For many Americans, April 15th is the most stressful day of the year—federal taxes are due.

Tax prep can be daunting and overwhelming, but not an impossible task with the right guidance.

This semester, 12 accounting students at BMCC wanted to give back to their communities by helping others file their taxes.

As members of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at the Food Bank of New York, they have been preparing tax returns for low-income New Yorkers.

“VITA is a great program because it will give accounting students an opportunity to practice the tax law they learned in the classroom,” says Accounting Professor Angela Jervis. “This practical experience enhances their prospects for gaining employment.”

Jervis oversaw the VITA program at BMCC and Professors Corinne Crawford, Barry Cooper and Joel Barker assisted with the program and ran a workshop over winter break to prepare students for the IRS Basic Certification Exam.  One cannot volunteer through VITA without passing a certification exam.

“I took a Taxation course with Professor Barry Cooper, and it prepared me well for the VITA workshop,” says Shakirou Olatidoye who is working as a volunteer tax preparer at the Staten Island branch of the Food Bank. “The workshop wasn’t for everyone, and some people did drop out. You need to be very passionate about this field to pursue it.”

Great opportunity
Olatidoye, who passed his Basic Exam and plans to take the next two certification exams, uses VITA as his required accounting internship.

“It’s always good to give back, plus I like accounting and figured it was time to put my career in motion,” he says. “Participating in this program was a wonderful opportunity to gain experience in the field.”

Olatidoye says VITA also “looks good on a resume and is good for the morale of BMCC; since the program heads note which college each volunteer attends, and counts how many forms we process, individually.”

Self-improvement perks
“I think that volunteering in the VITA program is fantastic because it combines helping individuals and provides students with valuable technical knowledge and experience for their own self-improvement,” says Jervis.

Volunteer tax preparer Anny Compres agrees. She is currently working in Washington Heights through the VITA program.

“I really enjoy working with the people here. Many of them are from the Dominican Republic, and so am I, so we understand each other’s culture and they like that I speak Spanish,” she says. “They tell me I’m helpful and nice and they’re excited when they learn they’re getting money back from the government.”

Compres decided to pursue a career in accounting because her mother is an accountant.

“It can be hard and there are little rules that change every year when you file taxes,” she says, “but I want to be in this business and have learned so much.”

Vital skills
Professor Jervis personally likes that the VITA program for BMCC students helps them gain vital career skills, “such as interviewing, critical thinking and problem-solving techniques that would be beneficial for any future employment.”

She adds: “I also like that the students are trained to prepare tax returns of various complexity according to their level of certification.”

The 12 current BMCC VITA students are: Ibrahima Barry, Xueqin Chan, James Chin, Anny Compres, Raquel Diaz, Alie Dior Gueye, Yulam Mau, Adelina Maze, Shakirou Olatidoye, Raynier Perez, Mary Stix, Marlene Uraga.

One way to attract a college student is with freebies, food, and fun.

Or, you can attract college students when you’re seeking employees for your business—and that’s exactly what makes the BMCC’s annual career fairs so popular.

Hosted by the Center for Career Development and ASAP, in conjunction with the Office of Academic Affairs, this semester’s career fair attracted employers from various genres—retail, non-profit, journalism, and government.

Employers at the Career Fair included Crunch Gyms, Sketchers, JumpStart, Jambox Studio, Mohawk Day Camp, and more.

Let’s Get Digital
This semester’s career fair—held in the BMCC gymnasium—encouraged students to enhance their job searches online.

The Center for Career Development set up an interactive booth at the fair where motivated students learned how to create career profiles on LinkedIn. Staffers snapped individual pictures of students for use on their professional LinkedIn accounts.

“This is our first social-media enhanced career fair, so students and employers are joining us in online conversations,” said Shemeka Brathwaite, BMCC’s Employer Relations Specialist. “The day before the fair, some employers ‘Tweeted’ that they were excited about meeting BMCC students.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Students speak out
Hundreds of BMCC students who attended the career fair had their resumes in hand and were dressed in business attire. Prior to attending the career fair, students had their resumes reviewed by staffers in the Center for Career Development or by ASAP advisor.

ASAP student Sheyema Youssef describes herself as “organized and detail-oriented.”

“ASAP advisor Michael Stahl helped me make a few small changes to my resume,” she said. “I’m only 18, but I’ve done administrative work, I’ve worked with kids and in the retail industry.”

Theatre major Ronnie Killings scored a job at Visions at BMCC’s last career fair. “I still work there sometimes on weekends,” he said.

This was Communications major Delilah Melendez’s first career fair.

“I’ve been in admin, retail, and marketing, and even worked with celebrities,” she said, adding that her dream job is to work for the E! channel. “I like this fair; it’s a great event. There are so many companies here; there’s something for every student.”

What employers want
According to Melba Olmeda, Director, Center for Career Development, the majority of employers attended the career fair “to fill vacancies and foster positive relations with BMCC.”

“Employers were impressed with the students preparedness and professionalism,” she added.

Yan Revzin of Fortune Cookie Advertising—a company that manufactures personalized fortune cookies for special events—wanted students to know his company is “a great first job for someone, especially if they want to be an entrepreneur,” adding, “We’re seeking outgoing and motivated people who think outside the box and can recruit restaurants or individuals to advertise in our cookies.”

Captain Benny McCants works in Enforcement Patrol for the New York City Parks.

“We’re doing a big recruitment campaign and generally attract students majoring in Criminal Justice,” he explained. “We’re looking for people with good integrity who can pass the physical portion of the exam and are looking to better themselves.”

Ayana Case, Senior Recruiter for Lifespire, a non-profit service for the disabled individuals, has hired several BMCC students in the past. “Students majoring Human Services are generally interested in Lifespire,” she said.

Keith Moore is the online production manager for nv magazine. He spoke with students interested in journalism and new media.

“We’re a business magazine for urban professionals seeking Web and print writers who have a savvy business sense and can put content together,” he explained. “We’re not looking for writers who want to review the Jay-Z concert. We want someone who will interview the crew behind-the-scenes at the Jay-Z concert.”

According to Brathwaite, the companies at the Career Fairs do hire, and seek out, BMCC students.

“You never know what jobs they have available, plus interacting with these employers is good practice for your interviewing skills,” she said. “Also, talk with companies you never heard of. I call them ‘little gems’; they may have an amazing opportunity for you.”

BMCC’s President Dr. Antonio Pérez recently met with a very captive audience—who happened to be sitting on the floor.

BMCC’s youngest students, the pre-schoolers of the Early Childhood Center, were treated to a special visit from President Pérez, who stopped by the read the 3 to 5-year-olds a book he pre-selected: Lola Reads to Leo by Anna McQuinn.

“Do you know this book?” Pérez asked the kids as he held it up while sitting on a classroom chair. The group of about 20 children slowly shook their heads. “No? Good, so if I make a mistake no one will know!”

Questions galore
Pérez stops by every semester to read to the children, who listened carefully, but also did what children do best—ask questions. They showered their special visitor with inquiries and (adorable) offhand comments.
“My mom reads to me!” shouted one child.

“What does she read?” asked Pérez.

“Three Little Bears,” said the child, which immediately prompted another youngster to perk up and say her mommy reads “stories about princesses.”

As the President read Lola Reads to Leo aloud, making sure the children could see the colorful pictures, the funny statements kept on coming.

And even though President Pérez didn’t read an animal-themed story this year—his favorite genre—he still told the kids about his family’s former cat.

“My son had cat named ‘Sneakers’ because he had white paws,” he announced as they laughed, smiled, and shouted out the names of their cats and dogs.

“I have a cat named Oreo…I think,” said one youngster, prompting Pérez to chuckle.

Plans to return
Students also happily told President Pérez about their families, favorite letter of the alphabet, and how they help their parents make “grilled cheese sandwiches,” said one young boy.

They all laughed again when President Pérez told them he was once a little boy.

“You were small!?” asked a young girl in surprise.

After reading to the children, Pérez thanked them “for being such good listeners” and they waved goodbye as he left; thanking him for his classroom visit.

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced today in a message to the CUNY community that he intends to step down as Chancellor this summer.

Dr. Goldstein stated: “Serving this exceptional university alongside so many extraordinary colleagues has been the greatest privilege of my professional life. I am deeply grateful to the trustees, members of the chancellery, presidents, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, who, every day, work so diligently to support and fulfill CUNY’s historic mission. As the first CUNY graduate to lead the University (City College, Class of 1963), I take enormous pride in what we have accomplished, together, to ensure an unparalleled educational experience for every CUNY student.”

A distinguished mathematician and a highly regarded administrator, Matthew Goldstein was appointed Chancellor of The City University of New York in 1999, which today comprises 24 colleges and professional schools throughout New York City. He was previously president of Baruch College/CUNY, president of the CUNY Research Foundation and president of Adelphi University.

