View scenes from the Undergraduate Ceremony on the Burg Blog. Fitchburg State University celebrated the spring ceremonies of its 126th commencement exercises in May, awarding baccalaureate and master’s degrees to students hailing from across the country and the world. At the undergraduate ceremony on Saturday, May 14, Dr. Rosaline Cardarelli from Fitchburg State’s class of 1981 delivered the keynote address. Cardarelli is the founder and chief executive officer of the Education for All Coalition, Inc., a humanitarian organization dedicated to creating and bridging educational opportunities for youth through education services for displaced children affected by forced migration around the world. Her charitable work bridges the education gap to support displaced refugee and migrant children and underserved communities around the globe. Her efforts support two main goals: improving access to education and educational resources and developing community efforts that foster wellbeing in the youth generation, with social justice, inclusion and equity in mind. “Remember, you have choices and the actions you take along the way to your destiny will be your legacy,” Cardarelli said. “While new opportunities accompany the degree you are about to receive, I would ask you to pause and reflect as this new journey begins on how you define your values, and how you will serve.” She also shared some life lessons: Never lose your curiosity about the world and nurture a passion to keep learning  Never underestimate the positive impact or difference you can make in someone else’s life with small gestures of kindness Always pay it forward through mentoring others that follow you – this investment will come back to you  Always be courageous – stand up for what you believe in and ask to be included Always think locally and tactically, as well as globally and strategically – the world has gotten smaller  Always be resilient and agile: the world will continue to change at a rapid pace Always use your personal disappointments to your benefit, to be your best the next time around Remember that opportunities can be endless, but be filled with gratitude Remember you will be judged by your character, and your actions, decisions and choices made today will have an impact on the rest of your life  And be sure in some way, at every opportunity, to be of service to others, and to give back to something greater than self “Remember, you have the power to change this world through your actions and service – use that power thoughtfully, with kindness, and to the fullest of your abilities,” said Cardarelli, who was also awarded the President’s Medal in recognition of her career and service. The valedictorian of the undergraduate class was Sebastian D. Goyette-Connerty of Ashby, completing a degree in computer science, and who graduated in just three years with a near-perfect grade point average.  “Because of certain restrictions being lifted in the past year, our class has been through every imaginable stage of a ‘pandemic college experience,’” Goyette-Connerty said. “Many of us started our education at Fitchburg State in person some years ago going to class with friends and enjoying campus as normal, only to have our way of learning be flipped upside down with fully remote classes. Learning was different, teaching was different, and life was different. In the wake of the pandemic, we have now gotten to experience the rebuilding of something that is supposed to resemble normalcy.” Many may have questioned whether to continue under those terms, he said, but the graduates gathered Saturday endured. “For those of you who faced hardships and found yourself burdened by responsibilities on top of your education, I’m right there with you, as are your fellow graduates and loved ones,” Goyette-Connerty said. “I see in the crowd today people that managed to continue on the path to a brighter future, and I encourage you all to continue to use your strength and resilience to create new ideas and better yourself and your community.” Also honored during the undergraduate ceremony was Donald R. Irving, who earned degrees from Fitchburg State University in 1972 and 1979, and taught for several years before embarking on a successful career in business.  In addition to service on the university’s Board of Trustees and the state Board of Higher Education, Irving and his wife, Karen, started the Pay It Forward Scholarship program in 2012 that has helped dozens of students pursue their ambitions. Irving noted the technological advances that have transformed the educational experience since he began his own college career in the late 1960s, but said the important role that passion and direction will play in graduates’ future success has not changed. “With the degree you have earned here today and the tools you have available, every one of you has the ability to accomplish things we couldn’t even dream about,” he said. “All you need is passion and direction. I think it is important to have both of these elements. If you have passion without direction, you will probably wander. If you have direction without passion, you will probably become bored. If, however, you can find a passion and harness it with direction, you can have an incredible life.” On Thursday, May 12, the university awarded master’s degrees to graduate students from 30 states and eight countries. The Graduate Student Leadership Award was presented to Jennifer C. Belfield of Leominster, who completed a Master of Science degree in computer science, and who will start a doctoral program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute this fall. In her remarks, Belfield said she appreciated the community energy at Fitchburg State. “I love how here, at Fitchburg State, students help each other learn,” she said. “Experiencing this has been so inspiring. Learning here at Fitchburg State University has always been a two-way street. Even when I was the one to help a class-mate learn something, I ended up learning something from them.  “When I still feel scared sometimes by the thought of what I haven't learned in school yet, I have courage when I remember where my journey has brought me, and my confidence returns, reminding me that I can still go much further,” Belfield continued. “I’m so grateful for my education and the encouragement I receive as I walk towards my dreams and ambitions.”

