Fitchburg State President Richard S. Lapidus has announced the students who qualified for inclusion on the Dean’s List and President's List for the fall 2022 semester. A student is placed on the Dean’s List for the semester if an average grade of 3.20 or better is attained, and the student is attending the university full time. View the Fall 2022 Dean's List. The President’s List honors students for consistently high academic achievement. A student is named to the list after achieving a 3.75 average in each of three successive semesters. View the Fall 2022 President's List.

Fitchburg State University has been awarded a grant for nearly $55,000 through the state’s Hunger Free Campus Initiative program to support students experiencing food insecurity. The funding will help raise awareness of the support services available to students on campus and in the community, in addition to providing direct assistance to students.  Food and housing insecurity is an issue for students in Massachusetts and nationwide. According to the state’s Hunger Free Campus Coalition, 37% of public university students in Massachusetts are food insecure, and only 20% of them utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Fitchburg State’s institutional efforts to address the issue include the Falcon Community Outreach Center that students may access discreetly through the Office of Student Development. The center includes the Falcon Bazaar food and necessities pantry, as well as a professional clothing closet to assist students going to interviews for jobs or internships.  Student interns will be hired through the grant-funded program to design public awareness campaigns around food insecurity and the services available to those who need them, including SNAP. “The entire Fitchburg State community has stepped up to support members experiencing food insecurity, and this program will help us keep moving forward,” University President Richard S. Lapidus said. “We are grateful for the state’s backing of our initiatives and look forward to continuing the work of supporting all students.” The grant was announced at the end of Gov. Charlie Baker’s term in December. “Your commitment to transform higher education institutional cultures to center equity-minded support services for students is commendable, particularly as the Commonwealth engages in post-COVID efforts to both retain and prepare our future workforce,” Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said in the grant letter. “Through this funding and your continued support, we hope to expand access to great educational opportunities for every citizen in the Commonwealth.”

"Prometheus" is among the New England Wax sculptures on display in the Hammond Hall Art Gallery through March 3. The Fitchburg State University CenterStage arts and culture series presents “Chroma,” a gallery exhibit by New England Wax, through March 3 in the Hammond Hall Art Gallery, 160 Pearl St. There will be an artist talk and reception at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1 at the gallery featuring New England Wax members Trina Abbott and Pamela Dorris DeJong. Admission is free and open to the public. New England Wax is a lively and growing professional organization connecting artists in the six New England states who work with encaustic and other wax-based mediums.  The works in “Chroma” use color pigments that are suspended in either encaustic or cold waxes. The exhibition, on display during the depths of a New England winter, is intended to provide a colorful oasis for students and visitors alike.  To learn more about the university’s arts and culture offerings, please visit fitchburgstate.edu/centerstage.