As any biologist will tell you, “Birds float.”

“They’re designed to be light, so they can fly,” says science professor and paleontologist David Krauss.

The downside of buoyancy, though, from a paleontologist’s point of view, is that birds are less likely to sink to the bottom of a body of water, where they become covered with sediment, and fossilize—meaning less evidence exists, regarding the world in which they lived.

Clues to earlier eras
“If the birds die on a mud flat, they become fossilized,” Professor Krauss explains. “We know about the water birds, and birds that have died in volcanic eruptions, but not birds that lived in upland environments.”

This is where BMCC science major Ellen Gales became involved, though her path to paleontology has take a few turns—including a bachelor’s degree in archeology from the University of Melbourne, in Australia.

“Since I was six years old, I wanted to be an archeologist,” says Gales, “but then I studied it and did field work and realized archeology focuses on interpretations of human behavior, while I’m much more interested in the evolution and ecology of vertebrate animals that have lived on earth since its formation.”

Within the field of paleontology, her focus is taphonomy, the study of the process of fossilization.

“Eventually, I want to work in a natural history museum in education, with the collections, or conducting museum-sponsored research,” she says, and is getting a feel for that career path by volunteering at the American Museum of Natural History, working with the collections manager, labeling fossils.

Simulating fossilization
Ellen Gales is also completing an honor’s project with Professor David Krauss, analyzing the physical properties of fossilized pigeons and doves he buried almost ten years ago in a simulated environment—even replicating the weight of the millennia by putting them under blocks of granite—at a geoscience summer field camp sponsored by Boston College.

Under Krauss’s supervision, “I’m collating and interpreting the results of that simulation, preparing the fossils, and creating a database relating to real fossilized birds,” says Gales, who wields “a tiny jackhammer,” as she calls it, to isolate particles from the samples.

“I’ll probably transfer to another CUNY college, for a bachelor’s degree in paleontology,” she says, and is considering City College, among others.

The field of paleontology, “can eventually guide us in decisions regarding how we manage animal habitats, or help us understand how readily an organism might adapt to a new environment,” she says, adding that it can also “help us manage natural resources, like groundwater.”

Professor Krauss gives another example: “If we understand how ancient marine tidal environments have changed, we can interpret how modern tidal environments have changed.”

He quotes the 19th-century pioneering geologist Charles Lyell, a contemporary of Charles Darwin and who wrote, “The past is the key to the present.”

Krauss is applying that concept to the bird fossil project.

“Our premise is that bird fossils form in mud,” he says. “If you’ve got a bird fossil, you’ve got an intermittently wet and dry environment, like tidal mud flats. It gives us an important clue as to what the environment might have looked like, at that time.”

Krauss and Gales are hoping to present their findings next year, at an international conference of the prestigious Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. “We’ll present first, then publish an article, using feedback we from other scientists at the conference,” Professor Krauss says.

Jobs for certified medical assistants are expected to grow by 31% in the decade from 2010 to 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s good news, and here’s more: The BMCC Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development is piloting a Medical Assistant training program that will enable people to take advantage of that trend.

“Certified medical assistants are more employable and earn more than their counterparts in the workplace who are not certified,” says BMCC Dean of Continuing Education, Sunil Gupta.

He adds that students who complete the program will be eligible to take the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) certification exam.

“This can raise the income of people already working as medical assistants, and increase the employability of those looking to enter the field and see if it’s something they want to pursue further—especially by earning an associate degree at BMCC in a related area.”

 
From collecting blood to collecting payment
Medical assistants take patients’ vital signs and record their medical history. They sterilize equipment, collect blood and tissue samples, and schedule patient appointments. Sometimes they even give shots and assist with medical billing.

The BMCC medical assistant training program prepares students for this wide spectrum of tasks.

“We developed the curriculum in partnership with a federation of clinical sites throughout the New York City area,” says Dean Gupta. “They gave us extremely useful feedback on the skill sets they expect medical assistants to bring to the job.”

The curriculum is also, he says, based on guidelines set by the Medical Assistant Education Review Board (MAERB).

While the first wave of graduates from the course will be eligible to sit for the NHA certification exam, “once we’ve vetted the program through this pilot, “ he says, “we’re hoping to be sanctioned by MAERB and participants will be eligible to sit for that certification exam, as well.”

 
Training that leads to many paths
The program provides 530 hours of instruction that cover everything from basic anatomy to IV insertion techniques; from diagnostic and procedural coding to time management.

“The first group of students will be incumbent workers in clinical sites that participated in the curriculum development phase of the project,” says Dean Gupta. “Those individuals will be looking to upgrade their skills and take on a higher level of responsibility in their current jobs.

Later, he adds, “the clinical sites will offer internships to those who complete the program.”

The training is funded through the NYC Small Business Services, and those who income qualify are able to apply Individual Training Grants to their tuition.

“After this training,” Dean Gupta says, “we hope that participants will enroll at BMCC or another community college, and obtain an associate degree in a related area. They might become emergency medical technicians, paramedics, registered nurses, work in medical billing and coding—there are a lot of directions they could go in.”

For more information on this and other certification programs at BMCC, call 212-346-8410 or click here.

Tria Case, University Director of Sustainability for The City University of New York, was the plenary speaker in BMCC’s recent conference, Sustainability and Technology: New Directions in Teaching and Learning.

BMCC Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Michael Gillespie welcomed participants to the conference, quoting Albert Einstein’s still-timely observation, “If we do not harness technology, technology will harness us.”

For CUNY and BMCC students, harnessing the technology for sustainability, or building a career in the field, starts with choosing a related major.

“Understanding GIS [Geographic Information Science], simple programming and IT skills, are all part of being in this field,” Case explained, as she talked with participants before her address. “Or, if you want to impact policy, you need to understand analytics.”

At the undergraduate level, she said, students might get involved in the Cleantech Scholars program, which is supported by Con Edison and gives CUNY students majoring in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines the opportunity for a ‘Real World’ supplement to their education through projects within the NYCleantech Mentors Network.

The sustainability field is highly interdisciplinary, and she gave the example of the CUNY sustainability team, which includes solar ombudsmen, “some of whom have both engineering and energy policy backgrounds.”

Another route a person interested in sustainability studies might take, she said, is building management.

“There is the building performance lab at City College. Graduates earn a Master of Science in Sustainability in the Urban Environment, through a program that is jointly run by the architecture and engineering departments.”

Or if they’re interested in the business side of sustainability, “a student could consider the Sustainable Business graduate program Baruch College,” she said. “Another option is the CUNY BA program in urban planning at Hunter College.”

Solar energy, citywide
A business major focused on sustainability issues might end up on a team like the one at CUNY that manages the university’s energy budget, and creates incentives for campuses to improve their energy efficiency.

“Each campus has an energy budget,” says Case, “and so far each campus has come in under their allocated budget, and that savings goes back to them.”

CUNY accounts for one percent of the City’s energy usage, and “what we do can truly make a difference across the City,” said Case. She outlined the CUNY Sustainability Project, which focuses on curriculum development, procurement of goods, water use, transportation and in creating a 10-year sustainability plan.

CUNY has also created Solar Empowerment Zones throughout the City, and she discussed challenges including the vertical nature of an urban environment, which skews the ratio of roof-to-surface space, and the cooling effect of shadows that over a million buildings in close proximity throw on each other.

Despite these challenges, the City has gone from one megawatt of solar energy in action in 2006, to 14 megawatts in 2013.

Mapping out a solar plan
To raise the City of New York’s solar usage, CUNY initially responded to a call for proposals from the Mayor’s Office, and has since created a road map for the marketplace on developing solar power.

The CUNY Sustainability team has brought together policy makers, utility company representatives, engineers, IT experts and others, and has created the first NYC Solar Map.

“If you plug in any address, Google maps will take you to that location and information about that energy system will pop up,” explains Case. “It answers the questions, ‘How much would solar installation cost at that site?’ and ‘How much would I save, taking into consideration local data, cost, and other factors specific to that location?’”

Students at Hunter College and other CUNY campuses helped develop this three-dimensional map, which Case describes as “the most granulated solar map in the world.”

BMCC faculty and staff share innovative strategies
In addition to the morning’s plenary address, the Sustainability and Technology conference provided a demofest showcasing technologies for the classroom, and in breakout sessions, faculty and staff shared innovative strategies for using technology to enhance student learning.

Demofest abstracts included Yan Chen’s presentation about a free web-based video conference platform, Google Hangouts, while Colin Persaud shared information on the ease of scheduling courses in the automated system, Access. Ruru Rusmin was on hand to talk about the advantages of BlackBoard Collaborative, a real-time web conferencing environment, and Chiaki Yanagisawa and Elisa Pigeron discussed the Smart pen, which records students’ writing and transfers it to their computer. Frank Crocco and Jo Bisz shared information about College Quest, a platform for hybrid and e-learning.

