Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 9th 2008, 6:06am By Chao Li & Elena Cala Buscarino

Celebrating its centennial this year, D'Youville is a private college with a Catholic Tradition. Like many a smaller school, D'Youville has small classes where the student to professor ratio is 14 to 1. "Students love the smaller environment and it helps to create successful graduates; especially when it comes to more difficult sciences and classes in the field of medicine. Because of its urban location, students can easily participate in Buffalo’s special events," according to Director of Public Relations John Bray.

At the helm is President of D'Youville Sister Denise A. Roche, GNSH, PhD in her 29th year. Also a graduate of D'Youville, she laughed, saying, "I guess I've been here several of those 100 years."

The majority of the student base comes from the Western New York area, which gives the college a sense of unity, and the majority of the graduates do tend to stay in the Buffalo area, though many students come from Canada and other countries. "We had incoming freshman this past year from 20 different countries on all continents," Sister Roche said. "And the amazing thing is that we didn't do recruitment--they found us on the Internet."

D'Youville has built-in diversity through an exchange program with Crete, Greece and plans to expand into Italy. All of this makes the college stands out as a small school in combination with its reputation for sending graduates into very successful careers in the health fields and education. It also holds the distinction of being the only school in the area that offers a Chiropractic program. They also offer an education degree where the graduates can get a bachelors degree along with a Master's degree in a five-year period.

"Though we do have a large group of health related fields broken into different departments for specialty fields such as nursing, physical therapy and physician assistant programs, I would have to say that education is our largest single department," Sister Roche explained. "Our math and science departments are big and growing." And so is the campus. D'Youville has invested more than $70 million in its West Side campus over the past 12 years.

Sister Roche explained that their new six-story, 93,000 square foot academic building on the corner of Connecticut and Fargo Streets will house their soon to be established school of pharmacy and classrooms. "Cannon Design is the architect and Savarino Construction is the builder. We'll be ready with our pharmacy school in 2010," Sister Roche said.

"We've asked the state to designate us as a university because many of our students come from Canada and Europe where a baccalaureate degree is awarded," Sister Roche said. "And being a university better defines who we are and where we're headed."

D'Youville does its part in terms of giving back to the local community. Other than events they host, such as neighborhood cleanups, they also do a Teddy Bear Clinic at the West Side Community Center annually. Within the clinic, students from the D'Youville health programs educate children and their parents about the importance of vaccinations and regular health checkups. They also provide information regarding where individuals and families can go to get help locally, with or without health insurance.

"We have good relationships with Buffalo Public Schools, such as Grover Cleveland, D'Youville Porter #3 and Leonardo Davinci," Sister Roche stated. "I like to think of our school as a pre-k through 16 educational opportunity."

In addition D'Youville works with Buffalo Public Schools to foster a love of math and science. "We just completed a week in which 8th-grade graduates learn how math and science are used in health care fields. They're so eager to learn more. I think we're going to have to expand it for next year. It opens doors for them and lets them explore their ideas. Hopefully, they'll decide to go to college here," Sister Roche said. "I firmly believe that the future of our city is based in education."

In terms of education, Sister Roche said that the influx of teachers obtaining their Ed.D degrees at D'Youville enhances their own teaching curriculum. "We learn from them and pass it on to our own education students," she said.

D'Youville's staff is enthusiastic and success oriented, and the intimacy of size makes individual attention possible. If you see yourself in a health related career, this school of 3,000 nestled on the West Side of Buffalo is a very reasonable alternative to a larger college or university.

Though many of D'Youville's students commute, they have ample student housing in a 12-story residence as well as a relatively new dorm on the corner of Prospect and Connecticut.

With goodies such as a NCAA Division 3 designation and 11 sports teams in basketball, soccer, crew, golf, baseball, softball, cross-country and volleyball, D'Youville also has a professional theater in the form of the Kavinoky. "We don't have a drama major, but this is a professional theater with an employed staff. Students have the opportunity to work alongside theater people and learn from them in the European tradition, as well as take courses with David Lamb, our artistic director."

Additionally, D'Youville boasts the Montante Family Library, a state-of-the-art facility that caters to all of D'Youville College and their alumni, as well as Da Vinci High School students and faculty, and people from the community surrounding the campus. "We're so happy to have this library that was developed from the old Holy Angels Parish School. [Uniland Development President] Carl Montante and most of his siblings attended school there.

The building is a delight," Sister Roche said.

D'Youville is a small school with large school ideals. It is the perfect place for someone who wants a quality education without crowding.