#sarah schoenbeck

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 7

Stars Like Fleas

The summer rolls on in a very peculiar way, with masks and zoom calls and brief, furtive trips to the grocery and the growing realization that normal is months, if not years, away.  Even so, the music remains excellent. Thank god it’s downloadable and accessible even in these strange days we inhabit. Here writers including Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers, Justin Cober-Lake and Ray Garraty consider improvised drone, precocious alt.country, experimental banjo tunes, rap metal and jazz.  Enjoy.

75 Dollar Bill — Live at Café Oto (75 Dollar Bill’s Social Music series)

Live at Cafe OTO by 75 Dollar Bill

Before 75 Dollar Bill put out those widely revered LPs for Thin Wrist records, Che Chen and Rick Brown made a series of tapes. You could pick them up at shows, packaged in a clamshell case with a business card advertising their services. 2020 is a plague year, so it’s going to be a while before anyone hires them for another party or a parade, but this download-only release fulfills similar functions. It captures the band at a particular moment in time, and it gives you a chance to throw a few bucks their way. Do so and you probably won’t be sorry, because the late 2019 tour documented by Live at Café Oto was unique in 75 Dollar Bill’s history. Chen and Brown did the whole run of shows with double bassist Andrew Lafkas, but they also did nearly all of them without essential gear. It wasn’t until near the end, when they played in England, that Brown was reunited with the big wooden box that is his main percussive instrument. Spread across three sets, this three-hour long album shows how swell they sound when they’ve got a committed agent of swing adding his subtle shift to their Bo Diddley meets Mauritanian wedding music groove. If you know I Was Real, you’ll recognize many of these tunes, and you’ll likely appreciate the differences that 75 Dollar Bill works and reworks upon them.

Bill Meyer

  Bandgang Lonnie Bands \ Bandgang Javar – The Scamily (TF Entertainment \ Empire)

After Bandgang broke up, Lonnie Bands made a successful solo career. His only misfortune, apart from a murder rap prosecutors tried to stick him with, was that he picked up a no-talent partner Javar. Here, surrounded by aggressive but undistinguished artists Mascoe and Paid Will, Lonnie hasn’t learned lesson. Thankfully, Javar makes his presence on The Scamily scarce, and the second half is basically Lonnie’s solo effort with some guests. As usual, Lonnie makes himself busy in illegal activities: drugs, scams, pimping, firearms. He neatly sums up his bad deeds on “Me Too”: “You on that bullshit? Me too.” The Scamily is not that focused as last year’s KOD but Lonnie, with his slick rhyming and catchy hooks, always reinvents a bad man’s lexicon.

Ray Garraty

 Sammy Brue — Crash Test Kid (New West)

Sammy Brue is no longer quite the wunderkind he was when he released his first full-length at 15, but he is still quite impressive here on the follow-up, hitching the spit and fire and wordy angst of, say, Ezra Furman, to the downhome pyrotechnics of Bob Log III. “Teenage Mayhem” explodes with teenage aggression, building out a twitchy blues riff into a monumental rock chorus, while “Crash Test Kid,” is softer sonically, but just as unflinching in its narrative. “Skatepark Doomsday Blues” is epic and grandiose but carries it off, infusing an old man’s blues progressions with the eruptive feelings of young manhood. All the signs point towards Brue growing into his art. He’s already channeling raw emotion into sharp song structures and lyrics without sacrificing their force. It’s a drag getting old, but it doesn’t have to be a step back.

Jennifer Kelly

 John Butcher — On Being Observed (Weight of Wax)

On Being Observed by John Butcher

English saxophonist John Butcher has a deep and diverse discography, much of it on CD. Since the standard of his playing is so high, and the settings and accompanists he selects so diverse, they’ve never been merely about documentation; you’d have to look hard to find a dud on the shelves. But as format preferences, economic shifts, and that damned virus turn everything upside down, Butcher has, like everyone else, found himself suddenly with plenty of time to comb through the hard drives and reassess the music stored there. And since CD manufacturing and distribution has been snarled up worldwide, what better time to transfer some of it straight to yours? On Being Observed comprises six solo performances recorded between 2000 and 2006, and you could not ask for a better introduction to what he does on his own. It features him in the studio, at a jazz festival, and in some unusual acoustic environments which afford a number of ways to understand what it means to read the room. Whether he’s playing to an audience or a 20 second delay in a dis-used gas storage facility, acoustically or amplified, using a soprano or tenor sax, Butcher’s tone is unmistakable, and his sense of how long to develop ideas and how to develop them is peerless.

