Ella Viola:  Zoology

Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship, 2009

Memorial Scholarship, 2009

Under the direction of Professor Leonard Ciaccio, Biology, College of Staten Island, Ella Viola is designing a degree in Zoology, using courses in Biology and Anthropology from Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island.

In her own words…

When Robert Frost talked about “two roads” diverging in a yellow wood, he wasn’t kidding when he said the one less taken was “grassy and wanted wear.” My own unusual path towards a bachelor’s degree has been twisted, narrow, overgrown and barely visible at times – but I’ve kept walking. Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a passion for animals and dreamt of a career working with them. Being young and in love, I took a detour – the long way around – but with hard work and a stubborn determination to keep putting one foot in front of the other, things are falling into place. It has been quite a stroll.

After high school I got married and needed a job. I enrolled in Grace Institute, a vocational school, and quickly became a very young and inexperienced member of the adult workforce.  For a few years, until the birth of my first son, I worked as an administrative assistant in Manhattan. Eventually I got a job with a podiatrist. The work was oddly intriguing. It stoked my curiosity for science and convinced me that it was time to return to school and pursue my passion.

By this point, I had two children and loved every minute of being a mother. I got the crazy idea to go back to school to become a nurse for animals. LaGuardia Community College became my second home and the professors became family. I took a job as a teaching assistant in the laboratory and eventually in a classroom setting. My path was leveling out, becoming clearer. Pregnant with my third child, I graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science and a Veterinary Technician’s license. Then, our family moved to Staten Island (my husband owns a retail business there), and the daily commute to Queens became too much. Regrettably, I gave up my position and began the search for another job closer to my new home.

While working part-time at an animal hospital, I met some people who introduced me to the Staten Island Zoo. I applied and was accepted for an instructor position. The zoo combined my love for animals with my passion for teaching. I found my niche – my path was now crystal clear. Through the years, I have been promoted into my current position as Director of Education.  My responsibilities include hiring and training of education staff and volunteers, designing curriculum for school groups, teachers and families using the zoo’s animal collection and incorporating the conservation message embedded in the zoo’s mission statement into every program, special event and public relation opportunity available.

Through motivation and persistence, I have been able to reach professional goals that I never thought possible. However, something is still missing. My formal education is limited to domestic animals and medical procedures. I am long overdue for a Bachelor’s degree. It is time to take the next step and increase the depth and breadth of my knowledge. CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies has been a neon sign on my path, and I am too wise to ignore its glow.

Looking down the road, I could see myself eventually becoming the curator of the zoo. But that’s a long way off. For now, I’m going to stick with what has worked for me throughout my life. Focus on the task at hand, work hard, put one foot in front of the other. It has not been as easy as it could have been, but as Frost would say, that “has made all the difference.”

Today Jenni Jenkins uses her advanced skills in media production to communicate environmental and sustainability issues to the public.

In October 2009, Jenkins founded and was elected president of an undergraduate club called the Green Apple MultiMedia Association (G.A.M.M.A.).  The mission statement for G.A.M.M.A is “to create an EcoMedia Coalition at Hunter College that seeks to advance and unify the environmental and sustainability initiatives on campus. The coalition provides students with increased resources for their initiatives, such as equipment and technical assistance. Through collective media advocacy we will enhance the communication, collaboration, and strategic planning of these groups. By documenting student initiatives we will create a resource for the community at large.”

The club has already produced and filmed several on-campus events to promote sustainability and raise climate change awareness, such as co-sponsoring the first CUNY LEAF (Leaders in Environmental Action Forum) with NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group), which showcased CUNY-wide sustainability initiatives.  As a result of her efforts, she was recruited by the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities to produce a short video to promote their mission statement.  Jenkins was also elected Outreach Director for the Hunter Solar Project for the academic year 2009-2010. She is also the President of 22, an Ecomedia publication on campus that uses artistic mediums (such as photography, poetry, and fine art) to communicate sustainability and environmental issues to the public.

Most recently, Jenkins acted as sustainability consultant and co-authored with director Ramin Bahrani the short film “Plastic Bag,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and later screened at Telluride and New York Film Festivals.  Jenkins is now producing a companion documentary featuring interviews with leading figures in the sustainability field including Charles Moore who first discovered the Pacific Trash Vortex.  She writes a sustainability blog for www.jennijenkins.com.

Under the direction of Prof. Peter J. Marcotullio, Geography, Hunter College, Jenkins is taking courses in Geography, Physical Geography, and Urban Planning for her degree.

