Students at the Multicultural Resource Center collaborate on a mural of Martin Luther King Jr.
FEATURES
4
A lifetime of learning
Continuing-education programs such as Lyceum, along with educational campus tours, help Binghamton attract local learners of all ages.
10
The team dynamic
RotoBaller, created and led by two Binghamton University alumni, has become one of the most visible fantasy-sports companies in the country.
16
Far-away scholars
Students from countries around the world and West Coast states discover — and enjoy — what Binghamton University offers.
24
Sphere leader
Jennifer Koester ’94 is president and chief operating officer of the next-generation music, entertainment and event company.
30
Making our schools safer
Dr. Ilan Alhadeff ’98 advocates for safety measures after a Florida school shooting killed his daughter and 16 others in 2018.
14 / About the campus clock tower
22 / Meet a father-and-daughter faculty duo
34 / A Q&A with comedian-writer Carol Leifer
36 / Connect: A journey to Antarctica; Alumni Association award recipients; Class Notes; new book releases; Book Talk
Binghamton University has changed a great deal since I arrived here in 2012. We’ve constructed and renovated buildings, expanded our academic offerings through the creation of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and other programs, and we’ve increased research expenditures to new highs.
These changes, and many more, have made Binghamton one of the top public universities in the nation.
One area I want to highlight is the growth of the University’s faculty and staff. The number of faculty and staff has increased by 63% and 65%, respectively, since 2012. Adding more faculty and staff allows us to serve our students in so many ways, through teaching, programming and support services. With more faculty members — the University added 70 new tenured or tenure-track faculty in the fall of 2024 alone — we benefit from increased research capability and expertise and from the skills they bring to Binghamton’s classrooms.
I hope you’ll join me in welcoming these new employees to the Binghamton University community and thanking them for their efforts on behalf of making this such an outstanding place to live, work and study.
Sincerely,
HARVEY G. STENGER PRESIDENT
EDITORIAL
UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE EDITOR
Eric Coker
ALUMNI EDITOR
Steve Seepersaud
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
Burt Myers, Katie Samson ’14, David Skyrca ’85
UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER
Jonathan Cohen
COPY EDITORS
John Brhel, Ethan Knox ’20, Chris Kocher, Steve Seepersaud
STUDENT EDITOR
Emma Young ’26
VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY
COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING
Greg Delviscio
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES
Gerald Hovancik Jr.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT Matthew Winston Jr.
HOW TO CONTACT US
LETTERS, NEWS AND STORY IDEAS Telephone: 607-777-6441 Email: magazine@binghamton.edu
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Office of Alumni Engagement PO Box 6000
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 Email: alumni@binghamton.edu
CLASS NOTES Submit them by visiting bconnectalumni.binghamton.edu
A statue of abolitionist/activist Harriet Tubman was unveiled March 21 by The Harriet Tubman Center for Freedom and Equity at Binghamton University. The statue is located at Tubman’s marker along the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail, a public trail denoting Underground Railroad stops and other antislavery and civil rights sites.
THE ALUMNI ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Binghamton University has launched an Alumni Oral History Project. The University, which is working with Publishing Concepts Inc. (PCI) to collect stories from alumni, hopes that you’ll share treasured memories of your time on campus. The stories will be collected and turned into a keepsake coffee table book as Binghamton’s 80th anniversary approaches in 2026. To participate, call PCI at 1-877-303-6588.
Whitmore is new vice president of advancement
David K. Whitmore has joined the University as the new vice president of advancement, executive director of the Binghamton University Foundation and chief advancement officer.
Whitmore brings a wealth of experience in higher education advancement and leadership. As vice president for advancement and academic affairs at Syracuse University, he led transformative initiatives to advance institutional engagement and fundraising for cross-campus academic programs. He secured significant corporate and private gifts and established innovative organizational strategies during his tenure. At Cornell University, Whitmore played pivotal roles in major gifts and alumni affairs, leading teams to achieve record-breaking fundraising milestones.
“Binghamton University is a leader in the SUNY system and public higher education generally,” Whitmore says. “I am excited to join the senior officers’ group for the University and partner with the Binghamton University Foundation board at this promising time.”
Kaschak Institute founder dies
Ellyn Uram Kaschak ’65, founder of the Ellyn Uram Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls, died Feb. 20 at age 81.
Kaschak was an internationally renowned psychologist, author and educator who co-founded feminist psychology, which she practiced for about 40 years. From 1974–2009, she served as a professor emerita of psychology at San Jose State University and as a visiting professor at the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
In 2018, she established the Kaschak Institute at Binghamton
University to further her fight for women’s equality. The institute supports research in various fields, both new and ongoing, that aligns with her activist vision of making a direct, positive impact on the lives of women and girls.
Her legacy at Binghamton also includes the creation of the Dr. Ellyn Uram Kaschak Summer Research Grant to benefit Harpur College undergraduate students and their research in the field of social justice for women and girls. Kaschak received the University Medal from Binghamton in 2022.
EDUCATION AND INSPIRATION FOR ALL AGES
Binghamton offers opportunities for lifelong learning
By Ethan Knox ’20
At
Binghamton University, 9-year-olds are shaking hands with anatomical skeletons, teens are holding cannonballs from the French and Indian War and older adults are learning about the evolution of jazz. Though they may be less prominent than Binghamton University’s thousands of full-time students, area residents from age 8 to 80 also enjoy unique educational experiences on campus. Whether field trip or continuing education, one message remains clear through every opportunity: It’s never too early — or too late — to learn.
Students from Glenwood Elementary School in Vestal, N.Y., watch as Bob Pulz, an instructional support technician, displays pieces of metal used in additive manufacturing at the Watson Fabrication Lab during a Binghamton University field trip in March. Students from each elementary school in the Vestal School District toured the campus in the spring.
Fourth-grade field trips (from 8 …)
Tours bring the community to campus. While this often looks like groups of high school students and their parents exploring living areas and common spaces, some less-likely students (and their chaperones) visit as well: fourth-graders, often getting their first glimpses of advanced laboratories and other college-level resources.
“Nine- and 10-year-olds are old enough that it’s safe to have them in the lab they’re not a danger to the lab equipment, and the lab equipment is not a danger to them,” says Rachel Coker, executive director of research advancement at Binghamton. “They’re also young enough that they have some childlike curiosity and wonder, and they’re not afraid to ask questions.”
Since 2017, these field trips have provided local children with a chance to see the innovative work being done in their hometown. Coker first worked on this project as part of National Lab Day, when universities were encouraged to hold lab open houses. Soon, she started helping with tours at the Innovative Technologies Complex
(ITC), mostly for adult visitors, such as elected officials and scientists from other institutions.
When one of her daughters was in fourth grade, though, inspiration struck. After her daughter came home disappointed that a yearly school trip had been discontinued, Coker remarked: “You should come see me at work.”
Since then, Coker has helped welcome hundreds of younger students to campus. The children who were in fourth grade that first year are now high school seniors, and this year, every elementary school in the Vestal Central School District visited.
“I want kids from this region to grow up and see themselves in science. For some, this is the beginning of their thinking about going to college. I’m a big believer in public higher education, in research and scholarship for everyone,” Coker says. “For me, curiosity is one of those bedrock, core things that can make a huge difference in your life.”
Tours take place around the main campus or at the ITC. Some spaces and faculty have been involved from the start — such as mechanical engineer Ronald Miles and the anechoic
chamber. Miles’ team uses the stateof-the-art facility in the Engineering and Science Building to study acoustics and develop bio-inspired microphones.
Others have joined more recently, including the Binghamton University Art Museum and the new Anatomy and Physiology Lab. On a recent field trip, children took apart and pieced back together models used to teach nursing students about anatomy.
Christin Williams, a teacher at Tioga Hills Elementary who participated in those early fourth-grade tours, says this is the first opportunity many participants have to see what’s available at the University.
“Binghamton is in our backyard,” she says. “And there are a lot of people who live here who have never even stepped foot on campus, so just getting the students and their chaperones onto the campus is such a big community builder.”
Coker likes to think that these tours give participants an “injection of wonder.” Not only do they introduce children to new topics, but they impact everyone involved, including guides and chaperones.
John Ferri, a project director at Binghamton University’s Public Archaeology Facility, examines archaeological discoveries with Glenwood Elementary School fourth-graders during a campus field trip in March. The facility, located in Science 1, often serves as one of the stops on the student tours.
“ It’s nice to keep going, and to keep learning new things. Otherwise, you get stagnant. These classes, to me, open up the whole world.”
— Eileen Ozvold
“For grad students who assist with the lab visits, it can be a way of reminding yourself of when you were a little kid, and you were dreaming of being in a space like this,” she adds. “It’s a reminder of how amazing these tools are, how amazing it is to know what you know about how something works at the most fundamental levels and be able to share that.”
Researchers who participate often include this type of public outreach in their grant applications. It’s also a great opportunity to practice science communication.
“Everybody is fantastic about bringing things down to the level of a 10-year-old,” Williams says. “Not only are they great at what they’re
doing at the University, but they’re also great at making sure that our students walk out of there excited and understanding the material.”
After the trip, Williams emails parents with questions and prompts to continue the conversation. Students also write a thank-you note to the University, allowing them to reflect about their favorite parts of the experience.
“The excitement from the kids is what makes it all worth it,” Williams says. “I love that they’re excited before they get there, and that it lives up to it, which I think is always hard. And then we get back here, and they’re still excited. That emotion just keeps going. They want to learn more, know more, do more.”
