Category: Vitality

Daniel DiSalvo of Canandaigua graduated on May 20 with a degree in liberal arts. He is a 2021 graduate of Canandaigua Academy. He shared some thoughts recently on his FLCC experience, which he calls “life-altering.”

What are your plans after graduation?

I plan on spending this summer in my hometown with my friends enjoying my time off before I move down to Wilmington, N.C. to take a gap year with ambitions on continuing to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

What has been the most rewarding part of your experience and why?

The journey. The whole time I’ve been a student here at Finger Lakes Community College I thought my reward and goal would be graduation, the day I get to walk across the stage and get my diploma. I dedicated every day I had at Finger Lakes Community College for this day. Along the way I took up as many opportunities as I could. While at Finger Lakes in my athletic life I competed in multiple sports such as Track and Field, Lacrosse, and the Woodsmen team even making school history by helping the men’s track and field team to win the school’s first ever regional championship for that program last spring. Aside from athletics, in my academic life I achieved a lot such as becoming the president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, making the All-State USA academic team, and raising my GPA up from when I started here at a 3.7 to finishing with a 3.85.

I also got the chance to see a lot more of what else is outside of my world of the college campus and my hometown of Canandaigua. For example, I won a raffle for tickets to the Buffalo Bills vs. the Miami Dolphins game this past Fall where I had the chance to tailgate and crash some tables, but also watch my NFL team kick some butt on their homefield under the lights while it was snowing. For the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, I had the chance to be flown out to Columbus, Ohio for the annual catalyst event where there were over 30,000 members attending. While there I was able to tour Ohio State University.

All these different experiences, achievements, medals, and awards with my name on it, all of this I achieved in just two years. When I was working hard and trying new things at school here, I didn’t care about medals or going down in history books or any of that tangible stuff, I just wanted to do what I thought was the right thing and all those achievements were just extra bonuses I got from my hard work. I may be the one talking now about my journey, but it’s not just me that’s walking across this stage.

We celebrate everyone who is a student here at Finger Lakes Community College: Business, Environmental Science, Communications, Healthcare, and every other major. Everyone here is gathered for one purpose and that’s not only to celebrate our academic achievements and success, but to reflect on our journeys here. For the sophomores such as myself here, two years of our lives we dedicated our time and effort into this one school each with our respective majors and here we are now about to graduate. Goals achieved and diplomas received, everyone had their own journey, yet all of us have experienced loss. As most of us know life isn’t always about winning there’s a lot of loss, but as we students know one thing it’s how to get up and keep going, how to buckle down and get ready for the next class, next assignment, next exam, and maybe even next semester.

My journey here has been the most rewarding part of my experience here at Finger Lakes, not because of the achievements and awards, but because of the adventures I got to go on and the people I met along the way. I got to know so many different people coming from all sorts of walks of life. Professors, students, faculty, and staff alike. During my time here I had to overcome so many obstacles and I’ve grown so much as a person, yet none of this would’ve been possible if it weren’t for the people beside me such you all gathered here with me today that helped me along my adventure.

Our time here at Finger Lakes has come to an end, yet the lives we impacted and the things we’ve achieved will always remain with myself those who got to be with us and help us along our journey. It’s easy to give up, it’s easy to be lazy and do things just for yourself. Where it’s hard is when it’s time to wake up and get to work. To wake up and do things for others. It’s hard to dedicate your time and effort to helping others without looking to get anything for yourself. Speaking for myself, I did a pretty dang good job here and I’m excited for what adventure awaits me tomorrow, but for today we all should thank those who helped us along the way. We must thank Finger Lakes Community College for providing us with a place of opportunity and unity for us to come together and chase our dreams, allowing us to achieve greatness along the way. We must thank our professors, faculty, and staff for helping us along our journeys making this college be as great as it is. For athletes such as myself, we must thank our coaches for dedicating their time and effort into believing in us and our athletic abilities allowing us to achieve what they knew we were capable of, finally we must thank our parents for raising us and being our biggest supporters as they will always be there for us in our lives. Thank you, Finger Lakes Community College, we are grateful for everything you have done for us and will continue to do so as we all go on to our next journey.

What advice would give to a new student?

If I were to give a piece of advice to everyone here whether they’re graduating, transferring, or returning in the fall, I just got this here to say:
Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Someone who isn’t willing to give up everything will never change anything. While attending Finger Lakes Community College I made the choice to give up who I thought I was, for what I knew I could become. It’s easy to be a good person and help others along your way. We may be at the same school together, pursuing the same major, on the same team, or in the same class, yet everyone here is on a different adventure of their own. Just because we’re all on our own adventures going for different dreams doesn’t mean you can’t give some of your time to step out of your way to help someone achieve theirs. You’ll find you may get more in life from doing that then doing nothing at all. I believe that not only for this school, but in this world it’s better to try and do something than nothing.

