Staying Up with Paul Shaffer

If it’s hard to imagine David Letterman without Paul Shaffer off to the side, bantering with the host and leading the orchestra, consider this: If it hadn’t been for a chance encounter three decades ago, the high-energy, multi-talented entertainer might have pursued a career in academia.

“I played in a rock band throughout high school and was passionate about rock ‘n’ roll,” says Shaffer, who served as emcee of BMCC’s Steinway Soiree Benefit on September 25. “But a career in show business was unrealistic for someone from my neck of the woods.” That was Thunder Bay, Ontario, where Shaffer grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s. “You’d look down from an airplane and there was nothing but tundra—and then you’d see four streets crossing, and realize that’s the town.”

When the music stopped
As a University of Toronto freshman, he decided to give up playing and settle down. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life—maybe become an academic or a lawyer, or go on to grad school,” he says. Not surprisingly, life without music turned out to be unbearable for him.

His spirits lifted, though, when he started playing piano with a local jazz combo in his sophomore year. That told him something: “I had to give music a try. So I made a deal with my dad: I’d take a year off and see if I could make it in show business. If I was starving after a year, I’d go back to school.”

He played as much music as he could—with pickup bands, in cocktail lounges, at weddings and bar mitzvahs. One day, he was accompanying a friend who was auditioning for a singing role in the Toronto production of Godspell. The play’s composer, Stephen Schwartz, hired Shaffer on the spot.

“My life changed—just like that,” Shaffer says. Before he knew it, he was conducting the orchestra at Godspell and two years later he was on Broadway. Then came a stint on Saturday Night Live, where he played piano behind Bill Murray’s lounge singer routine. That’s when David Letterman first noticed him.

An era begins
“Dave liked the fact that I’d had something to do with putting the Murray sketch together, and we started working together,” he recalls. That was in 1982, when Late Night with David Letterman premiered on NBC. “Over the years, I’ve gotten a better idea of what David needs from me,” Shaffer says. For one thing, every song the orchestra plays must be up-tempo. “My job isn’t to play a ballad,” he says. “I have to keep the excitement up and the energy high.”

But music is only part of his job description, he adds. “When David’s on stage and talks so me, I have to respond—even if it’s simply, ‘Oh, really, Dave? I have to say something, because he needs sound reinforcement. If I don’t, he’ll get frustrated and say, ‘Can you hear me?’”

At the Steinway Soiree, Shaffer’s trademark charisma and quick humor were in ample evidence. But in chatting about his life and career before the show, he preferred to shine the spotlight on others.

“I’m thrilled to be part of this evening,” he said. “I want to get on and off at the top of the program, so I can get out of the way of the huge talents who’ll be entertaining tonight.”

Lifelong Learner

One might assume that an artist at the pinnacle of her profession would have little left to learn about her craft. But don’t make that assumption about legendary singer/songwriter/musician Roberta Flack.

“Those of us who have had the good fortune of being students of fundamental music, art and dance, continue to study and take lessons,” says Flack, who performed at BMCC’s Steinway Soiree on September 25.

“I take a voice lesson every week and I intend to keep doing it until I can no longer find my way to the voice teacher’s studio.”

Early start
When Flack set out on her journey to stardom, she was young enough to be considered a child prodigy. By 15, she’d become so accomplished a classical pianist that she was admitted to Howard University on a full scholarship. By graduation, she had changed majors from piano to voice, became an assistant conductor of the university choir, and directed a still talked-about production of Verdi’s opera, Aida.

Of course, the world of music has taken more than a few wild spins since then. “Music students today face an incredible kind of situation, where they have to decide whether to make money or make music,” Flack says. “There are some who are so brilliant they can cross all the lines and do both. But to do that today, you have to acknowledge the amazing worldwide popularity of hip-hop.”

Following Mozart’s model
By her own admission, Flack would have found it hard to embrace hip-hop as a musical form when she was a student. “But at same time, I recognize that music has to evolve,” she says. “Everything creative has to evolve. No one is trying to be a new Michelangelo or a new Mozart. Rather, we have to do what Mozart and Michelangelo did, which is to express ourselves as students of the art that we love in a way that gives us a chance to relate to people.”

Doing that takes confidence, she adds: “You have to know that this is something you’re going to do all of your life.” Age is irrelevant. “I look at someone like Tony Bennett, who’s 87 and still receiving Grammys and making the Billboard charts.”
What is relevant is the vital importance of lifelong learning. It is a theme the amazing Roberta Flack returns to constantly.

