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Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
#50
What’s News
CUNY Chancellor/QC President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez was a special guest at the May 2 Student Affairs Awards Ceremony and Dinner hosted by Vice President for Student Affairs Adam Rockman at the Faculty & Staff Café at the Student Union.

This annual event celebrates six outstanding students in the award categories Community Service; Gender, Race & Culture; Humanitarian Service; Peace Award; Student Life Award; and the Burton L. Backner Student Affairs Award. Due to the extraordinary amount of student applicants this year, two awards were given in the categories of Student Life and Peace Award.
 
In addition, the Office of Student Affairs presents the Jennifer Phillips Memorial Award to two outstanding students with learning disabilities registered with the Office of Special Services under the auspices of Student Affairs. It also presents the Eileen T. Cummings Award to two minority students entering the medical field who are registered with the Office of Minority Affairs also under the auspices of Student Affairs.

Lastly, the Senior Class Legacy Scholarship is given to a rising senior who has demonstrated an outstanding overall commitment to student life on campus including student clubs and organizations, student programming, student government, research, volunteerism, etc. The award is made possible through generous contributions from one graduating class to the next.
 
Each award comes with a monetary prize.
 
This year’s awardees are:
 
Stephen Alexander - Senior Class Legacy Scholarship
Andres Diaz, Mike Molina - Eileen T. Cummings Award
Ryan Guelce - Jennifer Phillips Memorial Award
Orosmar Cuevas - Community Service Award
Paola Pena - Gender, Race and Culture Award
Reaa Ali - Humanitarian Award
Aboubaker Hamida, Paul Swann - Peace Award
Christina Cover, Farbod Hadizadeh - Student Life Award
Carmine Couloute - Burton L. Backner Student Affairs Award
Representing Bangladesh, Francois Pierre-Louis's Model UN class won three awards at this year's weeklong National Model UN event in New York City. They competed with 5,000 delegates from around the world representing 130 countries. The awards won by the QC delegation were Honorable Mention, Delegation Award; Best position paper for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), and Best position paper for UNEA (United Nations Environmental Assembly). Appearing left to right are Julius Johnson, Yu Mikuni, Sara Hosseini, Paul Gamble, Karen Laplante, Rebeka Su, Rachel Canino, and Francois Pierre-Louis.
Flushing entrepreneurs with big dreams will get help in realizing them at Queens College’s new Small Business Development Center, where services are offered in Mandarin and English. The Kissena Hall facility, launched jointly on Monday, May 6, by QC and LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), was made possible with support from U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, who spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. In attendance were CUNY Chancellor/QC President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez , Dean Michael W. Wolfe, LAGCC SBDC Director Rosa Figueroa, and LAGCC President Gail Mellow. Thanks to NYS Small Business Development Center for guidance and help.
The Quad was zoned for fun and games during Spring Fest on Wednesday, May 8. While making an appearance on campus with CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor Glenda Grace to hand out pizza, CUNY Chancellor/QC President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez supported the party line by zipping down it .
The World's Fare at Citi Field This Weekend

Queens College students, faculty, and staff will receive a 10 percent discount at this weekend’s World’s Fare at Citi Field. The event brings together a group of the most respected foodies to curate a celebration of New York City's diversity. More than 100 food vendors   will be on site representing more than 100 cultures, making it the largest food event in New York City. The event is on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 from 11 am–8 pm.

If the food and drink are not enough, two stages will feature live music and cultural dance performances all weekend. In addition, there will be a shopping bazaar of international goods from jewelry to pottery, cooking demonstrations, art installations, martial arts demonstrations, and many other activities. For those 21 and over, a separate international beer garden is also offered.


Use discount code CUNY within 48 hours for 10 percent off tickets!
On the evening of May 8, members of the QC community gathered once again at Guastavino’s in Manhattan for the college’s annual Gala, which raises funds for  student scholarships . This year’s event honored three remarkable graduates—Jane Chwick ’82, Dennis Liotta ’70, and David Weiner ’76—and featured Aaron Copland School of Music alumni performing songs by their celebrated fellow alum, the late Marvin Hamlisch. The program included a
(Gala videos produced by Beethoven Bong of The Office of Communications and Marketing in collaboration with Laurie Dorf and Yifat Anteri of the Office of Alumni Affairs and Institutional Advancement). 
NY1’s Roger Clark is no stranger to Queens; he spent part of his childhood here. But he seemed genuinely impressed during a recent visit to QC, when he explored the history of the college, reported on a few of its many distinguished alumni, and interviewed two prominent campus personalities. The resulting story aired extensively on Wednesday, May 8.
Knights Baseball Ends Playoff Drought
 
For the first time in 21 years, the Queens College baseball team earned a spot in the East Coast Conference playoffs, claiming the fourth seed in last week’s tournament. The Knights finished the regular season with a conference record of 14-14 and edged out both Molloy College and Mercy College in the standings for the final playoff spot.
 
It came down to the final day of the regular season on May 6, with the Knights needing to knock off LIU-Post, who finished the regular season in first place and had beaten QC in the previous three games that weekend. QC pulled off a wild victory, scoring three runs in the top of the 8th inning to earn a 14-11 victory. The win, coupled with a Mercy College defeat, sent the Knights to the playoffs. The team had not been to the conference playoffs since 1998, when it was known as the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference.
 
