As operations coordinator for “Good Morning America,” Cameron processes hires, tracks freelancers and runs the internship program among other tasks. The former WSTM-TV (Syracuse) and WNYW-TV (New York) intern hopes to make his way to the front of the cameras eventually, but loves learning all aspects of the broadcasting business.

Jones

A member of the Future Alumni Network as a student, Cameron stays active with the Graduates Of the Last Decade Leadership Council.

Cameron’s advice: “If you use the tools you are given at Oswego and stay connected, you’re going to be successful.”

1. Key to a good morning:

My key to a good morning is started with my Pandora radio, specifically the Anita Baker station. Listening to the classic oldies puts me
in the perfect zone to make a good morning a great morning!

2. Part of a complete breakfast:

I love pancakes and cream cheese bagels — separately of course, everything bagels to be exact. But I would not be myself without having a banana and at least one cup of coffee.

3. Go-to Oswego dining hall dinner item:

Anything off the grill at Pathfinder dining hall from paninis, cheese steaks, chicken phillies, burgers, waffle fries — Oh my!

4. Favorite campus activity/organization:

There are just too many! Big shout out to FANs (Future Alumni Network), Department of Campus Life, Residence Life, Phi Beta Sigma Rho Xi chapter, Student Association and ALANA!

5. Greatest Oswego experience:

My favorite Oswego experience by far was being a building manager working in Hewitt Union and the Campus Center at Campus Life. I learned many valuable skills that I use to this very day, built great relationships, and it offered an enormous professional trajectory.

6. Worst thing about leaving Oswego:

I miss the carefree, casual life where there appeared to be a sense of security — a safe haven.

7. Best thing about coming back:

I love to see the new developments at the college, whether it be new structures, academic progress, reconnecting or meeting students.

8. Coolest internship:

Coolest internship was when I did news reporting at WSTM-TV Channel 3 in Syracuse. I learned the craft of reporting and working at a television station. Most of all, I got a front-row seat journeying throughout Central New York to places I would have otherwise not known.

9. Dream job:

I think I am at my dream job. I’ve dreamed big all my life and I seized a golden opportunity to work at ABC News and to be a part of the Good Morning America family! I intend to keep growing, learning and seeing what can come of this experience.

10. Words of wisdom:

To always strive to set a good example in work ethic and relationship building. You never know who may be watching or looking, but just know that someone always is.

“I used to come down every year without fail with my Dad, so it’s kind of cool that I work here now,” says Ryan, an Oswego business major who went to Cortland for his sports management master’s. As membership associate, he cultivates a key source of fundraising. Ryan occasionally gives tours, takes tickets, blogs and runs a movie projector, but often marvels at the history and lore surrounding him.

Best business class: Business Law 350 (I think that was the course number). I had a great professor and it was the one class I always looked forward to.

Worst grade: C-. I can remember the paper, the professor and exactly what I did wrong — it has stuck with me.

Favorite ballplayer: My all-time favorite player is Lou Gehrig. I really enjoy watching Robinson Cano and Roy Halladay for players of today.

Least favorite stat: Earned Run Average is easily eschewed by other factors in the game and fails to tell the whole story.

No. 1 team: The Yankees are my favorite team. I am also a huge Jets fan.

Great Hall of Fame exhibit: The Pride and Passion exhibit. It profiles the Negro leagues. There is a lot jam-packed in a small space and a lot of great interactive opportunities for visitors.

Hardest Hall of Fame job: To be honest, all the jobs have ups and downs and I am not sure there is a hardest job. I guess it all depends on who you talk to.

Easiest meal: Pizza. All you have to do is dial.

Cooperstown hidden gem? Doubleday Field is a throwback to small-town ballparks. It has a beautiful façade and is tucked away off of Main Street. A lot people know it’s here — they just can’t find it.

Top Oswego spot: Greene’s Ale House. Good food and wings was always a must.

Elias Gutierrez '09 and model Elodie debut the spring 2012 line at Fashion Coterie in New York City.

He designs a high-profile line of dresses in the Garment District of New York City. He freelances for Kleinfeld Bridal, made famous by TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” television series. As an intern, he created the jerseys worn by the big-headed presidential mascots who entertain during Washington Nationals baseball games.

“It’s [all] theatre. It’s something different every day,” says Elias, whose résumé bullet points for designing and creating far outnumber his years of professional experience. “It’s not every day you get to make a giant fruit for a commercial.”

Or the bobblehead likeness of controversial Iran President Mahmud Ahmajinedad — that one landed him on the cover of the New York Times.

The graphic design major produces a line of dresses for Mon Cheri Bridals in his main gig as associate designer. A costume design minor, Elias cut his teeth cutting cloth in the theatre department.

Today, he dreams up and sketches dress designs inspired by trendy pieces with ultra-expensive price tags out of reach for most.

“It’s not by any means a knockoff,” Elias says. “The goal is to make a luxury item that doesn’t break the bank.”

Elias studies hundreds of photos and hours of footage to come up with a design for, say, a wedding dress based on the threads Kate Middleton wore to her royal nuptials with Prince William.

Those specs are sent to China where cloth mockups called “muslins” are created and mass produced after tweaking.

Elias says his success has firm roots in Oswego’s theatre program, where professors Kitty Macey and Judy McCabe nurtured his talents.

