The Economics Department nominated Matt for the highly prestigious John Christopher Hartwick Scholar award which he won in spring 2018. Soccer Coach, John Scott, describes Matt as “intuitive, articulate and charismatic….While Matt possesses a multi-dimensional skill set, it is important to note he is a humble person with his feet firmly on the ground. What makes Matt a great student is that while already successful in many ways he is still striving to become better.” 

“I have loved every minute of my thirty years at Hartwick. I will be forever changed in such a positive way, because of my time here, and the relationships and friendships that have been forged during that time. I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have had over the last three decades.”

“My best experiences at Hartwick have all come from caring people who support me in the things I want to do. I was able to do a Nursing internship in Thailand in summer 2015 thanks to faculty who helped me make connections there and get an Emerson International Internship Fellowship to fund it. Then in summer 2017 Professor Forster Rothbart and Ann-Lis Glenn helped me get a Duffy Scholarship to do a water assessment project in Myanmar.

I feel like I was interested in Public Health even before I joined the program. When I went back to Myanmar to visit rural villages in 2016, the people told me about their challenges getting clean water. When I asked them what would be the one thing I could do to help them, they said I could connect them to NGOs who could improve their access to clean water. This made me want to work on the problem, and the Public Health major was a perfect fit.”