86 graduating students attended the 37th commencement exercises of CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, as did hundreds of their friends and families, not just from the metropolitan region, but from all over the U.S. (including the Virgin Islands), and from countries around the world:  Anguilla, Bangladesh, Barbados, China, Dominica, Ecuador, Israel, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, and Turkey.

It was a joyous occasion in which each graduate was recognized by coming on stage to receive the degree. Several faculty mentors were on hand, as was the CUNY BA/BS staff and many campus coordinators.

Board of Trustees Member Wellington Z. Chen brought greetings on behalf CUNY; Vice Chancellor for Student Development, Garrie S. Moore, did the same.

Wellington Chen (Member, CUNY Board of Trustees)

Garrie W. Moore (Vice Chancellor for Student Development)

At the ceremony, the following students received awards and scholarships:

The Abby Stein Scholarship was awarded to B. Diane Gibson (Criminology). Diane started college in 1965 but only attended briefly. She returned to college – Baruch – in 1991, starting in remedial math. In 1993, she was accepted to CUNY Baccalaureate, and, taking one course every semester since (16 years!) she graduated this June. Her goal is to work as a case worker with young felons, ex-offenders in the mental health system or the developmentally disabled. Gibson will be the first college graduate in her family.

Diane Gibson (Criminology, June 2009 Graduate) receives the Abby Stein Award

The Dan Daley Journalism Award was presented to Azriel Relph (International Relations / Journalism). Four years ago, at the age of 25, Azriel decided to go to college and enrolled in Borough of Manhattan Community College, then CUNY Baccalaureate, where he discovered his passion for writing. He has been accepted to three Journalism graduate schools: Columbia, NYU, and CUNY. He chose the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism which he will attend as a Sulzberger Scholar, saying “it would have felt great to go to an Ivy League school but the cutting edge curriculum at CUNY Journalism, combined with my CUNY Baccalaureate degree, will take me much farther.” He is a Summa cum Laude graduate and the first CUNY BA/BS graduate accepted to CUNY’s new journalism school.

Azriel Relph (International Relations/Journalism, June 2009 Graduate) receives the Dan Daley Journalism Award

The Susan Palmer-Van Brackle Award was given to Rebecca Journey (International Affairs / Comparative Literature). Rebecca’s academic interests include human rights, oral history, trauma and memory, literary theory, linguistics, visual culture, modernist and postcolonial literature, and international law. She is an intern at UNICEF, where she recently had several articles on human rights published. Rebecca has been accepted to the Master’s program in Oral History at Columbia University, a highly competitive, selective program.

Rebeca Journey (International Affairs/Comparative Literature, June 2009 Graduate) receives the Susan Palmer-Van Brackle Award

The Nan Bauer-Maglin Prize in Literary Studies was awarded to Giuseppina Di Lena (Italian Language and Literature / 20th Century American Literature). Giuseppina, an immigrant from Italy, says her mother never learned to read and write, and her father never finished the fourth grade, yet on her own she became a voracious reader. After winning money on an Italian TV game show similar to Jeopardy, she moved to New York, and after her 40th birthday enrolled in college to study Italian and American Literature. She currently works for the NYC Department of Education. Her goal is to pursue a Master’s in Library Science and become a children’s librarian. She graduated Summa cum Laude.

Giuseppina Di Lena (Italian Language and Literature/20th Century American Literature, January 2009 Graduate) receives the Nan Bauer-Maglin Prize in Literary Studies

The Barbara Kneller Memorial Award was given to Katherine Daya Bill (Urban Sustainability).  Daya is interested in local policies that respond to the challenges of globalization and climate change to build healthier urban economies and environments. She has been accepted to Rutger University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Katherine Daya Bill (Urban Sustainability, January 2009) receives the Barbara Kneller Award, presented by Beth Kneller (Deputy Director)

The four recipients of the CUNY Baccalaureate Alumni Awards were:

Charles Greene (Human Services: Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling), formerly incarcerated for 15 years under New York’s Rockefeller laws, Charles now a Case Worker in the Young Fathers Program at Claremont Neighborhood Centers. Charles, a Summa cum Laude graduate, has been accepted to Hunter’s School of Social Work.

Charles Greene (Human Services: Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling, January 2009)

Frank Jefferson (Public Policy) spent the last 14 years raising money in support of public health programs and returned to college to prepare to be a public health leader instead. Saying he owes his success to CUNY Baccalaureate, Frank’s undergraduate study included in-depth research into the health challenges of sexual minority communities. He will be continuing his work at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Frank Jefferson (Public Policy, June 2009; Student Member, University Committee) receives an Alumni Award

Tyleen Kelly (Literature / Theatre) attributes her academic success to working closely with a faculty mentor, being able to take courses at both Hunter and City, and having access to graduate-level education. Her significant work in the studies of science and theatre in Victorian literature led to her acceptance to the Master’s program at Oxford University (where she has already presented one paper), and the University of California-Berkeley for her Ph.D. in English.

Tyleen Kelly (Literature/Theatre, June 2009 Graduate; Student Member, University Committee)

Rachel Klapper (Journalism and International Affairs / Holocaust Representation), a student in the CUNY Macaulay Honors College, is a published writer and activist who says she has been “deeply affected by CUNY BA/BS’s interdisciplinary academic mission.” She has been accepted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she will pursue a Master’s in Society and Politics in Israel.

Rachel Klapper (Journalism and International Affairs/Holocaust Representation, June 2009 Graduate) receives and Alumni Award

The Keynote Commencement Speech was given by Journalist Mohamad Bazzi,  a 1997 graduate of CUNY Baccalaureate, is assistant professor of journalism at New York University.  He was the 2007-08 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; from 2003 until 2007 he was the Middle East bureau chief at Newsday, based in Beirut and responsible for covering the Arab world.  He was the lead writer on the Iraq war and its aftermath, setting up Newsday bureaus in Baghdad and Beirut.

You can listen to Mohamad’s speech here

Mohamad Bazzi (Journalist, CUNY BA Alumnus)

The Commencement Speech on Behalf of the Faculty Mentors was given by Professor Pamela S. Falk, Distinguished Lecturer of Political Science and International Law at Hunter College, where she teaches international relations and American foreign policy courses and is the faculty advisor for Hunter College’s Model U.N. Team.

You can listen to Prof. Falk’s speech here

Prof. Pamela S. Falk (Political Science, Hunter College)

The Commencement Speech on Behalf of the Graduates was given by Marlaina Powell, a June 2009 graduate (Area of Concentration: Performing Arts), and Broadway actor who hopes to go on to graduate school in Performance Studies.

You can listen to Marlaina’s speech here

Marliana Powell (Performing Arts, June 2009 Graduate)