Bill Meyer.

 Carling & Will — Soon Comes Night (self-released)

Carling & Will (banjo player Carling Berkhout and multi-instrumentalist William Seeders Mosheim) have spent the last few years working out new twists on old-time music. Their debut album Soon Comes Night takes another a step forward from their previous, more traditional sound. Much of the album relies on the interplay of banjo and electric guitar. The pair don't go for outre sounds, but Mosheim provides textures for Berkhout's banjo playing. “Lillie's Lullaby” offers a highlight, not only in its prettiness, but in its revelation of Berkhout's idiosyncracies as she shifts in and out of more typical patterns. The album in itself makes for a lovely collection of songs, but it has both the ups and downs of an act starting to find itself. Carling & Will have a distinct voice, and the more they work to develop that (probably by letting Berkhout get odder and Mosheim explore his voicings a little), the more impressive they'll become. If the pair decides to just focus on smaller updates to mountain music, they've already shown a worthy artistry in that.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Cloud Rat — “Faster” (Self-released)

Faster by Cloud Rat

Like a lot of us, the folks in Cloud Rat have been cooped up behind walls, watching the world burn. But that hasn’t stopped them from making some terrific music. This new track, “Faster,” has been posted to Bandcamp as a benefit for Black Lives Matter-aligned organizations. The song is somewhat in the mode of their most recent EP, Do Not Let Me off the Cliff (2019). That record traded in the band’s characteristic grindpunk intensities for some weirdo experiments in dreampop, noise and gauzy gothic nightmare soundtracks. “Faster” isn’t quite as far out there, and longtime listeners of the band will recognize some of the textures of tracks like “Moksha,” “Raccoon” and “Luminescent Cellar.” The song starts and ends with some lovely acoustic finger-picking by guest musician Andy Gibbs of Thou. In between, there are clean vocals by Madison Marshall that border on the ethereal, and electric riffs that build and build toward majestic heights. Good cause, great tune.

Jonathan Shaw  

 Drakeo the Ruler – Thank You for Using GTL (Stinc Team)

Recorded through a phone line from prison, with beats later provided by JoogSZN, Thank You For Using GTL right after its release was named best prison album since Penitentiary Chances, by now classic joint effort by C-Murder (still incarcerated) and Boosie Badazz (now free). It was too strong a claim to be true. On that duo’s album you can hear a sense of doom hanging over them. When all hope is lost, there is only a prayer, and even that can get lost on its way to God. There was no tomorrow. Drakeo the Ruler, on the other hand, raps like there is tomorrow. Even rough sound of voice recording and “This call is being recorded” tags are more like a necessary sound effect and a gimmick rather than an effect of reality (he couldn’t do it any other way). Strip this tape of all these effects, and you end up with an ordinary rap album, exactly like others released by dozens every week. Maybe there is no reason to thank GTL. It did us a disservice.

Ray Garraty

 Holy Hive — Float Back to You (Big Crown)

These super laid back funk soul cuts stay well inside the pocket, except when they veer unexpectedly into indie-folk. The funk parts come from one-time Dap King Homer Steinweiss, whose loose but transcendent way with a groove can be best heard on “Hypnosis.” Paul Spring, the singer, brings in the psychedelic falsetto, more Justin Vernon than Curtis Mayfield, but still radiant and chilling. The title track plays like a lost 78 soul classic, Spring’s mournful melody wafting skyward as big loopy bass notes and splayed jazz guitar chords drop into a slink and strut of snare drum. That’s maybe what you’d expect from Steinweiss’ Brooklyn soul revivalist resume, but elsewhere, there are surprises. “Red Is the Rose” sounds like Tunng, all space-bopped folk magic and electro-pinging drums, and “Be Thou By My Side” is lattice-picked folk without the slightest hint of syncopation. Both sides of Holy Hive have their sweetness, but only the funk stuff buries a stinger.

