On February 11, dozens of SUNY campuses convened at the Legislative Office Building in Albany’s Empire State Plaza to showcase their individual contributions to their communities as well as SUNY’s collective contributions. SUNY Day is an event where the public, senators, and assemblymen are all welcome to see the latest of what each SUNY campus has to offer. This year’s theme was experiential education.
Generation SUNY is helping to bring you a few of those stories in our SUNY DAY 2013 series.
SUNY Plattsburgh
SUNY Plattsburgh, located in the Champlain Valley of upstate New York, offers a small, tight-knit community for students. With an undergraduate enrollment of just under 6,000 students, the university offers a unique personal environment for the student. At Plattsburgh, student involvement and community service play a big role at the university.
At SUNY Day, we had the pleasure to speak with one of the site directors about Project Connect. Project Connect is an after school program for the Plattsburgh city school district. Pre-service teacher/education candidates plan and produce the program. Currently the program includes three elementary schools and one middle school. “Project CONNECT gives teaching candidates more opportunity to practice early without generating additional stress.”
Another way SUNY Plattsburgh stays involved in the community is through Project H.E.L.P. Project H.E.L.P (Hands Engaged in Linking People) provides students with volunteer experiences while fulfilling the needs of the community. Most of the opportunities require long-term commitment including programs with children, elderly, and soup kitchen. There are also one-time volunteer opportunities available for students who can not commit.
We also had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Stephen Danna, dean of the branch campus SUNY Plattsburgh at Queensbury, located on the campus of SUNY Adirondack. “We serve students in Washington, Saratoga, Warren, Hamilton, Essex counties…We serve students looking for an affordable root to a quality degree.” The campus has 350 students with undergraduate programs including criminal justice, business administration, education, nursing, and psychology.
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