“Why have you traveled so far to be here? Why are you here?” Rev. Akhona Masiza asked the , local choirs and concertgoers at the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. “The world is out of tune. And yet, I marvel at the sight in this room.”

It was truly marvelous. In May, over 50 members of the Hendricks Chapel Choir (HCC) visited South Africa—the choir’s first-ever visit to the African continent. The HCC performed six times in 11 days, from Johannesburg to Cape Town and several places in between. HCC Director José “Peppie” Calvar set the tone before departure: “During these trips, the choir is building a global network of kindness that lasts for a lifetime. Our choir students will develop lasting connections with each other and with the South African students they meet along the way,” he said.

Lasting Connections and Beautiful Concerts

The tour’s first dual-billed concert featured the University of Johannesburg Choir and the HCC performing as peers—comparing notes and breaking bread before sharing the stage. Each choir performed separately, then combined their voices to sing “Tshotsholoza,” a well-known South African song traditionally sung by migrant workers. Baritone Samuel Mincey ’28 featured prominently in the lively number.

At Aan-die-Berg Gemeente, a Dutch Reformed church in Randburg, baritone Nick Dekaney ’26 sang his first solo on South African soil, performing “Hlohonofatsa,” a traditional South African song. The choir then visited Rietondale High School, where the energy was electric from the moment they arrived. Destiny, a Rietondale student, declared that she plans to sing forever, inspired by what she heard.

“An experience I will carry with me is singing with the Rietondale High School Choir,” said HCC member Aurelia Harp ’28. “Each and every student in that choir carries a true passion for music and everyone wanted to sing. The students had such a positive energy and it made me feel very welcome in their community and excited to sing.”

Culture, History and the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir

Between concerts, choir members immersed themselves in South Africa’s rich and complicated history. They visited the Apartheid Museum, Nelson Mandela’s house and Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s house in Soweto, went on a safari in Pilanesburg, toured the Union Buildings in Pretoria and hiked in the Drakensberg Mountains. HCC members picked up greetings in Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans, often wearing their “be kind.” shirts—wearing their hearts on their sleeves, both figuratively and literally.

A highlight of the Pietermaritzburg leg was a workshop with the internationally acclaimed Drakensberg Boys’ Choir. The two groups combined for vocal and physical warmups, exchanged songs and sang “Tshotsholoza” together, a fitting echo of the tour’s spirit of connection. The HCC also performed that evening at the Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary alongside several local choirs, where soprano Eleanor Cjzakowski ’24 G’29 captivated the audience with the traditional spiritual hymn “I’ve Been in the Storm So Long.” Rev. Masiza’s challenge to the choir lingered long after the concert ended: they had come, he suggested, to relearn the dance of love and to make God known again as song.

Cape Town: The Final Leg

The final concert was held at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town—a venue rich with history from the anti-apartheid movement and long directed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Much like Hendricks Chapel, the cathedral is known as a place of prayer and a space where people of all faiths meet in common acceptance. The HCC shared the stage with the University of the Western Cape Creative Arts Choir, and well-known South African musician Zolani Mahola was thrilled to hear both groups perform the traditional isiXhosa tune “Bawo.” Organists Anne Laver, associate professor in the Setnor School of Music and University organist; Annie Spink G’26 and Michael Guarneiri ’28 also showcased their skills on the cathedral’s stunning instrument.

For several choir members who had graduated just a week before the trip, the Cape Town concert was more than the last show of the tour—it was the last time they would sing together in their current formation. The Western Cape choir students sent them off with a blessing before the evening wound down to a celebratory wrap-up dinner, where the surprises kept coming: a birthday serenade for Laver and a spontaneous announcement from Bryce Meuschke G’26, who shouted, “I got the job!” The choir erupted in applause.

A Legacy of Giving

“One of the things we hope with trips like this is for you to forge lasting friendships with each other,” said Calvar at the tour’s closing dinner. “The Hendricks Chapel Choir has a long legacy of these trips because people a long time ago had a great experience and they later gave a gift to support this trip. At some point we hope you can help the choir travel again and create new experiences.” Calvar closed with a line from the Prayer of St. Francis: “It is in giving of ourselves that we receive.” The Hendricks Chapel Choir is already looking ahead to Hendricks Chapel’s 100th anniversary tour to New Zealand in 2030.

will spend several months in the Bahamas this fall, supported by a as she studies how human practices surrounding the , a critically endangered reef fish, create conflicts over culture, economy and governmental regulation in that region.

The assistant professor of anthropology in the will pursue a project titled “Poaching in Bahamian Waters: Conservation and National Security in Caribbean Seascapes.”

The project extends Mallon Andrews’ earlier research among spearfishermen along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, where declining fish stocks forced divers to go deeper into the water and farther out to sea, risking their physical safety and potentially crossing national borders to earn a living. Some eventually crossed into Bahamian waters and�� were arrested and jailed as poachers.

For this project, the anthropologist will examine the issue from the perspective of Bahamian regulators. She will embed with personnel charged with poaching enforcement, including members of the , the , ��the and .

During peak poaching season, Mallon Andrews will participate in training programs for law enforcement officers and lawyers. She will accompany fishing patrols and speak with public officials who process illegal catches. She will follow Bahamian government agencies as poaching arrests play out in the country’s courts.

National Security Stakes

The proper regulation of marine resources is central to , according to the . ��sustains roughly 20% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), although ��threatens the economy’s long-term sustainability.

Tourism activity based on the country’s marine ecology—coral reefs, mangroves and pristine beaches—attracts millions of visitors yearly and generates about 50% of the country’s GDP. Although the country controls 250,000 square miles of maritime territory, about 35% of lobsters harvested from Bahamian waters are taken illegally. Between 2013 and 2019, 24 fishing vessels were apprehended, and the boats of 375 Dominican nationals were confiscated. Collectively, those poachers were sentenced to 239 years in prison, Mallon Andrews says.

Several conditions affect how the countries deal with those issues, Mallon Andrews says. Both Dominican fishers and Bahamian environmental agents are reacting to the increasing scarcity of Caribbean fisheries, a reality she says makes it easy for Bahamian institutions to blur the lines between environmental protection and national security. Global climate change is exacerbating the conditions that lead to poaching. And the Bahamas struggles with poaching on two fronts: Dominican fishers from the south and American poachers from the north.

Alternative Perspective

In the next phase of research, Mallon Andrews will focus on how poachers are perceived by Bahamian institutions, how conservation and security measures overlap in practice and what becomes of confiscated ships, gear and fish. She’ll view those issues from the perspective of those she describes as “being charged with navigating an uneven and difficult-to-control tapestry of conservation enforcement.”

“I’m hoping people will take seriously not only the regional and international implications of environmental crime but the upending of the narrative of criminals and enforcers,” Mallon Andrews says. “It is much more difficult to think about what that means for people whose lives are impacted by seafood industries, and for the people who are asked to enforce those regulations.”

Research With Real Stakes

Mallon Andrews’ previous research resulted in the forthcoming book “.” During that project and as an avid freediver and underwater photographer, she built a rapport with those she interviewed by diving alongside them and learning to spearfish as she heard their stories.

