“To grasp the Anthropocene is to apprehend, at once, both the enormous power and bewildering fragility of human beings,” says Syracuse University professor Susannah Sayler, alongside her collaborator, Edward Morris.

Such irony underscores “,” a collective photographic exhibition at running through Dec. 11. The project, which includes a companion book, is the brainchild of artists Sayler and Morris (known as Sayler/Morris) and Christina Seely.

A professor of art photography in the in the (VPA), Sayler says that “museum” is 10 years in the making.

“The project features unmanipulated photographs taken during our time as Smithsonian Artist Research Fellows,” she says, referring to the trio’s 2014 fellowship that coincided with the disassembly of the iconic Fossil Hall at the . “Only later did we find out that the space was being redesigned and rebranded as the ‘.’�ĝ

Sayler/Morris and Seely were awarded the fellowship to study climate change, species extinction and ecological consciousness in context of Deep Time (i.e., geological time spanning billions of years). Fate had other plans.

“We ended up chronicling the dismantling of the hall,” says Morris, a former VPA Professor of Practice. “The drama of it all seemed to contain everything that we were curious about.”

The trio had free rein of the space for more than a month, documenting (often after hours) the packing of fossils, tearing down of venerable murals and dismantling of dioramas and reconstructed dinosaurs.

Two years ago, a studio visit with a curator impelled the artists to reexamine the images.

“Time amplified their dreamlike qualities,” says Seely, a visual artist and independent scholar who, like Sayler/Morris, is a former Guggenheim Fellow. “We saw the photographs in a new light.”

A Site for Muses

During the Smithsonian fellowship, the trio engaged with brilliant minds. Chief among them were Kay Behrensmeyer, Senior Research Geologist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Mary Parrish, the Smithsonian’s legendary paleo artist.

“Kay was our mentor who gave us access to her research, slides and tools. Mary let us photograph her drawings, drafts and artworks,” says Seely, characterizing the women as “pioneers in a male-dominated field.”

Set against the dark ambience of the century-old hall, the photographs conjure up a flurry of adjectives. “Bizarre.” “Sad.” “Humorous.” “Poetic.” Some images depict dinosaur skeletons draped in plastic costumes; others portray them propped like stilt puppets.

“We captured the breaking down of a museum exhibit, literally and figuratively,” says Sayler. “Gone is the air of certainty and authority, and in its place is the rediscovery of the original meaning of museum—a site for muses, where knowledge is always changing.”

Of Breath and Bone

Al Newberry G’26 was a member of the MFA program in art photography while serving as Sayler/Morris’ assistant. One of his jobs was to remove dust, scratches and emulsion marks from film scans, which eventually found their way into “museum.”

“Susannah and Ed taught me to situate my art as a social practice,” says Newberry, who is the University’s multimedia operations manager. “Their approach to art and ecology has influenced my work significantly.”

Such curiosity plays out in other ways in “museum.” For instance, one of the artists’ favorite images serves as the frontispiece for their monograph, co-published by Gnomic Book and Light Work with support from the .

The photograph in question shows an ink drawing of dinosaur footprints. At the top-right corner, Parrish has scribbled a note, asking if she should add a fourth toe to the back foot.

“Looks good,” the recipient (presumably a curator) responds, proving that the combination of data and what Parrish calls “informed imagination” helps bring illustrations of the Deep Past to life.

“It’s a deeply collaborative process between artist and scientist,” Sayler says.

No matter the assignment from her photography professors at Syracuse University, always chose horses as her subject.

Depict a cemetery? Livingston captured the gravestone of Man o’ War, widely considered the greatest American thoroughbred, buried at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

Shoot a sunset? Livingston staked out the stables at , waiting for the ideal moment when the sun’s rays descended into the foreground, perfectly illuminating the horse.

This love affair with documenting horses began at age 10, when Livingston’s parents made the 30-minute trek from Schenectady to Saratoga to watch legendary horses like Secretariat, Alydar, Affirmed and Ruffian. Livingston still proudly displays the prints depicting Ruffian’s victory in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga, when Livingston was 13 years old and knew she was destined for this line of work.

“I was determined to become the best horse racing photographer possible,” says Livingston, who currently has an exhibition at the . “I’m driven to shoot the best photographs I can and always aim to do the ‘right thing’ for each equine subject. I have near-limitless patience and will stay at a farm for many hours awaiting just the right light. Does it always work out as I’d like? Definitely not, but it’s the pursuit of excellent images that drives me.”

