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Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
#61
What’s News
Michael Feldman ’66 (left), a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP from 1985 until his retirement in 2010 and now a consultant to hospitality and entertainment companies, shared “A Legal Perspective” with rapt students in Powdermaker 204 on Tuesday, October 22. Feldman’s appearance, a Professionals on Campus event, was sponsored by the Office of Institutional Advancement.
Alumni and friends of QC were steeped in information about composer Leo Kraft (Music) when the Jefferson Society held an afternoon tea on Wednesday, October 23. Kraft donated his papers, which span eight decades, to the college; guest speakers Annie Tummino (Special Collections and Archives), and Abby Sumner, graduate archives fellow, made presentations based on their work with the collection.
The Research Center for Korean Community, led by CUNY Distinguished Professor Pyong Gap Min, marked its tenth anniversary by presenting a conference, Korean Americans’ Transnational Ties to the Homeland, on Friday, October 25. The RCKC promotes scholarship about—and often, by—Korean Americans.
Information Technology adopted an old-school platform—the townhall meeting—at free hour on Monday, October 28, to communicate with students, faculty, and staff. (L to R) Markus Erndl, Daniel Rafalano, Dhanya Bell (moderator), Troy Hahn, Ramon Rivera, and Hector Jacome comprised the panel for the information session, which took place at the James Muyskens Conference Room. Future sessions will be held every semester.
Exploring Italian Film

The Italian Cinema CUNY festival opens on October 31 with “The Crafts of Cinema: Costume Design”—the first installment of a three-part master class—at The Graduate Center’s Elebash Recital Hall from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Eugenia Paulicelli (European Languages and Literature), founder and director of the festival, will make introductory remarks. Subsequent master classes, including a film screening and a panel discussion on costume and fashion, cinema, and Made in Italy, are scheduled in November and December. The festival is presented by the Office of Academic Initiatives and Strategic Innovation at The Graduate Center, CUNY in collaboration with Italian Cinema – CUNY (IC-CUNY) and the Academy of Italian Cinema David di Donatello Awards.
TIME-ly Conference This Week

TIME 2000, QC’s signature math teacher training program, is holding its 18th annual conference for high school students and their teachers on Friday, November 1, from 8:45 am to 2:30 pm. The event will feature a keynote by Siena College’s Jim Matthews, a member of the New York State Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame, as well as fun workshops. For further information, contact Naomi Weinman.
Celebrating Robert Engel

After accumulating credits on numerous papers, Robert Engel (Chemistry) is retiring and getting his name on something new: a conference. To honor his lifelong contribution to and commitment for research, education, and innovation, a committee of his colleagues at QC, Pace University, Queensborough Community College, and Fordham University organized the Robert Engel Research Symposium, taking place on Friday, November 1, from 9 am to 5 pm in Campbell Dome. QC’s Yongwu Rong and Daniel Weinstein will offer introductory remarks; Dennis Liotta ’70, one of the leaders of the team that discovered the antiviral drug Emtriva—used in treating HIV—will deliver the keynote. A research fund has been established in Engel’s name. To make a donation, click here.
Advanced Academic Planning

Now it’s easier than ever before for students to set up class schedules ahead of time. The next registration cycle is already open for winter, spring, and summer 2020 sessions. For more information, students are urged to view “Enrollment Dates” on their CUNYfirst Student Service Center and talk to an academic advisor.

Upperclass students can also consider the next academic step after completing a baccalaureate. QC’s accelerated master’s programs allow students to save money and time while pursuing graduate degrees. For details about all graduate options, including accelerated tracks, visit www.qc.cuny.edu/GraduateExperience
City Opens Early Voting Sites

Can’t get to the polls on Tuesday, November 5? If you’re a registered voter, you can still participate in the next election. Through Sunday, November 3, early voting sites are operating in each borough. Your early voting location may be different from your normal polling site; to find the correct address, visit nyc.pollsitelocator.com/search or call 311. One question on the ballot proposes ranked-choice voting, among other changes, to the New York City Charter. For an explanation of what this amendment means, visit www.ballotpedia.org and search for New York City Ballot Question 1.
Promoting Female Entrepreneurship

