- Thought Into Action Plans Continued Growth, Expanded Student SupportThought Into Action Plans Continued Growth, Expanded Student Support ddevries@colgate.edu Fri, 06/02/2023 - 12:01 Colgate’s Thought Into Action Advisory Board, which oversees the University’s entrepreneurship and innovation program that connects students with alumni mentors in the development of businesses and nonprofit ventures, has concluded a two-year long review of the program, issuing several major recommendations to expand and strengthen the popular experience. Founded in 2009 by Andy Greenfield ’74 as a way for students with ideas to bring them to market, Thought Into Action has become a dynamic co-curricular program for students from across campus. Students in Thought Into Action have gone on to shepherd their nascent ideas into bustling companies that have been featured in the national media, including Forbes magazine and ABC’s Shark Tank, as well as impactful nonprofit organizations. Now in its 14th year, Thought Into Action is looking to the future after completing a review of the program at the request of President Brian W. Casey. The Thought Into Action Advisory Board, which includes alumni mentors, staff, and members of the Board of Trustees, took a deep dive into the operations of TIA with an eye toward improving an already successful program. “TIA’s goals must be ambitious, with execution to match,” the report reads, “with a vision of being the premier liberal arts college-based entrepreneurship program in the world.” “We are immensely grateful to Andy Greenfield ’74 and the advisory board for their invaluable contributions in shaping Thought Into Action, fostering its greatness, and propelling it to evolve in alignment with the University’s visionary Third-Century Plan,” said Vice President for Advancement Karl Clauss ’90. The report outlines a number of concrete steps that Thought Into Action should take to advance its mission of supporting entrepreneurship on campus. And some of those recommendations are already in place, like the recent hire of Travis Millman as the first entrepreneur in residence. Additional recommendations include aligning Thought Into Action’s structure with that of other institutes and centers on campus, with bylaws and ongoing advisory board oversight. The group also solidified support of Thought Into Action as a key element in the University’s Middle Campus Initiative for Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, bringing it into closer alignment with the academic mission of the University. “The Middle Campus Initiative provides a natural home that aligns Thought Into Action with other areas of campus where students, faculty, and staff are engaged in creative, innovative pursuits,” said Carolyn Strobel-Larsen, director of entrepreneurship and innovation. “The positioning of this program — and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation more broadly — within both the Middle Campus and the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty aligns entrepreneurship and innovation directly with the academic mission of the University.” The advisory board has also recommended that Thought Into Action broaden its outreach on campus to encourage greater participation from students who haven’t considered entrepreneurship before, students with specialized skills who are interested in being involved with a startup endeavor as a team member rather than a founder, and social impact–focused students interested in building nonprofits and social enterprises. The advisory board recommended that goals should be set for greater inclusivity, including fostering involvement from greater numbers of students and alumni with diverse backgrounds, consistent with the Third-Century Plan’s DEI initiatives. TIA will develop programs designed to meet the needs of a wider range of students, including sessions focusing solely on a single stage of the innovation process or themed sessions that focus on specific areas of endeavor. “In particular, we imagine that student athletes, faculty members, and community members who have full-time employment could benefit from an abbreviated, immersive entrepreneurship program that might take place over a single weekend or through an intensive weeklong experience, or from being able to participate selectively in action-focused, immersive workshops developed by the entrepreneur-in-residence,” the report reads. “I am thrilled to have been welcomed so warmly into the Colgate community,” expressed Travis Millman, entrepreneur-in-residence. “It seems appropriate for Thought Into Action to have as audacious a goal as the ventures that participate in the program. The opportunity to build on Thought Into Action’s past successes by innovating new solutions, refining ways of working, and increasing the scope and diversity of all stakeholders involved in our programs is tremendously exciting. We’re working hard on taking Thought Into Action to new heights.”Alumni Third Century Career Development Entrepreneurship News and Updates Alumni
