Discimus ut serviamus:
We learn so that we may serve.
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Critical Needs Fund Gets Small-Screen Treatment and a Substantial Gift
In light of the tremendous challenges facing the college, Joan Loren ’60 has pledged a $100,000 matching gift to the fund from the Loren family, in memory of her husband Allan Z. Loren, an alumnus and a trustee of the Queens College Foundation. The Lorens were both first-generation college students; they met at QC and married in 1960, one week after graduation.
“These are unprecedented times—to help those who are working hard to prepare for their future in a new and challenging world is most important," said Loren. "And that means to help students get an education that will enable them to embrace opportunities that will make a difference in their lives. That is what Queens College did for my husband and me, and what a
huge
difference our education has made for us and our family. Thank you, Queens College!”
Joan Loren, an education major, worked as an elementary school teacher and in fundraising and special events. Allan Z. Loren earned a mathematics degree from Queens College, which led to a career in technology and business. He served as CIO of INA Corporation (and Cigna following a merger), CIO of Apple Computer, president of Apple USA, CIO of American Express, and chairman and CEO of Dun and Bradstreet.
"Joan Loren’s support exemplifies the life-changing effect that a Queens College education can have on our alumni, inspiring a long-lasting appreciation for the opportunities and gains in life that it makes possible," said Interim President Tramontano. "We are grateful to Mrs. Loren for her gift and deeply proud to count her among our many alumni who embody our school motto, ‘We learn so that we may serve.’”
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With higher enrollment figures that already surpass last year’s numbers, QC’s Summer Session is hot indeed, enabling students to make academic progress from the safety and convenience of home.
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Monica Casco (Hispanic Languages and Literatures) points out that “Spanish is such a valuable language as it's the second most spoken language in New York. Spanish speakers
make up about 25 percent of the New York population, which translates to approximately 1.9 million residents.” HLL is offering Basic Spanish language courses, SPAN 111 and SPAN 112 in Summer Session 1 and SPAN 111 and SPAN 203 in Summer Session 2. Also available are SPAN 224, a more advanced Spanish course, and Spanish literature courses, including SPAN 240, SPAN 290, and a graduate Spanish literature course, SPAN 774.
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History buffs have a lot to choose from, too, such as courses that fulfill GenEd requirements. HIST 103, 104 count toward USED (US in its Diversity) and HIST 101, 102, and 160 count toward WCGI (World Cultures). The HIST 101 session I is a zero-cost textbook class; many sections of HIST 103 and 104 are, as well.
“We have several sections in all sessions with amazing topics: Hindus and Muslims in India, Foundations of the Modern Middle East, Modern South Asian History, and Resistance and Popular Violence in the Early Atlantic World,” reports Julia Sneeringer (History). “Popular topics at the intermediate level include the History of New York City (HIST 285) and Victorian Britain. We now also have a 10-week course: HIST 160/799 Foundations of the Modern Middle East. MA students across several disciplines can find courses in U.S. Women’s History, the Modern Middle East, India, and Victorian Britain.”
To learn about all the available options, and over 650 courses, go to the
Summer Session page
.
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Supporting First-Generation Collegians
Queens College is the first public college in New York State to participate in the newly expanded
Kessler Presidential Scholars Program
for first-generation college students. Private institutions John Hopkins University, Syracuse University and St. Francis College have also joined the program this year; Cornell began offering the scholarship in 2019.
The Kessler Program uses research and real-time student feedback to transform the experience of first-generation college students, who receive funding as well as community support. This comprehensive and proven approach is particularly apt for Queens College, for two reasons. Nearly half of incoming students enrolled for the 2019-20 semester are the first in their family to attend college; and the program is the brainchild of New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and his wife, Judy Kessler Wilpon, who founded the scholarship at his alma mater, the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA).
“The Kessler Presidential Scholarship Program is a visionary opportunity for students who are aspiring to be the first in their family to graduate from college,” said Interim President William Tramontano. “Especially during these challenging times, we need a national model demonstrating how generous philanthropy can make an enormous difference in educating the future leaders of our country. We thank the Wilpon family for their extraordinary generosity in paving the pathway for our students and for those of participating colleges. As primary owners of the New York Mets, our nearby neighbor, the Wilpons have shared a close proximity with Queens College for many years.”
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Sharing Student Perspectives
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One constant through the COVID-19 lockdown has been the online student magazine,
QC Voices
. Under the faculty leadership of Jason Tougaw (English), nine graduate and undergraduate student writers have continued producing their usual columns despite extraordinary times, and have even taken the opportunity to reflect on the meanings of the pandemic itself.
