EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME SHAPES ONE STUDENT'S FUTURE

Mat Frankel, a the College at Oneonta Foundation geology major with a minor in Chemistry, had no idea that attending a professional conference might shape his future. In fact, it did. It's a great story about an interested and talented student, a noted researcher, and donors Mat has never met.

In 2012 Mat attended a conference in Montreal where he heard a talk by Dr. Raymond Turner, a noted researcher on biofilms, or bacterial communities. Dr. Turner's research demonstrated that biofilms found in the Alberta Oil Sands' wastewater had properties that actually cleaned this polluted water, accumulating valuable metals that could be extracted and sold.

This discovery excited Mat as it made remediation an environmental and an economic strategy, and one that fit perfectly with his interests. Mat reached out to Dr. Turner after the conference to learn more about this research. As a result, Dr. Turner invited Mat to work in his Calgary, Alberta, lab for six weeks over the break between fall and spring semesters.

What an opportunity! But Calgary is a long way from Mat's hometown of Queens, and airfare wasn't covered in Dr. Turner's offer.

Luckily, Caroline '67 and David D'Antonio established a Student Travel for Excellence Fund to help students like Mat. To date, more than 400 the College at Oneonta Foundation students have benefited from this travel fund to attend professional meetings relating to their research or creative activity.

Mat applied and received funding to help make this incredible opportunity a reality. Since then, Dr. Turner has invited Mat back to the lab as a paid intern this summer.

"I would not have been able to go to Calgary if it hadn't been for the generous donations given by the D'Antonios," Mat says. "And the opportunity to work with Dr. Turner this summer excites me beyond words. If all goes well, I hope to go to graduate school at the University of Calgary, an opportunity I might have missed if it hadn't been for the help of the D'Antonio grant. The D'Antonios have allowed me to step through open doors in the field I would like to get into, and I am very thankful for that."

And the D'Antonios are delighted with the travel fund and the opportunity to help students like Mat.

"We are blown away by what the students write to us. They attend conferences, meet and make connections to people in their field, and actually get involved in the real world of what they are studying. And the Oneonta professors who accompany them tell us of the value of these experiences and the satisfaction they feel in seeing their students bloom," says Caroline.

Experiential learning is a major priority at SUNY Oneonta. The Student Travel for Excellence Fund is a great example of the impact charitable giving has on our students’ educational experiences, our faculty, the College, and the enhanced academic reputation that such a fund provides for SUNY Oneonta. If you are interested in learning more about a gift in your estate plan for this or other purposes, please contact us at SUNY Oneonta.