“A gesture like that really makes a big impact because its unique in the researcher-to-researched relationship. You really attempt to ask someone to integrate you into their daily life,” she says.

An Enforcement Perspective

Mallon Andrews expects to find the same willingness to share perspectives among the regulatory enforcers she encounters this time. “I feel lucky to have Fulbright support on this project because it’s a different relationship,” she says. “[These] enforcers are very concerned about the issue of poaching and what they want people to know about the practical conundrums they encounter on a daily basis.”

She also plans to organize a photo exhibition and produce a short documentary film and will present workshops and talks at the University of the Bahamas as the community engagement aspect of her work.

What makes this new project particularly interesting to her as an anthropologist, Mallon Andrews says, is that the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic differ in their histories, cultures and governmental structures. Those differences shape the values and politics each nation brings to the poaching problem.

She is excited to spend time “with people who have life stories entirely different from my own. I’m an ethnographer through and through, and I’m excited to learn things by walking in someone else’s shoes in the Bahamas—[things] that I couldn’t imagine from sitting here in an office in Syracuse.”

Faculty in the (VPA) and the (A&S) have received (NEA) grants to support their community-engaged creative arts programs.

The awards—$20,000 for a collaborative filmmaking production program aimed at Syracuse City youth and $18,200 for two years of artist residencies at a campus-affiliated cultural center—reflect the University’s commitment to connecting academic and creative work with the Central New York community.

Teens With a Movie Camera

Now in its third year, “” brings about a dozen local high school students to campus each summer for a three-week media arts production collaboration. Working with film faculty and University students, teens ages 13 to 18 make original short films using smartphones and everyday objects and then present them publicly.

Their work has been shown at the and at . It has also been screened in national and international film festivals, including the Thomas Edison Film festival, where “” won an honorable mention; and in the New Year/New Work Film Festival at The Film-Makers’ Cooperative��in NYC.

The program is co-led by , associate professor in VPA’s Department of Film and Media Arts; VPA film program alumnus G’23 and , a Guggenheim fellow and adjunct professor of photography at Onondaga Community College.

The trio is assisted by undergraduate and graduate film and media arts students. The program aims to empower teens by voicing their ideas through images and public presentation, according to Mišo Suchý. He says production relies heavily on improvisation “because it is undertaken as a zero-budget creative production based on the ethos of the tradition of independent cinema and low-budget experimental filmmaking.”

This summer’s program will explore themes of “defying gravity” and “overcoming the impossible.” Interested teens can apply on the program’s .

Community Folk Art Center

A second NEA grant of $18,200 will support “Rooted & Rising,” an artist residency program at the (CFAC), a University-affiliated cultural hub dedicated to promoting artists of the African Diaspora.

The residency is directed by , executive director of CFAC and assistant professor of African American studies in A&S. The grant will allow a program beginning in summer 2026 continuing through the end of 2027 that will support four artists over the two-year period. In addition to interacting with students in A&S programs, the artists will develop workshops, exhibitions, talks and free public events.

Jackson says the residencies will create meaningful opportunities for Syracuse University students to engage directly with working artists while also expanding access to arts programming for the Central New York community. They also offer the artists “the time, space and institutional support to develop new work grounded in public engagement and cultural dialogue,” Jackson says.

The project reflects CFAC’s mission to bridge scholarship, creative expression and community wellness through support of multidisciplinary artists.

More information about NEA grants and their impact on communities is available on the .

Editor’s note: This is the last in a five-part series spotlighting ’s global centers.

Marion Patsalides ’28 didn’t just study in Strasbourg—she biked its backstreets, soaked in its baths and became a regular at the neighborhood patisserie. A mechanical engineering major in the , Patsalides studied abroad in the Fall 2025 semester and found Strasbourg to be more than she imagined.

“Studying abroad changed my perspective on myself and the world around me,” she says. Here’s how Patsalides made the most of every week abroad.

Get a Bike

“Strasbourg is a super bikeable city! My favorite way to explore was on my bike. It really enhanced my knowledge of how to get around and helped me feel more like a local.

“There are relatively cheap bike rentals or a biannual bike sale where you can get your own bike. Make sure to get bike locks, a helmet and a bell. It is illegal to ride a bike in Strasbourg without a bell, so that is an absolute essential.”

Spend a Weekend at Home

“Most people going to Strasbourg plan to travel around Europe almost every weekend. Since you have no classes on Friday (most of the time) and many exciting places to visit, it’s very enticing to book lots of travel every weekend once you get there. Plan a ‘staycation’ for at least one weekend.

“During the week, you will have work or studying to do, including your own classes. Make sure you allot a weekend to stay in Strasbourg and explore the whole city. Visit Homme de Fer for shopping and food and Petite France for the quaint atmosphere. Get to know your home base. It is a whole destination on its own, and it’s worth it to spend the time really getting to know it.

“I spent a few weekends in Strasbourg, including two at the end of the semester when I explored the famous Strasbourg Christmas markets with the millions of tourists in the city at the time.

“Mid-semester, I spent a weekend in Strasbourg touring around parts of the city I hadn’t been to before, and I visited the Strasbourg baths with my host mom. The spa experience was amazing and very relaxing. Experiences like this one can’t be beat, especially when they’re one block away from home!”

Take the Train

“Weekend travel is a huge part of this program. Many people choose to fly around Europe, since Strasbourg Entzheim Airport is just outside the city. I used the airport a few times (all three for the UK to visit family). However, the experience of riding the trains is so worthwhile too. Strasbourg is a major European train hub, so many places are easily accessible by train from the Gare Centrale, which is in turn easy to access by bus or by the A, C or D trams.

“However, if you’re looking to save a little money or visit more places in Germany, just over the border is another large train station in Kiel, Germany. The Strasbourg trams have a stop right over the border at that station (A or D).

“Train journeys provide a beautiful, aesthetic view while getting you to most places in Europe quickly. I remember taking the TGV (French bullet train) to Paris having large windows and gorgeous views of the French countryside. Bring your passport to go over the border, and travel like the locals do!”

Skip the Starbucks

Many of us are reliant on our morning Starbucks, but that isn’t the only option in Strasbourg. There are cafes and patisserie everywhere. While Starbucks, McDonald’s and other fast food do exist in France, there are so many more options at reasonable prices. Strasbourg has a lot of different types of food, and so many amazing restaurants and cafes.

“Some of us students in my French 101 class used to visit Patisserie Gerber Jean around the corner from the Strasbourg villa every day after class, and we became regulars! Explore around your neighborhood and visit local restaurants and cafes instead of the big chains.”

Bring the Travel Guide

“Bring an English guidebook from home for some of the places you think you might travel to (including France). Oftentimes, simply looking on Google for a good restaurant can ensure that you miss hidden gems and small businesses, especially in large cities like London or Paris. With guidebooks, someone has done the leg work and found delicious food for you.

“Also, sometimes guidebooks can find better hotels or hostels that fit your needs. Personally, a Rick Steves recommendation saved me a lot of money in London when he recommended a family-owned hotel a 5-minute walk from Victoria Station with reasonable prices. Better experiences and food can be found with an actual book than Google or ChatGPT can get you.”

