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	<title>Oswego Alumni Magazine &#187; Featured</title>
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	<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine</link>
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		<title>Fights, Fires &amp; Falls: Stuntwoman has the Drive to Dodge Danger</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/fights-fires-falls-stuntwoman-has-the-drive-to-dodge-danger/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/fights-fires-falls-stuntwoman-has-the-drive-to-dodge-danger/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=4125</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; Preparing for a photo shoot backstage at Waterman Theatre, Hollywood stuntwoman Joanna Shelmidine ’89 starts pulling gear out of her stunt bag — fireproof clothing, hip and back pads, body harness … and a little box, like a child’s pencil case, full of matchbox cars. There are a sports car, ambulance, motorcycle, three tiny cop cars [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-Spring-Carousels11-e1366049949300.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4428" title="2013 Spring Carousels1" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-Spring-Carousels11-e1366049949300.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="238" /></a></p>
<p>Preparing for a photo shoot backstage at Waterman Theatre, Hollywood stuntwoman Joanna Shelmidine ’89 starts pulling gear out of her stunt bag — fireproof clothing, hip and back pads, body harness … and a little box, like a child’s pencil case, full of matchbox cars. There are a sports car, ambulance, motorcycle, three tiny cop cars and more, stashed alongside a few pieces of colored chalk. “Oh those?” she says with grin. “We use them when planning out a driving stunt.” The stunt coordinator and stunt drivers get on hands and knees with the director to chalk out the scene on the pavement (or more often now, using a printout from Google maps), simulating the action with the miniature vehicles — over and over again — to be sure that everyone understands the shot so they can be in the right place at the right time and execute the stunt safely and precisely, she explains. “We want to be all on the same page, no surprises,” she says.</p>
<p>The planning, the tiny cars and the protective gear in that duffel bag sum up the stunt world according to Shelmidine. “It’s not about being a daredevil. It’s not about facing down fear,” she says emphatically. “It’s about precision and safety.”</p>
<p>As she dons those gloves – which she wears in honor of the famous stuntman who previously owned them – along with the pads and harnesses, we watch a magical transformation. Petite and lovely, with flowing dark locks, a dazzling smile and the body of an athlete, here Shelmidine is in her comfort zone and her comfort zone is action. She slips in protective pads under her clothing to cushion the falls, dive rolls and even car hits. She laces up the stiff leather ankle boots with traction soles that help her run, dodge and land on her feet.</p>
<p>One look at her IMDB entry and you know why she needs the gear. Her resume bullets include crashing a Jeep Wagoneer into an RV, getting chased by bulls, driving as a</p>
<div id="attachment_4143" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stunt-photos-for-Oswe_fmt7.jpeg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4143" title="Stunt photos for Oswe_fmt7" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stunt-photos-for-Oswe_fmt7-300x200.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Joanna Shelmidine ’89 takes a car hit as the young Rosanne Barr in a TV biopic of the comedienne’s life.</p></div>
<p>NYC cop and falling into a hole. For the HBO series “The Sopranos,” she performed fire stunts, fights and a near miss with a car.</p>
<p>Her most recent work was in CBS’s “Blue Bloods” and Fox’s “The Following” starring Kevin Bacon. She took a hit directly from Bacon in the seventh episode of this season, “Let Me Go,” and has a close encounter with him in the upcoming episode, “The End is Near.”</p>
<h2><strong>Anonymous Athlete</strong></h2>
<p>Unlike the stars of the movies she works on, it’s never “about” Shelmidine. She’s hesitant to have the camera focus on her face today, because in the movies, it rarely does. As a stunt double for famous actresses like America Ferrera in “Ugly Betty,” Hilary Duff in “Greta” and Cathy Cahlin Ryan in the FX show “Justified,” Shelmidine is anonymous. A shape-shifter, she was transformed into an Afghani woman for “Charlie Wilson’s War”, an Asian lady for Jet Li’s “The One” and a young boy for “Rocket Science.”</p>
<p>Even as she performs the most intricate stunts, simulating death-defying action, she must be careful to obscure her face from the lens. She may have to snap her head away from the camera at a key moment, or flip her shoulder-length brunette hair across her face at just the right time.</p>
<p>Her resume includes her height, weight, inseam, and shoe and dress sizes, so stunt coordinators and directors can pair her with actresses of similar size and shape. The wardrobe department prepares identical clothing for the star and Shelmidine, and in her case, multiple sets of the same outfit since they often get dirty, torn or burned in the course of performing multiple takes of the action.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of acting included with the action. “My whole goal is to get my body, whether in a fire, fight or punch, in the way an actress would do it, not an athlete,” Shelmidine explains. “So that it will look like the actress did it, not Joanna Shelmidine, the stuntwoman.”</p>
<p>In the editing, the footage of the stunt gets chopped up, and scenes with the actress’s face added, thereby adding to the anonymity of the stunt performer.</p>
<p>But that’s all OK. She’s not in it for the glory, Shelmidine assures us. “[Stunt work] is a lot less about bravery or being bold,” she says. “It’s more about being precise, professional, showing up the right size and on time. Make sure your pads don’t show, your face isn’t revealed in the frame and you hit your mark.”</p>
<p>A stunt person may have to do a stunt several times in a scene where five cameras are getting the shot from four different angles plus a master. “You have to land in the right spot for all five cameras to capture the stunt. If you fall out of your frame line, they can’t use that footage any more, costing production time and money.”</p>
<p>Today, backstage at Waterman, this Hollywood fixture seems a little star-struck herself. Shelmidine hasn’t been back in Tyler Hall since graduating more than 20 years ago, and for her, this is where it all began. A visit as a high schooler to the Theatre Festival in April of her junior year convinced Shelmidine the theatre was her world and Oswego was the place to launch herself into it.</p>
<p>Standing on stage, looking out upon the rows of red theatre seats, she executes a small dance step. “That’s what I did in ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ directed by [the late Professor Emerita] Rosemary Nesbitt,” she says with a shy smile. She fingers the curtain, points out rigging she climbed on as a student and reminisces for a moment about playing a role in “The Mikado” the summer after graduation, directed by Professor Emeritus Ron Medici and the late Professor Emeritus Jim Soluri. Professor of Theatre Mark Cole ’73 and Costume Shop Director Kitty Macey stop by for hugs and memories. “These Oswego professors prepared me for the realization of life in the entertainment industry — which can be tough. The things they said and did encouraged me on,” says Shelmidine.</p>
<p>Then the moment is over and it’s down to work for Shelmidine.</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: center;">[[Show as slideshow]]</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><strong>1</strong> and <strong>2</strong> doubling Aleksa Palladino in “The Huntress,”<strong>3</strong> doubling Ellyse Deanna in a SOBE energy drink commercial, <strong>4</strong> doubling Pamela Adlon in “Wedding Bells,” <strong>5</strong> doubling, Anna Belknap in “Medical Investigations” <strong>6 </strong>doubling Annabella Sciorra in “The Sopranos” <strong>7</strong> doubling Reece Thompson in “Rocket Science” and <strong>8</strong> doubling Hillary Duff in “Greta.”</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h2>Precision is Key</h2>
<p>Even as the photographer readies the lighting and the art director positions props, Shelmidine is talking animatedly about the stunt we will simulate for the photo. “Where do you want me?” She calls out to the photographer. “What do you think of this move?” as she kicks one jeans-clad leg above her head while hanging onto the rigging ropes, a ballerina with biceps.</p>
<p>She’s in her element now. In her world, the director tells the stunt coordinator precisely where the action has to land, to fit into the shot he or she envisions for the movie or TV show under production.</p>
<p>Shelmidine tells of one memorable stunt for the television show, “Mercy.” “There was a fight scene with another woman in a hospital,” she recalls. “They said to break everything in the room. I happened to catch a stuffed frog; it flew over the bed and landed in front of the camera. They asked me if I could do it again. So there I was, smashing a glass picture frame with my head, and I had to scoop up the frog without looking like I was doing it and have it land the same way it did when I did it by accident.”</p>
<p>Shelmidine specializes in fights, fires and falls, as well as driving. Her gear bag also includes a set of tools, a shop rag and some sandpaper. She is so committed to safety and precision, Shelmidine likes to set up her own cars for stunts. She makes sure the brakes are in working order, tests the vehicle to get a feel for how it performs in the maneuvers she will make. The sandpaper? That’s to clean the dust from the brakes so they can lock up when she takes the car into a slide.</p>
<p>A theatre and psychology major at Oswego, she auditioned at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., shortly after graduation. Her first big break came unexpectedly. The theme park needed an actress to fire a gun. “Growing up in Lorraine, N.Y., I knew a lot about shooting. My dad went hunting; I wasn’t afraid of it,” she recalls. “At least I didn’t break a fingernail like the other girl.” She got the job and spent her days working the Dynamitic Nights Lagoon Show, riding around in a boat and shooting the bad guys. “On off days, I’d be the bad guy,” she says with laugh. She hid in a trawler while shots and flames exploded around her. Later they asked if she would leap off the top of the exploding trawler into the lagoon. Of course, she said yes, and the rest is history.</p>
<p>She snagged a gig in Tampa performing a stunt with Burt Reynolds, earned her Screen Actors Guild card and headed for Hollywood.</p>
<h2><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stunt-woman-Oswego_15_fmt1-e1365442084348.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4126" title="Stunt woman Oswego_15_fmt1" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Stunt-woman-Oswego_15_fmt1-e1365442084348.jpeg" alt="" width="500" height="690" /></a></h2>