Fitchburg State University held its annual Nurses Pinning Ceremony on Wednesday, May 11, celebrating the completion of nursing degrees for the Class of 2022. The ceremony, held in Weston Auditorium, included a keynote address by 2013 graduate Chenice Branquinho, MS, RN, CCRN, and remarks by graduating student Samantha Poole. The ceremony was livestreamed by FATV and may be viewed below. The Nursing Department offers a variety of baccalaureate and master's degrees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a generational disruptor, affecting every aspect of modern life. For honors students at Fitchburg State University during the spring semester, it also presented an important opportunity to document living history. Their work resulted in the newly-published “Perseverantia: The Empty Campus,” a digital archival project and podcast. “We’re assembling a project that aims to explain how the community changed before, during and after the pandemic,” said Francisco Campione, a student in Professor Katherine Jewell’s honors seminar this spring. Campione is about to enter his junior year studying business. Students started the semester articulating the format of their collective project, ultimately deciding to harvest oral histories and other assets into the digital space. Interviews with students, faculty and staff members captured yielded audio testimonies of life during the pandemic. The project includes five episodes of a podcast chronicling the progression of the pandemic as it was experienced on campus, dozens of oral histories from students, faculty and administrators, and crowdsourced photos and captions from campus community members. “The project began as an outgrowth of audio and radio preservation work that I’ve been conducting with the Radio Preservation Task Force, a project of the Library of Congress,” Jewell said. “I applied that research in this endeavor to crowdsource document collection and expanded it to oral history in the Honors Seminar. “In this class, students were able to experience the work involved with doing history — not merely in collecting research, but in the work with metadata, tagging, organization, interpretation, and narrative construction that history involves,” Jewell continued. “The goals of the oral history and podcast project were also in conversation with the field of digital public history and digital humanities, which looks to bring research and its benefits beyond campuses and scholarly conversations, creating public engagement and conversation.” For the students who worked on curating the series it was a worthy test of new and existing skills. “I didn’t know too much about oral histories,” said Benjamin Hill, graduating with a dual major in political science and history. Working on this project helped him focus skills on editing and organizing data from the interviews the students collected. Hill noted the different experiences described by students who had been on campus before COVID compared to those who came to the university when it was already experiencing remote courses and other measures that altered traditional campus life. As a commuter student from New Hampshire, Hill heard from some who shared his appreciation for not having to drive to school for early morning classes. At the same time, others reported the online format to be a significant challenge. Geena Duval, entering her junior year studying nursing, helped conduct numerous interviews for the project, focusing on students in professional programs and their professors. “It was seeing how their teaching methods changed during the pandemic,” she said. Madison Waterson, also entering her junior year this fall in nursing, said conducting research interviews was a step outside her usual area of expertise, but was a welcome experience. “I’m a pretty social person so I found it came pretty easy to me,” she said. Campione, a native of Italy, interviewed an upperclassman about his experience of university life over the course of his academic career. “It was interesting to see the difference between school before COVID, and after,” Campione said.