The first time Carrie Mae Weems H’17 came to Syracuse, she was an emerging artist with a restless curiosity and a camera. That was in the early 1980s, when —the internationally recognized artist residency program on the Syracuse University campus—invited her to come and work. She did not yet know that the city, and the University, would shape her life in ways she could not have anticipated, including meeting her husband, photographer and Light Work director Jeffrey Hoone.

Nearly 45 years later, Weems has come full circle. Appointed in January 2020 as the University’s inaugural artist in residence, Weems spent six years weaving herself into the fabric of the institution she had first encountered as a young artist. She is now concluding that tenure, leaving behind a legacy as layered and far-reaching as the bodies of work that have made her one of the most celebrated artists of her generation.

“Carrie Mae Weems’ work has long challenged the world to see with greater honesty and imagination, and she brought that same spirit to Syracuse University. Her presence here has strengthened our academic community in meaningful ways,” says Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff to Chancellor Emeritus Kent Syverud. “We thank her for her leadership, her artistry and the lasting imprint she has made on this campus. Carrie has defined possibilities for what the artist in residency can be, and for this we are truly grateful.”

A Legendary Career

Over four decades, Weems has built a practice that spans photography, text, audio, video, installation and performance. Her series “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” repurposed 36 appropriated images from the 19th and 20th centuries to interrogate the relationship between African American subjects and photographic history. Her “Kitchen Table Series” turned domestic space into a stage for intimate, complex narratives of Black womanhood.

The institutions that hold her work read like a map of the world’s great museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the National Gallery of Canada, among many others. In 2014, she became the first African American woman to receive a solo retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, a milestone she noted had arrived “really late in the day.” Rather than simply presenting her exhibition, she transformed the Guggenheim’s auditorium into a five-day convening of artists, thinkers and performers

Her honors include the 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2023 Hasselblad Award, the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, the BZ Cultural Prize and the U.S. Department of State’s Medal of Arts. In October 2024, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. presented her with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony, the highest honor the United States government bestows upon artists. She was the first African American female visual artist to receive it. Weems has installed a permanent work that will be featured in the Barack Obama Presidential Library, opening to the public in Chicago on June 19.

Yet for all the accolades, some of Weems’ most telling work during her Syracuse residency happened in studios, classrooms and conference rooms.

Mentorship Flowing in Both Directions

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, Weems went to her studio. She designed posters, billboards and campaigns that honored frontline workers. What began as a response to the situation in Syracuse became a national effort, eventually spreading worldwide. Shopping bags carrying text that she composed were distributed at food banks. Buttons, masks and murals went out by the thousands. Students were at the center of the work, packaging materials, designing alongside her and earning wages she insisted upon.

That insistence on reciprocity, on the idea that mentorship flows in both directions, threads through everything she did at the University. She founded the Institute of Sound and Style, a rigorous workshop for teenagers in Syracuse struggling against the weight of community violence.

Graduate students served as her assistants on the project, and she was candid about what she received in return. “As much as I found that I was helping them,” she said, “they were helping me as much as I was helping them. I’m not simply the giver. I’m also the receiver.”

In April 2024, she traveled to Florence to deliver a public lecture—”Resistance as an Act of Love”—to students enrolled in the , reviewing the work of studio arts students there. She then brought eight of those students to Venice for the Black Portraitures conference, held in concert with the Venice Biennale.

Her “Monumental Concerns” convenings, which she organized through the University and were held at the Museum of Modern Art, drew hundreds of scholars, artists and thinkers into conversation about monuments, memory and contested public space.

Engaging Deeply

“Through her residency, Carrie Mae Weems has created opportunities for Syracuse University to engage deeply with some of the most pressing cultural conversations of our time,” says Miranda Traudt, the University’s assistant��provost for strategic initiatives and director of arts. “By bringing together artists, scholars and communities, she has helped make this campus a hub for dialogue that shapes contemporary art and culture.”

At the celebration marking the close of her residency, held March 16 at Light Work, Campbell Jackson reflected on what it had meant to work alongside her. “You’ve shown us how essential creativity is to the strategic future of this institution,” she said, “and to our broader society.”

Weems herself was characteristically humble. “I never think that I’m doing anything that is important,” she said. “I just feel that I need to work at things that matter to me, that uplift me, that inspire me, that carry me.”

Together, they took a corner bakery-grocery and turned it into a new cornerstone of a Syracuse Northside neighborhood.

The project for design students from Syracuse University’s (VPA) and construction management students from (SUNY ESF) was both an experiential learning opportunity and a chance for them to undertake engaged citizenship in the year they worked with community residents and organizers of , a community nonprofit.

Students redesigned an aging, two-story bakery and apartment structure at 601 Park Street owned by Northside Futures into a modern building serving expanded residential and commercial needs. Northside Futures is a collaborative project of the Northside Learning Center and Justice Capital that focuses on workforce training and small business development, housing, remediation and property management, and community wellness and safety for residents of Syracuse’s Northside neighborhood.

The project provided real-world professional experience through the VPA course DES 451 (also known as “Meaningful Partnership”).

The cross-institutional collaboration also involves SUNY ESF course CME 454, , along with Northside Futures and the University’s .

The Real Thing

“This is not a hypothetical,” says , assistant teaching professor in the School of Design and program coordinator. “It has real users, real challenges and real goals. Students engaged deeply with the community, developed real solutions for real stakeholders and came away with a genuine understanding of what it takes to bring a project to life.”

Founded in 2017 by , professor in ��VPA’s , the program became a formal service-learning initiative in 2022 through the Shaw Center. In addition to Dunham, , SUNY ESF associate professor in the Department of Sustainable Resources Management, is a co-teacher. ’84, transportation coordinator at the Shaw Center, ��handles logistics.

During its first six years, Meaningful Partnership operated as a three-way collaboration among designers, construction managers and community stakeholders. This year it expanded to four components—with members of the Northside Futures cohort joining as active participants. They learned hands-on construction and trade skills alongside the students while accumulating design literacy for future independent community development. That model is an authentic co-design process where residents are positioned as empowered decision-makers shaping the future of their neighborhood, Lee says.

Two-Semester Overview

In the project, students from both institutions work together for a full year. Last fall, 19 environmental and interior design (EDI) students examined the facility, conducted site visits and client meetings, developed construction blueprints and presented final designs.

In the spring, 17 construction management engineering (CME) students joined them. They used the construction documents to prepare estimates, construction schedules, decide phasing and logistics, suggest value engineering strategies and explore sustainable grants and programs for the project.

Community-Centered Project

Dunham says direct communication with clients is essential to the project’s success.

“During our site visit students were able to speak directly with building owner Northside Futures and the building’s occupants (a residential tenant, the bakery owner and neighbors) and continued to obtain feedback throughout the process,” she says. “That kind of direct engagement with the people who live and work in these spaces is invaluable and it is very much part of what makes this process real.”

In addition to the bakery redesign, students developed alternatives for using an adjacent lot where a dilapidated garage was due for demolition.

Community members suggested building a library, day care center and a community/gym workout space for that structure.��The client ultimately chose the idea of a laundromat, Dunham says, since it filled a real need, made sense financially as a revenue stream and was the right fit for the neighborhood.