Lyceum (… to 80 …)
On the other end of the spectrum are some individuals who may know quite well what’s available on campus. In fact, about a quarter are alumni.
The Lyceum program, which began in 1988, was part of a movement to provide access to continued learning for people in retirement, says Rhonda Branca, MA ’03, PhD ’10, the program’s director.
“Study after study shows that the more education you have, the lower your risk for cognitive illness or general decline,” Branca adds. “Education doesn’t have to mean you’re getting a degree — it’s wonderful that we’re able to offer college-level programming for $8 a class. It’s open to people for whom that might
not have been possible during their working lives.”
At first, the program offered only a handful of classes, but it has grown to about 120 classes held over a three-semester period, with about 400 members. Lyceum doesn’t have an age restriction, but many of the classes are geared toward older adults.
During the academic year, classes run weekdays from 10 a.m.–noon, 1–3 p.m. and 6–8 p.m. Lyceum also hosts events on weekends or in special locales, such as trips, dinners, tours and performances. This year, the program will offer its first field trip since the pandemic; attendees will travel to Buffalo, N.Y.
Branca says participants’ willingness to adapt is just one reason for the program’s success. Not only does Lyceum have something for everyone, but the programming is outstanding.
“The University is such an asset to the region, and it is exciting for me to be able to utilize the faculty that we have, to teach on their areas of specialty to the community, for little cost,” she says. “Where else can you ask a Nobel Prize laureate questions, personally?”
Many of the courses are taught by experts in the field — faculty, alumni and graduate students at Binghamton University. High-profile guests have included M. Stanley Whittingham,
Binghamton’s Nobel Prize–winning chemist, and astronaut Doug Wheelock.
Lyceum differs from other models of senior programming. Many are affiliated with a university due to cost; the most common version is Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, which are endowed programs. Lyceum, meanwhile, runs on membership and class fees. In this way, it can maintain itself while remaining one of the most affordable options available.
“If you are a community member and you are paying your $50-a-year membership fee, you’re getting a bargain. Most places are far more expensive, and their classes are more individual,” Branca says. “Our
Community Archaeology Program participants take part in a summer 2024 dig in Nichols, N.Y., 20 miles west of the Binghamton University campus. The weeklong program offers archaeological experience and education to kids, teens and adults.
program is also entirely volunteerrun. Except for me and my two student staff workers, who rotate every year, everyone in this program is volunteering their time.”
Eileen Ozvold ’84 is a retired orthopedic nurse — and a Decker School of Nursing alumna — who participates in Lyceum as a student and as a volunteer. She came to Binghamton to pursue her bachelor’s degree and started thinking about programming outside of traditional classes while her son was in the campus preschool. Her career took precedence, and it wasn’t until she retired in 2015 that she began to think again about lifelong learning.
“I had seen a lot of information about classes even before I retired,” Ozvold says. “When I did retire, I made a list of things that I wanted to do, and joining Lyceum was on that list. I believe that you can’t ever stop learning.”
Ozvold says Lyceum offers a welcome sense of community, with opportunities ranging from arts and crafts to music or drama, among many others.
“It’s nice to keep going, and to keep learning new things,” she says. “Otherwise, you get stagnant. These classes, to me, open up the whole world.”
PAF (… and everywhere in between)
Other opportunities on campus for learning outside traditional degree programs include the Public Archaeology Facility (PAF), which welcomes visitors both during fourth-grade field trips and Lyceum classes. The staff there also runs summer programming and year-round community outreach.
PAF, an organized research center, aims to identify, evaluate and preserve significant sites, train students to be professional archaeologists, and share its findings with the public.
Director Laurie Miroff, MA ’94, MAT ’95, PhD ’02, was inspired to follow archaeology when she was in middle
school. It sounded appealingly like “doing history outdoors,” she recalls. Now, she designs programming to help today’s young people feel the same way.
“I love what I do,” Miroff says. “It’s a great way to teach STEM. Students can become disengaged, especially in middle school. That’s the key point at which they’re going to either continue or decide STEM is not for them. We can engage them, and they almost don’t know they’re doing STEM while they’re doing archaeology! A lot of the students like that. They aren’t sitting in school just learning for learning’s sake. They see applications, and they make connections back to their classroom.”
“ I want people to be excited about the scholarly work that happens at Binghamton.”
— Rachel Coker
Established in 1972 to maintain national heritage sites, PAF often helps contractors comply with legislation, ensuring that cultural materials are not destroyed. The group’s recent work has included studies of 19th-century rural farmsteads, a French and Indian War battlefield and Haudenosaunee villages.
In 1996, the PAF and its previous director, Nina Versaggi, established the Community Archaeology Program (CAP), a summer program for kids, teens and adults.
“We started thinking: What does it take to allow non-professionals to do archaeology? This way, they’re doing it alongside professional archaeologists, with a lot more monitoring,” Miroff
says. “They do everything that we do if they want to do it. It’s done carefully; it’s done the way it has to be done to preserve the archaeological record.”
Although the program doesn’t qualify participants as professionals, its goal is to involve people as much as possible with what the PAF does and why it’s important. It’s also a way for many to pursue a lifelong dream.
“This is certainly not a career path that everyone could have followed,” Miroff says. “For one reason or another, a lot of people didn’t go down that path. But they come to us, and they say: ‘I really love this. This is what I’ve always wanted to do.’”
PAF offers three summer experiences. Adults and teens work primarily in the field, with one day on campus learning about archaeology beforehand. The kids’ program takes place mainly on campus.
Many participants love CAP so much that they return year after year; the program includes members of local school districts, retirees and students who are thinking about attending Binghamton.
“Hopefully, they’ll get to college, and they’ll say: ‘Wait a minute, I’ve done some of that,’” Miroff says. “I think that anthropology is very valuable for any discipline that you go into. When we teach CAP, it’s introducing them to the field. We think what we’re learning about the past is interesting, and we want to share it.”
In whatever way it’s done, making knowledge available to all is a tenet for all members of campus. From inspiring the next generation to incorporating the community, there are no age limits to learning.
“I am an evangelist for research. I want people to be excited about the scholarly work that happens at Binghamton,” Coker says. “I want people off-campus to see Binghamton’s big, growing portfolio of research, to think of the University as a place where new knowledge is being created. There are so many ways we can do that.”
By Eric Coker
WIDE WORLD OF FANTASY SPORTS
RotoBaller —
founded by two Binghamton alumni — continues to grow, attract fans
Leor Rabe and Jeffrey Klein were connected by the national pastime when they met as Binghamton University students in 2001.
“Our friendship was anchored through baseball,” Rabe says. “We discovered that we had similar sports interests, and once we realized that we shared a love of baseball and the New York Mets, the friendship clicked. We would go back and forth about players — who was good and who wasn’t. There was a lot of baseball banter.”
The banter continued after Rabe and Klein graduated in 2004 with degrees in technology/finance and philosophy, respectively. But there was now more at stake than winning a fantasy-baseball league or celebrating Bobby Bonilla Day or watching minor-league Mets play in downtown Binghamton.
In January 2013, the pair launched RotoBaller.com, a fantasysports website offering news and advice to fans. Twelve years later, RotoBaller is one of the most prominent fantasy-sports companies in the country, covering 10 sports with more than 150 contributors through its website (which drew 50 million organic page views in 2024), podcasts, YouTube videos and SiriusXM radio show.
“We’ve built it brick by brick over the past 12 years,” says Rabe, the company’s CEO. “It gets better and better every year.”
Binghamton University graduates Leor Rabe, left, and Jeffrey Klein are the co-founders of RotoBaller, a fantasysports company that includes a website, a SiriusXM radio show and podcasts.
Early innings
In 2011, Rabe was about to move from New York to California when he, Klein and two others (friend Alex Roberts and Rabe’s brother Raphael) met to discuss how to start a fantasy-baseball website as a side project.
“I had an entrepreneurial mind,” Rabe says. “As I played fantasy sports, it was clear to me that there was an opportunity for more in this space. We sat in my empty apartment after the movers came and had our first official meeting. No chairs. No couches. Just four people in a circle eating chicken sandwiches. We spent an hour throwing around names: Roto-this and Roto-that. Then Jeff said: ‘RotoBaller.’”
The RotoBaller domain name was soon purchased, and the quartet spent more than a year building the site.
“We each have specialties that complement each other,” Klein says. “I have a degree in philosophy, but I did a lot of work on the technical side on the site — server management and development operations.”
Klein, the company’s chief information officer — who learned to code and program on his own — also recalls the team’s early content strategy: The four were responsible for writing all of the site’s content.
“We tried doing that, but it meant we were each writing only two articles per week,” Klein says. “That was a big wake-up call.”
By the middle of the site’s first year in 2013, Rabe and Klein had already found fans and readers interested in contributing.
“It was the jet fuel for the early years of the site,” Klein says.
Midgame adjustments
It also didn’t take Rabe and Klein long to understand that sports fans can’t get enough fantasy football.
“The traffic numbers showed us what the country was most interested in,” Rabe says. “It opened the landscape
in a way that we are able to provide content for all of the major sports.”
Hiring additional experienced writers enabled RotoBaller to then go beyond the “big four” (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) into sports such as golf, auto racing and soccer.
A turning point for the company came during COVID in 2020–21, when many fantasy-sports companies were suffering because of league shutdowns.
“It was a successful time for us,” Rabe says. “We’re one of the few fantasy-sports sites that can say that. The thing that showed us what a transformative company we could be was e-sports. We launched a division that
wrote about professional video-game players. This drew huge traffic and sales to the site. People needed it. This kept our company afloat and changed our mindset about what’s possible and how nimble we needed to be.”