Five Minutes of Fame abstracts included a presentation by Cynthia Wiseman, who talked about using SurveyMonkey as a tool for formative assessment in the classroom. Shoba Bandi-Rao discussed using mobile technology with ESL learners.

Breakout sessions included a talk about using Skype to bring speakers to the classroom, by Elizabeth Berlinger, and an overview by Rosalie Gleicher and Janey Flanagan on online learning. Geoff Klock discussed the creation of a 14-minute YouTube mash-up of 4-second clips from movies and shows that discuss or perform Hamlet, and Christina Lev gave information on CUNYfirst, the university’s new information data system. Al Leibman discussed Cause in a Classroom, a non-profit learning management system that combines educational and humanitarian values in the classroom, and Joshua Belknap presented on the ESL Lab Wiki.

At the close of the day, Developmental Skills professor Cynthia Wiseman moderated a panel, “Sustainability across the curriculum: Can technology help us get there?”

The conference was organized with the cooperation of the Office of Academic Affairs, CETLS, the Media Center, the E-Learning Center, the College Computing Center, and the Office of Instructional Technology.

Thanks to one woman and a community trust, many students at BMCC receive the academic and financial support they need to succeed.

Here’s the backstory: In 2008, Pat White, the Program Director for Children, Youth and Families at The New York Community Trust, arranged for a grant to be donated to BMCC on behalf of The Trust, which was used to fund The Odyssesy Project.

In the spring of 2011, White invited BMCC to submit a second proposal to The Trust requesting $100,000 to support BMCC’s planning and implementation of a Learning Academy program.

The result? White became a special friend to the college, and a new academic initiative was created called Freshman Learning Academy (FLA).

The success of this endeavor led to the invitation to submit a subsequent request for $150,000, to continue the Academy effort at BMCC. This grant was approved by The Trust’s board on April 4, 2013.

White—representing the New York Community Trust—was recently honored with a “thank you” luncheon at a Fiterman Hall banquet room, where she had a chance to meet some FLA students, advisors and supporters.

Essential work
“We’re always trying to find different vehicles that work with our students—and this works,” said BMCC President Antonio Pérez about FLA. “We’re excited to continue it. Ms. White’s work is essential.”

Added Brian Haller, BMCC’s Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations, who was at the luncheon: “BMCC’s relationship with Ms. White started with just a phone call about The Odyssey Project, and today, BMCC and Ms. White work together as a wonderful team.”

He thanked White, “for her trust in us an institution.”

Launched in the fall of 2012, the Freshman Learning Academy (FLA) at BMCC helps students transition to college life, explore all their academic choices, and bond with faculty mentors and other FLA students. It’s specifically designed for Liberal Arts students, who attend special workshops and classes together.

Program Perks
Students who join FLA have access to benefits such as personalized advisement and registration by a Freshman Coordinator.

According to Alexandra Pyak, FLA Program Supervisor, there are currently 500 students in the FLA program.
At the luncheon, Pyak thanked White on behalf of FLA.

“Students are truly benefitting from this program,” she said. “I love watching them meet with their advisors. That’s when the magic happens.”

She views FLA as an extension of The Odyssey Project, since the program helps students overcome academic and personal barriers that may prevent them from graduating.

FLA advisor Angela McAleese shared a student success story with White.

“So many of our students are in need of services; they deal with everyday issues, such as feeling alone or overwhelmed,” she said. “We help them through these issues. I sent one student I worked with to the on-campus service SingleStop for food stamps, and she said she didn’t even know SingleStop existed.”

New friends, new support
FLA student Jennifer Nguy said joining FLA was “like coming home.”

“I took a break before coming to college and was unfamiliar with the college setting,” she explained to White. “I’m so grateful I had advisors and new friends who all made me feel so safe.”

Students Jealene Castellanos and Madelyn Gonzalez, who met in FLA class, feel like sisters.

“I’ve got A’s, a wonderful advisor, and made some best friends in FLA,” said Castellanos, who calls Gonzalez “a big sister who took me under her wing.”

Gonzalez told White, “without FLA I wouldn’t be able to attend BMCC. We all watch out for each other, and my FLA advisor Angela McAleese has been there for me more than people I’ve known for years; she’s amazing.”

Adds Castellanos: “Everyone should have this type of academic opportunity. I loved the FLA program.”

Thanking the students
White, who was honored with a special journal from the FLA students and given a special Thank You cake, was humbled by the praise for The New York Community Trust.

“I want to thank you for coming full circle in confirming the work we’re all about, which is to carry forth those elements that really help bring us to a different place in achieving what is so important to us,” she said, after hearing from the students in attendance. “And, in this instance, it’s the recognition that we’ve got some young people out there, and if we don’t invest in their achievements, we’re a lost nation.”

She concluded with a message to the FLA team: “I want to thank you for your role helping to make all of us better citizens.”

Every year, BMCC celebrates Poem in Your Pocket Day in which the spirit and beauty of the poetic word is appreciated throughout campus.

“April is Poetry Month and we never let it go by without recognizing it,” said Michael Gillespie, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, at the 2013 Poetry Awards Ceremony held recently in Richard Harris Terrace.

“For me, poetry is my favorite art form,” he continued. “Like writer Christopher Marlowe said, ‘A poet is a reporter interviewing his own heart’. A poet looks inside and is able to convey emotions, perspectives, ideas and feelings.”

This semester, BMCC invited all students to enter their submissions to the 2013 BMCC Poetry Awards. Renowned poet Eduardo C. Corral selected the three winning poems; and the winning BMCC students and finalists were honored at the ceremony.

The first place winner was Fariha Chowdhury for her poem, “Unlit Screams.” In second place was Edward Rivera for “The Attic Mouse” and Chad Ayers won third place for his poem “Father.”

The winners received Barnes and Noble gift cards and poetry anthologies.

The other finalists in attendance were: Maxwell Donnewald, Shandana Dwarika-Ajaz, Zenas Gallion, Brandon Korosh, David Loaiza and Michael Skomsky.

All nine finalists read their poems aloud while the audience was entertained by music from Sabor & the Afro-Latineers. Additionally, student musician performed on behalf of the BMCC Music and Art department.

The voting process
Professor Jason Schwartzman of The BMCC Writing Center explained to the audience how the voting process worked: Over 160 poems from more than 70 students were submitted to the competition. All names were removed upon submission, to keep the poems anonymous.

BMCC English professors Page Delano and James Tolan then selected nine final poems, knowing nothing about the writers except that they were BMCC students. Those poems were sent to Eduardo Corral, who selected the three winners.

Compliments and praise
At the ceremony, English Professor Elizabeth Berlinger revealed Corral’s feedback on each poem.

He called Ayers’ work, “moving; alive—the speaker is coming to terms with his past.”

According to Corral, Rivera’s poem was “cerebral and accessible—a rare combination.”

About “Unlit Screams”, Corral said: “This poem breaks and heals the heart at once.”

Once the student winners were announced, they posed for pictures with the finalists as Sabor & the Afro-Latineers provided the ceremony’s closing music.

Click here to read the three winning poems.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following BMCC Professors and staffers were involved in “Poem in Your Pocket” Day and the 2013 Poetry Awards: Dr. Michael Gillespie, Professors Doug Anderson, Elizabeth Berlinger, Gay Brookes, Page Delano, Christine Free, Sarah Haviland, Peter Hollarback, Jason Schneiderman, James Tolan and Zhanna Yablokova.

If you think you have nothing in common with worms, think again. One worm in particular, known by its scientific name “Caenorhabditis elegans” or “C. elegans,” has many biological properties in common with humans—it has DNA, develops from an embryo, and possesses a digestive and nervous system.

Not only that, ten thousand C. elegans worms can fit in a petri dish, “their life cycle is only three days, and in that time they produce 350 offspring, so they are excellent model organisms for a genetic study,” says Assistant Professor of Science Jun Liang Rice.

A worm’s genetic response to stress
Professor Rice is leading a research project using c. elegans worms, with forensic science major Tasmia Hoque, who examines them through a dissecting microscope.

In short, they are introducing stress triggers to the worms, to see if they have a genetic response, and measuring how that response affects their life span.

“For example, we measured how tolerant the worms are to heat shock, subjecting them to 35 degrees centigrade, when their normal environment is 20 to 25 degrees centigrade,” says Hoque.

Professor Rice adds, “We are trying to answer the question, ‘What do genes actually do, to help animals respond to stress?’ In addition to heat shock, we are introducing different chemicals into the diet of the worms, triggering stress responses, which we measure through the worm’s longevity.”

The study also involves lengthening the worms’ lives. “You can ‘knock down’ some of the genes—for instance, insulin receptor genes—and they live longer,” says Professor Rice.