“Your education gives you the fundamentals you need to stand on and get involved in your art with all your heart,” she says. “You can never have enough of it.”

This has been a busy year for Mykola Kyrychuk. This past spring he was named an Honoree of the Engineering Science department and graduated from BMCC with a 3.8 GPA. He is currently pursuing his Bachelors at Cornell on a Richard Dewar Scholarship. But those bare facts convey only one piece of a remarkable complex picture: At BMCC, he attended classes, worked summers as a research assistant, and mentored fellow students—all while working full-time.

Growing up in a small town in the Ukraine, Kyrychuk studied engineering and then moved to the U.S. in 2007 to continue his education. “I’ve always been fascinated by infrastructure, such as buildings and bridges, and came here in the hope of studying civil engineering,” he says. He enrolled in BMCC in 2010.

Making every minute count
“What I especially liked about BMCC was that classes were set up in a way that accommodated students’ work schedules,” he says.  That was an important draw, since Kyrychuk’s job in a Tribeca restaurant initially took up as much as 45 hours a week. “I’d go to class from 8 to 10, work from 11 to 3, then go back to school, finishing up at the restaurant in the evening,” he says.  This was in addition to a two-hour round-trip commute each day. He used his subway time to study.

In his first year, Kyrychuk took an introductory engineering course with science professor Mahmoud Ardebili, who oversees the college’s engineering science program.  He excelled academically and earned an A, as he did in all but one other class he took at BMCC. (He received an A- in Calculus). He also spent the next two years as a research assistant to Ardebili, analyzing the structural properties of concrete, and the many ways it sustains damage.  Kyrychuk also found time to mentor fellow students in the Reach One Teach One program.

Ardebili is quick to note that Kyrychuk’s near-perfect academic record was only one factor in his acceptance by Cornell.  “Mykola is an exceptionally hard worker and problem-solver who requires minimal help and guidance in doing research,” he says.  “He never missed a class or a homework assignment in the courses he took with me while making a significant contribution to our research effort.”

While research is typically an intellectual enterprise, Kyrychuk is especially drawn to its hands-on aspect.  He believes his early life experience may have been a factor.

“I grew up on our family farm, where there was always plenty of work to do and everything had to be done by hand,” he says.  “I helped my father and learned from him.”

A view to the future
As Kyrychuk  moves forward in his work at Cornell, he is finding the rural environment of upstate New York more conducive than Manhattan to intensive study and quiet contemplation of his future.  He still has his eye on a career in civil engineering.

“BMCC—and Professor Ardebili in particular—made a big difference in my life,” he says.  “Professor Ardebili was passionate about his work and that passion rubbed off on his students.  He spent a lot of time sharing his knowledge with me and pushing me to never give up.”

Of course, Kyrychuk has never viewed giving up as an attractive option.  “There is always something to do,” he says.  “There is always something new to create.”

Most college students juggle work with school, and CUNY students are certainly no exception. As the semester progresses, and the holiday season eases upon us all, local companies are hiring more than ever to get through the holiday rush. And, let’s face it—for BMCC students, earning a little extra money this time of year is quite beneficial.
BMCC’s Center for Career Development, Office of Student Affairs, and ASAP program teamed up to host this season’s Fair in the college gymnasium.

Companies seeking part-time employees set up booths, and hiring managers met with BMCC’s job-hunting students, all dressed in business attire.

Many students engaged in practice interview sessions with staffers from the Office of Career Development before attending the Career Fair.

Linking with LinkedIn
At the Retail and Holiday Recruitment Expo, The Center for Career Development introduced students to the importance of creating a profile on the professional social networking Web site LinkedIn.

Career Advisor Juli-Ann Brockway explains: “While students were dressed to impress to meet with recruiters, we invited them to have their picture taken at our LinkedIn Photo Booth and gave them a check list on how to build a strong career profile.”

According to Brockway, students interested in learning how to utilize social media in their job search may register to attend The Center for Career Development’s weekly career development workshop: “Using Social Networking to Maximize Your Job Opportunities and Career.” They can also search for jobs online using the “Career Express,” program.

More than 7,000 BMCC students have activated their LinkedIn accounts prior to attending the Fair.

Hiring hunt
“We doubled the number of employers who attended the Retail and Holiday Career Expo this year from 26 to 52,” says Melba Olmeda, Director, Center for Career Development.