Human Context

EDI student Ella Mchale says residents’ involvement expanded her understanding of the city and provided a true client experience.

“What we achieved goes so much deeper than just a design project,” she says. “Our community member Fatima helped ground us and gave us the real human context we needed to design with purpose. We took that seriously and created something accessible and meaningful while still bringing our own design concept to the table.”

EDI student and project manager Jolie Ramos says that despite language and cultural differences, “a bond was built based on the betterment of our shared community.”

“That exposure beyond our University bubble gave us the opportunity to not only engage with our community but to form intimate personal connections,” she says. “It was really beautiful to watch the relationships unfold and grow.”

Cultivating Community

“At its core, this project is about community, understanding and creating meaningful impact,” Dunham says. “The community representatives who came into our class shared their culture, needs and challenges and were a true voice for their neighborhood. The connections they formed with our students were genuine and those voices shaped everything. That deeply resonated with our students and it showed in everything they produced.”

Meaningful Partnership’s staying power results from an intentional and ongoing investment of time, interest and shared resources, says Lee.

“Community partnership is something that must be continuously cultivated and is grounded in relationship-building and trust,” she says. “It means sharing resources, lived experience, cultural knowledge and social awareness alongside academic expertise and a commitment to paying that knowledge forward.”

In an age when artificial intelligence can generate content instantly, the human ability to write with clarity, originality and critical insight has become more essential than ever.

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have ample opportunity to strengthen their writing through a rich landscape of publications and digital platforms. Aurantium, Broadly Textual, Intertext and Mend are among the outlets where students build strong portfolios, sharpen their professional communication skills and engage in experiential learning that prepares them for careers in writing, publishing, media and advocacy.

Aurantium: Making Philosophy Accessible and Alive

Like its namesake, ��(the Latin word for orange) is vibrant, inviting and full of fresh perspective. Founded in 2023, this student-led undergraduate philosophy journal was created to invite curiosity, creativity and conversation across disciplines. Supported by the and the Philosophy Club, the journal publishes two issues each year: one focused on the Syracuse University and SUNY ESF community and another open to contributors worldwide.

Essays, reflections, creative writing and artwork all find a home in Aurantium, making it a space where philosophy is explored not as an abstract exercise, but as a living, interdisciplinary practice.

For editor-in-chief Brielle Brzytwa ’28, discovering philosophy was anything but immediate. “In high school it felt abstract, inaccessible and frustratingly stuffy,” she recalls. It wasn’t until college that philosophy began to feel meaningful, and that transformation shaped her vision for Aurantium. “Philosophy doesn’t have to be confined to dense texts or exclusive academic spaces,” she says. “It can—and should—invite curiosity and conversation.”

As editor-in-chief, Brzytwa has made accessibility a guiding principle. She describes the journal as a place where ideas are not only preserved but “shared, challenged and reimagined,” with an emphasis on amplifying a range of undergraduate voices.

Broadly Textual: Building Community Through Public Scholarship

For graduate students eager to share their ideas beyond the boundaries of academic journals, ��offers an inviting and meaningful platform. Overseen by William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor , the online publication highlights graduate student work designed for public audiences, featuring literary and cultural commentary, , and thoughtful explorations of digital media and identity. With its focus on a broad variety of subject matter, the publication encourages students to see scholarship as both collaborative and accessible.

Co-editor Elena Selthun first encountered Broadly Textual as a contributor during their first year of graduate study and quickly recognized its value. They describe the experience as “low-pressure and supportive,” an ideal introduction to publishing. Equally important, Selthun was drawn to the publication’s commitment to public humanities. “The public-facing nature of the blog allows graduate students to apply what we learn beyond academia,” they say.

For fellow co-editor Meg Healy, the appeal initially lay in skill-building and community engagement. Over time, she gained a deeper appreciation for the publication’s role in demystifying the publishing process. “There is a strong incentive to publish while in graduate school, but that can be daunting,” Healy says.

Both editors emphasize the sense of connection the publication fosters. Selthun points out that graduate research can often feel siloed, and “Broadly Textual” helps bring students across departments into conversation.

Intertext: Celebrating Writing Across WRT Courses

For more than three decades, has celebrated writing by undergraduate students in the (WRT), and community partners. In April 2026, editors and contributors gathered to mark the release of the journal’s .

Reflecting on their involvement, editors Jules Vinarub and Kairo Rushing wrote in the introduction to the 2026 issue, “This publication relies on the willingness of Syracuse University students to be vulnerable enough to let their truth be on display—sharing themselves with you, allowing you to hear and see their stories.”

Throughout the year, students met with publishing professionals and authors like Rand Timmerman, member of the at Syracuse University, whose essay about a is published in the 2026 issue along with a .

Any student who has taken a WRT course can submit their work to “Intertext,” and submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Students interested in joining the editorial team can enroll in WRT 340: Advanced Editing Studio. For more information, contact Professor Patrick W. Berry.

Mend: Amplifying Voices, Honoring Stories and Creating Purpose

��is an annual publication started by , WRT associate professor, and is dedicated to celebrating the lives and creative work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, as well as individuals impacted by the criminal legal system. Featuring fiction, poetry and nonfiction on a wide range of topics, the publication offers contributors the freedom to explore personal experience while centering dignity, creativity and voice.

Editor Drew Murphy ’26, who is majoring in writing and rhetoric, and in psychology in A&S, first encountered Mend as a junior through an Engaged Humanities course, WRT 413: Rhetoric and Ethics after Prison, taught by Berry. Guest visits from formerly incarcerated writers involved with Mend left a lasting impression.

“Their stories represented a powerful intersection of my two majors, writing and rhetoric and psychology,” Murphy says, describing the experience as one that immediately sparked curiosity on both personal and professional levels. When Murphy learned about internship opportunities with , the decision felt natural.

“The opportunity to work with impacted individuals while contributing to a publication that shares their stories has been meaningful for both my academic studies and future career ambitions,” she explains.

As Murphy prepares for graduate study in social work, she credits Mend with deepening her belief that thoughtful writing can contribute to meaningful change.

When Chie Sakakibara first traveled to an Iñupiaq community in Arctic Alaska as a graduate student, an elder gave her advice that would define her career.

“Never disappear,” she told her.

For generations, researchers had come to Indigenous lands, documented stories and environmental knowledge, and left—often without returning results or sustaining relationships. Community members asked Sakakibara to do something different: to document climate change from their perspective and to show that they were not simply victims of environmental disruption, but creative and resilient people adapting to change.

“I was honored, and I stayed,” Sakakibara says. “Placing yourself in a community means reciprocating and emphasizing their priorities, not just your own interests.”

More than two decades later, she is still returning.

Now an associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Sakakibara has built her scholarship around long-term collaboration and Indigenous research sovereignty—the idea that communities themselves should guide how their knowledge is used, represented and shared. Another focus of her work: the interconnected survival of people, animals and environments in a rapidly changing Arctic.