Insulin receptor genes, she explains, “regulate basic life functions, and are found in most organisms: vertebrate, invertebrate, and others. Scientists have found that ‘knocking down’ the insulin receptor genes doubles the worms’ longevity—and in a human study, they found a similar result.”

According to the National Institute on Aging, Rice says, “the elderly population, people age 80 and older, is predicted to triple in 40 years or so—so any projects that impact on the quality of life for the elderly are seen as important now.”

Solving mysteries and puzzles
Tasmia Hoque grew up in Bangladesh, moved to New York with her family in 2008, and now lives in Queens. She entered BMCC in 2010, and is majoring in forensic science.

“I want to work someday analyzing fingerprints, DNA, and blood splatters in a crime lab, working with police in homicide unit,” she says. “Crime solving rates haven’t caught up yet, with the technology, and I want to be part of making that happen.”

Professor Jun Liang Rice earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the CUNY Graduate Center.

“I’ve wanted to study science since I was a child,” she says. “I’m good with math and physics, and logic is a tool you can use in biology. Also, I think of all the sciences, biology is the most puzzling, and this makes it attractive to me.”

The only community college presenting at a prestigious conference
In April, under Professor Rice’s guidance, Tasmia Hoque made a poster presentation of their work at the 2013 Northeast Regional Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology.

Held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the conference attracted graduate students, scientists and others from an array of Ivy League and private colleges and universities.

“We were the only ones there from a community college,” Hoque says. “This was my first conference, and I was really nervous, but I could answer their questions, and I felt they were appreciative of my answers.”

Professor Rice agrees. “For Tasmia,” she says, “it was good to talk with different levels of people working on projects; it helps you understand different research models. Also, seeing graduate students in the field helps you see the paths that science can go in.”

The questions also helped them see potential directions for their project.

“For example, someone asked if the protein we’re looking at is on the membrane of the nucleus, or inside the nucleus,” she said. “That’s a good question. It gives us an idea about where our research could go next.”

It’s hard to believe that Tabitha Rinko-Gay, a friendly student who tends to smile when she speaks, was ever bashful.

However, the 2013 class Valedictorian insists just two years ago, she was incredibly shy.

Rinko-Gay grew up in Texas and Pennsylvania before moving to New York in her teens to dance professionally with the New York City Ballet.

“Ballet” she recalls, “allowed me to be shy.”

For four years, she performed in productions such as The Nutcracker, and made a name for herself in the ballet world.

“I loved dancing, but I didn’t want to be part of a dance company anymore,” she says of her decision to hang up her ballet shoes.

“Looking back, I don’t miss the stress and the pressure and I was reaching a point where I was risking injuries. Back then, dancing was my therapy, but now, writing is my therapy,” says the avid reader and writer.

Seeking change, and the opportunity to reinvent herself, Rinko-Gay decided to give college a try.

“I left a part of myself behind, on the stage,” she recalls. “For once, I wanted to be normal.”

First time for everything
Rinko-Gay credits BMCC for helping her shed her shell.

“My first semester, I never spoke in class—ever. I never wanted any attention on me,” says the Writing and Literature major who maintained a 4.0 GPA during her two years at BMCC. “I was just there to soak everything in.”

While attending the School of American Ballet as a teenager, Rinko-Gay was home-schooled by her parents, completing high school in 2005.

She was then accepted into the New York City Ballet and danced with that company until July 2010.

She performed with another ballet company after that, and in May 2011 obtained her GED, then enrolled at BMCC in August 2011.

“I didn’t pursue any formal education during my ballet career,” she explains.

Because she was home-schooled, BMCC was the very first place Rinko-Gay ever entered a classroom.

She first joined the Out in Two scholarship program (in which students pledge to graduate within two years and must maintain a specific GPA) then became a Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) member.

“I compared writing papers and studying to performing live. You have a deadline to meet and must be prepared to just ‘get out there’ and do it,” says Rinko-Gay, a diligent note-taker who enjoys conducting literary research.

Hoping to fly under the radar at BMCC, Rinko-Gay says: “I didn’t want people to know about my dance background and think, ‘Oh, look, there goes the ballerina.’ I wanted to be average.”

However, one person—English Professor James Tolan—wouldn’t allow Rinko-Gay to just be “average.”

Life-changing literature course
Rinko-Gay was a student in Tolan’s Introduction to Literature and Honors Composition courses.

“He encouraged me to tell real stories in my writing; not to generalize or conceal anything,” says Rinko-Gay. “I found myself opening up right away in his literature class. I wrote about my ballet background and thought, ‘This class will help me find my voice’. He also broke us up into groups and I’m still close with those students today.”

Says Tolan, of Rinko-Gay: “In twenty-five years of college teaching, I have never had a student flower as dramatically and emphatically as Tabitha. To begin the semester, she was tentative, but quickly became immersed in the questions we asked in the course about identity and family. She is polished, not only as a student, but as a person of substance.”

Rinko-Gay credits Tolan’s classes, and her job as a sales representative at a boutique, for helping her gain confidence.

“I found that at BMCC, anytime I took a risk, either socially or academically, I never regretted it. No one at BMCC ever held me back, and I lucked out with amazing professors and friends,” says Rinko-Gay. “A friend of mine recently asked some classmates, ‘What happened to Tabitha? She used to be so quiet!’”

Out in Two Coordinator Mary Quezada is equally proud of this year’s Valedictorian, whom she advised and mentored during her time at BMCC.

“Tabitha maintained a sales job, volunteered at on-campus and off-campus events through Out in Two, earned a 4.0 every semester, and balanced the rigors of attending college full-time,” she says. “She truly exemplifies the BMCC motto, ‘Start Here, Go Anywhere’.”

Life imitating art
This fall, Rinko-Gay will attend Hunter College as a Comparative Literature major and hopes to someday pen a novel loosely based on her life.

“I jot down little stories all the time. For example, there is one man I constantly bump into in Manhattan,” she says. “I don’t even know his name, but I wrote a story about him.”

What she wants her peers to know is that, if she could start anew in college, they can too.

“You’re never too old to go back to school and try something new. After all, I got my GED just two years ago,” says the 24-year-old. “Now, I have so much to say, and more to accomplish.”

The (formerly) shy scholar who wanted to keep her dance background a secret confesses: “I am definitely going to address my ballerina past in my graduation speech.”

In the family
“It’s such an honor to represent this year’s graduating class,” says Rinko-Gay. “I’m the youngest of three children and I always thought, ‘OK, I guess my sister and brother will be the academic ones, and I’ll be the dancer’, but now life turned out differently, for the better.”

“My mom was the Valedictorian of her high school and college,” she adds. “I’m thrilled to follow in her footsteps, and keep that academic fire fueling in my family.”

What started as a classroom project spread throughout the college.

As part of their Serving Learning assignment, students in La-Dana Jenkins’ Career Planning course collected work attire from the BMCC community, which was donated to students and charities.

Drop boxes for the clothes were set up around campus, in places such as Jenkins’ office and the Office of Student Affairs. Students made announcements in class, and came back the next day armed with donated clothes from peers.

Within just a few days, the drop boxes were filled with ties, sweaters, skirts, blouses and even suits.

Accounting major Radha Paramanand helped collect clothes and sat at a table in the lobby, answering questions about the donation process.

“Helping out this way makes me a better person,” says Paramanand, who donated clothes from her family members. “I love helping people and giving back. I always wanted to get more involved at school. Some students do know how to interview but may not have professional clothes, which is why this donation process is so wonderful.”

Grateful for the donations
The donated clothes were first offered to BMCC students. All remaining attire was donated to local charities such as Bottomless Closet and Career Gear.

“Career Gear was very appreciative and thanked our students for taking on this project,” says Jenkins. “We donated six bags of men’s clothing.”

According to Jenkins, the students who picked up professional attire needed for jobs and potential interviews.

“I let them know that I will be keeping clothes in my office, so if they need to come back, they are welcomed to,” she says.  “There is no shame in taking donated clothes for yourself or others, and I want everyone to know that,” says Jenkins.

Randol Contreras, author of The Stickup Kids, Race, Drugs, Violence and the American Dream, recently visited a BMCC urban sociology class—via Skype, a software program that enables people to talk with each other through a live image on their computer screens.

Contreras spoke to the students from his office at California State University at Fullerton, where he is an Assistant Professor, teaching theories of social behavior, criminology and other subjects.

“I assigned The Stickup Kids because it is a rich, complex sociological ethnography of violent drug robbers in the South Bronx,” says BMCC social science professor Rose Kim, who invited him to “visit” her class.

The “Stickup Kids,” or Dominican drug robbers featured in Contreras’ book made their name raiding dealers of their heroin, cocaine, marijuana and cash.

They are also friends from his youth.

Contreras grew up in the South Bronx in the 1980s, a time when arson and building abandonment, cuts in social services and the rise of crack-cocaine devastated the neighborhood. It was the decline of the crack market, he explains, that finished setting the stage on which a generation of drug robbers emerged.

