Having trouble viewing this email? Click here
From My Desk - President Christine M. Riordan (logo)
September 2020
Impressive, Accomplished and Inspiring: Meet Four of Our Newest Panthers

Dear Adelphi family and friends,

One of my greatest honors as our University’s president is welcoming a new class into our close-knit community. Our traditional Matriculation ceremony, pre-COVID, would launch the academic year with inspiring speeches, time-honored traditions and excitement for the promise of an enriching Adelphi experience. This year, like many things, our welcome is different but just as warm. I joined our Class of 2024 on Zoom to install them, officially, as Panthers—presiding over our first-ever new-student pinning ceremony, and encouraging them to “find a path, and a journey, that is their own."

For Fall 2020, our 1,007 new first-year undergraduate students come to us from 33 states and 21 countries. Academically, the average undergraduate GPA is 3.6, reflecting our credentials as a U.S. News & World Report Best College. Our graduate class is especially strong, with 882 new students joining one of our seven graduate schools or Adelphi Online. Additionally, reflecting our commitment to be a universally welcoming home for students, 42 percent of our new students identify as diverse.

I invite you to meet four of many unique new members of our community:


I hope you enjoy reading about some of our newest Panthers and why they chose to call Adelphi home—no matter where they happen to be!

All the best,
Christine M. Riordan, PhD
President
No Limits
Christopher Alvarez ’20 never let his rare form of thanatophoric dysplasia stand in the way of achieving his dreams. An activist and social media star, Chris also wrote for The Delphian while earning his Adelphi degree in both journalism and economics. He’s now taking his world-class Adelphi foundation to the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
A nonprofit of her own. La-Keir Morris has devoted her career and life to working with victims of domestic violence and serving as a foster parent. Now she's entered Adelphi's graduate program in social work with a goal of starting her own youth development organization.
Making art her business. Alma Lorena Monreal Munoz is a painter and designer who has been honored as a young entrepreneur in her hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico. She's also a winner of this year's You Are Welcome Here Scholarship, coming to Adelphi for our five-year BBA/MBA program.
Dancing into Adelphi. Brando Ortiz is coming to Adelphi from nearby Queens, but he's already traveled the globe winning world championships in salsa dance competitions. He'll study dance and business at Adelphi.
Heading East. Samantha Meehan loves the wide-open spaces of her native Colorado, but the energy of New York has drawn her to Adelphi, where she'll play on the volleyball team and study chemistry on an academic scholarship.
Research: Artwork and Activism
Can quilting and other crafts traditionally practiced by women help advance the cause of feminism? Research by Courtney L. Weida, EdD, associate professor in the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education and director of graduate art education, shows ways that they can. Read about it in "Feminism in the Arts," a feature article in our Fall 2019 Academic and Creative Research Magazine.
Alumni Who Made a Difference:
Mark Leighton Bowen ’09
Adelphi alumni have a great tradition of giving back to society. This month, I want to honor the memory of an alumnus who gave his all. Mark Leighton Bowen '09, RN, received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Adelphi in 2009 and had returned this past December to earn an MS in Nursing Education, continuing to care for his older patients as the pandemic raged.
Dr. Riordan is an internationally known expert and frequent speaker on leadership, diversity and inclusion, and career success. She has published nearly 70 academic and business press articles and is authoring Shift Happens: How to Adapt and Thrive in a Rapidly Changing World of Work—a book on helping employees adapt to the changing workplace. Dr. Riordan’s TEDx talk, “Dare to Be Extraordinary,” has received more than 20,000 views. She has been interviewed by and written articles for media such as the Financial Times, the Harvard Business Review, Forbes and HuffPost. Her work has been cited more than 5,400 times by other authors, and she has appeared in the press more than 130 times. For more information on her research, christineriordan.com.