As he walked across the Shaw Quad during the Orange Blast Involvement Fair his freshman year, Jesús Tiburcio Zane ’27 was drawn to a particular table that felt like home and tradition and would connect him to others who would help him find his footing.

That table belonged to (La L.U.C.H.A.)—the University’s largest Latiné Recognized Student Organization (RSO) and one of its oldest, on campus since 1989.

Soon, executive board members, including Sidney Mejia ’25, G’26, then co-vice president of the RSO, began mentoring Tiburcio Zane, a first-generation college student, sharing their favorite study spots and dining hall recommendations.

“Those tips helped me thrive during my freshman year. With La L.U.C.H.A., I found a home for my Latiné culture and a place where I could share my Mexican traditions and customs,” says Tiburcio Zane, president of La L.U.C.H.A. and a dual major in accounting and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises in the . “The group helped me find my people, my voice and my community on campus.”

Before she arrived on campus, Diana Bonilla-Prado ’28 made a thorough list of RSOs she hoped to join, with La L.U.C.H.A. among the top.

For Bonilla-Prado, a first-generation college student with family roots from El Salvador, joining La L.U.C.H.A. was a chance to strengthen her connection to her heritage, increase Latiné cultural awareness and give back.

After an introductory meeting with then-president Jasmine Rodriguez ’25, Bonilla-Prado says she knew right away she was where she was meant to be. Today, she serves as La L.U.C.H.A. co-vice president.

“When I came to Syracuse, everything about the college experience was brand new to me. La L.U.C.H.A. welcomed me with open arms and pushed me to become the best version of myself,” says Bonilla-Prado, who is studying political science in the and information management and technology in the .

The organization is open to all students, regardless of their cultural background or heritage. During , La L.U.C.H.A. organized several events, including “Nuestra Identidad,” an interactive cultural workshop designed to give students a space to explore, celebrate and share who they are; and Café con Leche, a conversation about the history of coffee in Latin America and the Caribbean.

To close out Latine Heritage Month, La L.U.C.H.A. and several other Latin student organizations will come together to enjoy food, music and fun games during , from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center.

Bonilla-Prado and Tiburcio Zane sat down with Syracuse University Today to discuss their heritage and why students should join La L.U.C.H.A.

Join La L.U.C.H.A.

Tiburcio Zane and Bonilla-Prado are always looking to recruit new members. Interested students can email laluchasu@gmail.com or follow La L.U.C.H.A. on , , and .

Syracuse University Libraries’ awarded three student teams a total of $4,000 in prizes at its Freelance, Small Business and Creatives Pitch Competition on Oct. 2. Undergraduate and graduate students building careers or side hustles through services or products delivered 4-minute pitches followed by a 2-minute Q&A session with a panel of expert judges.

Winners were:

• First Place: EXCHKR, founder Gabi Josefson ’28 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications). EXCHKR is a platform that simplifies how clubs, sports teams and Greek organizations manage payments and track budgets.
• Second Place: Frutecho, founder Carolina Aguayo Plá ’28 (School of Information Studies and Martin J. Whitman School of Management). Frutecho is a modular cooling retrofit for non-refrigerated trucks that reduces produce spoilage and helps small farmers access premium markets.
• Third Place: Scout Szn, founder Daelan Pinsky ’28 (David B. Falk College of Sport). Scout Szn is a free college football scouting platform covering all 15,102 FBS players across 138 programs.

Twenty-two student teams competed across three breakout rooms, with one team per room advancing to the finals.

The next entrepreneurial competition hosted by the LaunchPad is the ’ on Oct. 16 from noon to 3 p.m. ’Cuse Tank is hosted during Family Weekend, and judges include accomplished parent innovators, entrepreneurs and alumni. Winners receive prize funding to help advance their business idea. Students interested in pitching in ’Cuse Tank must

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

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

First-place student winners were:

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

Runners-Up winners were:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating Real Connections

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

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

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

Among the app’s primary goals and features:

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

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

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

Collaborative Spirit Fuels Team Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Syracuse University today announced the launch of the , which brings together world-class researchers from across campus whose unique expertise in AI will help advance research, teaching and practice in the rapidly expanding field.

“Artificial intelligence is one of the defining research challenges of this decade, and Syracuse is making a serious commitment to it,” says , vice president for research. “The Institute for Artificial Intelligence brings our faculty together to pursue AI research at a scale no single lab or department could take on alone, to build lasting partnerships with industry and government, and to translate that work into real-world impact.”

Led by , the KG Tan Endowed Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the (ECS), the institute brings together with expertise spanning engineering, information science, public policy and communications.