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QC Voices
is a student-centered project that began eleven years ago as a collective blog. Under the sponsorship of Writing @ Queens, it has evolved to consist of topical columns based on writers’ interests—including serious examinations of race, feminism, and the environment—while collaboration, discussion, and community still rank high among its values. The magazine emphasizes creative nonfiction, and the work of the student writers, who come from many disciplines, “ranges from the lyrical to the journalistic,” according to Tougaw.
The writers are chosen by committee each year, in a selective process that begins with a campuswide call for student applications.
QC Voices
offers these students the opportunity to learn to write for publication, and it provides writing workshops every few weeks for further skill development. “We usually try, at least once a year, to bring a professional writer to talk about their experiences. What’s it like to write for the
New York Times
or
Vogue
magazine or whatever they might be doing?”
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How Does It Work?
There also is regular one-on-one mentoring, oriented toward guiding students through the entire experience of completing a publishable original piece. “It’s so important for us to make the editorial process as close as possible to what it would be for a professional publication,” says Tougaw. “It’s not the same as staying up till 2 in the morning rushing to write a paper for class.” Students work with Tougaw and two technology fellows: Stefano Morello, a PhD candidate at the Graduate Center, and Scott Cheshire ’08, a novelist and professional editor.
“We try to structure it like a literary-magazine editing experience,” explains Tougaw. “We do all the steps that I would go through if I was publishing something. They submit the first draft, we give them notes, it usually takes them another week or so to revise, and then we do a round of more sentence-level, detail-oriented editing. In the meantime, one of the technology fellows works with them on assembling the visual elements and doing layout.”
The result is a dynamic mix of words and images on timely subjects the students are passionate about. They become immersed in their topics, and some—such as Nadia Mizir, an MFA candidate who writes about immigration and global identity—have seen their writing picked up and republished. Most recently, the students have incorporated the pandemic in their columns, exploring its impacts on themselves and others. For instance, Najet Miah, a psychology major minoring in Arabic, recently wrote a heavily researched article on COVID-19 in jails and prisons that was reprinted by Fair Play, a nonprofit devoted to attaining an equitable health system.
Recording the Pandemic
The students’ desire to record the pandemic should come as no surprise. “Our students face all kinds of challenges in the best of times, and certainly the kinds of social inequity that a lot of them already deal with are totally exacerbated by this experience,” notes Tougaw. “Each one has a different set of circumstances,” which he tries to help them explore through the written word.
Though the magazine was already online, it nonetheless had its own trials with the closure of the campus. One was the cancellation of QC Voices and Friends, an annual event at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum where
QC Voices
writers read from their work and students from the audience come forward to read as well. “The room is always full and it’s always super exuberant,” says Tougaw, who is already thinking about how to construct similar community-building projects online.
QC Voices
has an impressive record of supporting students in framing and reaching for their goals. In Tougaw’s view, “We definitely think of it as something that is helping to professionalize the students, and we also hope it helps other students see what they might be capable of.” He is proud of the magazine’s alumni, saying that “There are various career paths that students have taken.” For instance, Amir Khafagy ’19 is now a journalism fellow with New Economics, and has written for
City Limits, Jacobin, Vice,
and
Gothamist.
Others use the communication skills they developed at
QC Voices
in their professional work, or they continue to write out of interest or pleasure. For example, Treasan Martindale ’18 became a full-time English teacher while Mahnoor Mirza ’18, a second-year law student at Hofstra University, serves as a junior editor on the American College of Trusts and Estates Council.
Tougaw takes tremendous pride in the students and their growth as writers. “It’s a great thing we can do. It gives them a feeling of authority, that they have a voice in the world,” he says. “It does kind of work like something that you would see commonly at a smaller liberal arts school, and it’s a great experience for them to have that. I think they gain a lot of feeling of self-worth and empowerment.”
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English Language Institute Moves Online
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Top: Donna Smith, Oneida Nieves, Isabel Yonkers. Bottom: Nancy Mare, Erika Guadalupe
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Working with a student population of English language learners can be challenging under normal circumstances. The forced closure of the Queens College campus due to COVID-19 has created challenges for QC’s English Language Institute unlike any experienced in the program’s 75-year history.
“During the first week of the shutdown we moved 34 ESL classes online,” says Donna Smith, ELI’s executive director. “This required connecting hundreds of students with the online platform and training 21 teachers to use it.
“Nancy Mare (ELI assistant director) and I, along with many ELI teachers who were learning along the way as well, cross-trained and worked together furiously for many hours to transform classes online and to start thinking about how to translate their years of teaching and unique lessons styles onto this new platform.