“Chie’s work is a model of what engaged scholarship looks like at Maxwell,” says Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate dean for research and professor of political science. “By centering Indigenous voices and building lasting partnerships across the globe, she demonstrates that rigorous research and genuine community responsibility are not competing values—they are inseparable ones.”

Connecting Communities

Sakakibara’s current initiative, “Indigenous Northern Landscapes: Visual Repatriation and Climate Knowledge Exchange,” connects the Iñupiaq people of Arctic Alaska with the Ainu community of northern Japan to explore environmental memory, cultural preservation and climate adaptation.

Both communities have endured land dispossession and the suppression of traditional language and faith. Both have retained and revitalized Indigenous ways of being—the Iñupiat through their relationship with the bowhead whale, sea ice and tundra; the Ainu through kinship with the brown bear, salmon, rivers and forests of Hokkaido.

“Their voices are only getting stronger through connecting and building relationships with other Indigenous communities and their allies within and beyond academia,” says Sakakibara, a research affiliate for the East Asia Program in Maxwell’s Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and a member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Her project employs repeat photography alongside community-led ethnography, fieldwork, oral history, archival research and collaborative museum curation. It emphasizes Indigenous knowledge and collaboration and juxtaposes early 20th-century and contemporary images, revealing sea ice loss, coastal erosion and shifting subsistence patterns due to environmental transformation.

Working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the project collaboratively produces environmental knowledge by interpreting these historical photographs with the Indigenous descendants of the communities where they originated.

Future work will involve storymapping, participatory digital storytelling and traveling museum curation bridging Syracuse, Arctic Alaska and Japan.

Challenging the Myth

A persistent misconception frames Indigenous cultures as unchanging and separate from the modern world. Sakakibara sees that stereotype as an obstacle to effective climate policy.

“When policymakers or scientists assume that Indigenous peoples are merely relics of the past, they fail to recognize that communities like the Iñupiat and Ainu actively observe, interpret and respond to environmental change,” she says. “That blocks opportunities to incorporate Indigenous expertise into climate solutions.”

Iñupiat hunters continuously adjust whaling routes in response to sea ice change. Ainu communities combine historical ecological knowledge with contemporary observations to protect salmon runs. These are dynamic systems of environmental monitoring refined over generations, not static traditions.

Rather than separating Western science from Indigenous knowledge systems, Sakakibara argues the two must be in conversation, especially as policymakers confront accelerating climate disruption. Climate change, she notes, is not solely a scientific challenge but a cultural and political one.

“Climate disruption is among the most consequential challenges of our time, with implications that span policy, governance, culture and human well-being,” says Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Our students benefit from the wide-ranging expertise and experiences that Professor Sakakibara and colleagues provide.”

Students as Research Partners

Sakakibara brings her knowledge back to Syracuse—into classrooms, workshops and partnerships that give students direct exposure to the communities and questions at the center of her work.

In July 2024, Sakakibara partnered with public history experts from

StoryCollab to facilitate a on campus with Ainu collaborators. That same year, Sakakibara brought two Haudenosaunee undergraduate students to Japan to participate in workshops with Ainu community members, contributing to mapping projects and oral history initiatives conducted across English, Japanese and Ainu.

One of those students, Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore ’26, is a member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and a 2025 Udall Scholar in Tribal Public Policy. Hearing the stories of ��Ainu community members resonated in a personal way.

“It reminded me of what my own ancestors experienced, the struggle to protect culture, revitalize language and reclaim sovereignty,” says Lazore. “There was something powerful in recognizing that shared desire: the simple but profound wish to safeguard your people, your traditions and your future for the next generations to come.”

Rooted in Relationships

Sakakibara’s ��project has cultivated partnerships with major institutions including the Penn Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Yale Peabody Museum, the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan and the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University.

“The core goals—centering Indigenous knowledge, documenting environmental change and supporting cultural sovereignty—remain active and impactful,” Sakakibara says, adding that the elder’s advice—never disappear—remains central to her approach. “Research is about relationships. And relationships require responsibility.”

Story by Catherine Scott

On Monday, 50 members of the Hendricks Chapel Choir , carrying with them years of rehearsal, a deep repertoire of music and a mission that stretches well beyond the concert hall. For most of them, it will be their first international tour with the choir. For all of them, it will be something they will carry for the rest of their lives.

The trip is part of a goal set by , director of the choir and professor and assistant director of choral activities in the Setnor School of Music in the . In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calvar set a goal to bring the ensemble to every inhabited continent by the time Hendricks Chapel celebrates its centennial in 2030. The choir has performed in China (2005); Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay (2009); Poland and Germany, including Auschwitz (2013); Mexico (2018); and London and Lockerbie and Edinburgh, Scotland (2023).

South Africa represents the fifth such continent, with Oceania still on the horizon. The destination was chosen in no small part thanks to a longstanding connection. Former Vice President and Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol completed a Ph.D. at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa with connections in South African musical and academic circles. Two years ago, Calvar traveled there to deliver a guest lecture, laying the groundwork for what would become a collaborative itinerary.

“Musically, I feel like the ensemble is as ready as it’s ever been,” Calvar says. “The choir is next level.”

International audiences, he says, want to hear American choirs perform American music, so that forms the backbone of the program. But woven throughout are selections that speak to a broader worldliness: pieces chosen to demonstrate the choir’s versatility, its appreciation of global traditions and its genuine desire to connect. Three South African pieces are on the program, including one of the country’s de facto national anthems.

A Diverse Range of Performance Partners

The choir will perform alongside a diverse range of South African ensembles—high school, university and community choirs—and performances are scheduled in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Drakensberg, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town.

“It doesn’t get any more diverse,” says Calvar. “South Africa is a place where they’ve found ways of celebrating their own diversity and finding ways to unify and connect, and I think that it’s so very critically important that we show them our own brand of that.”

Life Lessons

For the students making the journey, the significance of the trip is both personal and expansive. Caiyan Bass ’26 is the choir’s president and one of two choir members who also toured with the ensemble in the UK in 2023. Being open to the unexpected, she says, is not just a musical lesson, it’s a life one.

“You never know what kind of relationship may come from music,” she says. “I find that in performance spaces, people connect effortlessly.”

The trip coincides with her first two weeks as a Syracuse University graduate, making it a threshold experience in every sense. After the trip, she will head to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a master’s degree in speech-language pathology, and she already sees the connection. Working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, she says, will require exactly the kind of empathy and openness that international travel cultivates.

For other students on the trip, like Mathena Rush ’27, an environmental health major at the , the South Africa experience carries a different but equally powerful resonance.

Rush is heading into a career in environmental remediation, specifically focused on brownfield development. “Having these international experiences allows me to understand the struggles different communities go through and learn what needs to be done to fix them,” Rush says.

Rush also speaks about what the choir itself has meant to her beyond the tour. As an ESF student, she arrived at Syracuse without the built-in liberal arts community that many of her peers enjoy. Choir became her outlet, her anchor and one of the defining experiences of her college years.

Calvar, when asked to reflect on what these tours mean to students, points to the exit interviews conducted with seniors each year. “The Hendricks Chapel Choir international tour is always on the top of the list,” he says. It is consistently named among the significant moments of students’ time at Syracuse.