That same eye for the perfect equine moment has defined more than 50 years behind the camera. Livingston, chief photographer of the , has garnered six Eclipse Awards (racing’s highest honor), with four��awards for photography and two for audio/multimedia projects.

Livingston has also published seven books, including her popular “Old Friends” series, which spotlights the lives of retired thoroughbred racehorses. The series in part inspired journalist and philanthropist Michael Blowen to start , a home for retired racehorses in Georgetown, Kentucky. Blowen says Livingston’s photography has helped raise more than $50,000 to .

Livingston, who graduated with an experimental photography degree from the , sat down with Syracuse University Today to reflect on her decorated career. Scroll to the bottom to view a photo gallery of Livingston and some of her favorite photos.

Syracuse University Libraries’ LaunchPad, the University’s entrepreneurial hub, kicked off the Fall 2026 semester with its annual Ideas Fest pitch competition, held across five rooms in Bird Library on Sept. 16.

The event drew student entrepreneurs from various schools/colleges across campus, where they delivered a 90-second “elevator” pitch to a panel of judges. Judges in each pitch room selected two winners, with the first-place winnesr receiving $500 and the runners-up winners receiving $250. Prizes provide early-stage funding for student founders to help offset startup expenses.

First-place student winners were:

• Yanira Johnson ’27, College of Professional Studies
• Samuel Benoit ’28, School of Information Studies
• Stephen Swope ’26, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Keni James ’28, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Imad Adam ’30, College of Arts and Sciences

Runners-Up winners were:

• Evghenii Kiselev ’29, College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Agbor Edouard Ransom ’27, School of Information Studies
• Taite Paradise ’29, College of Visual and Performing Arts
• Sunpaire Tagel ’30, Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• Yuila Ivanova G’27, Martin J. Whitman School of Management and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

The next LaunchPad pitch competition for freelancers, small businesses and creatives is scheduled to take place in Bird Library on Friday, Oct. 2, from noon to 3 p.m. Students interested in pitching should complete the ��by Sept. 28.

Growing up in Los Angeles, saw friends and family members struggle with eating disorders and watched the emotional and financial toll those illnesses took on patients and the people closest to them.

Once on the Syracuse University campus, she decided to do something about it and found the entrepreneurial resources on campus to help build her idea.

After consulting with clinicians along with patients in recovery and their parents, Greene developed , a predominantly free, clinically guided, eating disorder-specific digital platform to fill the gaps in the healthcare system.

“I built Miirror because I refused to watch people keep disappearing into a system that had no room for them,” says Greene, who earned an advertising degree from the . “There is no platform built specifically for eating disorders and around eating disorder recovery that works. This is the gap I am trying to fill, and every single day I wake up knowing exactly why this matters.”

Miirror offers inclusive and stigma-free tools, support circles, crisis resources and therapy matching, providing a safe space for those in recovery. The app is available on the App Store by searching “Miirror: Recovery Support.”

“I grew up wishing I could create a support system for the people I knew who had eating disorders instead of feeling like there was nothing I could do to help, so this is my way of helping people,” says Greene, who serves as Miirror’s chief executive officer and founder.

Creating Real Connections

The platform combines product development with clinical collaboration to reduce stigmas, address gaps in the healthcare system and create technology that meets patients where they are.

“We want users to have real human connection built into their experience from day one,” says Greene, who credits the , the in the and the with developing her entrepreneurial skills.

Greene says Miirror was used in a pilot program with an eating disorder clinic for clinical validation before being released to the public.

Among the app’s primary goals and features:

• a therapeutic toolbox with more than 20 evidence-based techniques users can access anytime, anywhere
• a clinician dashboard that lets providers monitor patients between sessions, “closing a gap that the current healthcare system doesn’t address,” Greene says.
• a patterns page that tracks a user’s progress over time, creating a recovery process that feels personal and measurable
• a peer mentorship component to reduce the isolation and loneliness patients often experience

Baseline features are free, while users seeking a more personalized experience can purchase premium upgrades.

For University students seeking help with an eating disorder, please visit for more information about the available treatments and support services offered through the Eating Disorder Treatment Team.

