Lenore Friend is the director of public relations and communications at FLCC and the college's liaison with Finger Lakes TV. Contact her at (585) 785-1623 or Lenore.Friend@flcc.edu.
Sarah Frost of Geneva, a graphic design major at Finger Lakes Community College, was among 45 State University of New York students honored in April with the Norman R. McConney Jr. Award for Student Excellence.
The award recognizes students in the SUNY Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) for their academic merit and strength in overcoming significant personal obstacles.
Frost, 38, has struggled with learning disabilities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyscalculia, which makes it harder to do tasks involving math. She has also coped with COVID isolation and a physically disabling illness.
“Slowly but surely, I have started to regain my strength. I am so grateful for my teachers, I have no words that can equal the amount of gratitude I feel for them,” she said. “The same goes for my EOP support. Having weekly meetings where I can touch base with my advisor, Nicole (Siegwarth), felt like having family care for you.”
Frost also found encouragement in joining the student organization AALANA, which stands for African American Latino/a, Asian and Native American. She plans to transfer to a four-year school and continue her studies in graphic design.
“Sarah is a shining example of what it means to be an EOP student and a Norman R. McConney Jr. Award recipient. Her will to succeed is a testament to her perseverance, grit, resilience and determination,” said Lisa Thomas, director of the EOP program at FLCC. “Even when things seemed impossible, Sarah dug deep, utilized her resources, and turned things around. She continues to rise above her circumstances, and we are excited to see her continue her journey.”
Frost encourages other students struggling with illness and disability not to give up.
“It’s going to be hard at times, but remember to talk to your EOP advisors. They will never steer you wrong, and they will always be there when you need them. Just keep trying,” she added.
The Norman R. McConney Jr. Award for Student Excellence is named in memory of a graduate of the University at Albany and former assistant dean for special programs at SUNY. McConney (1946–2016) and former Assembly Deputy Speaker Arthur O. Eve helped create EOP as a statewide program.
Frost attended an award ceremony in Albany on April 14 with Thomas and Siegwarth, the EOP academic support outreach specialist.
“I can tell you this right now, if not for EOP, I would not have made it this far. When I was running low on food, they assisted me. When I needed new school supplies, they were there,” she said. “I think that every school needs people like Lisa and Nicole because without them a lot of underprivileged students would get lost in the shuffle.”
“I have had the great fortune of working with Sarah very closely in my role,” Siegwarth added. “She is warm, talented, funny, and spirited. Her inner strength and motivation to be successful in life despite the many personal, academic, and financial hurdles she has faced is inspirational. I wish it was something that I could bottle and share with all of our students. I am so proud of her and her determination and cannot wait to see what comes next. She knows I will always be there to offer support and to cheer on her success.”
Since its inception in 1967, the EOP has provided access, academic support, and supplemental financial assistance to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. In its 55-year history, the EOP has served more than 78,000 students and evolved into one of the country’s most successful college access programs.
In the current academic year, SUNY has nearly 8,000 EOP students on 50 SUNY campuses. EOP students often outperform their peers, with 74 percent of them graduating with a baccalaureate degree within six years.
Frost credited several faculty and staff for contributing to her success.
“I would like to give a special thank-you to my teachers and staff: Margaret Pence, Barbara J. Senglaub, Lacey McKinney, Nicole Siegwarth, Lisa Thomas, Dorren Allen-Carr, Sim Covington, Amy McGowan, Andrea Cornett, Suzanne Marino, Jodi Merklinger, Melissa Soules, and Aaron Sullivan. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Without knowing it, you have helped make my dreams come true,” she said.
Rick Hill, instructor for the Finger Lakes Community College Certified Production Technician program, works with student Sean O’Rourke as he views a simulation using a virtual reality headset on April 23 at the Bloomfield Central School Operations Center. The college has received $523,700 to cover student costs for CPT and 10 other programs.
Finger Lakes Community College has received $523,700 in federal funding designed to cover most or all of the cost for individuals who want to train for careers in manufacturing, construction, information technology and health care.
The funding comes from the Reimagine Workforce Preparation Training program, meant to encourage people to switch to careers in high demand fields without taking on debt. The lengths of the training programs range from six weeks to nine months.