Jennifer Kelly    

 Dustin Laurenzi’s Snaketime — Behold (Astral Spirits)

Behold by Dustin Laurenzi

Here’s an irony for you. Composer Louis Hardin, whose habit of dressing up like a Viking and hawking his wares on the streets of mid-20th century NYC turned him into a bona fide attraction, may have conversed with jazz musicians, and shared a record label or two with them. But he didn’t really like jazz. Nonetheless, jazz musicians liked his music back, and they still do. The melodies are graceful, but malleable, and the Bach-meets-powwow rhythms have plenty of productive implications for a percussionist willing to work between the lines. After years of study Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi formed Snaketime, a project named after one of the composer’s rhythmic notions, that turned seven of his compatriots loose upon the Moondog book. Maybe loose isn’t quite the right word, since Laurenzi’s arrangements show deep respect for the original melodies and their exotic vibe. But there’s not a lot of music that can’t be made a bit better when you ask bass clarinetist Jason Stein to improvise from its foundations. This half-hour long tape adds four tunes to the seven on last year’s excellent LP Snaketime: The Music of Moondog, and any one of them could have made the cut if Laurenzi had been given enough rope to make a it a double album in the first place.

Bill Meyer  

 MachineGum — Conduit (Frenchkiss)

Like its Pepto-Bismol-pink cover, these songs seem a bit over-sweet and undernourishing at first, but damned if their synth and disco and art-rock grooves didn’t start to catch on after a few listens. The project, launched in New York City with the mysterious appearance of pink gum machines, is not what you’d expect from a Strokes offshoot, but give Fabrizio Moretti credit for branching out. Here tight, “O Please”’s sleek, wah-wah’d guitars and fat-fingered bass throws off a funk shimmy, but soft, dream-y choruses add an element of electro-pop introspection. “Act of Contrition,” by contrast, swells and swirls with gothy new wave drama, but also vibrates with indie earnestness; it’s like the National playing a New Order cover. If you’d told me a month ago, that I’d be enjoying a super clean, super precise synth-dance album by a member of the Strokes, I’d have laughed, but here we are.

Jennifer Kelly

 Phosphene — Lotus Eaters (Self-Release)

Lotus Eaters by Phosphene

Portland’s Phosphene drifts and drones in a satisfying vintage 4AD-ish way, the serene vocals of Rachel Frankel wafting out over intricate tangles of shoe-gazey guitars as Matthew Hemmerich pounds out motorik rhythms on the kit. This album, the band’s second, was written in the turbulent aftermath of the 2016 election, but it exudes a murky calm. In “Carousel,” for example, Frankel sings about how “everyone gets lost in their own power,” but the temperature remains cool, dream-like, lit by arcs of guitar sound and undergirded by a thudding mantra of bass (Kevin Kaw). The two singles run closest to pop. Bright, upbeat “Cocoon” is spiked with Spoon-ish piano chords, while “The Wave” damn near bubbles with girl pop exuberance. I can see why they’re leaning on those cuts, but I like the cloudy radiance of “Seven Ways,” the morose moods of “The Body” better.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sara Schoenbeck / Wayne Horvitz — Cell Walk (Songlines)

Cell Walk by Wayne Horvitz/Sara Schoenbeck

Bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck and pianist Wayne Horvitz built to their first duo release slowly. They've been playing together since the previous decade in Horvitz's Gravitas Quartet, working together in various styles. The bassoon doesn't necessarily lend itself to jazz, but Schoenbeck's experience with artists like Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton — as well as in various orchestras and symphonies — has revealed her fluency in different languages. Horvitz and Schoenbeck develop that approach on Cell Walk, mixing composed and improvised tracks, moving from jazz to classical and back again, happily residing in a new music space. The pair's chamber background comes to the fore more than anything else, but the artists' experimental ideas and Horvitz's occasional electronics keep the duo moving forward. The album mostly stays cool, although a few tempo shifts and Schoenbeck's varied tone create unexpected energy any time the disc starts to settle. Schoenbeck and Horvitz fill an unlikely niche, but they also make a good case for expanding it.

Justin Cober-Lake

  R.E. Seraphin — Tiny Shapes (Paisley Shirt)

Tiny Shapes by R.E. Seraphin

Ray Seraphin makes sweet, sharp songs out of guitar jangle and whispers that seem to nestle right in your ear. His first cassette under his own name after a stint in the slightly more abrasive Talkies kicks up a power pop dust and haze a la Luna or, more recently, Plates of Cake. Like these bands, however, he envelops smart, coiling melodies and wild spiralling guitar hijinks in daydreaming inchoate jangles. In “Streetlight,” Seraphin vamps and caroms in spike-y mid-temperature anthemry, crooning “And I won’t feel a thing,” and indeed there’s a misty, nostalgic remove around most of this album’s emotional content. Yet there’s also a classic pop shape that can’t quite be obscured by muttered, offhand delivery. “Fortuna” is the best bit, to my ears, a summer radio megahit heard from several rooms away, bittersweet and slipping away even as it plays.