Collaborative Spirit Fuels Team Success

Running Miirror is a full-time job for Greene and her nine team members, all full-time students balancing classes, coursework and company responsibilities.

The platform features a research department, a branding department and a development team, and Greene meets weekly with each of the department heads to reflect on successes and share research updates.

“It’s not easy being part of a student-run startup company, but what has helped is creating that sense of community on the team,” says Greene, who organizes team building activities like a Miirror Friendsgiving where colleagues can laugh and bond with each other.

Greene has also assembled a team of medical clinicians who ensure all platform resources are evidence-based, so users can trust them in their recovery.

To date, Miirror has won more than $21,000 in grant money at business competitions, including a first-place finish in the health and wellness category at the New York Business Plan Regional competition.

“Building something meaningful means nothing without the right people behind it. Everyone on this team brings something irreplaceable, and I truly couldn’t do this without them,” Greene says.

Her team includes Jacob Kaplan ’28 (front-end app developer, School of Information Studies (iSchool)), Shahaan Khan ’26 (cloud infrastructure architect, iSchool), Danielle Ofir ’26 (human resources director, College of Arts and Sciences), Reese Yoon ’26 (research analyst, College of Arts and Sciences and iSchool), Bri Gordon ’28 (research analyst, College of Arts and Sciences), Meghan Hoffman (user experience/user interface product designer, University of Michigan), Cole Meredith ’26 (head of branding, Newhouse School), Fernanda Kligerman ’26 (brand and digital designer, College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Martin Beredo ’26 (social media manager, Newhouse School).

Student researchers participating in the 2025-26 fellowship in , will discuss their cultural experiences and research findings at a campuswide symposium .

The researchers took part in the program, which pairs ��selected fellows with academic programs offered at locations. The center has offered student-faculty research fellowships on social justice issues for eight years and began offering shorter-term global research opportunities two years ago.

Students will share findings from their research on human rights issues arising from the in Chile.

Ohemaa Asibuo ’27 analyzed archived lists of victims of political retribution from records at Santiago’s . The international relations and Spanish dual major in the �� and the analyzed data regarding Chileans who once supported Pinochet’s leadership but were later labeled as traitors.

Mauricio Paredes, director of Syracuse Abroad’s program, says Asibuo’s research of presenting the victims by demographic categories broke new ground and set the stage for further museum staff findings.

Asibuo regards her commemorative education work as “extremely important in preventing these types of things from occurring again. I hope to continue to advocate for using past historical events as warnings to help us navigate how we approach our futures.”

Jherlyn Brady ’27, a communication and rhetorical studies major in the , learned that Chile’s educational system “was used by the dictatorship to raise nationalism and neoliberalism. They closed institutions responsible for educating teachers; elites and the military created and governed their own schools. That exacerbated economic disparities that still affect Chileans today.” The experience “let me see the institution of education in a different context,” she says. “It can be either a source of social control or a tool of liberation.”

College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell School political philosophy major Laila Terrell ’27 analyzed the rhetoric of , a women’s organization run by Pinochet’s wife. Though the group taught women skills for work and involvement in their communities, it also promoted the regime’s mantras and ideas about what women should be, Terrell says.

She observed that “these women could genuinely benefit from CEMA while also being part of an organization that helped support a violent dictatorship, making the idea of ‘empowerment’ much more complicated than it first appears.”

Sophia Ortiz-Heaney ’27, a Maxwell School economics and international relations dual major, says chatting with local residents and visiting former clandestine detention centers helped her “understand Chilean society on a more profound level. [They] pushed me to think about how history and movements shape the built environment…[and] understand the true extent to which the dictatorship has and still does impact the experiences, opportunities and everyday lives of Chileans.”

Also presenting are Mason Rosenbaum ’27 and Grant Montonye ’28, both international relations majors in the Maxwell School. Rosenbaum recalls conversations with Museum of Memory staff as “a particularly moving experience.” Montoye studied how Chilean constitutions were developed to justify Pinochet regime actions.

Madiou Bah ’27, a broadcast and digital journalism major in the , analyzed the use of propaganda and how governments use fear and media to control and maintain power.

Other students in the Syracuse Abroad Santiago Center program will now continue exploring those themes using teaching and learning materials developed by the Lender Global fellows, particularly those in the new .