<h2>Making of a Stuntwoman</h2>
<p>There she spent time learning the stunt trade from other stunt performers and coordinators, studying martial arts like Hap ki do and Tae kwon do and practicing rock climbing, rappelling, fire stunts and jumping from high fall towers.</p>
<p>One of her biggest loves is cars, and she honed her skills by working at the Rick Seamans Motion Picture Driving Clinic, two seasons on the pit crew at Scott Brothers Racing Team, a season building cars for the TV reality show “Fear Factor” and currently aligns herself with the Drivers East stunt team in New York City. Her motorcycle skills helped her land two national commercials for Suzuki and a doubling gig as America Ferrera in “Ugly Betty.”</p>
<p>She does credit Oswego with some of her driving skills, though. “I had lots of practice driving my Ford LTD on the snow,” she says with a laugh.</p>
<p>Shelmidine explains that fire is a “mind game,” which slows down time for her. “On the outside you are acting like a crazy woman, and inside [you are] Zen with the world,” is how she explains it.</p>
<p>She recalls her favorite class, although she didn’t know at the time it would serve her so well in her career: “Bodily Movement” with Theatre Professor Emeritus Ron Medici. “We memorized movement, and in our last final, I memorized movement around the dance studio,” she says. “If anything, that class is what my career became.</p>
<p>“Now, I look at an actress and right away start imitating her movement, so when I’m in the middle of my stunt my body emulates hers.”</p>
<p>In addition to her mentors in the theatre department, psychology professor Dave Sargent, Shelmidine’s adviser, helped her through trying times and gave her a lot of confidence in her choices.</p>
<p>Another Oswego influence was her work-study job in the Alumni Relations Office. Shelmidine credits the alumni staff for teaching her to be a professional, independent woman, advice that helped her in temp jobs when just starting out and now in organizing her stunt career. She fondly recalls being the Reunion coordinator, appropriately organizing the Road Rally, and helping with alumni programs, which instilled in her the value of giving back. She is looking forward to returning to campus to lecture in classes and workshops for current students.</p>
<p>It’s Shelmidine’s way of repaying Oswego for the start to her career. Looking out from the stage in Waterman Theatre, the no-nonsense, athletic stuntwoman gets a bit of a wistful look in her eye. “I’m just so thrilled to have it come full circle,” she says.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"> - Michele Reed</p>
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		<title>College Prep Starts with ABC</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/college-prep-starts-with-abc/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/college-prep-starts-with-abc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:42:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Alumni News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alumni Profiles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=4078</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Each week, La Rae M. Martin-Coore ’99 is used to getting a few glances when she cruises the grocery aisles with her husband, son and three carts in tow. They’re shopping for their extended family, the six New York City teens who live with them in Manlius. The girls are enrolled in the A Better Chance, or ABC, program [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/44A2913_fmt1.jpeg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-4080" title="_44A2913_fmt1" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/44A2913_fmt1-222x300.jpeg" alt="" width="222" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Each week,<strong> La Rae M. Martin-Coore ’99</strong> is used to getting a few glances when she cruises the grocery aisles with her husband, son and three carts in tow.</p>
<p>They’re shopping for their extended family, the six New York City teens who live with them in Manlius.</p>
<p>The girls are enrolled in the A Better Chance, or ABC, program at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. The nationwide initiative brings bright inner city youth to high-achieving school districts to give them a different perspective while preparing for college and career.</p>
<p>ABC, one of two in the state, has been a part of the community for nearly 40 years. Martin-Coore took over as resident director last fall and made quite a commitment. As part of the position, she and her family moved into the ABC house in Manlius.</p>
<p>“The way a family operates, that’s very much the way we operate,” Martin-Coore said.</p>
<p>She is a mentor, counselor and, in many respects, mother to these teens. On any given night, the house is buzzing with activity — the stairs creak with frequent commuters running up and down, cell phones vibrate with text message alerts and gatherings in the kitchen or at the dinner table fuel constant conversation.</p>
<p>“I have a passion for working with young people, young women in particular,” says Martin-Coore, who also works as the academic coordinator for Le Moyne College’s Higher Education Preparation/Upward Bound Program. As a high schooler at Nottingham in Syracuse, Martin-Coore was herself a participant at Le Moyne before heading to SUNY Morrisville and eventually to Oswego.</p>
<p>“I like to help students achieve with the same opportunities that I have had in my life,” says Martin-Coore, who at Oswego was very active in ALANA and the Black Student Union — the community service projects, in particular.</p>
<p><strong>Helping Students Succeed</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_4082" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 238px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/LeRae_44A2766_fmt1.jpeg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-4082" title="LeRae_44A2766_fmt" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/LeRae_44A2766_fmt1-228x300.jpeg" alt="" width="228" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">La Rae M. Martin-Coore ’99, left, mentors girls in the A Better Chance, or ABC, program. Current students participating in the program squeeze into a room underneath the stairs. The tiny space includes an easy chair, telephone and — on the walls — the signatures of virtually every ABC participant dating back to the program’s beginning some 40 years ago.</p></div>
<p>Like Upward Bound, ABC focuses on getting talented students ready for college. The teens must meet high academic standards to qualify.</p>
<p>“This is just another experience for the students to have,” Martin-Coore says. “You get to learn about people from all walks of life and get along with all different people.</p>
<p>“That’s the college experience … and colleges recognize that too,” she says. “It sets you apart.”</p>
<p>Even the youngest in the house, freshman Tanaja Stephenson of Brooklyn, has college plans. “I like that I’m being challenged more than I would at home,” she says over a plate of chicken riggies with her housemates.</p>
<p>Many in this group of six, like junior Sara Elzeini of the Bronx, have aspirations to enter the medical field.</p>
<p>“I think it might be hard for some kids to go away to school,” says Elzeini, vice president of her class at Fayetteville-Manlius and a part-time swim instructor at the YMCA. “I feel like it won’t be a shock to me to go to college.”</p>
<p>The teens split up household chores and handle their own, like laundry, says Martin-Coore, who lives in the home with her husband, Zaire M. Coore ’98, and son, Zaire J. Coore.</p>
<p>Students spend all four years of high school at their ABC destination.</p>
<p>“You get to connect with people you would otherwise never have met,” said sophomore Kesi Rivera of Harlem. “This program opens a lot of doors.”</p>
<p>Martin-Coore hopes to one day open her own leadership academy for young women of color.</p>
<p>“I’m showing them who they can possibly become,” she says. “I know when I do that, I’m going to be blessed.</p>
<p>“It’s about being happy.”</p>
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		<title>Romancing the Ruins: Photos Capture Beauty in the Debris</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/romancing-the-ruins-photos-capture-beauty-in-the-debris/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/romancing-the-ruins-photos-capture-beauty-in-the-debris/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Alumni News]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=4087</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is beauty in their decay. In rusty brilliance, the remnants remind passersby there was life here. There was commerce, there were castle homes, there was economic might in the Empire State. Robert Yasinsac ’99 has done his best to capture it before these abandoned buildings disappear. He concentrates his urban exploration on the Hudson Valley, where factory [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>
<p>There is beauty in their decay.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>In rusty brilliance, the remnants remind passersby there was life here. There was commerce, there were castle homes, there was economic might in the Empire State.</p>
<p>Robert Yasinsac ’99 has done his best to capture it before these abandoned buildings disappear.</p>
<p>He concentrates his urban exploration on the Hudson Valley, where factory ruins and grand mansions are left for dead. With his camera, Yasinsac brings history to life.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of change happening out there right now,” says Yasinsac. Long-neglected riverfronts welcome new development like condominiums. At the same time humble, but historical, structures are swept away.</p>
<p>“I think we’re at a time when these are the last buildings that are still standing,” says Yasinsac, a history and anthropology major who has spent the better part of two decades capturing the ghostly remains of Upstate New York. “I am documenting what is still here. I’ve got all these pictures of places that aren’t around anymore.”</p>
<p>The Tarrytown native cannot restore these brick-and-mortar gems he first discovered on grade-school class walks around his hometown. In attempting to highlight the hidden dignity of faded façades and disintegrating interiors, Yasinsac also hopes to inspire restoration and save them.</p>
<p>A growing number of urban explorers have taken to cities and towns, posting discoveries on the Web as Yasinsac and his partner in photography Tom Rinaldi do at <a href="http://hudsonvalleyruins.org" target="_blank">hudsonvalleyruins.org</a>. It’s a promising phenomenon to Yasinsac, who works as historian at the Phillipsburg Manor historic site in Sleepy Hollow.</p>
<p>“Hopefully the more people [who are] involved and have even a casual interest, the more will get saved,” he says.</p>

