More than 150 Oswego upperclassmen networked with more than 35 alumni professionals at the annual New York City Career Connections event Jan. 10 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.

Citigroup’s Marcia Thompson-Young ’81 delivered a keynote speech at the networking event, which followed a series of alumni-hosted day visits around the city.

Doreen Mochrie ’85, seated at left, hosted an afternoon session at Perry Capital for students interested in finance. Marcia Belmar Willock ’50 Professor of Finance Mary Tone Rodgers is seated at right.

New York City Career Connections is a career networking program of the Oswego Alumni Association and receives support from The Fund for Oswego.

Katherine “Ellie” Webster ’12 spends time with students at Charles E. Riley Elementary in Oswego. Master’s-seeking teachers specializing in the key areas of science, math and TESOL will take assignments in Central New York and Downstate as part of a pilot program starting this fall.

The state Education Department will use $1.73 million in federal Race to the Top funding to support a three-year, graduate-level proposal to raise the bar on traditional student teaching.

The Oswego Residency Initiative for Teacher Excellence, or O-RITE, encompasses two school placements totaling an academic year as well as summer residencies with two community organizations and a variety of other degree requirements.

“I think it (the grant) is going to allow Oswego to take a leadership role in these sorts of teacher-residency programs,” said Lorrie Clemo, interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. “One of the reasons this money is so important is that it will enable us to reconstitute the teacher-preparation model for high-need schools.”

Candidates’ undergraduate degrees must be in math, a science or linguistics. Full scholarships and living stipends in exchange for a commitment to stay in the

Steven Vincent ’13 interacts with students at Charles E. Riley Elementary in Oswego. A new pilot program aims to put master’s-seeking teachers in high-needs districts in Central New York as well as New York City starting this fall.

district after the placement ends are aimed at midcareer professionals.

A former teacher in the Bronx, O-RITE Field Coordinator Anneke McEvoy is familiar with the lack of science and math courses — and people to teach them — in disadvantaged districts.

“We really are targeting shortage areas,” McEvoy said. “Right now I’m reaching out to schools and finding out what they need from us in terms of plans and goals.”

Project leader Dr. Barbara Garii, associate dean of education, said the new program presents an opportunity to add special education to the secondary education experience.

“If we combined secondary education with the special education, then we saw that students who come through our program could walk into schools — in Syracuse, in Oswego County, in New York City — with really solid grounding that would enable them to support students across boundaries,” Garii said.

Capt. Joe Liselli ’87 posed in front of a makeshift tribute outside of Engine 54, Ladder 4 in Midtown Manhattan for an Oswego magazine cover photo in fall 2001. The house, known as “The Pride of Midtown,” lost 15 firefighters on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I would just look out and take it in,” said Liselli.

The Engine 54, Ladder 4 house in Midtown — his former post — lost 15 firefighters the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Liselli was looking out at Ground Zero, where they and 328 other firefighters spent their final moments.

For the past half-decade, his assignment at Engine 10, Ladder 10 has been to honor them.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center left thousands dead, millions of hearts broken and two gaping holes in the ground. It was known to firefighters and others working around it as “the pit.”

After suffering the catastrophic loss of his friends and brothers in arms from 54-4, Liselli made it a point to get as close as he could to the place where fellow firefighters and so many other innocent people perished on 9/11.

“It’s devastating, it’s overwhelming. Even 10 years later, it’s hard to believe

it even happened,” said Liselli. While he was fortunate not be one of the first emergency responders to the terrorist attacks, he spent days helping sift through the wreckage and weeks grieving for fallen colleagues.

“If you aren’t working, you are going to memorials,” Liselli told Oswego magazine in 2001. The people cheering and waving American flags in the streets as a busload of firefighters passed on its way to Ground Zero along with the sea of flowers, letters and objects people left at his firehouse helped Liselli and his fellow firefighters push through a difficult time.

MORE: 9/11 heroes featured in the Fall/Winter 2001 issue of Oswego magazine reflect

“It reminded me that there are so many more good people than bad people in the world,” Liselli reflected. “It brought out the best in people.

Capt. Joe Liselli ’87 stands in front of the FDNY Memorial Wall at the “Ten House” near Ground Zero. Liselli took the assignment in part as a tribute to the 15 firefighters who died Sept. 11, 2001, after being dispatched from Engine 54, Ladder 4, where he worked at the time. See a Fox News video segment on Ten House at oswego.edu/magazine

“I’m kind of a pessimist, but I was there and I saw it first-hand,” he said.

“I was really touched.”

His absence the morning of 9/11, while a blessing, created an emotional struggle in Liselli.

A part of Liselli’s therapy came while doing rounds at the Ten House, now home to the FDNY Memorial Wall. “Going down there to 10 Engine,” Liselli said, pausing. “I know it sounds corny, but it felt like I was going to see [the guys from Engine 54] … It was the last place they all were.”

Upon his promotion to lieutenant in 2006, Liselli knew exactly where he wanted to be. He would spend the next five years — roughly the same time it took to construct the National September 11th Memorial — at Ten House.

“With the number of guys [54-4] lost, people thought I was crazy going from my house to 10 and 10,” said Liselli, referring to the daily reckoning that comes with working next to the pit and seeing the constant stream of tourists and mourners.

But, it was also an opportunity.

MORE: A campus remembers

The National September 11th Memorial, above, opened to the public on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“I felt like I had unfinished business,” said Liselli. He would become one of only a few doing inspections of construction — including the memorial site and One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this past September, the National September 11th Memorial was dedicated and opened to the public.