- Colgate Announces New Commons Co-Directors for 2023–24Colgate Announces New Commons Co-Directors for 2023–24 mcwalden@colgate.edu Fri, 05/26/2023 - 13:36 Brown and Hancock Residential Commons at Colgate University will both welcome new co-directors in the 2023–24 academic year. Laura Festine, director of university grants and sponsored research, will become a new co-director of Brown Commons, and Lyosha Gorshkov, PhD, director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives, will join Hancock Commons. Festine fills the role held by inaugural Brown Commons co-director Mary Simonson, associate professor of film and media studies and women’s studies and Daniel C. Benton ’80 Endowed Chair in arts, creativity, and innovation. “I welcome Laura and Lyosha as new commons co-directors, and I thank them for their willingness to participate in a program that has become an important part of the undergraduate experience at Colgate,” says Vice President and Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II. “I also want to thank Mary for all of the work she put into establishing Brown Commons. As she finishes the sixth year in this role, we acknowledge a debt of gratitude — for her energy, creativity, and commitment to our students. She has been instrumental in helping to shape this program.” Festine earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from St. Lawrence University and her MS in information science from the University at Albany. After serving as a research and instruction librarian at Hamilton College, she joined the Colgate staff, first in annual giving, then in corporate, foundation, and government relations. Festine was named director of university grants and sponsored research in July 2022. Gorshkov holds a PhD in political science from Perm State University (Russia). Prior to being appointed director of LGBTQ+ initiatives at Colgate in 2021, Gorshkov served as a tenured faculty member at Perm State University; care manager at the Alliance for Positive Change (New York); visiting scholar at Indiana University (Bloomington); and assistant director of the Pride Center and Women’s Center at Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania). Colgate launched the Residential Commons program in 2014 with Ciccone Commons — soon followed by Dart-Colegrove, Hancock, and Brown commons. The Third-Century Plan provides a roadmap to expand the program with the creation of a fifth commons and the development of new initiatives to deepen their connection with faculty. The commons create a living-learning community that respects and builds on tradition and exposes students to an intellectually rich residential experience. The commons also provide every student with a foundational community from the first day on campus, help build class unity, and cultivate an affinity for the University. Each is led by a pair of directors, selected from among the faculty and staff, who work closely with the Office of the Vice President and Dean of the College and the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty. “The commons began as a great idea,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing. “During the past six years, that idea has become a lived reality at Colgate. The inaugural commons directors did a tremendous job laying the foundations, and we are building on that work, continuing to develop our sense of what the Residential Commons can become.” One of the great advances of the program has been the pairing of faculty with staff from across the University as co-director teams. “I think the commons are stronger for being connected to the work of colleagues across the campus,” Cushing says. Gorshkov acknowledges the responsibility. “We are entrusted in supporting students to find joy in day-to-day living experiences, to learn from each other, and to thrive in a diverse community,” Gorshkov says. “I am stepping in this role with hope to become one of the navigators that can assist students in mapping their personal journeys in this lifetime quest.” Gorshkov will work alongside Courtney Young, university librarian and professor in the University Libraries, who will continue in her current role as co-director in Hancock Commons. Festine will be joined in Brown Commons by Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Frank Frey, who has served as co-director of Hancock Commons for the past two years. “Colgate students already enjoy the best classroom experience with this teaching faculty,” says Festine. “I look forward to seeing that continue outside of the classroom — making friends, nurturing a passion, finding community. I truly believe that we have everything in place for students to have their own interesting, fun undergraduate years.”Campus Life News and Updates Faculty & Staff
- Painting of Jeffrey Herbst Now on Display in the Hall of PresidentsPainting of Jeffrey Herbst Now on Display in the Hall of Presidents ddevries@colgate.edu Fri, 05/26/2023 - 08:40 For only the 16th time in more than 200 years at Colgate, a new presidential portrait is on display within the Hall of Presidents at James B. Colgate Hall. The painting of Colgate’s 16th President, Jeffrey Herbst, who served from 2010 to 2015, now hangs to the right of President Rebecca Chopp’s portrait. The new oil painting, created by artist Ellen Cooper, depicts Herbst seated in his office with a blue shirt, blazer, and a maroon tie. Colgate Board of Trustees Chair Michael Herling ’79, P’08,’09,’12 welcomed a group of alumni, faculty, staff, and trustees to a special ceremony, fittingly on Saturday, May 13, in the Hall of Presidents. Former President Herbst was joined