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<a href='http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/04/15/romancing-the-ruins-photos-capture-beauty-in-the-debris/2013-spring-carousels2-2/' title='2013 Spring Carousels2'><img width="150" height="150" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-Spring-Carousels21-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="2013 Spring Carousels2" title="2013 Spring Carousels2" /></a>

</div>
<p>Photographs by Robert Yasinsac ’99</p>
<div>
<p>Words by Shane M. Liebler</p>
</div>
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		<title>Remembering a Science Star</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/15/remembering-a-science-star/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/15/remembering-a-science-star/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:25:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chemistry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[College of Liberal Arts and Sciences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[philanthropy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard S. Shineman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School of Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science Engineering and Innovation Corridor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shineman Center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STEM]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3748</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65, M ’71, professor emerita of education, sifts through memorabilia of her late husband, Dr. Richard S. Shineman. She finds a card their granddaughter Megan gave Dick for his birthday one year. It reads, “The man who reaches for his star is admired, but the man who helps others reach theirs is loved.”]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65, M ’71,</strong> professor emerita of education, sifts through memorabilia of her late husband, Dr. Richard S. Shineman. She finds a card their granddaughter Megan gave Dick for his birthday one year. It reads, “The man who reaches for his star is admired, but the man who helps others reach theirs is loved.”<span id="more-3748"></span></p>
<p>“It rang a bell,” Barbara says of the card’s effect on her. It perfectly sums up for her the kind of man Dick was.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YoSIOcg_MZ4?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe></p>
<p>Now, thanks to her gift of $5 million — the largest cash gift in the more than 150-year history of the college — generations of students in the science and engineering fields will be helped toward their stars in the name of a seminal figure in the history of sciences at Oswego: the first chair of the chemistry department and a man who had already passed on the love of his discipline to thousands of Oswego graduates.</p>
<p>“Barbara and Dick have been longtime generous supporters of our college. They epitomize the loyalty and devotion of the entire SUNY Oswego community.</p>
<p>“But this gift is of another dimension. As the largest philanthropic gift in our college’s history, it will mean many things to our students — from well-equipped science facilities to top-notch faculty,” said Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley in announcing the gift.</p>
<p>“We are tremendously thrilled and grateful. This gift comes at a key time, as we focus more than ever on educating students in the sciences and related disciplines. The work and recognition made possible by this wonderful and welcome act of generosity will put Oswego on the map in these fields,” she added.</p>
<p>In accordance with state education law and State University regulations, President Stanley, the Oswego College Foundation, SUNY Oswego College Council and SUNY board of trustees have approved recognizing this historic $5 million gift by naming Oswego’s new science complex the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation. It is now under construction and set to open in fall 2013.</p>
<p>The gift will establish an endowment that will support an endowed chair in chemistry and educational and cultural opportunities including science programs and research and initiatives of the faculty of the Shineman Center.</p>
<p>“It is always a point of pride when our campuses are given philanthropic gifts in recognition of the excellent education they provide to students in so many different fields of learning,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “It is also an honor for campuses to be able to name facilities or scholarships after donors who have shown an exemplary dedication to the campus. Congratulations to SUNY Oswego on this much-deserved donation and many thanks to Professor Emerita Dr. Barbara Shineman and the Richard S. Shineman Foundation for their consistent support.”</p>
<p>“Dr. Barbara Shineman is a lifelong true philanthropist. She embodies the very mission of the Oswego College Foundation,” said <strong>Bill Spinelli ’84,</strong> chair of the Oswego College Foundation board of directors. “Her personal philanthropy includes a leadership role as a charter member of the Sheldon Legacy Society, the college’s planned giving program, as well as establishing student awards and scholarships, supporting The Fund for Oswego and the Emeriti Association, and most generous gifts to college fundraising efforts.”</p>
<p>“Dick would be overwhelmed by this … and very humbled,” Barbara said, “He really had a great deal of respect for the college. When Dick joined the faculty in 1962, he was hired to help reshape the sciences at Oswego, so he would be so very pleased to see this state-of-the-art building, where all the disciplines will be under one roof.”</p>
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<h2>Proud History at Oswego</h2>
<p>Dick Shineman was one of the founders of Oswego’s chemistry program and its first chair, as well as part of a cadre of professors who helped design the science facilities in Snygg Hall. With an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, a master’s from Syracuse and a doctorate from the Ohio State University, he was hired by then-President Foster Brown to get the sciences program under way, and he worked with chairmen in the other science disciplines and math along with colleagues in SUNY Central Administration to design the building.</p>
<p>Dick Shineman took pride in chemistry graduates who went on to do great things. <strong>Dr. Corliss Varnum ’79,</strong> one of Shineman’s early students, later became his physician and attended him in his final illness.</p>
<p>One of the courses Dick Shineman was proudest of developing was “Chemistry and the Public Concern,” which spoke to environmental issues becoming prominent in the early ’70s. Long after his retirement, as the new century dawned, he was pleased that it was still being offered as a new generation of environmental concerns surfaced.</p>
<p>Barbara Shineman has deep roots at Oswego, too. She is a proud alumna, having graduated as a non-traditional student with an undergraduate degree in childhood education, master’s in reading education and a Certificate of Advanced Study</p>
<p>She joined the college community as a young mother of two, married to Robert Palmer, director of Auxiliary Services at the college, when she decided to take classes at the college in 1958. Palmer died suddenly in 1969. They had been married for 23 years and his death was a shock to the community.</p>
<p>“It changed my life. I decided it was time to go on to grad school. I got my master’s at Oswego and then decided on Penn State for my doctorate,” Barbara recalled.</p>
<p>About this time she met Dick Shineman, when both were serving on a music committee at the Presbyterian Church, where Dick would go on to serve as a deacon and elder. Through many meetings to choose a new hymnal, the two became friends. “We shared similar values,” Barbara said. “I was impressed with his outlook on life, and the fact that he was a good person.”</p>
<p>When it was time for Barbara to leave for Penn State, Dick urged her to follow through on her educational goals. “Dick would call from Oswego – ‘Are you busy this weekend?’ he would ask, and plan a visit,” Barbara relates. “Before summer ended, he proposed.”</p>
<p>Although Dick encouraged her to stay and complete her degree at Penn State, Barbara was able to transfer to Syracuse University, where she would complete her doctorate. The two were married in 1973.</p>
<p>After marriage to Dick, “life again took a great turn,” Barbara said. Especially after retirement, the couple traveled frequently, to places like the Galapagos Islands and to England, to visit Barbara’s daughter, Kathy.</p>
<p>Barbara stayed involved in the life of the college, teaching at the Campus School. “The Campus School experience was the most professionally rewarding, getting to know the students, working with college students, parents and colleagues,” she said. When the Campus School closed, Barbara joined the elementary education department at Oswego, where she taught until her retirement in 1989.</p>
<p>She would direct the Sheldon Institute for Gifted and Talented Students and the Potential Teacher Program, and coordinate Swetman Learning Center advisement while continuing her work as a professor of elementary education in what is now the college’s School of Education.</p>
<p>“The college was a big part of our life together,” Barbara said.</p>
<p>After retirement, they would go on to be involved in the Emeriti Association. Dick was a founding member and served on the original board of directors. Barbara was president for seven years, and led the effort to establish a historical record within all named campus buildings.</p>
<p>“We took a lot of pride in doing things that reflected what the college was doing and what it needed,” she said. “I felt good about that and really enjoyed working on it.”</p>
<p>Professor Emeritus of English John Fisher and his wife, Joanne, are longtime friends of both Shinemans. “When we think of Dick, we remember how much of a giving person he was, and Barbara is the same,” said Joanne. “She really has put her life into the college,” added John, who taught Barbara in a freshman English class and later served on the Emeriti Association with her. “Her actions told what her feelings were.</p>
<p>Speaking of both Shinemans, he said, “They were both very proud of Oswego.”</p>
<p>Barbara served as the Annual Fund volunteer chair, and was the recipient of the Oswego Alumni Association’s Lifetime Award of Merit. During the college’s first capital campaign, “Inspiring Horizons,” Barbara served as a member of the Presidential Campaign Cabinet.</p>
<p>For more than a decade, she served on the Oswego Alumni Association Scholarship Committee.</p>
<p>President Stanley pre­sented Barbara with a Presidential Medal for her lifelong support to SUNY Oswego at the 2007 Commencement Ceremony.</p>
<p>Both Shinemans were community minded. Along with Dick’s devotion to Rotary and its motto of “Service Above Self,” they have volunteered their time to community organizations in Oswego and their winter home in Florida, including the AARP tax adviser program, the local hospital, Hospice, Literacy Volunteers and the Arts Council.</p>
<h2>A life of generosity</h2>
<p>Philanthropy – especially giving to SUNY Oswego – has been extremely important to the Shinemans, both of whom served on the Oswego College Foundation board of directors.</p>