Sebastian Melendez ’24, G’26 arrived at Syracuse University from Grand Island, New York, with two passions that, at first glance, might not seem a natural pairing. He wanted to study interior design, and he also wanted to give back to his community, yet he wasn’t sure how—or whether—those two paths could coexist.

A minor in����from the School of Education, paired with his B.F.A. in Environmental and Interior Design from the , gave him room to explore both careers rather than choose between them. By the time he graduated in 2024, Melendez had found his answer: he enrolled in SOE’s����program, intent on carrying his design sensibility—including an eye for who belongs in a space, and who gets overlooked—into the work of supporting students.

Now completing his master’s degree program, Melendez has spent the past two years balancing internships at Syracuse City School District (SCSD) and nearby West Genesee High School with a full life outside the classroom, working as an interior design intern at Syracuse-based Dwyer Architectural and volunteering with Young Life Syracuse East, a Christian ministry where he leads worship and group fitness.

That range and depth of interest shows up in how he talks about his time at SOE, as a period of personal growth as much as professional preparation. We asked Melendez to reflect on his experience in the School Counseling program.

Mark your calendar: The Summit kicks off festivities on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Reflecting Chancellor Haynie’s belief that the University’s greatest strength is its people, The Summit invites the University community to explore the ideas, people and collaboration defining Syracuse University’s future.

The schedule is designed so community members can drop in for a single session or take part in the entire day.

The Passport Challenge

Pick up a limited-edition Syracuse keychain and event passport in Panasci Lounge during the Summit Showcase, then collect three different commemorative charms as you move through the day. Complete at least five passport activities and turn it in at Orange Fest on Sept. 18 for a chance to win tickets to the University Suite at a men’s basketball game. Also stop by for inauguration keepsakes, including blankets and drinkware, showing your Syracuse University spirit.

Start the Day With Big Ideas

Head to Schine Student Center at 9 a.m. for the Syracuse Summit Showcase, where schools and colleges from across campus will have tables organized around five themes: artificial intelligence, experiential inquiry, creating (innovation, invention and design), engagement and access. Presentations include the following:

• Check out hands-on demos, including an immersive crime scene experience from Forensic and National Security Sciences; live hearing tests from the Gebbie Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic team; and inventions built by students from Invent@SU.
• The College of Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information Studies are teaming up on an AI and robotics showcase.
• The Newhouse School of Public Communications will spotlight student-led national reporting alongside an interactive opportunity with the Center for the Creator Economy.
• The College of Arts and Sciences will showcase community-engaged humanistic scholarship and its impact on the Syracuse community.
• The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will showcase art, design and performances across all disciplines.
• Other participants also include the School of Architecture, Falk College, the College of Law, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the National Veterans Resource Center.

Keynote: Future in Focus

At noon, Goldstein Auditorium is the place for Future in Focus, where members of our community will share personal stories of change, resilience and reinvention through a series of short talks.

Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. for a complimentary lunch buffet, and the program will begin at noon.

An Afternoon of Discovery

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be a full slate of collaborative sessions across campus.

• Discover study abroad and away. Find out about the variety of opportunities available from representatives on the Quad (11 a.m.-3 p.m.).
• Committing to Academic Access and Inclusion for All Learners at SU and Beyond (1-1:45 p.m., Huntington Hall Commons), a panel with the School of Education, College of Law and College of Professional Studies.
• VPA in the Making: Ideas, Experiments, Performances and Possibilities (1-5 p.m., first floor, Shaffer Art Building), featuring a college-wide exhibition of student, faculty and alumni work, with pop-up performances in Shemin Auditorium.
• Game Changers: A Conversation with Mike Levine of CAA Sports (2-3 p.m., Flaum Grand Hall, Whitman School of Management). Levine, the co-founder of CAA’s Sports Division, talks career and the business of sports media with Falk College Dean Jeremy Jordan.
• Veteran and Military-Connected Syracuse: Education, Research and Impact (3-4:30 p.m., National Veterans Resource Center Lobby). Meet student veterans and ROTC cadets, tour the Hall of Honor and NVRC Gallery, and grab complimentary coffee from the Canteen Café.
• Solving Grand Challenges Together (3-3:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). College of Arts and Sciences faculty and researchers dig into interdisciplinary work spanning the University.
• The 38th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy (3:30-5 p.m., Strasser Legacy Room, Eggers Hall). Journalist and author Gary Taubes will speak on diet, disease and the limits of scientific consensus.
• AI Across Syracuse: Ideas, Innovation and Impact (4-4:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). Faculty from across the University will share how their program, unit or initiative is working with AI and why it matters.