Jennifer Kelly

 Stars Like Fleas — DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO (Amsterdam) (self released)

DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO (Amsterdam) by Stars Like Fleas

New York collective Stars Like Fleas are still gone, but the tracers and streamers left in the air by their passing continue to be entrancing. Whatever collapsed in the wake of their work on the follow up to their epochal LP The Ken Burns Effect can perhaps be glimpsed a little in the bulk of this first (and hopefully not last) release from what they describe as “a huge archive of live and session material.” As the title indicates, six of the 11 tracks here come from a radio session they did during their final tour (coming apart and leaving the final album unfinished upon their return to America). Along with a couple of Ken Burns highlights that session is all new material and it is as rich as anything they released during their lifetime. The collection is rounded out with some brief improvisations and another track intended for the final album, the 7” single “End Times”, and a wonderful performance of “Falstaff” from a Toronto show. Perversely and beautifully enough, the result is not only a must listen for fans of the group, it makes an excellent introduction for anyone who missed them the first time. Bring on the archives!  

Ian Mathers  

 Thecodontion — Supercontinent (I, Voidhanger)

Supercontinent by Thecodontion

 A death metal band entirely devoted to songs about ancient, paleolithic lifeforms and geological history? It’s not the most harebrained musical concept you may have heard — it even makes a sort of sense. What better musical genre to address such massive, atavistic and lumbering forms? Supercontinent is the Italian duo’s first LP, following 2019’s Jurassic EP. As its title suggests, this new Thecodontion record goes way, way back, to primal landforms, before continental drift assembled the earthball’s map into its current shape. Appropriately, the longest track on Supercontinent is “Pangaea,” named for the unimaginably huge late Paleozoic landmass. Thecodontion’s featured instrument is Giuseppe D’Adiutorio’s bass, which he variously thrums, hammers and shreds. He gets some pretty amazing sounds out of it, sometimes producing the soaring, moaning, keening sounds that Greg Lake coaxed out of his bass on the early King Crimson recordings. The proggy reference is pointed; Thecodontion’s high concept project smacks of prog’s grandiosity. But where prog shoots for the heavens, Thecodontion goes bone hunting. It’s interesting work.  

Jonathan Shaw

 Various Artists — Building A Better Reality: A Benefit Compilation (JMY)

Building A Better Reality : A Benefit Compilation by Various Artists

As Bandcamp’s choice to waive its portion of transaction proceeds in favor or certain needs and causes has evolved from an occasional to a monthly event, releases have started to appear which take advantage of both the event and the rapidity of production when no physical objects are being produced. George Floyd died under a policeman’s knee on May 25; this compilation was released just 24 days later, on Juneteenth. Brent Gutzeit of TV Pow secured 106 contributions from friends, friends of friends, and customers of friends — and that’s just the parties that this writer recognizes. They range in length from Kendraplex’s 58 seconds of metallic shredding to Joshua Abrams’ half hour of mournful clarinet and cathartic double bass. You’ll find acoustic protest music, swinging jazz, harsh noise, hip-hop, and a sound collage that includes sounds of protest and mourning. The participants include Simon Joyner, Jsun Borne, I Kong Kult, Jesse Goin, Chris Brokaw, AZITA, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and the Jeb Bishop Trio, along with many, many more. Have I listened to them all yet? Of course not! But the thing with a set like this is that you don’t need to. Put it into your shuffle play and it’ll yield surprises for years to come. Income goes to Black Lives Matter, NAACP Legal Defense Fund. and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Bill Meyer

 Michael Vincent Waller — A Song (Longform Editions)

A Song by Michael Vincent Waller

At first listen, you might not guess that composer Michael Vincent Waller’s new EP/song A Song is an improvised piece, and as the surrounding material on Bandcamp makes clear, that’s kind of part of the point. Composition vs. improvisation is the kind of duality where both sides are never really distinct, and Waller is both interested in the history of composers improvising and (possibly naturally) improvises in a way that’s not a million miles away from his compositions. Which also means that just on that first listen the 21 minutes of solo piano found here are frequently beautiful, whether patiently probing a set of arpeggios or momentarily going somewhere a bit darker and deeper near the end. Whether considered as work done around or between more composed ones or in its own right, A Song makes for both a fine follow up to Waller’s 2019 collection Moments and a brief thesis on the always permeable boundary between two methods of creation.  

