At the edge of a park on Syracuse’s Rich Street, a small dog barks with excitement, straining to get closer to roughly 30 approaching walkers. Jill Ceilly holds the other end of the leash.

Maxwell School alumnus Andrew Lunetta is among the walkers.

“Hey, Jack,” says Lunetta to the dog, before it leaps into his welcoming arms.

Ceilly and Jack live across the street from the park in a home built by Lunetta’s nonprofit, . This scene plays out nearly every Tuesday morning: Tiny Home staff and supporters embark on a 2-mile walk that starts at the organization’s headquarters on South Avenue and passes several of the homes it has built or rehabbed.

Along the way, several tenants, including Ceilly, join the walk or step outside for a friendly catch-up. The route is filled with conversation, laughter and hugs—a contrast to the hard times many tenants have known, from job loss and addiction to domestic abuse and illness.

What’s clear: They count Lunetta a friend, and perhaps, a lifesaver.

“When he says he’s going to do something, it gets done,” Ceilly says. “He’s not just a landlord. He’s trying to build a community.”

Lunetta founded A Tiny Home for Good in 2014, the same year he earned a master of public administration from Maxwell. In the 12 years since, the nonprofit has built 23 tiny homes and rehabilitated nearly two dozen additional properties across Syracuse, housing 47 people. Roughly two dozen more projects are underway.

That work made Lunetta a 2026 , an honor given annually to people making extraordinary contributions to their communities. The segment aired in July, featuring some of the tenants on the walk on a recent Tuesday morning.

When the call came in late 2025, Lunetta didn’t believe it.

“I thought it was just a scam—a call from some random number saying someone from CNN was trying to reach me,” he says.

A committee had already reviewed a nomination on his behalf, and after months of vetting, made it official.

Lunetta says the recognition isn’t about him.

“It’s a recognition of what our team has built,” he says.

A Different Plan

Lunetta didn’t come to Maxwell with homelessness on his mind. He arrived planning to work with international organizations in a career that would involve extensive travel.

“I don’t remember the professor, but I remember the class. I remember exactly where I was sitting,” Lunetta says. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh—this is not what I want to do.’”

Lunetta volunteered at a 115-bed men’s shelter in Syracuse during his undergraduate years at LeMoyne College and eventually became a staff member. He watched a cycle that never seemed to break. Men would leave with a plan to find stable housing and, time and again, come back, often because they couldn’t afford anything beyond some of the city’s worst housing stock.

“Maybe a quarter of the way through that first year, I really started asking myself: What do I care about?” Lunetta says. “And it was this. It was the work at the shelter, hearing the guys’ stories, trying to find a solution.”

He focused on nonprofit management. The idea for what would become A Tiny Home for Good—permanent, dignified housing paired with long-term support—began to take shape.

Lunetta said his Maxwell coursework gave him tools he reaches for every day. Chief among them: statistics, taught by Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“Statistics was something I would have run in the opposite direction from,” says Lunetta. “She’d come in and share a statistic that’s published, that everyone treats as gospel and then break down why it didn’t actually hold up. It was like, ‘Wow—these numbers I’ve always been afraid of are actually useful.’”

Hamersma says Lunetta “was that ideal student we always dream of for the M.P.A.”

She added, “He had a vision for serving the public good—a big vision—and he was ready to work really hard to master the skills he needed, even the ones that didn’t come naturally.”

Lunetta said Tina Nabatchi’s course in public organizations and management gave frameworks for running an organization.

“I went into Maxwell thinking I’d do something very different,” he says. “There’s a very direct line from what I learned there to where I ended up. Without it, I probably would have ended up doing something I wasn’t best suited for.”

One House at a Time

While pursuing his M.P.A. and volunteering in the shelter, Lunetta talked about his idea for A Tiny Home for Good with nearly everyone in the community supporting the unhoused. People told him the idea could work but cautioned him about the capital and risk involved. He started the paperwork while still a student.

“For a while, from 2016 to 2020, pretty much, it was just me,” he says.

The operation looks different today: volunteer crews, tradespeople and sponsoring businesses now handle much of the physical construction. But Lunetta still finds his way onto job sites.

“I really love that part of the work,” he says. “I hope to always spend at least a little bit of time doing it.”

One of the most recent projects sits right next door to the headquarters: a two-family home that just cleared final approval for occupancy after a remodel. Out back, a new playground sits near a pergola designed and built by Syracuse University architecture students.