Rabe and Klein also point to Korean baseball, NASCAR and golf as being other key sports during the COVID era.
“The curveball was coming: We were gearing up for a fastball and made the adjustment,” Klein recalls. “That was when I felt we had built something that was about to stand on its own two legs. The company was showing us something. Things accelerated after that.”
A scoring streak
RotoBaller is on a roll: Profitable since day one, the company has grown an average of 40% per year over the past five years. The company’s SiriusXM radio show (on Channel 87) moved in February to a more “drive-time”-friendly 7–9 a.m. EST time slot. RotoBaller also received 13 award nominations from the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, the fourth straight year with more than 10 nominations.
And the site continues to grow — up to 150 original articles a day, with content delivering everything from injury updates to draft tools and rankings. Premium subscriptions even provide fantasy-sports players with expert chat-room access and the ability to sync real-time team and lineup advice to leagues set in places such as ESPN and Yahoo.
Football continues to draw the most eyes. The sport accounted for 60% of the site’s page views in 2024.
“On a Sunday morning, we’ll get 25,000 concurrent users within a 30-minute period on the site,” Rabe says.
“ When fans read a story, they get a sense that it’s sophisticated and nerdy, but that we’re also delivering the facts clean.”— Leor Rabe
Rabe, who left a software-development position four years ago to devote all his energy and time to RotoBaller, has a vision for the company that goes beyond fantasy sports.
“I want to expand into the sports-entertainment world and be a trusted source of mainstream news,” he says. “I want us interviewing players. We already have [writers] with press credentials for the Mets, the Orlando Magic and the PGA. I want us in every locker room and clubhouse.”
But Rabe and Klein say auto racing and golf are two fantasy sports showing a surge in popularity.
“In January and February of recent years, we’ve earned as much revenue from golf and NASCAR as we did from baseball and even football,” Rabe says. “They are much smaller markets, but people love them. They have rabid fans.”
RotoBaller will expand its Formula 1 coverage this year by partnering with the sport’s fantasy platform in Europe. This will help provide more news, tips, videos and driver interviews.
THE BINGHAMTON EXPERIENCE
Leor Rabe and Jeffrey Klein both say that a Binghamton University education played a vital role in their career success at RotoBaller.
For Rabe, taking management information system (MIS) classes was an eye-opening experience. MIS became his second concentration in the School of Management and “unlocked” his career, he says.
“It was an amazing education,” Rabe says. “Binghamton and MIS drove me to have the mindset to design computer systems that can help transform and build a business.”
Klein, whose father, Roy, is a 1974 Binghamton graduate, says he “learned how to navigate the world” at Binghamton.
“Twenty minutes into my first philosophy class with Professor [Max] Pensky, I was enamored with the notion of thinking about how to think and learning about how to learn. And that’s what I spent my years there doing,” Klein says. “I grew into an adult and learned how to be around and work with other people. These lessons would’ve prepared me for any entrepreneurial enterprise.”
In the meantime, RotoBaller will focus on continuing to provide a depth and breadth of high-quality content to a growing base of users.
“Our biggest asset is our stable of [contributors] who love what they’re writing about, have unique insights into what they’re writing about and like working with us and for the site,” Klein says.
“Readers get an authentic feel when they go to the website,” Rabe says. “When fans read a story, they get a sense that it’s sophisticated and nerdy, but that we’re also delivering the facts clean. It’s not too long. It’s not intimidating. We are approachable.”
After graduating from Binghamton University, New York Mets fans Jeffrey Klein, left, and Leor Rabe turned their love of baseball into RotoBaller.
TIME PASSAGES
The clock tower has been a fixture above Binghamton University for almost 25 years
By Emma Young ’26
One of Binghamton University’s most recognizable campus faces has brought the campus community together for nearly a quarter of a century.
The clock tower is located atop the University Union, facing the Peace Quad and The Spine.
The campus saw many projects in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as the opening of Academic Building A, Academic Building B and Mohawk Hall. The construction of the $14.6 million University Union West, including the clock tower, was one of the biggest projects at the time.
Karen Fennie, communications specialist for facilities management since 1999, says architects intended to create a “focal point” for the campus.
“It’s something visible from a number of vantage points. One could point to it and say,
‘Meet me at the clock tower,’ or ‘Such and such is right near the clock tower,’” she says.
The tower stands at 140 feet tall, with two clocks that face north and west. It was originally designed to include three, but Fennie says the architect changed the plan to allow for two flag poles.
Wasim Ahmad ’04 wrote a story for Pipe Dream about the clock tower’s construction in 2001, while he was a news editor for the student publication. He is now a photojournalist and assistant teaching professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
“As an alum who has been back to Binghamton several times, the clock tower has become a defining feature of campus,” Ahmad said. “I saw objections to it — journalists at the time thinking this was a waste of money. It turns out that it has become part of the identity of Binghamton University.”
34,000 POUNDS
PASSAGES
10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE CLOCK TOWER
Its total weight is about 34,000 pounds.
Each clock weighs about 1,500 pounds and is 9 feet, 6 inches in diameter.
A 130-ton crane was used to lift the clock tower into place.
The base of the clock tower is 65 feet tall, and the frame is an additional 75 feet tall.
The clock tower is constructed of tubular steel in an open framework design.
The clock faces mirror other architectural design details of the building, such as the round windows.
There is a stairwell in the bricked portion of the clock tower, leading to the clocks and operating mechanism.
When first built, the clocks were non-operational.
There is a controller that sets the time.
It is painted Pantone 342 — Binghamton University’s deep-green school color.
A second HOME
Binghamton University draws students from all over the world and country
FAVOUR BLESSING NWANKPA is a long way from Nigeria, but the biological sciences student has found Binghamton University to her liking — in and out of the classroom and lab.
“Aside from the terribly cold winter, I love Binghamton during other seasons,” Nwankpa says, “from the blossoming flowers and greenery in the spring and summer to the beautiful colors of the fall.”
Nwankpa chose to pursue her doctorate at Binghamton because of its strong research facilities and faculty and the diverse student body. She was one of more than
2,000 international students enrolled at Binghamton in Fall 2024. Those students represented 103 countries – from Afghanistan to Zambia — with more than half coming from India, China and Turkey.
While more than 15,000 Binghamton students come from New York state, the University also attracted nearly 1,500 scholars from 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in Fall 2024.
Meet five students who have traveled many miles to become part of the Binghamton University family.
San
California
NETHANEL Dimenstein
Diego,
NAHLA NAWAR Raya
Dhaka, Bangladesh
FAVOUR BLESSING Nwankpa
Abia state, Nigeria
ZOE Taaffe
Tualatin, Oregon
YEON JU Kim Guatemala and South Korea
NETHANEL Dimenstein
YEAR: First-year student
MAJOR: Integrative neuroscience
HOMETOWN/HOME STATE: San Diego, California
CAREER GOAL: Psychiatry
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY?
Binghamton is home to a large and vibrant Jewish community, which I sought out for its strong sense of family. I felt that Binghamton would allow me to chase my passions and explore what the world has to offer, all while remaining firmly connected to my roots.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BINGHAMTON? The trees on the Peace Quad at night, and the sound of the stream under the bridge to Murray Hill Road.
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR HOME STATE? The waves.
WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME STATE? California’s much bigger than you’d think. ■
NAHLA NAWAR Raya
YEAR: Graduate student
MAJOR: Business administration
HOMETOWN/HOME COUNTRY: Dhaka, Bangladesh
CAREER GOAL: Become a leading brand manager, known for creating impactful marketing strategies that truly transform the industry.
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY?
The credibility of its MBA program, its recognition as one of the best institutions and, of course, its location.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BINGHAMTON? I believe Binghamton is an ideal place to live for travel lovers. The scenic beauty of upstate New York, the vibrant energy of New York City, the breathtaking Niagara Falls and even the bustling city of Toronto are all within commuting distance. I love being part of Binghamton University, where diversity is celebrated, and students have ample opportunities to grow beyond academics.
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRY? I miss my family and friends the most. I miss going back to my place at the end of a tiring day, and, obviously, the food at home.
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRY? Bangladesh is a riverine country with an incredible variety of fishes. Unlike many countries, we experience six distinct seasons, each bringing a diverse range of locally grown fruits and vegetables. Additionally, Bangladesh holds a unique place in history as the only nation to have fought for the right to speak its mother tongue: Bangla. The movement is now recognized globally on International Mother Language Day.
FAVOUR BLESSING Nwankpa
YEAR: Second year of doctoral program
MAJOR: Biological sciences
HOMETOWN/HOME COUNTRY: Abia state, Nigeria
CAREER GOAL: My overall goal is to harness the skills and collaborations acquired during my doctoral program to impact the younger generation with appropriate knowledge and skills to bring about groundbreaking research that will advance the control, treatment and prevention strategies for biofilm-associated infections.
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY? State-ofthe-art research facilities, experienced faculty/ researchers and a diverse but collaborative student environment. My research interest in antibiotic resistance further informed my decision to enroll at Binghamton University, due to the wealth of researchers with experience in biofilm-related research. I was also excited to do my dissertation research under the mentorship of Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences Karin Sauer.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BINGHAMTON? The environment is calm and serene. It is a place surrounded by a lot of natural beauty, and its proximity to other beautiful cities provides the opportunity to explore the landscape of upstate New York.
