Alumni Profiles is an ongoing series highlighting successful graduates who, with a SUNY education, achieved interesting and influential careers.
Angelo Mazzone is an entrepreneur, educator, visionary, and family man. He has taken advantage of his education at Hudson Valley Community College and Schenectady County Community College to build a hospitality empire in Upstate New York, and now gives back to the College in a handful of ways, including offering experiential education opportunities to students.
Following graduation from SCCC (1974) and, subsequently, University of New Haven in Connecticut, Mazzone returned to New York to jumpstart his career. He saw rapid promotions in multiple positions before testing his entrepreneurial skills through acquiring management and catering of a local restaurant.
Mazzone now leads Mazzone Hospitality in the Capital Region of New York, where his company operates a dozen high-end restaurants, such as Angelo’s Prime Bar and Grill and Angelo’s 677 Prime. Mazzone routinely looks to the Schenectady County Community College students and community to effectively sustain the Mazzone brand.
Read Angelo Mazzone’s professional biography here.
Yetter has spent the last three decades in public and private sectors in the health and human services arena, where most of that was in leadership positions. He is now actively involved in organizational and community development projects around the Owego, NY area, where Yetter lives.
As Commissioner of Tioga County Social Services, Yetter leads a 100-person staff to serve a population of 52,000, budget of $22 million, and over 30 diverse Federal and State programs.
Alumni Profiles is an ongoing series highlighting successful graduates who, with a SUNY education, achieved interesting and influential careers.
Brendan Martin grew up in Colonie, New York. He went on to attend the University at Albany to study business and graduated with high honors. While in high school and college, Martin wrote and performed hip-hop and rap music, writing from his own experiences and what he went through growing up as a child.
Brendan, or B. Martin, has gained a substantial following after winning UAlbany’s Battle of the Bands, T. Pain’s Motivated competition, Hot 97’s Who’s Next competition to open for J. Cole, and recently won the Battle for the Best competition at SXSW 2012.
Martin has performed alongside Mac Miller, Lupe Fiasco, Big Sean, Young Jeezy, and Snoop Dog. He also was invited to Summer Jam 2012, where Martin shared the stage with ASAP Rocky, Big K.R.I.T, Azealia Banks, Pusha T, Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar.
For the last 7 months, Martin has been living in Los Angeles, working with Warner Music. In February 2013, Martin released his SUNY Anthem, which tells the story of his college experience.
Alumni Profiles is an ongoing series highlighting successful graduates who, with a SUNY education, achieved interesting and influential careers.
Ms. Dembinski grew up and continues to reside in Albany, New York. She attended Albany Academy for Girls and graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Zoology. She spent 30 years at Sterling Winthrop Research Institute evaluating investigational medicines for heart failure and diabetes in humans. She also spent 20 years at Omnicare Clinical Research as project director.
After 50 years in medical research, Ms. Dembinski decided to pursue her love of cooking by enrolling in Schenectady County Community College‘s culinary program. She graduated at the top of her culinary class and currently works in the kitchen at Yonos Restaurant whipping up homemade breads and pastries, much to the delight of the customers and staff.
Ms. Dembinski is a sliver medal contest winner of the American Culinary Federations Annual Competition Classic held at Schenectady Community College and was on the team that won a Gold Medal at the Knowledge Bowl ACF Competition held in Hershey, PA.
Ms. Dembinski continues to travel, volunteer at the Equinox Thanksgiving Event and Honest Weight Food Co-Op. This past January, Ms. Joan Dembinski was the subject of a resolution adopted by the New York State Senate for her designation as recipient of the 2012 Arts and Culture Award by Senior Services of Albany.
For the past year, SUNY has collected dozens of success stories from our alumni. The graduates’ careers range from teacher to executive, to scientist to producer. Everybody’s story is unique and no two paths to personal satisfaction are the same. In fact, the only constant between these interviews is the mindset and attitude of each alum. We’ve collected some of the most insightful, inspirational, or otherwise motivating comments from the advice for students section of the SUNY Alumni Profiles and put them in one place!
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Shawn Yetter is the Commissioner of 