This screenshot of the virtual tour shows some of the elements for the stop dedicated to the Fitchburg Athenaeum on Main Street. Did you ever wish you could go back in time and tour the era when Fitchburg erected so many of its magnificent buildings? If so, your wish is about to be granted, thanks to a newly launched virtual walking tour created by Fitchburg State University students in collaboration with the Fitchburg Historical Society and Fitchburg Historical Commission. Students in Assistant Professor J.J. Sylvia IV’s Communications Media classes worked with Fitchburg Historical Society Executive Director Susan Navarre to create the interactive tour, wherein visitors to Main Street may locate directions to significant buildings using their phone and be enlightened by voice or text about their history. Sylvia said the project originated with the city’s Historical Commission, which contacted the university’s Crocker Center for Civic Engagement about launching a collaboration to create a walking tour. The project began with a student-designed brochure and street signs and was followed by curation of the tour itself with students in Sylvia’s Introduction to Communication and Media Studies course. Two cohorts of students have worked on the walking tour project to date. The focus of the latest class was creating a virtual tour celebrating the city’s history in the arts. “I believe the students can benefit from an experience like this in several different ways,” Sylvia said. “At the most practical level, this project gives them an opportunity to work on a hands-on, community-based project in their first year at Fitchburg State. This offers them real-world professional experience that they can use for their portfolios and resumes to demonstrate the type of collaborative work they're capable of producing. Through this process they are not only getting experience working with a client, but learning valuable research and digital media production skills, as well.” Sylvia said he also appreciates how the work deepens students’ connection with the city in which they are studying.  “There is real value in understanding the historical context of the places that we live, work, and learn,” he said. “A project like this allows students to develop new ways of thinking about the community around them, and this way of seeing the world is something that I hope they take with them as they graduate from Fitchburg State and may go on to live and work in other communities.” Sophia Moore, a first-year Fitchburg State student from Connecticut, chose to research content for the tour stop dedicated to the Fitchburg Athenaeum. The site notes that the organization, formed in 1852, had a small private library housed in a room of Fitchburg’s newly built town hall and became a forum for community discussion and welcomed guest speakers including Henry David Thoreau. “There’s a lot of history in Fitchburg,” said Moore. “All of my group members were from Fitchburg, but everything we learned in our project was new to them, too. I’ve never been a big history person, but I did gain an interest through this project, to see the differences from then to now.” Moore is majoring in Communications Media with a focus on public relations and advertising. She is also a member of the university’s women’s soccer team. “This type of assignment uses an open pedagogy approach that respects students' agency, giving them significant input and control in the final projects that they create, which extend beyond the walls of the classroom and make an impact in the larger community,” Sylvia said. “What I like best about this project is that Professor Sylvia’s students are visiting our offices on Main Street and using our wealth of primary source materials rather than the internet to tell their stories,” Navarre said. “It will be a wonderful resource, not only for visitors to Fitchburg, but to residents who want to know more about their city. It is almost like actual, physical time travel.” Stops on the virtual tour include the Whitney Opera Theater, the WFGL radio station, the Iver Johnson Building, the Fitchburg Athenaeum, the Fitchburg Art Museum, and the Rollstone boulder. The tour created by students in Spring 2022 highlighted the city’s historic districts.

Fitchburg State University’s annual celebration of Black History Month in February includes celebrations and events organized around the theme “Black Excellence: Limitless, Boundless and Selfless.” The theme acknowledges that the history of the African diaspora in the United States is not solely confined to conventional forms of success, and is boundless. It emphasizes communal care, achievement despite significant barriers, and the endless potential of Black and African-American people in the United States. While Black History Month is observed during the month of February, the university’s affiliated celebrations will begin on Monday, Jan. 23, with a screening of the acclaimed documentary “King in the Wilderness” at 6:30 p.m. in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall, 160 Pearl St. Admission is free and open to the public. Events continue at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, with a “Black Table Talk” in the main lounge at Hammond Hall on the influence of religion in the civil rights era. The event will begin with a video highlighting different perspectives on the role faith has played in social movements and then move to a collective discussion on its role in current causes. Other programs during the month will include workshops on hip-hop songwriting, a celebration of soul food, a Kizomba dance class, and conversations on investing and relationships. The programs will culminate with the Black Excellence Gala at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28 in the main lounge at Hammond Hall. The full listing of events can be found on the university website at fitchburgstate.edu/bhm.