Ian Mathers

[arutai]

Sarah Schoenbeck by Wolf Marloh

[jersonordavid]

365 Films Part 6: 315/365

Marina and Adrienne

[thesnhuup]

2019: An Extraordinary Year for SNHU

2019 was an extraordinary year for Southern New Hampshire University. Throughout the year, we celebrated more than 21,000 graduates, gained new friends and colleagues in Tucson, and supported more than 40 organizations across New Hampshire. As the year comes to a close and the SNHU community continues to grow, I wanted to share some of my highlights from the year:

1. Our Learners

At SNHU, we have some of the most dedicated learners imaginable. They are the everyday heroes that reaffirm for me our mission. They are parents taking care of kids and working full-time, police officers and military students, campus students working many hours and still volunteering in our community, and refugees left behind by much of the world but holding onto hope. Hearing their stories of perseverance and grit is always inspiring and I am still in awe of many I spoke with at Commencement. This year, one of our students walked across the stage after recovering from paralysis, another earned two degrees while battling brain cancer, and many overcame obstacles of their own on the path to a degree. Meet some of our 2019 graduates:

Ricardo Scarello, a graduate student who lost his eyesight, walked across the stage in May with his service dog, Puck. Despite all of his obstacles, Ricardo earned his master’s degree with a 4.0 GPA and now works as a senior software developer. 

In high school, Sarah Schoenbeck suffered a traumatic brain injury while playing varsity soccer. Although she lost three years of memory and educational experience, she excelled on campus and graduated as a double major. 

Emma Lineberger, one of our College for America students, walked at SNHU’s Commencement one month before her high school graduation. Emma had many health challenges along the way, but was able to complete her associate and bachelor’s degrees online with SNHU through a dual enrollment program. 

Last May, I helped pull off the sweetest Mother’s Day surprise of all time. One of our online students, Jessie Rogers, knew that her mom Kathleen regretted missing her own Commencement ceremony in 2017 and reached out to SNHU for help. Together, Jessie and I surprised Kathleen with her cap and gown and they had the opportunity to walk across the stage together. Take a look at the surprise moment:

2. Our Employees

There was a lot to celebrate in 2019 and we could not have done any of it without our staff and faculty. We now have more than 10,000 employees across the nation who live SNHU’s mission in service of our students. It’s because of them that we’ve been named a Great College to Work For twelve years in a row, the most innovative university in the north for the fifth consecutive year, a top institution for adult learners, and now one of the best places to work for women. I am honored to have such a great team and community by my side. 

I also wanted to recognize and congratulate the following SNHU community members:

Gwen Britton, associate vice president of STEM professions; Mark Gruen, associate dean; and their team who received the 2019 OLC Effective Practice Award for their Pathways to Math Success initiative. You can learn more about the project, here.

Patricia Lillie, an online liberal arts professor, who earned the UPCEA’s Adelle F. Robertson Emerging Professional Continuing Educator Award this year. This award recognizes professionals who have made significant contributions to student learning and student success outcomes.

Jasmeial “Jazz” Jackson, associate dean of FYE, retention, and special programs, who won UPCEA’s Leadership and Service Award. This award recognizes a continuing education professional who has exhibited achievement in the profession and exemplary service to UPCEA.

With help from several staff and faculty, SNHU also won the UPCEA’s Excellence in Engagement Award for the Amica Challenge. This award recognizes an outstanding partnership of a member institution with one or more external constituents that resulted in a measurable and sustainable shared impact. Thank you to all who contributed to this project.

A team at SNHU earned the Eduventures 2019 Innovation Award for expanding academic support to improve persistence. Thank you to the team for your hard work.

SNHU was recognized at the ANA Multicultural conference as a Best-In-Culture top performing brand by ANA and the Association for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. Our “Get Your Degree” spot was named one of the Ace Metrix Most Empowering Ads of Q3, and SHE Media identified our “Stand Up” campaign as a nominee for the 2019 #Femvertising Award. Congratulations to the marketing team.

3. Tucson

In 2019, we also expanded the SNHU family to Arizona. More than 100 staff members recently joined our team and will be based in our new Tucson office. They will help serve learners in western time zones, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the growing SNHU community.