Jackie Mariano entered CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies in Fall 2009, with Hunter College as her home college.  She is a 20 year old Filipino-American woman born and raised in Elmhurst, Queens; she lives in the most diverse borough of New York City and goes to one of the most diverse colleges in the United States.  Coincidentally, matters of race and identity are deeply important to her.  She says “I am a woman.  I am a person of color.  I am a daughter of immigrants.  I am an activist.  I hope every day to fit into this world as an equal.”

Mariano serves as Co-Educational Discussion Director of a grassroots women’s organization called Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), a member organization of GABRIELA-USA, the first overseas chapter of GABRIELA, the national alliance of progressive women’s organizations in the Philippines. She is also a dedicated advocate of Asian American Studies, and is now president of the Coalition for the Revitalization of Asian American Studies at Hunter (CRAASH). She says “I am always inspired by the power of student movements to defend the right to an affordable, accessible education, particularly for the availability of ethnic and gender studies.” In her spare time, Mariano is a poet and spoken word artist who infuses her work, often in a comedic style, with issues of oppression and identity.

Under the direction of Professor Lina Newton, Political Science, Hunter College, Mariano is constructing her area of concentration with courses in Asian American Studies, Sociology, Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies, courses such as Asian American Civil Rights and the Law, U.S. Immigration Policy, and Social Movements and Social Change.  She plans to go to law school to focus on civil rights law and continue organizing the Filipino-American/Filipino-immigrant community locally and nationally.

Dayana Blandon

Cultural Anthropology

B.A., June 2009, cum Laude

“As a first generation college student, college life has been full of exciting experiences and many challenges.  One of my major accomplishments was graduating from Queensborough Community College, but I knew I would not stop there.”

Dayana Blandon entered CUNY Baccalaureate in 2007, writing in her application essay about her passion for learning about different cultures and her desire to help people, which began for her in high school when she worked as a tutor in the Queens Child Guidance Center.  To pursue her passions, she created an ambitious Area of Concentration in Cultural Anthropology with Professor David Julian Hodges, Anthropology, Hunter College, taking courses at Baruch, City, Hunter and John Jay Colleges.

Her area included fieldwork in New Orleans during spring break 2009 for a Baruch Honors Anthropology course called “New Orleans: The City that Care Forgot.”  Along with 28 other CUNY students and two faculty members, Blandon spent 11 days in New Orleans, volunteering in city reconstruction efforts, still underway almost four years after Hurricane Katrina.  In addition to the rebuilding efforts, the students had the opportunity to undertake a series of city tours, which included a tour of the Levee system, swamps and the wetlands.  That same semester, Blandon also conducted an independent study with Professor Hodges based on storytelling and cultural methods that can impact a child’s learning.  Prof. Hodges says “Dayana is an outstanding CUNY BA/BS student, with whom I have only had positive experiences.”

While in college, she became the Internship/Research Coordinator in the College Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at Queensborough Community College.  In that role, she provided career counseling to new and continuing students, also building authentic relationships with faculty members and organizations on and off campus for student work placements.  Her supervisor, Rihab Guneid, wrote that she was a tremendous asset to the CSTEP program, successfully demonstrating leadership ability and that her work has been a great help to the students.

Blandon says, “Graduating from CUNY BA/BS was a great accomplishment for me.  As a mother of two and the first of my family to graduate college, it was an immense accomplishment and an example to my younger brother and children, who I will strongly encourage to be part of this amazing learning adventure through this degree program.  I have truly learned, grown and been inspired through CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies.  I have never felt so accomplished and proud. Currently I am a resident of Maryland taking care of my young children and taking up photography and volunteering around the area.  In the near future my family will be residing to Hawaii if luck is on our way.  There I want to become a member of Teach for America and help children as my journey as a Navy wife continues through many different places to come.”

B. Diane Gibson

Criminology

B.A., June 2009

Dr. Abby Stein Award

In her own words…

Living near Baruch for a few years, I decided to continue my college education there and was happy to learn the school accepted my twelve or so credits earned in 1965 from the University of Virginia; I became a transfer student.  However, I still had to pass math.  I love it; I just get the wrong answers.  Unfortunately and after three semesters of remedial algebra, I realized a business degree was not for me and shortly thereafter I was accepted into CUNY BA/BS.

After a few semesters I decided to major in Criminology.  While working full-time, it was rare I took even six credits a semester.  Most of my Area of Concentration courses were taken at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and they were varied and exciting and of course I chose them from different departments.  I especially found refuge in John Jay’s ISP courses (Interdisciplinary Studies Program) many times…little did I know how great they would be.  At the same time I would always receive an encouraging word or two from my mentor, Professor Andrew Karmen (Sociology), as he was as surprised as I was as to my determination to keep on going and going.  So, from Juvenile Delinquency to Deviant Behavior to Fire Safety and Security and Witchcraft, I lumbered my way through the course work.