Coming of age in the “crack era”
“I came of age when the crack era was in full swing,” Contreras told the students in a BMCC classroom 3,000 miles away, his image projected on a large screen at the front of the room.

“It was the South Bronx, the eighties, lots of abandoned, burned-out buildings. The only people making it were the drug dealers. They wore a lot of jewelry; gold and silver, the big rope chains, medallions, anchors—do you know what I’m talking about?”

The students called out, “Yes!” and Contreras continued.

“We have this message in our society,” he said. “We have to make it big, to show people our status. I wanted to be a capitalist… and so a friend and I set up a drug spot in The Bronx, but the crack market was in decline.”

Contreras “failed miserably” as a drug dealer, he says, “so I went with my second option—community college in Upstate, New York. And whenever I had to write a paper for my class, I’d go back to my neighborhood and interview the guys I knew.”

Eventually, he told the students, those interviews evolved into a dissertation, and he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

A foundation set in early childhood
Contreras draws many comparisons between himself and the two central subjects of his book—his childhood friends, Gus and Pablo. The three men grew up in the same neighborhood, within the same social and economic environment, yet their lives turned out quite differently.

He shares some thoughts on factors leading to their dissimilar paths.

“Since I was a young child, I always enjoyed reading,” he says. “I suspect my love of reading started when my mother, who worked long hours at a sweatshop, and left my brother and I under the supervision of my older sister after school.”

Contreras was in the third and fourth grade at that time, and his sister, who was four years older, would take him to the local public library where she would meet her friends to study and talk.

“So I would be left alone in the children’s section,” says Contreras, “reading fiction and biographies. I then got a library card and sometimes went by myself to the library to take out books.”

The library outings stopped when the Contreras family moved to another neighborhood, “and I started spending more time on the streets hanging out and playing sports,” he says. “From that point on, I only read books that were assigned in school, but I guess the foundation had been set and I read all the required readings with relish.”

As for writing, Contreras never wrote “for fun” or kept a diary, “but I always enjoyed my creative writing assignments and felt most excited writing stories,” he says. “Perhaps my love of reading and writing got me into Brooklyn Technical High School.”

It takes more than love of learning, though, to thrive in high school, and Contreras soon chose to leave the elite environment of Brooklyn Tech and begin attending a high school in his old neighborhood, citing “social class and structural factors” for his decision.

Pipelines and family lines
After high school, Contreras took another step that set him apart from the “Stickup Kids” Gus and Pablo, featured in his book—he attended college, starting with a community college upstate.

“I worked extremely hard to eventually attain a Ph.D.,” he says, and “benefitted greatly from the availability of affordable public education.”

He also, he says, benefited from the CUNY Pipeline Program.

“This program provides CUNY undergraduate minority students who desire research and teaching careers with financial resources, with graduate application and GRE workshops, with lots of mentorship, and with research experience,” he says.

In fact, Contreras adds, “I could truly say that without these public support systems and programs in place, I would’ve probably never attained a Ph.D. or been able to pursue my passions.”

Pablo and Gus, however, “had different experiences,” he says, “especially Gus. He grew up in a drug-dealing family and everything he learned from about the third grade on, prepared him to be a successful drug dealer and robber. The tragedy is that he always had a love of learning—I remember him convincing his mother to by him a junior chemistry set when he was around ten years old.”

In the end, says Contreras, “Gus’ family environment in conjunction with his neighborhood conditions, in conjunction with the Crack Era, in conjunction with the loss of well paying, low-skilled, legal work … all shaped and influenced his life course.”

A compelling role model
Unlike Gus, who was “intellectually curious, always thinking deeply about social issues,” Contreras says, “Pablo just didn’t do well in school. Rather, he was highly skilled football player, who, in terms of foot speed, was a step too slow to make it into a top college program. He also had an older brother who sold drugs, which made his transition into drug dealing easier.”

By the time Pablo was eagerly pursuing legal business success, says Contreras, “his criminal record made it difficult for him.”

Contreras, on the other hand, “was fortunate enough to avoid arrest during my attempts at drug dealing,” he says, “so when I decided to go the legal route, I had no felony convictions to get in my way.”

Professor Kim points out that Contreras’ educational experience echoes that of many of her students, a number of whom grew up in the South Bronx, and that his book provides “a perceptive analysis of a milieu familiar to them, as well as the fact that the author’s educational experience echoed theirs.”

She adds that, “Dr. Contreras, the graduate of a community college, City College, and the CUNY Graduate Center, is a compelling role model, especially for BMCC students.”

“Easy entry points” versus “being an outsider”
Q & A is one of the perks of a live “chat,” and students weren’t shy with their questions for Contreras. They started by asking if he ever thought about going back to the South Bronx, to do “Part Two” of the book.

Contreras explained that currently, he’s busy doing field research on the “Black and Brown” tension that exists between Latina/os and African Americans in Los Angeles—where he is an outsider.

Having grown up in the South Bronx gave him an advantage when he completed the research for Stickup Kids.

“You have easy entry points,” he says, while his research in Los Angeles “is going much slower. And it’s different there. It’s generational. You have kids growing up in families where the grandfather was part of a gang.”

Students weigh in on content and process
When Contreras signed off from the Skype session, the class broke into spontaneous applause.

“It was a great experience, hearing the author’s perspective,” said Alisha Noboa, who grew up in the South Bronx, herself. “It gives us a better understanding of how he came to write about that topic.”

“It’s a very personal book, said her classmate Teenish Toussant. “I feel like he came from a genuine place.”

Nelson Ortiz added, “You’re talking about issues that need to be talked about. I grew up in the South Bronx. I totally relate with this book and understand why it was important to him, to write about it.”

Through the Skype session, said Professor Kim, “Dr. Contreras was able to interact quite intimately with the class, despite being in California… I think education makes an impact when it most reflects and examines the reality of people’s lives.”

She makes the point that, “Too often digital technology is used as a convenience, replacing what could be done face-to-face—for example, taking exams or hearing a lecture … How can we use digital technology to expand and enhance the classroom experience, rather than just replicating or degrading it?”

Her student Gary Lucero adds that, “We hear about CUNYfirst all the time; there’s a focus on technology on campus, and the Skype interview we had today, this is why it’s important it’s in our classrooms, too.”

Lester Lambert, one of seven citywide awardees of the Literacy Recognition Award, has taught at BMCC’s Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development since 2003, and worked in adult literacy for over 20 years.

Having grown up in Brooklyn, he started his college career at BMCC, then transferred to Brooklyn College, earning a bachelor’s degree in public communication, with a double minor in secondary education and English.

Throughout his undergraduate years at both colleges, he worked helping other students in the tutoring center at BMCC.

“I enjoyed BMCC and learned a lot there,” he says. “It has a lot of good academic support.” He also felt well supported as a tutor at BMCC, and recalls his then-supervisor Theresa Artemus telling him when he received his first opportunity to teach in an adult education program, “You know how I feel about that—if it’s full time, go for it.”

A teacher’s path
The recent Recognition Award ceremony was held at The New School’s Theresa Lang Auditorium in the West Village, and attended by over 200 educators, funders and administrators.

In the years leading to that day, Lambert taught in adult education programs throughout CUNY, at BEGIN, and in community-based organizations, eventually joining the teaching staff at BMCC.

Along the way, he earned a Master in Language and Literacy degree from the English Department at City College/CUNY.

He has also continued to deepen his pedagogy through a number of projects—many led by CUNY staff developer Kate Brandt, who also happens to have been an awardee of this year’s Recognition Award.

“With a lot of help from Kate,” Lambert says, “I developed a GED lesson set, College Going, that provides excerpts of books in which main characters are first in their family to attend college—Mama’s Girl, by Veronica Chambers; Reaching Out, by Francisco Jiménez; No Disrespect, by Sister Souljah, and others.

His theme-based curriculum, Mass Incarceration and the New Jim Crow guides students in the data analysis of incarceration in the United States. They also read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, in which a young man on death row in 1940s Louisiana—and whose legal defense is based on the presumption that his race precludes his capacity for pre-meditation—determinedly learns to read.

“The students wrote imaginative dialogues between Michelle Alexander [a contemporary civil rights advocate] and Grant Wiggins, the character who teaches Jefferson to read,” says Lambert. “They also used the online program Nicenet, which is similar to Blackboard, as a sandbox for drafts and revisions of their dialogues.”

Theme-based math instruction
While reading and writing instruction are a focus for Lambert, he is also active in the NYC Math Exchange Group, a teacher collaborative dedicated to improving mathematics instruction and learning in Adult Education.

In a Wall Street-based curriculum he developed with college and GED math educator Elliot Fink, Lambert explains that the students “looked at wealth and equality in the United States, and did Power Point presentations on Wall Street topics such as Ponzi schemes.”