For Eva Quackenbush ’26, an interest in maternal and fetal health that began with personal curiosity has grown into a rigorous public health research project with direct implications for how clinicians monitor and make decisions about the most vulnerable newborns.

Quackenbush, a public health major with a concentration in healthcare management in the , worked under the mentorship of , associate professor of public health, on a study examining whether patterns detected in fetal heart tracing—the monitoring of a baby’s heart rate during labor—can predict short-term outcomes for infants born between 23 and 26 weeks of gestation. These babies occupy a narrow clinical window clinicians call “periviable,” a zone where survival has improved in recent decades but where the tools guiding clinical decisions remain poorly understood.

An Understudied Population

Fetal heart tracing is a well-established tool used to signal when medical intervention may be needed in full-term pregnancies. But its predictive value in periviable births has been largely unexplored. That is the gap Quackenbush and Kmush set out to close.

Their study drew on a retrospective cohort of 90 periviable deliveries at a regional referral hospital in upstate New York between January 2017 and August 2022. In their project, two independent maternal-fetal medicine specialists reviewed four key fetal heart tracing indicators—baseline heart rate, variability, accelerations and decelerations—and compared them against an overall composite score. They analyzed those patterns against neonatal outcomes, including lung disease, eye defects, brain hemorrhage and mortality.

The findings were consistent across every model tested: none of the fetal heart tracing patterns were statistically associated with adverse birth outcomes, meaning that the patterns could not reliably predict which babies would fare worse.

“Our research concluded that the heart tracing patterns in this population of periviable infants have no predictive value,” Quackenbush says. That may sound like a null result, but it is a meaningful one, because establishing what does not predict outcomes in this population is itself a critical step toward better clinical understanding, she says.

Building New Skills

Undertaking this clinical research project required Quackenbush to build an entirely new technical skill set. She had no prior experience with coding, but with guidance from Kmush she learned R, the statistical coding language, and applied it to complex regression analyses and data modeling.

“Dr. Kmush has been an incredible mentor for the statistical analysis work that I have been conducting,” Quackenbush says. “She has been guiding my familiarization with R, as well as the process of preparing research for presentation at all levels.”

Quackenbush’s ��work in the lab was made possible in part by the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE), which helped fund her project and teamed her with Kmush as a faculty mentor. Quackenbush also broadened her clinical health background through involvement with the University’s and an internship with the . And beyond coding, she built competencies in scientific writing and research communication, skills she says she will carry into her next career phase.

This spring, she and Kmush presented their findings at the conference in Baltimore, an unusual distinction for an undergraduate researcher. Quackenbush says they hope their study will serve as a foundation for expanded research in the periviable population, including studies with larger sample sizes to further validate the results.

From Data to Policy

This fall, Quackenbush will begin legal studies at the in New York. Her goal is to work in health policy, focusing on improving health outcomes through policy determinations, compliance issues and interdisciplinary collaboration.

While her future path moves her out of the lab, an experience she says has been as much about personal growth as scientific discovery, Quackenbush sees her time there as central to the work ahead. “While my career won’t be directly related to clinical public health activity, I anticipate including many concepts from the public health field into my work in health policy,” she says.

Whether it’s analyzing data or shaping health policy, Quackenbush says her goal remains to work toward better outcomes for patients. She leaves the lab having contributed one more piece of a puzzle that clinicians, families and policymakers are still working to ��solve.

Every year, the recognizes the people who make graduate education at Syracuse University what it is, honoring the faculty members who mentor and inspire and the teaching assistants who support students while pursuing degrees of their own.

Faculty Awards

At a campus ceremony April 27, ��four faculty members received Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty ,�� honoring their impact on graduate education through teaching, research, creative activity and service. ��The awardees were selected by an interdisciplinary group of graduate students.

This year’s faculty honorees are:

• , professor and graduate program director of the television, radio and film program in the
• , assistant professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in the (ECS)
• , assistant professor of biology in the (A&S)
• , professor of philosophy in A&S.

Teaching Assistant Awards

At the same ceremony, 36 teaching assistants were recognized with Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards for their contributions to the educational enterprise and for helping to create strong teaching and learning outcomes across the University. Awardees were nominated by their departments.

The honorees and their programs of study are:

• Rachel Ameen ’20, geography and the environment, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Sarah Appedu, information science and technology, School of Information Studies
• Zachery Robert Barrows Gonzalez, languages, literatures and linguistics, A&S
• Almila Basak G’23, political science, Maxwell School
• Julia Janina Viola Baumgarten, physics, A&S
• Caroline Anne Bowling, architecture, School of Architecture
• Shannon Burth G’23, mass communications, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Kirstin Len Clear, human development and family science, A&S
• Rein Desbiens ’23, chemistry, A&S
• Iwona Franczak G’23, sociology, Maxwell School
• Antonio Freiles G’25, philosophy, A&S
• Aliza Haskal, English, A&S

Also honored are:

• Jaihyun Jeon, business administration, Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• Kennedy Reed Jones, communication and rhetorical studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts
• Xiangjing Kong, psychology, A&S
• Shivam Kumar, electrical engineering and computer science, ECS
• Yifan Cheng Li, economics, Maxwell School
• Liam Victor Lieblein, philosophy, A&S
• Ash Lienemann, languages, literatures and linguistics, A&S
• Tyler Logie, earth and environmental sciences, A&S
• Desiree Laurel Martin, mathematics, A&S
• Kerry McNamara G’17, communication sciences and disorders, A&S
• Zaidao Mei G’20, electrical engineering and computer science, ECS
• Fasika Minda Melese G’19, instructional design, development and evaluation, School of Education

Additional recipients are:

• Chelsea Renea Morton, social science, Maxwell School
• Amanda Qi Ni G’21, women’s and gender studies, A&S
• David Aanuoluwa Okanlawon G’24, anthropology, Maxwell School
• Gizem Ozyazici, college science teaching, A&S
• Urmi Manoj Parekh, writing studies, rhetoric and composition, A&S
• John Sackey, biomedical and chemical engineering, ECS
• Sergio Saravia Lopez, sociology, Maxwell School
• Karie Nicole Schmitz G’22, mathematics, A&S
• Lauren Sdun, physics, A&S
• Soham Sinha, English, A&S
• Sabrina Marie Traver G’23, mathematics, A&S
• Jenna Marie Walmer, psychology, A&S

��

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a five-part series spotlighting ’s global centers.

South America was entirely new territory for Ella Roerden before her semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. Four months later, she left with volcano views, a 10K finish and a new sense of her place in the world.

Roerden is an anthropology and international relations major in the who hails from Syracuse. She has studied abroad for three semesters—Florence in fall 2023, Santiago in spring 2025 and the Exploring Central Europe program in fall 2025—and now serves as a Syracuse Abroad global ambassador.

“I traveled to Europe before, but I had no idea what to expect, frankly, during my trip to South America,” Roerden says. “It ended up working out quite well! I learned a lot about myself and my place in the world there, and my story- and memory-oriented self got to take in so much in just four months. The time I spent in Chile is precious to me, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Here’s what she’d tell every student heading there.

Spend Time Outdoors … Take a Hike!