<p>The couple focused their giving on the college, providing nearly a million dollars in support during Dick Shineman’s lifetime.</p>
<p>“Dick and I always agreed about the tremendous importance of education. We always felt education is an enabler … it enables you to pursue your dreams and gives you the confidence in your ability to achieve success,” Barbara Shineman said. “It follows that the more resources the college has, the better it will enable students to reach for their dreams.”</p>
<p>Dick Shineman insisted on anonymity during his lifetime, although he acknowledged his support of the Freshman Chemistry Scholarship, with four awarded to incoming Oswego students each year. Barbara Shineman has supported Penfield Library, campus beautification projects and the School of Education, among other initiatives.</p>
<p>To this SUNY Oswego couple, nothing was more important than the college that was at the center of their lives — and its students. “The college was a very important part of [Dick’s] life,” said Barbara Shineman. “He had a very strong, committed, loyal feeling about Oswego — where it was going, what it was trying to do.”</p>
<p>Dick’s generous nature developed through his father’s advice and example, Barbara explained.</p>
<p>A spirit of philanthropy permeated their lives together, from their wedding in the Shineman Chapel House on the Hartwick College campus, which was donated by the Shineman family, who helped found the Beechnut Corp. in Canajoharie.</p>
<p>Barbara tells a story that epitomizes Dick’s approach to philanthropy. “Every June, Dick would take all the solicitations he had received from organizations – the Bible Society, chemical societies, etc. — then write a check to each of them,” she said. “It wasn’t millions, but he wanted them to know he supported them.”</p>
<p>She added, “Dick’s philosophy was that money is not something to hold on to. You come into the world with nothing, and go out of it with nothing.</p>
<p>That philosophy found its ultimate expression in the Richard S. Shineman Foundation, which Dick founded just before his death.</p>
<p>“The money that he put into the foundation will benefit people in the community, who might not otherwise have the opportunity,” Barbara explains.</p>
<p>The gift to SUNY Oswego is the first for the foundation, which aims to be a “Catalyst for Change,” funding community programs in Upstate New York and especially Oswego County.</p>
<p>“[Dick] would be pleased that the foundation is doing what it’s doing,” said Barbara. “He would be so happy to see all the sciences under one roof at SUNY Oswego, to bring so many disciplines together in one building. He would be utterly overwhelmed. Nothing would please him more than to see it. He would be very humbled by it.”</p>
<p>She said Dick would be most pleased by what the gift will mean to the college and to future students. “He would be in awe of the kind of development the future students will have because of the new building: how it will help them get into programs and finish their education,” she said.</p>
<p>Through this historic gift to Oswego, the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation is just one more way, that even though he has passed on, Dick Shineman can help others reach for their own stars.</p>
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		<title>Weather  Channel’s Winter Expert Has Roots in Oswego</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/09/weather-channels-winter-expert-has-roots-in-oswego/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/09/weather-channels-winter-expert-has-roots-in-oswego/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:03:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al Roker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[broadcasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class of 1977]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[College of Liberal Arts and Sciences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lake effect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meteorology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Weather Channel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3736</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When your résumé includes experiences like standing atop Piez Hall measuring the wind speed as the Blizzard of ’77 rolls in off Lake Ontario, where else would your career take you but before the cameras of The Weather Channel as the Winter Weather Expert?

Luckily Tom Niziol ’77 made it down off that roof safely. Now he draws on his Oswego snow schooling and a 30-year career with the National Weather Service in Buffalo in his role with the country’s premier source for consumer weather information.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When your résumé includes experiences like standing atop Piez Hall measuring the wind speed as the Blizzard of ’77 rolls in off Lake Ontario, where else would your career take you but before the cameras of The Weather Channel as the Winter Weather Expert?<span id="more-3736"></span></p>
<p>Luckily <strong>Tom Niziol ’77</strong> made it down off that roof safely. Now he draws on his Oswego snow schooling and a 30-year career with the National Weather Service in Buffalo in his role with the country’s premier source for consumer weather information.</p>
<div id="attachment_3607" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 452px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/IMG_9212_fmt1.jpeg"><img class=" wp-image-3607   " title="Tom Niziol" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/IMG_9212_fmt1-1024x645.jpeg" alt="Tom Niziol '77" width="442" height="279" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Niziol</p></div>
<p>Niziol joined The Weather Channel in January 2012, and immediately took to the air to explain extreme weather conditions around the country.</p>
<p>He is featured regularly during winter weather coverage on The Weather Channel, which reaches more than 100 million American homes. Niziol also contributes his expertise with content on The Weather Channel’s digital platforms including <a title="The Weather Channel" href="http://weather.com" target="_blank">weather.com</a> and social media outlets.</p>
<p>Niziol enjoyed being a student in Oswego’s meteorology department, he said, not only because of the school’s excellent reputation in the field but because the program was small enough to get individualized attention and the opportunity for hands-on research with faculty members. The late Professors Emeriti Eugene Chermack and Robert Sykes were his mentors and heroes, he recalls.</p>
<p>“Professor Sykes used to take us onto the roof of the meteorology building to begin class each day and he spent time to train us how to connect and ‘feel’ the weather. I particularly remember one day when the winds were very light, they did not even rustle the flag and he asked us to tell him the wind direction,” Niziol recalls. “We all looked for signs to help us but could not find any. Then he asked us to smell the air. It smelled sweet like chocolate and we all immediately knew that was the aroma from the Nestle chocolate factory in Fulton. Now that’s meteorology at its finest.”</p>
<p>Niziol’s interest in weather started young. He remembers watching the sky and following the weather as a kid, but it was his high school earth science teacher who triggered his interest in meteorology as a profession. “However, once I arrived at Oswego, it kicked my interest into high gear and meteorology became a passion,” Niziol says.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a title="Students at SUNY Oswego Pinpoint Storms for Schools" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/09/students-at-suny-oswego-pinpoint-storms-for-schools/" target="_blank">MORE: Students at SUNY Oswego Pinpoint Storms for Schools</a></h2>
<p>Oswego was a logical choice for the budding meteorologist. “I picked Oswego mainly because it was one of only a couple of state schools that offered a reasonably priced college education and had a meteorology department. I also picked it because of its idyllic location on the shores of Lake Ontario — what other college campus can offer the type of sunsets and connection with storms that Oswego can?” he says.</p>
<p>That connection spawned a host of memories for the weather expert, like pulling a couple of co-eds off the fence at the tennis court next to Seneca Hall when they could not navigate the icy sidewalks in 60-mph winds.</p>
<p>“The friends, the dorms, the meteorology lab, the wrestling team workouts, the sunsets, the winter storms, the lightning over the lake — it was all wonderful and it is so nice to revisit those memories from time to time,” Niziol says. “If I had to go back and relive those days, there is very little I would change.”</p>
<p>After Oswego, he went to work for the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories in Buffalo, now CALSPAN Corp., and from there joined the National Weather Service. He worked his way up the career ladder, eventually becoming the officer in charge of the Buffalo office.</p>
<p>After three decades at the government’s weather service, Niziol expected to finish out his career there, until a call came “out of the blue” from The Weather Channel, asking him to audition to ex­plain winter’s extreme weather to a national audience. He made the trip to Atlanta, auditioned and was invited to become part of a Weather Channel team that includes Oswego grads <strong>Thomas Moore ’74,</strong> who serves as coordinator of the weather forecasting program and now works hand in hand with Niziol, and <strong>Al Roker ’76,</strong> who hosts the channel’s popular “Wake Up with Al” morning program.</p>
<p>And how cool is it to be The Weather Channel’s winter storm expert? “I’m the luckiest man alive,” says Niziol, who cherishes his “very understanding family” and loved his dream job with the NWS in Buffalo. Now he has another dream job telling the whole nation about the weather phenomena he came to love and understand at SUNY Oswego.</p>
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		<title>Alumni Exhibit Success in All-Oswego Show</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2013/01/09/alumni-exhibit-success-in-all-oswego-show/</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:39:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane M. Liebler</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Art Department]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[artist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[artwork]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School of Communication Media and the Arts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tyler Hall]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3728</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the fall, art department alumni spanning four decades shared their work and their stories in a special 
exhibit at Tyler Hall.

Some 35 alumni artists were included in the first such show in nearly 20 years.

Commercial artists, teachers and children’s book illustrators were all represented. The exhibit included many New York pieces as well as imports from several states.