Elsewhere, don’t miss two exhibitions at Bird Library: “” (all day) tracing the impact of the University’s 13 chancellors across more than 150 years, and “” (2 to 5 p.m.), a University Archives pop-up on how students have driven change on campus.

On the Einhorn Walk, stop by “Charting Our Future Together.” At this interactive station, you can add your own ideas about where Syracuse should be headed, from what campus looks like in 20 years to what every student should experience by 2045.

When the , outfitted in new uniforms, climbed up the Hendricks Chapel steps to perform prior to the Sept. 5 Syracuse Orange football home opener, it carried with it the of making music and memories.

That legacy has been shaped by generations of students, performers and traditions, as the band has evolved from a small campus ensemble into the nationally recognized organization it is today.

For current members, that legacy is reflected not only in the band’s traditions but also in the relationships and experiences it fosters.

Emma Holman ’27, a percussionist and drum major, says the SUMB has�� given her best friends, her partner and the opportunity to be surrounded by her people.

“When you’re drum major, 200 people are waiting on your cue. That kind of pressure either breaks you or teaches you how to lead calmly, and I think I’ve become a steadier, more decisive person because of it,” Holman says.

The stories of students like Holman, alongside the milestones and traditions that have shaped the band for more than a century, are central to a new exhibition celebrating the SUMB’s 125th anniversary.

The exhibition, “The Pride of the Orange: 125 Years of the SU Marching Band,” will run throughNov. 7. There will be an open house Friday, Sept. 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the , located in the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse.

The exhibition, curated by museum studies alumnus Daniel Griffaton G’26, explores the history and traditions of the band.

A Universitywide Community

Current band members come from all years and majors, as they are not required to be music majors or to audition for the band. The band is a one-credit course offered in the fall semester through the Setnor School of Music in the .“We have a great collection of students from across campus and from our partner colleges in the area. Many people think that college marching bands are made up entirely of music majors, but that is far from the case,” says Tim Diem, associate professor in the Setnor School and director of SU Bands. “Every year we have over 80 different majors represented, and when you include minors, there are over 110 areas of study, including every college on campus, that these students are pursuing.”

Longtime director of SU Bands Bradley Ethington retired this summer and Natalie Smith, visiting assistant professor in the Setnor School and assistant director of SU Bands, has joined the community.

Planting Orange Musical Roots

Now known as “The Pride of the Orange” and “New York’s College Band,” the band was brought together for the first time in 1901. Hamilton E. Cogswell, supervisor of music for the Syracuse Public School District, directed the first rehearsal of the band on Feb. 4.

The band performed its first concert, in uniform, on May 9 of that year in the Crouse College Auditorium. Its first football game appearance also took place that year, on Oct. 9, at a Syracuse vs. Lafayette College game, and its first men’s basketball appearance happened on Jan. 9, 1909, at a game against St. Lawrence.

The band’s fight song, “Down the Field,” was first played on Nov. 4, 1913, and continues to be played today.

The Evolution of the SUMB Through the Years

��The SUMB has a deep and storied history that has helped it evolve into the modern collegiate band it is today. Among the changes along the way:

• Women were welcomed as part of the band for the first time in 1941, as most of the male band members had shipped off to fight in World War II. Majorettes and the first baton twirler, Jessie Anne Harp, made their debuts in 1945.
• Second twirler Dottie Grover performed at the men’s basketball game in 1952 accompanied by the first-ever basketball pep band. That pep band continues on today as the .
• The band’s first postseason appearance was in the 1953 Orange Bowl. Numerous other bowl appearances, a Super Bowl appearance in 2014, a performance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and performances around the country and abroad have since taken place.
• Judy Delp, the twirler during the 1962 season, was the first referred to as “The Orange Girl.” By the fall of 1966, women were invited to march with the band as musicians; 22 joined the band that year.
• The band toured Europe in August 1970 and won three awards at the World Band Festival in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Upon returning to the field in Syracuse that fall, the public address announcer introduced the band as “The Pride of the Orange,” tagging the band with the moniker it is still known by today.

