The CUNY Baccalaureate Blog

B.A. June 2005, International Politics

• Magna Cum Laude
• Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellow
• Diego Hidalgo Scholar
• Ross Alexander Playwriting Award
• Golden Key Honor Society

Dana Agmon came to the CUNY Baccalaureate Program with diverse life experiences. The member of a distinguished Israeli family, her great-grandfather was the leading rabbi in Morocco. She served as a first lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Force and is the founder of The Conspiracy of Hope, an organization that seeks solutions for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. She was recently accepted to Yale University’s joint MA/JD program in foreign relations and to the University of Chicago. “I found my interest in international affairs and politics fairly quickly when I took a course in Global Perspectives with Professor Chudi Uwarurike at City College,” she said. She noted that the CUNY BA Program exposed her to a wide range of academic environments. “While CCNY is my home college, I was able to take courses at Hunter, the CUNY Graduate Center and the New School,” she said. Last summer she conducted research in the Middle East on the impact of generational differences on the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as on the peace process. Her faculty mentor is Professor Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner of CCNY’s Political Science Department. Agmon received her CUNY BA in June 2005 and is currently attending the University of Chicago.

B.A., June 2005, Naturalized Epistemology

• Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship
• City College Fellowship

In 1998 Juan Montaña started his study of Philosophy at the National University of Colombia. Upon coming to the U.S., he practically had to start his education over because of the different educational standards. Recognizing that the CUNY BA would be the best place for him to continue and prepare for graduate school, Prof. Nickolas Pappas, Philosophy, City College, wrote, “Juan knows much more philosophy - and knows it at a deeper level - than the typical American student.” Montaña also came highly recommended by professors from Colombia, two of whom rated him as one of the top students they have ever had. He designed an area of concentration with Prof. Claudine Verheggen, Philosophy, City College that explores his interest in philosopher W.V.O. Quine’s Naturalized Epistemology, which demands an interdisciplinary collaboration between sciences otherwise unrelated, such as cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, biology, computer science, linguistics and sociology. Montana has taken classes at The Graduate Center, Hunter, and City, including a research project on the “Language of Thought,” done with a grant from City College. He was a presenter at the Cognitive Science Symposium at The CUNY Graduate Center in 2004. He has maintained a 4.0 GPA in his area and overall, and is simultaneously working on a Master’s in Psychology while completing his B.A. in Philosophy. He has been accepted to Washington University in St Louis, with a full fellowship, for the Ph.D. program in philosophy and cognitive science.

B.A. June 2005, Cultural Studies and Revolutionary Discourse

• Cum Laude
• Dean’s List
• CUNY BA/BS Alumni Scholarship
• Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship
• Harriet Brows Scholarship
• St. Croix United Steelworkers Union Scholarship

In consultation with Prof. Bruce Habegger, Art and Steve Leberstein, History, City College, Charles McDonald crafted a concentration combining classes from Hunter, City and The Graduate Center that integrate his political, artistic, and intellectual life. His scholarship focuses on issues of migration, anti-colonial struggle, human rights, anti-war movements, and structures of international law and justice. An accomplished photographer, his degree also includes courses on the history, aesthetics and politics of photography. He traces the origins of his interest in photo-graphy and social movements to his unmasking of St. Croix history. Photography led him to folk stories and oral traditions, which led him to learn that “rather than having been ‘given’ freedom by a benevolent governor as I had been taught in school, the slaves of St. Croix led one of only two successful slave revolts in the Caribbean. Out of my research came the realization that the power to define oneself rather than be defined is crucial to challenging power dynamics which oppress communities. I wanted to further investigate the role photography played as a medium of the masses in shaping and documenting communal identity and history.” As a poet, his work has appeared in the Hunter College literary magazine; as a spoken word artist, he has performed around the city; as a photographer, his work was featured in a solo show at the Jack Doroshow Gallery and in the City College Spring 2004 Student Photo Exhibit. McDonald worked with advocacy groups such as ACORN, Safe Horizon, the Sept 11 Fund, and NYPIRG. McDonald is currently enrolled in the Master’s in Liberal Studies (American Studies) program at the CUNY Graduate Center.

B.A., January 2005, Cross Cultural Studies

• Institute for International Public Policy Fellow
• Thurgood Marshall Scholar
• All American Scholar Award
• Silver Medal, Egyptian University Athletics, Women’s Basketball, American University in Cairo
• NCAA Leading National Rebounder, Division III, Women’s Basketball
• CUNY All Star Team, Women’s Basketball, Medgar Evers College
• Dean’s List
• Fulbright Fellow

Keisha Toms entered the CUNY BA/BS Program in the spring of 2002 and received a $65,000 Fellowship from the Institute for International Public Policy Fellow in 2003. As an IIPP Fellow, she studied at CUNY and Clark Atlanta University, and she traveled to Egypt and studied Arabic and Anthropology at American University in Cairo (AUC).