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRY? Although I am adjusting and adapting to life in Binghamton, I dearly miss the larger communal life (friends, family), the food and the vibrant energy, humor and sarcasm of the Nigerian people.
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRY? Nigeria is the most populous Black nation in the world and is ethnically diverse with over 500 languages. Most Nigerians are friendly, resilient and exceptionally hardworking. Nigeria is a creative hub and destination for film, fashion, technology, music and arts.
ZOE Taaffe
YEAR: Junior
MAJOR: Nursing, with a minor in forensics
HOMETOWN/HOME STATE: Tualatin, Oregon
CAREER GOAL: Pediatric nurse
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY? I chose Binghamton University because of the nursing program. It offered state-ofthe-art facilities and materials that allow me to practice and constantly improve my hands-on skills. The program provides me with the confidence, experience and knowledge I need to succeed as a new nurse after graduation.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BINGHAMTON? My favorite thing about Binghamton is the incredible community of people. I didn’t know anyone when I moved here, but now I get to have a family on both the West Coast and East Coast because of the lifelong friends I have made. I truly couldn’t picture myself at any other university.
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR HOME STATE? I miss going to Oregon Ducks football games with my family.
WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME STATE? Tater tots were invented in Oregon!
YEON JU Kim
YEAR: Rising junior
MAJOR: Nursing
HOME COUNTRIES: Guatemala and South Korea
CAREER GOAL: Nurse anesthetist
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY? From the start, I felt a deep calling to pursue a major in nursing. After taking the time to research and reflect, I knew that Binghamton was the ideal place for me. The opportunities and support offered by the Decker College resonate with my aspirations, making me feel hopeful and excited about my journey.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BINGHAMTON? I enjoy having unique classes I can take — either for my interests, or courses that benefit me as a future nurse. Also, I enjoy hanging out with friends, whether it’s going out for brunch, studying at the coffee shop or just hanging out in the dorm! Being close to nature helps me disconnect, take time to de-stress and spend time for myself.
WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRIES? My friends, family and food. I feel like Korean and Guatemalan dishes are both my comfort foods, and I’ve been craving them so badly. I would never get sick of this food! The overall atmosphere you experience when you are home is also so different due to language, culture and how you interact with one another. And I miss the wonderful weather.
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRIES? If you truly enjoy hiking, you should definitely visit Guatemala: it has more than 30 volcanoes, including the tallest volcano in Latin America. Korea is known for its delicious and diverse food, culture and nature, creating a sense of comfort, as if you are in the right place at the right time.
When faculty is family
Father, daughter professors find common ground at Binghamton University despite different disciplines
By Chris Kocher
WHEN MONIKA
ROZNERE ’18 applied for a faculty position at Binghamton University last year, one professor from outside Watson College’s School of Computing offered his support by attending an open session where she presented her research.
He wore a hat pulled low and sat at the back of the room, but his attempts to go incognito proved
to be ineffective. Several people recognized Eriks Rozners, a professor in Harpur College’s Department of Chemistry since 2008 — and realized that he is Roznere’s dad.
To be fair, their Latvian roots blurred the connection a bit for English speakers: In the Latvian language, all names have gendered endings — “a” or “e” for female names and “s” or “is” for male ones. Hence the differently spelled surnames.
“When I did my undergrad at Binghamton, I had a few professors say, ‘Oh, your dad does really
interesting research.’ I would tell them, ‘I don’t know what he does!’
Then they would scold me and say, ‘You should have conversations,’” Monika says. “We do, but chemistry is out of my scope!”
As an assistant professor, Monika researches underwater robotics — specifically, figuring out how lowcost sensors can offer the best information below the surface.
Eriks investigates the biochemistry of nucleic acids with a focus on RNA’s structure and function. A love for science must be in the genes: Older sister Ieva Roznere ’11 is the science director of the Watters Aquatic Conservation Center at The Ohio State University.
Eriks credits his wife, Ligita Roznere, for keeping the family on track with the goals they set for themselves: “She’s not overdoing it, but she keeps a gentle pressure on everybody about their performance and meeting their potential.”
Life on the tenure track is different for Monika than for her father. She’s out of the house early, busy proving
Eriks Rozners and Monika Roznere stand at the summit of Mount Shuksan during a 2024 family vacation in North Cascades National Park, Washington.
herself to her colleagues. He has more control over his schedule and often doesn’t need to be on campus until midmorning. Still, she finds time to stop by his office at the Innovative Technologies Complex for a quick visit, where they often chat about the challenges and successes of a career in academia.
“Sometimes I knock on his door and bring him a chocolate muffin, or be like, ‘Can I have some of your coffee?’” Monika says with a laugh. “He has a lot of experience that really helps out. I have someone who is a support system.”
She loves being back in the Binghamton region, where she’s reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. Eriks admits that the family home felt empty after his daughters moved out, so he’s happy to have her under the same roof again. Together, the family members spend time on their shared hobby — rock climbing. (Monika says her parents are well-known outdoor enthusiasts at the local gym.)
“There may be a cultural thing, because we are Latvians. We come from a very small country, and it is in our culture to come back to and stick to the same place,” Eriks says. “So, when Monika told us, ‘Oh, I love the community here — I’m thinking about coming back,’ it may be part of our makeup.”
Eriks Rozners is a chemistry professor in Harpur College. Daughter Monika Roznere is an assistant professor in the Watson School of Computing.
1994 alumna’s journey goes from business law to business frontier
OF influence Sphere
By Anthony Borrelli
If there’s one “claim to fame” Jennifer Koester ’94 loves to share, it’s that she hasn’t missed a U2 concert in New York since she was a teenager.
And when the iconic Irish rock band took the stage in late September 2023 as the inaugural concert residency at Sphere, an 875,000-square-foot cutting-edge entertainment venue just east of the Las Vegas Strip, you couldn’t keep her away. What was it like? An immersive experience of sound and stunning visuals that electrified all the senses at once. Only this time, she wasn’t cheering along as just another U2 fan.
In January 2024, Koester became president of business operations for Sphere, and in June 2024, her role was expanded to president and chief operating officer. She leads all aspects of operating Sphere’s business and venue while also providing strategic oversight of Sphere Studios, the immersive content studio in Burbank, Calif., dedicated to developing multi-sensory experiences exclusively for Sphere. This includes the venue’s concert residencies, original programming, and corporate and marquee events.
For Koester, who earned her bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Binghamton University’s School of Management, it’s the latest chapter of a 30-year career that has included experience in sales, marketing, digital business and the law. During that time, she held leadership roles at Cablevision and, more recently, Google.
“What drew me to this role at Sphere is that starting with my management information systems focus at Binghamton, I’ve always been at the intersection of technology and entertainment, especially focused on ‘market disruptors’ or the first of its kind,” Koester says. “Having this opportunity to focus on leveraging new technologies while delivering on our growth strategies feels like the pinnacle of what I’ve been working toward in my career.”
Sphere Entertainment Co. announced Sphere in 2018. It includes a 16K resolution wraparound interior LED screen, speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis technologies, and 4D physical effects. At 366 feet high by 516 feet wide and at a cost of $2.3 billion, it’s the largest spherical structure in the world.
Behind the scenes, beyond the venue’s growing global accolades, Koester is exploring ways to expand the use of technology and advertising to keep bringing new experiences to the venue. She’s committed to ensuring it remains an
iconic entertainment destination for audiences.
So, she can’t help but smile when she says those aspects of the job bring out “the geek in me.”
‘Navigating ambiguity’
How did Koester, whose career initially found her entrenched in the nuances of the growing field of intellectual technology law, land in the midst of a cutting-edge entertainment field? One might expect a linear path in a career spanning three decades.
For Koester, not so much. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She began as a computer science major at Binghamton, then switched her major several times before realizing she was more intrigued with focusing on management information systems.
“Binghamton is great at building community. I just loved the diversity of the school,” Koester says. “As a student, I learned how you’ve got to find those skills you enjoy using, because they’ll help get your foot in the door in new areas that help round out your professional experience.”
After Binghamton, Koester earned her law degree from St. John’s University School of Law. But she was drawn more to the intersection of emerging technologies and business than to criminal or civil cases.
“I’m very comfortable navigating ambiguity,” she says. “Arguing both sides and figuring out how you minimize risk while keeping in mind growth opportunities positioned me as a very business-minded attorney.”
Koester eventually joined Cablevision, where she spent 10 years, starting in its legal department. She later became senior vice president of advanced advertising product development, data analytics and ad operations for Cablevision Media Sales.
As part of a team that helped transition more personalized advertising from digital mediums into television, Koester’s focus was on navigating the legal issues of being one of the first to market this as a business proposition. Her role transitioned to be more businesscentric, and it became a chance to explore unique approaches for
Sphere, led by Binghamton University alumna Jennifer Koester, features a 580,000-square-foot LED exterior display and a 160,000-square-foot LED interior display in Las Vegas.
“Binghamton is great at building community. I just loved the diversity of the school.”
— Jennifer Koester ’94
adapting her legal expertise into tactics that would serve the goals of a revenue-generating business.
Koester hadn’t considered before that she liked leading large organizations as much as she’d enjoyed navigating those ambiguous areas within business law. She was inspired to explore ways to fill in other gaps to help her keep advancing in that type of industry.
“One of my biggest takeaways from that time in my career is that people tend to see things in you that you might not necessarily see in yourself,” Koester says. “So, if someone taps you on the shoulder and encourages you to take a risk, go for it.”
