Video: The Simple Life, Unplugged
At Geneseo, Nik Varrone is the support services manager for IT. At home, he and his wife, Anya, run a farm and plows the land using a method that was most popular in the 1700s. The Varrones use horse plowing and have created a lifestyle that fits their beliefs, goals and is more sustainable. “If you look at what we do from the outside, it looks simple,” says Nik Varrone, Geneseo’s support services manager in the IT...
Toothsayer
Tanya Smith ’97 shows how simple teeth can reveal complex stories about how humans evolved. By Lonny Lippsett When Tanya Smith ’97 peered into the time capsules, two small children who lived 250,000 years ago came back to life. They were Neanderthals, an ancient species of now-extinct evolutionary cousins of humans, who had dwelled in what is now southeastern France. One child, Smith could make out, was born in springtime and was...
Uplifting Voices for LGBTQ History
Illustration by Ellice Weaver Learning our own stories empowers us. When I saw a need to share LGBTQ history, I created my own walking tour to share with the world. By Michael Venturiello ’13 If you look on the homepage of SUNY Geneseo’s website, you will see an enticing message: “Discover why there’s no place like Geneseo.” As a proud alumnus of 2013, I can understand the rationale for that statement. There truly is no place...
Make What You Imagine
Alumni conquer real-life boundaries — and serious topics — as illustrators, editors and actors of graphic novels, comics and anime. In the world of graphic storytelling, a teen morphs into a super-hero and swings between buildings with webs spun from his fingertips, and an orphaned goblin faces danger and creatures we’ve never seen before with a wolf pup friend on a mission for justice. What’s fantasy for readers and viewers is...
Connections Count
Embracing the principle of integrative learning, members of the Geneseo community weave disparate strands of knowledge and experience into a strong new fabric. Watch a video about the philosophy curriculum that’s related. In college, you choose a major. In the wider world, you never just have one focus. You might be a software engineer who plays jazz piano, leads a scout troop or calls on knowledge gained in chemistry courses in...
Say Yes
As an explorer, author and equality advocate, I have learned the importance of embracing life’s blurry lines. When I first arrived at Geneseo, I’d never been on a plane. Heck, I was born and raised in New York state, yet had never before visited New York City. My senior year at Geneseo set me on a different path after I enrolled in Semester at Sea. It’s pretty much like what it sounds: a semester on a ship sailing around the...
Unravelling the Mysteries of Mars
Little is still known about the Red Planet, but faculty, students and alumni are conquering the great space unknown. We Earthlings have long been captivated by what occupies the unfathomable vastness of our universe, now with a diameter we can see of about 93 billion light years. In our own solar system of eight major planets, the mysteries of Mars are particularly fascinating, mainly because it is among our closest planetary...
Geneseo’s Problem-Solvers
Alumni and faculty members make important contributions toward addressing needs in healthcare, community development and energy. Some people say that every problem is really an opportunity and wrestling with a problem provides the opportunity to make tangible differences for good. While no individual alone can cure a disease or shrink humanity’s carbon footprint, each person who confronts a need joins a team that spans time and...
On the Front Lines to Defend Wildlife
Working with the National Geographic Society, I have turned my passion for animals into my purpose. Follow Tara Keir on Instagram: @tarankeir If you are lucky in life, you find something you love. If you are even luckier, passion will find you. And if you are me, it will hit you as if you’ve run head-on into a brick wall. From that perspective, I have been incredibly lucky all of my life. Traced back to elephants and their...
Developing Anti-Cancer Medicines with Fewer Side Effects
A Professor’s research on how pharmaceuticals interact with our biomolecules may lead to less toxic treatments. Pharmaceuticals are often necessary in the fight against cancer. But targeting cancer cells has a harsh impact on other cells in the human body, often leading to side effects such as infertility, hair loss and digestive problems. Ruel McKnight, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Geneseo, has spent more than 15...
Scene Around the World
Where will you take your issue of the Geneseo Scene? Check out our Scene Around the World photo gallery and submit your own snapshot.