Intondi, Schneider, Einhorn to speak at SUNY Oswego's Commencement
Published
May 2, 2017
Each of the three ceremonies May 13 in SUNY Oswego's 156th Commencement in Marano Campus Center arena will welcome a featured speaker.
Around 9,000 family and friends will be on hand to applaud students as they are recognized for earning the more than 2,100 undergraduate and graduate degrees SUNY Oswego will award.
Dr. Vincent Intondi, a 2003 SUNY Oswego graduate who is now associate professor of history and director of the Institute for Race, Justice, and Community Engagement at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland, will address graduates of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the 9 a.m. ceremony.
At 1 p.m., Thomas W. Schneider, president and CEO of Pathfinder Bank, will speak to graduates of the School of Business, where Schneider serves as an adjunct professor and on the School of Business Advisory Board.
Grammy-winning composer Richard Einhorn, who has written for opera, orchestra, chamber, film, dance and multimedia, will speak at the 4 p.m. combined ceremony for graduates of the School of Education and the School of Communication, Media and the Arts.
Vincent Intondi
Director of research for American University's Nuclear Studies Institute in Washington, D.C., Intondi annually teaches in Hiroshima and Nagasaki alongside atomic bomb survivors and nuclear policy experts. In 2016, he began working with the Union of Concerned Scientists exploring new efforts to expand the nuclear disarmament movement to include more diverse voices, specifically from the black community. He earned his master's in history from Oswego.
Intondi is the author of the book "African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement" with Stanford University Press and is currently working on a new book, which focuses on the famous June 12, 1982, nuclear disarmament march in New York City. A regular contributor to the Huffington Post, he has appeared publicly alongside Benjamin Jealous, Bobby Seale, Julian Bond, Tom Hayden and Daniel Ellsberg.
Prior to teaching at Montgomery College, Intondi was associate professor of history at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida. In 2011, he was named Distinguished Visiting Scholar of African American Studies at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where he co-created the "Harry T. Moore Legacy" program.
Intondi earned his bachelor's degree in economics at SUNY Potsdam before earning his master's in history at SUNY Oswego. His doctorate in history is from American University.
Thomas W. Schneider
Employed by Pathfinder Bank since 1998, Schneider has served as president and CEO since January 2000 and has spent his entire career in the financial services industry. At SUNY Oswego, he teaches a graduate-level finance course, "Management of Financial Institutions, A Risk Based Approach," in the School of Business.
Intensely and generously active in the community locally and regionally, Schneider is past chairman of Oswego Health and currently serves as a board member. He also serves on the boards of CenterState CEO, the Shineman Foundation, WCNY and the Port of Oswego Authority. Past president for Oswego Health affiliate Springside at Seneca Hill, Schneider has served on the board and as officer and chairman for the Community Bankers Forum. He is a current member of the Executive Committee and current board member of the New York Bankers Association.
Schneider also has served on the boards of Home Aides of Central New York, the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Small Business Program, the Greater Oswego Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Oswego County and the Oswego YMCA.
He has a bachelor's in economics from SUNY Cortland and a master of business administration degree from Fairfield University.
Richard Einhorn
Central New Yorkers might remember Einhorn for "The Origin," a multimedia oratorio SUNY Oswego commissioned and premiered in 2009. "Voices of Light," Einhorn's oratorio with silent film -- hailed by reviewers as "a great masterpiece of contemporary music" and "a work of meticulous genius" -- has sold out such venues as the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, Avery Fisher Hall, Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House and Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
Other major works include "Red Angels" for New York City Ballet; "The Shooting Gallery," a multimedia collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison; and "A Carnival of Miracles" for Anonymous 4, featuring a translation by Elaine Pagels.
Einhorn's film music catalog includes scores for the Academy Award-winning documentary short "Educating Peter "(HBO); Arthur Penn's thriller "Dead of Winter" starring Mary Steenburgen (MGM); John Coles' "Darrow" (PBS) starring Kevin Spacey; and "Fire-Eater" directed by Pirjo Honkasalo, for which Einhorn won a Finnish Jussi Award for Best Musical Score. His production of the Bach Cello Suites with Yo-Yo Ma won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance.
A summa cum laude graduate in music from Columbia University, Einhorn studied with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky. Before turning his attention exclusively to composition, Einhorn produced over 30 classical CDs for major classical artists.
Einhorn has received numerous music awards and grants, and is also a well-known advocate for people with hearing loss. He is a board member of the Hearing Loss Association of America and his advocacy has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and other major media. He lives in New York with his daughter Miranda and wife Amy Singer.
How to watch
Commencement will stream live from a link on the oswego.edu home page and broadcast live on Time Warner Cable; customers with regular digital boxes can see the ceremonies on Channel 96 while those without set-top boxes can view them on Channel 97.3.