‘Outside perspective’
When Koester joined Google in 2016, it was a chance to refine the skills she’d cultivated at Cablevision. Her duties revolved around developing global partnerships for Google’s telecommunications partners and bringing to market Google-based solutions around dynamic ad insertion for telecommunications providers and video distributors.
At the time, this was a new market for Google to explore. Three months into her role, Koester realized Google had many touchpoints with these large partners, across multiple areas of the business, but they weren’t talking with each other.
Spotting a chance to improve collaboration, Koester took the initiative.
“I raised my hand and pointed out that Google was missing an opportunity to think more holistically about these partnerships,” she says. “Sometimes, you need to bring in that outside perspective and remember that no idea is a bad idea.”
U2’s Bono performs in V-U2 An Immersive Concert Film at Sphere in Las Vegas. The Irish rock band opened the music and entertainment venue in October 2023.
The next level During her last few years at Google, Koester led a strategic alliances function, collaborating with its top 100 partners spanning 12 industries to improve experiences and continue building relationships.
Koester adopted this approach at Sphere. She and her team ask: “How can we better operationalize this company? How can we pull people together? And how can we align our priorities to ensure we keep growing to become the place that the world’s biggest artists and brands want to go?”
To help accomplish those goals and cultivate Sphere as a business, Koester has been prioritizing growth in strategic partnerships, building out the calendar of events and maintaining strong ticket sales by bringing in new technologies that allow the venue to continue providing unique experiences and ensure it remains on the cutting-edge.
“One of the things that has been most exciting to see over the past year and a half, as we’ve had events across a wider range, is how Sphere is a disruptor across every category — it’s not just concerts,” Koester says. “Each event is an opportunity not only for our
Sphere Studios team, but also artists and brands, to use the medium in different ways — but equally powerful in getting audiences excited. We ask everyone we work with to think outside the box about what’s possible, and it’s been mind-blowing to see how they have come in and worked with us to take full advantage of Sphere’s capabilities.”
Sphere is continuing to grow as a global premium brand, she says, and “we’re just scratching the surface” of its potential as an entertainment destination.
“Sphere is a unique venue — it’s not for everyone — but it’s perfect for those with a real vision, who want to partner with us to push boundaries technologically and creatively and build unforgettable experiences.”
Not every fan gets to hold the proverbial “keys to the castle” where their favorite musicians perform. That’s why, in Koester’s eyes, a leadership role with Sphere is just as exciting as any immersive experience the venue can deliver.
It’s also why she sounds less like an executive and more like a fan when she describes how this new chapter of her career feels: “Mind-blowing.”
ABOUT Sphere
Sphere is a nextgeneration entertainment medium in Las Vegas powered by cutting-edge technology. Here are some fast facts about Sphere:
• Sphere is the largest spherical structure in the world: 366 feet high, 516 feet wide, and located just off the Las Vegas Strip.
• The venue seats nearly 18,000 people.
• Inside, Sphere features a 160,000-square-foot LED screen (the highestresolution LED screen in the world) that wraps up, over and around the audience.
• The building’s exterior — the Exosphere — is a 580,000-square-foot LED display (the largest LED screen in the world!) and displays a wide range of artistic and branded content.
• Sphere opened Sept. 29, 2023, with rock band U2 and their “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere” — which played to more than 700,000 fans from 100-plus countries across 40 sold-out dates through March 2024.
• Other concert residencies have included Phish, Dead & Company, Eagles and Anyma.
• Country star Kenny Chesney and pop group Backstreet Boys will hold residencies this spring and summer, with UNITY starting at the end of the summer and Eagles returning later in the fall.
• Sporting events have included the NHL Draft in June 2024 and a UFC live event in September 2024.
• The Sphere Experience — Sphere’s original content category — features immersive experiences and interactive Atrium exhibits.
• Sphere Studios, located in Burbank, Calif., is Sphere’s immersive content studio dedicated to creating
productions exclusively for Sphere. Sphere Studios’ campus includes a nearly 100-foot-high dome that includes a quarter-sized version of the screen at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• In October 2024, Sphere Entertainment and the Department of Culture and Tourism-Abu Dhabi announced that they will work together to bring the world’s second Sphere to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
• An enhanced version of The Wizard of Oz is scheduled to open on the Sphere big screen in late August, while From the Edge — a extreme-sports film featuring five premier athletes — will debut in 2026.
IT CAN HAPPEN
ANYWHERE
1998 grad, a father of Parkland shooting victim, works to improve school safety nationwide
By John Brhel
DR. ILAN ALHADEFF ’98 moved to the small, sunny community of Parkland, Fla., because it was marketed as “the safest neighborhood with the best public schools.” It was the perfect place for the physician and his wife, Lori, to raise their daughter and two young boys. He was aware of the countless mass shootings that had taken place across the U.S., but he never once thought that something like that could happen in an idyllic place like Parkland.
“It wasn’t even a glimmer of a thought,” Alhadeff says. “We said, ‘This is a safe place, great community, great schools. Sounds good.’”
That image was shattered on Feb. 14, 2018, when a former student walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed a total of 17 students and staff members — including the Alhadeffs’ daughter, Alyssa.
For most, it was a tragic news story — the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history. But for the Alhadeffs, it was a bitter, daily reality: Alyssa was gone, and their lives were changed irrevocably.
“We live it every day,” he says. “When everyone’s celebrating birthdays, we’re going to the cemetery. When they’re celebrating holidays, we’re just trying to keep our heads up.”
But the Alhadeffs ultimately did more than keep their heads up. In the wake of the tragedy, people all around them were saying “Something has to be done.” They
Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, a 1998 Binghamton University graduate, started Make Our Schools Safe after daughter Alyssa was killed at age 14 in a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
interpreted that as: We have to do something.
“We had a choice: stick our heads under the table and cry all the time, or get up and fight. And so that’s what we did,” Alhadeff says.
Just a few months after the tragedy, the Alhadeffs launched Make Our Schools Safe (MOSS), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting students and teachers at educational institutions. Its mission is to “empower students and staff to help create and maintain a culture of safety and vigilance in a secure school environment.”
“The reality is, it’s not about if it happens, it’s about when it happens
next. And that’s the problem,” Alhadeff says. “It’s about what we can do to prevent this from happening. That’s why we created our foundation — because we believe there’s a lot of things we can do.”
The organization’s most important and noteworthy “pillar” is advocating for Alyssa’s Law, legislation that requires schools to install silent panic alarms directly linked to law enforcement, to ensure that emergency personnel can respond to an emergency as quickly as possible. To date, seven states have passed Alyssa’s Law: New Jersey, New York, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and
“We need to figure out how to focus on school safety, and it’s not an easy thing, because it’s traumatizing to some degree and schools are supposed to be a safe place for children.”
DR. ILAN ALHADEFF
Oklahoma, and there are now bills in eight others.
Alhadeff points out a recent situation in which a panic-alert system, like the kind advocated for in Alyssa’s Law, saved lives. When a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Georgia began firing a gun on Sept. 4, 2024, multiple staff members pushed the panic buttons on their ID badges. Two students and two teachers were killed and seven more were injured, but the losses would have been worse had those alerts not been put in place, Alhadeff says.
Passing a law to improve school safety might seem like a no-brainer, but convincing legislators is often an uphill battle. Usually, it’s a case of cost expenditures, or there are too many bills on the docket. The next thing Alhadeff usually hears is “That could never happen here,” which he knows, all too well, is a naive and dangerous assumption.
“The biggest one is how many degrees of separation until you care to try this? How important is it to you as a legislator to make this happen for your community, for your constituency?” he says. “What’s sad is that only when there’s a school shooting do all of them suddenly jump up and say, ‘I want to be part of that. Let’s do it now.’ But why do we have to wait for the next school shooting each time?”
In addition to advocating for Alyssa’s Law, MOSS also works to improve overall school safety. This could involve anything from structural projects — such as specialized
Lori and Ilan Alhadeff stand with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt after the governor signed Alyssa’s Law in June 2024.
fencing, cameras and single-point entry — to safety and learning programs. To date, MOSS has given back more than $500,000 to school-safety initiatives. The organization also works to create a culture of safety from within schools and has kickstarted high school safety clubs (called MOSS clubs), of which there are now 26 across eight states.
“There’s a tremendous need for knowledge and awareness — both selfawareness as well as public awareness,” Alhadeff says. “And it’s important, because it’s not something you want to talk about. How do you start talking with little kids about school shootings? Who wants to talk about that at the dinner table? It’s something we need to educate on, just like we do with fire safety. We need to figure out how to focus on school safety, and it’s not an easy thing, because it’s traumatizing to some degree and schools are supposed to be a safe place for children.”
Working on MOSS and enacting real change across America hasn’t healed Alhadeff, but he can take solace in knowing that he is saving lives.
“First and foremost, I’m a physician. I’ve saved a lot of lives. But I couldn’t save my daughter,” he says. “But we can save other kids’ lives, and other teachers’ lives, with Alyssa’s Law. If the alert from Alyssa’s Law was there, Alyssa would be here today. So, we’re able to save lives — and that’s what drives us.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about the organization or how to join the school safety movement, visit www.MakeOurSchoolsSafe.org
INSPIRED BY ALYSSA
When the Parkland tragedy struck, Dr. Ilan Alhadeff was in the middle of pursuing his master’s degree in business administration at Florida Atlantic University. He could have stopped — who would blame him? But he stuck with it.
HIS INSPIRATION? ALYSSA.
A few weeks before her death, Alyssa had to make a tough decision and miss soccer practice in order to study for a big test. As a result, she was unable to start in her next game. Fired up from the situation, she played her heart out in the following game.
