Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
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QView #176 | March 26, 2024 | | |
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Queens College students (from left) Rooma Syedain and Andreia Duarte had the opportunity to debate public policy in Albany earlier this month through the SOMOS Model Senate Project. More than 1400 CUNY and SUNY students have been involved in this leadership training program since it was created in 1997. Late State Senator Jose Peralta ’96 participated while he was at QC.
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In a Women’s History Month event on Monday, March 18, Women and Gender Studies students discussed feminist intellectual genealogy in Rosenthal Library, Room 525. The panel was moderated by film programmer, scholar, and educator Natalie Erazo (above). | |
Senator Iwen Chiu, the first Asian woman in the New York State Senator . . . | |
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas . . . | |
Assemblymember Steven Raga, and . . . | |
PSC President James Davis and First Vice President Andrea Ades Vásquez. | |
As a former model, Caitlin King ’18 is used to being in the spotlight. At the Business Breakfast on Wednesday, March 20, she talked about her transition to her new career as a business analyst working with fashion and cosmetics brands. | |
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CUNY Trustee Mayra Linares-Garcia, a public affairs and communications strategist and Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications for Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, enjoyed lunch and discussion with students on March 20. Then she talked with faculty members and staff over coffee. Topics included college goals and needs and the role of CUNY trustees. Linares-Garcia serves on three CUNY board committees—Student Life; Facilities Planning and Management; and Advancement and External Affairs.
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Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Diversity Jerima DeWese, Interim Director of Public Safety Deborah Huggins, and Student Affairs and Counseling Center staff talked with students about conduct and freedom of expression at QC during Campus Conversations: Community Building 101. The informal meeting was held at free hour on March 20 in the Dining Hall. | |
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From left: Nathalie Erazo, Gabriel San Emeterio, Red Washburn, Carol Giardina, and Kayla Reece
Faculty and staff shared their research, pedagogy, and advocacy work at the Women and Gender Studies Spring Colloquium, held in Rosenthal Library, Room 525, during free hour on March 20.
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Alumni from Westchester and Connecticut attended a March 20 reception in White Plains and heard about QCArts from the school’s interim dean, Simone Yearwood. President Frank H. Wu, also in attendance, paused for photo ops, such as this shot with Abraham Parker ’20. | |
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Spring Sports Heat Up
It was a cold week out on the field, but the Knights spring sports teams were on fire. The baseball, softball, and women’s tennis teams combined to go 6-0 while the outdoor track and field team opened their season with several first-place finishes.
Baseball (11-7) started off the week with a 6-3 triumph over Caldwell College on Tuesday and followed with a doubleheader sweep at home against Lincoln University on Friday. Softball (7-6) swept a doubleheader from Mercy University on Thursday, and women’s tennis (10-3) blanked Jefferson University, 7-0, on Friday in their only match of the week.
The track and field team kicked off the outdoor season this weekend at the Queensborough relays. The Knights dominated, finishing first in five events. Khareena Primus placed first in the women’s 100-meter dash, John Ray was the winner in the 10,000-meter run, and Fabian Tan was tops in the javelin throw. The Knights also won the men’s 4x100 relay and women’s sprint medley relay.
Coming up, the baseball team will have a busy week with a road contest at East Stroudsburg University today (Tuesday, March 26) and a four-game series against Mercy University beginning on Thursday. Softball hosts Caldwell College for a doubleheader today and visits the College of Staten Island for a doubleheader on Saturday. Men’s tennis will travel to the University of the District of Columbia for a match on Friday and stop in Philadelphia on the way home for a match against Jefferson on Saturday. Track and Field will compete at a meet at St. John’s University on Saturday.
For the latest Knights news, be sure to visit queensknights.com
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Dominican Studies Institute Offers Summer Internships
Undergraduate and graduate students in humanities, social sciences, and STEM are invited to apply for in-person summer internships at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (DSI). Participants will have the opportunity to work under the guidance of specialists in DSI’s research unit, library, and archives and connect with affiliated scholars around the country and overseas.
The program begins in June and ends in August. Interns must commit to at least four weeks, working a maximum 35 hours per week.