“We live at a time when people need to switch careers more often to keep up with economic change. This grant eliminates a major hurdle for most people to switch careers for greater pay, advancement potential and job satisfaction,” said Todd Sloane, FLCC’s director of workforce development.
Courses offer training in the following areas:
Health care: enhanced phlebotomy, certified clinical medical assistant, certified nurse aide, home health aide, pharmacy technician, patient care technician
Training is offered at several locations and work for some programs can be completed online. The certified production technician program, for example, is currently offered simultaneously in Bloomfield and Penn Yan two evenings per week with the instructor conducting in-person labs on certain Saturdays. Students in the class learn manufacturing techniques using virtual reality headsets, in addition to learning how to use hand-tools.
The College offers a regular series of information sessions at flcc.edu/workforce.
FLCC staff can provide coaching in selecting and succeeding in a program, along with assistance in finding a job upon completion.
Amy Slentz of Geneva, an environmental studies major, examines aquatic plants with Maura Sullivan, associate professor of environmental conservation, after gathering them via canoe on the Honeoye Lake Inlet at Muller Field Station in Canadice. Photo by Jan Regan.
About two dozen interns have tackled 13 conservation projects over the last year at the College’s Muller Field Station at the south end of Honeoye Lake. The projects involve monitoring the state of the animal and plant life at the field station and surrounding areas to generate data that can be used by a broader community of scientists and educators.
For example, student Amy Slentz gathered aquatic plants from the Honeoye Lake Inlet in summer 2021 to look for invasive species under the guidance of Maura Sullivan, associate professor of environmental conservation and coordinator of the internship program.
FLCC is participating in iMapInvasives, a citizen science program in which residents can submit information about suspected invasive species for confirmation by experts. The College is also part of the aquatic invasive species monitoring program of Finger Lakes PRISM, which stands for partnership for regional invasive species management.
“The good news is that we did not find any of the new and emerging, especially problematic invasive species in the inlet channel during our summer sampling,” Maura said. They were looking for hydrilla, water chestnut and starry stonewort.
Amy also took part in a partnership project with the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society monitoring grassland birds at Taylor Marsh, 600 acres north of Honeoye Lake.
Some projects last for a few months, others continue over years with new groups of students stepping in as others graduate or transfer. Professor John Van Niel, director of the station, and a rotating group of students have been examining the stomach contents of fishers that have been caught by fur trappers to provide the state Department of Environmental Conservation with data on what the weasel-like mammals eat. (Read about it in the FLCC blog at forward.csc.flcc.edu.)
Students also monitored reptiles and amphibians (herptiles) on the station property, gypsy moths at the field station and Onanda Park in the town of Canandaigua, prothonatory warbler nest boxes at the station, and camera traps set up at the station and the East Hill Campus in Naples to catch images of animal life when humans are not around.
The students are learning scientific methods for collecting information about the natural world that can have policy consequences. For example, when invasive species are detected, local governments have to decide whether to spend public funds to limit or remove the species.
This scenario played out last year as the city of Canandaigua debated whether to use an herbicide to combat European buckthorn in Lagoon Park, which runs along Lakeshore Drive behind Wegmans. FLCC faculty and students have assisted with projects to plant native species at the park and monitor progress.
“Students relish this opportunity to get hands-on experience, connect with the natural world, and contribute to a greater understanding of phenomena they study,” Maura said. “Although students might be working on individual projects, this helps cement the reality that they are definitely part of something bigger.”
At the end of their internships, students have been sharing their findings and reflections with other students and faculty, and that may expand to public presentations, she added.
Amy said she values the professional setting that the internships create. “My internship and work within the Conservation Department has helped to nourish my innate passion for the natural world as well as cultivate a deeper enthusiasm around environmental work,” she said.
The Florence M. Muller Foundation has provided funding for the internships for the last three years. The foundation is the legacy of the late Florence Muller, who donated the field station land and buildings to FLCC in 1999 and set up funds for the improvement and operation of the 48-acre property as an education and research center. It had once served as a summer retreat for Florence and her husband, Emil.
Liz Keyser became the new winemaker at a West Coast winery in February.