Each day I would enter one of the buildings for a class I would relish the date “1964″ engraved on the foundation, for it is also the year of my Mom’s untimely death at 46.  She would be so very proud of me.

During classes it was always fun to watch the students’ expressions on the first days of classes; they would think I was the professor.  I was so proud to smile and join them amongst their ranks of the undergraduate and work with them and watch their interaction with me.  At times I even felt though they were a bit frightened of me.  Listening to their youthful chatter, concerns, and oftentimes bold ideas was not only stimulating and fun but encouraging and gave me hope for the future.  Their youthfulness made me smile.

I even encouraged someone I had met in remedial algebra to go into CUNY BA/BS.  She did and was able to complete her BA in no time (doing her homework on the job) and now has been working in her field for nearly a decade.  I am especially happy for Kathy because-though not quite as old as me-she is also from Massachusetts from a working class family.  Sisters Unite!

Although I always worked full-time since I left home at 19, I never had a career to speak of and in the beginning of this new century I fell into even more of a career slump with truly no-end jobs combined with welfare; for three years I did no course work at all.  But thanks to good follow up the CUNY BA/BS staff pinched me saying I had better do it or lose it… Kathy was also an encouragement.   I started up again the summer of 2007 with a drama course for non-actors.

I have an interest in working as a case worker with young felons, ex-offenders incarcerated within the mental health system, and/or the developmentally disabled.  I am presently working with a recruiter specializing in these fields.  Although I have chosen to work with young adults (perhaps it has been my wonderful years of studying with them at John Jay), I understand the need is vast for competent employees in this field with my background and I most certainly will work with any group.

I was born in 1944 and today is June 3, 2009; after my first attempt at college 44 years ago, I graduate today with a B.A.  I am the only college grad in my family.  I am proud to be a New Yorker and a graduate of the CUNY system, and I am appreciative of the fact that I am now able to go on with this fresh face to challenge the many obstacles we have presently in front of us.  Thank you very much once again.

Maureen Durkin

Disability Studies in Speech Language Pathology-Audiology

B.S. June 2009

Magna cum Laude

Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship

Dean’s List

In her own words…

Admission into CUNY BA/BS, and furthermore, being a Thomas W. Smith Fellow, has provided academic, professional and personal opportunities that would not have been possible to obtain otherwise.  It has gently forced me to take an active role in school, and as a result I’ve made lasting relationships with CUNY faculty, my academic mentor, and Smith Alumni.

My Area of Concentration, Disability Studies in Speech-Language Pathology, has placed importance on the medical and social aspects of disabilities and speech disorders in our country.  A standard major in Speech-Language Pathology does not suffice in educating students in the medical realm, with little emphasis on research and much on educational settings.  The opportunity to do an Independent Study on “Auditory Evoked Potentials” absolutely swayed me toward a more clinical graduate setting.

I am incredibly excited to be attending Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute of Health Professions in Boston in the fall of 2009.  The hospital is ranked the fifth best hospital in the country, with the Institute of Health Professions ranking as the best place for graduate study in Speech-Language Pathology in the Northeast.  The program has a dual focus in medical and education Speech and has an abundance of research opportunities, including an option to write a Master’s thesis.   I plan on taking advantage of this option and conducting research in people with Autism and its correlations with Epilepsy and other neurological impairments, as well a the psychosocial effects the diagnosis has on the family.

Rachel Klapper

Journalism and International Affairs / Holocaust Representation

Magna cum Laude

Macaulay Honors College

CUNY BA/BS Alumni Association Scholarship

Baruch Hillel Leadership and Advocacy Award

Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Alpha Delta and Golden Key Honor Societies

Dean’s List

In her own words:

“As one of few people in the world lucky enough to have created and studied my field of concentrations, Journalism and International Affairs, coupled with Holocaust and Genocide Studies, I have applied to and been accepted by IDC (Interdisciplinary Center) Herzliya in Israel to study Government and Counter-Terrorism in their Thesis track.

As a published collegiate writer in Jewish Political Studies Review for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs–thinktank of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, at which I interned for three years–as well as my positions as managing editor of Hakesher Jewish magazine on campus, and contributing writer for Baruch College’s literary magazine Dollars and Sense, I realize that global journalism, despite its vicissitudes, continues in a trajectory of direct effect on politicians and legislations. As a graduate and an alumni advisor for Write On for Israel journalism-based advocacy training program of The Jewish Week at Columbia University, as well as former Diamond intern and speaker on behalf of  AIPAC: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, I have developed relationships with politicians through lobbying and interning, both here and abroad in the Middle East.   As their former intern, I maintain ties with the 11th Permanent Israel representative to the United Nations, as well as Israel’s recently appointed Ambassador to the United States.  My career ambitions have magnetic proclivity to the heated journalistic task of International Affairs in the field of Ambassadorship or Political Representative.