“It is by and large positive recognition of their time spent here,” said Michael Flanagan, assistant director of the Tyler Art Gallery. It’s also inspiration for current students, who got a flavor for the variety of careers artists can pursue.

The recognition came with much appreciation from artists like Mario Romano ’05, who wrote, “I look back at my undergraduate degree and I am thankful for the freedom I had to express what was necessary for me at that time.”]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><object width="550" height="345" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F40192301%40N05%2Fsets%2F72157632481664970%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F40192301%40N05%2Fsets%2F72157632481664970%2F&amp;set_id=72157632481664970&amp;jump_to=" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=122138" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed width="550" height="345" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=122138" flashvars="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F40192301%40N05%2Fsets%2F72157632481664970%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F40192301%40N05%2Fsets%2F72157632481664970%2F&amp;set_id=72157632481664970&amp;jump_to=" allowFullScreen="true" allowfullscreen="true" /></object></p>
<p>In the fall, art department alumni spanning four decades shared their work and their stories in a special exhibit at Tyler Hall.<span id="more-3728"></span></p>
<p>Some 35 alumni artists were included in the first such show in nearly 20 years.</p>
<p>Commercial artists, teachers and children’s book illustrators were all represented. The exhibit included many New York pieces as well as imports from several states.</p>
<p>“It is by and large positive recognition of their time spent here,” said Michael Flanagan, assistant director of the Tyler Art Gallery. It’s also inspiration for current students, who got a flavor for the variety of careers artists can pursue.</p>
<p>The recognition came with much appreciation from artists like <strong>Mario Romano ’05,</strong> who wrote, “I look back at my undergraduate degree and I am thankful for the freedom I had to express what was necessary for me at that time.”</p>
<p>Alumni Exhibitors:</p>
<p><strong>Jamie Ashlaw ’92</strong></p>
<p><strong>Marc Barr M’74</strong></p>
<p><strong>Paul Bartow ’88</strong></p>
<p><strong>Catherine Bebout ’79</strong></p>
<p><strong>Gail Bering-Porter M’ 08</strong></p>
<p><strong>Amy Gutter Bernard ’98</strong></p>
<p><strong>Amanda Besl ’98</strong></p>
<p><strong>Isaac Bidwell ’08</strong></p>
<p><strong>Kelly Chilton ’09</strong></p>
<p><strong>William DeMott ’84, M ’89</strong></p>
<p><strong>Holly DePue ’11</strong></p>
<p><strong>Bernice Ficek-Swenson M ’77</strong></p>
<p><strong>Kenneth Freed M ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>Gary Grosenbeck ’89</strong></p>
<p><strong>James W. Johnson ’77</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tyrone Johnson-Neuland M ’99</strong></p>
<p><strong>Sarah Heppell ’09</strong></p>
<p><strong>Deale A. Hutton ’01</strong></p>
<p><strong>Denise Lisiecki M ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>Mike Lupa ’05, M ’06</strong></p>
<p><strong>TreeLee MacAnn ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>Thomas MacPherson ’73</strong></p>
<p><strong>Rebecca Mushtare ’03</strong></p>
<p><strong>Rick Muto ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>Sarah Nesbitt ’06</strong></p>
<p><strong>Stephen Nevitt M ’73</strong></p>
<p><strong>Mary Ann Spavins Owen ’73, M ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>J. Malcolm Owen M ’78</strong></p>
<p><strong>Paul Pearce ’79, M ’03</strong></p>
<p><strong>Mary Pierce ’94,  M ’96</strong></p>
<p><strong>Kelly Roe ’94, M ’97</strong></p>
<p><strong>Mario Romano ’05</strong></p>
<p><strong>James Russell ’83</strong></p>
<p><strong>Virginia Saunders ’75</strong></p>
<p><strong>Roy Strassberg ’72</strong></p>
<p><strong>Cara Thompson M ’02</strong></p>
<p><strong>Kate Timm ’74, M ’76</strong></p>
<p><strong>Rose Throop ’95</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>View from the Top:  Moritz Took His Oswego Business Degree to the Peak of PwC</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/view-from-the-top-moritz-took-his-oswego-business-degree-to-the-peak-of-pwc/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/view-from-the-top-moritz-took-his-oswego-business-degree-to-the-peak-of-pwc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:42:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bob Moritz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burgeoning Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class of 1985]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School of Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Bob Moritz ’85, chairman and senior U. S. partner of the Big 4 accounting firm PwC, pulled into Oswego April 16 to pick up the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society honorary member award on his way back to New York from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions in Cleveland, where he was thrilled to see Green Day honored.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Bob Moritz ’85,</strong> chairman and senior U. S. partner of the Big 4 accounting firm PwC, pulled into Oswego April 16 to pick up the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society honorary member award on his way back to New York from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions in Cleveland, where he was thrilled to see Green Day honored.<span id="more-3260"></span></p>
<p><object width="560" height="315" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3iCO6jhuVH4?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed width="560" height="315" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3iCO6jhuVH4?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" /></object></div>
<p>A drummer himself, who played in a band while at Oswego, Moritz has instead taken his Oswego accounting degree to a kind of rock star status in the business world.</p>
<p>“I never would have thought debits and credits would have gotten me here,” Moritz modestly told students in a Business Law II class. “I have sat on panels with Bill Gates, interviewed Presidents (George W.) Bush and (Bill) Clinton and stood on the red carpet at the Oscars.” His firm, formerly called PricewaterhouseCoopers, is probably most well known to the public as the people who count the ballots for the Academy Awards.</p>
<p>From his office in New York City, his work keeps him on the move, with travel occupying 70 percent of his time — anywhere from Washington, D.C., to Canada to South America, with occasional trips to Japan and China. He visits with CEOs of the companies PwC serves, holds town hall meetings with PwC members across the country and calls on lawmakers and regulators to give them his advice about the financial services industry.</p>
<p>But his journey to the pinnacle of the accounting profession in the United States all started with a bit of fatherly advice. “I was working in the stock room at a clothing store in high school and wanted to keep on working,” Moritz admits. “My father talked me into going to college.”</p>
<p>He chose Oswego because it “fit best” — he loved the look and feel of the place, and the people were friendly. He chose accounting as a major, because he had read in the guidance counselor’s office that partners made $90,000 — pretty impressive money 30 years ago — and he had shown an aptitude for math in high school.</p>
<p>The choice proved fruitful as Moritz earned his accounting degree and went on to a stellar career in the field, joining PwC right after graduation and working his way up the career ladder. Now he leads the U. S. practice of the international firm, which totals $9 billion in annual revenue.</p>
<p><strong>‘Amazing’ global awareness</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_3039" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 242px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moritz220.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3039" title="bob-moritz-air" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moritz220.tif-232x300.jpg" alt="Bob Moritz '85" width="232" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Bob Moritz &#8217;85</strong></p></div>
<p>When he visited campus in April, Moritz was impressed with his alma mater, especially the School of Business. “It’s amazing how much more globally aware our students are and how engaged they are on a multidisciplinary level.”</p>
<p>That international focus and well- roundedness are important to Moritz, who prizes diversity and innovation for the company he leads.</p>
<p>There’s a solid business reasoning behind his focus. At PwC, the average age of employees is 27. “How do we make a work environment that’s a talent magnet?” he asks rhetorically. The firm wants people who are engaged, inclusive, having an impact and making a difference.</p>
<p>By fostering diversity, the firm ensures it is attracting the very best and by being seen as a company appreciating diversity, it can be a talent magnet.</p>
<p>His commitment to diversity stems from two personal experiences — the three years he spent on assignment in PwC’s Japan office, where as an American he was in the minority, and his time working in the firm’s human resources operation.</p>
<p>Now as chairman, he guides programs to create an inclusive environment, to mentor and sponsor diverse staff and to overcome unconscious biases.</p>
<p>Programs are designed to broaden horizons, like the one that brings hundreds of PwC employees to Belize to help build schools and teach people there.</p>
<p>Moritz is quick to point out that for any business to be successful, it needs innovation. For PwC that means being relevant to its stakeholders — the businesses it serves, the people it employs and the investing community. “So we listen to what they need and continually improve,” he says. “We aim to make lots of little improvements every day.”</p>
<p><strong>Doing good is good business</strong></p>
<div id="attachment_3038" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moritz146_w-students.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3038" title="bob-moritz-BGS" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moritz146_w-students.tif-300x197.jpg" alt="Bob Moritz '85 visits campus" width="300" height="197" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Bob Moritz ’85,</strong> center, visits with student inductees into Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society.</p></div>
<p>Also important to Moritz, both personally and in his role as a business leader, is the notion of giving back.</p>
<p>He believes that giving back is a three-pronged effort: giving one’s time, doing pro bono work and making financial contributions.</p>
<p>As a firm, PwC focuses on youth education and financial literacy, inclusiveness and going green.</p>
<p>As leader, Moritz believes it is his responsibility to create an environment where people have the time and feel empowered to support causes important to them, to be a role model for his employees in ways to give back, and to demonstrate his own interest by developing his own personal story and passion.</p>