Companies in attendance included Century 21, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, Boy Scouts of America and more.

Kendell Minns, an HR Generalist at IKEA Brooklyn, had a busy recruitment table.

“We’ve been at BMCC’s Career Fair before and always meet hard-working students who ask valuable questions such as job specifics,” he says.
According to Minn’s, IKEA is hiring for entry-level jobs, which include stock and cashier.

“The business and employees grow together and we support our co-workers, which reflects in our store’s vibe and energy,” he says. “Plus, you can take the Water Taxi to our Red Hook location, and no longer have to take a bus to New Jersey to visit an Ikea Showroom.”
Recruiters Ali Nasir and Amy Rose represented department store Century 21.

“You can work at the downtown location between classes—many employees do,” says Nasir, adding, “we’ve hired from BMCC Career Fairs before with great results. Our goal is for you to grow with the company—we’re starting to get busy this peak time of year.”
Rose adds: “We are seeking people who are friendly and can multi-task, and have a variety of jobs available at Century 21, from cashier to beauty advisor.”
Esperanza Guzman, who works in HR for DÁgostino supermarket chain, said the BMCC students she met were “friendly and smiling”.

“Some even left me their schedules so they can start working immediately,” she said. “I’m going to try to place them at various locations soon.”

First-timers stop by
More than 700 BMCC students attended this semester’s Fair; some were repeat students, and some had never attended a Career Fair before.

Business Administration major and ASAP student Arshi Arif was a new attendee.

“I’ve had office internships outside the US and some companies here, such as T-Mobile and Armani Exchange, caught my eye today,” she says. “Events like this reflect how much the college cares about its students by offering job opportunities and interview practice sessions.”

She adds: “Students should take advantage of everything ASAP and the Office of Career Development has to offer, so we can graduate with skills we need to move ahead in the job world.”

Faculty on Display

This fall, an exhibition of artworks by BMCC art faculty members opened in the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, located on the ground level of the college’s Miles and Shirley Fiterman Hall.

Participating faculty members are Simon Carr, Betty Copeland, Pat Genova, Xico Greenwald, Sarah Haviland, Ann Hjelle, Thaddeus Radell, Jessica Ramirez, Jerrold Schoenblum, Anthony Sorce and A.C. Towery. Their eclectic artwork was on display during the college’s acclaimed Steinway Soiree benefit, where funds were raised for scholarships and to acquire a Steinway piano for students and faculty.

In celebration of the exhibit, an opening reception was held September 28, 2013 in the Shirley Fiterman Art Gallery and featured a concert by BMCC’s Fiterman Trio: Professors Maureen Keenan on flute; Robert Reed, on cello, and Howard Meltzer, on piano.

The artists speak
Peter (Xico) Greenwald, a professor in the Music and Art department, curated the exhibit. “What I really want people to take away from it is that we’re a serious faculty; working artists in New York who are committed to helping students reach their goals in terms of expressing themselves through art,” he says.

Professor Simon Carr agrees.

“I have always enjoyed our talented, enthusiastic students, even when we were working in our former studios on the main campus,” he says. “It’s good for students to see the faculty work, it ‘calls our bluff’. Art teachers often talk about drawing, painting, photography or sculpture, now we have to show what we, the faculty, can do.”

Carr shares the story behind his featured works.

“The paintings I have in this show are based on drawings done on the subway, and in dog parks in Manhattan. I work the paintings for a long time, changing them, sometimes dramatically, until I think they at least start to feel like the scenes I experienced, and continue to experience.”

Assistant Professor Jessica Ramirez is honored to share her work in the exhibit.

“I referenced landscapes and earth forms with this series,” she explains. “I looked at the ideas of permanence and stillness with the intention to manipulate forms and then freeze them in time.  I enjoyed creating these forms, mainly because I am a process-oriented artist; I enjoy the act of creating and the techniques used during this process.”

Stopping by
The faculty artwork will be on display until October 26th.

Recent graduate Allon Morgan works as a gallery assistant. “This new gallery makes me a proud BMCC alum. It’s wonderful to be part of this new gallery space, as an employee, and shows students that we are so much more than ‘just’ a community college. We’re artists, and have a vast, impressive space to showcase community talent.”

On the gallery itself, Greenwald adds: “I like the way the space relates to the street in a very busy part of town. The arts are a huge part of the New York economy. It makes sense for BMCC to have a serious exhibition space.”