Unfortunately, the playoff run would be short-lived, as the Knights met up with LIU-Post again in the opening round and lost 9-0. They would later lose the elimination game to New York Institute of Technology. Post would go on to claim the ECC Championship.
 
The Knights finished the year with a record of 25-24-1—their first season over the .500 mark since the aforementioned 1998 season.
QC Men’s Tennis Wins Match at NCAA Tournament
 
The Queens College men’s tennis team wrapped up a successful season this past weekend, which included an East Coast Conference (ECC) Championship and a win in the NCAA Tournament.
 
After claiming its third straight ECC title back on April 27, the Knights took part in the NCAA Tournament last weekend in New Hampshire. On Saturday, QC earned a dominant 4-0 victory over Merrimack in the opening round. Queens earned a point in doubles play after sweeping three matches and rounded out the scoring with wins in singles play from Kareem Rashad, Lucas Demuth, and Jose Zurro.
 
On Sunday, their hopes of making it to the Round of 16 were dashed, as they fell to Southern New Hampshire, 4-2, in the East Regional Final. QC conceded a point after losing two of three matches in doubles play. They got wins from Mariano Biblioni and Zurro at #5 and #6 singles respectively, but Southern New Hampshire won three other singles matches to advance to the next round.
 
The Knights finished the season with a 13-7 record.
Building Futures Profile: Alessa Farinella
Studying the Meaning of Speech

The English of Queens may bear little resemblance to the Queen’s English. Ask Alessa Farinella, a linguistics and anthropology double major who works as an assistant in the lab of William Haddican (Linguistics and Communication Disorders). 

“In Queens, we have more languages spoken per capita than anywhere else in the world,” Farinella observes. “It’s a great place to be studying language. We’re looking at variations in pronunciation in New York City, and we’re looking at the social factors behind it, how that affects how you produce language, whether it’s ethnicity or gender or socioeconomic background.”

Although she’s just a junior, Farinella can look forward to pursuing this subject in greater depth: This spring, she was awarded a substantial Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship for graduate study. One of 18 Beinecke Scholars named in 2019, she is the fourth to be selected from QC since the inception of the highly competitive nationwide program in 1975. This year’s cohort includes students from Stanford, Georgetown, Yale, Duke, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Farinella says her lifelong love of language was sparked in childhood, during interactions with her Italophone grandparents. “I was always trying to speak with them in Italian,” she recalls. “I saw how much of a connection there was between language and your culture and your heritage.”

A brief stint studying vocal performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, followed by years of traveling, living, and working abroad, reinforced her interest with experiences that eventually coalesced in her decision to study linguistics.

Moira Egan, QC’s national scholarship advisor, describes Farinella as an outstanding student with extensive research experience and a deep commitment to social change—traits that made her an ideal Beinecke candidate. “Through coursework and research, Alessa explores how language allows us to understand and pass along our sense of identity, to create community, or to erect barriers between ourselves and others,” says Egan. “She is particularly interested in studying languages on the verge of extinction and in combating the stigmatization of particular languages or speech patterns.” 

This summer, Farinella will attend the MindCore Undergraduate Summer Workshop in Interdisciplinary Mind and Brain Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The two-week program features sessions on research methods and talks by linguists and cognitive scientists, alongside participation in labs.

While Farinella has yet to apply to graduate schools, the CUNY Graduate School is among those she’s considering. “It has a strong program in linguistics, and there’s also the opportunity to work with professors there who are involved with language preservation and documentation,” she says.
Get on Course This Summer

Spring semester is drawing to a close, but there’s still time to register for summer session. Don’t miss an opportunity to study a topic of particular interest, complete prerequisites for an advanced course, or stay on target for QC in 4 or the Excelsior Scholarship. Learn more about your options at  www.qc.cuny.edu/summer .  
Heard Around Campus
Antonio Hart  (ACSM) led a workshop with the New South Wales Public Schools Stage Band during International Jazz Day in Sydney, Australia, an event covered by  Downbeat   . . . .  Seogjoo Jang  (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was awarded a three-year, $415,845 National Science Foundation grant for “Quantum dynamics methods for fluctuating systems in quantum environments: Development and Application” . . . .  Vilma Joseph ’89  became president of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists in April; she’s the first African American woman to hold that title . . . .  Mike Mirkin  (Chemistry and Biochemistry) won a three-year, $550,000 Department of Energy grant for his proposal, “Nanoelectrochemistry at single metal and semiconductor nanoparticles” . . . .  Chu Paing ’17,  who is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, was just awarded a major National Science Foundation fellowship to undertake her dissertation research on ethnolinguistic discrimination in Myanmar . . . .  Karol Rathaus (ACSM) was among the composers on the program when pianist Daniel Wnukowski made his debut at Weill Recital Hall on May 3, winning raves from New York Classical Review . Wnukowski was a soloist in QC’s Karol Rathaus Festival, held on and off campus in February . . . .  John Waldman  (Biology) was the co-author of an op-ed published on May 6 in the  New York Times ,  protesting the Trump administration’s proposal to open a copper and gold mine in sockeye salmon spawning grounds in Alaska . . . .
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Comments and suggestions for future news items are welcome.