Bellavia, class of ’02 (M.F.A.Sculpture and Dimensional Studies), developed an online art sales business, www.bellaviaartists.com , to help Alfred University artists—students, faculty, and alumni--sell their work . She says she was “really moved by the high quality of art coming out of Alfred's students and how much of it I saw in the dumpster at the end of each semester, and how many good pieces would just wind up hiding in storage.”

She continues to sculpt, attending residencies at New York Mills Artist Retreat in Minnesota and at Jentel in Wyoming. “My time at Alfred University, Bellavia says, “was the hardest and most rewarding time of my life. I changed and became a much stronger person. The 3-D Department in Alfred was great for pushing me into developing my work in ways I never could have imagined. I came away from AU a much more evolved version of me.”

Tom Evans, class of '98 (double major in English and Arts), with a desire to continue his acting career begun in AU's C.D. Smith Theatre, went to New York City to become an actor. Since beginning his professional career, he has performed in many of Shakespeare's plays. Tom joined the National Shakespeare Company and is currently on tour, where he starred as Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as well as performing in "Romeo and Juliet".

Cecily Rogers, class of '98 (B.A. Geology), immersed herself in world-class opera and theater in San Francisco. She has been a house manager at the professional Magic Theatre, and also a technical apprentice for the San Francisco Opera. Cecily says most of her family has worked in opera, inspiring her to pursue a career there as well. At the opera, Cecily operates the light board and hangs and focuses lights. She also works backstage during the performances and helps with the scenery, props, and costumes. Although the work is physically demanding, Cecily enjoys it. She says, "I like working there because I love opera and I love helping to put a show together."

Jason Gray, class of ’98 (B.A. English) got his M.A. from one of the top creative writing programs in the country--the Writing Seminars of Johns Hopkins University--and is now a working poet.

Jason has been published in Poetry, the Threepenny Review, Literary Imagination, the Sewanee Theological Review, and others. Two of his poems were reprinted in the anthology And We the Creatures. He’s also regularly reviewing poetry for the online journal SmartishPace.com.

Jason credits his professors at AU with teaching him to love his work. “My teachers' great joy of their subject matter was contagious,” he says. “You have to want to dwell in these created worlds or the writing just isn't going to work out.”

Tetsuya Yamada, class of ’97 (M.F.A Ceramics), is a 2001 winner of the Tiffany Foundation Award, recognizing him as one of the best emerging artists in the nation. Educated in the ceramic arts at Tamagawa University in Tokyo, Yamada accepted a graduate fellowship at AU’s School of Art and Design. He spent a year as artist-in-residence at U. Mass, Dartmouth, and was chosen to participate in the Kohler Arts in Industry program in the fall of 2001. Currently an Assistant Professor at Knox College, Galesburg, IL, Yamada’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, including the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX, and the Portland Art Museum, Portland, ME.

Tetsuya says the 100+ year old program in ceramic art at AU neatly blends tradition with innovation, adapting new educational approaches to the needs of artists of the new century. “It was very valuable,” says Tetsuya, “to be a part of that community and participate in that dialog.”

Stephen Lestch, class of ’96 (B.F.A), is a senior graphic designer for Disney’s consumer products division, designing logos, stationery, stuffed animals and "anything you might find in a Disney store." Lestch's most recent project was designing for Monsters Inc., a Disney/Pixar film. Best part of the job? Steve says, "knowing that you’re trying to make the best product a child can enjoy.” Lestch credits his experience at Alfred with encouraging him to push the limits and create beyond his expectations. He says art is a great field right now, because the Internet, multimedia and special effects have created many new positions for artists. Now, he says, "everything is digital."

David Medina, class of '95 (B.F.A. Sculpture), has had considerable success showing his work in museums and galleries, including the Brooklyn Museum and the prestigious Heller Gallery in Manhattan. In 1999, Medina took part in the biennial of the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo. However, David makes his living as a Latin music DJ ("DJ Medina") at such famed NYC venues as the Village Underground and Nell's Nightclub, where celebs such as Bjork and David Byrne of the Talking Heads have seen Medina spin. David's first musical inspiration was his father, who was a professional folkloric dancer and conga player. "He had to give it all up for his wife and five kids," says Medina, who picked up where his father left off. It began at AU, where David had a popular Sunday night WALF radio show playing Latin music. "Everybody listened to it," says Medina with a smile. "Glass blowers, metal workers, frat houses, professors." David is most proud of the time Latin music legend Ralph Mercado hired him to play at the Hammerstein Ballroom alongside Cuba's most famous band Los Van Van. "If I'd studied graphic design, I'd be making big money," he says with a laugh. "I made the mistake of following my heart."

