All Entries in the "From the Editor’s Pen" Category

From the Editor’s Pen

When I was in third grade, I started a newspaper at our elementary school, writing and editing and getting someone in the office to run it off on mimeo (photo-copying was still rare!). I drew cartoons featuring two little elephants (who talked, of course!) and drew them, not only in the newspaper but on every chalkboard I could, sometimes getting into more than a bit of trouble. I wrote plays about holidays and historical figures and recruited classmates to act in them. In short, from the age of about 10, I knew I would be a writer, a storyteller. So when Peggy La Tulip Focarino ’77, America’s first female commissioner of patents, told me that in fifth grade, she had asked her parents for a telescope, I knew just what she meant.

From the Editor’s Pen

It was my first issue as editor of Oswego alumni magazine. Excited to be starting a new adventure, I had scheduled a meeting with my boss to discuss the story list at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001. You’ll never read those stories. Because as soon as we heard about the first plane flying into the North Tower of the World Trade Center and turned on the TV in King Alumni Hall to see the second plane crash into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m., we threw that list away and started on a magazine about Oswego alumni and the 9/11 attacks. We called our feature “New American Heroes,” and over the weeks we would work on it, we came to know what courage, fortitude and heroism really meant. We would learn the names of the lost, too — a dozen souls who walked the same campus pathways as we did, sat in the same classrooms and called Oswego their alma mater, before being cut down by terrorists’ hate. In this issue, we revisit many of those we covered in that magazine, and also hear from current students and faculty reflecting on the tragedy. It may be a cliché, but everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news. I just feel honored that I was in King Alumni Hall to be able to tell the story — with pride — of Oswego’s alumni heroes.

Revisit the Fall/Winter 2001 issue at oswego.edu/magazine.

From the Editor’s Pen

From the Editor’s Pen

Oswego may be celebrating its 150th birthday this year, but ever since Edward Austin Sheldon pioneered new teaching methods, we try to stay on the cutting edge of things. And the same is true for your Oswego alumni magazine. So in this issue, we are proud to announce two innovations. On page 48, read about our new, enhanced magazine website. You’ll be able to access all our content in a clean, easy-to-read format, or if you prefer the traditional look of the magazine, you’ll be able to virtually “turn the pages” with our interactive pdf. We’ll have added content like multimedia and links for every issue, too. On page 48 and the inside covers of this issue, you will see a square-shaped bar code. This is a QR, or Quick Response, code. If you have a smartphone and the proper app, you can use it to take you directly to Web pages for Reunion, the magazine or giving. As we celebrate our Sesquicentennial, we are proud to honor our heritage, but we are also excited about all the new, interesting ways we can serve our alumni better. We like to think Sheldon would be proud!

Michele A. Reed, Oswego editor