The uniforms were last updated in 2013, and this year’s refresh is a special nod to this historic anniversary.

The SUMB of Today

The Marching Band continues the traditions of the past, such as performing on the Kenneth A. Shaw Quad before each football game and celebrating home victories by “flipping the banner” at Varsity Pizza.

Holman, the drum major, says her favorite memory of the past three years in SUMB was her first show on the Quad. “Quad shows are different from anything else we do because for those few minutes all eyes are on the band. We’re not an extension of the football team’s halftime, and we’re not background noise for anyone else’s event. We are our own organization, performing as ourselves,” she says.

“We are thrilled to be celebrating the first 125 years of the SU Bands. The thousands of students that have taken part over the years have built a great tradition and added greatly to the atmosphere on the SU campus,” says Diem. “Here’s to the next 125!”

This summer, three Syracuse students crossed the Atlantic for immersive academic three-week programs through the . Only 30 students were selected nationwide for this prestigious program.

Though their subjects couldn’t have been more different, Ellie Ensign, Clara Hasegawa and Anthony Viola engaged in an experience that reshaped how they think about their own field of study.

Ellie Ensign ’29—Queen’s University Belfast: Listening Across a Divide

Ensign, an international relations major in the and and a marketing management major in the , spent three weeks in Queen’s University Belfast’s (QUB) international summer school studying Northern Ireland’s history and the dynamics of divided societies. The program paired classroom lectures on nationalism and populism with field trips to Derry-Londonderry, the North Coast, Crumlin Road Gaol and Stormont.

One conversation stayed with her most: a session with Brian Rowan, a journalist who covered Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Rowan described the burden of relaying information from every side of a conflict to the public, without a rulebook to guide him. For Ensign, it reframed how she thinks about storytelling under pressure. She learned that pursuing unbiased truth doesn’t mean there’s a single clear path to it.

A second formative moment came from Karl Vidamour, a QUB doctoral student who spoke about how environmental issues get filtered through the same “othering” dynamics as political ones. It showed Ensign the patterns she was studying in Belfast appear in places she wouldn’t have expected, including debates back home.

Clara Hasegawa ’29—Lancaster University: Finding a Voice Behind the Sound

For Hasegawa, a film major in the , the defining challenge of her program at Lancaster University was collaborative filmmaking—pitching, critiquing and producing a script as a team that would share a single grade.

Going in, she worried about managing creative differences among a group of equally passionate filmmakers. Instead, she found the experience to be the highlight of her trip. After each student wrote and pitched a short screenplay, the group settled on one story to produce together and divided up production roles.

Hasegawa ended up as sound designer, a role she’d never held before, working alongside a first-time cinematographer and a first-time director.

The group’s film explored the anthropocene, the time we are living in, using Lancaster’s city streets to evoke humanity’s disruption of the natural world. Hasegawa built much of the soundscape from field recordings of traffic and crowds, and in hindsight, wishes she’d gathered even more raw audio to layer into the mix.

Beyond the shoot itself, weekend travel to Liverpool, the Lake District and London gave her a broader sense of British storytelling traditions, from the Beatles Museum to Beatrix Potter’s house to the West End stages.

Anthony Viola ’28—University of St Andrews: History as Information Architecture

Viola, an information management and technology major in the, found that a Scottish history program at the University of St Andrews spoke directly to his discipline. Visits to the university’s special collections archive showed him how carefully organized historical documents and letters preserve context, not just content, and he found himself applying that lens throughout the trip.

This insight structured his experience of Dunnottar Castle, a ruined fortress perched on cliffs above the North Sea, built in part to physically separate classes by keeping servants on the lower levels. Walking through its remains, Viola began seeing the castle itself as a form of information storage, its architecture encoding a history that’s still open to interpretation.

The three students worked with the to apply for the Fulbright UK awards. For more information, contact cfsa@syr.edu

As homes increasingly double as offices, studios and gathering spaces, furniture must do more than sit still.

has been designing for that reality for years. ��Recognizing the growing need for flexible, customizable spaces, he blended his knowledge of industrial design while improving how spaces function.

The result is , an innovative modular furniture system that can be taken apart and rebuilt as rooms and routines change, so pieces get reused instead of thrown out.

“Most furniture is designed as a fixed, finished object and rarely adapts as our lives and spaces change,” says Schneider, an associate professor of industrial and interaction design in the School of Design. “I wanted to design a system rather than a single piece, built on a consistent grid of interchangeable components that people can reconfigure as their needs evolve.”