They also, he says, “looked at connections between the founders of the Stock Exchange and the slave trade, and went on a field trip to the Museum of American Finance.”

Bridging the gap between high school and college
In the twenty years since Lester Lambert entered the adult education field, he says, he has seen an increased focus in preparing high school students for college, and adds that the Literacy Recognition Awards acknowledge the hard work it has taken to maintain educational standards during that shift, as well as during times of harsh funding cuts.

“It’s good to bring attention to the seriousness and importance of our field,” Lambert says.

“Students are leaving high school unprepared for college-level work, whether they graduate or not. The chasm between leaving high school and being successful in college is deepening, and what we’re doing in adult education is bridging that gap.”

A generous grant from the Book Industry Guild
Along with Lester Lambert, other Recognition Award winners were Kate Brandt, Professional Development Coordinator for CUNY Adult Literacy Programs; Victor C. Edrosolan, Instructor at Literacy Partners; John Fenton, Instructor at the Brooklyn College Adult Literacy Program; Francine Mallozzi, Administrative Assistant at the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development’s Adult Literacy Unit; Melissa Nieves, Director of Adult Education at Union Settlement, and Weihua Wendy Wen, Instructor at the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Adult and Continuing Education.

Each awardee’s program received a generous library development grant from the Book Industry Guild of New York.

The event also received support from the NYS Education Department, Office of Adult Career and Continuing Education Services (ACCES).

This year’s keynote speaker was Irwin S. Kirsch, Director of the Center for Global Assessment of the Educational Testing Services. Literacy Assistance Center (LAC) board member Jacqueline Cook delivered welcoming comments, and the award recipients were introduced by LAC Board Chair Elizabeth Horton. Ira Yankwitt, LAC Executive Director, gave closing remarks.

Behind every department award presented at the BMCC Honors Convocation is a student with a story.

Mykola Kyrychuk, from the Ukraine, spent a year in developmental skills classes, before earning a 3.98 GPA and winning the Academic Excellence in Engineering Science award.

Agnes Felicia, from Jakarta, Indonesia, works full time in a printing company and still maintains a 4.0 GPA. She was awarded the Grace Hopper Award from the Computer Information Systems department.

Cassandra Benoit, who won the Academic Excellence Award in Nursing, came to BMCC with a bachelor of arts degree in criminology, worked as a paralegal, and now plans to blend her past skills with present ones, starting a career in forensic nursing.

The stars and their supporting cast
As professors and administrators stepped to the podium to present awards to their students—58 awards, altogether—themes emerged in the stories presented.

Yes, students received copious support from their professors and staff at BMCC. Yes, they availed themselves of the support found in clubs, Phi Theta Kappa, internships, and the like.

But they also “paid it forward,” meaning, they shared their hard-won content knowledge and skills by tutoring other students, acting as welcome ambassadors, peer achievement leaders, and sister-to-sister mentors. They volunteered after Hurricane Sandy, shared study skills in Each One Reach One, and more.

“Congratulations to the stars of the show tonight, and their supporting cast, their family,” said VP for Student Affairs Marva Craig in her opening remarks, shining light on another contributing factor to student success—their families.

Parents cheered from the steeply tiered seating of BMCC’s Theatre II, while some students will be sharing photos of the moment with family in Russia, China, Trinidad and other countries around the world.

Leap!
“You are the best of the best,” said Senior VP for Academic Affairs Sadie Bragg. “The one thing I’d like to share with you is, there is no place like BMCC.”

President Perez spoke frankly with the students about their “capacity for compassion.”

“At the end of the day,” he said, “these awards will have less meaning, and you’ll be measured by your ability to help and interact with others. Your legacy will not be defined by what happens here tonight. You’ve already shown you can achieve in the classroom. Now let’s see if you can achieve as a human being.”

The program featured a performance by the BMCC Select Chorus, directed by Professor Christine Free, and accompanied by Professor Howard Meltzer, on piano. Ten students in black suits and white blouses or shirts performed the soaring hit song, “Defying Gravity,” from the Broadway hit, Wicked.

“Something has changed within me,” they sang. “Something is not the same / I’m through with playing by the rules / Of someone else’s game / Too late for second-guessing / Too late to go back to sleep / It’s time to trust my instincts / Close my eyes: and leap!”

A new award: The Katy Halepli Scholarship
VP of Development and Chief Operating Officer of the BMCC Foundation Doris Holz presented the first Katy Halepli Graduating Scholarship for Women award.

The scholarship is a gift from BMCC Foundation Board member and former chair Elizabeth Butson, in honor of her mother, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biology “at a time young women her age were destined to learn to cook, embroider and major in household duties,” Butson says.

The recipient of the first Katy Halepli scholarship, Marcia Grey, is secretary of the BMCC science club, and a volunteer in the Women’s Resource Center. She also volunteers at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, and earned a 3.85 GPA.

If Katy Halepli were alive today, she likely would have approved of the choral performance’s selection of song, with lyrics that seemed to echo throughout the evening: “I’m through accepting limits / ’cause someone says they’re so / Some things I cannot change / But till I try, I’ll never know!”

At the event’s close, attendees met in the Richard Harris Terrace for a lavish buffet banquet, and enjoyed music by Sol Gipsys, a jazz band managed by guitarist and BMCC alumni Frankie DiDonato. The band also features Samantha Greene, vocals; Keiji Yoshino, bass; Kazoomi Yamane, drums, and Joel Rappelfeild, percussion. Sol Gypsis performs every year at Honors Convocation, as well as at BMCC’s freshman assemblies, and other special events.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2013 Convocation Awards included ACCOUNTING: Louis Horowitz Award, Cuizi Tong; ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES: Academic Excellence [AE] in Health Information Technology, Vicky Le and Jennifer McLaughlin; AE in Respiratory Therapy Technology, Catherine Flynn and Sayed Ahmed; BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: AE in Business Administration, Dana Elbaz; AE in Business Management, Eunjeong Ko; Business Management Internship Award, Eunjeong Ko; Office Administration Internship Award, Kavita Seelal; CENTER FOR ETHNIC STUDIES: AE in Asian Studies, Jeahun An; AE in Latino Studies, Jennifer Polanco; COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEMS: AE in Computer Science, Naing Aung and David Eng; AE in Computer Information Systems, Richard Cruz; AE in Computer Network Technology: Wendy-Ann Fonrose, Fiorella Olivera and Md Sharafat; Grace Hopper Award, Agness Felicia; ENGLISH: AE in English, Lauren Jonik, Tabitha Rinko-Gay and Arthur Morris; HUMAN SERVICES, AE in Human Services: Shannon Barrows and Brett Toney; MATHEMATICS: AE in Mathematics: Goran Milic, Sung An and Evoung M’Voula; MEDIA ARTS & TECHNOLOGY: AE in video Arts & Technology, John Marshall; AE in Multimedia Art: Kirill Shevyakov and Gianluca Teti; AE in Multimedia Programming: Vladimir Barinov; MODERN LANGUAGES: AE in French Non-Native Speaker: Aharona Lerner and Lindsay Hadad; AE in Spanish Native Speaker: Antonio Fernandez-Borrego; AE in Spanish Non-Native Speaker: Julia Halpin; NURSING: AE in Nursing: Cassandra Benoit and Solange Ortiz; SCIENCE: AE in Biotechnology Science: Yuk Lam; AE in Science: Rada-Mayya Kostadinoa; AE in Engineering Science: Mykola Kyrychuk; AE in Forensic Science: Elaine Castillo; SPEECH, COMMUNICATION AND THEATRE ARTS: AE in Communicatio Studies: Natalia Sorokina; AE in Theatre: Amanda Beckett and Laura Mia Guzman; TEACHER EDUCATION: AE in Early Childhood Education (Childcare): Rebeca Genao; AE in Early Childhood Education (Preschool): Claudia Charles; AE in Early Childhood Education (Bilingual): Cesar Gil; AE in Early Childhood Education: Sara Marr; SPECIAL AWARDS: Valedictorian: Tabitha Rinko-Gay; Senior VP/Dean of Academic Affairs Award: Mustafa Assady; VP for Student Affairs Award: Guy Gerald Fabre; Orville N. Hill College Discovery Award: Ronald Burey; Abner B. Rosenfield Award: Jianhang Xiao; Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship: Azar Kafaei; Katy Halepli Graduating Scholarship for Women: Marcia Grey; Josh Wolfson Accounting Scholarship fund: Magda Kosiorek; Leila & Simon Peskoff Memorial Scholarship Award: Zoia Hmelnitcaia and Yazhu Liu; Icarus Prize for Mathematics: Carlo Fervil and Alan Ridderhof.

BMCC’s 48th commencement exercises were held Friday, May 31, 2013 in the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, recognizing over 3,100 graduates from the classes of August 2012, January 2013 and June 2013.

