By Kamiko Chamble
A year in, the vice president of Enrollment and Student Success found family in the community and a focus in student wellbeing and mental health.
McGrath said the people at SUNY Plattsburgh were warm and welcoming to her — they made her feel accepted, like she was part of the campus and the community. Even before she took the job, she felt at home.
“A headhunter reached out to me and showed me this opportunity at Plattsburgh. I read it and it was like looking at myself in the mirror — what the role and Plattsburgh was all about,” McGrath said. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s in alignment with who I am as a person.”
Plattsburgh appealed to McGrath even more because her mother lives 45 minutes away, on the other side of Lake Champlain in Vermont. She not only saw the move as a professional opportunity, but it a personal one, too, bringing her from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, back around her immediate family.
McGrath is driven by the idea that students perform better and participate in the community more if they are taken care of.
“Healthy students are stronger students,” McGrath said. “Health is not just the absence of disease, it’s about students having overall well-being.”
McGrath played a role in establishing the Cardinals Thrive fundraising campaign to help student wellbeing. A portion of the $2 million raised went to 125 red Adirondack chairs and picnic tables by Hawkins Hall and behind Memorial Hall. The purpose of the chairs was to get students outside.
“Fresh air and being out in natural sunlight helps bring up students’ positivity,” McGrath said.
The funds helped hire another counselor for the Student Health and Counseling Center to give students more support, and they are developing a peer counseling program. McGrath has made donations to SUNY Plattsburgh herself, investing $5,000 in the Cardinals Thrive campaign.
“I donate to SUNY Plattsburgh and the College Foundation because I believe in our students and I believe in what we’re doing,” McGrath said. “My philanthropy needs to follow my values, and Plattsburgh follows my values, so my dollars follow it as well.”