A limited number of scholarships are available for DSI summer interns. Before seeking financial aid, applicants should pursue outside funding such as scholarships, fellowships, and Federal Work Study.
Applications must be submitted by April 15. The form and instructions are available here.
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QC Books Event with MFA Alumni
The MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation Program will showcase two of its graduates—Sunu Chandy ’13 and Roger Wyze Smith ’17—and their recently published books in a presentation on Monday, April 1. Jason Tougaw, the program’s director, will moderate the hybrid event, taking place from 7 to 9 pm at the QC Art Center (Rosenthal Library, sixth floor), and on Zoom.
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Chandy, the daughter of immigrants from India, is a poet and civil rights attorney; formerly legal director of the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC, she became a senior advisor with Democracy Forward, a national legal organization, last fall. Social justice informs her writing. My Dear Comrades, her first collection, was published by Regal House in 2023 and features work composed before, during, and after her MFA.
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Roger Smith, a native New Yorker of Bajan heritage, is the author of poetry collections, including Laundromats & Lounges (2013) and Chambers of a Beating Heart (2015). His latest release, Radiation Machine Gun Funk (2023), published by The Word Works, combines memoir and poetry and draws from his MFA thesis.
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Supporting Students’ Mental Health
Counseling Services gives special attention to students’ mental health, with the aim of alleviating painful symptoms, enhancing self-understanding and understanding of others, and fostering students’ pursuit of their goals. Licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed mental health counselors, and counseling interns supervised by professional staff offer individual counseling, groups, and referrals to appropriate college or community resources. Counselors work with students on a variety of issues, including—but not limited to—anxiety, depression, grief, family conflict, relationship issues, college adjustment, and career/life choices. All services are confidential and free of charge.
To contact Counseling Services to set up an appointment, students can call 718-997-5420 or send an email to counselingservices@qc.cuny.edu. They should leave their name, CUNY ID, and phone number. All messages—whether voicemail or email—will receive a response within 24 hours during business hours (usually Monday to Friday, 9 to 5). Students will be scheduled a time for a brief (approximately 30 minutes) screening with a counselor to help us determine the best way to provide assistance.
Also available to all Queens College students is the CUNY Crisis Text Line. For access, text CUNY to 741741.
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Walking To Support People with Parkinson’s | |
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The QC Speech-Language-Hearing Center invites members of the college community to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation Parkinson’s Unity Walk on Saturday, April 27, in Central Park. The Unity Walk is the largest single-day grassroots fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease research in the United States; all proceeds go directly to Parkinson's research and public policy priorities.
QC faculty, administrative staff, students, friends, families, and clients from Reclaiming Your Voice (QView 112)—a no-cost speech and communication program for people with Parkinson’s—will meet at the Naumburg Bandshell (near West 72nd Street) at 10 am before embarking on the 1.2-mile course. (Reclaiming Your Voice at QC utilizes the SPEAK OUT!® therapy approaches developed by the Parkinson Voice Project.
Once again, the Speech-Language-Hearing Center will be among the organizations and service providers with kiosks near the walk route.
“The mission of the Unity Walk is incredibly important to me,” says Elizabeth Viccaro (Linguistics and Communication Disorders), who coordinates the Reclaiming Your Voice project on campus. “My father lived with Parkinson's for over 20 years, and I participated in the first Parkinson's Unity Walk in 1994 to support him and others affected by this challenging condition. Since then, I've been dedicated to raising awareness and amplifying the challenges that affect so many individuals.”
To sign up for the QC delegation or make a donation, visit the team’s fundraising page.
If you have any questions about the walk or the program, please feel free to contact Viccaro directly via email at Elizabeth.viccaro@qc.cuny.edu or the Speech-Language-Hearing Center at speechcenter@qc.cuny.edu.
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Startup Contest Reaches Conclusion
Four young tech firms collected $25,000 apiece on March 11 during the final round of the TechImpact Startup Competition, co-sponsored by Accompany Capital and the Tech Incubator at Queens College.