Schneider has designed a collection of components that owners can reorganize into entirely different furniture configurations to meet their changing needs.

“My vision for Gridwerk was adaptable, long-lasting furniture that respects both the user and the material,” Schneider says. “Gridwerk mattered to me because it brings together what I care about most as a designer and educator: systems thinking, craftsmanship and designing for change rather than disposability.”

Schneider’s sustainable and modular furniture system was recently featured at the emerging talent (Wanted: Launch Pad) portion of the in New York City.

Schneider sat down with Syracuse University Today to explain the benefits of a modular furniture system and how the principles behind Gridwerk carry over to his industrial and interaction design classes.

Syracuse University’s three study away locations, which provide distinct and wide-ranging opportunities for students, are an equally valuable resource for their professors.

Several faculty members capitalized on those resources this summer, supported by funding from the new program offered by the . The awards were established as a direct result of work done on the University’s academic strategic plan, “,” with the aim of facilitating in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C.

“These locations give our faculty a rare kind of reach,” says , associate provost for strategic initiatives. “These are fully embedded footholds in three of the most influential cities in the world. They provide an opportunity to extend the classroom into the center of the industries our students are preparing to enter, and to let that experience shape both scholarship and pedagogy in expansive ways.”

Participating faculty members agree that the experience enhanced their professional work and helped lay the groundwork for new academic experiences. , associate professor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, was one of them. He conducted archival research at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library and think tank collections with an eye toward building a study away program centered on peacekeeping and global governance. “New York City is one of the world’s great cities and a hub for innovation, international business, civil society and global governance,” he says. “It has been great spending the summer learning how to access the best of what the city has to offer to enhance the education of Syracuse students.”

From July Fourth Weekend to Labor Day Weekend at , just before the horses load into the gate, a single trumpet call cuts through the chatter of the grandstand. It’s the Call to Post, a tradition as old as thoroughbred racing itself.

For the past few years, that sound has come from Carson Gambaro ’22, an alumnus and four-year member of the Syracuse University Marching Band (SUMB). He plays it alongside the person who taught him almost everything he knows about music: his dad, Tony Gambaro.

Carson picked up the trumpet in elementary school, discovering along the way that he’d been born with perfect pitch, a gift he says he’d feel guilty not using to its fullest.

His musicality helped point him toward Syracuse, though not because he had a clear plan.

“I knew there was a lot of potential there,” he says, and joining the SUMB felt like a way to find out what that was.

Lessons and Memories From Marching Band

As a band member, pre-season camp meant 12-hour days, which bonded him not just with his trumpet section but with the entire ensemble.

During his freshman season, Syracuse played in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando and the marching band was there. Gambaro remembers the trip fondly, including riding Disney World’s Space Mountain twice to make up for missing it on a high school trip.

More than any single moment, though, the marching band taught him how to perform with what he calls “nonstop passion,” a lesson that has followed him well beyond his playing days on the field.

During the pandemic, while running solo workouts on the practice track behind South Campus, Gambaro reconnected with another lifelong passion: track and field, a sport he’d competed in throughout high school.

Paired with his time at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, his interest in athletics propelled him toward a career in sports broadcasting. He’s now an announcer who covers track and field regularly and has done play-by-play at prestigious events including the Penn Relays (the oldest running meet in America), New Balance Nationals and the New York State Championships. He served as a color commentator for American Grant Fisher’s 5,000-meter indoor world record (12:44.09) at Boston University in 2025.

Gambaro also launched his own interview podcast, “In Full Stride,” and engaged in networking opportunities with top broadcasters at the USA Track and Field National Championships in New York City in July.

A New Tradition at Saratoga

But it’s Saratoga where two of Gambaro’s worlds, music and sport, collide most visibly.

Growing up not far from the track in Saratoga Springs, he wasn’t especially familiar with it as a kid. That changed when his father, a professional trumpet player, was asked to take over Call to Post duties from the track’s longtime bugler, Sam Grossman (known as Sam the Bugler), in 2022. Tony’s schedule meant he couldn’t cover every one of the meet’s roughly 40 racing days, so father and son began splitting the job.