“This institute reflects Syracuse University’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence research that is both rigorous and responsible,” says Shakarian, who serves as director and executive committee chair. “We’re building a research community that is equipped to tackle AI’s hardest technical problems alongside its societal implications. We envision a future of resilient AI systems that lead to high impact applications.”

, associate professor of public administration and international affairs in the , is associate director and executive committee vice chair.

Four Research Areas

Research at the institute is organized around four areas of focus:

• AI and Security: Research spanning AI for cybersecurity, security of AI systems, formal verification and vulnerability discovery.
• Multidomain Intelligence: Sensing and perception research, including signal and image analysis and energy-efficient AI systems.
• AI in Socio-Cognitive Dynamics: How AI systems interact with human cognition, communication and social networks.
• AI for Governance and Policy: Trustworthy AI, AI safety and the policy frameworks needed to guide AI’s global development and deployment.

Federal research agencies and industry partners will also support the institute’s research agenda through collaboration and funding agreements.

Public Events, AI Community-Building

Planned public events, including lectures, workshops and symposia, will help the institute share knowledge, foster collaboration and engage the broader AI community. Events this fall include:

• (Oct. 12-13, Washington, D.C.): Sponsored by the , this invitation-only workshop will examine AI use for decision making across the domains of electronic warfare, radar, aerial and space.
• (Nov. 5-7, Arlington, Virginia): This symposium will feature traditional paper sessions with extended discussion, a poster session, three invited keynote speakers and a closing panel focused on artificial metacognition—AI’s ability to reflect on itself.

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence is part of , which includes undergraduate and graduate degree programs in AI, a suite of AI-focused minors and the peer-led AI Bootcamp for students, reinforcing the University’s position as a growing center for AI research and education. The institute will also create research opportunities for students and supports United AI, a student community that brings together undergraduate and graduate students from across the University to learn, build and lead in AI.

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence is located on the second floor of Hinds Hall. For more information, visit .

Ask a student where they start their research these days, and increasingly the answer isn’t the library website—it’s an AI platform.

To prepare and adapt to that rapidly changing landscape, , professor and senior associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the School of Information Studies, has won a grant from the to train 110 academic librarians nationwide in AI literacy and assessment.

The three-year project, Student Success through Assessment and AI Literacy in Libraries (SSAAILL), partners Syracuse University with the University of Virginia, Colorado State University and the University of Denver. The goal is to prepare academic librarians for a landscape where students increasingly turn first to AI-generated answers instead of library resources, often without the skills to evaluate what they’re getting.

iSchool Interim Dean says Oakleaf’s work puts the University at the forefront of helping academic librarians nationwide navigate the shift.

“Getting this IMLS award is fantastic, especially given the climate we’re in right now,” says Rubin. “The intersection of AI and libraries is the right research at the right moment for our school, and Megan is exactly the right person to lead it.”

Meeting the Moment

Oakleaf, who teaches courses in information services, information and AI literacy, academic libraries and project design in libraries in the iSchool’s MSLIS program, says the project tackles three shifts that are “converging” in library science right now.

Not only are students increasingly starting research with AI-generated answers instead of library resources, but she says institutions are also adopting AI-driven learning analytics that frequently exclude library data entirely, which makes libraries’ contributions to student success invisible in campus decision-making, Oakleaf says.

On top of that, she says library leaders often lack a clear framework for communicating the library’s value when university decision-makers are including AI-supported analyses to make decisions.

If librarians aren’t equipped to respond to all three of these challenges, libraries risk becoming marginalized at a time when their role in teaching critical evaluation skills is most needed, Oakleaf says.

The moment matches the mission of the project, Oakleaf says.

“I’ve long focused on library assessment, guiding librarians who are supporting student literacies (information literacy and now AI literacy) and demonstrating the value that libraries provide to students and faculty who are focused on teaching and learning in the context of academic institutions,” she says. “AI hasn’t changed the landscape, but it is changing the toolset and increasing the rate of decision-making on campuses, so there is a sense of urgency around helping librarians be ready to respond to changing terrain, rather than just reacting to it.”

How the Project Will Work

Oakleaf is bringing her experience researching how academic libraries demonstrate and improve student learning to the project.

SSAAILL will use a three-track, dual-cohort, train-the-trainer model. One track, led by Leo Lo, dean of libraries at the University of Virginia, will focus on AI literacy instruction. The second, led by Becky Croxton, strategic assessment librarian at Colorado State University, will zero in on the AI-enhanced assessments, which often exclude library data, deployed by educational institutions. The third, led by Michael Levine-Clark, dean of libraries at the University of Denver, will delve into AI-era library leadership and communicating library value.