The FLCC team won first place for the second consecutive year in the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Competition, sponsored by the New York State Two-Year Engineering Science Association.

The event took place on April 28 at Monroe Community College with seven teams from five community colleges; the others were Broome, Hudson Valley, and Jefferson CC.

The competition involved two vehicles, a self-driving UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), and a remotely piloted UAV. The objective was to autonomously transport the UAV through a series of ground navigation obstacles and release it at the designated zone.

The remotely piloted UAV had to maneuver around and through obstacles, change altitude to accomplish the flight mission, and land safely at the final destination. The project aimed to simulate a rescue mission where human navigation would be dangerous, and aerial navigation would be partially difficult.

Each team was evaluated based on their poster presentation and a series of mission demonstrations. FLCC’s team, named Bob ‘n’ Rob, was part of the Victor Campus Center based Engineering and Technology Club. Members are Bailey Phillips of Shortsville, Ksystof Seibak of Canandaigua, Eric Sandle of Bloomfield (the team captain and pilot), and Jacob DiGiovanni of Waterloo. They were coached by technical specialist Joshua Bell.

This year was FLCC’s sixth participation in this annual competition and their third win. Their poster presentation was judged to be the best among participating teams, and their mission demonstration was equally impressive.

Dancing has always been Erin Joy Grgas’ life.

“I started dancing when I was 2 because my sister was in tap and ballet classes, and I wanted to dance with her,” said Erin, 24. “I was immediately hooked and have danced ever since.”

Erin, who grew up on Long Island and moved to Manhattan at 18, is among FLCC’s newest graduates. She completed her associate degree in kinesiology and human performance in December. 

The online program turned out to be a silver lining in the pandemic cloud that shut down live performances just as her dancing career began.

“I never imagined going to college until after my dance career, or maybe ever, so this degree is more than a piece of paper for me,” she said.

“Before the pandemic, I was living the hustle lifestyle,” she said. “For most dancers there’s no consistency, just a gig when you can, waking up at 6 a.m. and going to an audition, getting out at 3 p.m. to go take a dance class, then going to work.” Continue reading “We interrupt this dance career … with a degree”

Nash Bock’s passion at FLCC was music, and he thought he would make a career of it. But his early college experience was also about community, and that struck a note when he had an opportunity to take a leadership role at Habitat for Humanity.

“I fell in love with the mission of the organization, was inspired by the people involved in the work, and opportunities presented themselves,” says Nash, now the chief business and innovation officer for Greater Rochester Habitat for Humanity. 

The organization is a recent merger of the Flower City (Monroe), Ontario and Wayne county Habitat chapters and reflects a trend in human service organizations seeking creative ways to pool resources and generate new revenue.

Michelle Jungerman ’99 has spent her entire career at another well-known social service agency, The Arc Ontario, formerly Ontario ARC. She has witnessed a transformation in the agency’s approach to helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities build work and life skills.

What’s more, her current role as chief operating officer of the agency’s business enterprises requires her to be as much a serial entrepreneur as a social worker. Continue reading “Laker magazine cover story: Alumni who lead in human services”

The Finger Lakes Community College nursing class of 2022 had a pass rate of 93 percent on the NCLEX-RN, which stands for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.

The FLCC score exceeded the average 63 percent pass rate for New York state associate degree holders and average 69 percent rate for that group nationally.

Students with a bachelor’s degree in nursing who took the exam in New York had an average 66 percent pass rate.

FLCC has recently updated its curriculum to focus on clinical judgment, a key component of the exam.

The Nursing Department has also incorporated more elements to reinforce learning, such as recorded lectures students can revisit, online quizzes and discussions, a professional tutor, and a study and test-taking coach.

FLCC graduated 45 nursing students in 2022, meaning 42 passed the national exam last year.

The College recently expanded facilities to be able to accept new nursing students in the spring semester. The inaugural spring semester class of 20 students began in January.

In addition, the college Board of Trustees in January approved the curriculum for a new licensed practical nursing certificate program. The State University of New York and the state Education Department must sign off on the program before students can enroll. Approval is expected in time for a fall 2024 class. Students who graduate from the certificate program will receive 14 credits toward the 64-credit registered nursing associate degree program.