“I said, ‘That was the best game ever.’ She goes, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ Typical adolescent,” Alhadeff recalls, laughing. “What it said to me is she wasn’t going to give up. And when I had the decision to make about going for my MBA, to continue with it or not, I said: ‘She didn’t give up on her studies. I’m not giving up on mine.’”
After two years — despite the pain from his loss and the stress of working as a physician and on Make Our Schools Safe — Alhadeff graduated with his master’s degree.
Alhadeff has accomplished a lot since his time at Binghamton, and he knows that Alyssa would have accomplished so much herself.
“She was dedicated, she was devoted, she was amazing. She was strong. She would have been an amazing professional soccer player. She was also a great debater, and she could have argued like the best of them. … I don’t think I won many arguments with her, because she was daddy’s girl, but she could have been a lawyer like none other. She was amazing. So much potential, so much potential.” — JOHN BRHEL
Catching up with
Carol Leifer
Comedian/actor/writer reminisces about Binghamton, discusses new book
Carol Leifer is a comedy icon: an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for her work on TV’s Hacks and a standup comedian who has written for such shows as Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 11 Academy Award telecasts.
But before all that, she was a student at SUNY Binghamton in the mid-1970s.
In a conversation with Robin Kall ’85, head of books for Rohm Feifer Entertainment and the host of the radio talk show and podcast Reading With Robin, Leifer discusses her new book, How to Write a Funny Speech …, sharing her expertise on crafting humor that lands.
Q: What do you remember about walking onto the Binghamton campus? What was your area of study and did your experience at SUNY fuel your creative work?
A: My sister Jane had gone to Binghamton, so I was very familiar with the campus from visiting her. But when I walked onto the campus as a freshman, I remember thinking, “Wow! This is now my place!” I was a telecommunications major, and I got so much out of all the programs there. We wrote and produced a comedic soap opera called The Flame of Life. I wrote comedy with fellow students, among them Howard Korder, who is now a renowned playwright. I did an internship at the local PBS TV station and got to sit in the control room as they did live broadcasts. And I did a ton of theater at SUNY, which really eased the transition for me into standup. I was in Hinman Little Theatre (I hope they still have it!).
Q: Were there any situations or relationships from Binghamton that found their way into your work in standup or on Seinfeld?
A: One relationship I had that still has a big impact on me is with my friend Jim Matthews, who lived on my floor. He was a singer and had backup singers who were funny, myself among them, and performing with him really made me relax on stage.
Q: What were your favorite hangouts on and off campus?
A: I used to take the school-provided bus to Ithaca College. I went to Pat Mitchell’s Ice Cream all the time! The OP Bar. And we used to drive to Syracuse to eat at Danzer’s restaurant that had the best Reuben sandwiches I’ve ever had!
Q: Favorite Pat Mitchell’s Ice Cream flavor?
A: Mint chip, hands down!
Carol Leifer stands in Hinman Hall with fellow student Jim Marshall, right, and his backup singers, below, in the mid-1970s.
Q: What was it that sparked the idea to write How to Write a Funny Speech?
A: My co-writer Rick [Mitchell] and I have been to so many weddings where someone gave a horrible speech and it put a damper on the entire event. We knew together there are basics to derail that. And ways to make your speech funny. There are a lot of books about speeches, but not any written by two experienced comedy writers.
Q: What are some of the rookie mistakes people make when writing speeches and how will your book help readers to avoid those?
A: The biggest mistakes are speaking too long and using profanity in a speech. Buy our book to learn even more rookie mistakes!
“… I remember thinking, ‘Wow! This is now my place!’”
— Carol Leifer
Q: What was one of the most difficult speeches you ever had to write? How does the ability to read a room figure in?
A: Not too long ago, I lost my cousin to cancer and was asked to make a speech at his memorial. I was still very emotional about losing him and was afraid I was going to break down during my speech. But I find speaking at these events, especially the difficult ones, to be very cathartic. I didn’t
break down after all — just talking about my cousin and what he meant to me was very healing in the moment.
Q: Ideal amount of time for a toast? Graduation speech? An interview?
A: For a speech, five minutes tops! Some people go on and on and it’s painful. An interview, well, that’s up to the interviewer. If they want to ask you a million questions, what are you going to do? It’s their party and you’re the guest.
ANTARCTICA EXPEDITION SUPPORTS ALUMNA’S TEACHING
Kaitlin Biagiotti ’17, MAT ’18, has always been an explorer. It’s why she applied for a Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, which took her to Antarctica last December for a two-week voyage that informs her work as a seventh-grade integrated science teacher at Garden City (N.Y.) Middle School.
“Antarctica took my breath away,” Biagiotti says. “You can’t mentally prepare for the experience. I have been backpacking in Patagonia, hiking in the Arctic Circle in Norway and on a safari in Tanzania, but you walk away shocked [Antarctica] exists on Earth.”
She was one of 35 teachers chosen by the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions for the fellowship. Before leaving, she asked her students what they were curious to learn and, through field experiences with scientists and photographers, Biagiotti gathered answers to their questions.
“The scale of Antarctica is hard to comprehend,” she says. “On a map, it just looks like a circle at the bottom of our world. When you float by or step on land, you realize how tiny you are. Antarctica is 1.5 times the size of the contiguous U.S. We spent days traveling the Antarctic Peninsula, yet I only saw a sliver of this continent.”
As a graduate student, Biagiotti earned a Fulbright grant supporting research in the Netherlands. She and sister Jessica Biagiotti ’16 also secured a Harpur Fellows grant to create a school music program in Peru. Kaitlin draws on these experiences to inspire her students.
“I want my students to walk away with a new mindset, to have curiosity and empathy about their world, developing science skills and the attitude to be competent participants in any conversation.” — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
1972
Sam Zeveloff ’72, presidential distinguished professor emeritus of zoology at Weber State University, published “The evolutionary and ecological convergence of the raccoon and raccoon dog: A perfect storm of invasive species in Europe” in the journal Wildlife Letters
1974
Roger Levine ’74 wrote The Borscht-Meister of Babi Yar (Natural Selections, 2024), a historical novel about Ukraine, stretching from the Holocaust to the current war.
1976
Todd Landau ’76 released his debut novel, Counting on Freedom (independently published, 2024), a three-part work of historical fiction set during the U.S. Civil War.
1980
Carol Myers ’80 was elected to a second term as county commissioner in Athens, Ga., her second career after retiring from Athens Technical College as dean and faculty member.
Douglas Sotak ’80 independently published Dooglah — Volume I: My Life After Heaven (2018), a fictional autobiography he started when he was a creative writing and philosophy major in Harpur College.
1982/
2003
William F. Bonesso ’82 and Stephanie Alberts ’03, partners at Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, were selected to the 2024 New York Metro Super Lawyers list.
1982
Robin Zachary ’82 was featured in the article “When Gift Wrap is Your Passion,” which appeared in The New York Times on Nov. 13, 2024. Zachary is a New York-based stylist and creative director who created The Prop Styling Experience®. She wrote Styling Beyond Instagram: Take Your Prop Styling Skills from the Square to the Street (Schiffer Craft, 2022), a book that shows readers how to level up their styling skills to turn their love for props into a promising career.
1982
Irwin Krasnow ’82 was elected mayor of the village of West Hampton Dunes, N.Y., to serve a four-year term after unseating the incumbent (and only) mayor of 31 years.
1988
Jenavia Weaver ’88 received a 2024 Philadelphia Family Women of Influence Award. She is co-founder and chief operations officer of Citadel International and R.A.R.E. Genius LLC. Weaver’s work is deeply rooted in traditional African spirituality and cultural preservation. She has created numerous programs that celebrate and empower Black youth and womanhood. She and her husband established the “I Have You Have” Homeless Feeding Program, demonstrating their belief that “there will always be room for one more at the table.”
Alumna backs Turkey’s EU candidacy
With 25 years of experience at the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), Nilgun Sezer, MA ’05, is ready to fulfill a long-held dream — to make a global impact by working for an international institution such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank or United Nations. To give herself an edge in a competitive field, she returned to Binghamton last fall to pursue a master’s degree in accounting.
“I had applied for different positions with international institutions … and passed several stages, but got stuck at interviews,” Sezer says. “I needed to gain the technical knowledge set required to work and succeed in an international organization.”
CBRT steers the monetary and exchange rate policies in Turkey, focusing on price and financial stability, gold and foreign exchange reserves, printing and issuing banknotes, and establishing and regulating payment systems.
At CBRT, Sezer held roles from foreign relations to budget and financial reporting to risk management, and says she’s most proud of her work to support Turkey’s candidacy for the European Union (EU). CBRT — like many other Turkish institutions — needed to change its structure to become EU-compliant. Sezer designed a model Central Bank law adhering to EU standards.
“To do this, I had to examine all EU member countries’ central banking laws,” Sezer says. “This project helped me begin to appreciate the importance of my work, as well as CBRT’s role in carrying out the republic’s monetary policy.”
Sezer first came to Binghamton in 2003 to pursue a master’s degree in economics supported by a CBRT scholarship.
“[The experience] added a lot to me both academically and personally,” Sezer says. “My years at Binghamton were some of the best years of my life.” — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
“My years at Binghamton were some of the best years of my life.”
1989
Jason Hack ’89 is a tripleboarded tenured professor at East Carolina University, working as an emergency physician in North Carolina. He is chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology and vice-chair for research and creative activities in his department. He credits Digman Hall as his start.