I was simultaneously challenged in channeling my passions into a confident academic career.  I therefore pursued double areas of concentration through the extraordinarily encouraging CUNY Baccalaureate, as a Macaulay Honors scholar at Baruch College: Journalism and International Affairs, for a vehicle of political activism and articulate communication of 22nd century geopolitical humanity; and Holocaust and Genocide Studies, to remind the world of Santayana’s ominous quote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

In my CUNY Baccalaureate admissions essay, I wrote of my awareness that ninety percent of an iceberg develops under the water: on my surface, one might be impressed because at 21 years old, I am on a first name basis with my Senators as well as former Prime Ministers and Parliament Members in Israel.  But the magnitude of my hopeful career, like the mass of an iceberg underwater will come through scholarship, intellect, and proactive education.  This is why CUNY Baccalaureate is the greatest opportunity offered to me yet.”  My statement is truer now than I could have ever anticipated.

It was an academic struggle since the onset of my career in the Baruch Honors College, since there are limited non-business classes offered, especially for a Middle Eastern concentration. There are two genres of Journalism offered as majors in Baruch, and while both “Creative” and “Business” Journalism are excellent fields, they do not delve enough into the massive task of Journalism regarding international affairs. But with admission to CUNY Baccalaureate, which put me in charge of my education, and trained mentors and professors as the facilitators of individualistic study, I was determined to maximize CUNY BA/BS’s pedagogical breadth in order to chase my dream, and destiny, of combining concentrations in Journalism and International Affairs, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies into a proactive, meaningful, and serious career. Despite the fact that grades were sometimes more challenging, I enrolled in 17 Honors courses through my academic career, almost double Macaulay’s requirement. Most of them were IDC– interdisciplinary-because when challenged most, in an interdisciplinary environment, one learns the most.  CUNY BA/BS’s mission has deeply affected me.

Now, the next step in making my career aspirations a reality, is striving for academic expertise in IDC Herzliya.  Many aspects of this Masters are comparable to the incredible experience of CUNY BA/BS.  The best part about CUNY BA/BS, the Macaulay Honors, and Baruch College, is the diversity of its students:  my peers represented more than 192 UN accredited nations.  In fact, Baruch College was named most diverse campus according to U.S. News and World Report.  An inextricable part of my education was networking a worldly group of friends and amongst them, I practiced becoming a proud pro-Israel leader on campus, through dialogue with German students about the Holocaust, teaching Asian Christians pro-Israel advocacy, appointment as President of Hillel’s Koach committee, and developing confidence in initiation of leadership projects through intensive academe.  IDC Herzliya is proud of learning from its international students, like I am at CUNY. As a Masters student, I look forward to forging forth on this path of open-minded appreciation, networking, learning, working part time, and bringing the experience back to the United States, further on a path of making effective world change.

I am a proud American patriot and pro-Israel student, but an even prouder graduate of CUNY BA/BS.  I can make the program as proud of me as I am appreciative of it.”

Frank Jefferson, Jr.

Public Policy

B.A., June 2009

Summa cum Laude

Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship

Harriet Brows Scholarship

Dean’s List

Frank Jefferson, Jr. completed his degree with undergraduate and graduate courses from Baruch and Hunter in Urban Affairs, Public Administration, and Political Science, under the mentorship of Professor Joseph Viteritti, Urban Affairs, Hunter College.

In his own words…

As a CUNY Baccalaureate student and Thomas W. Smith Fellow, I have consistently strived for academic excellence.  The knowledge base I have acquired through my undergraduate studies has prepared me well for my graduate studies and my long-range career goals.

After dedicating fourteen years to raising money in support of public health, I am eager to become a leader for public health.  To that end, I will begin this fall working toward a Master’s in Public Health in Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

I owe this success to the CUNY Baccalaureate program.  Through this program I designed an Area of Concentration (AOC) in Public Policy.  This concentration has solidified my interest in and passion for the political, economic and cultural factor that influence the policy-making process.  As a part of my AOC, I designed in consultation with Prof. John Chin at Hunter an independent study project to examine the ways in which religion and religiosity impact gay men’s health.  The evidence overwhelmingly points to a direct, if harmful, corollary effect.  My project paid special attention to the role of the Black Church and found it to be deeply implicated in advancing the stigma that pervades African-American communities and, thus, the disproportionate rates of HIV infection among black men.  In the end, this project helped me to respect the complex and overlapping public health challenges that permeate sexual minority communities.  I look forward to further studying these problems (and finding solutions) at Mailman.

