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Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege of working with the nonprofit organization AdkAction through the Upstate Institute Field School.

I was placed with a refugee resettlement organization called The Center, a Utica-based nonprofit, and have had the opportunity to engage in work experience that has been invaluable to both me and the community.

This year, students in ������’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program returned $1.47 million to residents living in Madison and Chenango counties. The program began in 2004 and has been led by Nicole Simpson, W. Bradford Wiley Professor of international economics. It is funded by the University’s Upstate Institute and NBT Bank.

Matthew McGeary ’24 is one of Upstate Institute’s Summer Field School Fellows working with Rogers Environmental Education Center’s “B-Team” on the project, and is seeking the public’s help to document the status of the area’s native bees.

My goal this summer was to evaluate improvement options and to research possible grants and other funding opportunities for The Bell Tree to utilize in order to further renovate the church in sustainable ways. I began researching local organizations that experienced the same struggles as The Bell Tree in terms of retrofitting their old buildings.

My project for the county historian is to research local primary documents and figures connected to subjects found within the New York State Social Studies Curriculum.

I am working on a new research project titled “Uncovering the Hidden Stories of Migrant Labor Camps Along the Chenango River Valley.”

The main goal of this project is to collect basic information from a behavioral standpoint from families in Madison County.

The project I have been undertaking is a new endeavor, started by Rogers Center Environmental Educator Ellen Rathbone, to inventory and address the concerning population decline of native bumblebees at Rogers Center and around central New York. This initiative is fittingly called the “B-Team.” 

Rory Gold Wienk ’24 is one of 31 student fellows who completed research with a community-based organization in upstate New York this summer as a part of the Upstate Institute Summer Field School.