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After playing a major role in the revitalization of industrial hemp in New York State, SUNY Morrisville is rolling out a new minor in cannabis studies that will prepare students for the rapidly growing medicinal and recreational marijuana industry.

Talon Abrams has been fascinated with amphibians and reptiles since he was 4 years old, catching snakes and frogs in a backyard creek at his Madison, New York, home. Some even made their way into his bedroom so he could examine them more closely in a glass bowl. That allure eventually led him to SUNY Morrisville to pursue a bachelor’s degree in renewable resources technology. He wants to land in a career where he can help aquatic life, animals and the environment.

Sibell pops her head over the stall door, flattens her nose and pins back her ears. If horses could hand out grades, right now her rider would be receiving a C-minus in treats. Message received. Marcus Livermore, the mare’s obedient servant, rummages through the brushes, combs and hoof picks in his grooming kit and fishes out a peppermint. Sibell nickers at the sound of crumpling candy wrapper.

From her post as a waterfowl researcher at the Forbes Biological Station in Havana, Illinois, Cheyenne Beach ’16 sees the whole country. She can look east and recall her time as an AmeriCorps volunteer on Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia. She can look west to the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge along the Colorado River in Arizona, where she worked with endangered species in the fall of 2016.

With love and care, Jerome “Jay” Caretti tends to SUNY Morrisville’s portal to the stars. Painted silver and capped with a domed top resembling a silo, the Observatory stands atop a hill off Skyline Drive, on the east side of campus, overlooking Route 20. It is owned by the college and available to both students and the public.

Jeremy Dupuis ’16 has a knack for breaking things.

Mike ’79 and Stephanie Battisti ’79 have lived their lives in tandem since meeting as undergraduate students at SUNY Morrisville in the 1970s. The couple graduated in 1979 and grew their lives together on a maple and dairy farm outside of Morrisville. They shifted gears after their children were grown, starting a new chapter in the Adirondacks.

As the temperature soared into the mid-90s during this year’s Great New York State Fair, patrons lined up in front of Gilligan’s Ice Cream stand. A large sign touting premium handcrafted hard ice cream enticed fairgoers as they wiped their brows with napkins and fanned themselves to the beat of music emanating from a nearby booth.

Beyond a tattoo on her left forearm, nursing student Shana Prosser doesn’t advertise her military service. She spends her days in class or clocking in clinical hours at the hospital, then returns home to her husband and two children in rural Chenango County.

Dual-sport student-athlete Jordan Anderson turns competitive fire into a career A chance attendance of a lacrosse game changed the course of Jordan Anderson’s life. Anderson ’17 had just wrapped up a very successful freshman year on the Mustang women’s basketball team, earning Rookie of the Year status in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) for her performance as the team’s starting point guard.

Phil Picard remembers the moment he caught the automotive racing bug.

In his classic song, Sir Duke, iconic musician Stevie Wonder sings: “Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.

Mollie Carter, ’14, remembers the first time she saw the steel sculpture of The Mustang, rearing back on its brick-and-mortar base in front of the Whipple Administration Building. “It was one of the first symbols that grabbed my eye when I started at MSC in August of 2010,” she said. The sculpture made the small-town girl feel “a little bit more like, ‘Hey, I can do this.’"

Energy, enthusiasm and a desire to learn and give back are well ingrained in Morrisville graduate Luke Martin. Since earning his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business development, Martin, 24, has been making his imprint with GROWMARK, Inc., a regional agricultural cooperative that operates in more than 40 states.

Morrisville freshman Jacob Ax has taken a chance meeting with a man injured in an accident and turned it into an opportunity to advocate for better accessibility in the farm workplace.

The colorful clusters of red and yellow tulips outside of Mary Cleere’s kitchen window are more than a harbinger of summer. They represent her new life.

The following photo essay was captured through the lens of Paige Biviano ’17, an alumna of two Morrisville State College programs—journalism and communication for online media and wood products technology – finish carpentry. Through a GoFundMe page, photograph sales, private Taekwondo lessons and cutting boards, Biviano fundraised her way to the Oceans Campus Wildlife and Travel Photography program, based in Mossel Bay, South Africa, from May 30 through July 2.

Approximately seven miles west of Morrisville State College in the town of Nelson, a small facility has been cooking up big dreams.

After nearly eight decades of prohibition, industrial hemp is making a comeback in New York with the help of students and faculty at Morrisville State College.

“Fast and furious” doesn’t just describe a vehicle’s speed anymore … it is now just as easily the catch-phrase of the non-stop rush of automotive technology changes.

It’s 4:40 p.m. on Monday, August 28, and Troy Waffner is running late for a 3 p.m. interview.

As autumn sets in at Wafler Farms, a familiar, sweet scent fills the air. The skyline forms a scenic view as it greets uninterrupted rows of apple trees bursting with this year’s bounty.

When Barn Sis was donated to the racing program at Morrisville State College, driver Cole Wimmer wasn’t sure that the three-year-old trotting filly would be fast enough to compete on the New York Sire Stakes harness racing circuit.

Ask assistant biology professor Eric Diefenbacher what his special field of interest is and without hesitation he says “salamanders,’’ particularly spring salamanders. Why? Because “salamanders are a great bio-indicator of how healthy an environment might be overall, and that’s really important.’’

Imagine if homework consisted of operating chainsaws, wielding axes and log rolling. That’s exactly the case for members of Morrisville’s woods sports team.