At FLCC, Liz Keyser discovered her intellectual curiosity and the kind of community a wine region could be.
Liz Keyser has harvested grapes on the southern coast of Australia and the Willamette Valley region of Oregon and worked as an assistant winemaker in Napa Valley.
Now, as the new winemaker at Rocky Pond Winery in Washington, she feels she has returned, in a sense, to her roots in the Finger Lakes some 2,500 miles away.
Amid the vineyards rising from the Columbia River, Liz, 34, has found the same mix of wine-making potential and community she enjoyed while enrolled in FLCC’s viticulture and wine technology program.
“That was always one of the things that really resonated with me about the Finger Lakes. There is that sense of community and a free-flow of knowledge from winery to winery,” she said, explaining that she found Napa Valley to be as competitive, but more secretive. “In the Finger Lakes, you’re pushing each other to get to the better spot, and it’s done with an open source mentality.”
Students, in particular, benefit from the region’s healthy mix of collaboration and competition, she added. Liz felt free to strike up conversations with adjunct instructors who had day jobs at local wineries and fellow students interning across the region.
Gina Lee, coordinator of the viticulture and wine technology degree program, agreed with Liz’s assessment of the Finger Lakes wine community.
“It amazed me after starting this program how much knowledge, equipment, and help that industry members give each other throughout the year,” she said. “The industry is so supportive of us here on the academic side also. It truly makes me proud to be a part of it.”
Liz’s interest in wine began after she graduated in 2010 with a marketing and communications degree from Miami University. She went back to Westchester County, where she grew up, and found work with a wine retailer. The job led to an invitation to join a California wine harvest in 2013.
“I just had a phenomenal time,” Liz said. “I was fully intending on returning to New York and continuing on with my cush wine-buying job, but I fell in love with wine production and knew that I had to stay on this side of the wine industry.”
She did some research and made a big decision.
“I think I shocked everybody in my family by saying, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go to this random community college in upstate New York,’” she laughed.
Liz felt some apprehension returning to school in her late 20s without a strong math and science background. She was relieved to find, as with many applied programs, the math and science skills are woven into their application.
“It was done in a way where everything was so supportive. Teachers really expect you to be honest about your background and what your base understanding is. But they really bring you through it to where your coursework is digestible,” Liz said.
“For the first time, everything was: ‘I want to learn more, I want to dig deeper.’ It was the first time I felt any real intellectual curiosity, and I knew that was the right choice for me,” she added. “Rob Wink’s plant physiology course, that is some of the most intense studying of my life and some of the most rewarding as well. It was the first time I had to sit down and throw myself at studying.”
While a student, she worked at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard & Winery in Dundee and developed a curiosity about other wine regions from Paul Brock and other faculty. After completing core classes, she went “harvest hopping” with classmates Greg Taylor ’16 and Bruce Stebbins ’17 to Hardys Tintara in McLaren Vale, Australia, and A to Z Wineworks in Newberg, Ore. These experiences only made her more committed to vineyard management and wine production.
“No harvest is ever the same, you always can do something a little bit different, a little bit better. It’s such a beautiful process, working with a natural product. It’s going to humble you year over year, and it’s going to make you want to come back,” she said.
Her first permanent, full-time winemaking job was as assistant winemaker at HALL Family Wines in St. Helena, Calif. She spent five years there before her friend and mentor Steve Leveque, an established winemaker on the West Coast, told her about Rocky Pond.
Liz was ready to take ownership of the winemaking process and drawn to this particular region in Washington state.
“The land itself is absolutely inspiring,” she said. “The vines themselves look so perfect and there’s so much potential wrapped up in these vineyards. Rocky Pond has a vision for the Columbia Valley becoming a wine region. In a way, it kind of reminded me of the Finger Lakes.”
Liz particularly likes the idea that she can be part of creating an identity for an up-and-coming wine region and re-create some of the experiences she had at FLCC.
“It was a really special time in my life,” she said. “I am thankful for it every day.”
Note: Alumni, please share your news with us, including new jobs, promotions, awards, marriages, children or an amazing life experience. Use our form to stay in touch.
