Ithaca College

Ithaca College Will Make You Ready

With a vibrant community, professors who inspire, and the hands-on
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Featured Stories

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  Ready to hit the high notes

  School of Music | Music Performance

  Alex Canovas and his friends at Ithaca College agree: there’s something above and beyond about the School of Music.

  “One of the top things we say is how we out-do the competition, in terms of performance and professionalism,” Alex says. “Our résumés, our headshots, our collegiality are at a totally different level than students we see from other schools.”

  The talented tenor plunged right in freshman year when he was assigned two lead roles in the ensembles for two different operas being performed that year.

  “Jumping into a real-world situation at 18 years old was kind of scary,” he remarks. “At the end of the day though, it was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had.”

  Countless more performances followed, including the lead role in the opera L’Orfeo, and performances with the Ithaca College Choir in Philadelphia and at the Strathmore Center for Music (home to the National Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) outside Washington, D.C.

  Now the IC senior has graduate school in his sights. And with graduate-level music programs often wanting applicants to have a certain amount of professional experience behind them, Alex is confident Ithaca College has provided just that.

  “The level of experience we have as students is definitely of a professional caliber,” he says.

  Editor's Note: In August 2012, Alex began an exciting position as a coordinator for OPERA America's brand new National Opera Center, located in Manhattan. The Center is the first specially designed facility for the opera industry. It will feature a double-height audition hall with excellent acoustics, recording equipment, and other facilities for industry business. For more information, visit www.operaamerica.org.

  Slideshow: Alex Canovas

  
  

  >> More on this story: Ithaca on Tour | Ithaca College Opera

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  Ready when it rumbles

  School of Health Sciences and Human Performance | Outdoor Adventure Leadership

  Five months after graduating from Ithaca, Tom Healy was working with the search and rescue team in California’s Yosemite National Park when he got a call that a woman had fallen and fractured her leg on Half Dome, one of Yosemite’s iconic peaks.

  When Tom and his team partner reached the woman, they knew it wouldn’t be an ordinary rescue. “She needed to be medevaced off the top,” he recalls. “And a storm was coming in, and we were in a very bad place.”

  Slideshow: Tom Healy

  
  

  An avid hiker and rock climber, Tom chose Ithaca because it offered a major—outdoor adventure leadership—that could prepare him for situations like this, blending theory with wilderness immersion so that he could put classroom learning into practice.

  “You learn that the consequences of your decisions are very important,” he says. “It definitely gives you more tools in your bag for life.”

  The storm hit so close that Tom’s partner felt electric shocks through the metal frame of his backpack, and another hiker’s hair stood on end. “What I learned in my classes at Ithaca is to remain calm,” Tom says. “You have to have the coolest head in the group.”

  As the weather grew increasingly violent, Tom helped the woman safely aboard the rescue helicopter and then led the other hikers to safety as lightning struck around them. “If we hadn’t gone up there and gotten her off the mountain,” he says, “she definitely would have died.”

  Tom got a letter from the National Park Service commending him on his bravery and a heartfelt thank-you from the woman whose life he saved. “The letter of thanks I received from the injured hiker was worth all the effort,” he says.

  Now Tom is studying in an advanced paramedics program so that he can return to Yosemite as a full-time employee. “Ithaca College made me ready to adapt to any situation.”

  >> More on this story: "Alum's Bravery Earns Notice" - Fuse

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