Marist grads return to campus to assist students in career pursuits
Alumni returned to Marist to meet one on one with students at the VIP Networking Event in fall 2022 presented by the Center for Career Services. The graduates gave students tips on finding internships and full-time jobs and succeeding in their career fields.
Helen Stahlin-Corveleyn ’00 was among 117 teachers, mentors, and mentoring organizations named as recipients of the national Presidential Awards for Excellence.
Helen Stahlin-Corveleyn ’00 was among 117 teachers, mentors, and mentoring organizations named by President Joe Biden as recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) and Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). The awards honor the important role that America’s teachers and mentors play in supporting learners who will be future STEM professionals, including climate scientists, mathematicians, innovators, space explorers, and engineers, according to a February 2022 announcement.Helen, who won in the Science category, teaches at Hopewell Elementary School in Hopewell, NJ. Her husband is Graig Corveleyn ’01.Established in 1983, PAEMST is the highest award that kindergarten through 12th grade mathematics and science (including computer science) teachers can receive from the U.S. government. Nominees complete a rigorous application process that allows them to demonstrate deep content knowledge and their ability to adapt to a broad range of learners and teaching environments. A panel of mathematicians, scientists, and educators at the state and national levels assesses the applications before recommending nominees to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Teachers are selected based on their distinction in the classroom and dedication to improving STEM education.The National Science Foundation, which manages PAEMST and PAESMEM on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, provides each recipient $10,000. Award recipients also receive a certificate signed by the president.
You might recognize the name Greg Bibb ’ 96 from when he called Marist basketball games — now he calls many of the shots as President, CEO, and Managing Partner of the WNBA Dallas Wings.
Greg Bibb ’96 always knew he wanted to be involved in sports. His love of athletics would take him from calling basketball games for Marist’s TV station all the way to serving as President, CEO, and Managing Partner of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings.“I had that sports aim and I felt that a communications degree with a concentration in radio, television, and film was the track to get there,” said Bibb, who, as an undergraduate, was the sports director for Marist’s TV station and covered sports for Marist’s newspaper, The Circle.Knowing the Marist internship program had contacts with the major sports networks, Bibb hoped he would earn a coveted internship if he worked hard enough. “I had that opportunity my junior year and had a chance to work on Monday Night Football and College Football Saturday,” he said. “It taught me so much about keeping up with a fast pace, working hard, and gave me that much more of a feel for the sports world.” He would one day be connected to an ABC Sports broadcast in a way he could never have imagined.“After Marist, I was able to take my sports background into a public relations opportunity with a soccer team and that actually forged a whole other path to grow in the industry,” he said. Eventually getting a chance to switch to the operational side, his roles have included executive VP of business operations of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and chief operating officer of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. The latter he began in 2007 and then was in both roles starting in 2010. “I had the opportunity to try many things and learn from smart people,” he said.After later founding a sports-focused investment fund in 2013, he left basketball for a couple of years. A partner in the business, Bill Cameron, had an idea: come back and help him with his own WNBA team. “Getting back to being involved with the WNBA was a thrill,” Bibb said. “Bill was looking to move the Tulsa Shock to Dallas, the team today known as the Dallas Wings, and he asked if I would join the ownership group and lead the business.”“With the Wings, I’m in charge of all aspects of the organization. For example, growing our broadcast offerings… At one time, the team had a half dozen games on TV.” Referring to the 2022 season, he went on, “This past` year we played 36 games—and all 36 were broadcast. The telecast reaches all of Texas and Oklahoma, three-quarters of Arkansas, and half of Louisiana. That’s 11 million households that can see a Wings broadcast.”But one for ABC Sports, a playoff game against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 21, was particularly momentous. “If you would have told me five years ago that we would be playing a playoff game on ABC before almost 800,000 viewers, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.But it’s more than the numbers for Bibb; it’s the hope. “I got involved with the WNBA to begin with partly because my wife, Tara, and I welcomed a baby girl,” he said. “This year is the 50th anniversary of Title IX and it’s important to create more opportunities for girls and women. My daughter has grown up around the WNBA and sees she can do anything she wants if she is willing to work for it. And it’s been just as important for our son … More opportunities need to exist for female athletes to be able to make a living professionally, and the success of the WNBA has a chance to help in that area.”Bibb, ever the competitor, doesn’t just have basketball nets on his mind, but lacrosse ones, too. He is also President, CEO, and Managing Partner of the professional lacrosse team Panther City Lacrosse Club, in Fort Worth, Texas. The team concluded its first season in the National Lacrosse League with high hopes in what he says is the fastest-growing city in the country, not to mention the 13th largest. “It combines the game of hockey that I played growing up and the game of basketball I’ve spent so much of my career in,” he said. “The participation rate in the sport keeps growing, there are cross-promotional opportunities with the Wings, and there’s the excitement of 20 to 30 goals a game on average. It’s another role for me that’s a great deal of fun…And, hey, isn’t fun what sports are all about?”