Lt. Col. Andrew Young ’89 returned last year from his sixth combat deployment. He was assigned as the J2X director for the Combined Joint Task Force in the Horn of Africa. Young was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his actions in combat. He is a counterintelligence special agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington.
1991
Virginia Blanton, MA ’91, PhD ’98, was named a University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Professor in 2019. This appointment was renewed in 2024.
1992
Woody Clermont ’92 won his election for Broward County (Fla.) Court Judge by a margin of nearly 9% (about 60,000 votes).
Wendy Schult ’92 launched “The Authenticity Coach” podcast, available on Apple or Spotify. Following a 23-year career at Ayco, the financial counseling arm of Goldman Sachs, she began her coaching practice, Keys to Authenticity LLC, in 2020.
Russ Nelligan ’89 was promoted to vice president of marketing at WCVB-TV, Hearst Television’s flagship station and Boston’s ABC affiliate. Over the last 19 years with Nelligan leading the station’s creative services team, WCVB further solidified its market leadership in news viewership, community service and industry recognition. Nelligan has earned 11 regional Emmy Awards for his marketing work there.
1995
Mark A. Rieder ’95 wrote Reminiscences of a Bond Operator: A Guide to Investing in Corporate Debt (independently published, 2024). He has dedicated more than two decades to managing large corporate bond portfolios.
1997
Natalia Guarin-Klein ’97 is executive director of alumni and career engagement at Brooklyn College. She and her husband, Richard Klein ’97, are excited to share that their son, Evan, started at Binghamton last fall.
1999
Jeffrey Lin ’99 joined the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians practice site at East Baltimore Medical Center and serves as clinical instructor for the Johns Hopkins Osler Internal Medicine Residency, urban-health track. He was previously a family physician at Affinia Healthcare in St. Louis, Mo. Medicine is his second career after working in advertising and design.
1989
2000
Marc Dworkin ’00 is co-creator/ co-showrunner of Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans: Undercover Working mainly in the kids and family space, his other credits for Nickelodeon include executive producer of The Thundermans, Erin and Aaron, and Knight Squad, which he also co-created. His additional writing credits include ABC’s Hope & Faith, Disney’s Pair of Kings and Netflix’s Julie and the Phantoms. Dworkin lives on Long Island with his wife, two kids, pug and axolotl because the bagels are better than in Los Angeles. Dworkin returned to Binghamton for Homecoming 2024 to speak at the Alumni Association’s TIER Talks event “Meet the Producers.”
Janet Krauthamer ’00 published Body Detective!: Decode Your Sensory Signals (Barefoot Books, 2024), a STEAM picture book that introduces interoception: a human body function that helps a person understand what’s going on inside their body.
2001
Yehoshua November ’01 published his third poetry collection, The Concealment of Endless Light (Orison Books, 2024), which extends the marriage of mysticism and everyday life that has become his strength as a poet.
Jeffrey Yip ’01 and his father did virtual book readings and presentations at the Museum of Chinese in America and New York Public Library last May. The publication Dragon of Concrete Jungles was launched during AAPI Heritage Month. The book discusses a social history of Manhattan’s Chinatown.
2003
Mike O’Connell ’03, MPA ’05, wrote From Box Scores to Test Scores: Turning gameday stats into everyday math skills (BookBaby, 2024). This is his third book and first about math, the subject he teaches for Loudoun County (Va.) Public Schools.
Paul Collins, MA ’03, PhD ’05, professor of legal studies and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was recognized with both the 2024 C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association and the 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award from the American Library Association for his book, Supreme Bias: Gender and Race in U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings (Stanford University Press, 2023).
Rhonda Branca, MA ’03, PhD ’10, is a founding editor and the editor-in-chief of Binghamton University’s newest literary journal, Eleventh Hour Literary. The journal’s only requirement is that a piece must have gone through rejections and been subsequently revised. More at eleventhhourliterary.org.
2006
Kristen Farris ’06 is managing partner at the Law Office of Dennis R. Vetrano Jr. in Beacon, N.Y., practicing divorce and family law. She appeared on the Tamron Hall show as a relationship and marriage correspondent in an episode that aired Nov. 20, 2024.
“THE
ALASKA CRUISE WAS FANTASTIC!”
— Curt Pueschel, retired faculty (pictured with wife Kelly)
■ The Binghamton University Alumni Travel Program connects you to unforgettable places, people and cultures. It offers exclusive itineraries, deluxe properties, knowledgeable tour guides and the company of Binghamton University friends. Denali National Park in Alaska, Havana, Cuba, and southern Spain are on tap for 2025. Learn more at bit.ly/BingAlumTravel.
2007
Adam Knight, MA ’07, published a memoir, Made of Iron (The Wordsmithy, 2024). It’s the story of Holocaust survivor Dina Jacobson, who lived much of her life in Elmira, N.Y., and dedicated herself to educating young people.
2008
Joseph Dier ’08 started a new law practice last November. Dier Law focuses on representing New York employers facing discrimination-related issues. More at dierlaw.com.
Ben Falber ’08 joined Barclay Damon as a partner in the firm’s regulatory and energy practice areas. He has more than a decade of experience advising on regulatory matters in the energy sector.
Alumni award recipients
The Binghamton University Alumni Association presented its 2025 Special Recognition Awards on May 3 at The Binghamton Club. The following alumni were honored for their career achievements, social impact and volunteer service to the University.
Glenn G. Bartle Distinguished Alumni Award
James Bankoski ’91
Alumni Achievement Award
Myles Pensak ’74
Edward Weisband Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service or Contribution to Public Affairs
Mary Ann Callahan ’91
Diversity and Inclusion Award
Nicole Sirju-Johnson, MPA ’99, PhD ’11
Bearcats of the Last Decade (BOLD) 10 Under 10
Ryon Batson ’21
Nicholas Doran ’16, MPA ’17
Katherine Frey ’20
Jann Gao, MS ’15
Madjeen Garcon-Bonneau ’15
Emily Mackay ’21
Sahil Nyati, MS ’16
Nicholas Terela ’10, ’11, MS ’15
Luz Velazquez ’21
Christian Wilson ’16
Bankoski
Pensak
Callahan
Sirju-Johnson
FROM CAMPUS ROTC TO SUPPORTING COUNTERTERRORISM
The spirit of service to our country shaped the Binghamton experience and a career path for Ravi Kambhampaty ’07, who joined the Army ROTC as a student. After graduating, he went to law school and, while there, joined the U.S. Army Reserve.
“ROTC was especially meaningful because it provided a shared experience, which allowed me to form close friendships with several of my fellow cadets whom I remain close with to this day,” Kambhampaty says.
“Academically, I found it an honor to represent Binghamton as a part of the Model United Nations team,” says the political science and history major. “I also enjoyed working on an honors thesis in American history, and the analytical and research skills from that experience have been helpful in the intervening years.”
After becoming an attorney, Kambhampaty was selected to serve as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve, a role in which he continues to serve. In his civilian career, he has worked for agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. He is also president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington.
“[In] my career, I’ve had the opportunity to serve as an attorney in support of various national security matters,” Kambhampaty says. “This has included serving as an advisor for military operations and bilateral engagements with host nations overseas, supporting counterterrorism prosecutions and serving as counsel to civil litigation involving classified information and close coordination with interagency partners. I presently lead a team of experienced attorneys responsible for regulatory matters that intersect with national security issues.” — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
2014
Matthew Stupak ’14 is a global product solutions lead for YouTube Video at Google in New York. At Google, he works on global pricing and revenue yield management. Before his role at Google, he was a manager in corporate strategy and M&A at KPMG, focusing on banking and financial services. At Binghamton, Stupak was a computer science major, part of campus Greek life, a Watson peer advisor, media production operator at EngiNet, resident assistant in Newing and president of the computer science honors society. He lives on Long Island with wife, Sara, and son, Asher.
2012
Andrew Kaufman ’12 joined the New York office of Blank Rome LLP as an associate in the corporate litigation group.
2018
Zachary Mike ’18 joined the law firm of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo LLP as an associate attorney. He concentrates his practice in business and corporate law.
2019
Tristan Cossaro ’19 wrote the novel The Serpent Shepherd: Tales From Velgarth (independently published, 2024), a tale of camaraderie, vengeance and the pursuit of redemption.
Deborah Epstein ’19 joined the New York office of Fox Rothschild LLP as an associate in the real estate department.
2022
Mena Hamza ’22 is a specialist with Alvarez & Marsal’s human resources operations team in Dallas.
ALUMNUS CONTRIBUTES TO CRICKET’S GROWTH
Vinit Hemant Tagarse, MS ’21, is Binghamton’s next Olympic hopeful. Making the 2028 U.S. national team in cricket would be the capstone of a journey that started in his native India.
Tagarse’s accolades include being captain of his undergraduate college cricket team, representing the California Golden Eagles in the 2023 United States Premier League and playing for the South Zone in the USA Regional Championship.
He also played for two seasons as a bowling all-rounder on the Fort Lauderdale Lions, a club on the Minor League Circuit, a professional cricket league in the U.S. providing a platform for local talent to showcase their skills and contributed to the growth of cricket in America.
“Getting selected for the Lions was incredibly special,” Tagarse says. “It
felt like the sacrifices, dedication and effort I put in finally paid off. Cricket has grown significantly in the past two years in the U.S. With the right support, cricket could become one of the country’s top sports.”
Tagarse’s professional training began at age 7 in the Shivaji Park (Dadar) section of Mumbai, an area known for producing talented cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar. As a teen, Tagarse was selected for one of the city’s most prestigious clubs, and subsequently competed in a number of high-profile tournaments.