Fitchburg State University is hosting its 126th commencement exercises in 2022 with fully in-person celebrations of student achievement. Graduate degrees will be awarded at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12 in the university’s Athletics and Recreation Center at 130 North St. President Richard S. Lapidus will deliver remarks at the ceremony. Jennifer C. Belfield of Leominster will also speak at the ceremony as the recipient of the Graduate Student Leadership Award. Belfield, who is completing a master’s degree in computer science, completes her degree with a perfect 4.0 grade point average and will continue her studies this fall in a doctoral program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Undergraduate degrees will be awarded at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 14 on the main quadrangle (the ceremony will be held in the Athletics and Recreation Center in the event of inclement weather). As previously announced, the commencement address will be given by Fitchburg State alumna Rosaline Cardarelli, Ed.D.. Cardarelli is the founder and chief executive officer of the Education for All Coalition, Inc., a humanitarian organization dedicated to creating and bridging educational opportunities for youth through education services for displaced children affected by forced migration around the world. Cardarelli will also be presented the President’s Medal at the undergraduate ceremony. Also speaking on May 14 will be undergraduate valedictorian Sebastian Goyette-Connerty of Ashby. Goyette-Connerty, completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science, is graduating in just three years, having completed numerous dual enrollment credits during his studies at Fitchburg High School. President Lapidus will award an honorary degree to Donald R. Irving. Irving, a two-time Fitchburg State graduate, founded Data Guide Cable Corp. in Gardner among his many successful business ventures. He recently completed his second term on the university’s Board of Trustees, where his tenure included service to the state Board of Higher Education. Additional details on the ceremonies may be found at fitchburgstate.edu/commencement. The ceremonies will be streamed live on FATV.

A newly expanded partnership between Fitchburg State University and the Fitchburg Public Schools is designed to increase the number of teacher candidates who are representative of the local community demographics, with a mixture of scholarship and experiential support and guaranteed jobs with the school district following completion of their college degrees. Fitchburg State President Richard S. Lapidus and Fitchburg Public Schools Superintendent Robert M. Jokela signed the new memorandum of agreement for the pathway program on Thursday, May 5. “Since our founding in 1894, Fitchburg State has been supporting our communities by preparing highly qualified educators for schools in Massachusetts and beyond,” President Lapidus said. “This partnership builds on that history, supporting the evolving needs of our communities while creating singular opportunities for Fitchburg State students.” “High-quality, classroom-ready teachers are needed to educate all students, encouraging differences and teaching in ways that foster belonging and passion,” said Superintendent Jokela. “This groundbreaking collaboration will improve the learning experience of future teachers while diversifying the ranks of educators in our classrooms.” Fitchburg State Dean of Education and Business Nancy Murray said research shows the value of students being able to see themselves in their teachers. The new pathway will create opportunities for future educators to return to their community schools as well-prepared and highly-trained educators. “The innovative program which we have created with FPS really allows opportunities for students to become educators that are representative of their community,” she said. The program incorporates the university’s existing Future Educators Academy, wherein local high school students can achieve microcredentials at the university starting in their freshman years. Upperclassmen at Fitchburg High can take part in the university’s Early College program, earning university credits. They can also work in academically embedded summer jobs through the school district. The high school students in the program can also access scholarship funds and peer and faculty mentorship opportunities from the university. “Part of doing this is to help them have a connection to Fitchburg State, to see themselves coming to Fitchburg State, and for them to have someone to go to,” Murray said. “We know that when students come to a campus, even if they just have one person that they can go to, that makes all the difference in the world for them to be successful.” Once enrolled at Fitchburg State, the university will provide them with ongoing academic and financial supports, including up to $1,000 per semester toward their schooling in their junior and senior years. “It takes students, starting in their freshman year of high school, helping them to see their potential, helping them to come into Fitchburg State University with supports, and then being promised positions back in the Fitchburg Public Schools,” Murray continued. “They’re back in their community, and their community has the opportunity to have educators that represent themselves.” Fitchburg Mayor Stephen L. DiNatale said the program exemplifies the spirit of collaboration enjoyed by the city and the university and will support an important objective by creating a pipeline to fill staffing needs. “It’s always a challenge