Jumping In

Rebecca Howe ’16 graduated with an associate’s degree from Corning Community College and transferred to SUNY Oswego ready to take advantage of everything she could in her two years on campus.

“I knew the moment I stepped onto the Oswego campus that my life was going to change,” she said. “I was ready to join clubs, meet new people, experience what Oswego had to offer and start learning from the wonderful professors in the communication department.”

Howe represents one of the 8,300 students enrolled at SUNY Oswego who benefit from the $2 million from The Fund for Oswego distributed to campus and student programs every year.

As she anticipated, she jumped into campus life with both feet—or 10 toes, as the case may be. A ballet dancer for 15 years, Howe eagerly joined the Del Sarte Dance Club on campus as a dancer and choreographer.

“This club gave me opportunities to dance more than just ballet,” she said. “From lyrical to jazz, I was able to expand my horizons with dance. It was quite emotional to leave behind, and my only wish is that I transferred to this school two years sooner, so I could have gotten more chances to dance alongside these talented and beautiful dancers.”

Howe also took on a leadership role in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and served on the Senior Class Planning Committee. She was inducted into Tau Sigma, a national honor society for transfer students, and Lambda Pi Eta, national communication studies honor society. She interned with LELA Media Inc. and the Alumni & Development Office.

While she had many learning moments in her classes, one that stood out to her was hearing Alumni-In-Residence speaker Anthony DeMario ’12, new brand strategist at Terakeet in Syracuse, talk about his experiences since graduating from Oswego. She left class and called her mom to share her excitement about the presentation.

“I thought it was so cool I had the opportunity to network with him,” Howe said. “He does exactly what I think I want to do as of right now, and I loved how it opened a possible door for me after college.”

In fact, DeMario volunteered to give her a tour of Terakeet so she could get a better sense of the company and the work it does.

“From meeting people in PRSSA and the Del Sarte Dance Club to realizing public relations was the perfect major for me, I grew into a better version of myself,” Howe said. “I will always look back and think of Oswego as one of the best decisions of my life.”