught by Charlie Freeman, Chair and Associate Professor of Physics
• The Irish Harp Over Niagara:  The 1866 Invasion of Canada, taught by Joseph Cope, Associate Professor of History
• Nutrition:  Separating Truth and Hype, taught by Wendy Pogozelski, Professor of Chemistry
•  Parent workshops
• G.O.L.D.
• Study Abroad
• “What I know now, that I wish I knew then…” Discussion Panel
•  Gain insight and information about coursework, extra-curricular activities and more that will help current students get a leg up in job and post-graduate school interviews.

For a full list and times of all the great events scheduled for Parents Weekend, visit the parents weekend website or skip right to Registration!

                                        -The Geneseo Alumni Team

Get Involved- Offer Your Expertise!

Ever wonder what you, as a graduate of Geneseo, can do to help out your former college?  No, we’re not talking about donating huge sums of money (although that would be great too!).  We are suggesting you donate something just as valuable—your expertise and knowledge. There are a number of opportunities here at Geneseo for alumni to come share their experiences and insights about their careers and industries. Students are always eager to gain new insight on the world in front of them from alumni who have been there.

One way to participate is as an instructor in a G.O.L.D. (Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development) workshop. The G.O.L.D. program is designed to prepare students to be active and productive members of the Geneseo community. Alumni have the chance to come back and teach a class or a series of classes in the G.O.L.D. program on specific life skills or those related to a specific field of study.

Discussion panels are another great way to share your professional expertise. There are many times throughout the year that discussion panels are held to speak about current and career issues related to specific fields of study such as law, finance, and science.

At Homecoming there are two opportunities to participate. Celebrating the Sciences held discussion panels about each of the four sciences and featured Geneseo graduates from each of those majors.
The Career Connections Brunch is always packed with alumni and students having roundtable discussions about what it takes to be successful in different careers.

Each October at Parent's Weekend a panel of recent graduates presents What I Know Now That I Wish I Had Known Then, a discussion about coursework, extra-curricular activities, and other items that they recommend to students who want to get a leg up in job and post-graduate school interviews.

The Women in Leadership Conference, usually held in the spring, is another great panel opportunity. This conference is an event co-sponsored by the Women's Leadership Institute and the G.O.L.D. program. Guests are invited to serve as panelists to discuss several issues and challenges confronting women serving in leadership roles in a professional setting.

 

 
Lastly is the option to become an alumni career adviser. The alumni office will soon be adding a career advising feature to the U-Knight alumni network. The U-Knight Career Advisory Network will give students the ability to find alumni working in the career area they are interested in as well as providing a network for alumni to share and benefit from each others professional expertise.

There are many opportunities for you to help out the current students of Geneseo by offering them useful information that will prepare them for the business and professional world.  Just contact Geneseo to get involved by commenting on this post or using the information below:

G.O.L.D. and Women in Leadership Conference

• G.O.L.D. Website
• 585-245-5884

Career and industry discussion panels (law, finance, sciences, and more)

• alumni@geneseo.edu
• 585-245-5506

Career Connections Brunch

• seager@geneseo.edu
• 585-245-5721

What I Know Now That I Wish I Had Known Then

• To volunteer for to be on the panel, contact Rose Anderson at 585-245-5506 or andersonr@geneseo.edu

U-Knight Career Advisory Network (coming soon)

• Interested in helping us as a beta tester? 
• Contact uknight@geneseo.edu or Fran Zablocki at 585-245-5506
  

- The Geneseo Alumni Team                                                                 

Homecoming- Recognizing Geneseo's Best

SUNY Geneseo’s 2011 Homecoming was another hit, bringing alumni from all across the United States to join in on the weekend’s festivities.  While many of you already know of the traditional Geneseo events that took place, you may not know of all the awards and special recognition that were given out to alumni who have made especially great contributions during and after their time in Geneseo.  Awards were given to a current teacher, alumni who participated on sports teams, and those who were active in Greek Life.  Special acknowledgment was also given to the sciences here at Geneseo and many past Geneseoans were here as part of Celebrate the Sciences. 

Dr. Ronald Herzman became the 2011 recipient of the Geneseo Alumni Association Honorary Membership Award.  He was given the honor for his outstanding contributions to the Geneseo Alumni Association.  Along with being an Honorary Member, Dr. Herzman is a distinguished teaching professor of English and of Medieval Literature, and is best known for his dedication to the mastery and teaching of Dante for almost every year since 1974.

            The Sports Hall of Fame, which is now held every year during Homecoming weekend, honored four new inductees and also one team—all of whom demonstrated exemplary dedication to their chosen sport.  The four inductees included Jeff Stitt '81 and Keith Hyde ’81 of Men's Ice Hockey and Kim Stone Butts '95 and Beth Cincotta Canero '96 of Cross Country/Track.  The honorary team for 2011 was the 1993-94 Women's Cross Country/Track & Field Team.