Says Carr: “We have excellent studios in Fiterman Hall on the 11th floor, along with our terrific gallery space. I’m proud to show my work with my colleagues, and hope as many students as possible stop by and visit the art classrooms and the exhibit.”

The Music and Art Department at BMCC runs 200 classes a semester in music performance, music history and theory, studio art, digital design and art history, providing students with opportunities to explore different visual media and musical outlets. Presenting students with a variety of classes in various subjects, from survey courses to specialized instruction, the BMCC faculty supports students’ educational and professional goals in the creative arts.

BMCC students are flexing their understanding of economics in a prestigious annual competition, the College Fed Challenge.

“Each student team needs to present four aspects: economic outlook, forecast, risks, and recommendations for policy,” explains Adrián Franco, Program Director for Economic Education at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “They prepare for months, studying macroeconomics and monetary policy.”

BMCC hosts Fed Challenge orientation

The College Fed Challenge begins with an orientation, which was just hosted for the first time, by BMCC.

Suri Duitch, University Dean for Continuing Education, CUNY, welcomed the audience in Theatre I, and speakers outlined what is expected of the competing teams: To provide views on the state of the economy, to discuss risks to the economic forecast, and to suggest possible changes in economic policy.

“I also think it’s a fun opportunity for teams from colleges and universities across the Federal Reserve’s Second District to come together outside the classroom to focus on learning about the economy,” says Nora Fitzpatrick, Chief of Staff, Communications, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The teams, she explains, are from schools in New York State, Northern New Jersey and Connecticut, and professors who lead students in the Challenge become part of a network of educators focused on economics.

Students, meanwhile, become part of a network of future economic leaders and scholars.

The recent Fed Challenge orientation, says BMCC business major Qinzeng Zheng, “was a rare chance to hear the insight of executives and economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Also, the orientation gave us new ideas in how to measure the current economy, and provided useful statistics. It will absolutely help us as we do our research for the upcoming Fed Challenge Competition, and broaden our observations about economy.”

A focus on process, not outcome

On November 5, the 34 college teams from District 2—one of 12 Federal Reserve Districts—will enter their first round of the College Fed Challenge, to be held at John Jay College.

“They present for about 10 minutes, to a panel of two judges,” says Adrián Franco,. “One or both of the judges are from the Federal Reserve, and one can be a professor.”

The semi-final and final rounds will be held November 18, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in Lower Manhattan, and winners will go on to compete in the national competition.

“The most important aspect is the process, not the outcome,” says Franco, “and for students to become familiar with the aspects and complexities of economic policy,” including factors such as unemployment, inflation, and monetary policy.

Financial access and the American Dream

Franco himself credits an extra-curricular project for changing his life’s course.

“I never studied economics till after college,” he says, when he participated in a summer program at Harvard Business School, “and just fell in love with the subject.”

Eventually Franco, who is from Mexico City, moved to Morningside Heights, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“I was interested in the immigrant community, and taught computer skills and ESOL [English to Speakers of Other Languages],” he says. “I wanted to help them become part of the American dream.”

New immigrants, he points out, are likely to use check-cashing centers, and be drawn unwittingly into credit card debt.

Franco has also served as a consultant for the NYC Departments of Education and Consumer Affairs, and instituted initiatives to improve the educational attainment and financial access of the Latino community in New York.

Today, his focus on helping people become informed participants of the economy, extends to his work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York directing the College Fed Challenge as well as the High School Fed Challenge.

“It’s part of the mission of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to educate the public about what we do,” he says.

Entering the headquarters of the United Nations (U.N.) complex overlooking the East River in Manhattan was like a dream come true for BMCC Liberal Arts major Nga Ping Lam.

“I saw the name in my history book but it was the first time I had seen the real thing,” she says. “I have the ID with my fingerprint on it, so I’ve been excited to explore it.”

Recently nominated to be a Youth Representative through the Association for Women in Psychology, Lam will canvas the BMCC student body for a report she’ll deliver at the U.N. this fall.

Psychology Professor Maram Hallak, says Lam, “will help me collect the issues and organize the student survey. We will send an email to the students asking about any difficulties that get in the way of their learning. I will also try to interview people in the cafeteria, approaching students of different nationalities, to get their perspectives.”

Her student survey supports U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s larger goal to “address the needs of the largest generation of young people the world has ever known,” and to enlist youth participation with challenges including the worldwide HIV epidemic, poverty, violence, and sustainable development—what he calls “the defining issue of our time.”

