The annual celebration of student achievement, GREAT Day 2023
In order to recognize student achievements, on Apr. 26, SUNY Geneseo hosted its seventeenth annual Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement, and Talent Day (GREAT Day). In honor of this event, all classes were canceled to encourage student participation and involvement.
According to the SUNY Geneseo website, the idea behind GREAT Day is, “GREAT Day is a college-wide symposium celebrating the creative and scholarly endeavors of our students. GREAT Day (Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement & Talent) helps foster academic excellence, encourages professional development and builds connections within the community.”
The GREAT Day pamphlet recognizes what those who participate may gain from the event. “Proceedings of GREAT Day compiles and publishes promising student work presented at SUNY Geneseo’s GREAT Day symposium. The projects, presentations, and research included here represent the academic rigor, multidisciplinary study, and creativity of the students taking part in the SUNY Geneseo GREAT Day symposium.”
The keynote speaker of GREAT Day was Wendsler Nosie Sr., Ph.D., who spoke at 1:45 p.m. in the Wadsworth Auditorium. The lecture was titled “The Rumbling of Holy Places: Protecting the Sacred/Ecological.” He is formerly Peridot District and Tribal Chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. In addition to this, he has also founded Rural Opportunities of Arizona (ROA) which according to the GREAT Day program is stated to be something that provides the tribal citizens a way to become skilled in trades for jobs around Arizona. The program also states, “Nosie is dedicated to working on behalf of tribal citizens and for the preservation and protection of Native American culture, artifacts, history, religion, and tradition in many ways.”
Throughout the event, there were many different musical performances: String Quartet, String Band, Brass Ensemble, and Jazz Ensemble, along with A Capella groups like Between the Lines, Emmelodics, Exit 8, Hips n’ Harmony, and South Side Boys.
There were different exhibits in honor of the arts. This may include art exhibits, readings, and the Geneseo Insomnia Film Festival awards ceremony. Throughout the day there were many different sessions of presentations, literary readings, museum exhibit boards, dance performances, music performances, and theater performances in multiple different departments, showing off the hard work of Geneseo students.
The poster presentations were located in MacVittie College Union Ballroom categorized by each department: psychology, political science and international relations, communications, residence life, education, sociology, center for integrative learning, office of sustainability, anthropology and sociomedical sciences, geological sciences, chemistry, physics and astronomy, mathematics, biology, mathematics and environmental studies.
Throughout the day, the students showed their passion for their studies in their vastly different projects ranging from all degrees of study. The annual Geneseo event recognizes the hard work that all the students are doing in their research and projects.