The ceremony also marked BMCC’s 50th anniversary, and some of the college’s first graduates were in attendance, including Lobi RedHawk (’66). “There were 200 of us back then,” she said, and BMCC President Antonio Pérez noted that the early alumni “cleared the path for today’s graduates.”

As Grand Marshall, Senior VP for Academic Affairs Sadie Bragg led the processional, and speakers included CUNY Board of Trustees Vice Chairperson Philip Alfonso Berry; CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor Alexandra Logue; U.S. Senator from New York Charles Schumer, and Andrew Grant, President of the BMCC Student Government Association.

Valedictorian Tabitha Rinko-Gay spoke of “the amazing variety that makes up the student body at BMCC … we connected with each other because we were all ready to work hard towards a specific goal, an associate’s degree.”

Rinko-Gay, a Writing & Literature major and former dancer with the New York City Ballet, worked full-time while earning a 4.0 GPA, participating in Phi Theta Kappa and volunteering on campus.

Christine Larsen, Presidential Honoree
The Presidential Medal was presented to Christine Larsen, Chairperson of the BMCC Foundation Board.

Until recently, Christine Larsen served as Executive Vice President and Head of Process Improvement for JP Morgan Chase. Her finance career began in 1984 at Accenture, a global company where she was a senior manager in the financial services practice. In 1994 she joined Smith Barney, and led Citigroup’s Global Operations for Corporate and Investment Banking.

“These accomplishments speak volumes about Christine’s intelligence, her judgment, and her hard work,” said President Pérez.

“At BMCC, we consider ourselves fortunate that she has applied those qualities to supporting our mission to help our students reach their educational goals and improve their lives.”

Active in the BMCC Foundation Board for several years, Larsen took on the role of Chair in 2012.

“The innovative directions she has taken us in,” said President Pérez, “have resulted in more scholarships for our deserving students than we have ever been able to offer.”

One of these efforts included BMCC’s 50th anniversary celebration on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, which raised an unprecedented $840,000 in scholarship funds.

“I am from Iowa, and have some plain things to say,” Larsen opened her remarks. Her grandfather, she said, “shoveled coal on the railroad, but he valued education.”

She advised the sea of graduates in the vast conference hall, “to be the person to take things off your boss’ desk. Think ahead. Be creative. Figure out how to solve the problem yourself. Say to your boss, ‘I can do more’.”

She also called upon the graduates to “continue to support education, and encourage future graduates to enroll at BMCC.”

Diverse degrees, plans and lives
The graduates took their turn major by major, to walk across the stage and receive their diploma.

Edwin Gomez, a computer network technology major, grew up in the Bronx and is applying to City College and Lehman College. Crystal Urena, from Brooklyn, earned her degree in Health Information Technology and was hired at Downtown Hospital through her internship at BMCC.

Kavita Seelal, from Trinidad, earned her associate’s degree in Office Operations and Business Management, and is headed for York College. Accounting graduate Xuexin Zheng, who grew up in China, is applying for a summer internship in an accounting firm, and Hunter College.

Multimedia Arts & Technology major Natanielle Murta, moved to New York from Brazil, and is applying to Baruch College, where she wants to major in marketing.

Cigdem Metin, who was wearing her yellow Phi Theta Kappa sash, is a Video Arts and Technology graduate.

“I’m an international student from Turkey and graduated in two years,” says Metin. “I still have a sister attending BMCC, so perhaps we’re starting a family tradition. I was very active in PTK at BMCC and found that it helped me sharpen my leadership and networking skills. I’m also very interested in pursuing documentary work—I’d like to explore human-rights filmmaking—and will most likely attend City College.”

Mentors and moms
Cira Miranda, from the Dominican Republic, earned her degree in Human Services and is headed for Lehman College.

Lavell Giles, also a Human Services graduate, says, “I’ll miss my Human Services Professor Pamela Edstrom the most—she’s the one who told me: ‘Seek first to understand, then to be understood’, and that quote guided me through BMCC and will guide me through life. I’m interested in a career in physical therapy and will be attending the College of Staten Island this fall.”

Nursing major Fooshard Embrose is working as a medical assistant in a hospital hematology department, and Yvette Thomas, a Writing & Literature graduate working at Harlem Hospital, is actually returning to BMCC this fall to earn a second associate degree, this time, in nursing.

Criminal Justice major Shaquanna Meadows, who grew up in Brooklyn, completed her courses at BMCC last fall, and is already attending the criminal justice management program at John Jay College.

The largest group to graduate is those earning their degree in Liberal Arts, and one of these graduates James Brown—whose mother also attended BMCC—is heading to SUNY Albany this fall, where he’ll study psychology.

“My mom suggested I attend BMCC first,” says Brown. “That way I could attend a college that was financially affordable and close to home, before heading to a four-year school.”

“I loved how BMCC’s evening courses allowed me to work during the day—I work at a retail store in Times Square—and take courses at night. This college really opened up me up to all sorts of people, many of whom arrange their classes around work like I did. I’m proud to follow in my mom’s footsteps by graduating from BMCC then going to a four-year school; she went to John Jay.”

Another liberal arts major, Nneka Farrell, will attend Baruch College in the fall. “My goal is to open my own real estate firm,” she says. “I’m already a licensed real estate broker; I’ve always had a passion for sales. I’m proud of myself for graduating today and I’ll miss the faculty here—they treat you like an individual, not a number in a crowd.”

The nursing program at BMCC is respected across the City for its rigorous standards.

Admittance is contingent on passing the HESI A2 Admission Assessment Exam—a predictor of student success in nursing school—and once enrolled, students must maintain a minimum grade point average in courses including anatomy and physiology. They also complete units on obstetrics, psychiatric nursing and pediatrics.

Justin Vargas is uniquely prepared to meet those challenges.

Before immersing himself in the BMCC nursing program, he took just a few classes and meanwhile, completed the Medical Assistant Specialist (MAS) program in BMCC’s Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development.

“I would go to continuing ed during the day, nine to five at 25 Broadway, then I’d walk up to the main campus and take the prerequisite courses in the nursing program,” he says.

“In nursing studies there’s a whole language to learn, the medical language. I only had a semester with the medical assisting program, but it put me up there in my nursing classes with people like EMTs who had been working in the medical field for years. I even tutor other students.”

Finding support
Vargas’ confidence was kick-started by the support he found in the staff and faculty in BMCC’s continuing education department. “They care,” he says. “You can sit for hours after class to go over stuff.”

One person in particular, Wanda Izquierdo-Ortega, Program Manager for Allied Health in adult education, made an impression on him.

“She just told me to do it,” he says. “She was a coach for me. She sat me down and talked to me with that fiery attitude and gave me the positive reinforcement I needed. It’s not that students aren’t serious, but sometimes we lack confidence.”

As a nursing student, he has completed clinical rotations where he sees first-hand how nursing teams operate in busy urban hospitals.

In one of his clinical rotations, he says, “The aide had a patient with a catheter. It was full and he kept picking it up above his waist. This was causing infections, but he didn’t know better. Having the MAS certificate gave me the confidence to say to the doctor, ‘Hey, he doesn’t know the proper way to carry his catheter bag. He hasn’t been instructed’.”

Honing instincts
Now a full-time nursing student at BMCC, Vargas has completed a psych rotation at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, and completed lab assignments at the New York Simulation Center for Health Sciences (NYSIM), located in Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center.

“The simulators are awesome,” he says of the “human mannequins” used for training purposes with nursing and medical students from colleges around the City.

“They put you in situations where you can hone your instincts,” he says. “Here’s an example. We had to respond to a post-partum hemorrhage. You have to feel; you have to palpate the ‘patient’. You can hear the respiration, and see the numbers change on the monitors as a nurse enters the data from the patient.”

Role models
Justin Vargas moved to the Bronx with his parents when he was about seven years old. He attended Our Saviour Lutheran High School in the Bronx and after graduating, worked at a Verizon call center.

Next, he worked as an administrative assistant in the Emergency Department at the New York Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx—and that piqued his interest in nursing, though his awareness of the field began in childhood.

“My mother’s a nurse, and I saw the way people called her and she gave advice about health issues,” he says. “She was a hero to me. Then working in a hospital, I saw the level of skills the nurses had. It was awesome. They can take those skills anywhere, any city.”

Another important influence, he says, “was my best friend’s mother. She’s an alumna of BMCC, and encouraged me to get a certificate, or be a technician of some type in the medical area. She told me, ‘Go on the BMCC website, they have everything’.”

Advocating for patients—and other students
“Today, healthcare is moving toward a more holistic approach,” Vargas says.

“Nutrition counseling, for example, is big now. But patient advocacy is my passion. We learn cultural sensitivity in every aspect of our nursing studies, and it helps me, when I do one-to-one now. We sit at arm’s length from a patient and counsel them on how they’re doing.”