“I had really close relationships with my professors,” he says. “That’s the kind of [program] they’ve set up: The Theatre Department is like a family.”

Wendy Paterson '09

Wendy was an environmental educator at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine before helping with animal recovery efforts in Alabama following the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

A graduate assistant teaching introductory biology labs at Central Michigan University, Wendy originally aspired to be a zookeeper.

“Then [at Oswego] I was introduced to the scientific process and looking at the ecosystem as a whole as opposed to just taking care of the animal,” said Wendy, who is researching mussels in the Great Lakes.

Michigan must-visit: I just visited Grand Haven, Mich. I am involved with mussel research in the Grand River and we stayed in Grand Haven for the night. It is a beautiful location with lots of festivals, restaurants and outdoor entertainment.

Oswego must-take course: My two favorite courses at Oswego were “Wetland Ecology” taught by Dr. Eric Hellquist and “Forensic Anthropology.”

Lake Ontario or Rice Creek? That is a hard choice. Rice Creek was my home but Lake Ontario is my inspiration.

On campus or off? I lived on campus during every fall and spring semester. I like the convenience. I really liked living in Moreland my last year because
it was peaceful and you had your own room.

Favorite zoo animal: I am a big fan of otter exhibits because they are such playful animals. There are some very nice ones in New York including the Wild Center, the Ross Park Zoo and the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. A close second would be butterfly gardens and leaf cutter ants, which are often found together.

No. 1 pet: My favorite pet would be a dog. Thousands of years of artificial selection lead to the perfect pet.

A teaching assistant’s No. 1 pet peeve: Students not paying attention and not reading the syllabus. There are only so many times I can go over the content in the syllabus before I become annoyed.

No. 1 reason to attend Oswego: My best answer is diversity. There is a little bit of everything. It was an endless buffet in courses, clubs and events. I couldn’t take all the courses or join all the clubs I wanted to in just four years.

Last place you look: The place I put it so I would not lose it.

Great book: My favorite series is Harry Potter by JK Rowling and my favorite nonfiction book is The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen.

The iconic Sheldon statue has been part of the Oswego experience for roughly a century and serves as a tie binding several decades of former students who recognize it as a common symbol.

Middle school French teacher and amateur photographer Samantha Decker ’09 became particularly enamored with the statue her senior year at Oswego. Her reflections below complement these images she captured on campus.

My interest in photography developed during my senior year at Oswego, I began trying to capture every memorable part of the campus and the city on “digital film” to look back at for years to come.

The statue of Edward Austin Sheldon was a favorite subject of mine, in part because it was easy to vary. I could get in close and blur the background, I could come from different angles, or I could zoom way out and get Sheldon Hall in the background. I also took to the Sheldon statue because it represented my pride as an Oswego student.

Every time I would return to campus after a school break, Professor Sheldon would welcome me home as I followed the windy road to the Hart Hall parking lot. As an education major (and now a teacher), I had several classes in Sheldon Hall. I was proud to attend an institution which started out as a teacher’s college and had such a fine education program.

I am so grateful that I left Oswego with all these visual memories.

Samantha Decker ’09 lives in Saratoga Springs, where she teaches French at a middle school, takes
photographs and develops websites.

Katie Meegan ’09

10×10+10

1 Graduate Of the Last Decade, 100 words about her + 10 random questions

Most people wouldn’t think of cleaning up poop as a career pinnacle. But for Katie Meegan ’09, taking care of animals — and their business — is her business.

Katie Meegan '09 holds a Siberian lynx. Meegan is an education specialist at the Buffalo Zoo and assistant to naturalist and TV personality Jarod Miller '00.

She’s a Buffalo Zoo animal care specialist who moonlights with professional zoologist and TV personality Jarod Miller ’00, whom she met when the Biology Club brought him to campus. Today they work together several days a week, showing animals locally and on television shows like the Late Show with David Letterman.

“I’m doing what I want to do. So as far as I’m concerned, I’ve already made it,” says Meegan. “I love teaching people how cool animals really are.” l

1) Coolest animal you’ve handled: That’s tough. It’d probably have to be
a tie between a tapir and a Siberian lynx.

2) Most loved stuffed animal as a kid: A small stuffed lion that I called Lioness.

3) Favorite Rice Creek pastime: My senior year I would escape there to study during the warmer weather and not tell anyone where I was going.
I still won’t reveal my secret spot.

4) Downside of animal handling: Sometimes I smell. Who am I kidding? Most of the time I smell.

5) Upside of Oswego’s weather: It truly makes you appreciate the nicer weather but you also can’t beat the sunsets.

6) Dogs or cats? Dogs. I can’t stand cleaning kitty litter.

7) Rudy’s or Sub Shop? Rudy’s all the way. There is something about sitting next to the lake that eating a sub can’t come close to.

8) Yes, please: Buffalo Sabres hockey.

9) No, thank you: Snow. I’ve had enough snow and cold weather to last a lifetime.

10) Little-known fact: Gorillas and chimpanzees have a cluster of sweat glands under their arms (like humans) and may have smelly armpits after exercise.

Kosuke Kisaka ’09 delivered a Senba Zuru — a 1,000 origami paper crane assemblage representing the college’s prayer for peace — to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima this August. Students, faculty and staff created Oswego’s Senba Zuru following the “Hiroshima Speaks” exhibition in Penfield Library in spring 2009.