To further the university’s efforts to provide real-time mental health support to students, 16 administrators and staff members from across campus participated in an intensive three-day training last week to become certified Mental Health First Aid instructors. Assistant Dean Robert Hynes, director of the university’s Counseling Services, said Mental Health First Aid is an international, evidence-based program that aims to raise awareness regarding mental health challenges, and provide individuals with basic tools to identify signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders and provide appropriate support. “With this new capacity that has been established, we hope to roll out the curriculum to a wide cross-section of Fitchburg State faculty, staff, and student body,” Hynes said. “The hope in bringing Mental Health First Aid to our campus is to bolster our community’s shared efforts to address and effectively support the various mental health needs of our students,” said Amanda Sapienza, assistant director of Counseling Services. The training, facilitated by Mental Health First Aid instructors Donald Decker and Anthony Campbell of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, was made possible through a mental health grant that Fitchburg State recently received from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Elizabeth Swartz, director of TRIO Student Support Services, joined several members of her department in the training. “It’s very empowering, because we’re given real strategies to help students in the moment,” Swartz said. “We can help make arrangements for them to get future help, but this training creates a lovely bridge where we can respond to students’ needs in the moment.” Rachel Graddy, director of Disability Services, said she also felt better equipped to serve students by taking part in the training. “It gives us concrete, actionable things we can do to help people who are in mental health distress,” she said. “I’m not a mental health professional, but this gave us tools that we can utilize to help.” Vice President for Student Affairs Laura A. Bayless joined members of her department for the duration of the training. “Mental Health First Aid supports students and will help inform our policies and protocols as a university division,” Vice President Bayless said. “I’m so appreciative of the attention and commitment my colleagues are giving this important topic as we create a campus community that is truly student-ready.” Other participating offices included Career and Advising Services, University Police, and Community Health Connections.

Fitchburg State University’s downtown theater restoration project has received $2 million in federal support thanks to the efforts of the regional congressional delegation. The funds will go toward the development of a “black box” theater to be constructed adjacent to the main theater building in the downtown performing arts center. The new construction will be used for university productions and the public, with the restoration of the historic theater to follow in a future phase of construction. U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan announced the funding as part of a larger $20.7 million spending package for the Third Congressional District. “We are extraordinarily grateful for the support of Congresswoman Trahan in securing funds for this transformational project and recognizing the importance that the performing arts center will have on our students and the cultural enrichment and economic development for the city and region,” said Fitchburg State President Richard S. Lapidus. “I want to further express my appreciation to Senators Markey and Warren, our state legislators and city leaders who continue to collaboratively play a part in moving this important project forward.”  The university purchased the long-dormant theater block at 717 Main St. in 2016. The building is already home to the game studio wherein seniors in Fitchburg State’s game design program complete their capstone semesters, as well as the interdisciplinary ideaLab that is used for small business training and other functions. Additional storefronts in the building are being renovated for commercial and gallery space thanks to previous municipal, state and federal allocations. 

Seaman Paper, headquartered in Gardner with operations across the globe, is a leading supplier of value-added specialty lightweight papers. During its 75 years of operation it has continued to innovate, today encompassing instantly recognizable products like the paper “plumes” that adorn millions of Hershey Kisses every year, along with custom confetti for buyers including the National Football League and Taylor Swift. When the company was looking to grow its internal human potential, it looked to Professor Michael Greenwood, chair of the Business Administration Department at Fitchburg State University, who brings more than 30 years of national and international business experience. Professor Greenwood presented his “One Voice High-Performance Leader” curriculum to the Seaman cohort. Sadie Brehio, a human resources generalist and executive administrator at Seaman, had taken classes with Professor Greenwood during her graduate studies at Fitchburg State and had also experienced his leadership training programs at a previous job. “After going through the training, it will stick with you forever,” Brehio said. “It gives every team member a chance to work with each other on a whole different level. What I got out of it was understanding people a little bit better, understanding personality traits. It’s just a positive experience overall for the team.” Earlier this fall, Professor Greenwood led a total of 30 Seaman employees through a customized, ten-week online training program designed to build a team that can speak and act with one voice. Central to the training is the understanding that individuals in information-driven organizations cannot complete their jobs on their own, Professor Greenwood said. But too often, the multifunctional teams that are created are not effective at cooperation. “High-performing teams are most effective when they are carefully designed, trained, and empowered,” he said.  The experience, participants said, was transformative. Brian McAlary, Seaman’s vice president for market development in the Americas, said companies that succeed must be able to build cross-functional teams. Professor Greenwood’s curriculum focused on building that capacity. “Getting people together who are not necessarily working together on a regular basis, in an experience-based program, really gives you an opportunity to look outside of yourself,” McAlary said. “It’s well worth it. Everyone can benefit from the course, from the new leaders we have in the company to our established leaders.” Lee Chauvette, Seaman’s regional director of human resources, said the training gave him an opportunity to interact with colleagues in a new and productive way. When he joined breakout session in the training with members of his sales team, for example, there was an enhanced understanding of each other’s roles in the company and its success. “We got on the subject of attracting candidates, and out of that discussion I’m going to hold an online session on current trends in hiring,” Chauvette said. “It will give everybody in the sales team a different look at what we’re going through trying to attract people.” That enhanced sense of a shared objective was a powerful takeaway from the training experience, Chauvette said. “We all got a lot out of it. It built a level of camaraderie that otherwise might not have an opportunity to develop. It’s all about bringing empathy and compassion and teamwork, training not so much to be a manager but to be a leader. How to mentor people, how to get more out of people by focusing on the positive aspects of their career. “Having Dr. Greenwood’s program really gave us a sense of putting together a team, having that team pull the company forward,” Chauvette continued. “He used a great analogy of driving the bus. You can drive the bus all day, but you need to get the right people on the bus. That really hit home.” “We’re trying to move forward together, and to do that we need to be on the same page,” added Brehio.  McAlary said he appreciated the opportunity for self-awareness that came with the training. “A lot of times you can go through an entire career and not get this type of feedback,” he said. “This is an opportunity to get some of that feedback very early on, and I just think it’s very valuable.” Looking ahead, Chauvette said he hopes the training will help Seaman and its people continue to evaluate their own roles and contributions, while treating people the way they’d wanted to be treated themselves. “Being the company that people want to work for, this training was a great start,” Chauvette said. “Now it’s up to those of us who were part of that training to bring it forward.” Seaman plans to continue the training with another cohort of leaders in 2023. To learn more about business training and consulting opportunities available through Fitchburg State’s Business Administration Department, contact Professor Greenwood at mgreenw5@fitchburgstate.edu.

