Since the Buffalo Co-Lab’s founding in 1946, the ILR School has played a vital role in western New York, working in partnership with business, union, government, education and community organizations – a relationship that was honored at an event May 7 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center on the Buffalo State University campus.

The event, “Education in Action: Experiential Pathways for Today’s Careers,” was attended by SUNY Chancellor John King, Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan and other state officials.

“This was a celebration of our partnership with SUNY Buffalo State, bringing new opportunities to enrich our 80-year-long role in the Buffalo community and our successful 19-year-long engaged learning initiative through the High Road Fellowship,” said Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. ’99, the Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and Martin F. Scheinman ’75, M.S. ’76, Professor of Conflict Resolution.

Launched in 2009, High Road offers summer internships that connect Cornell students with practitioners and local leaders driving change in their communities. With the relocation of the Co-Lab offices to the Buffalo State campus last summer, the High Road program also expanded to include Buffalo State students.

“The partnership between SUNY and the Cornell ILR School represents the very best of what higher education can do when institutions work together toward a shared purpose,” Cathy Creighton, director of the Buffalo Co-Lab, said in her opening remarks. “The recent inclusion of Buffalo State University students into the High Road Fellowship program is an exciting and important step forward – broadening opportunity, deepening impact and strengthening the pipeline of students engaged in meaningful, community-based work right here in western New York.”

Creighton also touted community-engaged learning, saying that high-impact, experiential learning opportunities prepare students not only for careers but also for civic leadership and engaged citizenship.

During the panel discussion, King said that after losing both his parents by the age of 12, public school teachers made a difference in his life.

“After my dad passed, I moved around a lot to different family members and different schools, but it was always teachers who gave me a sense of hope and purpose,” King said. “The State University of New York is an incredible engine of opportunity for students. I love being a part of this community of institutions that is changing people’s lives every day, the same way that teachers did for me.”

Other panelists included current and former High Road Fellows Grace Bogdanove ’19, Rene Cabrera ’27, Finley Williams ’25 and Buffalo State students Alyssa Chase Herr and Rachelle Clark.

Bogdanove, who transferred from a SUNY college to the ILR School as a sophomore, said her community-engaged High Road fellowship changed the trajectory of her career.

“I was bitten by the bug. In that one summer, I decided I wanted to work for the labor movement,” said Bogdanove, currently the vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, based in Buffalo. She supervises a High Road fellow each summer.

“I think being a part of the High Road fellowship when I was in college, and now as a leader in the labor movement, has impressed upon me the importance of solidarity and of building real and deep relationships between community organizations and the labor movement,” she said.

Clark was a member of the first Buffalo State cohort to participate in the High Road program, interning for State Senator April N.M. Baskin (D-Buffalo).    

“I’ve lived in Buffalo for 10 years, and I really had no idea of the struggles they faced and the true challenges – and opportunities – that are possible on the Eastside,” said Clark, who is studying for her master’s in public administration. “It was a really special experience that no one from Buffalo State had yet, and I was honored to participate in the program.”

A reception followed the panel discussion, at which Ryan declared May 7 as ILR Day in Buffalo. The proclamation was presented to Creighton and Lou Jean Fleron, former director of the Buffalo Co-Lab and senior extension associate emeritus. 

Julie Greco is the director of communications for the ILR School.