Eddie Dominquez, class of '83 (MFA Ceramic Art), recently sold a dinnerware set entitled "Anton's Flowers" to the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to his artwork, Eddie is also an assistant professor of ceramics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Fine and Performing Arts. He enjoys this job because it allows him to teach others his love of ceramic arts.

Eliza Beckwith, class of ’78 (B.A. Drama), headed for New York City after graduating from AU, convinced she wanted to be an actress. “I just knew I had to be on stage,” she admitted.

“But after a few years, I realized what I had really enjoyed was directing that play in Alfred,” Beckwith recalls. She changed her career, and she’s now winning accolades as a director of off-Broadway productions.

Beckwith returned to AU in the spring of 2003 as a visiting professor, and directed the world premiere of playwright Richard Willett’s The Flid Show, which opens off-Broadway in the fall of 2003. AU students worked closely with the playwright, too, and helped determine what changes needed to be made to the play before the New York run.

“What’s even more unusual than having a play ‘workshopped’ in Alfred,” says Beckwith, “is the fact that undergraduate students were part of it… Most new productions done on college campuses use graduate students in theater.”

Touring the Miller Performing Arts Center convinced Beckwith the experience would be a good one: “Even in a Broadway theater,” she said, “you wouldn’t find this kind of facility.”

Peter Jenkins, class of ’73 (B.F.A), is one of the top travel writers in the country. His career began a few months after graduation, when Peter took his dog Cooper for a walk—not around the block but halfway across the United States, right from downtown Alfred to New Orleans. A Walk Across America, the chronicle of that trip, spent months on the New York Times best-seller list, and the sequel, The Walk West, made the Times’ #3 spot. “I set off searching for America,” says Jenkins, “wondering about my country. I lived with and listened to people from every kind of life. I learned a great deal.”

Jenkins has written six more travelogues, including his most recent, Looking for Alaska. Of this book, Kirkus says, "On an Alaskan high, he is unmatched by Jack London or Robert W. Service, and the result is as persuasive as an avalanche." The book was named ‘Top Ten Literary Travel Book of the Year’ by Booklist, and named one of ‘The Best Books of 2001’ by Barnes and Noble and other major US newspapers.

Jenkins’ books are required reading in more than one thousand high schools and more than one hundred colleges across the country. They are published in half a dozen foreign languages. He has won an EMMY for a TV news series he created, and his photos have won national photojournalism awards.

About living and learning in at a small university located in an even smaller village, Jenkins says:

“I grew up outside NYC in Greenwich, CT., in massive suburban sprawl, I knew few people even though there were millions around.

I came to Alfred and one would think, ‘Oh my god, there are not many people around and how will I find anything to do.’ But the opposite was true.

I had more friends, knew more people, found all kinds of things to do, and most importantly was able to fully concentrate on the education and creation of Peter Jenkins. I got to be friends with my Profs, as opposed to some of the bigger schools where one is lucky to even have a senior Prof until later in their student career. There were no gigantic classes where the Prof was a speck down at the bottom of some huge hall… I believe my broad training in art at Alfred prepared me to reach out and attempt with confidence all kinds of creation; writing, TV, photography, radio and more.

In my travels I have found the same thing about small towns. People are brainwashed to think that everything that is happening is in the big cities…that this is where to be because this is where all the people are.

I have found because of the more human pace and less stress of a small community, humans interact better and are more open to each other. They are less threatened.

For these reasons, among others, I think Alfred and its `rural' environment offers an excellent incubator for the development of the a person as they transition from young adult to adult.”

Spy novelist Robert Littell, class of '56, has been called "the American Le Carre" by the New York Times, and "the Dickens of spy novelists" by Booklist.

Tom Clancy says "If Robert Littell didn't invent the spy novel, he should have." Littell's 13th thriller, "The Company", published in April, 2002, is a masterwork of Cold War espionage that has become a national best-seller. Littell says Alfred University made him a writer, and one professor continued to mentor him long past graduation.

"In the early 1970's," Littell says, "Mel Bernstein (Philosophy) would send me detailed letters analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of my books and my writing." Littell continued to receive such letters until a few days before Bernstein died, in 1995.

"When he died," says Littell, "I felt as if I had lost a member of my family. I'm not sure people who go to the supposedly more important universities come away with this kind of relationship or feeling for their teachers." He adds, "I often thought I got a better education at Alfred than my oldest son got at Yale."