Alumni Relations
Metro Career Night
Metro Career Night, sponsored by the Alumni Association, Metro New York Chapter, and the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development, took place on Jan. 15, at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. More than 300 current students attended the event, where they received career advice from an accomplished panel and took part in individual conversations with 100 alumni volunteers representing a wide variety of career fields. Held annually during winter recess, Metro Career Night enables students to explore careers and add to their professional networks. Panelists were David Berkowitz ‘00, chief marketing officer for MRY; Eric C. Henry ‘05, director of government relations for the New York Botanical Garden; Sunny Hostin ‘90, CNN legal analyst and host; Tonya Parris ‘92, president and founder of the Parris Foundation, Inc.; and Lauren Verrusio ‘06, manager of consumer public relations at Google, Inc.
BAM! Binghamton Alumni Mentoring
During the winter recess, the Alumni Association also sponsored several BAM! Binghamton Alumni Mentoring events in Manhattan. BAM!, a program introduced at the start of the 2014-2015 academic year, brings small groups of students together for informal networking with one Binghamton graduate working in their field of interest. These events take place in Binghamton during the academic year, and can be held around the country during periods when classes are not in session. Metro Career Night and BAM! were important parts of the University’s Bearcats in the City week in January – a week of career development activities that also included a number of office visits hosted by alumni.
“The Rewrite”
On Feb. 8, Binghamton University hosted a special screening of “The Rewrite,” a movie set on our campus, and written and directed by Marc Lawrence ‘81. Prior to the screening, alumni and friends attended a VIP reception, at which the Alumni Association presented Lawrence with a resolution honoring his accomplishments for a film career that has spanned more than three decades. The film’s star, Hugh Grant, also attended the reception and screening. After the movie showing, both Lawrence and Grant took questions from the Anderson Center audience of more than 1,200 people.
Regional chapter notes
The Alumni Association’s regional chapters continue to offer a wide variety of programs that bring the richness of our University to locations away from campus. The Metro New York Chapter sponsored a Manhattan screening of The Rewrite, as well as a networking event and panel discussion featuring alumni entrepreneurs Adam Gilbert ‘05, Felina Rakowski-Gallagher ‘85 and Aleksander Vukasinovic, and moderated by David S. Rose, founder of Gust (a funding platform for early-stage investments). In the San Francisco Bay Area, Cheryl Haines ‘77, a public arts visionary who connects artists with natural and historic sites, was instrumental in coordinating an art exhibit at Alcatraz; the event also included a visit to the infamous California prison.