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John Cuyler is never one to let an opportunity slip by. He graduated from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in spring 2009 where he earned a degree in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) while enrolled part time through University College. During the course of Cuyler’s studies, life became a whirlwind of achievement, awards, and recognition. In the spring of 2008, he led a team that tied for second place in the Panasci Business Plan competition, hosted by SU’s EEE program. Their plan centered upon the development of an innovative portable kayak that could be folded in half and carried like a backpack into remote locations. In the summer of 2008, Cuyler took part in EEE’s Entrepreneurial Empowerment in South Africa program (EESA). Student consulting teams worked with disadvantaged entrepreneurs near Cape Town to help them make their ventures sustainable. Continue Reading

Willis Bunkley ’12 had been a Carrier Corporation employee for ten years when the company decided to move its operations out of Syracuse. The Vietnam veteran found himself in a state of uncertainty. “After weighing my options, I wanted to ensure that this never happened again,” he recalls. He knew that furthering his education was a good way to promote future employment security, so he enrolled in college part time at UC. “I was scared and nervous about my chances of being successful, but I found the atmosphere at UC to be inviting and friendly, “ he recalls. Continue Reading

In January 2004, Alissa Italiano slipped on some ice and slammed her head on the sidewalk outside her dorm at Seton Hall University. She picked herself up and went about her day, not realizing that she had actually blacked out. Alissa had suffered a traumatic brain injury that would change her life forever. “Just like that, my life as I knew it was taken from me,” she recalls. Recuperation and rehabilitation followed, and it took more than a year before Alissa was ready to return to the classroom. Continue Reading

Anne Margaret “Amie” Farrell grew up in Ireland, the eldest of nine children. Her mother was nearly blind from smallpox contracted as a toddler, but according to Amie, “she had an ‘overdose’ of common sense, the sharpest wit, and a rich vocabulary. She could do just about anything.” Amie’s father was a small farmer who came to the U.S. briefly during the Depression but returned to Ireland and raised his family. At the age of 17, Amie boarded the ship Ivernia and sailed to America in search of better opportunities. “College was not attainable for the majority back then in Ireland. One had to either be a genius or have connections,” she recalls. But even in America, the education she craved eluded her. Continue Reading

For much of her adult life, earning a college degree was a distant dream for Lucille Murphy. That goal became even more remote when the mother of two gave birth to triplets in 1998. With five children to care for, she figured she’d put that dream on hold, at least until the triplets were in kindergarten. “I wanted to give my children the gift of time,” she explains, “but I also wanted to lead my family toward education. And I knew that if I wanted to do that, I needed to lead myself and finish my degree.”

When she sent the three boys off to kindergarten, Lucille started attending classes at UC. “But I still needed to be an employee, mother, wife, daughter, and sister,” she recalls. “I learned that time passes, and what we do with these pockets of time is up to us. When one shares their dream and goals with the important people in their lives, they support you and become springboards to your success.” Continue Reading