Every home the organization builds or renovates goes to someone who would not pass a typical background check for market-rate housing. Most go to tenants pulled from the county’s coordinated entry list, which ranks people by how long they’ve experienced homelessness; those with co-occurring substance use or mental health needs rank near the top.

“We’re proud of that,” Lunetta says. “That’s who our houses are for.”

The classroom spaces in the Center for Science and Technology buzz with activity as high school students build and learn how to code autonomous vehicles on land, in the air and underwater.

A black and white quadcopter drone hovers a few feet above ground, precisely navigating a test flight.

On the ground, black robotic rovers navigate a racecourse consisting of varying terrains, mapped out in blue and orange masking tape.

Below the surface, twin submersibles glide through the water, responding to commands from students on the pool deck relayed through a tethered topside control unit.

is a summer STEM program that ran June 29 through July 28 in the (ECS), meant to develop a pipeline of high school students interested in working with autonomous vehicles. As part of the program, 23 high school students from the greater Syracuse area built and operated different autonomous systems using video game-style controllers.

Students also worked on UAS-SAR (Unmanned Air System—Synthetic Aperture Radar), exploring radar imaging by building and flying a radar on a small drone and using it to capture images of different objects. Throughout the program, students also got a foundational look at the batteries driving these systems, discussing how factors like weight, capacity and charge time shape the performance of vehicles operating on land, in the air and underwater.

“It’s important to get high schoolers into engineering and the STEM fields,” says Connor Sumner ’25, G’27, a current teaching assistant who earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and will complete a master’s degree in May. “Seeing a drone fly by, watching the submarine glide across the water and learning how to build the race car is definitely one of the biggest factors that hook kids on these activities.”

From Curious Scholar to Confident Coder

Coen Fierke ’29 enjoyed the engineering lessons he learned three years ago as a student scholar at Orange Works so much that he enrolled as an electrical engineering major in ECS.

“This program is amazing, and it’s so helpful for students to come to Syracuse and get these opportunities to be introduced to these skills,” Fierke says. “I was motivated to attend Syracuse University after doing Orange Works because I could see myself doing electrical engineering. The program made me want to come here.”

Like many of the participants, Fierke came into the program with minimal coding experience, but after taking an introductory Python programming course each evening, Fierke says he soon felt comfortable navigating the coding required to program the different vehicles.

“These students will live in a world full of autonomous systems where, starting today, they will have the tools to help shape the future,” says Anthony Terrinoni, the associate director of academic programs in mechanical and aerospace engineering who also directs Orange Works.

A Slice of Life on Campus

In its fourth year, Orange Works falls under the mechanical and aerospace engineering department in ECS and is funded jointly by the (CASE) at Syracuse University, and the . Led by Binghamton University, the Engine brings together premier research and development universities, educational institutions, industry, economic development and community organizations and government agencies to grow the battery ecosystem in Upstate New York driving national and regional impact.

“Programs like Orange Works are only possible because of strong partnerships and support,” says , professor and chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. “We’re grateful to CASE and the NSF Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York for their financial support, which allows us to give these students hands-on experiences with battery integration and autonomous systems while helping build the next generation of engineers here in Central New York.”

“Orange Works is a great entry point into the Energy Storage Scholars Initiative, our effort to build a talent pipeline for this industry from high school through college and beyond,” says Tim Thomas, chief workforce development officer for the NSF Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York. “Building a strong energy storage ecosystem in New York State requires a steady supply of skilled engineers, and programs like this one are essential to giving more students across our region access to engineering degrees at institutions like Syracuse’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.”

Students eat in the dining halls and visit campus spots like the , the and the , activities that Fierke says “help connect students with Syracuse and show them what life is like as a Syracuse University student.”

Orange Works participants also learn from ECS faculty and current students, building up their engineering skills while gaining the confidence to turn their passion for autonomous vehicles into a potential career path.

“Orange Works gives high school students the chance to work in teams and design, build and program a real autonomous system alongside our faculty and current students,” says , interim ECS dean and associate provost for academic programs. “This unique and engaging experience helps them build the skills and confidence to pursue engineering and computer science degrees in college and become the innovators of the future.”

