Chris Kibler’s first glimpse of Fitchburg State came on the track, and in a way he’s never looked back. He first competed at Elliot Field as a high school student from Bath, Maine.

“The facility was just gorgeous, so I looked into what programs the school had to offer,” Kibler recalled. He visited Fitchburg State three or four more times in the ensuing months. “Each time, it felt more like home.”

Brig. Gen. Frederick A. Henry’s long and storied military career has taken him across the U.S. and Europe, but he’s never forgotten the lessons he learned as an undergraduate at Fitchburg State. 

He grew up in an inner city environment in Cambridge, where by his own admission he wasn’t a strong student. 

“I constantly went off the reservation,” Gen. Henry recalled. “I would always go on another path.” 

As a teen, Gen. Henry was a part of the Upward Bound program, where he was encouraged to try attending Fitchburg State; if the experience didn’t work out, he was told, he could consider joining the Navy. 

Fitchburg State would prove a transformative experience.

The Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013 was a moment we will never forget, and for Katherine Jewell, economics, history and political science professor, it was personal.

Jewell, pushing her 3-year-old son in a stroller, was close enough to the second explosion to feel the blast and smell the smoke. In the tumultuous days that followed, Jewell turned to her training as a historian in an attempt to make sense of the experience, chronicling the details, locations and conversations that erupted from the chaos.

Teaching middle school was a career change for Tammi Chandler, who began her professional career in the private sector, training adults in California. But the prospect of working with younger students also appealed to her.

After visiting friends in Fitchburg she planted roots—including starting a family—in the city and eventually at Fitchburg State, where she was impressed by the strong connection between the university and the Fitchburg Public Schools. Soon she was teaching at the middle school level.

“It was so much more fulfilling,” she said. “I wanted to work with at-risk children.”

Timothy Michalak attributes his interest in studying abroad in Spain to two simple factors: people and curiosity.

“My entire experience in Spain revolved around people,” he said. “Not places, buildings, or language. I have always been fascinated by people, and always strive to meet new people and understand them as wholly as I can. Because of this, the inspiration to study abroad came quite naturally. I see a world which is full of people whom I don’t know, and I actively choose to spend my life trying to meet them.”

Susan Rosa, education professor, was recognized with the Joel D. Miller Award in June at the annual retired educators luncheon, held at Hammond Hall.

The Miller Award was established in 1955 in honor of the state senator and member of the Board of Education, who is considered one of the three founders of the State Normal School in Fitchburg (which was later known, of course, as Fitchburg State). Miller Hall is also named after him. The award is given to an educator who has demonstrated originality in their profession, given unselfish devotion to the profession and exerted an influence for good among their students.

For Ben DeTour ‘13, college was about taking full advantage of each and every opportunity. 

The Fitchburg State senior was just wrapping up his final semester of an internship at National Geographic Television in Washington, D.C. last spring when he had the chance to meet an alumnus whom he had been hoping to connect with for months. The two hit it off and a short time later, DeTour, originally from Belchertown, had a full-time job. 

Nick Wilson has always entertained dreams of being a history teacher, and figures a good way to learn about it is to live it. So he’s spending six months this year in the Czech Republic, studying its language, history and environment.

“Travel is something I plan to do because there’s no better way to learn than to go there, see it, and interpret it for yourself. I hope that by the time I’m 30 I will have lived on each continent.” Europe is the second continent he’s seen (after North America). “So, only five more.”

Kerry Alcott of Groton also completed her distinguished Falcon career this spring, but not before setting a number of records as a member of the women’s softball team.

Alcott originally enrolled at Westfield State, but transferred to Fitchburg State two years into her career.

“A lot of factors influenced my decision to transfer, among them was the school’s amazing special education program,” Alcott said. “I also played softball against Fitchburg State and witnessed an incredible team atmosphere and I very much wanted to be a part of that.”

Sound design is a very important aspect of filmmaking. Without sound design, a film can sound terrible. Unfortunately this is often overlooked, especially with student films. I, like many other film professionals, know how important sound design is. So, I made sure to take a sound-related class while at Fitchburg State.

Sound design was very simple at first and has evolved throughout the years. "Gravity"—my favorite movie of 2013—won an Oscar for sound, and rightfully so! Sound design isn't just making everything sound good, it's also about layering the sounds perfectly and making something sound real or the way the audience should hear it.