Immerse yourself in a campus culture that's as eclectic as you are.
Kalis Nunes ’20
Kalis Nunes ’20 has been on a trajectory of success ever since he first set foot on campus his freshman year. After entering SUNY Potsdam through the Bridges Program, he went on to work as a resident assistant, a tutor for TRiO, a coordinator for Multicultural Weekend, on top of being the president/captain of the Bear Witness Step Team. Now he is taking on his most significant leadership role yet, as the next president of the Student Government Association.
Alanna Pinard-Brace ’19 & ’20 is one of the newest faces in the graduate program in music education at the Crane School of Music—an expedited one-year master’s degree available to Crane graduates. She recently returned from Peru where she was learning about Andean music and hiking the Salkantay and Inca trails to Machu Picchu as part of an international travel course.
Brian Dougherty ’06 landed his first job in the music industry immediately after graduation. What started as an internship for Samson Technologies his junior year, parlayed into a full-time position that started nine days after commencement. Now he works for Sennheiser—one of the leading music industry companies in the world.
During his first three years at SUNY Potsdam, Amiere Bell ’20, a theatre major with minors in dance and speech communication, has grown both academically and artistically. He has choreographed dances, played the lead role in “Wiley and the Hairy Man,” and landed on the President’s List the last two semesters.
Brooke Falsion ’19 is a record setter. During her time at SUNY Potsdam, she became the first All-American in the history of the SUNY Potsdam women’s soccer program. She was also the SUNYAC Offensive Player of the Year during her senior year, while setting several new SUNY Potsdam women’s soccer records, including being the all-time leading scorer with 46 career goals. Academically, she was just as impressive—recently graduating summa cum laude with a degree in exercise science.
Crane Students Embark on Epic Journey Through Peru
From May 19 to 31, a group of 16 current and former Crane students traveled to South America for an epic journey through the Andes in Peru with Dr. Jeffrey Francom, an associate professor and coordinator of the choral area at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. They started by learning traditional Andean music at a cultural center in Calca, Peru, before setting out for a seven-day backpacking trip along the Salkantay and Inca Trails.
As another academic year comes to a close, we take a look back at some of our outstanding graduating seniors—their stories of success, the professors who have impacted their lives and the challenges they faced along the way. Congratulations to the Class of 2019!
Like all music education students at The Crane School of Music, Erica Ylitalo spent her last semester at SUNY Potsdam as a student teacher in both a middle school and high school in Central New York—leading everything from band rehearsals and band lessons, to music theory classes.
Finding a job after graduation is always the ultimate goal, and for Jillian Dolder, that came to fruition literally two days after Commencement. She received her diploma on a Saturday and found herself standing in front of a group of high school students on Monday morning.
During her last semester at SUNY Potsdam, community health major Isata Tarawally landed an internship with the American Red Cross in New York City. As part of the amazing hands-on experience, she has been traveling all over the city to speak with children about disaster preparedness. The opportunity led to a job with the American Red Cross after graduation—a position that will allow her to continue her philanthropic work as part of an Americorps program.
SUNY Potsdam alumnus John Alleyne ’14 has found great success since graduating with a BFA in studio art five years ago. He went on to work at the Museum of Modern Art, received his master’s degree from Louisiana State University and now works as an artist and adjunct professor at three universities in and around Baton Rouge.
Adjusting to a new country and culture is always challenging, but Zerrouk Bessa ’20, who worked as a financial auditor in Algeria for more than a decade, found the support and guidance that he needed in SUNY Potsdam’s management program—one of the newest academic offerings on campus.
Assistant Professor Dr. Faris Khan has spearheaded a number of projects at SUNY Potsdam since he started teaching here in the fall of 2017. Last semester he launched a new digital anthropology studio, started a digital anthropology internship and he created the inaugural anthropology film festival. His implementation of digital technologies, in and out of the classroom, is driven by an effort to make anthropology more accessible to the public.