Putting Skills to the Test at MIT

The highlight of Orange Works was putting the students’ skills to the test on a challenging course as part of an international autonomous-vehicle competition at the (MIT) , held July 30 through Aug. 2.

Leading up to the competition, students spend hours together testing their autonomous vehicles, supporting and learning from each other in a collaborative environment while overcoming challenges stemming from building, programming and troubleshooting.

“It’s pretty cool going home and telling your friends that you spent part of your summer building these autonomous vehicles. These students want to learn, and this program educates them now and prepares them for a career in the future,” Sumner says.

For Fierke, the same program that first sparked his interest in electrical engineering as a high school scholar has him giving back to aspiring engineers as one of the program’s teaching assistants.

“Orange Works creates these opportunities to network and learn from some of the best minds in the field,” Fierke says.

Hundreds of high school students spent their summer at Syracuse University. They experienced life as a college student—taking a university-level course, living in a dorm and eating with friends—before starting their higher education journey.

Syracuse University’s have been giving high school students the chance to explore potential majors and careers since 1965. Today, students get the option of attending , or at the University’s Manhattan and Los Angeles academic centers for the Summer College program.

“Students not only learn what it’s like to be a college student, but they leave the program feeling confident, enthusiastic and ready for college,” says , executive director of the Office of Pre-College Programs in the .

This year, 1,275 students attended from across 38 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam and 28 countries.

What It Offers Students

The on-campus program gives high schoolers as much of the undergraduate experience as possible: living in residence halls, eating in dining halls, attending evening and weekend social events and field trips, and taking a college-level course taught by a faculty member.

“Being away from home in the environment Summer College provides is a transformational experience for many students,” Cofer says. “Students and their parents often report how the Summer College experience was the most significant factor in preparing the student for applying to, and then leaving home for, their undergraduate career. ”

Students can confirm the major they want to pursue—or discover it is not what they want to study in college. Those in credit classes receive a Syracuse University transcript with a letter grade, and credits may transfer to other institutions.

Many also seek and secure a letter of recommendation from the professor to include in their college applications.

“Attending a pre-college program can be a transformational experience and not just here,” he says. “The transition (the gap) from high school to college is larger than most realize and attending a pre-college program provides a low risk experience where students go back home to process it while finishing high school and before they begin their college applications.”

Students who attended in recent years say it helped solidify their plans to attend Syracuse as undergraduates.

What Students Say

Evan Gohil ’29,
Attended on-campus Summer College in 2023

Evan Gohil learned about Summer College during his sophomore year of high school and attended for free through a partnership between the University and the Syracuse City School District. He says the program, where he studied neuroscience, convinced him that Syracuse University was where he belonged.

The program clarified the college experience for Gohil.

“Going through the program, I gained memories and a clearer idea of what to expect,” Gohil says. “In retrospect, the first few weeks of college were very similar to what Pre-College was.”

Learning to manage on his own and being given a level of freedom in the program was eye-opening, he says. Taking the neuroscience course, he also learned that he could pursue a pre-med track in areas beyond just biology.

The entire experience was invaluable for students with no reference for what college will be like, he says.

“This is especially important with first-generation students like myself,” he says.

Talia Klein ’27,
Attended on-campus Summer College in 2022

Talia Klein attended the program because she wanted to experience what college life was like before making “such a big decision,” she says.

“Being able to spend time on campus, take a real college course and meet current students made everything feel much more real,” she says. “By the end of the program, I could genuinely picture myself at Syracuse, and it confirmed that it was the place where I wanted to spend the next four years.”

The course gave her a glimpse of the creative, collaborative environment at Newhouse, reinforcing her excitement to pursue media and entertainment.

What also stuck with Klein was how independent she became in a short time, navigating campus, collaborating with classmates and balancing assignments.

“It was the first time college felt less intimidating and more exciting,” she says.

It also showed her how welcoming and supporting the Syracuse community is.

“It made the transition to Syracuse so much easier because I already felt connected to the campus and community,” she says.

Elena Pantoja ’29,
Attended online Summer College in 2023

For Elena Pantoja, taking an online nutrition course through Summer College was the biggest factor in her decision to return to Syracuse for her undergraduate degree. Now majoring in , she’s taken classes again with Jane Burrell, associate teaching professor in the Falk College.

Pantoja says the online experience surprised her with how productive the learning environment was. One moment she still remembers is the course’s final assignment.