“I just feel bad for the families that lost someone that day,” said Liselli. “They didn’t deserve to be there. Those firefighters and police officers didn’t deserve their fate.

“This was a way of giving back … I feel better having some small part in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center,” said Liselli.

He was promoted to captain just days after the national memorial was opened and is now filling a roving assignment in Queens. Liselli said he was ready to move on with the completion of the national memorial.

“I do feel better about what’s happened today compared to 10 years ago,” said Liselli, who lives in Long Island with his wife, Catherine, and 18-month-old daughter, Angela. “I do feel like I did what I needed to do.”

MORE: FOX News segment on the Ten House

Saawan Pathange M ’02 and Pei-Chang “Jessie” Wu M ’03 traveled the world to meet, fatefully, at SUNY Oswego. Specifically, their world-class romance developed in Penfield Library.

“We had our spot,” said Saawan with a smile. He and his wife, Jessie, now living and working in New York City, visited Oswego in the fall as part of the School of Business Alumni Symposium.

Pei-Chang "Jessie" Wu M '03, left, and Saawan Pathange M '02 made their unlikely acquaintance at Oswego and are now married. Both work in the financial industry in New York City.

The couple found love and a great education during their time as Lakers.

“Because I was here, I was able to focus,” said Jessie, a native of Taiwan who currently works as an associate at Neuberger Berman. “To be here, to learn from other students — that was an important part of it.”

Both came to Oswego through the International Education program.

“It’s quiet,” recalled Saawan, a native of India who came to Oswego via Sydney, Australia. “You have time here and there are not many distractions.”

Both said faculty and staff were an important part of their Oswego experience as well. Professor Chuck Spector in business and Gerry Oliver, now retired from the International Education office, were particularly helpful to them.

Saawan and Jessie come back to campus whenever they can and are very encouraged by the quality of students and expansion of programming in critical areas like international business.

“I think there has been tremendous progress,” said Saawan, a director for UBS Investment Bank. “It’s good for students to experience [what they do] at this level.”

Robert E. Moritz ’85, chairman and senior partner of the U.S. firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, has been named to the Oswego College Foundation Board of Directors. He will serve a term ending June 30, 2013.

Moritz was elected by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ U.S. partnership to serve a four-year term as chairman. Prior to that, he served as the assurance leader of the U.S. firm from 2006 to 2009; and from 2004 to 2006 was the managing partner of the New York office and Metro region.

Bob Moritz '85

He joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1985 and became a partner in 1995. From 1998 to 2001, he served as the Metro Regional financial services leader. From 2001 to 2004, he led the financial services audit and business advisory practice, which includes the banking, capital markets, insurance, investment management and real estate sectors.

Moritz served a three-year tour in PricewaterhouseCoopers – Tokyo, providing audit and advisory services to numerous European and U.S.-based financial services organizations operating in Japan.

He is certified by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of CPAs and the New Jersey State Society of CPAs. He is a member of the Atlantic Council; the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality and the Partnership for New York City.

Moritz has shared his expertise with Oswego students, including speaking in classes as part of the Oswego Alumni Association’s Alumni-In-Residence program.

He resides in Thornwood and has two children.

Cohn was inducted during an awards luncheon for the third annual CableFAX Program Awards, Oct. 4 in New York City. Cohn was one of eight members inducted in this year’s class. Fellow inductees included actress Glenn Close, NBC Universal Cable President Bonnie Hammer, Oxygen Channel founder Geraldine Laybourne and Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson.

CableFAX, a multimedia organization designed to keep viewers in the know about cable dynamics and news, publishes a bimonthly magazine and conducts webinars on how to provide training opportunities for cable professionals.

A longtime personality on ESPN, Cohn earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Oswego. She is a member of the Oswego Athletic Hall of Fame, for her achievements in women’s ice hockey, and has served as moderator of the Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit. She is also the author of a book, Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking into the Boys’ Club.

The lead guitarist for the band Morning Wood and a German major at Oswego, Matthew followed his love of the language to a semester abroad in Goetingen, inspired by German Professors Emeriti George Koenig and Peter Hertz-Ohmes. It became a decade-long adventure.

Matthew Cutillo '95

While he went abroad to hone his language skills, Matthew ended up developing his musical talent as well. “I had been in bands all my youth,” says Matthew, who picked up a guitar at age 2 to imitate his brother and has kept playing ever since. He brought his guitar to Germany and played at local venues. “It was great,” he says. “I could go out, drink and eat all I wanted and come home with a pocket full of cash.”

Singing for his supper got Matthew picked up by the Rex Richter Quintet. He would spend the next four years touring Germany, playing schlage — hit parade songs — and German versions of American and British pop hits of the ’60s and ’70s. He was on the road most days, playing at least 200 shows a year with the band and eventually became the lead singer, before the group broke up in the post-9/11 world economic downturn.

He taught business executives English in Hamburg before returning home in 2004, to build houses with his father’s business before once again earning his income with his guitar and voice.

He is now one of the most popular events entertainers on the East Coast, playing “hits from the 1500s to the present.” He is currently ranked No. 1 among the 7,000 acts represented by the booking company Gigmasters.

Now Matthew plays three or four evenings a week, performing at weddings, parties and birthdays as a solo acoustic guitarist and vocalist. He is up at 3 a.m. practicing his classical guitar finger work before spending time with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter.

What’s in the future for Matthew? More music, and this time, more original work. “I am thinking of bigger, better things,” he says.

— Michele Reed

Listen to Matt:

White Boat

Open Road