Check the nursing webpage for more information and take a virtual tour of the Sands Family Center for Allied Health.

Wines that Finger Lakes Community College students will bottle next spring will bear the image of a serpent designed by Matthew Neininger of Canandaigua, a second-year graphic design student.

The serpent is a riff on FLCC’s lake monster mascot, Flick. His wrap-around label is designed to look like a faded historic drawing with a hand-drawn serpent about to bite down on a cluster of grapes an unwitting fisherman is using for bait.  

Neininger’s drawing was one of 16 entries in the annual contest, in which graphic design students use suggestions from viticulture and wine technology students to develop label concepts. The students present their work and their decisions for using certain colors, fonts and images at the end of the fall semester. The viticulture students then meet to discuss the entries and select a winner.

Neininger was humbled by the selection. “I couldn’t believe it. The competition was tough, and I knew if I was a judge the selection would be a difficult one,” he said.

The viticulture students provided 10 to 12 possible ideas for a label, yielding a wide variety of designs. Madison Hobbs of Penn Yan took second place with her “Alley Cat” design, inspired by a request for a lighthearted take. Victor resident Audrey Brown’s third-place entry, “Luminous,” was inspired by a suggestion to mimic vintage botanical drawings of grapes and vine. 

“The hardest part was just allowing myself time to hash out a bunch of dueling ideas,” Neininger said. “I received the initial, overarching concept from one of the viticulture students and then started the brainstorming process, which resulted in a variety of design paths. I ended up choosing this label because it was the most attractive to me and fit well with what the student was asking for.”

Neininger, a Canandaigua Academy graduate, did not begin to explore art as a career path until starting at FLCC. 

“I always was a doodler,” he said. “I love creating and expressing myself and interests through art and design. It just seems like I’m not even doing work. When I did the wine label, it wasn’t really like homework.”

In less than a year, his wine label will begin showing up on two local store shelves. Students in the viticulture and wine technology two-year degree and one-year certificate programs produce commercial wines that are available at Ryan’s Wine and Spirits in Canandaigua and Pedulla’s Wine and Liquor in Geneva. Orders can also be arranged via online form on the FLCC website at flcc.edu/viticulture-center.

ON VIDEO: Rebecca Swift of FingerLakes1 recently spoke to Todd Sloane, FLCC’s director of workforce development, about the next session of no- or low-cost, short-term career training. Click here to find a convenient information session.

The Waterloo Community Center at 3 Oak St. will join the Macedon Public Library, Clifton Springs Library and other sites offering Finger Lakes Community College 14-week job training classes in manufacturing, residential electric and health care in January.

FLCC began building a network of community education sites a year ago as part of a national pilot project to overcome barriers to education in rural areas, such as lack of transportation and broadband.

Continue reading “FLCC adds Waterloo Community Center to local education network”

Michael Van Etten, assistant professor of modern language and coordinator of esports at FLCC, and Francesca “Frankie” Dean, a student leadership board member for esports, recently talked about the College’s varsity team with Finger Lakes News Radio host Paul Szmal.

FLCC is in its third year of esports with a team of 80 men and women. The College’s Board of Trustees approved it as a varsity team in February 2019, due to high student interest and a recognition that students who are more engaged in their college experience are more likely to graduate. FLCC was the first to offer a varsity esports team in Region III of the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association.

Esports was one of three FLCC sports that were able to compete in fall 2020 before a COVID vaccine was available. Today, FLCC fields 14 teams across the platforms of Overwatch, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Smash Ultimate, Hearthstone, and Mario Kart 8.

National Junior College Athletic Association Esports, the governing body for the sport, currently has over 607 teams representing 1,424 students from more than 80 member institutions.

Listen to the interview below.

It was just five days in Vermont, but second-year student Emma Perrone returned from her poetry retreat with Bianca Stone more devoted to her creative writing program.

“I’ve never felt more present in my life than in those few days,” she said. Perrone wrote and listened to poetry as part of a small group led by Stone, whose poems, poetry comics and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and other magazines.

Lauren Smith, who finishes her associate degree in creative writing in December, had a different experience but a similar response. Lauren interned for BOA Editions, a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works in Rochester.

“I learned how much there really is to the publishing process, and how much I love proofreading and editing,” she said.

Both found a renewed commitment to their field of study through what is generally known as applied learning, or learning by doing. Research shows applied learning can increase students’ engagement in their studies and even boost their later earnings. Jon Palzer, professor of English and coordinator of the creative writing program said he noticed a change in both students this fall. Continue reading “Beyond the classroom: Applied learning options for creative writing”