SUPPORT EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND EXPAND STUDENTS' HORIZONS

Professor Susan Bernardin

SUNY Oneonta Professor Susan Bernardin understands the importance of getting students out from behind their desks and engaging in professional experiences. Students learn best by doing, and charitable gifts to the College at Oneonta Foundation have opened doors to this kind of experiential learning for our students.

If you're looking for evidence, look no further than the Seneca Falls Dialogues Conference—which Dr. Bernardin traveled to with six the College at Oneonta Foundation underclassmen this past academic year. Donations supporting our Student Travel for Excellence Fund allowed students to engage in leadership skill development, roundtable discussions, and professional networking with fellow students and women's studies professors and researchers.

Oneonta 2013 graduate Mary Nardella's experience at the conference is a perfect example of how important professional development is for undergrads. "I was able to connect and interact with many professionals in the area of women's and gender studies, and I have since maintained contact with several graduate professors who are interested in me as a potential doctoral student. I have identified two graduate programs of which I was previously unaware, and because of that I have changed my whole course of action as I plan my future."

Says Dr. Bernardin, "One of the extraordinary things we can do here—through charitable giving to our Student Travel for Excellence Fund—is to provide motivated students with opportunities for professional development. Such opportunities are usually reserved for graduate students, and hence our ability to bring students to conferences sets both the College at Oneonta Foundation and our students apart at a particularly critical time."