by his wife, Sharron, their son, Spencer, and his wife, Lindsay. Herling lauded Herbst for his leadership during the successful Passion for the Climb campaign and his oversight of construction projects that included the creation of the Trudy Fitness Center. “The portrait we unveil today helps to preserve some of these memories for the institution,” Herling said. “It adds to the visual narrative here in the Hall of Presidents. It is appropriate that this is a first stop for new students arriving on campus. They can look up and see the leaders who helped Colgate become their academic home.” Herbst’s successor, President Brian W. Casey, spoke to guests gathered in the Hall of Presidents beneath a backdrop of paintings representing hundreds of years of presidential service to the University. Casey praised President Herbst’s work to expand Colgate’s off-campus study program during his tenure, resulting in new study groups in Africa and South Asia. “A group of students leave in just a few days for Namibia,” Casey said. “They leave there because of you, the voice you brought here.” Casey also noted Herbst’s foresight in supporting the University’s focus on technology and innovation — in the classroom, and among student researchers, artists, and entrepreneurs. “And now, just a few hundred feet from here, just beyond these walls with their portraits, we see rising a new building, one dedicated to technology and innovation. You were one of those who set a cornerstone for that building,” said Casey of the ongoing construction of the Benton Center for Creativity and Innovation. Herbst offered reflections of his time at Colgate and Hamilton, especially noting how important his wife, Sharron, was in his work for Colgate. While big moments such as completing the Passion for the Climb, opening Trudy Fitness Center, and expanding financial aid are often cited as achievements of his tenure, Herbst emphasized that smaller, quieter moments resonated for him as he returned to campus.News and Updates Faculty & Staff Colgate’s 16th president, Jeffrey Herbst (Photo by Mark DiOrio)
- Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Selected as Fall Colgate University Global Leaders SpeakerNobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Selected as Fall Colgate University Global Leaders Speaker ddevries@colgate.edu Wed, 05/24/2023 - 09:17 Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist, free press advocate, and CEO of Rappler.com Maria Ressa will visit Colgate on Oct. 28 as the speaker for the Kerschner Family Series Global Leaders at Colgate. In addition, Ressa’s How to Stand Up to A Dictator, will be Colgate’s Summer Reading selection — the first opportunity for new students to engage in dialogue with faculty and staff members on questions that transcend disciplinary interests and that require independent analysis. The shared summer reading also provides a foundation for a variety of related events throughout the year at Colgate. Ressa earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 in recognition of her efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the Philippines. Her numerous awards include being named Time’s 2018 Person of the Year, and she is listed among its 100 Most Influential People of 2019. Ressa has been named one of Time’s 100 Women of the Year, BBC’s 100 Women of 2019, and Prospect magazine’s World’s Top 50 Thinkers in 2019. Ressa’s expertise is routinely called upon as an adviser for organizations and corporations on corporate governance, values, and strategy. Ressa’s success and commitment to journalism have come with legal peril in the Philippines, where she is facing 10 charges related to exposing corruption within President Rodrigo Duterte’s government. In June, she was convicted of violating that country’s cyber libel laws, and she has vowed to continue fighting the charges while currently out on bail. A journalist for more than 35 years, Ressa was CNN bureau chief in Manila before working as the network’s lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism. In 2012, she co-founded Rappler.com, an online news platform with an ethos of a small tech start-up, starting with a team of 12 young reporters and developers. Through the power of social media, Rappler has grown into the fourth-largest news website in the Philippines with more than 100 journalists. Ressa is also author of Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook, and she was featured in the 2020 documentary A Thousand Cuts, which profiles her fearless reporting on the abuses of Duterte’s presidency, while also illustrating social media’s capacity to deceive and entrench political power. Launched in 2007 and sponsored by Colgate’s Parents’ and Grandparents’ Fund, Colgate’s Global Leaders Series has brought to campus notable individuals whose work has had a global impact. Encounters with these world leaders help students prepare for lives of leadership — to contribute to the advance of local community and global society alike. Details of Ressa’s visit, and ticket information, will be available online this summer at Colgate.edu/GLS.Campus Life Institutional News People News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Student global leaders Maria Ressa will be the featured speaker for The Kerschner Family Series Global Leaders at Colgate in October.