After presenting two events in Washington, DC, 30 Second Pitch is bringing its Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference to New York City on January 14. Designed for women who want to grow their companies or launch new ones, the conference will cover financing, marketing, branding, product development, and other business topics. Attendees will have the opportunity to enter a competition offering $11,000 in total cash prizes; the event will also include a networking cocktail party. Click here to reserve a seat and learn about the contest.
Building Futures Profile: A Tale of Two Sisters
Amber Guth ’79 is a specialist in surgical oncology and breast surgery at NYU Langone Health; Celeste Guth ’82 is global head of financial institutions investment banking at Deutsche Bank. Both women say that the education they received at Queens College enabled them to build meaningful careers. (L to R: Celeste and Amber at QC's 29th Gala on May 8, 2019.)

The Guths are the daughters of a broadcasting engineer and a nurse whose first meeting sounds like a scene from a romantic comedy. “My dad was in the hospital with acute appendicitis,” says Celeste. “My mother—a Turkish immigrant of Armenian descent—was a nursing student.” They married and settled in Forest Hills. Amber and Celeste attended PS 101 and continued their education at Hunter High School in Manhattan, at the time an all-girls school. Amber accelerated her studies and graduated a year early. The first member of her household to pursue a four-year degree, she enrolled at QC.

“When I started college, I wasn’t sure which direction to go in,” Amber recalls. “I was interested in the liberal arts, writing, and literature. But I was also very mechanical, hands-on. Science fit my personality.” She majored in biochemistry, assisting in the lab of her mentor, Burton Tropp, for several years. Then she went to the New York University School of Medicine, ultimately joining its faculty and becoming NYU Langone’s first female attending surgeon.

Originally a generalist, like other surgeons trained in the 1980s, Amber performed abdominal, pediatric, thoracic, and vascular procedures as well as breast surgery. “After I got married and had two kids, it got crazy,” she explains. “I closed down my general practice and expanded my breast practice.” She derives tremendous satisfaction from working with her patients, noting that “Medicine is a real gift. When women come to me, it’s an amazing transfer of trust.” Her reputation preceded her when she visited QC through Professionals on Campus in November 2017, drawing a full house to Kiely Hall 170. Of QC, she says, “It gave my sister and me an amazing opportunity to make of ourselves what we wanted to make of ourselves.”

Celeste agrees. Following her sister’s trajectory, she finished high school a year early and matriculated at QC. “First semester, I took Economics 101 with Michael Dohan, even though everyone told me not to, because he was too demanding,” Celeste reports. “By spring, I was his teaching assistant. Then I taught in the statistics lab.” Realizing that she wanted to pursue a business career, she double-majored in economics and computer science, minoring in math. Accepted by every business school she applied to except Harvard, she worked for two years and reapplied, this time successfully.

Hired by Goldman Sachs upon her graduation, Celeste spent 29 years with the company, rising to the title of vice chairman of the Investment Banking Division’s global financial institutions group and, like her sister, combining a high-powered career with marriage and raising two children. In 2015, Celeste moved to Deutsche Bank. Deeply grateful to her alma mater and her mentor, she established an endowed scholarship in Dohan’s name. She was awarded the Queens College President’s Medal in 2017.
Heard Around Campus
The Center for Career Engagement and Internship has received $50,000 in funding from CUNY’s Continuing Education and Workforce Programs for “Integrating Academic and Career Maps: The Queens College HireQC Pathways” for Spring 2020 . . . the Committee for Disabled Students hosted Citi Bike on campus at free hour on Wednesday, October 23, for a demonstration of handcycles—three-wheeled, hand-controlled adaptive vehicles for people who aren’t physically able to ride pedal bicycles, or don’t know how. Members of the QC community were able to take the handcycles for a spin near the Student Union . . .
Morris Rossabi (History) gave the keynote speech on “Late Ming China's Silk Trade” at the International Association of Silk Road Studies in Kislovodsk, Russia and presented the keynote address on “Khubilai Khan and Jeju” at the International Association of Korean Studies in Jeju, Korea . . . Maria Terrone (left, former AVP of Communications) was the guest speaker at the Friday, October 25 meeting of QC’s Retirees Association, reading her poetry to an appreciative audience.
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