As you may know, we hosted two career fairs in the Tucson area to find new talent. Our staff members had the opportunity to speak with scores of candidates, many of whom had inspiring stories. One individual had been in a serious motorcycle accident just days before he attended the career fair. He said he did not want to miss an opportunity to interview with SNHU. We also heard from two service members who celebrated Veterans Day together and found out through conversation that they would soon be co-workers. 

Now with our new “SNHUcson” staff on-hand, we plan to officially mark the opening of our new location with a ribbon cutting ceremony and employee event in February. I can’t wait to meet the whole team! 

4. Student Work & Experiential Learning

At SNHU, our learners truly often learn as much outside the classroom as in it. In celebration of their success, I wanted to share some of this year’s student projects with all of you. 

A group of online students recently made the finals of a global data analytics challenge, beating out dozens of teams from around the world. The project was presented at Teradata University’s 2019 Analytics Challenge and addressed chronic hunger and food waste in the United States. The SNHU team was one of 16 selected to present at the finals in Denver from among more than four dozen submissions.

A group of on-campus sport management students worked with marketing professionals in Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls corporate offices on several projects. Most recently, they proposed ideas to redesign and refresh Red Bulls Stadium’s premium suites, as well as a marketing plan.

Earlier this year, students also participated in The HEaRT (Health Education and Real-World Training) Challenge, which paired groups of online healthcare administration students with an employer partner, Watermark Retirement Communities. Each group was challenged to develop strategies for the retirement home network to address recruitment and retention strategies while addressing how the nationwide nursing and healthcare professional shortage impacts public health. Students researched and drafted recruitment and retention plans while working with Watermark executives and developed presentations demonstrating their ideas.

In 2019, our campus students, with help from Professor Frost, also published a study on the cognitive effects of smartphone usage. Together, they found that heavy, daily smartphone use affects the ability to extract and analyze information. You can read more about the study here.

More experiential learning projects and examples from 2019 can be seen here. 

5. Giving Back

At SNHU, we understand the importance of giving back and always strive to be a good neighbor. In 2019, we supported more than 40 local organizations across New Hampshire, including Families in Transition, Manchester Boys & Girls Club, and The Palace Theatre. We also opened our first mini-pitch in the Granite State with our friends at Major League Soccer, and have plans to open a second on the west side of Manchester. In January, the Boston Celtics also helped us open a brand new technology lab for the students of Fairgrounds Elementary in Nashua.

To their great credit, our students often lead our community service activities. On campus this academic year, nearly 1,000 students participated in service projects, including alternative break, service learning, and volunteerism. Through the Chandler Center, more than 5,500 hours were served across 42 local nonprofits. We could not be more proud of our students and the impact they’ve had on the community. 

We also had another record-breaking year for our annual Global Days of Service initiative. In 2019, nearly 1,600 volunteers led 180 projects in 44 states and seven countries. In total, SNHU community members logged 7,800 hours of service throughout the month of April. 

6. Supporting Military-Affiliated Learners

This past summer, we hosted our fourth annual Operation: Back of the Net to raise funds for and honor the men and women who selflessly serve our nation. Through the initiative this year, SNHU donated $124,000 to the USO and also awarded six full scholarships to military-affiliated MLS fans. I encourage you to read more about the scholarship recipients and initiative.

We also teamed up with Operation Homefront to honor military spouses across the country. At each of our four Homefront Celebrations, we surprised a spouse with a full tuition scholarship to study online with SNHU. Heather Jaquay received her scholarship in January, and decided to pursue a degree in healthcare administration. Read her story, here.

I also wanted to share one of my favorite stories from Commencement. We had a military couple – Jessica and Parker Bryant  – who crossed the finish line together this May. Despite an overseas deployment and five young kids at home, they were able to complete their programs online together. They hope to show their kids that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. 

7. Penmen Athletics

Our student-athletes are a talented group and impress me every year (and fill my ring case). This year, many of our teams qualified for the NE10 postseason and I could not be more proud. Here are some top Penmen highlights from 2019:

Our women’s soccer team, which earned an NCAA Championship berth for the third straight season, welcomed 12-year-old Katie Chase to the team through our partnership with Team IMPACT. Katie, who has a rare genetic disorder, signed a letter of intent with the team in August and cheered on the Penmen throughout the season. 

Men’s ice hockey captured its second Northeast-10 title. In his second year behind the bench, head coach Sean Walsh was named the NE10 Coach of the Year.