Gary Parmelee ’14 experiments with a dessert at FLX Hospitality.
In the spring alumni magazine, three culinary alumni talk about building careers in a creative, demanding field while finding time for friends and family.
What does Gary Parmelee like to cook?
“Anything that I don’t know how to cook,” says Gary, a 2014 culinary arts graduate and the production manager for FLX Hospitality. “I like to fully immerse myself. Right now, I am really, really big into baking bread, so I’ve got every one of my bread-baking books out. I’m learning about sourdough, and I’ve got bagels proofing right now.”
It is a winter afternoon and he has time to experiment. Gary is a culinary arts professional on vacation, which runs counter to the industry stereotype of never-ending hours, hot kitchens and irritable chefs. The Finger Lakes food and beverage landscape is in flux, expanding to serve the demand for local, artisanal foods and contracting with pandemic restrictions and labor shortages. Amid it all, three culinary alumni have achieved greater work-life balance, and they hope it becomes a long-term trend.
These days, Gary works mostly 9 to 5, coordinating prep for the FLX Hospitality family of businesses. This includes the farm-to-table restaurant FLX Table and FLX Fry Bird, serving specialty fried chicken. Another alumna, Sabrina Miller ’15, owns Sabrina’s Bake Shoppe, a short walk from her three children’s school in Penn Yan.
Kurt Hass ’19 of Cohocton, says his job as resident director for AVI Food Systems, the dining vendor for Genesee Community College, leaves time for family. Drawn to culinary arts for its creativity and community, all three put in the hours and endured COVID disruptions to arrive at a place where they can combine their passion and personal lives.
Discovering culinary
Kurt Hass ’19 is now the resident manager for the food service vendor at Genesee Community College.
Gary grew up in Geneva around food. His mother worked in food service and his grandma whipped up everything from pasta to tenderloin to homemade chicken soup. After high school, he went to SUNY Alfred for architecture but found it tedious.
Then, he started cooking for his lacrosse team.
“I thought, ‘I really enjoy this and all these people are pitching in money and want me to cook a meal, and they’re really thrilled about it and want me to do it often.’”
Gary switched gears and transferred to FLCC.
Kurt discovered his penchant for cooking later in life. After serving with the Marines, he worked in CNC (computer numerical control) machining for the aerospace industry and took an interest in barbecuing.
“I had a smoker in the backyard, and some friends and I started doing some barbecuing, and I found out that I have somewhat of a knack for doing this,” he says. He entered Kansas City Barbecuing Society (KCBS) competitions and started winning.
“My wife, Sharon, is basically the one who pushed me to go to culinary school at 41 years old. She’s the one that saw the passion, saw the desire, saw the drive and encouraged me to pursue it.”
Sabrina had been making elaborate pastries for family and friends for years. Her shop’s Facebook account features photos of sugar-cookie cutouts shaped like Keuka Lake and a Harry Potter-inspired birthday cake (Slytherin house).
By 2013, she was 28 and a divorced mom with twin boys and a baby girl. Sabrina felt she needed to do something for herself and discovered the culinary arts program, which had opened two years earlier. “When I saw culinary, I thought it was the best of both worlds. I could go ahead and prove to myself that I could manage college while doing something I love.”
Going to school
Still, college could not be all passion without practicality. Gary was working full-time, and Kurt and Sabrina had children.
“I was able to take full-time classes and still be able to navigate my kids’ school schedule,” Sabrina says. “Having the night classes helped. You can jam a lot of credit hours into a little bit of time.”
Sabrina Miller ’15 owns and operates Sabrina’s Bake Shoppe in Penn Yan.
One of Sabrina’s twins was diagnosed with cancer at age 5. He was 18 months into his treatment when she enrolled.
“I was working part-time four days a week, and then had the cakes, and I cleaned houses on the side while dealing with CJ’s treatment,” she explains. “There would be weeks when he was immunocompromised, and he needed me at home. Chef (Associate Professor Jamie Rotter) would let me make up assignments as much as possible and do things online.”
CJ, now 15 and in remission, joins brother Logan and sister Bella, 11, at the bakery after school.