“[In my area of Mumbai], cricket is more than just a sport. It’s an integral part of the culture and deeply woven into the emotions of the community. Growing up in this environment, it was only natural for me to develop a love for the game.” — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
2023 GRAD MAXIMIZES CALORIES-PER-DOLLAR
We’re paying more and getting less. Having read such comments online — especially from Taco Bell customers — Adam Cohen ’23 was curious about what was going on at his favorite fast-casual chain: Chipotle.
“I played on the Ultimate Frisbee team at Binghamton and, after tournaments, we’d get Chipotle on the way back,” Cohen says. “It was the best meal in terms of calories-per-dollar. You’d get two meals if you kept asking for extra stuff.”
Although Cohen never felt Chipotle was ripping him off, he decided it would be fun to map out prices at Chipotle locations across the U.S. That led him to create chipotlecost.com. Cohen developed an algorithm that would scour the Chipotle website and pull prices from locations offering online ordering.
“I studied economics as a minor at Binghamton in addition to majoring in computer science,” says Cohen, a software engineer for CVS in the Boston area. “People could say it’s unfair that one Chipotle a few miles away prices things differently than a location they’re at, but it’s smart pricing and knowing your markets, that you can charge X here, and X plus three there.”
He found one of the most expensive locations was in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, and one of the lowest was near Purdue University in Indiana.
“I have a friend at Purdue, and he was happy to hear that he was getting a good deal,” Cohen says. — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
IN MEMORIAM
Feyyaz Baskent ’73 died May 18, 2024. He played soccer at Binghamton University from 1971–73, ending his collegiate soccer career in 1973 as Athlete of the Year. He had 25 patents and made significant contributions to the field of chemistry. He is survived by many relatives and friends.
Steaphan Greene ’99, MS ’03, died Aug. 25, 2023, in Newark, Calif., at the age of 46, after nearly four years of battling melanoma. He was a computer science professor at Binghamton University and then became an engineer at Facebook, Meta and Oculus.
Ana Palmiero ’07 died Aug. 17, 2018, at the age of 33. Palmiero was the managing editor at a Top 100 magazine. She was kind, reliable and generous, and always put others before herself.
NEW BOOK RELEASES
THE BIPOLAR THERAPIST: A JOURNEY FROM MADNESS TO LOVE AND MEANING
Marcia Naomi (Fisch) Berger ’66
Bitachon Press, 2024
Berger’s latest book is a story of resilience, perseverance, drive and courage. This is the only memoir showing a complete recovery from bipolar disorder. The author recounts how her time as a psychiatric inpatient positively shaped her work as a psychotherapist serving psychiatric and alcoholic inpatients. She had to confront the stumbling blocks of shame and stigma, benefiting from the support of close friends and mentors.
This book documents the lives of two French women and a French African man who are travelers connected to the Saint-Simonian utopian socialists; they came to work for the Egyptian government in the 1830s. They have been marginalized and excluded from the historical record because they were women, not part of the colonial elite or of mixed racial heritage. Ragan’s work brings them to life through archival research and vibrant storytelling.
PIVOT OR DIE: HOW LEADERS THRIVE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES
Gary Shapiro ’77
William Morrow, 2024
As CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, Shapiro has witnessed nearly every recent major technological breakthrough. After more than four decades in the industry, he knows that successful leaders in the tech world have one common trait: they are able and willing to pivot. Invoking case studies, economic theory and Shapiro’s own personal experience, the book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the development of innovative technology and business strategies. The author offers a framework for leaders in technology and beyond to stay flexible and agile.
TWILIGHT ZONE REFLECTIONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL IMAGINATION
Saul Traiger ’77
Lever Press, 2024
Traiger’s book is the first of its kind to explore the entire The Twilight Zone series. The work serves both as an introduction to philosophy and as a full guide to the philosophical issues that were sprinkled throughout the series that originally aired from 1959–64. Through the show, Rod Serling considered questions at the very heart of philosophical inquiry, such as the nature of self, God’s existence, the possibility of an afterlife and the relationship between knowledge and mental illness. Traiger asserts that each of the 156 episodes can serve as an entry to philosophical reflection.
DISPELLING THE SHADOW: ACTIVITIES EXPLORING LIFE AND DEATH WITH YOUNG PEOPLE
Mala Hoffman ’82 and Lucy Moran Routledge, 2024
This book, written by Hoffman and her daughter, is designed to support parents, teachers and caretakers in their efforts to lead children in their lives to an understanding of a challenging topic with grace and empathy. Dispelling the Shadow provides a context for navigating the emotions that children may experience when discussing the cycle of life.
COLLEGE UNMAZED: YOUR GUIDE TO DESIGN AND DOCUMENT YOUR HOMESCHOOL
Holly (Ceccherelli) Ramsey ’89 with Michele Evard College UnMazed, 2024
Although the settings are different, homeschooling in high school can be excellent preparation for college, according to the authors, who are nationally recognized educational consultants with more than 40 combined years of homeschooling experience. They give parents and students a personable but expert perspective to help them navigate a path less taken. Readers will learn how to personalize their homeschooling goals, leverage AI tools, showcase a student’s learning on his or her transcript and build a compelling college application.
THE TEEN BREAKUP SURVIVAL GUIDE
Lenora (Maglione) Ziegler ’94 Instant Help, 2024
Breaking up is difficult — especially for teens, as they haven’t gained the perspective to cope when relationships end. Self-doubt can be enormous as they wrestle with questions such as whether they are a worthy partner for someone else and if they will find happiness again. Written for teens and the adults who care for them, this book walks readers through all stages of a breakup and offers skills based in various forms of psychotherapy so teens can reach a place of self-love, understanding and acceptance.
UNLUCKY MEL
Angie Pelekidis, MA ’08 (as Aggeliki Pelekidis) Three Hills, 2024
This novel is a funny and feminist look at revenge within academia, set specifically in Binghamton. PhD candidate Melody Hollings is in the last year of her creative writing program, and her dreams of landing an academic job and publishing her first novel seem within reach. However, her fortune turns in the opposite direction when she must take care of an ill father and deal with a betrayal by a close friend. Pelekidis explores what people are willing to do when they seek vengeance, and the ways in which women are often expected to sacrifice their professional ambitions for the men in their lives.
1981 GRADUATE DETAILS COLLEGE
FOOTBALL PLAYER’S JOURNEY
■ After a 40-year career with IBM, Andy Vodopia ’81 followed his love for sports and capitalized on recent changes to college athletics which allow athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). He wrote Fly Like Chi! (Exit 56 Publishing, 2024), the story of Malachi Coleman, who was abandoned at age 5, entered the foster care system and eventually became a star football player.
Binghamton Magazine: Tell us about your current work.
Andy Vodopia: I was the first to collaborate with college athletes to do children’s books that told their story. I was fortunate to do a book with Michigan players; then I did a book with the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country, who went to Penn State. My latest book is with Nebraska’s Malachi Coleman, who has an incredible story. The books allow me to have a personal interest in the success of the players and their teams. This has also opened doors to work with athletes on other projects.
BM: What inspired such a dramatic career change?
AV: I’ve always loved sports and ran cross country and track at Binghamton under Gary Truce. Writing allowed me to keep my mind sharp. I’ve been able to go to at least one game that each of the athletes played in, and the reception I’ve received on campuses was very humbling. I never thought so many people would ask for my autograph!
BM: How did you connect with Malachi?
AV: When I’m considering a book, I contact school spirit stores to gauge interest. When I called The Best of Big Red in Lincoln, the owner said if the book was about Malachi, he’d order it immediately. I contacted [Malachi’s] parents, who loved the idea of promoting Malachi’s story through a book. It turned out that the owner of the spirit store was the son of Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s football coach during their glory years. He wrote the book’s foreword.
BM: What did you find most amazing about Malachi’s story?
AV: When he was 5, his mother abandoned him at a stranger’s doorstep. He was going through garbage cans to find food for himself and his sister. He bounced from foster home to foster home, where he was abused. He rose above that — and became the No. 1 football recruit in Nebraska, deciding to stay home and play for the Cornhuskers. [Editor’s note: Coleman subsequently transferred to Minnesota.]
BM: What do you hope will result from his story being shared?
AV: We’d love every foster child to have this book to see what they can become. That’s probably not realistic, but we’ve made headway doing this for foster children in Nebraska, where we’ve teamed with a local charity to make that happen. Malachi donates all book proceeds to his charity, which promotes events for foster care children. Other athletes have been generous. We’re approaching $50,000 in donations between all four of the books. — STEVE SEEPERSAUD
You help students achieve
Alberto Farfan, a junior majoring in biological sciences at Binghamton University, dreams of becoming an immunologist who creates cures for genetic or infectious diseases. He wants to help the world, knowing all too well the pain of grief, loss and weakened health.
His grandfather died from complications of COVID-19. His heart aches for a family member receiving cancer treatment and a loved one affected by heart disease.
Because donors gave to the Binghamton Fund, Alberto received an Opportunity Scholarship in the fall that lightened a financial burden weighing on him and his family. The generosity motivates him.
From great pain to great success
“I truly am grateful, and I will do my best to achieve my dream,” he says. “Your support is important in helping me do that. Your support is not going to waste.”
Learn how you can be part of a student’s success story by going to binghamton.edu/advancement.
When Alberto Farfan isn’t focusing on academics, he’s strengthening his skills as captain of the University fencing club team.