“My professor had us go to a farmers market and purchase one item of our choice, research the process the farm took to get that product to the market and cook it,” she says. “I appreciated my professor’s dedication to getting us off the Zoom meeting and into our community.”

Pantoja encourages high schoolers to consider Summer College.

“Even if you can’t take a class for your major, take one that interests you just to get an idea of what your classroom expectations will be in upcoming years,” she says.

High school students and families: the 2027 Summer College application opens in mid-December, but it’s never too early to start planning ahead. Visit  for more information.

Otto is in a marathon race and needs the support of Orange Nation.

The beloved University mascot is one of 20 finalists nationwide as part of . From now through Aug. 17 at 11:59 a.m., supporters can claim the title.

The nomination isn’t the first time Otto’s central role in the Syracuse community has been recognized. The adored orange, who participates in 800 events a year, was a member of the 2023 class of the Mascot Hall of Fame.

, the University’s mascot coach, says when she told Otto about the USA Today nomination, the orange’s excitement was palpable.

“Otto, of course, can’t talk—but when I gave Otto the news, you’d think that orange was shouting with delight,” she says. “Otto did a lot of excited dancing and jumping, but then got very focused. Otto wanted a strategy—because Otto likes to win!”

More Than a Mascot

Walas says the USA Today nomination shows Otto’s legacy and impact are still “very much alive and growing.”

“It means everything,” she says of the nomination. “Otto has been part of this community since the early 1980s and became our official mascot in 1995. To be recognized nationally, alongside just 20 finalists from across the country, is a huge honor for our entire program. This isn’t about one costume or one performer; it’s a reflection of 40-plus years of students who have poured their hearts into making Orange Nation smile.”

Otto, she says, is the “one constant” that shows up for every version of the Orange community, from first-year students at their first football game and alumni returning to campus to kids’ birthday parties and families at a hospital visit.

Otto’s devoted presence on and off campus, powered by cheering fans, is what makes the lovable orange a symbol of Syracuse’s community spirit, not just a mascot, Walas says.

“Otto doesn’t just cheer for wins; Otto shows up in the hard moments too,” she says. “Otto is a unifier. Otto welcomes you no matter how long you’ve been an Orange fan, Otto just wants everyone to feel like they belong.”

How Orange Nation Can Help

Walas says Otto’s message to Orange fans right now is simple: “Thank you for making me who I am! Now let’s bring this one home together.”

With voting open now through Aug. 17 at 11:59 a.m., once per day, every day, until the polls close.

“We are encouraging students, alumni, families and fans to set a daily reminder and vote every single day,” Walas says. “Every vote counts, and with daily voting allowed, consistency is everything.”

For more than 40 years, Otto has shown up for the community—now it’s time for the community to show up for Otto, she says.

“This nomination belongs to every fan who has ever hugged Otto, danced with Otto at a game or cheered with Otto in the stands,” says Walas. “Otto is one of four ACC nominees this year, and we’d love nothing more than to bring this title home to Syracuse. Thank you to everyone who has supported Otto for every award, induction and initiative—let’s show the country why Otto’s the best.”

Moon-Heum Cho and Alexander Corbitt, professors in the University’s , have been awarded a $50,000 planning grant from the  program to develop a game-based digital learning platform that teaches elementary students AI literacy through personal finance decision-making.

The project, , will use narrative-driven simulations to help students in grades 3 and 4 understand how AI systems collect data and generate recommendations, applying that understanding to everyday financial scenarios such as saving, budgeting and comparing options. Students will interact with in-game AI agents that offer recommendations, giving them practice in questioning and evaluating AI-generated input rather than accepting it automatically.

The project takes direct aim at a gap that , an expert in instructional design, and , who researches gaming, play and literacy, see in how AI literacy is currently taught in K-12 schools.

Most existing approaches lean on abstract conceptual explanations or standalone coding exercises, disconnected from the situations where children actually meet AI. Yet elementary-age students are already encountering algorithmically-targeted content and personalized recommendations daily, well before any formal instruction catches up to that reality.

By grounding AI literacy in the real-world context of personal finance, the project aims to teach students not just what AI is but when to trust its recommendations, when to question them and how to make informed decisions on their own.

The project also responds to a pressing need in New York State, where  must be implemented by the 2027-2028 school year. It centers on Central New York’s Fabius-Pompey school district, a rural, high-needs district where broadband access gaps and limited supplemental learning resources make a free, school-based platform especially valuable.