Gary, too, says night classes were integral to his success because they allowed him to hold down a job. The program also requires 600 internship hours, and Gary’s assignment at the New York Wine and Culinary Center led directly to full-time work.
“I was there on Saturday nights and working the line and putting out banquets … the requirement to do an internship and fully dive into a Saturday night in a restaurant is probably why I am where I am today,” he says.
The culinary center hired Gary even before graduation, and he spent six years as a chef there before moving on to be the chef at FLX Table in 2018.
“What I loved most about being a chef is the ability to engage with the guests. Ninety-eight percent of the time you are chatting with guests that are having a really nice time, and they want to know more about you,” he says. “It opens the conversation up to you learning about them.”
Looking back, Gary also appreciates the ServSafe food safety certification he earned as part of the program. “An unbelievable amount of knowledge comes from being able to take ServSafe,” he adds.
Kurt interned at Bully Hill Winery and the Waterfront Restaurant in Hammondsport. “The internship was critical. It gives culinary students a taste of the real world. In a restaurant you’ve got a customer waiting on you versus a lab where you have the rest of your teammates helping you,” he notes.
“The other big part was the business classes, how to basically run a successful business out of culinary versus just how to cook. Jamie and Patrick (Rae) have put just as much information into that two-year program as they possibly can.”
Thriving, then surviving
By the close of the 2010s, the Finger Lakes food and beverage business was humming. Craft brewing was well-established and distilleries were opening. Real Eats, maker of vacuum packed, prepared meals, opened in 2017 in the Geneva Enterprise Development Center.
In 2018, Wine Spectator magazine recommended FLX Table, where Gary was preparing meals, as a stop between tastings in the Finger Lakes, and Wine Enthusiast podcaster Jameson Fink praised the growing family of FLX businesses.
Sabrina opened her bakery in April 2019 following a serendipitous visit to her chiropractor, who had just bought the Arcade building with a vacant storefront in Penn Yan.
After graduation in 2019, Kurt helped friends open Station 26 bar and restaurant in Cohocton then jumped at the chance to serve as executive chef for AVI at the FLCC main campus.
Then came March 2020 and everything changed.
Gary was furloughed during FLX Table’s temporary closure. FLCC shut down its cafe, prompting AVI to move Kurt to Alfred University. Sabrina scrambled to adjust by setting up times when people could window shop for baked goods and pay using a touchless card reader.
After getting through 2021 in what she called “survival mode,” Sabrina is considering expanding her menu, perhaps adding breakfast sandwiches.
Kurt feels fortunate to be part of a company that kept him working. From Alfred, he spent a few months at Keuka College before landing at GCC. He still sees restaurants struggling with COVID protocols and labor shortages. Workers with more choices are opting for jobs with better hours or benefits.
“I think if restaurants want to continue to succeed they’re going to have to change the way that they do business,” he says. “The 70-hour work weeks are going to end up being a thing of the past.”
“A lot of people are starting to set boundaries and ask for a little more work-life balance,” Gary adds. “People are begging for a normal life with something they love.”
Jamie agrees balance is possible, but both employees and employers will have to work at it.
“Balancing a career in any facet of the culinary arts industry takes dedication and discipline. If you don’t gain that balance, the work can burn you out. Many employers are more cognizant of this potential for employee burnout as well as its toll on the bottom line,” he says.
“It’s tougher for chefs; they can’t just walk away and take the time when things get rough. Employers are starting to figure this out, and slowly but surely many are beginning to adjust the way that they do business.”
Changes ahead
Underneath the current turmoil, the food and beverage industry holds promise for people to make a living and have a life. Jamie, the culinary arts program coordinator, stressed the range of opportunities with high school counselors at an event at New York Kitchen in December 2021.
“When you think of culinary arts, the first career that comes to mind is restaurant chef. It’s a good career choice … but that is really just the beginning. Our message to students is that culinary offers a wide range of careers and lifestyles. You can be a chef without having to work every Saturday night,” he told the room.
“Culinary is a great gig, and you have to really love it to do it, but there are outlets to express your creative ability through food,” Gary agrees. “You can work in a commissary space, you can sell food to kitchens. Or you can do food production for a place like Real Eats.”