to get qualified staff who look like the student body,” he said. Fitchburg High School Principal Jeremy Roche said the model being adopted has been in development for many years, and will make a difference for future students. “This has been a journey of multiple years of working together,” he said. “We know our greatest asset is our students, and we were trying to think about how we can get our greatest asset to be prepared to be that next generation of teachers. “We can’t wait to get these teachers in the classrooms of the Fitchburg Public Schools, whether that’s in kindergarten or grade 10,” Roche continued. “Having the opportunity to affect lives, having the opportunity to do where you grew up, is a powerful thing that is going to affect future generations in the city of Fitchburg.” Fitchburg State student Natacha Santiago-Prado spent most of her school years in the state of Washington, where she often felt alienated as a student of Puerto Rican descent in a predominantly white community. When her family moved back to Fitchburg and she enrolled at Fitchburg High School, she said the difference was immediate. In Fitchburg, she said, she encountered a diverse and welcoming community, where she felt her ambitions to become a teacher were viable. She is about to enter her senior year at Fitchburg State and looks forward to being a role model when she starts her own teaching career.  “Just to be able to represent my community is a great honor,” said Santiago-Prado, a first-generation college student. “I want to create a diverse space for students where students can feel comfortable to share their own experiences and their culture, and don’t feel like they should be silenced.” Jadyn Newton, a senior at Fitchburg High School, is enrolling at Fitchburg State to study early education. She is a member of Fitchburg High’s Future Teacher Academy, a four-year member of its Best Buddies club, and interns in an art class at the McKay Arts Academy, located on the Fitchburg State campus. “At my internship I learned I had this passion for teaching which was definitely life-changing,” Newton said. “With this program it will definitely help me be the teacher I want to be.” Yaneliz Rivera, also a Fitchburg High senior, is also a member of the Future Teacher Academy and has worked with Best Buddies for four years. Currently an intern at Longsjo Middle School, she is planning to attend Mount Wachusett Community College in the fall to study education. She also spoke during the signing ceremony. Objectives of the new partnership include providing Fitchburg State teacher candidates with frequent opportunities to partake in field experiences and full semester practicum placements in order to gain the necessary skills needed to become highly qualified educators. The collaboration will create supportive and accessible pathways for Fitchburg High students to earn a bachelor’s degree and teaching license to reduce the racial and ethnic mismatch between students and teachers. Preference will be given to teacher candidates that are representative of our local community populations. Further, the Fitchburg Public Schools will benefit by continually welcoming Fitchburg State teacher candidates into their classrooms, with highly qualified teachers modeling best practices while providing candidates with targeted feedback so they will be classroom-ready when hired. Participating students will be able to apply for paid internship and academically-based summer jobs within the Fitchburg Public Schools, and will be given targeted scholarship support during their college studies. In addition, Fitchburg State will provide opportunities for students to participate in the Future Educators Academy, where they can earn a variety of badges and microcredentials, as well as dual enrollment courses. The university will also provide faculty advising for participating students starting in their junior year of high school, as well as peer mentors during their collegiate studies. Graduates will also be given access to Fitchburg State’s alumni resources upon completion of their bachelor’s degrees.  Upon successful completion of one of Fitchburg State’s Massachusetts licensure programs, candidates will be provided employment with the Fitchburg Public Schools as a paraprofessional, teaching assistant, or classroom teacher. The city and the candidate will agree to a two-year employment commitment.

The Center for Italian Culture (CIC) at Fitchburg State University will celebrate more than 20 years of supporting scholarships and programming with a fundraising gala at the Fitchburg Art Museum at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 11. The CIC, founded with a major gift by the late Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio of Fitchburg State’s Class of 1938, has been a fixture on the university campus for over 20 years. Throughout its history, the center has sponsored programs that celebrate Italian contributions to Western civilization and supported study abroad scholarships that let university students and faculty explore the wider world. The celebration on June 11 will include food catered by The Finicky Fork. Guests will enjoy signature cocktails, music by noted soprano Maria Ferrante, and Asta della Fortuna Italian raffles. Special gallery exhibits for the gala will include camera obscura works by photographer Abelardo Morell and images made by Fitchburg State students during university-sponsored travel to Verona, Italy. Tickets are $150 and may be purchased online at fitchburgstate.edu/cic. Proceeds from the gala on June 11 will support student scholarships awarded by the CIC. 