What was supposed to be a primary-and-backup arrangement turned into something more during a sound check, when an audio engineer suggested they try playing together. The reaction from track marketing staff was immediate. Interviews, and a new tradition were born almost overnight.

Now, the Gambaros take turns and sometimes combine playing the Call to Post before each of the day’s races. In between races, they entertain the crowd, taking requests from wedding songs to rap hits.

Off the clock, the father-son duo also perform together in Tony’s 10-piece group, Ten Most Wanted, playing weddings, clubs, corporate events and in summer concert series around the Albany area.

What’s it like to work with his dad?

“It’s telepathic,” the younger Gambaro says. “We can look at each other and say a word or two before playing a song, and then we’ll just play it.”

Months could pass between bugling gigs, he says, and they still pick up exactly where they left off.

Index cards get passed around a circle of strangers. On one side: someone’s hope for the year ahead. On the other: a looming fear. Students take turns reading a stranger’s words aloud and realize everyone in the room is experiencing the same feelings.

It’s one moment in Syracuse University’s ��sessions, which launched in the summer of 2024 with smaller groups, more personal conversations and programming built around what incoming students and their families most want to know.

As a result, everyone involved—from new students to their family members—leaves orientation with a stronger sense of community, says orientation leader Johanna Schober, a rising sophomore studying international relations and law, society and policy in the .

“These new students get to see the beauty that Syracuse offers, not only by getting to know the students who make up the incoming class, but through all of the incredible resources and engaging opportunities available to them,” Schober says. “These sessions help us guide students, so they feel prepared to start their Orange journeys.”

Starting Small to Build Community

At the heart of the New Student Orientations are small groups: intimate settings led by orientation leaders that turn strangers into a connected group. Sessions open with friendly icebreakers before building to the index card exercise, which Schober says is the moment new students realize “everyone is in the same boat.”

“Everyone has the same feelings of excitement, but also nervousness,” she says. “It just really helps make the orientation experience a little more personal.”

When Wes Sullivan, an incoming accounting major in the , arrived on campus after traveling four hours from his home in Yardley, Pennsylvania, he knew only one person there. By the end of his first orientation day, he went from feeling like a stranger to feeling like he belonged.

“I was a little nervous at first but being in these smaller groups and having that smaller bond is really impactful,” Sullivan says. “Now I know 10 or 20 people, and it feels much more welcoming. We all are starting to find a community on campus.”

The same was true for Samantha DiCrisi, a musical theater student in the from Costa Mesa, California. DiCrisi is the first member of her family to leave home to attend college, and orientation created an unexpected sense of belonging.

“I walked in for breakfast and just sat at a table of people I hadn’t met before,” DiCrisi says. “By the end of it, I felt really connected to them. That’s the spirit of what they were talking about. Being Orange is being welcoming and leading with an open mind.”

The two-day programs are led by the , featuring small group meetings during the day and social activities in the evening.��Students attended open houses and participated in activities in , the , , the and . They also sat in on sessions hosted by the and , as well as the Barnes Center at The Arch, where staff discussed navigating the first year and the transition to Syracuse University, among others.

Students Aren’t the Only Ones Adjusting

Heading off to Syracuse University isn’t just an adjustment for new students. It’s also a time of change for the students’ support system at home.

As part of New Student Orientation, planned and implemented a Family and Supporter Orientation for family members and supporters of incoming students. The sessions offered expert resources, guidance on critical conversations families may want to have with their student and insight into the student perspective from Family Support Navigators, a group of trained student leaders.

Eric Nestor, director of apartment and off-campus living in , led presentations about living on campus. Drawing on his own experience as a parent sending his oldest daughter to college for the first time, Nestor helped reshape the sessions around practical concerns: safety, mental health, roommate conflicts and the logistics of .

“This is an adjustment for the whole family,” Nestor says. “You’re giving up some sense of control, and your student is gaining independence. We’re here to help your student grow through this journey.”

The feedback has been rewarding.

“We’re receiving a lot of positive feedback and thank-yous from families now,” Nestor says. “We’re giving them exactly what they’re looking for.”

For these new students, the payoff is a renewed sense of confidence heading into the fall.

“The idea of starting college is so thrilling, and I feel ready to throw myself into this experience,” DiCrisi says.

“Once you take that first leap, everything else in college comes so much more naturally,” Schober says. “You’re one step closer to being incredibly independent.”