That said, he adds, the culinary field is demanding and the hours can be long.
“Everyone can tell you, ‘Oh you don’t want to be a chef. You’re not going to be here for Christmas,’” he begins. “I proved them wrong. I went in and I did it and, granted, they were right and I was right.
“There are definitely things I missed out on, but I am able to enjoy those things now because I put the work in, formulated my own opinion and decided this is what I want to do. You do have to pay your dues, but the more you learn, the easier you make your life.”
Sabrina strives to find a balance between building her business and remembering the reason she got into it.
“Don’t be scared of long hours. They will pay off. If it’s something that you enjoy doing, it doesn’t become a job,” she says. “Make sure you leave time to be your own creative self. Filling orders for other people all the time pays the bills, but it doesn’t necessarily help with the creative part of it.”
Kurt, who has a managerial role in food service, still fires up a grill or smoker any chance he gets.
“My favorite days are the days I get to put on the white chef’s coat and actually cook again. Every chance I get, when the weather is nice, I like to barbecue at home or at a friend’s house. That’s definitely where my love comes from.”
Note: Alumni, please share your news with us, including new jobs, promotions, awards, marriages, children or an amazing life experience. Use our form to stay in touch.
For the eighth consecutive year, Finger Lakes Community College has received the Military Friendly School designation from VIQTORY, a veteran-owned media company that recognizes employers and colleges showing strong recruitment and retention rates among military veterans.
This is the College’s first year achieving gold status. Of the 1,800 schools that applied for the Military Friendly designation for 2022-23, 282 earned gold awards for their leading practices, outcomes, and effective programs.
“The process established for the Military Friendly designation is rigorous and guided by an advisory council of higher education professionals who oversee veteran services. I am very proud of the gradual improvements our dedicated faculty and staff have made to our comprehensive veteran services to reach gold status this year,” said FLCC President Robert Nye.
FLCC scores highest in standards for culture and commitment to veterans and standards for graduation and career outcomes. The College assists students in obtaining the maximum number of credits for their military service, based on training, coursework and occupational specialty. It also helps veterans secure benefits for themselves and their families and provides opportunities to connect with other student veterans and local veterans’ services.
VIQTORY uses public data sources and information from a survey completed by the school and personal data from surveys of veterans to establish its scores. It measures a school’s ability to meet thresholds for retention, graduation, job placement, repayment, persistence, and loan default rates for all students and specifically for student veterans.
FLCC is one of nine New York community colleges that received the designation and one of four to achieve gold award status. More information about FLCC’s veteran services is available at flcc.edu/veterans.
Mara Jankowski of Palmyra is a mathematics major and 2019 graduate of Midlakes High School. She received the Brenda S. Brockman Beck Memorial Scholarship for a full-time female student studying mathematics or computer science.Michael Hiller of Penn Yan is the 2021 recipient of the Monty Stamp Memorial Scholarship for viticulture and wine technology. The scholarship was named for Charles LaMont “Monty” Stamp, founder of Lakewood Vineyards Winery.
The Finger Lakes Community College Foundation awarded 139 students a total of $177,680 in scholarships funded by local families, business and organizations during 2021.
The Foundation manages more than 100 scholarship funds. Amounts vary from $400 to one-year of tuition, currently $4,968. To view the scholarships and criteria, visit flcc.edu/scholarships. Check back in late January for the link to the 2022 application.
All students who apply to FLCC by March 1 and submit a high school transcript are automatically considered for scholarships based on general criteria, such as a field of study. Students who apply after March 1 or may be eligible due to special criteria, such as status as a veteran or a family member of a veteran, should fill out the application.
The following new scholarships were added in 2021:
The Biddle/Merrill Veterans Scholarship was launched by Bud and Debbi Biddle and Gary and Sharron Merrill of Canandaigua to support a student who is a military veteran or a family member of a veteran. Bud and Gary are Navy and Army veterans, respectively.
The Olivia Lynn Calabrese Memorial Scholarship was created in memory of Olivia by her parents, Chris and Amy Calabrese, for a student pursuing an art degree. Amy is a former member of the FLCC Foundation Board of Directors.