            Greekfest, a celebration of the Geneseo Greek Community, is another event that takes place annually during Homecoming weekend.  During Greekfest, the Greek Hall of Fame inducts its new members to the ranks of Greek alumni who have shown a commitment to the preservation and furtherance of Greek affairs here at Geneseo.  Inductees for 2011 included Stephanie Brown ’05 of Alpha Kappa Phi (AGO) Sorority, Val Scott ‘82 of Phi Lambda Chi Sorority, and Tim Tobin ’89 of Sigma Nu/Chi Fraternity.

            The weekend also marked Geneseo’s dedication to the sciences.  Alumni panels, keynote speakers, tours, and receptions were all held for the four sciences—Biology, Geology, Physics, and Chemistry.  For each of the sciences, we were joined by Geneseo alumni who came back to participate on the alumni panels:

• Biology Alumni Panelists included: Mark Gregor '82, Michael Joynt '04, Megan Mongiovi '04, Dave Reist '78, Chris Rubeck '89, Jennifer Zubler '91 and Chuck Strickland '74

• Geology Alumni Panelists included: Ken Eck '82, Jim Gagliardi '77 and Don Geddes '88

• Physics Alumni Panelists included: Mark Muller '91, Andrew Caffrey '00, Robyn Colburn-MacBride '02, Dan Krygowski '69, Tracy Potter '00, Jack Schroeder '70, Tim Tobin '89, Michael Genier '92, Jeff Sklaver '78 and Dave Williams '93

• Chemistry Alumni Panelists included: Thomas Miller '72, Anthony Molloy '96, Erica Martin Bennett '97 and Paul Dethlefsen '97

Homecoming 2011 was not only a time to reconnect with old friends, but also a time to recognize the alumni who have made a positive difference in some way to the school and community of Geneseo.  All events from the weekend made up for an incredible time and we hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did—and from the looks of the pictures taken throughout the weekend, you did!

       

                                                               -The Geneseo Alumni Team

Homecoming- Through The Years

Preparations are now in high gear at the Alumni Relations office, with Homecoming only a couple days away. We’ve had alumni calling in or going online every day to register for many of our almost 20 events spread throughout the weekend.

            We are trying to customize each event in order to suit the needs of all alumni that will be joining us during Homecoming weekend—especially certain groups that are coming back to celebrate together. One way of doing this is by creating picture boards for Phi Kappa Sigma/Chi Fraternity and Sigma Phi/Theta Epsilon Fraternity, the two fraternities that will be holding anniversary and reunion celebrations. In our quest to find pictures of these two groups over the years, we dug into the shelves of Oh-Ha-Daih yearbooks, which is an exciting trip through a time capsule all in itself! While we were in there, we happened across some pictures of Homecomings past—maybe from when you were still a student here! We would like to share some of these pictures with you, to remind you of the purpose and excitement of Geneseo Homecoming and to highlight some of the ways this year’s homecoming will be even better than ever because of the history upon which it is being built.

(Photo from 1970)

In 1970, a dedication was held in the College Union for a sculpture presented by the class of 1968.  This year, Dr. Ronald Herzman will be receiving the Geneseo Alumni Association Honorary Membership Award and will be honored for his dedication to teaching here at Geneseo.

(Photo from 1973)

Class clowns—every college has ‘em, but Geneseo’s certainly are some of the funniest!

(Photo from 1976)

Remember catching up with friends over a few drinks at the IB? Well this Geneseo tradition is set to continue during this Homecoming (you even get your own Alumni mug).

(Photo from 1980)

Fun and exciting things are still happening here at Geneseo (just maybe not this crazy!)

(Photo from 1982)

For the 1981-82 school year, there was a pie-eating contest to coincide with the “American Pie” Homecoming theme that year.  While we won’t be chowing down on pie this year, there will be TONS of Aunt Cookie’s subs and Mama Mia’s pizza to fill you up.

(Photo from 1986)

Fireworks during Homecoming weekend has been a tradition for years and this year is no different.  A spectacular display will be held over Letchworth Field.

(Photo from 1994)

There will be plenty of fun and games scheduled for Homecoming weekend, including multiple Alumni sports games.  And who knows, maybe even a game of “crab soccer!”

(Photo from 1995)

Homecoming is all about reminiscing and celebrating the time you spent here in Geneseo—why not spend it with old friends too?

(Photo from 1980)

As always, you'll be sure to catch one of Geneseo's beautiful sunsets over the valley.

We can't wait for homecoming and we hope to see you there! Check out the official homecoming website for a complete schedule of events and online registration!

- The Geneseo Alumni Team