This piece was originally posted at 19fortyfive.com. By Joshua B. Spero Professor, Economics, History and Political Science Russia’s latest WWII battlefield-scale assault against Eastern Ukraine marks two months into Russia’s war of “necessity,” one stemming from Ukraine’s resilience and Russia’s failure to capture Western Ukraine. This harsh phase of Russia’s 8-year war across Ukraine – Russia’s continuation war – signifies, some argue, WWIII’s start. Yet, Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion demarcates a different turning point: Russia’s intent to crush Ukraine’s nationhood and, remarkably, Ukraine’s durable existence. By defying Russia, sovereign Kyiv’s existential fight exemplifies Euro-Atlantic security’s critical juncture along two pivotal paths. One now realized by Euro-Atlantic nations, namely Ukraine’s right to exist by gaining critical outside reinforcement. The other, tacitly, expanding even in wartime: Kyiv’s future Euro-Atlantic integration. Ukraine’s becoming a Euro-Atlantic “ally” even before potential integration into the 70-year plus North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) alliances. US security assistance, in just weeks among many NATO allies, rivals such crucial aid annually to long-time US allies. A Ukrainian “Marshall Plan,” requiring humanitarian, economic, and financial reconstruction to aid war-torn Ukraine, has accelerated EU nations to consider how rebuilding Ukraine revives membership’s path via 2014’s EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. However, NATO’s military membership phases already reveal how quickly Kyiv’s European integration unfolds. Nearly three decades of civil-military planning with US, NATO, and NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations buttresses Ukraine’s NATO-ready force. Euro-Atlantic leaders, deeming best how to save Ukraine and avoid direct war with Russia, race to transform Euro-Atlantic security. Great powers do need to determine negotiations to end this “heart” of Eastern European war, particularly given Russia’s political, economic, and military security dilemmas. Consequently, Ukraine’s voice remains even more essential for Euro-Atlantic security’s transformation. And, what’s emerging more rapidly than many recognize is how fast a different Euro-Atlantic security reality involves a nearer-term and future Ukraine integrated. My trip to Poland from 6-12 March 2022 underscored that Ukraine’s reinforcement already pushed NATO and the EU toward Kyiv’s eventual acceptance into these crucial Euro-Atlantic security structures. Talking with long-time Polish colleagues about Russia’s 8-year war across Ukraine, witnessing waves of refugees fleeing Ukraine into and across Poland, and speaking with U.S. soldiers from the rapidly deployed 82nd Airborne Division, I believed Euro-Atlantic security’s transformation moved faster than many grasp now. As I wrote in 2014, this geostrategic transformation underpins the Germany-Poland-Ukraine East-West bridge, reinforcing Kyiv’s Euro-Atlantic security roadmap. Unlike NATO and EU member integration during the previous 30 years, this expanding East-West bridge now witnesses Germany’s path-breaking financial commitment to remilitarize within NATO and the EU. Further, Poland’s enhanced NATO/EU frontline status reinforces Ukraine’s survival, accelerating permanent allied military forces, more lethal equipment, and modernized basing along NATO’s Eastern periphery. Sustained by tens of thousands of deployed forces to NATO/EU nations Poland, the Baltic states, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, Ukraine’s bolstered with massive military, intelligence, and technological assistance. NATO and EU leaders always underscore their alliance doors remain open. NATO’s Article 10 of its 1949 Treaty always signifies even a new Russia can join. Debates over NATO’s continuing enlargement, stretching back to the 1990s and raised constantly up to Russia’s expanded February war, have faded significantly. Little debate arises as Finland and Sweden prepare to join NATO. A number of us anticipated this event 30 years ago, working ever more closely with Finns and Swedes via NATO’s new PfP process. Nordic PfP leadership galvanized Finland and Sweden briskly to become EU members. The 1990s set many stages for Euro-Atlantic security’s 21st Century transformation. Three decades underlined thousands of NATO’s far-ranging education, training, exercising, and operations planning efforts which extended NATO’s PfP process to European and Eurasian nations, including Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine’s International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, developed from the 1990s by NATO and PfP nations, represented Ukraine’s path toward European integration. Akin to NATO’s PfP phases, NATO enlargement’s next rounds – after East Germany’s 1990 integration within unified, NATO-based Germany – paralleled the NATO-Russia Council and NATO-Ukraine Commission’s creations. Euro-Atlantic nations recognize Kyiv’s heroic fight to preserve nationhood. NATO and the EU’s frontline eastern nations understand allied military and economic requirements. These nations grasp the risks to their Eastern flanks. They know the significance of sending their leaders to Kyiv to fortify Ukraine. Ukrainians, in turn, appreciate NATO for their 30-year partnership spans major contributions to NATO-led operations. In 1995, the Ukrainian Military integrated into NATO’s Bosnia Implementation Force, part of 20 NATO, PfP and non-NATO nations, including Russia. Many of these nations soon became NATO members. Although a fragile peace exists, the NATO-EU jointly stabilizes the Balkans. Kyiv’s war-time experiences culminate in its nation’s many phases of NATO military transition. For Ukrainian planners and operators, strengthened by their national resistance against Russia in 2022, Ukraine mobilized within days to fight for its survival. These indelible experiences over 30 years remain integral to that survival – and to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Dr. Joshua B. Spero (@JBSpero) is an International Relations Professor at Fitchburg State University. He served as a US Government Strategic/Scenario Planner in the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 Directorate for Strategic Plans and Policy, European-NATO Division, from 1994-to 2000.