<p>Most recently, he put that into practice by making a significant donation to Oswego, of which half is designated for the Center for Accounting Research and Education, or CARE. The balance will be used for college priorities and where the need is greatest.</p>
<p>“Bob Moritz is a leader in the field of public accounting, and he is a lead donor to Oswego as well, supporting important initiatives that benefit today’s students,” said President Deborah F. Stanley. “We are grateful for his generous gifts of financial support and time, as he shares his insight with students in our classrooms.”</p>
<p>“I am happy to be able to help Oswego and the School of Business, and I trust the school to use the money properly for whatever is needed,” Moritz says. “I hope it inspires other alumni who are fortunate enough to be able to give something back to do that — whether it’s financial support or sharing your time with students.”</p>
<p>PwC has been honored for its commitment to diversity, innovation and giving back. It regularly makes “best places to work” lists including those published by Fortune and Working Mother. The U. S. Chamber of Commerce honored PwC with its Corporate Citizenship Award for its commitment to community service.</p>
<p>But Moritz is the first to point out that while external recognitions are “nice to have, they are not the driver.” He believes that consistency and continuous improvement — doing better every single day — is what makes an individual great. Multiplying that by the continuous efforts of PwC’s 35,000 employees is what makes the firm great.</p>
<p>If he sounds like the first among equals, that’s the culture at PwC. The company is unique in that the chair and senior partner is elected by all 25,000 partners who have one person-one vote balloting rights.</p>
<p>“Our culture is a partnership, where everyone is an equity owner. They can all be engaged, impactful, and feel like part of the process,” Moritz says.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a title="4 Steps to Your Own Personal Brand" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/4-steps-to-your-own-personal-brand/" target="_blank">MORE: 4 steps to creating your personal brand</a></h2>
<p><strong>Eye-opening education</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Bob-Moritz-2_HR_026036.TIF.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-748" title="bob-moritz-PwC-portrait" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Bob-Moritz-2_HR_026036.TIF-205x300.jpg" alt="Bob Moritz '85" width="205" height="300" /></a>Diversity, innovation, giving back — all these things have roots in Moritz’s Oswego experience as well. It was the first time he had met people from outside his hometown, who came from other areas and had different backgrounds.</p>
<p>The friends he made at Oswego probably made the biggest difference in his life. He played intramural sports and lived in Cayuga and Scales halls, serving as an RA his last two years to help pay for his education. “I have fantastic memories of the people I met there, my network of people I still interact with and vacation with.”</p>
<p>The RA before him was a role model for how he interacted with the students and the dorm director modeled team building. Moritz was especially tight with Tommy Lavalle ’85 and John Gary ’85, traveling together over spring break and spending Sundays in Syracuse for good home-cooked spaghetti and meatball meals.</p>
<p>Reminiscences of icebergs in the lake, 80 mph winds and huge snow banks round out his memories of campus.</p>
<p>As important as his financial support, Moritz knows, is the time he gives through the Oswego Alumni Association’s Alumni-In-Residence Program, where he is happy to speak in classes. While classes can give excellent academic and theoretical approaches to the work world, the stories Moritz and other alumni share give the students a flavor for the real world, he says.</p>
<p>“How do you share your experience with others so they realize they have potential and go and execute it?”<br />
he muses.</p>
<p>He also invests his time on the Oswego College Foundation Board of Directors. “In my work I get to see other schools and non-profit programs. If I can contribute even one little thing to help the foundation benefit the school and the students, I am happy.”</p>
<p>Oswego made a strong foundation for Moritz, who used it to build a towering career in business. Now he rolls up his sleeves to help current students build their own futures.</p>
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		<title>Burgeoning Business</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/burgeoning-business/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/burgeoning-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bob Moritz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burgeoning Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Durney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Skolnick]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School of Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3256</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From Wall Street to Silicon Valley and from the nation’s capital to Main Street USA, accomplished graduates of Oswego’s School of Business make a name for themselves and their alma mater. 
Oswego diplomas hang on the walls of corporations, small businesses, and public and private entities alongside their Ivy League colleagues — here and abroad. 

There is no surprise about that, no accident. We have heart, we are bullish and we are on the cutting edge.

The evidence is everywhere.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>From Wall Street to Silicon Valley and from the nation’s capital to Main Street USA, accomplished graduates of Oswego’s School of Business make a name for themselves and their alma mater. <span id="more-3256"></span></p>
<p>Oswego diplomas hang on the walls of corporations, small businesses, and public and private entities alongside their Ivy League colleagues — here and abroad.</p>
<p>There is no surprise about that, no accident. We have heart, we are bullish and we are on the cutting edge.</p>
<p>The evidence is everywhere.</p>
<div class="dipity_embed" style="width: 550px;">
<p><iframe style="border: 1px solid #CCC;" src="http://www.dipity.com/oswegoalumni/Burgeoning-Business/?mode=embed&amp;z=0#tl" width="550" height="300"></iframe></p>
<p style="margin: 0; font-family: Arial,sans; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dipity.com/oswegoalumni/Burgeoning-Business/">Burgeoning Business</a> on <a href="http://www.dipity.com/">Dipity</a>.</p>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Twenty years since its founding as a School of Business and a decade after earning its first AACSB accreditation and moving  into a new home in Rich Hall, Oswego’s School of Business is bullish. New programs, student and faculty award winners, a global focus, stellar CPA pass rate and generous, distinguished alumni — like our cover subject, PwC Senior U.S. Partner and Chairman <strong>Bob Moritz ’85</strong> — are points of pride for the School of Business.</p>
<p>A steady stream of recruiters comes to campus to grab Oswego’s grads for accounting firms and other opportunities.</p>
<p>Part of that is due to the school’s impressive pass rates in the CPA exams, with 2011 scores that compare very favorably with schools like Pace, Hofstra and Syracuse universities and the SUNY centers at Albany and Binghamton, according  to Professor Chuck Spector, chair of the accounting and finance department.</p>
<h2>MORE:<br />
* <a title="Board brings ‘passion,’ ‘participation’" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/board-brings-passion-participation/">Board brings &#8216;passion,&#8217; &#8216;participation&#8217;</a><br />
* <a title="International Faculty, Students Provide World-Class Opportunity" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/international-faculty-students-provide-world-class-opportunity/">International Faculty, Students Provide World-Class Opportunity</a><br />
* <a title="Willock Professor to Teach Next Generation of Financial Experts" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/willock-professor-to-teach-next-generation-of-financial-experts/" target="_blank">Willock Professor to Teach Next Generation of Financial Experts</a><br />
* <a title="Alumni Provide Margin of Excellence for Accounting Program" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/alumni-provide-margin-of-excellence-for-accounting-program/" target="_blank">Alumni Provide Margin of Excellence for Accounting Program</a><br />
* <a title="Club Invests in the Market, Members’ Futures" href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/14/club-invests-in-the-market-members-futures/" target="_blank">Club Invests in the Market, Members&#8217; Futures</a></h2>
<p>Opportunities for students to get involved have blossomed in recent years, including Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), the Financial Management Association, Investment Club and Beta Alpha Psi. Students visit Wall Street, prepare tax returns for local citizens and educate middle school students in financial literacy.</p>
<p>“Students have always been involved in leadership positions within the college,” said Dean Richard Skolnik. “But these increased opportunities allow students to develop their organizational skills, through networking and interacting with their peers.”</p>
<p>And those students are proving all the involvement was worth it, racking up honors and achievements for their school.</p>
<p>Most recently, students in Oswego’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter received one of four $5,000 ethics awards nationwide for their work on the practice of ethical behavior in the accounting, finance and information technology professions. Oswego produced Beta Alpha Psi competition winners in 2009, 2010 and 2011. From 2006 to 2011, the School of Business had a Student Chancellor’s Award winner each year. And the SIFE team has won the regional business projects competition three years in a row.</p>
<p>The school itself has won accolades, and has been included on the Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools list since its inception. In 2009, it was included on the Princeton Review’s list of the 15 graduate programs with the best preparation in accounting.</p>
<p>To keep ahead of the curve and meet the needs of regional businesses, the school is continually developing new programs. The Risk Management and Insurance major was the first of its kind in SUNY when it was launched in 2009.</p>
<p>Always a strong MBA program, Oswego’s new online MBA serves professionals where they live, and currently has 15 enrollees.</p>
<p>They are part of the dramatic increase in enrollment since the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation visit in 2002, with undergraduate students growing from 1,108 in fall 2002 to 1,460 in fall 2011, an increase of 31.7 percent. Graduate enrollments have increased even more dramatically, thanks to a planned growth in the program, from 59 to 112 graduate students, for an increase of 89.8 percent.</p>
<p><strong>New home for school</strong></p>
<p>Alumni who took classes in drafty Sheldon Hall or the campus school facilities in Swetman Hall would be amazed at the transformation of Rich Hall into a state-of-the-art home for the School of Business.</p>