Looking back on two decades of serving students, heritage tourists, scholars, educators, environmental organizations, the business community, and the general public who seek to know more about a region that has been called "the Landscape that defined America."
The Hudson River Valley Institute, a Center of Excellence at Marist dedicated to studying the history and culture of the Hudson River Valley, celebrated its 20th anniversary throughout 2022 with a variety of programs and initiatives involving the Marist community and beyond.To mark the occasion, the staff at the institute wrote an article that appears in the spring 2022 issue of HRVI’s peer-reviewed journal of regional studies, The Hudson River Valley Review. The article highlights many of the organizations (including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area), people, and programs of prominence during the first 20 years and features the evolution of HRVI’s website www.hudsonrivervalley.org, a digital resource that houses materials for researchers, educators, heritage tourists, and the general public. Further, the article recognizes the essential role of the nearly 200 Marist students who have completed internships since 2002.In celebration of the ever-growing group of Marist alumni who have completed an internship, HRVI has been featuring former students in a yearlong social media initiative on Instagram and Facebook. These updates have been seen by more than 20,000 people and show the variety of career paths that can come from the institute’s interdisciplinary internship experiences. In the interview-style spotlights, alumni reflect on the importance of their time at HRVI to their education and work, with careers such as teaching, library sciences, public history, and law all featuring prominently among the individuals recognized. Many intern alumni cite their experience as being a transformative time in their development from undergraduate students to job candidates and professionals, and their work with the HRVI staff as their first experience putting classroom education to use in a professional setting.In addition to a year of celebration, 2022 has also been a year of transition for HRVI. In conjunction with the retirement of Col. (Ret.) James M. Johnson, the institute’s founding executive director and Dr. Frank T. Bumpus Chair in Hudson River Valley History, HRVI launched an ongoing fundraiser to establish the endowed Dr. James M. and Lois S. Johnson Student Research Fund. The fund is designed to enable interns to undertake more impactful experiences and develop more in-depth projects as well as to allow students from a variety of economic backgrounds equal access to the enrichment potential that comes from a fully realized internship with HRVI.“From our beginning, interns have been the lifeblood of HRVI,” said Johnson. “Their work becomes part of HRVI’s publicly available content and provides them with valuable experience that prepares them for graduate school and for their careers. Lois and I have each spent many years as educators and as supporters of Hudson River Valley history, and we are deeply honored to have an initiative that combines both of those passions and bears our names.” To learn more about the Johnson Student Research Fund, visit www.hudsonrivervalley.org/johnsonstudentfund.On Aug. 20, 2022, at Marist’s historic Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion, HRVI staff, supporters, friends, and intern alumni gathered to formally mark the 20th anniversary of the institute and honor Johnson on his retirement. The program included remarks from HRVI Director Dr. Thomas Wermuth ’84 and Advisory Board Chair Alex Reese among others. Dr. Johnson received a Certificate of Appreciation from New York State Historian Devin Lander recognizing his many contributions to the study of the history of New York, with specific emphasis on his work studying the American Revolution. The guests included approximately 30 former interns dating from the very first group in 2002 through members of the recently graduated Class of 2022, many of whom met for the first time at the event.HRVI’s year of transition continued at the 11th annual Handel-Krom Lecture in Hudson River Valley History on Sept. 29, which was offered as the institute’s first program combining both in-person and virtual attendees after several years of successful programming that was offered online only. The lecture featured author Philip Dray discussing his recently published book, A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age. During the event, Wermuth announced HRVI’s Operations Director Andrew Villani ’08/’13MPA as the institute’s new executive director.A former student of Johnson’s and former intern at HRVI, Villani has been a member of the institute’s team since 2008, serving in several different roles.“Our 20th anniversary has been a great opportunity to look back at the early days and celebrate the contributions of our founders, early supporters, and many student interns who helped to get HRVI off the ground,” said Villani. “It has also given us a chance to look to the future and identify new opportunities to build on that growth and success in a meaningful way. I am thrilled and honored to guide the Hudson River Valley Institute into its next 20 years.”Planning is already underway for 2023. “We are already looking at the next round of articles for publication, projects for our internships, and speakers for our two major lectures,” said Villani. “Stay tuned for an exciting array of programs coming up in the near future!”Left to right are Alex Reese, chair of the HRVI Advisory Board; Dr. Thomas Wermuth ’84, HRVI director; Andy Villani, executive director; Col. (Ret.) James M. Johnson, Dr. Frank T. Bumpus Chair in Hudson River Valley History; Christopher Pryslopski, HRVI senior program director; Jason Schaaf, HRVI education coordinator; and Devin Lander, New York State Historian. Photo: Al Nowak/On Location Studios.Guests included approximately 30 former interns. In total, nearly 200 Marist students completed internships with HRVI since the establishment of the institute in 2002. Photo: Al Nowak/On Location Studios
