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Since its inception over two decades ago, the Learning & Research Fair has invited faculty, staff, and students to share their research, teaching/learning innovations, creative efforts, and scholarly achievements.2025 Learning & Research FairMay 7, 202510 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (luncheon and keynote address at noon)Barrington Student Union MPR 

Since the moment she could walk, Taylor Post ’22 has been dancing. Her grandmother, who has owned and operated a dance studio in their hometown of Hopewell, N.Y., for nearly 60 years, planted the seed for her lifelong passion for dance.

Since she was four years old, Delphine Léonard ’20, has been speeding around the ice on hockey skates. “My two brothers were playing and I just wanted to do everything they were doing,” she said. A native of Quebec, she is the only French speaking student on SUNY Potsdam’s women’s hockey team — choosing to attend the College last year after head coach Jay Green recruited her during a scouting trip to Montreal.

Since she started at SUNY Potsdam five years ago, Assistant Professor Dr. Julie Hunter has been bringing the music and cultural traditions of West Africa to students at The Crane School of Music. Hunter received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Brown University in 2012, and has taken seven trips to Ghana in West Africa to conduct research over the years—including her most recent trip this past August.

Since she started at SUNY Potsdam in 2013, Assistant Professor Iggy Beerbower has been bringing her passion for photography to her students. Five years into her tenure she brought seven of her students on a unique travel course to Cuba.

Sitting behind the wheel of a New York State Police vehicle, Davanté Parker, a junior criminal justice major at SUNY Potsdam, speeds through a series of yellow cones as a state trooper tracks his speed and accuracy. But instead of getting a traffic ticket, Parker is being graded on his efforts, as part of an emergency vehicle operation course.

Sitting at the end of a small half-moon-shaped table in her father’s kindergarten classroom, Hannah McArthur ’25 works with a student to form letters on the page. She shadows her father, a SUNY Potsdam alumnus and special educator at Phoenix Elementary School, as he works with a separate student on the other side of the table. Still an elementary student, McArthur teaches foundational literacy skills, utilizing the same techniques as her father—a hands-on experience foreshadowing her academic path at SUNY Potsdam as she now pursues a degree in childhood / early childhood education.

Sitting in his high school classroom on Sept. 11, 2001, Kellen Bertrand ’21 watched helplessly as the worst terrorist attack in American history unfolded before him. At the time, he was still a sophomore at Ogdensburg Free Academy (just 30 miles from SUNY Potsdam), but in that moment he felt a calling to join the military. “That certainly impacted me and gave me a sense of purpose and desire to contribute,” Bertrand recalled.

Site visits are written into the affiliation agreement with each school and will be covered by the Office of Early College Programs with proper notice and adherence to campus travel procedures.

Six Questions for a Successful Farmer Despite graduating with a double major in elementary education and English literature, Megan Minchak Bowdish ’88 stumbled onto a completely different career path. After meeting Ray Bowdish ’87 as an undergraduate, she got married and ended up leaving teaching behind. She and her husband started operating Never Tire Farm with his parents in 1992. In 1997, the couple bought the farm outright and then in 2006, when Ray started working in the Department of Biology at SUNY Potsdam, Megan started running the farm on her own.