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From left: Ying Zhou, executive director of the Tech Incubator at Queens College; Yanki Tshering, executive director of Accompany Capital | |
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Dani Lopez and Sarah Stellwag, co-founders of Lulo, which helps families fully redeem their WIC benefits, placed first in the contest’s Community Betterment category. Lulo received an additional $5,000 as the favorite in a vote by the audience. Fikile Mthwalo, founder of Glubbs, which makes medical grade, biodegradable disposable gloves, was the top finisher in Health and Wellness. Uyen (Tiffany) Nguyen, co-founder of Taperk, won Financial Empowerment with a loyalty app that enables small- and medium-sized merchants to acquire and retain more customers. Summer Wu and Kui Ming Wong, co-founders of PolyDub, took first place in B2B Innovations with an AI product that helps content teams create multilingual dubs of videos and podcasts.
Last fall, 117 applicants entered the contest, which required participants to demonstrate commitment to creating long-lasting social or business impact through technology. Eligibility was limited to businesses in the startup or early growth phase; for each entry, at least one founder or co-founder had to live in New York City. Sixteen semi-finalists, notified in early January, attended a pitch-coaching bootcamp and submitted pitches by video. Eight companies went to the finals, held in Civic Hall https://civichall.org/, to make live pitches before a panel of five judges: Daria Siegel, vice president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation; Michelle Danso, global head of the prime brokerage and trading legal team at Man Group; Kurt Schulze, head of client delivery at NewtonX; Simone Tarantino, chief operating officer at (Stealth) AI Company; and Cynthia Cleto, senior director of outreach, entrepreneurship, and special programs at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners.
The TechImpact Startup Competition was made possible through a grant from the CDFI Equitable Recovery Program, an initiative of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
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Panorama Challenge Returns to Queens Museum
Suspended in response to COVID, the Panorama Challenge, a New York City-themed trivia game, will return to the Queens Museum for the thirteenth time on April 12, from 6 to 9:30 pm. Teams of 10 or so players will compete in two divisions: Challengers, who are first-timers, and Pros, who are returning contestants. This year, they will be tested on themes such as SNL and Staten Island, Fame, and—props to Queens!—Awkwafina. The top-place Pros will win bragging rights and have their names added to the Panorama Challenge trophy displayed at the museum.
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The game is presented by a partnership of the Municipal Art Society of New York and the City Reliquary Museum. Gary Dennis of the Guides Association of New York will emcee and Know It All New Yorker Jonathan Turer will serve as quizmaster. Harmony Hardcore, City Reliquary’s 2023 Miss Subways, will perform at half-time.
Appropriately, a free shuttle will travel between the Queens Museum and under the Mets‐Willets Point 7 stop from 5:30 to 7 pm and again from 9 to 10 pm.
To enter the challenge or buy tickets to the event, click here.
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Retired math teacher Phyllis L. Pullman passed away on February 9, just a few weeks shy of her 79th birthday.
A Brooklyn native, Pullman crossed the borough border to study at QC, majoring in mathematics. She subsequently earned an MA in the subject at Boston University. She taught 9th and 10th grade math at Marie Curie Junior High/Middle School 158Q in Bayside, staying there for her entire career. Used copies of her How To Solve Word Problems in Arithmetic: Proven Techniques from an Expert, published in 2002, are available on Amazon.
After leaving the classroom, Pullman remained active in the United Federation of Teachers and city and state math teachers’ associations; she also led math workshops. A sports fan, she was devoted to the Yankees, the Giants, and especially, tennis, attending matches in Forest Hills, Wimbledon, and Melbourne. Partial to vacations on the water, she took more than 40 voyages on Princess Cruise Lines, visiting destinations in Antarctica, Russia, and South America and becoming the company’s third most traveled passenger.
Dedicated to giving back, Pullman supported Queens College, Northwell Health, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other nonprofits.
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Hostos President Daisy Cocco De Filippis ’75, MA ’78 was among the honorees when Representative Ritchie Torres held a Women’s History Month breakfast celebrating accomplished women of the Bronx | . . . .Jeff Rosenstock (External and Governmental Relations) was among three honorees at the Arise Gala, a fundraiser for Dance Entropy on Thursday, March 21. A Queens-based professional nonprofit company founded by Valerie Green, Dance Entropy combines performance and specialized outreach programs to inspire communities in cultural institutions throughout the world. | |
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