“The office staff, Oneida Nieves and Isabel Yonkers, worked to get over 400 students connected to their online classes that week, further troubleshooting over the following weeks. This posed perhaps added challenges as ELI students are nonnative speakers and much needed to be communicated.”
Further, explains Smith, ELI’s visa advisor, Erika Guadalupe, worked with colleagues in her field to understand and move forward with the new rules and regulations set in place for COVID-19. In a regular semester, international language learning students are required to be face to face with their class for 18 hours a week in order to keep their student visa. With the sudden shift to distance learning, some students were able to return to their countries and maintain their U.S. student visa status, as long as they were participating in their online classes.
Getting Going
Participants in this grand experiment ranged from the computer-savvy to those with little or no experience that would have prepared them for this kind of undertaking, notes Smith. “Many worked from six in the morning until close to midnight that first week trying to get everything going. But we did it.”
Of course, the loss of a physical office presence presented its own challenges, she notes: “How will we serve students? How will they get in touch with us? How will we register them? How will we take payment? How will we recruit for coming semesters without flyers and postcards? We are knee deep in calling and emailing former and current students and brainstorming on how to get the word out about being online.”
“The ELI never had an online registration system, so we had to figure out a method to register students remotely, including taking payment. It’s been a real crash course for everyone,” Smith says. She quickly adds that she would be remiss if she didn’t acknowledge assistance ELI has been receiving from other parts of the college in sorting out the new virtual reality. These include, among others, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Communications and Marketing, and students from CUNY Service Corps.
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Ann Larios and her class called "Low-Mid," a Listening/Speaking ESL class
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Bright Spot
Amid all the daunting challenges, Smith is happy to report unanticipated bright spot: The Saturday programs of the Center for Academic and Communication Skills offered through the ELI Office have seen an increase in the number of registrants. The now fully online classes, which run for eight weeks beginning May 2, traditionally draw students from DC37, which has arrangements that allow members to take classes at a number of locations around New York City. Presented remotely for the first time, eliminating the need for students to travel, the programs—which include one ESL class, three academic support classes, and one Mandarin class—have seen a significant spike in DC37 enrollment.
Now completely up and running digitally, ELI is prepared to move forward with its Summer One program beginning the end of May, offering highly interactive online classes to English language learners. “We have a full-time and a part-time program, and it will be our second time offering programs fully online,” Smith says.
Reflecting on the hard-won accomplishments of the past two months, she observes, “The ELI rose to the occasion—as did the entire college—while grappling with our personal adjustments and challenges that this crisis brought with it. I'm grateful for the endless hours and hard work that all the teachers and staff put in to move the ELI online.
“No classes were canceled; no refunds were needed. Students were amazingly patient as we moved onto this new medium and were grateful to finally see their teachers in the Zoom classes after the entire city was finally safely tucked away at home that day in March.”
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Coping with the Pandemic
Coronavirus continues to threaten public health and well-being and cause major disruption in everyone’s daily life. Fortunately, resources are available to the college community.
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The Queens College Psychological Center (QCPC), Clinical Psychology at Queens College Doctoral Program, and the Department of Psychology is presenting a series of free webinars developed especially for staff, adjuncts, and faculty. These webinars are designed to promote healthy coping during the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s transition to re-opening. Alumni are welcome to attend. For the complete schedule
Deer Oaks’ website provides lots of information about the pandemic, physical health, mental health, emotional health, coping with lockdown, working from home, families and parenting, financial tips, online events, and back-to-work resources. To access this material, click on the “+” under the “News for You” section and then click on “COVID-19 Info.”
Students who need a break are urged to participate in remote activities offered by the Office of Student Development and Leadership, Monday through Friday.
- Monday Meditation with Chona (Mondays, 10 am-11 am)
- Strength & Conditioning with Wilpower Fitness (Tuesdays, 1 pm-2 pm)
- Zumba with Jazs (Wednesdays, 1 pm-2 pm)
- Strength & Conditioning with Wilpower Fitness, (Thursdays, 1 pm-2 pm)
- Friday Night Live Party with Deejay Unico (Fridays, 8 pm-10 pm)
All sessions take place via Zoom; meeting ID is 951-276-3466. Sessions will be recorded.
To keep spirits up, Borough of Queens agencies are livestreaming programs for all ages and interests. Visit It’s Inside in Queens
https://itsinqueens.com/
for details.
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Engaging Alumni at a Distance
Two remote events next month will inform alumni about QC initiatives with particular value for the broader college community. Registration is required for both dates.
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A virtual tour of the college’s Tech Incubator is scheduled for Monday, June 1, at 4 pm. The tour will provide an overview of incubator operations and cover the various programs, events, workshops and classes it currently offers. Attendees will be welcome to ask questions. Register to access Zoom link
here
.