Men’s golf captured both the Northeast-10 Championship and NCAA Atlantic/East Championship, earning its second trip to the NCAA National Championship. Senior Matt Paradis became the first All-American in program history.

Women’s cross country posted its top season in program history, recording its highest finish at both the NE10 Championship (second) and NCAA Division II East Regional Championship (third), while qualifying for the NCAA National Championship for the first time ever. Sophomore Ashley Corcoran placed 26th and became the program’s first All-American. 

The athletic department claimed its highest finish ever in the NE10 Presidents’ Cup standings (fourth) and its second best finish in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings (61st).

Cheerleading captured both the All-Girl Division II crown, as well as the Collegiate Grand Champion title at the New England Cheerleading Association (NECA) Collegiate Championships, before claiming its highest finish ever at the NCA National Championships.

Men’s tennis posted its most successful season ever, winning its fourth straight Northeast-10 Regular-Season Championship, fourth consecutive NE10 title and advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time in program history.

8. Expanding Access

At a time when high-quality higher education is increasingly out of reach for many, we have been working hard to put education in the hands of learners across the globe. Over the past year, we launched several new partnerships to expand access to education and also made some great strides on ongoing initiatives. Here are some highlights: 

Through our partnership with Guild Education, SNHU degree programs are now offered to all Walmart and Chipotle employees. Walmart announced in June the expansion of its Live Better U program, a program designed to eliminate barriers to college enrollment and graduation. As part of the expansion, Walmart now offers its 1.4 million U.S. associates the opportunity to earn a degree from SNHU. In October, Chipotle announced the expansion of its Chipotle Cultivate Education benefits program. With the expansion, Chipotle employees can now earn a degree from SNHU. 

We teamed up with Salesforce to bring college credit to its free online learning platform, Trailhead. By completing admin and developer badges, more than 1.5 million Trailblazers now have the opportunity to earn college credit from SNHU. 

As part of our commitment to make college more accessible, we recently froze tuition through 2021. This marks the 10th consecutive year SNHU has held tuition flat for online programs and 5 consecutive years for campus programs.

In 2017, our Global Education Movement (GEM) embarked upon setting and achieving five ambitious proof points. Two years later, GEM has now met each of these target milestones in collaboration with our partners and most important allies, our students. In achieving these breakthroughs, we’ve launched operations in four new countries, expanded our work beyond Africa to the Middle East, created a new degree, and continued to measure strong outcomes in Rwanda. Ultimately, it’s the individual stories of profound life and community transformation that best exemplify the power of our work together. In Kakuma, Kenya’s sprawling desert camp of nearly 200,000 residents, Mayen thought he’d never have the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree. He spent time as a teacher and wondered if he should return to his home country, but worried about his safety. Today, Mayen has completed an internship with the College Board, holds his bachelor’s degree in management with a concentration in logistics and operations, and has been offered a job in Nairobi working alongside communities with sanitation challenges. “I’ve not only transformed my own life,” Mayen said, “but I am showing the world what’s possible for refugees. We now have a reason to feel and spread hope.”

9. The Center for New Americans

As many of you know, we opened the SNHU Center for New Americans at YWCA NH in 2017. Since its opening, SNHU staff has provided a safe place for local Manchester youth to learn, play, and grow after school and during the summer months. The Center regularly sees more than 90 elementary through high school-aged students per week.

In 2019, the SNHU Center for New Americans expanded its services by partnering with the YWCA to open the WELL (Wellness, Education, and Learning for Life). The WELL, which opened on the second floor of the YWCA in September, now hosts ESOL, Hi-SET test prep and other academic and enrichment programming in addition to youth and recreation downstairs. The Center was also awarded a $30,000 grant over two years from Granite United Way to join their Youth Enrichment program which connects middle school serving agencies to additional organizations throughout the city. 

I also want to take a moment to recognize and thank Arthur Sullivan, Co-Owner of Brady Sullivan Properties and an SNHU trustee, for his generous shoe donation this fall. Thanks to him, 160 local kids – 80 from the SNHU Center for New Americans – were treated to a shopping trip where they were fitted for a brand new pair of shoes.

10. The SNHU Community

What I love most about the SNHU community is the way we always come together; whether that is to celebrate homecoming, support our community during a government shutdown, or find ways to better serve our learners. Our community and culture is truly unlike any other in higher ed. Thanks to everyone who made 2019 another wonderful year at SNHU!

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