Eventually he wants to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing, specializing in patient advocacy, and his gift for advocacy doesn’t stop with patients.

“Now that I’ve been through it,” he says,  “I would love to get a peer-to-peer mentoring group from the nursing department to go down to continuing ed and talk to other students like me, about the nursing program at BMCC. It’s the student-to-student support, sometimes, that gets you through.”

A Mystery Unscrambled

Small, spherical and covered with spines, sea urchins bear no resemblance to people. But the eggs they lay are comparable in size to human eggs, making them extremely useful in the study of how cells divide and reproduce. That similarity is at the heart of an ambitious research project by three BMCC students.

“It would be great to be able to keep a supply of sea urchin eggs on hand, but they’re extremely fragile,” explains science major Alejandro Gonzalez. “Under normal conditions, they disintegrate within 24-to-36 hours, and acquiring fresh eggs for experiments is costly and time-consuming.”

So Gonzalez and fellow science majors Yun Mariana and Anum Azhar looked into methods of keeping the sea urchin eggs alive beyond their usual lifespan. This spring they were invited to present their findings in a Minority Poster Session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cell Biologists (ASCB). Student research teams from dozens of colleges, including many four-year institutions, took part in the event.

Want fries with that?
The reason sea urchin eggs die so quickly is that they are snack food for microorganisms known as marine protists. “We saw that as the number of protists increased, the number of intact eggs decreased,” says Gonzalez. “So we needed to find a way to control their behavior and prevent them from consuming the eggs.”

The solution lay in introducing the artificially-fabricated sacs known as liposomes into the eggs.  The liposomes seemed to kill off the protists, extending the lifespan of the eggs to as long as six days.

The students are working under the supervision of BMCC science professors Lalitha Jayant and Christine Priano. According to Jayant, “their work is funded in part by a grant from the ASCB, which is committed to engaging minorities in cell research.”

Gonzalez began his studies at BMCC a few years ago, left briefly, and subsequently returned. “I have always had more of a passion for science than for any other academic discipline,” he says. “I had taken Prof. Jayant’s Biology 1 and 2 courses when I first attended BMCC, and when I came back, I was excited to hear that she was doing a research project with sea urchins. I really wanted to get on board.”

Always on tap
For Yun Mariana, the project has been an invaluable experience as she prepares for a career in pharmacology. “It has always been my goal to help people some day by developing new medicines—and new cures—for disease,” she says.

But the project is paying tangible dividends right now. “When it comes time to do an experiment on cell division,” says Gonzalez, “we’ll have the sea urchin eggs right here—fresh from the fridge.”

Past Into Present

BMCC’s Theatre Department attracts many creative types; many of whom wish to pursue acting and stage work professionally.

Last semester, talented students from Theatre department came together to perform and stage an updated version of the famous  Molière play The Misanthrope which opened in Theatre II just a few weeks before the 2013 commencement.

This version of The Misanthrope was adapted by playwright Liza Kash-Stroppel and directed by BMCC Theatre Professor Alkis Papoutsis.

“This Misanthrope was special to me because of Elizabeth Kash-Stroppel’s translation/adaptation. Even though she stayed true to Moliere’s original rhyming couplet scheme and spirit, she transplanted it to ‘Brooklyn’ with modern language and sensibility,” says Papoutsis. “That, I think, made the play more accessible to today’s audience.”

Relevance of show
The Misanthrope is one of Moliere’s most popular works, about an honest, “true” man who despises the falsity and hypocrisy of society and just wants everyone to be good and honest—with themselves and each other. Although he seeks sincerity, at times his personal mission is unraveled by a beautiful woman.

Kash-Stroppel’s brother, actor Kevin Kash, a recent Theatre graduate, played the character known as The Misanthrope, who is named Alphonse in this adaptation.

“Molière’s plays are classic because they relate to any generation.  Themes on hypocrisy, stabbing people in the back, and how much are we willing to lose for being honest will never go away,” says Papoutsis.

“Our research for the production mostly came from watching and thinking about those reality shows such as Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of…The nouveau-rich, gaudy, loud sense of themselves they all strive to demonstrate.”

Life imitating art
Chris Hernandez—who recently graduated from BMCC with a Theatre degree—played Carmine in the show.

“Carmine is an arrogant Brooklyn gangster. I grew up with a lot of Italian guys from the Lower East Side,” says Hernandez. “He’s kind of like Sunny from the movie A Bronx Tale.”

Hernandez’s real-life wife, Maria Luzuriaga, also a recent BMCC Theatre graduate, played Celeste, the object of Alphonse’s desire (and downfall, depending whom you ask!).

The couple—who met at BMCC—appeared in a few scenes together, but in the production their characters are not romantically linked.

“Playing Celeste was a bit of a challenge,” admits Luzuriaga. “I’m not flirtatious and she’s very outgoing. But I love her. Thanks to Celeste, I get to play something I’m not.”

Luzuriaga explains the moral of The Misanthrope.

“It’s about a party lifestyle in Brooklyn where people are talking about each other—and backstabbing each other. It’s about the modern life. That’s what you’ll see in this play. The message is, all that backstabbing will face you at the end.”

As for co-starring with their spouses?

“This was our last semester at BMCC and it’s great we got to work together,” says Hernandez of his wife; they previous starred in The Seagull at the college. “We run lines together at home and push each other towards the same goal.”

Support system
“Theatre is, above all else, a collaboration.,” says Professor Katherine Kavanagh, a member of the show’s creative team. “I’m so proud of the way our faculty, the staff of BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and our students, collaborated to make The Misanthrope a success.”

She adds: “It was exciting to work with Brooklyn-based playwright, Elizabeth Kash- Stroppel, on a fresh new adaptation of this important, classic play.”

The cast of The Misanthrope consisted of: Kevin Kash, Maria Luzuriaga, Noel Austin, Kalia Narruhn, Benny Acevado, Chris Hernandez, Craig Watson, Katie Wright, Ashley Altamirano, Justin Simonson. The creative team of The Misanthrope consisted of: Alkis Papoutsis, Liz Kash-Stroppel, Elizabeth Chaney, Mitchell Ost, Christopher Peifer, Raphael Rothstein, Katherine Kavanagh, Kimberly Flores, Emma Ruopp, Nicole Iovino.

Krystal on the Catwalk

When walking through Times Squares, tourists and locals alike are exposed to a plethora of colorful billboards. Some ads rotate, some blink, some are attached to a landmark…

And some feature BMCC students.

Krystal Garner graduated from BMCC in 2007 and then studied international business at SUNY Old Westbury, before pursuing her modeling and acting career.

Gradually making her way through the modeling world, she was recently featured on an animated Times Square billboard for the American Heart Association. The same billboard was also featured on subway ads throughout New York City and Long Island.

“My first billboard is for the Healthy Heart Campaign. Heart disease is waging a war against women and I love that in the ad I’m wearing red war paint underneath my eyes, fighting against heart disease,” she says. “This is an important health issue and I’m glad to be a part of the message. I live my life as a humanitarian; I’m always giving back whenever I can.”

Where it began
Garner’s face lights up when she talks about her alma mater. She credits BMCC for making her a leader.

“I studied Liberal Arts, which challenged my mind in different areas and set the foundation for my four-year school,” she says. “I was also on the women’s basketball team. I loved attending BMCC because the college molded me into a powerful young woman and made me the person I am today.”

At BMCC, Garner was Student Government Association (SGA) president and spoke at a commencement ceremony.

“I was only 18 when I was elected into SGA, and served as one of the youngest female presidents,” she recalls. “My SGA administration organized a trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina where a bunch of us BMCC students helped in relief efforts. It was an emotional experience and taught me that my purpose and passion in life is to help others. I started my first student club at BMCC, Visionaries Society, which focused on personal leadership development.”

Adds Garner:  “In the SGA office is a plaque honoring the student volunteers who helped after Hurricane Katrina and I’m so proud that my name is on it. Volunteering in that way is one of my greatest BMCC memories.”

Pursuing her dreams
Entering the real world post-college, Garner—who stays in contact with Harry Mars, BMCC’s Director of Student Activities—worked briefly in an office, but decided it wasn’t for her.

“My mother always wanted to be a model, but never really pursued it, and people often asked me if I modeled,” she says.  “My sister wanted to be an actress, so in a way I’m living out their dreams.”

Curious about the industry, Garner connected with a manager in Manhattan and decided to give modeling and acting a try—with some lucky breaks along the way.

Over the years, she has been featured in various commercials—including one for Blackberry Web—TV shows and runway shows. amNew York newspaper recently featured her in a full-page advertisement for Le Metric Hair.

Garner looks forward to a busy summer of acting, modeling, and volunteering in her community.

“Dreams are real,” she says. “When you go against all the odds and have everyone doubting you, you have to keep going. Once you believe in yourself and believe you have the talent, you’ll achieve it.”