Fitchburg State University held the winter ceremony of its 126th commencement exercises on Friday, Dec. 16. See photos from the ceremony on the Burg Blog. President Richard S. Lapidus gave the commencement address at the ceremony, where undergraduate and graduate degrees were conferred. The graduating class included 619 students from 30 states and four countries. President Lapidus highlighted stories of perseverance from the graduating class and encouraged the graduates to continue to show resilience and courage as they chart their future paths. President Lapidus, Graduate Student Leadership Award Recipient Spencer Fuller, and Provost Patricia Marshall at the winter commencement ceremony. Student speakers also addressed the graduates and guests. Graduate Student Leadership Award recipient Spencer Fuller, a member of the Northborough Police Department, completed his Master of Science degree in criminal justice. He also completed his Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice at Fitchburg State as part of the university’s five-year police program, whose graduates receive certification to work in municipal police departments in Massachusetts and other New England states. Fuller was nominated for the award by university faculty, who described his leadership skills as a mentor and role model to younger students. “You can truly find success in your life when you start to see the people around you succeeding and you start finding happiness in their success,” said Fuller, who cited Fitchburg State Police Academy Director Lisa Lane McCarty as a key mentor. “She displays all the qualities that make someone a great leader: selfless acts for the benefit of others. She puts other people above herself, in order to help these people succeed.” The undergraduate valedictorian was Helen “Hallie” Dyer of Westwood, who completed her Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice, also through the university’s police program. Dyer, who had a perfect 4.0 grade point average, described the challenges of the undergraduates who navigated the disruptions of the COVID pandemic during their studies. Hallie Dyer delivers the valedictory address. “In the months of being isolated from that community to which I had become connected, I realized just how much all my new relationships meant to me,” Dyer said. “I realized while getting through some of the most challenging transitions in my education that I am not in a vacuum; the support of my friends and family is what allowed me to be as resilient as I was. When we returned to campus, that same sense of community remained, and I made a decision that I didn’t want to forget how important it was. I realized that growth is not just academic achievement; it’s community, it’s grace under pressure, it’s overcoming adversity when challenges arise.”  View the ceremony, filmed by Fitchburg Access Television, on the university’s YouTube page, and see additional photos from the ceremony here.