“Both in the city of Santiago and all around Chile, there are plenty of places to go hiking. Visit the ‘Los Lagos’ (The Lakes) region of Chile to find hikes through forests, wowing you with volcanic views. In towns like Pucón and Puerto Varas, we connected with nature and saw things I would not see back home.

“There is little else as satisfying as cresting the peak of a mountain to find yourself looking across a valley at the crater of a volcano. Chile has hundreds of volcanoes and several mountain ranges, most notably the Andes. You might think hiking up one mountain just to see some other mountains sounds monotonous, but the sights took my breath away every single time. Those hard climbs were worth it to get a glimpse of natural beauty on a scale I don’t see in Syracuse.”

Visit the Public Parks in the City

“Santiago is a massive city, and it can seem like it’s all urban neighborhoods. If you take a closer look, you’ll find plenty of public parks. From the mini-mountain in the heart of the city, Cerro San Cristóbal, to Plaza Ñuñoa, a flourishing neighborhood square, the parks in Santiago are filled with life. After a long day of class, I enjoyed getting ice cream with friends and heading to a centrally-located park to watch the sunset before going home for dinner. Looking back, those moments of fun, whimsy and relaxation in the parks were some of the best times during my semester in Chile.”

Take Advantage of Group Activities

“The program directors are your built-in tour guides. They can teach you so much beyond just the classroom. The group tours offered may seem like just another obligation, but they ended up being some of the best fun I had.

“Santiago is packed with history, and many parts can’t be covered in class lectures. Walking the city with program staff showed me some hidden gems to take my family to when they visited, provided conversation points to take back to my host family and gave me an opportunity to develop deeper bonds with the staff while getting to see Santiago through their eyes. Touring niche neighborhoods and museums gave me a deeper understanding and doing it with the group led to insights I wouldn’t have gotten if I had explored those places alone.”

Act Like a Local

“It can be daunting to try and speak a new language when you’re surrounded by native speakers, but be brave! Do your best to engage with all parts of the culture around you. I attended local artisan markets and crafts fairs, ran a huge 10K race through the heart of the city, went to a music festival, visited an escape room and a cat cafe, and so much more.

“It took me a while to learn that there is more to being in a new place than just doing all the ‘touristy’ things (but those are fun too!). A lot of times, doing the things locals do can be just as cool and interesting, if not more so, than the popular activities and sights.”

Engage With Your Cohort

“Remember that you are all in this experience together! None of you will experience it exactly the same way, but you will have a lot in common and the feeling of being in it together will take you a long way. Along the road, friendships and camaraderie will develop naturally, and hopefully, you will find that you can all lean on one another.

“Periods of change can be hard, especially near-constant travel, so it’s helpful to have a support system of people who are going through the same thing. You’ll always remember when those people were there with you when you needed them most—making you laugh, celebrating, studying and traveling together and living the best of the human experience alongside you.”

Millions of soccer players across the globe compete on surfaces that are anything but the manicured, perfectly marked grounds of televised competitions.

Student researcher ’26 understood that across West Africa and in many other countries, soccer (known throughout much of the world as football) is played on compacted sand, gravel lots, dirt patches and worn urban grounds. The industrial and interaction design major in the (VPA) also recognized that most commercially available soccer boots fall far short of the needs of players who compete on those rough, improvised, uneven surfaces. He recognized that those playing conditions demand different performance qualities than the footwear mainstream athletic shoe manufacturers offer.

“My goal is to study these overlooked playing environments and design footwear that better supports performance, comfort, durability and accessibility for the people who use it,” Barrie says. “Ultimately, I want to show how footwear design can become more inclusive, locally responsive and socially meaningful when it is rooted in the needs of a community.”

Research ‘On the Ground’

With his research project, “Boot of Dreams: Designing Soccer Footwear for Informal Play in West Africa,” Barrie has been doing just that. His work is guided by , a professor of practice in VPA’s , whom Barrie calls “a role model whose guidance extends well beyond the classroom, shaping how I think about design, responsibility and purpose.”

Barrie is also working with , professor and director of the School of Design, who helped him secure travel funding in addition to his research stipend from the (SOURCE). Those funds enabled him to travel to Guinea for firsthand research with soccer players there.

“That was an opportunity that helped me move beyond assumptions about what players need and gain an actual understanding of their experiences,” Barrie says.

As someone who has lived in both Guinea and the United States and traveled widely around the world, Barrie brings a true global perspective to his work. It’s a viewpoint that informs his understanding of how different communities approach sport and design and deepens his insight into underrepresented players and their environments.

Careful Listening

Barrie says his research in Guinea had a major impact on the design of his soccer cleat. ��In addition to learning that many players use footwear that is incompatible for their playing conditions, he also recognized that many rely on just one pair for a long period of time. When that pair wears out too quickly, ��it affects more than just comfort or performance; it can cause players to miss practices and games and lose consistency in development, he says.

“That insight shifted my thinking,” Barrie says. “Instead of approaching the project like a traditional cleat made mainly for formal field conditions, I began thinking about a shoe designed specifically for the realities of informal West African play… prioritizing durability, comfort and longer wear while also considering traction and support for the kinds of surfaces these players actually use.”

Design for Real Needs

For Barrie, this project ��allowed him to explore how thoughtful, research-driven design can respond to real-world needs rather than simply following market trends. It also helped lead him to a career in footwear and product design that addresses community challenges and creates solutions. ��An internship at last year became a “foot in the door” for a new career there; after graduation, he begins a role as a Designer II, Promo Color, Materials & Graphics Design��staff member for Nike’s Jordan brand.

“‘The Boot of Dreams’ is about creating a shoe for players who continue to defy the odds and dream through the game,” he says. “The right footwear can help young players stay on the pitch longer, practice more consistently and keep pursuing what they love.”

Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series spotlighting ’s global centers.

Most students go abroad to see the world. Marc Pantano ’26 went to Madrid and built one—complete with a Spanish cooking class, solo trips and establishing a new a cappella group.

“Study abroad in Madrid was one of the most transformative experiences of my life,” says Pantano, a marketing management and supply chain management major in the from Newington, Connecticut. “In the fall 2024 semester, I had the chance to fully immerse myself in a new culture, travel all over Europe and grow in ways I didn’t really expect.” Pantano now serves as an Abroad global ambassador.

“Looking back, my experience wasn’t just about the places I visited, it was about learning how to be independent, stepping outside my comfort zone and really taking advantage of everything available to me,” he says.

Here are some of the biggest things he learned along the way:

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

“If I had to sum up studying abroad with one idea, it would be this: you really just have to say ‘yes’ and try things you normally wouldn’t.

“Even choosing the fall semester was a little outside my comfort zone because a lot of my friends wanted to go in the spring. I was nervous about not knowing as many people, but I’m so glad I did it because I ended up meeting so many new people from Syracuse and other schools.

“One of the first big experiences I had was the Signature Seminar course on marine ecology in the Mediterranean Sea. We did research, visited labs and museums, cleaned beaches and even went scuba diving, which I had never done before. That alone set the tone for the rest of the semester.