Following the FINDERS Foundry required stakeholder model, the leadership team brings together researchers, a K-12 educator, a technologist and a parent/guardian representative to co-design the platform alongside students, educators and families.

Over the two-month planning period, the team will pursue three outcomes: building students’ understanding of how AI systems work, strengthening their grasp of core personal finance concepts and developing their ability to critically evaluate AI-driven recommendations.

The work will culminate in a full development-phase proposal for November 2026, with an eye toward eventual regional and multi-state expansion through a future NSF Discovery Research PreK-12 proposal.

A hand-drawn architectural rendering from 1926. Photos of the toboggan run and multiple hockey rinks. Postcards from the 1950s capturing skiers posing as they went off a jump.

Those are just a few of the items in an exhibition celebrating the history of Drumlins Country Club. The University-owned club is marking its centennial with monthly events, including an exhibition that offers a chance to step back in time.  Visitors can witness the evolution of the club from a 260-acre chicken farm to a facility that offered students and the local community outdoor recreation opportunities year-round, from golf and swimming in the warm months to skiing, skating and sledding in the winter.

The exhibition came together in just a few months, pairing Drumlins’ in-house archive with the expertise of , associate professor and program coordinator for museum studies in the , and Morgan Clarke ’29, an undergraduate and museum studies minor.

Joseph Sidoni, interim director of Drumlins, reached out to Saluti in February, knowing the professor was both a member and neighbor to the club, to help organize the club’s photos and artifacts into a gallery.

“Because we have a lot of historical photos and artifacts and architectural drawings, etcetera, we thought it’d be a great idea to set it up and outline the history of Drumlins,” says Sidoni.

For Saluti, whose home was originally part of the same farm that was purchased in 1926 for the development of Drumlins, the interest in participating was more than just professional.

“I live directly across the street, so for me this was a project that was very personal,” he says. “It was something I felt I really wanted to do, and then, being able to make it a curricular experience with students was even better. But the history of the area, the history of the connection to SU, a lot of that to me it was a story that I’ve always loved and I was excited to be a part of making a little display.”

A Unique Learning Experience

Clarke was excited when she learned about the opportunity to assist with the exhibition. She declared a minor in museum studies in the spring, after learning of a career path in exhibition design, and was eager to gain experience.

“I was like, ‘Wait, this is the perfect position for me,’” she says.

Clarke used her experience as an architecture student to create a 3D model of the gallery space. Saluti says she also did the majority of the digitization of the artifacts and helped install the exhibition in late April.

Saluti and Clarke also drew on the for documentation on the club’s ties to the University.

“It was really cool to just go through the collections and think about how we could show the story through both objects—for example, we had golf clubs and old tournament trophies and plaques—and then also visually through photographs,” says Clarke. “Typically there’s more text in an exhibit, but we focused on the visual aspects of the story.”

The quick turnaround for the project offered Clarke, who didn’t have any experience in curatorial research or exhibition design, a unique hands-on opportunity to do archival research, digitization of original material and design the exhibition’s storytelling.

Saluti says Clarke “dove right in.”

“These are the experiences that get faculty excited,” he says. “They get us excited to be able to share that experience with students, but also they help to inspire the students to rethink how they might use that academic degree.”

Clarke says working on the project felt like the first step toward exhibition design.

“I took a museum studies class this past semester, but it was more focused on practice and the collection and preservation of museum artifacts,” she says. “It was really exciting to get that actual hands-on experience and think about how this career path could be an exciting opportunity for me.”

An Opportunity to Discover and Reminisce

Saluti says he learned a lot about the club’s history as a hub for both the University and the broader community.

“I want people to come into the display and remember their experiences the same way I do,” Saluti says. “One of the objects that we have in the exhibition is the announcement of the new pool from 1981. I have neighbors who grew up with that pool. So to have an exhibition that helps you navigate that history and helps you think back, it’s really nostalgic.”

Some club members even loaned items for use in the gallery.

“There are folks whose families have been at Drumlins for 50-plus years, and then you have University folks who don’t know anything about Drumlins,” Sidoni says. “It’s nice to get them in the gallery and have them take a look at how far we’ve come.”

The exhibition will remain on view through the year as Drumlins approaches two flagship centennial events: an and a .