<p>“The facilities would astound people,” said Spector. “They were designed with input from the faculty members” to best serve the needs of students and professors alike.</p>
<p>Lanny Karns was the first dean of the School of Business, and participated in the planning with faculty members and architects. Karns remembers learning about the concept of “floorscaping,” which was becoming popular in academic and business buildings at the time.</p>
<p>“What we did was look at the major traffic centers in the program or unit and designed the building around the philosophy of interaction,” Karns said.</p>
<p>Faculty offices were built in interdisciplinary clusters, surrounded by classrooms and informal spaces designed to facilitate collaboration.</p>
<p>Every classroom is a “smart” classroom, boasting modern instructional technology, and no two rooms are the same. There are tables for accounting students to work at, a horseshoe-shaped classroom and other classes where the desks can be moved to make different configurations.</p>
<p>The enhancements are all thanks to the generosity of alumni and other donors, who supplemented the state funds used to renovate the building, raising more than $1 million to jumpstart the college’s $24 million Inspiring Horizons campaign and adding the technology that took the business school to the next level.</p>
<p><strong>Alumni are key</strong></p>
<p>Probably the most obvious point of pride for the school is its alumni.</p>
<p>Karns praised alumni for their involvement in the first AACSB accreditation process, completed while he was dean.</p>
<p>“Their observations were incredible and their willingness<br />
to be involved and be available during the accreditation — especially during the first accreditation team visit — was<br />
amazingly contributory to everything,” Karns said.</p>
<p>Skolnik enumerated four ways alumni benefit current students:</p>
<p>* Alumni provide students with a model for professional success, inspiring them with the evidence that success is possible through hard work.<br />
* They create opportunities for students to demonstrate their ability through co-ops and internships.<br />
* Alumni give back financially to support the program, endowing centers of excellence and scholarships for business students.<br />
* Finally, alumni enhance the profile of Oswego, providing external validation for the program, the dean said.</p>
<p>“The goal of alumni is to help try to make the school better today than when they went to school,” said<strong> Michael Durney ’83</strong>, chair of the School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board.</p>
<p>A mural created by Oswego students hangs at the entrance to Rich Hall, showing the paths of commerce leading out from Oswego to the wide world beyond. With Oswego alumni making their mark in the corner offices and board rooms of businesses across America and around the globe, it’s illustrative of a vision to never stop rising, to always be bullish and to keep striving to change the world.</p>
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		<title>Buffalo to Bogota:  Around the World in 35 Years with Marianne Matuzic Myles ’75</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/buffalo-to-bogota-around-the-world-in-35-years-with-marianne-matuzic-myles-75/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/buffalo-to-bogota-around-the-world-in-35-years-with-marianne-matuzic-myles-75/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:41:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michele Reed</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class of 1975]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[College of Liberal Arts and Sciences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marianne Matuzic Myles]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Marianne Matuzic Myles ’75 left her home near Buffalo to come to Oswego after high school, she was “a bit scared as all freshmen are” of moving so far from home and not knowing anyone.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When<strong> Marianne Matuzic Myles ’75</strong> left her home near Buffalo to come to Oswego after high school, she was “a bit scared as all freshmen are” of moving so far from home and not knowing anyone.<span id="more-3224"></span><object style="float: right; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;" width="560" height="315" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3zNURyINmD8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed style="float: right; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;" width="560" height="315" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3zNURyINmD8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" /></object>The journey she embarked upon that day in 1971 would be just the first step of a lifelong adventure that would take her literally around the globe as a U.S. ambassador.</p>
<p>In a career spanning more than three decades, Myles would represent the United States in Italy, Colombia, Uruguay and most recently, the Republic of Cape Verde, just off the west coast of Africa. She would negotiate a trade agreement that helped open China to the U. S. markets and control the embargo of goods to adversary nations.</p>
<p>The journey brought her full circle this spring when Myles, who is now dean of the State Department’s School of Language Studies in Washington, D.C., returned to campus as keynote speaker at Honors Convocation in April.</p>
<p>But it all began with that three-hour drive east on I-90 to a certain “friendly college” on the shores of Lake Ontario.</p>
<div id="attachment_3000" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Amb-Marianne-Myles_021.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3000" title="marianne-matuzic-myles" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Amb-Marianne-Myles_021.tif-300x214.jpg" alt="Marianne Matuzic Myles '75" width="300" height="214" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Marianne Matuzic Myles ’75</strong> oversees 600 teachers and more than 2,000 students as dean of the Language School of the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C.</p></div>
<p>A little bit of home made the transition more bearable. Myles was surprised to find a classmate from Mt. Mercy Academy, Patricia Weart ’75, living just a couple of doors down in Hart Hall. The two young women helped each other adjust to life on campus and eventually became roommates.</p>
<p>Myles’ formative international experience came in college. In her second year at Oswego she would study abroad in Madrid as part of Oswego’s Spanish program.</p>
<p>The late Richard Hyse, emeritus professor of economics, pointed Myles in the direction that would become her life’s work. He was her first economics teacher and sparked a passion in the young student looking for a major. Hyse’s course in comparative economic systems looked at the Soviet Union, China and other countries, and fueled a love of global economic policy that led Myles into the Foreign Service after crossing the stage in Laker Hall.</p>
<p>Jose Perez, who was the head of International Studies at Oswego in the 1970s, served as a mentor and counselor. “I am indebted to him as well,” Myles says. Through Perez, she met international students who impressed her with a motivation for learning so strong that they left their homes and traveled across the world for an American education.</p>
<div id="attachment_3041" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Myles_Clinton-Scanned_crp.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3041" title="marianne-myles-hillary" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Myles_Clinton-Scanned_crp.tif-300x216.jpg" alt="Marianne Myles and Hillary Clinton" width="300" height="216" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Marianne Matuzic Myles ’75,</strong> right, received a Presidential Merit Award from President Barack Obama, for her service as the U.S. Ambassador to Cape Verde and other career accomplishments. It was presented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 2011 ceremony at the State Department.</p></div>
<p>In her senior year, Myles took the Foreign Service exam on a snowy winter’s day that almost discouraged her from making the drive to Syracuse. Just six months after graduation, she embarked on her new career, with her first assignment in Bogota, Colombia. She followed that with three years in Italy, working to open trade opportunities for American companies.</p>
<p>Another bit of Oswego experience served her well in the diplomatic corps. In Waterbury Hall, Myles spent hours learning to play bridge from fellow student and first husband, Peter Kunkel ’75, when she “should have been studying.” The game is played in many different places around the world, and the common bond of bridge helped her make new friends wherever she was posted during her career.</p>
<p>After earning a master’s in public administration at Harvard University, she represented the United States in Paris at a multilateral organization that controlled the export of high tech products to adversary countries that might use  them in the manufacture of weapons. Her portfolio included semi-conductors, a fairly new technology at the time.</p>
<p>“I was scared as heck; I didn’t know anything about semiconductors,” she admits. “But I did a lot of research — being prepared is the key to being a leader.”</p>
<p>Myles learned all she could about the products and negotiated a deal protecting U. S. interests.</p>
<p>Later she would represent her country at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, a United Nations-based group that controls the patenting of products worldwide.</p>
<p><strong>Learning to Learn</strong></p>
<p>Myles attributes her ability to succeed in these assignments to her Oswego education. “What you learn in college is not so much the subject matter, but you learn how to learn,” Myles says. “We didn’t have Google then,” so research ability was key.</p>
<p><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Marianne-Myles.tif.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3034" title="marianne-matuzic-myles" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Marianne-Myles.tif-300x248.jpg" alt="Marianne Matuzic Myles '75" width="300" height="248" /></a>The other thing she learned was being open to new experiences. “Whatever you are doing, you need to be constantly expanding your horizons,” she told students in classes during her spring visit to campus. “Be open to all kinds of possibilities and don’t freeze yourself in time.”</p>
<p>Now Myles oversees 600 teachers and 2,000 students studying 70 languages at the Language School at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington. Foreign service officers attend the school to learn the languages they will need in their overseas postings.</p>
<p>While much of her international work dealt with trade on a massive scale, Myles found ways to positively impact the lives of people in the countries she visited. In Cape Verde, she was active in getting help to improve the daily lives of women and girls.</p>
<p>Many girls in that African country cannot attend school because uniforms are required and that is expensive. If a family must make a choice to outfit a boy or girl for school, they will choose the boy while the girl stays home.</p>
