Emmett Van Slyke ’99 is the composer of sidewalk sounds. Sounds are activated when stepping on the red pavers installed outside Syracuse Stage on E. Genesee St.

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.

The award recognizes an outstanding educator whose teaching, research, creative work, scholarship or services have significantly promoted global learning

Associate Professor Shashi Kanbur

outcomes among students in a college or school setting, according to the center.

Gurdeep Skolnik, coordinator of Oswego’s International Language and Education Center, nominated Kanbur for the honor in recognition of his “significant contributions towards internationalization at SUNY Oswego,” she said.

An associate professor in the physics and earth sciences departments, Kanbur is also a faculty fellow in the President’s Office this year. He has played a key role in developing SUNY Oswego’s Global Laboratory.

India native Kanbur has an international reputation in astrophysics research. Since his arrival at Oswego in 2005, he has published 23 papers with international collaborators in the top peer-reviewed journals in astrophysics. Currently he has active collaborations with researchers in Taiwan, Chile, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan.

Oswego teammates, from left, Nicholas Poorman ’12, Joe Mirizio ’12, Armando Franco M ’13, Joshua Primrose ’12 and Steven Pomerville ’12 took fourth place during the Startup Weekend business competition in November.

The team earned fourth place for developing a plan to start a company called SpecialMenu with a built-from-scratch mobile Web app that finds specials at

nearby restaurants. They were among 17 teams taking part in Startup Weekend, an intense 54-hour business planning and entrepreneurial training event that took place Nov. 4 to 6 in Syracuse.

“We made a business plan, created a presentation and developed a working prototype for our app all in that time,” said computer science major Nicholas Poorman ’12.

As one of the top five, the startup has been promised space in the Tech Garden, which offers offices and conference spaces for developing businesses.

— Samantha Yeh ’12

Civic Ventures honored Virginia “Ginny” Donohue ’88, executive director and founder of On Point for College, as a 2010 Purpose Prize Fellow at a November ceremony in Philadelphia. Purpose Prizes honor Americans over age 60 for making an extraordinary impact in their encore careers.

Donohue was named a Purpose Prize Fellow based on her founding On Point for College, which has enrolled 2,723 inner-city youth in more than 200 colleges and universities.

Virginia “Ginny” Donohue ’88 of Syracuse, at right, executive director and founder of On Point for College, was honored as a 2010 Purpose Prize Fellow.

“I am grateful to the Purpose Prize for this honor,” said Donohue. “On Point for College has never turned away a single student.”

“I never knew what tenacity meant, what courage meant or what loyalty meant until I met our students,” she said. “If we can make the road easier for these amazing young adults, it is an honor.”

In July 2009, SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley honored Donohue for her work with On Point for College by awarding her a Presidential Medal, calling her an “inspirational activist.”

In April 1999, after eight years of helping students from a local homeless shelter to enroll in college, she left the corporate world and her position as chief financial officer in order to launch On Point for College out of the trunk of her car.

On Point for College has expanded to 13 staff members and 160 mentors and volunteers, and has enrolled 2,723 teens from inner-city Syracuse in more than 200 colleges and universities. The not-for-profit boasts more than 350 college graduates in addition to several young people who have obtained or are pursuing post-baccalaureate degrees.

Even as a child, Brennan was no stranger to the golf course. His uncles were PGA professionals and held various positions around Central New York. “It was always around me as a young lad,” says Brennan. When other kids were playing soccer and football, Brennan was on the golf course. He lived next door and calls Sunnycrest “my little playground.”

The Syracuse native earned his bachelor’s, master’s and CAS degrees from Syracuse University, after serving in the U.S. Navy.

He joined the Oswego faculty in 1962 and coached the golf team until his retirement in 1989, racking up an impressive 11 consecutive SUNY Athletic Conference Golf Team Championships and 15 straight NCAA Division III Golf Championship appearances. He coached nine NCAA Golf All-Americans, including 1978 NCAA Division III Individual Champion Jim Quinn ’79 and PGA pro golfer Wayne Levi ’74.

His three straight undefeated seasons: (60-0) 1969, 1970, and 1971, culminated in Oswego taking second place in the 1971 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Golf Championships. His illustrious career would see him elected to the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 1997, one of only 55 in the nation at that time.

“Coaching depends on the expertise of the coach and an athlete’s skill and respect,” Brennan says. “Equally important is the support of the athletic department, college faculty, administration, student body and community.

“When I was at Oswego State from ’62 to ’89, Oswego State had all those facets in line and that’s why we were so successful and so was the whole athletic program,” he says.

After his retirement from Oswego in 1989, Coach Brennan and his wife, Phyllis, moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C., known to many as “the Golf Capital of the World.” He would go on to teach and coach at Coastal Carolina University for 10 years and another eight at the Carolina Golf Academy, which trains PGA golf professionals. In the ’90s, he directed the summer Myrtle Beach Junior Golf Program.

The coach still shares his golf expertise through articles in the local newspapers and talks at area civic groups. He devotes himself to watercolor painting with the same passion he brought to the game of golf. And whenever they can, he and Phyllis visit sons Scott and Terry in the Syracuse area.

Sometimes at the beach or a golf course he will run into a former player. They remember the coach and the lessons they learned from him. It’s no wonder. He has a very positive personal teaching philosophy: “It’s teaching these young people, men and women, the personal values they can use in their lives,” he says. “Too many coaches are more interested in winning or losing than teaching these young people life’s values.”