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A week later—Monday, June 8, from 4 to 5 pm—the topic will be the Queens Memory COVID-19 Project. A joint effort of QC and the Queens Public Library, this project is a borough-wide campaign to collect and archive first-person accounts of borough life in the pandemic. Annie Tummino (Special Collections and Archives) and Queens Memory Outreach Coordinator Lori Wallach will talk about the Queens Memory COVID-19 Project and explore some of the submissions so far. Then they will show alumni how they can contribute stories, volunteer to conduct interviews, or help in other ways. Register to access Zoom link
here
.
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Zooming in to Career Development
COOP (“Ko-op”) Careers
, a nonprofit, career development program, will hold a Zoom webinar on Wednesday, June 10, from noon to 1 pm, about digital marketing and data analytics.
To help underrepresented college graduates enter these fields, COOP teaches in-demand digital skills, provides professional development training, and builds meaningful industry connections. The organization has partnerships with numerous digital agencies and tech companies, including Microsoft, Mediacom, and the Publicis Groupe.
Interested students should register for the webinar on HireQC:
www.qc.cuny.edu/hireqc
(Student > Events > Workshops > RSVP & add to calendar). A confirmation email with information about the webinar will be sent closer to the date of the event.
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Academic Senate Elects Officers
Electing officers was on the agenda when the 2020-2021 Academic Senate held its first meeting this month. Simone L. Yearwood (Library) was re-elected holder of the chair, student Siddharth Malviya was re-elected deputy holder of the chair, and student Rida Zaida was elected secretary.
Other elected members of the executive committee are faculty members Ann Azzollini (FNES), Stephen Grover (Philosophy), Theresa Gurl (SEYS), Barbara Moore (Counseling, Health and Wellness Center), and James Vacca (Urban Studies). Gloria Stoyanova joins the slate of student members.
Dave Fields, QC alumnus, who was instrumental in the founding of the Academic Senate and the CUNY School of Law, will serve as parliamentarian.
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In Memoriam: Johnson Tseng
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The Queens College community is mourning Johnson Tseng, a member of the Economics faculty who passed away last month. He had been hospitalized with a heart condition in March and died after being transferred to a rehab center.
Tseng graduated from National Chengchi University and received his PhD in Economics from SUNY Albany. He worked for the Central Bank of the Republic of China and New York State Department of Financial Services and served as an adjunct associate professor at both Queens College and St. John’s University. His academic research focused on macroeconomics, corporation finance, and Basel regulatory framework.
In addition to writing numerous papers published in banking, finance and economic journals in Taiwan, Tseng was the co-author of two books,
Modern Bank Supervision and Risk Management
and
The New Basel Capital Accord
. He provided banking training and education at Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance to professionals from financial institutions in Taiwan.
Tseng was a former advisor, chairman, and president, as well as a life member, of The Chinese American Academic and Professional Society. He was also a member of Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society and had served as advisor, chairman and or president for a number of Chinese American organizations and associations.
“Johnson was a great teacher,” says his Economics colleague Zadia Feliciano. “His explanations were very clear, his students were very engaged, and he liked to bring examples from the real world to the classroom, making the course more interesting to the students. He was active on campus and attended the Trade in the Era of Trump panel organized by the Economics and Business Club in spring 2019. Johnson was very friendly and always had a smile. I will always remember him with gratitude and admiration for his dedication to teaching Queens College students.”
Conditions permitting, a memorial service for Tseng will be held this summer, with details to be announced.
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Zavi Gunn
(Career Engagement and Internships) was a guest panelist on a recent episode of The Career Leadership Collective webcast “
The New Forward
.” The topic was Summer 2020 Career Development Programming and Staff Priorities. Gunn discussed the QC Summer Session World of Work class, Google CSSI Online, and an upcoming virtual event, “Coping with stress while looking for a job” . . . .
Matthew Kasper
, an ACSM alum, won a
Career Assistance Award
from the Georg Solti Foundation. Kasper is the resident conductor of the Phoenix Symphony and the artistic director of the Phoenix Youth Symphony . . . . the
Louis Armstrong House Museum
and its virtual exhibit,
That’s My Home,
received prominent play in the “Deep Breath Moment” Governor Andrew Cuomo used to end the coronavirus update emailed from his office on Tuesday, May 12 . . . .
President-designate Frank H. Wu
will discuss Queens College in a
virtual talk presented by the Tenement Museum
on Thursday, May 21 at 7 pm.
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The
Q View
is produced by the
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Comments and suggestions for future news items
are welcome.
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