- Colgate Celebrates 202nd CommencementColgate Celebrates 202nd Commencement rDowning@colgate.edu Mon, 05/22/2023 - 08:21 Seated, as commencement speaker Wynton Marsalis observed, “in a cocoon of feeling and surrounded by your people,” 687 graduating members of the Class of 2023 received their bachelor of arts degrees from Colgate University on Sunday, May 21. Jazz trumpet legend Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, director of the Jazz Studies Program at the Juilliard School, and president of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, made six simple requests of the graduates — actions they can “easily realize with minimal fuss every day of your lives, without wasting time, energy, words, or money.” Be present. “Experience things as they happen. Life is more interesting when you allow it to set your banquet table. Don’t get involved in curating your life. Let your phone do that for you. Be present and let the intensity of your participation shape your feeling, not the act of you observing your participation in your own experience.” Be where you are. “The paths to knowledge are as varied as there are individuals in this world. We can not be on all roads at once. When we wish to experience all things at all times we end up with nothing… Revel in the general spirit that defines this place. Wherever you may find yourself, take the organic lesson in community building that you have learned here.” You might not be on time, but be in time. “The present is your safest and only practical choice. Be in time and you will be flexible enough to define yourself and your experience more broadly than your age, hairstyle, clothing, or favorite popular video, app, or platform. Be in time and you will maintain your equilibrium when the next war or financial crash or mass act of violence occurs. Be in time and you will come to see the value of singing, dancing, cooking, storytelling, playing, laughing, and many other tactile human interactions that are not in our cliched vision of a technological future. Be in time because the people all around you are the real technological marvels, and how we interact with each other is the most fascinating study on this earth. Be in time and you will never underestimate the impact of your disposition in any tough situation that you may encounter.” Be yourself and be fabulous. “I am reminded of the great trumpeter and sage raconteur Dizzy Gillespie, who had a request for me … In 1980, when I was 18 or so, I asked Dizzy, ‘How can I find my own personal sound?’ and he said, “You have to love yourself.’” Be grateful. “I don’t want you to let a day go by that you don’t bow your head and acknowledge all that you have been given and acknowledge all that you give, and also all the blessings that you have received.” Be cool about it all. In addition to the cool — and sage — Marsalis, who received an honorary doctor of arts degree, Colgate conferred honorary degrees upon four other distinguished individuals: Joseph J. Castiglione ’68, Boston Red Sox Radio Broadcaster; Ilya Kaminsky, poet, editor, and professor of creative writing at Princeton University; Mary Ann Moran ’77, University of Georgia Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia; and Mark S. Siegel ’73, founder and president of ReMY Investors & Consultants, Inc. Class valedictorian Caleb Levy of Kingston, Jamaica, graduated summa cum laude with high honors in physics. The salutatorian, molecular biology major Matthew Sampson of Fairport, N.Y., graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In addition to those earning bachelor’s degrees, six graduate students earned the degree of master of arts in teaching with distinction and one, a master of arts with distinction. “To be where you are now, to have persevered through all that you have, is a singular mark of achievement, a mark of strength and courage,” President Brian W. Casey told the class. “You are to be recognized and admired for such perseverance and work. You were the class that history touched, now a class entering a changed world. You are ready now, ready for that changed world — even if, at this very moment, winds are blowing and you are cold, you might not feel that way. You are.”Alumni News and Updates Alumni Student Photo by Mark DiOrio
University News- Football Season Tickets on Sale NowHAMILTON – Colgate Football 2023 season tickets are now available to purchase.
- Mike Harder ’97 Named Head Men’s Hockey CoachHAMILTON – Mike Harder '97 has been named the Donald F. Vaughan Head Men's Hockey Coach, announced Friday by Colgate University Interim Vice President and Director of Athletics Yariv Amir '01.
- Adeduntan Adds Whitney to Coaching StaffHAMILTON – Head women's basketball coach Ganiyat Adeduntan announced the addition of Jasmine Whitney as the Director of Basketball Operations to her coaching staff on Monday afternoon.
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Athletics- Colgate University @colgateuniv 20 hours agoMike Harder '97 has been named the Donald F. Vaughan Head Men's Hockey Coach."I am beyond excited to be part of a program, institution, and community that have meant so much to me over the past thirty years."#GoGate https://t.co/boifFlTgLM
- Colgate University @colgateuniv 1 day agoThank you to the alumni and families who joined us on campus over the weekend to celebrate their class reunions. #ColgateReunion https://t.co/Wf94CscBJp
- Colgate University @colgateuniv 3 days ago#ColgateReunion continues with seminars, socials, and an hour with the President, where Brian W. Casey will discuss #ColgateThirdCentury. The day will conclude with class-specific dinners.https://t.co/sfvxmuNCJ2 https://t.co/sPDVmXBciV
- Colgate University @colgateuniv 3 days ago#ColgateReunion https://t.co/ZrN5fDUAKQ
- Colgate University @colgateuniv 3 days agoDuring #ColgateReunion, alumni carry torches down the hill as a symbol of the “light of knowledge” gained during their time at Colgate followed by class gatherings and fireworks. https://t.co/flL5AtmsK9
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