Five former Onondaga Community College students were recognized as Alumni Faces honorees during a ceremony Thursday October 16, in the Frederick Marvin and Ernst Schuh Recital Hall. Their accomplishments were highlighted during the event, and their likenesses and inspirational success stories were added to the Alumni Faces display on campus. The honorees are:
Chidera Joseph '16
At age 28, John More never expected to be back in a classroom, let alone love the experience. A decade ago, he set foot on the Onondaga Community College campus with no clear plan. He hoped going to college might lead him somewhere, but wasn't passionate about it. "I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do," he said laughing. "All I wanted was to play drums, skateboard, and snowboard. I still had a kid mentality."
Thursday, October 16 at 5:30pm, Onondaga Community College will honor a new class of Alumni Faces inductees. The ceremony will be held in the Frederick Marvin and Ernst Schuh Recital Hall in the Academic II building. In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, we are highlighting one of our new Alumni Faces honorees every Wednesday.
When Joshua Dominguez was a young boy growing up in Washington Heights, the towering cranes and rising steel frames of New York City’s ever-changing skyline captured his imagination. "I marveled at skyscrapers and wondered how people so small could build something so big. I knew in my heart I wanted to be a builder one day."
"This time I'm doing it for me!"
Amber Hart is a much different student now than she was a decade or so ago when she first walked into a classroom at Onondaga Community College. Back then, she was studying Liberal Arts, unsure of her direction, and following advice she wasn't sure she believed. "I was doing something I was told I had to," she recalls.
Approximately 200 Baldwinsville High School students had the opportunity to learn more about life on campus during a recent visit to Onondaga Community College. The event was part of a growing initiative to connect college-bound high schoolers with the wide range of opportunities available to them at OCC.
The visit was coordinated through OCC's Concurrent Enrollment program, which allows high school students to take college-level classes at their home high schools while earning transferable college credits.
Thursday, October 16 at 5:30pm, Onondaga Community College will honor a new class of Alumni Faces inductees. The ceremony will be held in the Frederick Marvin and Ernst Schuh Recital Hall in the Academic II building. In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, we are highlighting one of our new Alumni Faces honorees every Wednesday.
A tattoo on Jake Blackwelder's left forearm serves as a daily reminder of a fellow Marine who made a lasting impact on him. It reads: "Corporal Kevin Cueto USMC KIA June 2010 Afghanistan." Corporal Cueto was just 23 years old when he lost his life, killed by a roadside bomb which detonated while he was on foot patrol in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. "He was my first team leader," recalled Blackwelder.
When Camilla Szelazek's sister told her about SUNY Reconnect, a tuition-free community college program that would be starting this fall, it sounded like the perfect opportunity. She enrolled, and is thriving in her first semester in Onondaga Community College's Nursing program. "It feels really good. I love school and I love learning. Without this opportunity, I wouldn't have been able to go back to school."
