Howard Blumenthal '74, left, and Jeffrey Fasoldt '89 (Images provided)
SUNY Geneseo will celebrate its newest graduates with in-person undergraduate and graduate ceremonies this year.
Commencement for undergraduate students will be held on Saturday, May 21. Howard Blumenthal ’74, an award-winning television producer, pioneer in early cable television, author, and field researcher, will speak at both the 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ceremonies in the Wilson Ice Arena in the Merritt Athletic Center.
Blumenthal will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters for his accomplishments.
Blumenthal's most recent project is serving as executive director of The 21st Century Learning Project, in association with The University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development, where he is also a senior scholar. Project team members are developing a global framework through international collaboration between students and adults from 2025-2050.
"We are developing, and digging deep, into a model that looks closely at the whole lives of people growing up in the 21st century: where we are, who we are, why we learn, what we learn, and the desired results," says Blumenthal. "We plan to present very reliable information on a wide range of topics, from human memory to population trends, in media that’s fun to watch, interesting and provocative, and entirely suitable for children, parents, teachers, and government leaders (who exert a great deal of influence on education)."
Blumenthal is also a senior scholar at The University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center. He continues work exploring the intersection of progress, technology, media, and the future of learning, through his project Kids on Earth, which features hundreds of interviews he conducted with children and teens around the world in order to build global community and shared learning. In the 1980s, Blumenthal led teams that created MTV and Nickelodeon and created and produced the Peabody Award-winning series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Blumenthal went on to combine technology and education in the 1990s, developing interactive children’s books. He has led media companies and is also a syndicated journalist and author of more than 20 books on music, media, business, and communication.
A member of the graduating class traditionally addresses fellow graduates at commencement. Two biology majors, Robert Colbath and Peyton Mackey, will speak at the morning session. Tiara Edwards, a history and communication double major, will speak at the afternoon ceremony.
Jeffrey Fasoldt ’89 will speak at the master’s degree ceremony on Friday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in Brodie Hall’s Alice Austin Theatre.
Fasoldt is the chief financial officer at the DiMarco Group, a real estate and construction company in Rochester, NY. He is also an adjunct instructor of bachelor’s and master’s level courses in accounting at Geneseo. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Geneseo in accounting and a master’s in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also a certified public accountant and serves on the boards for Campus Auxiliary Services and Flower City Habitat for Humanity. In 2011, he earned the Rochester Financial Executive of the Year award.
Read more about Commencement 2022.