Oakleaf says each track will involve two cohorts over the three-year grant period to create a “deliberate feedback loop” rather than a one-time workshop.

The participants will attend the intensive training and then return to their home institutions and each train at least five colleagues. In that way, the project aims to reach more than 550 librarians at 110 institutions across the United States with its training.

The project also includes a student advisory group of undergraduates whose input helps shape the training curricula directly, allowing current students a hand in defining what AI literacy looks like in practice.

“The key challenge we anticipate is pace,” Oakleaf says. “AI tools and student behavior around them are changing faster than most professional development models can keep up with, so we’ve built in that iterative, cohort-based refinement specifically to keep the curriculum current rather than static. A second priority is making sure the training actually transfers. It’s not enough for one librarian to learn something at a conference; the train-the-trainer structure and implementation toolkits are intended to make sure it spreads.”

Oakleaf says the framework SSAAILL is building and testing with practicing academic librarians informs the work she does in her courses at the iSchool.

“Our MSLIS students are entering a profession where AI literacy instruction, AI-augmented assessment and AI-era leadership communication are becoming core competencies,” she says.

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

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

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

The Passport Challenge

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

Start the Day With Big Ideas

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

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

Keynote: Future in Focus

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

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

An Afternoon of Discovery

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

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

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

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

Anna Shuff G’26 has been contriving ways to spend more time in libraries since she was a kid.

“When I was very young I regularly attempted to extend visits to the public library indefinitely by running away from my mother to go hide in the stacks,” Shuff says.

In that way, she says graduating with a master’s degree in library and information science from Syracuse University’s to pursue a career in librarianship is just a culmination of her yearslong quest to never leave a library.

“I was drawn to a career in libraries because I love to learn—I love finding information, expanding my knowledge of the world and helping others to do the same,” Shuff says. “My choice to pursue archival work in particular emerged from my longstanding interest in history. I’ve always been fascinated by historical objects, whether they take the form of books, personal writings, textile or other materials.”

Pursuing that passion for preserving and caring for the historical record, Shuff spent the summer working in the University Archives, where her biggest project was to the collection’s . The task offered her the “incredible experience” to put into practice the skills she’d learned working in the Archives and from her time at the iSchool.

“The practical experience I obtained in the Archives will serve me for the rest of my career, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in such an incredible place,” she says.

Putting Classroom Learning to Work

With her interest in history, Shuff focused her studies at the iSchool on archives, special collections, museums and the preservation of cultural heritage.

Shuff says pursuing a master’s degree is an extension of the work she’s been doing for years, since she started volunteering for her local science museum as a teen and has found ways to work in libraries and museums ever since (during her undergraduate years at Bryn Mawr, she minored in museum studies).

She began working as a student archivist assistant at the University Archives in January 2025, but her work with the Peck papers offered some unique challenges.

Previously, the collection related to , a Methodist minister who helped found Syracuse University and later served as Dickinson College’s tenth president, was small and consisted mostly of his diaries.

The new materials Shuff worked to process, which were donated by Peck family descendants, included correspondence, writings, printed material and ephemera, which took time to inventory.

Also, some of the papers had survived a fire, and as a result, many had smoke and soot damage.

Shuff says the challenge allowed her to apply lessons she learned from a conservation and preservation course with , the University’s conservation librarian. She used a vulcanized rubber sponge to clean a portion of the papers impacted by the smoke and soot. The remaining papers affected by the fire will be tackled by the next student working in the Archives.

The Peck collection is about six or seven times larger with the addition of the new materials.

“There turned out to be quite a bit of material related to Syracuse University, including a copy of his agreement with the school to donate $25,000 after his death, as well as early drafts of the bylaws for the Board of Trustees and correspondence with other important individuals in Syracuse University’s history,” Shuff says.

A Model of Experiential Learning

Shuff, who received a Libraries’ Student Employee Award, says her experience working in the University Archives was one of the “most valuable aspects” of her time at Syracuse.

“I worked up from processing very small collections, some as small as a single folder or item, to those as large as the Peck papers,” she says. “I learned how to author finding aids, how to accession collections and even got the opportunity to work with a campus publication, Salt Hill Magazine, to acquire their collections for the Archive.”

University Archivist Meg Mason said in her nomination for Shuff’s employee award that the iSchool graduate student was always committed, not just to the mission of the archives, which are part of the in the , but also to learning as much as she could during her time with the department.

