Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.

#26

We Are the Champions!

At the second annual We Are the Champions celebration held at the Dining Hall on May 16, President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez called outstanding student scholars and athletes to the podium, and the crowd ate it up: pizza, Max and Mina’s ice cream, and other refreshments were on the house. A sampling of the many winners featured below:

L–r: Marshall Scholarship winner Josephine Cooke, Barry Goldwater Honorable Mention winner Adina Bechhofer, and Jeannette K. Watson Fellow Renuka Surujnarain.

The men’s tennis team had a terrific season. The squad finished first in the East Coast Conference and the NCAA East II Region.

L–r with President Matos: Computer Science winners included a student among the top 25 in the eBay Startup Cup, Syed Chowdury; Perkins Hack “Going the Extra Mile" winners Ayo Johnson, Margarita Zias, and Smaita Hussain; and Verizon Sport/Media/Technology Startup Bootcamp winner Joseph Huaynate. Ayo, Syo, and Joseph also won the NBC Universal Social Hack Competition.

At the invitation of President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza visited QC and got a tour of the campus.

LaborArts Prizes Works by QC Students

Two QC undergraduates saw their efforts awarded in Making Work Visible, an annual CUNY-wide contest held by LaborArts, a virtual museum that documents the cultural and artistic history of working people. The competition, now in its eighth year, invites CUNY undergraduates to address the subject of work through essays, fiction, poetry, or visual arts; submissions in each category have to be linked to an image of work and workers. This year’s winners received cash prizes ranging from $100, for honorable mention, to $1000, for first place. Yocheved Friedman placed third in the poetry division with “Music Notes on Life-sized Harp in Metal and Ink”; Frances Raybaud took first in fiction with her story, “Stigma.” Their entries, and those of all the winners, can be read at http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/contest2018/ .

Technology 101

In partnership with Google, QC is piloting the company’s Computer Science Summer Institute Extension Program, a free, three-week introductory course for entering QC freshmen. Classes take place on campus; only 30 seats are available. Students with a passion for technology are encouraged to apply by June 1. Information about the program, including how to apply, is available at https://sites.google.com/qc.cuny.edu/cssi.

End-of-semester presentations by students in FNES 203—meal management classes—manifested plenty of thought for food. The final showcase comprised three events with different themes: food truck, tapas, and Mediterranean dinner. All were planned, executed, and hosted by class members with guidance from FNES faculty Stacia Helfand and Morgan Lindsay. The guests were so impressed that they asked for recipes.

The Borough is Booming

The economy of Queens is working for its residents, and vice versa. A report just published by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli shows that the population and the number of jobs and businesses in the borough have reached all-time highs, while unemployment has dropped to a record low. “The Queens economy is booming, setting employment records in each of the past six years,” notes DiNapoli in a press release.

“Immigrants, who make up nearly half of the population, are an important part of the borough’s success. Under the leadership of Borough President Melinda Katz, the future looks bright.” The complete report is available at http://osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt1-2019.pdf.

Ladies and Gentlemen Who Do More Than Lunch

A lecture about New Yorkese and awards presentations were on the menu when the Queens College Retirees Association held its spring meeting on Friday, May 18. Michael Newman (LCD), author of New York City English (De Gruyter), discussed four myths about the distinctive local patois. After lunch, the agenda included the introduction of the association’s scholarship winners and reports by its officers. The next meeting will take place in the fall.

 

The conversation about city speech continued three days later as students in Voices of New York, an undergraduate class taught by Newman and Miki Makihara (Anthropology), presented research posters at a two-hour symposium in the Patio Room.

Representatives from the nonprofit and public sectors attracted an enthusiastic student audience at the Performing and Visual Arts Career and Internship Fair at Thiele Atrium on Wednesday, April 25. Participants in the fair, presented by Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Aaron Copland School of Music, and QC, included Chamber Music America, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Broadway’s Babies.

Register Now

Summer classes at QC begin in two weeks! Students can earn up to 15 credits and get a jump on completing their degree, or on meeting the requirements for the Excelsior Scholarship or on advancing in QC in 4--and still have time left for a long vacation. Summer Session features:

 

 

For information on schedules, courses, tuition, and to apply, visit  www.qc.cuny.edu/Summer. If you have questions, contact Academic Advising at 718-997-5599.



Sociology Professor Andrew Beveridge , who has been a consultant to the  New York Times   since 1993, is the president and CEO of Social Explorer, which received a Webby Award for Best Law Website.​

For all 80 Wows, c lick here

Alice Artzt (SEYS) reports that she and her colleagues Eleanor Armour-Thomas (SEYS), Alan Sultan (Mathematics), Fran Curcio (SEYS), and Theresa Gurl (SEYS) worked closely with Alan Schoenfeld ’68—an honorary degree recipient at this year’s Commencement and series editor of Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning (Routledge)—on two titles in that series: Becoming a Reflective Mathematics Teacher (2015) and The Mathematics that Every Secondary School Teacher Needs to Know (2018). Alan graduated from QC in the same year as Alice and her husband, Russ Artzt . . . Emmanuel Datan, an alum of QC’s MARC program now working toward a doctorate in pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was profiled in one of its publications . . . .  Eugenia Paulicelli (ELL) gave a series of lectures in April as a visiting professor at University of Rome, La Sapienza. . . . Carlos Penaloza, a QC alum and MARC student who earned his doctorate under Zahra Zakeri (Biology), has been appointed provost and chief academic officer at St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences. The first person to hold those titles at the college, he begins work next month . . . . Dennis Torres (Veteran Support Services) will be among the honorees at the City & State Veterans Summit & Awards ceremony on Wednesday, July 11, at Battery Gardens in Manhattan. The event recognizes extraordinary veterans and active members of the military who serve New York in government, labor, education, or business.

QC recently learned that Isidore Starr, the college’s oldest living professor emeritus, passed away in February. 

 

Born to immigrants who fled czarist Russia, Isidore enjoyed his working-class Brooklyn childhood and his public-school education, which culminated in a bachelor’s degree from City College. Subsequently, he enrolled in St. John’s University of Law, “so Jewish, it was called St. Jacob’s,” he would recall. During his second year there, Isidore began teaching civics at Brooklyn Technical High School, encouraging the teens in his classes to think about and debate the legal and moral questions of the day.

 

That experience would prove formative. After his World War II army service as an information education officer in the Philippines, Isidore returned to Brooklyn Tech. In his spare time, he wrote articles for Social Education ; the pieces were collected in his book, The Supreme Court and Contemporary Issues . In 1961, he joined the faculty of QC’s teacher education program, where he would remain for 14 years. Then he moved to Arizona with his wife, Kay; nominally retired, Isidore led law courses and seminars during the summer.

 

The couple spent their last years in Seattle, Washington, near their son, Larry. Kay, who suffered from dementia, died in her nursing home in 2008, after an accident on the part of a staffer. Isidore initiated a legal case that was settled in mediation—something he regretted. “I wanted very much to go to trial, because I wanted to address the jury to get some publicity for people who are old,” he told Legacy Washington, a website run by Washington’s secretary of state.

 

Known as the “Father of Law-Related Education,” Isidore was widely recognized for his work. The American Bar Association’s Division for Public Education honored him by establishing the Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education. To celebrate his 100th birthday, the Seattle University School of Law held a conference on the law-studies movement. Isidore is survived by his son, three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and the countless people he influenced in a remarkably long and productive career.