The SUNY Geneseo Alumni Blog: October 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

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

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

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

Friday, October 7, 2011

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