“While doing research for patrons, arranging and describing archival materials, writing social media posts and reaching out to other students about donating records to the University Archives, she not only serves SCRC but also the Libraries and the University as a whole,” Mason wrote.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

always knew she wanted to be an educator. That passion carried her from India to a postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan, where she conducted research related to deployment-associated respiratory diseases among war veterans, to joining the faculty of the School of Information Studies.

Her research background shapes how she teaches, pushing students beyond theory toward real-world problem-solving. Those efforts recently earned her recognition beyond the classroom: 2026 Exceptional Woman of Central New York (Educator) after one of her own students nominated her for the honor.

An assistant teaching professor, Jagadev teaches natural language processing and introduction to applied data science to graduate students, statistics to doctoral students and Python to undergraduates. This fall she’ll add a new course to her rotation on responsible artificial intelligence.

“I believe teaching is a continuous exchange of ideas, feedback and growth,” Jagadev told Syracuse University Today. “It is not simply about delivering knowledge to students; it is about listening, adapting and creating an environment where students feel empowered to learn. Every time I read course evaluations, I reflect on what is working well, what could be improved and how I can incorporate that feedback into my courses.”

Below, Jagadev reflects on how her research experience and commitment to meaningful engagement with students shape her approach to teaching and mentorship.

Two Syracuse University faculty members have received a (NEH) grant to digitize portions of the —a rare, 54-volume trove of 18^th-century documents charting , and relations in the years surrounding the .

, principal investigator and assistant professor in the , and , co-principal investigator and professor of in the , received nearly $350,000 for their two-year project, “E Pluribus Unum: The American Revolution at the Intersection of Ideas and Interests.” Their project is one of to mark the country’s 250th anniversary, including 33 grants awarded under NEH’s new funding opportunity.

Amherst commanded British forces in North America during the , helping secure Britain’s victory. Housed at the , the 54 volumes span the 1740s to 1790s and include military correspondence, orders and reports from the war, including Amherst’s letters to and from , and .

Three-Way Relations

The collection captures the three-way relationship among British officials, colonial American leaders and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the years before the American Revolution. Their content illuminates how ideas of liberty, sovereignty and democracy developed amid diplomacy, conflict and negotiation in that era.

The archived materials have long been largely inaccessible to the public, somewhat because of their bulk and a lack of freely accessible digital surrogates of the materials, apart from some cumbersome digitized WWII-era microfilm, Modrow says.

This project aims to change that. In 2026, Modrow and Arnold will travel to London to photograph each document individually, producing high-resolution digital surrogates. They’ll then tag the images with metadata and use the AI-powered app to make them full-text-searchable by name, date and subject. That will let researchers search tens of thousands of pages in seconds, rather than leafing through folders by hand.

Student Helpers

Once digitized, Modrow will recruit a project coordinator and iSchool and Arts and Sciences students to fact-check the AI-generated transcriptions, comparing the descriptions against the original 18th-century handwriting for accuracy.

After vetting, the collection will be uploaded to an Omeka-based, open-source platform hosted on the iSchool’s servers, Modrow says.

Window to Relations

Amherst’s papers offer an underused window into the alliances, rivalries and negotiations that shaped American independence, Arnold says. While British and colonial-patriot perspectives of this time are well documented, these papers can help remedy missing Haudenosaunee Confederacy viewpoints, material Arnold plans to bring into his classes and offer at public workshops to broaden understanding of the era’s varied perspectives, he says.

“Despite the confederacy’s influence on the era’s diplomacy, conflict and the development of Western democratic ideas, the Haudenosaunee viewpoint has remained comparatively obscure. This is a critically important collection. It is a continuation of many decades of work around the and how Haudenosaunee, British and American actions 250 years ago interacted to create the world we inhabit today.”

Modrow, Arnold and other members of the Doctrine of Discovery research group participated in a British National Archives exhibit about the entire War of Independence, “,” while in London in 2025 to research the Amherst Papers.

At Syracuse University, some of the most valuable classroom instruction is based not on a textbook but on decades spent solving real problems in the field. Professors of practice bring that kind of expertise directly to students, translating professional experience into lessons that go beyond theory. Nearly 100 professors of practice across the University represent one of the most direct ways Syracuse connects academic learning to the industry.

That connection is central to , one of the areas of distinctive excellence outlined in the academic strategic plan, “.” Where traditional coursework builds foundational knowledge, professors of practice show students how that knowledge is applied in real settings. Their presence ensures Syracuse’s academic programs stay current with an evolving professional landscape, giving students a clearer view of the careers they’re preparing to enter.

We sat down with three professors of practice to hear more about their approach: , professor of practice in forensic science in the College of Arts and Sciences;  , Cramer Family Professor of Practice in Community Impact in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; and , professor of practice in the School of Information Studies.