My professional mission is to help create and sustain healthy communities and the organization that serve them.  Once I complete my graduate work in December 2010, I want to work for a foundation that invests in public health programming, interventions and innovations, one where I can extend to organization the expertise, tools and resources needed to eliminate health inequities.  Foundation work, ultimately, will integrate perfectly this determined aspiration and my lived experience.

To help me gain entry into the foundation community, Thomas Aschenbrener, president of the Northwest Health Foundation, has offered me a graduate practicum at his foundation.  This opportunity will serve me well as I engineer this transition.

The Health Policy and Management Policy degree track at Mailman will help me acquire the research, program design/evaluation and policy analysis training I will need to be an effective foundation officer.

International Development:  Politics and Policy Analysis / Mathematical Economics

B.A., June 2008

Summa cum Laude

Rosenberg-Humphrey Public Policy Fellow

Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship

Dean’s List

Marina Chernyak has broad interests and aspirations in the fields of international development, public policy and social change. Recognizing that “the field of public policy and international development is inherently multidisciplinary, requiring immersion in Anthropology, Political Science, History, Sociology, Economics and Philosophy,” she chose CUNY Baccalaureate to pursue her studies.

After being named a Rosenberg-Humphrey Public Policy Fellow at City College, she interned at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. One of the most important projects she worked on involved conducting research and data analysis on indoor air pollution (IAP) from solid fuels in developing nations for the U.N.’s fourth Global Environmental Outlook Report. This project and related ones led her to become acutely aware of the ways development bears on social welfare policies. Her research took her to Rwanda with the Columbia University Biomass Working Group to collect data on emissions of IAP associated with traditional three-stone fires and other improved stoves. Here she saw the intersection of public health, energy, poverty and global development up front. Her International Development area was comprised of City and Baruch courses supervised by Prof. John Krinsky, Political Science, City College, who calls Chernyak “among the most intellectually curious and mature students with whom I have ever worked.”

After making significant progress on her first area, Chernyak decided to add a second, Mathematical Economics, working with Prof. Kevin Foster, Economics, City, and taking courses at City, Baruch and Hunter. In summer 2007, she spent ten weeks at Duke University, participating in the American Economic Association Summer Program, a program replicating the demands and pace of a first year graduate degree in Economics. The program included a trip to Washington D.C. visiting the Federal Reserve Board, the Inter-American Development Bank, the IMF, the Congressional Budget Office, the RAND Corporation and the Brookings Institution.

Chernyak is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Economic Association. Originally from Belarus, her native tongues are Russian and Hebrew; recently, she has been teaching herself Spanish. She is currently researching a variety of Ph.D. programs.

Broadcast Journalism

B.S. anticipated June 2009

Born in Jamaica, W.I., Scherie Murray migrated to America with her family when she was 9 years old.  She heard the call to serve others, and the seeds of public service were firmly planted through her attendance at the Law, Government and Community Service Campus Magnet High School in Queens, New York; in fact, she graduated with an outstanding community service award (and was also the captain of her high school’s gymnastics team).

After high school, she enrolled in New York City College of Technology (NYCCT).  While in college, taught gymnastics in an after-school program at PS 105 in Far Rockaway and was nominated by NYCCT to participate in ATHGO’s 4^th annual Global Forum at the United Nations in a debate on global governance.  She completed an Associate’s degree in Micro Computer Business Systems.

After earning her A.S. degree, Murray had a vision of starting her own company.  With a mission to address the needs of the underserved and underrepresented population, particularly women and children, and with the lack of employment opportunities in media for minorities, in 2004, Murray founded The Esemel Group Inc., a television production and advertising company.

Murray quickly realized the demands of an entrepreneurial conglomerate required her to go back to school to strengthen her educational profile. This realization energized her aspirations and taught her the importance of perseverance and persistence.  She entered CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies in Spring 2008, creating an area of concentration in Broadcast Journalism under the direction of Dr. George Rodman, Chair of the Television and Radio Department, Brooklyn College.

Murray earned her B.S. in June 2009, having taken courses in Brooklyn’s TVR and English departments, as well as at New York City College of Technology.  Her concentration included an internship at CBS News where, among other responsibilities, she conducted research, pitched story ideas for a weekly community affairs show, and assisted the Director of Special Events and News Operations.

As the economy slowed, Murray began to devote more of her attention and time to the quality of life issues in her community.  Already involved in economic development, Murray hopes to make an even greater impact by running for City Council in the 31^st Council District in the 2009 election.