<p>Myles worked through a contact of her current husband, retired Foreign Service Officer Stan Myles, to secure a donation from a Texas philanthropist. She took the gift to a women’s co-op, which then purchased cloth and sewed the uniforms. Thus the benefit was two-fold: creating employment for women as well as helping girls attend school.</p>
<p>Because there is no water system in the rural parts of Cape Verde, girls had to haul water for the family morning and night. In one village, they would walk 11 kilometers (about seven miles) hauling heavy buckets and arrive at school exhausted and unable to focus on their studies. Myles neogiated with a non governmental organization, or NGO, for the money to drill a well and pipe water to the village so that the girls could spend their mornings getting ready for a productive day in class instead of hauling water. “That donation directly freed the girls to get a better education,” she says with a happy smile.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it her mission to focus in a special way on women’s issues, and she has encouraged ambassadors to be aware and try to bring about positive change for women.</p>
<p>One change in particular animates Myles as she discusses it. By bringing together all the embassies in Cape Verde led by women ambassadors — an impressive total of six out of 12 permanent embassies — as well as several professional Cape Verdean women, Myles was part of a movement to combat domestic violence in the country.</p>
<p>“There were no shelters for victims of domestic violence and perpetrators were usually not penalized — it was seen as a husband’s right to beat his wife,” she explains.</p>
<p>The group included some women jurists who agreed to craft legislation to protect victims of domestic violence. Through their efforts shelters are being created and offenders prosecuted.</p>
<p>A moment of satisfaction for Myles was when she saw on the news a high profile husband convicted of beating his wife being taken to jail.</p>
<p>“Women judges, lawyers, police officers, educators and private citizens came together in a commitment to make it all happen,” she says, pride evident on her face.</p>
<p>“Now hundreds, and eventually thousands, of women can feel empowered and protected, because now we have this law,” Myles adds.</p>
<p>“I’m jazzed by it.”</p>
<p>Myles has traveled to 85 countries, logged millions of miles in the air and on land, and affected the lives of thousands of people on four continents.And to think it all started with a journey of 150 miles down the Thruway to a little place called Oswego.</p>
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		<title>Cashing In:  Alumna makes a living saving money</title>
		<link>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/cashing-in-alumna-makes-a-living-saving-money/</link>
		<comments>http://oswego.edu/magazine/2012/08/20/cashing-in-alumna-makes-a-living-saving-money/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:40:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Guest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class of 2003]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[College of Liberal Arts and Sciences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[couponing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lauren Cobello Greutman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://oswego.edu/magazine/?p=3214</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The road to managing money responsibly, saving financial sanity and making the most of what you have runs through aisle 7. And Lauren Cobello Greutman ’03 can be your guide.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The road to managing money responsibly, saving financial sanity and making the most of what you have runs through aisle 7. And <strong>Lauren Cobello Greutman ’03</strong> can be your guide.<span id="more-3214"></span></p>
<div id="attachment_3020" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/greutman_cpn.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3020" title="lauren-cobello-greutman" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/greutman_cpn.tif-300x202.jpg" alt="Lauren Cobello Greutman '03" width="300" height="202" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Lauren Cobello Greutman ’03</strong> used to spend freely and paid the price when she fell into debt. Today, she spreads the word about living with balance. “I’m not frugal by nature,” Geutman says. “I had to retrain my brain.”</p></div>
<p>Six years ago,  Greutman and her husband, Mark, an Oswego native, were living in Charlotte, N.C. They were $40,000 in debt from credit cards, school loans and car payments and were underwater with their mortgage. They worked opposite shifts and no longer had a home phone or cable television.</p>
<p>They were living paycheck-to-paycheck and couldn’t make ends meet.</p>
<p>Now they are debt-free and planning their first vacation in 10 years, thanks to the money-saving strategies Lauren Greutman developed. And she is sharing them with the world in her new role as an entrepreneur, blogger and owner of the website <a title="I am that lady dot com" href="http://Iamthatlady.com">IamTHATlady.com</a>.</p>
<p>As a student at Oswego, Greutman admits, she spent freely without thinking of the consequences.</p>
<p>“I would go shopping all the time and use my credit card,” she said. “I ate out all the time and then didn’t have money to buy books.”</p>
<p>Although her parents, <strong>Julie Roberts ’75</strong> and <strong>Rick Cobello ’73,</strong> helped pay the majority of her college education and she worked part-time during school to have some extra money, Greutman’s spending began to add up.</p>
<p>“I am not frugal by nature,” she said. “I was in a lot of debt … and had to work hard to retrain my brain. I actually was very stupid with my money in college.”</p>
<p>But that period six years ago was the worst.</p>
<div id="attachment_3021" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/greutman_cpn2.tif.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3021 " title="lauren-cobello-greutman-2" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/greutman_cpn2.tif-300x290.jpg" alt="Lauren Cobello Greutman '03" width="300" height="290" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Professional money saver <strong>Lauren Cobello Greutman ’03</strong> reviews her coupons in an Oswego grocery store. She shares her tips on iamthatlady.com and glutenfreecouponing.com.</p></div>
<p>Greutman worked six nights a week as a waitress, even though she wanted to be home to tuck her baby into bed. After taking a closer look at her family’s budget, she realized they were spending $1,000 a month on groceries and eating out. She knew if she could cut that down to $200 a month, she could quit her job.</p>
<p>Greutman began to clip coupons, look at store ads more closely and plan meals. After about two months, she had reached her goal and was able to stay home while feeding her family on $50 a week or less.</p>
<p>“We just bought the basics so that I could make dinner and we could eat,” she said. “It took a lot of planning, but it was worth it.”</p>
<p>The Greutmans moved back to Oswego because they missed family members and the community.</p>
<p>They also saved money by buying a smaller, less expensive home in Oswego and sticking to their budget.</p>
<p>Greutman, 31, is now a mother of three and an entrepreneur who teaches others to save money. She shares money-saving tips, advice and strategies with hundreds of thousands of people on her websites, “I Am THAT Lady” and “Gluten-Free Couponing,” on Facebook and Twitter, and at money-saving seminars.</p>
<p>Greutman recently held two sold-out money-saving seminars at <em>The Post-Standard</em> newspaper in Syracuse, where she discussed budgeting for a household, managing and organizing a coupon collection, how to make coupons work for you, menu planning using her “free and cheap” system, how to play the “drugstore game” and ways to make extra cash at home. Her goal was to teach participants how to cut their grocery, household and toiletry expenses in half.</p>
<p><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sidebar_orange-1.jpg"><img class="alignright  wp-image-3332" title="greutman-bio-box" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sidebar_orange-1-369x1024.jpg" alt="Lauren Cobello Greutman '03" width="221" height="614" /></a><a href="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/3-ways_Sidebar-1.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-3333 alignleft" style="margin: 5px;" title="save-money" src="http://oswego.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/3-ways_Sidebar-1-186x300.jpg" alt="Money tips" width="186" height="300" /></a>“I wish someone had inspired me to do what I am doing now but I didn’t have a passion for what I am doing today while I was in school,” she said.</p>
<p>“I had a rough first year at Oswego State. Moving out on my own and learning how to support myself was difficult,” she said. But she loved her public justice major and played field hockey her first two years on campus. She also was a Student Athlete Mentor.</p>
<p>Greutman said she learned some important life lessons in college.</p>
<p>“I learned that you have to work hard to accomplish something,” Greutman said.</p>
<p>A sociology class at Oswego taught her about human behavior and how to communicate with people. “This was a great help for me and I continue to use the principles in my business today,” she said.</p>
<p>Greutman became a drug and alcohol counselor for two years after graduation. “My passion for helping others save money came after years of struggling to be disciplined with money,” she said. “College provided me with the tools to learn how to work hard.”</p>
<p>Thinking back to her college days, Greutman says she would have done a few things differently. For starters, she said, she would have used coupons because she had more free time then.</p>
<p>“I would have learned not to spend money like water, but try to make it last longer by being smart with it,” she said. “I wouldn’t have eaten out that much. And I wouldn’t have purchased things on credit cards and racked up credit card debt.”</p>
<p>The one smart financial decision she made in college was the result of a lucky trip to Turning Stone Casino. She won $80 on the roulette wheel, and instead of spending the money, she used it to pay her rent. “That was an early sign of discipline with money,” she said.</p>
<p>Greutman often returns to campus. Her sister <strong>Jenna Cobello Kain ’06</strong> followed in the family tradition and also graduated from SUNY Oswego. When the weather is warm, Greutman said, she frequently drives through campus on the way to Bev’s Dairy Treat. She’s gone back to watch the field hockey games in the fall. And she’s shown her 6-year-old son Seneca Hall, the residence hall where she lived her first two years at Oswego.</p>
<p>Greutman said she remembers that her parents first brought her to visit Oswego when she was 9.</p>
<p>“That day I said that I wanted to attend there,” Greutman said, “and I did.”</p>
<p>— Catie O’Toole Padalino ’00</p>
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