The Geneva City School District Alumni Scholarship was created by FLCC Trustee Santa Abraham and her husband, Matt, to support graduates of the Geneva City School District who attend FLCC.
The Kathryn Kingsley Wunder Memorial Scholarship was created by Nicole Kingsley Brunner and her husband, Adam, in memory of her grandmother, Kathryn Kingsley Wunder. Kathryn began attending FLCC at age 40 while a single mother of six children. This scholarship recognizes a non-traditional student pursuing a nursing degree.
The Nancy Schopf Memorial Scholarship was created by the Seventh district of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State in memory of member Nancy Schopf, to support a student majoring in horticulture.
The Niagara Label Graphic Arts Award was created by the Niagara Label Company for the winner of the annual wine label design competition.
The Bill White Memorial Scholarship was established by family and friends of the late Bill White, a manager of instructional technology at FLCC who died in a car accident in 2020. It is awarded to a student majoring in information technology.
Finger Lakes Community College announces the dean’s list for the fall 2021 semester. A total of 464 students earned this honor.
To be eligible for the FLCC fall dean’s list, full-time students enrolled in a degree or certificate program must earn a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and have completed 12 or more credit hours. Part-time students are included in the spring dean’s list.
Associate Professor Jonathan Weissman developed a class in 2012 to teach students IPv6, which stands for Internet Protocol version 6, the system which assigns an address to internet connected computers and devices.
Jonathan Weissman of Brighton, Finger Lakes Community College associate professor of computing sciences, has been inducted into the New Internet IPv6 Hall of Fame as an IPv6 Evangelist.
IPv6 stands for Internet Protocol version 6, which provides an identification and location, through an IP address, for computers and devices so they can find each other and communicate over the internet (This is how you can use your phone to pay your credit card bill from a trail in the Adirondacks).
It is designed to replace IPv4, the almost 40-year-old address system that has failed to keep up with the proliferation of Internet‑connected devices. This includes mobile devices and the Internet of Things, a reference to devices that communicate with other devices, for example, those found in wireless sensor networks, control systems, and smart homes.
IPv4 addresses consist of four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods. (Example: 192.168.1.1.) North America ran out of IPv4 addresses in 2015, and other parts of the world have run out of IPv4 addresses as well.
IPv6 addresses are four times the length of IPv4 addresses and consist of up to 32 numbers, with groups of four digits separated by colons. (Example: 2001:0db8:000f:0052:0000:0000:0000:1337).
A worldwide consortium called the IPv6 Forum created the evangelist honor to recognize efforts of individuals to get industry, research, education and government to switch from IPv4 to IPv6 to protect business continuity and security.
Weissman, who is also the coordinator of the FLCC associate degree in networking and cybersecurity, developed and taught what he believes is the first college course dedicated to IPv6 anywhere, for FLCC in the summer of 2012. He continues to teach CSC 206 as a summer course; registration has recently opened for summer 2022. In addition to college credit, the class leads to a certification that shows the students are knowledgeable and have hands-on skills in the new protocol.
The evangelist honor, Weissman said, “allows my future CSC 206 students to understand how connected I am to the new protocol.”
For information on the FLCC networking and cybersecurity program, contact the One Stop Center at (585) 785-1000 or onestop@flcc.edu. Follow Weissman on Twitter and Instagram: @CSCProf.
Emer O’Brien of Geneva, a Canandaigua Academy graduate, presents her Synthesis No. 10 wine label design for the next series of Finger Lakes Community College wines. Of 11 submissions, viticulture students voted to select O’Brien’s design in the annual competition, which gives students the experience of designing for clients. Photo by Rikki Van Camp
The fall semester was already going well for Emer O’Brien, a graphic design student at Finger Lakes Community College.
She and her volleyball teammates captured the regional championship on Halloween with a win over Fulton Montgomery Community College, earning a trip to the national competition in Minnesota.
A few weeks later, the viticulture and wine technology students selected her proposed design for the next label of the College’s 2021 vintages.
“It’s a huge honor,” she said of knowing 1,700 bottles will be wrapped with her Synthesis No. 10 label. She offered a simple design with the name bisecting a circle on a solid color background, a deep green for the whites and a burgundy for the reds.