She says she chose Egypt “to investigate the contributions of the now marginalized indigenous Africans who are now living on the outskirts of Egyptian society.” That was followed by the offer of an internship with the Defense Intelligence Agency. Toms took an internship with the America Prepared Campaign, a non-profit organization that promotes terrorism preparedness.

“The CUNY BA Program’s flexibility gave me the freedom to choose courses and design my major,” she said. “I was challenged academically and respected as an older student.”

Toms also captained the Medgar Evers College women’s basketball team and led the nation in rebounding for Division III. She received a silver medal while playing for the AUC women’s basketball team, and was named to the CUNY All Star Team.

Her faculty mentors were Profs. Patricia Canson, Psychology, and Delridge Hunter, Interdisciplinary Studies, at Medgar Evers College. She has been accepted to Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and to Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Keisha graduated from with her CUNY BA in January 2005 and is currently pursuing research in Yemen through a Fulbright Fellowship. She will begin her graduate studies at Columbia in Fall 2006.

B.S. January 2004, History and Performance of American Popular Song

• Dean’s Certificate for Academic Excellence
• Dean’s List

Stephanie Trudeau left the University of California in her senior year (1969) to marry and move to New York. As a dramatic arts major, she was happy to relocate to “the capital of American theatre.” She joined the ranks of aspiring actors, auditioning, taking dance classes, and performing Off-Broadway. She joined a small repertory company, created cabaret acts, helped found an acting company where she produced and directed, and joined Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild. Fast forward thirty years: she is divorced and remarried, has a 19 year old son, and has “juggled wifehood, motherhood, acting, singing and wage-earning in office jobs and restaurant/catering services.” In 1996 she created a bio/cabaret act based on the music of 1940’s-50’s jazz artist June Christy, then expanded the repertoire to include other music of that era. With grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council, The American Theatre Wing, the Puffin Foundation and N.Y. City Councilman Ken Fisher, she created and performed “Songs for Seniors,” a participatory music program for nursing homes and senior centers. The principal of a Catholic elementary school caught one performance and offered Trudeau a teaching job. Later, with a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Fund for Creative Communities, she began a music program for children and seniors. To formalize her teaching career and to continue to explore American song and music, “its continual evolvement and its reflection of the richness and diversity of this country,” she entered the CUNY BA/BS Program. Her studies culminated in an Independent Research project with her mentor, Prof. Jeffrey Taylor, Music, Brooklyn College, for which she produced a twenty-six page paper, A Survey of American Popular Song and its Canon (1900-1955). “My course of study in the CUNY BA/BS Program engaged and challenged me and allowed me to fully utilize my skills and life experiences. It brought focus and sense to my educational and professional background. My studies continuously informed and enhanced my teaching and performing.” She graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA. In 2005, Trudeau received a Fulbright Fellowship Award to conduct research in Italy. She will travel there in January 2006 to study three saints’ feasts (that are also celebrated in the U.S.): the Giglio in Nola, St. Joseph’s feast in Caltabellotta and the Festa di Ceri in Gubbio. Her project, “Festa, Family and Food,” will study the way the saints’ feasts provide a compelling opportunity for families to celebrate Italian culture and heritage with music, art, food and religious ritual.

B.S., June 2003, Entertainment Marketing

• Dean’s Certificate for Academic Excellence

Shabbir Emon Hassan, originally from Bangladesh, started his undergraduate studies at Brooklyn College in Spring 1995. But, at age 26, he turned to the CUNY Baccalaureate Program to create the degree he knew he wanted to obtain: “Entertainment Marketing.” In his application he wrote, “Hands-on experience is required, which I have to a certain degree by being a freelance musician, but I feel the need to be well-read in the theory and application of marketing itself.” Hassan melded courses from both the Economics and Television and Radio Departments, under the guidance of faculty mentors Prof. Hershey Friedman and Prof. George Dessart.

Along the way, Hassan developed a deep interest in radio drama and radio production, and became involved in radio both on and off campus. After graduating from the CUNY BA/BS he became a Writers Guild of America Associate and also had his short film ‘Pretty’ selected for the 28th Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. Following that Festival, “Pretty” went on a national tour for one year. The film was also selected for the Stony Brook Digital Video Festival, and it won 2^nd Place in the CUNY Asian American Film/Video Festival.

Hassan earned his M.S. in Television and Radio Marketing Management in June 2005 from Brooklyn College as a Dean’s List student and with an Academic Excellence Award and a Nomination for the CUNY’s Pizer Graduate Colloquium. Since graduating, he has been an invited speaker on radio drama writing and production at Hofstra University, the Writer’s Guild of America, and the Intercollegiate Broadcasting Convention.

Today, Hassan is a Member and Producer of the Public Radio Exchange, Editor of the U.S. Screenwriters Network, and Founder and President of Hassberry Entertainment, which produces and promotes film, theater, and radio. Since 2003, he has also been a freelance Interpreter for two major translation agencies in New York.