Genevieve Casucci shares her stethoscope with a child during her public health trip to Costa Rica this spring. Fifteen Fitchburg State University nursing students headed to warmer climes for Spring Break, but it wasn’t to go to the beach. Instead, these students were abroad for college credit, engaged in public health programming with local populations in Costa Rica. For Genevieve Casucci, a junior from Malden, the trip was a long-awaited experience. Casucci had heard from upperclassmen about previous nursing trips to Ghana, but international travel had been curtailed for the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the email came out that we could go to Costa Rica, I thought, ‘Here it is,’” she recalled. “I went to International Education that same day.” The Office of International Education sponsors an array of faculty-led study abroad programs, including trips over the spring recess that are affiliated with classes on campus to longer journeys over the summer wherein students live in another country for up to five weeks.  Casucci recruited fellow students to sign up for the trip, and was grateful for scholarship support that helped cover the cost. She was also appreciative that Fitchburg State had created an opportunity to travel abroad that was embedded in the demands of the nursing curriculum. In preparation for the 10-day trip to Costa Rica, the students engaged in weekly coursework on public health. While overseas, the students made public presentations in settings including schools and community centers on topics ranging from diet and portion control to mental health. They also conducted screenings for blood sugar and blood pressure as well as administered visual and hearing tests, among other projects. Beyond the public health projects, the students were invited to join the local residents to participate in their ritual traditions. “We were immersed in these people’s culture,” Casucci said. “They really took us in.” Students also got to practice their Spanish skills during the journey. The experience reinforced Casucci’s long-held dreams of being a nurse, which date to her dressing up in scrubs for Halloween as a child. “I always knew I wanted to be a nurse,” said Casucci, who also works as a nursing assistant at Winchester Hospital. “It was definitely my calling. I like the personal connections you can make with people.” The Global Ambassador Scholarship supports students traveling abroad. The application process for this program opens online in October via Academic Works.

The career of legendary film composer John Williams will be celebrated in song at “Music From the Movies” at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 7, featuring musicians from Fitchburg State University and Christ Church. The concert, to be held at Christ Church at 569 Main St., will also feature music from award-winning composers Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings), Henry Mancini (the Pink Panther films) and Ennio Morricone (The Mission), among other selections that listeners will recognize from the movies. The performance will include the combined choirs of Fitchburg State and Christ Church, conducted by Assistant Professor Jonathan Harvey and featuring accompaniment from Alanna Rantala and Christ Church's Minister of Music & the Arts, Robert Potterton III. Darth Vader will also make an appearance at the show. Admission is free with a recommended donation of $10 at the door. Donations will support scholarships for the Fitchburg State Community Music Lesson Program. Composer John Williams, who turned 90 in February, has composed some of the most instantly recognizable film scores in the history of the medium, with more than 50 Academy Award nominations (and five wins) over a career spanning seven decades. “Music from the Movies” will include a number of audience favorites from Williams’ catalog, including themes from Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Harry Potter series, among other titles. The concert will be available to stream live at the following locations: