Fall/Spring 2022

Walking across campus, Sheila Marshman greets a group of students with a wide grin, chatting about her daughter’s recent performance at the All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Visiting an alum at a local farm later that day, she doesn’t hesitate to hop up on a forage harvester to pose for a photo, striding across the hay fields with confidence. Her dynamic personality transcends the classroom and has inspired countless graduates to find and follow their purpose.
Megan Viera ’18 concentrates on her footing as she walks up a wooden ramp leading to the porch of a two-story farmhouse. A prominent sign hanging by the door — “It’s so good to be home” sums up a near decade of perseverance for the 27-year-old Sherburne, New York, resident. It’s her first step toward living independently as a survivor of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a motor vehicle accident, which left her rebuilding her life — learning how to walk, talk and perform all cognitive functions again.
As a child, Tweh Johnson would often get in trouble for the numerous science experiments he concocted through his wild imagination. While they didn’t always go as planned, they all played a role in helping him discover his insatiable thirst for knowledge. That same inquisitiveness has now led him to a degree in the field of his dreams, thanks to SUNY Morrisville.
As the world came together to acknowledge Earth Day this year, SUNY Morrisville was planting a new seed — a campus tradition that joined acts of kindness with sustainability to celebrate the day. The college’s Administrative Quad was at the center of kindness as students joined in food and clothing drives, a Be the Match bone marrow registry, campus cleanup projects, a tree planting, cooking demonstration, building birdhouses and bat boxes, making tie-dye bags with natural products and showing native plant sowing. 
With the college’s official launch of the Campaign for Morrisville, an initiative that will strengthen resources for generations of Mustangs, there’s never been a more exciting time at SUNY Morrisville. “We’re laying the foundation for the next 100 years of applied education,” said Theresa Kevorkian, vice president for Institutional Advancement. “This transformative campaign is going to change the future of our college.”
The story of George and Barb Elias is a perfect reminder that anyone can leave an extraordinary legacy. George Elias ’70 (instrument technology) endowed a scholarship in honor of his late wife, Barb ’81 (horse husbandry), the Barbara A. Elias ’81 Endowed Scholarship Fund.  Barb left a trail of giving that spread from New York State to Colorado and many places in-between. The scholarship George created will continue her legacy.
Janis Barth, owner and editor of New York Horse Magazine, shares a firsthand story about donating her beloved horse to SUNY Morrisville’s equine program. Sunday morning. The air is crisp with blue-ribbon dreams and the first intercollegiate horse show of the season is ramping up at the SUNY Morrisville Western barn.
Wendy Groves can still remember that first day of drop off at the Children’s Center on the SUNY Morrisville campus nearly 30 years ago. Holding the hand of her 3-year-old daughter, Taylor, Groves walked down those shiny new halls wondering how her child would react to her new surroundings. And, as any new parent would be, she was a bit apprehensive about leaving Taylor in a new place for the first time as she returned to work as the administrative assistant in SUNY Morrisville’s Office of Technology Services.