Stony Brook celebrated Native American Heritage Month throughout November with a variety of events and performances.

Perhaps most prominent of the Native American influencers at Stony Brook are Jay Levenson, an interlibrary loan clerk in the Access Services Department at University Libraries, and Timothy Long, a professor, conductor and pianist with the Department of Music.

 A display of Native American artifacts and artwork.

Jay Levenson organized a display of Native American artifacts and artwork in the Melville Library as part of the Native American Heritage Awareness program.

Stony Brook also welcomed Professor Paul Kelton, a leading scholar of indigenous North American and colonial American history, thanks to a grant by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, whose mission is to promote the study, preservation and celebration of Long Island history.

Native American Heritage Month closed with an open house educational seminar, food sampling and book signing in the Student Activities Center Ballroom A on November 29 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm.

The Faculty Student Association brought in Santa Fe, New Mexico, chef, author and Native foods historian Lois Ellen Frank, a member of the Kiowan nation, and Walter Whitewater, a Navajo chef who teaches with Frank at the Sante Fe School of Cooking, to feature Native American recipes and leave students, faculty and staff with a tasty reminder of what Long Island’s original settlers bring to the culinary table.

Read more: http://www.stonybrook.edu/happenings/community-outreach/stony-brook-celebrates-native-american-heritage/

Stony Brook journalism students put their journalistic principles to the test when they traveled to report on issues confronting in the jungles of Ecuador with the Journalism Without Walls program, a feature of Stony Brook’s innovative journalism curriculum since 2009.

The students who went on the two-week trip to Ecuador–Mike Adams, Demi Guo, Michelle Hennessy, Giovanni Ortiz and Jay Shah—were accompanied by two journalism professors, Pablo Calvi  and Barbara Selvin.

Journalism Without Walls group visits a classroom.

They examined the indigenous peoples’ efforts to develop economic self-sufficiency through ecotourism and medicine, education and voting rights, while struggling to balance tradition and change.

They put together a website designed to report on the story of lives and challenges of these indigenous people.

Previous Journalism Without Walls trips include Russia (2011), Mississippi’s Gulf Coast (2011), Cuba (2012, 2016), China (2009, 2014), Kenya (2013), Turkey (2014), Bangalore (2015) and Korea (2016).

Read more: http://www.stonybrook.edu/happenings/featuredpost/j-students-cross-borders-to-report-on-life-in-ecuadors-jungles/

On March 9, 2017, University staff held a presentation at the Stony Brook University Business Incubator at Calverton and Agriculture Consumer Science Center (ACSC) in partnership with the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce entitled “Grow Your Business with Stony Brook University.”

A panel of campus experts shared information with chamber members and Incubator tenants for tapping University resources to potentially increase profits, raise awareness, and take their business to the next level. Lunch was provided, and a question and answer period followed the presentations.

University staff and Chamber members.

More than 70 people crowded the multipurpose room at the SBU Business Incubator at Calverton and ACSC, and nearly 30 more watched online as the program was live streamed by Town Crier Social.

“Stony Brook and the Business Incubator at Calverton and ACSC provided a large volume of information that will be beneficial to both our Chamber members and the local community,” said Freida Montalto, Executive Director of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce.

Organized by the SBU Office of Government and Community Relations, this presentation was the fifth in a series of business presentations offered to Long Island Chambers over the past few years.

Read more: http://www.stonybrook.edu/happenings/community-outreach/sbu-business-builders-presented-to-riverhead-chamber/