“During the semester, I did a solo trip to Venice. Traveling by myself felt weird at first. I thought I would feel embarrassed or awkward, but I actually had a great time. It was incredibly peaceful, and I got to do whatever I wanted, which made the experience really fun. Now, I even feel comfortable asking strangers to take my photo!”

Take Advantage of Your Classes and Schedule

“I tried to take classes that were interesting but also gave me perspectives I wouldn’t normally get at my home school.

“I took business classes that showed me how marketing and business differ in Europe compared to the U.S., especially in my marketing class focused on Spain. I also took Earth science, which tied into the marine ecology course, as well as sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which made everything feel real, applicable and something I felt could be expanded into the U.S. My sports business class also gave me a different perspective on the global sports industry, which I never would’ve been exposed to.

“One thing that made a big difference was also planning a schedule that was flexible around travel. My last class was on Thursday afternoons, which meant I had extra time for weekend trips. If that is not an opportunity, don’t worry! Enjoy the classes you get to take. They are taught so differently with the smaller class size that we were able to go on multiple field trips for each course. This experiential learning was incredibly memorable and was a great way to get out of the classroom and learn more about Madrid!”

Match Your Trips to the Seasons

“This is something I thought about after choosing to go abroad in the fall and it ended up making a big difference.

“I started off traveling a lot during the warmer months, Spain was perfect for that, especially places like Valencia, Seville, Barcelona and smaller coastal towns. I also went to Portugal, Morocco, Italy and France early on.

“As the leaves started to change, I shifted toward places like Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.

“By the end of the semester, I was also doing more seasonal activities like Christmas markets in Germany and the Czech Republic, which made everything feel even more special. At the same time, Madrid itself always had so much going on that I never felt like I had to travel constantly.”

Seek Out Experiences (Not Just Trips)

“Whenever I was doing anything or going anywhere, I was constantly searching to find experiences in each destination. In Madrid specifically, I took advantage of the Passport Program, which listed a ton of activities students could try.

“Some of my favorites were a Spanish cooking class, Tasty Tuesdays With Álvaro; a bike tour with my professor Monica; and attending a flamenco show. These were all available to us as students, so I made sure to take full advantage of them!

“Through MadWorld and other campus opportunities, I ended up attending the most events in my program. But it never felt like something I was checking off a list. It was genuinely fun and a great way to meet people and try new things!”

Make Something of Your Own!

“One of the things I’m most proud of from my time abroad was starting an a cappella group called ¡Acapaella!

“I wanted something that would bring people together, so I created a group that ended up including students from Syracuse, Duke, Amherst, Kenyon and more. I was the founder, president and social media director, so I handled rehearsals, taught music and managed our Instagram.

“At the end of the semester, we performed ‘I Want You Back’ at the Instituto in front of students, staff, faculty and host families. Seeing everyone come together from completely different schools and backgrounds was honestly one of the most rewarding parts of my whole experience.

“It made me realize that abroad, and life, is what you make of it!”

College students may experience a range of stressful events and time periods. From feelings of uncertainty to times of personal, family and/or community crisis, both on and off campus, the is ready to help guide and provide assistance.

One of the largest teams of its nature in the nation, Syracuse University SOS boasts seven dedicated individuals who work throughout the year to ensure that in times of need, students, alongside their supporters, faculty and staff, know and experience the strong yet individualized support of the Orange community.

The acronym “SOS” is intentional, it is an internationally recognized distress signal used to request help. “The nickname ‘SOS’ says it all, it embodies the urgency of our response to student support. There is no student issue too big or too small,” says Shelley Crawford, director of Student Outreach and Support. “Whether it’s a student self-seeking support or a member of their faculty, staff or family, always know we encourage members of the Orange community, near or far, to contact our team whenever it is felt that a student needs support of any kind.”

SOS hosts an open and stigma-free space where students are encouraged to express their concerns early and often. “Reaching out doesn’t always mean something is seriously wrong, it simply means you’re taking a proactive step to get guidance, ask questions or explore available resources,” says Sabrina Brown ’26, office assistant.

Partnering With Student Outreach and Support

From academic, adjustment and transition support to emergency aid, navigating an illness, conflicts and more, whether the student’s issue is something the team can directly help with or not, they ensure a campuswide support network is ignited. The team is not just committed to helping students maintain their academics but also is dedicated to supporting their overall social and emotional well-being. To properly navigate whatever they may be struggling with, the SOS team connects students with guidance and additional resources.

“I wish more of the campus community understood just how many students we quietly support through challenges that go far beyond the classroom,” says Crawford. “Our work is rooted in seeing and humanizing each student as a whole person and that approach makes a real difference in whether a student stays, perseveres and ultimately graduates. We champion our students, we are connectors and a constant in students’ lives when they need it most.”

Students do not need to be in the midst of a crisis to contact the team. In fact, they do not need to have any life-altering or major issues at all. If feeling unsure, anxious or overwhelmed about anything pertaining to their academic or personal life, they are welcome to contact SOS.

“From crisis to concerns in question, our goal is to help create a positive and supported student experience. Once a student connects with a case manager for the first time, they can reach out to them throughout their time at Syracuse University for support,” says office coordinator Sarah O’Neill.

Breaking Barriers and Strengthening Access to Support

No matter the issue and even if unsure where to begin, students shouldn’t feel alone in the process of seeking support. Student Outreach and Support is a built-in team available to strengthen the student experience and help students not only navigate times of uncertainty but to thrive as a student, graduate and find success throughout a lifetime.

“For students we create a one-on-one relationship rooted in support, advocacy, guidance and resources. Our consultations prioritize privacy and are equally empowering to those who may be unsure of how to best support their student,” says associate director Catherine “Katie” Storey. “No one should feel embarrassed or worried about reaching out.”

The team prioritizes human connection through being present and attentive to each unique situation. Offering personalized and one-on-one support, a team of non-clinical case managers is embedded within SOS. In addition to appointments and prioritizing students needing immediate help, case managers offer drop-in hours.

The team also understands that in a time of uncertainty it can be��intimidating to also meet someone new and share what can feel like vulnerable concerns. To make the first step of reaching out for support a little less daunting, putting a��face to a name and a heart behind the help, SOS case managers proactively open the door for connection with words of welcome.

“We’re a holistic support team for everyone,” says Sue Sugar, case manager. “Whether you have an urgent concern or something that simply does not feel quite right, we want to hear from you. No issue is too small.”

“A faculty member expressing care, a staff member taking a few extra minutes to listen or a parent encouraging their student to seek��help, can all be powerful entry points to support, support that builds or contributes to the foundation of trust that helps grow the access to our work,” says Sandra Valdes-Lopez, case manager.

“While we often engage with students in times of concern or crisis, our role is also preventative, educational and supportive across the student experience,” says Wilfredo “Wil” Perez, case manager.

“Witnessing students’ resilience and growth is what makes this work so meaningful,” says Amber Saint Joy, case manager. “There is something truly special about being on that journey with them, walking alongside a student as they face challenges, find their footing and discover that they don’t have to navigate it all alone.”

Learn more and take action to support a student or receive support by visiting the , calling 315.443.4357 (HELP) or emailing studentsupport@syr.edu.

Story by Mirren Grimason ’29