Breaking the Ice

Nga Ping Lam explains that her name, “Nga” means “elegant” in Chinese, and “Ping” means “cold” or “ice.”

Reaching out to other students and speaking in a conference at the U.N., she says, is helping her “break the ice” of language and culture that is part of her experience as an international student.

Lam grew up in Hong Kong, where she played the guzheng with the Lok Sum Chinese Orchestra, and she moved to New York in 2011 with her family.

“I had difficulty with English, but BMCC helped me a lot,” she says.

“Advisors said I should take CLIP [the CUNY Language Immersion Program], where I did reading and writing intensives. We also went to the African American Museum in New York City and other places to immerse ourselves in English.”

Helping others

Lam chose BMCC, she says, “because I needed to start with a community college, where I can learn the culture first, and then with the opportunities I find here, I can go anywhere, like the logo says.”

She plans to graduate in December 2013, and has applied to both Hunter College and Brooklyn College, where she intends to major in education, with a focus on students with disabilities.

Her interest in that field was triggered by personal experience.

“My nephew has learning problems,” she says, “and no one helped him to learn because they didn’t understand and just thought he was lazy.”

A personality and childhood psychology class at BMCC “helped me understand how children behave and where they characteristics come from,” she says. “It is helping me to learn how to help others.”

Lam presents her BMCC student survey at the U.N. this fall, and in March 2014, she and Professor Hallak will travel to Columbus, Ohio for the annual WMA conference, where she will make another presentation and meet other Youth Representatives from around the country.

A Helping Hand for Student Parents

Getting through two years of college and earning an associate’s degree is an impressive achievement for anyone. But for low-income students with small children to care for, simply making it to class and keeping up with assignments can be a major challenge.

Since 1984, BMCC’s Early Childhood Center (ECC) has given student parents the peace of mind “that comes from knowing their children are in a nurturing and enriched environment,” says the center’s executive director, Cecilia Scott-Croff. “Parents can attend classes and without having to worry about the care of their children.”

Benefiting parents and their children
Now, thanks to a grant of over $1.3 million—$324,558 per year for four years, the CCAMPIS (Childcare Access Means Parents in School) grant from the U.S. Department of Education—the center is positioned to expand its services. The grant will help fund the ECC’s student parent services.

Nationally recognized as a model for on-campus childcare programs, the center serves preschoolers seven days a week and children up to age 12 on the weekends. In addition to childcare, the center provides a varied program of educational and development activities, including music, art, dance and literacy.

Programs are taught by New York State-certified teachers and artists and “supported by a BMCC administrative team that fosters parent involvement and student engagement,” Scott-Croff says.

“All of us at the center are extremely proud to have received this grant—especially in view of how competitive the selection process was,” she adds. All told, more than $9.2 million in CCAMPIS grants were awarded to 58 colleges in 28 states this year. BMCC was one of only six grantees in New York State—and one of only two within CUNY.

Expanded services
“The grant will enable us to continue offering a diverse and enriched curriculum for children,” says Scott-Croff. “It will also allow us to provide additional parent-training sessions for students.”

The writing of the grant was a collaboration among several BMCC offices and departments, including tremendous support from the Student Affairs Office, the Admissions Office, the Registrar’s Office, the Financial Aid Office, and the Office of Grants and Development.

“Everyone pulled together and invested an enormous amount of energy and time,” Scott-Croff says. “Needless to say, we’re delighted.”

When BMCC’s Music and Art Department relocated from the first floor of BMCC’s main building to large, spacious studios in the all-new Miles and Shirley Fiterman Hall, students were just as excited as their professors.

The college’s new art space made it easier for groups of students to work on large-scale projects such “Life Unfolding,” a commissioned piece of artwork built by some very talented BMCC students.

It was the SUNY Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center (MEOC), located in uptown, that commissioned the special artwork. Many MEOC graduates attend BMCC after they obtain their GEDs under the guidance of MEOC.

Last year, MEOC staffers approached Dr. Sadie Bragg, BMCC’s former Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, asking if Sculpture Club students would be interested in creating artwork for a community room at MEOC.

“Life Unfolding” was recently unveiled at MEOC in a formal ceremony which celebrated the power of artwork and the generosity of the BMCC students who donated their time—and creative minds—to complete the project.

Getting creative

Last year, members of the BMCC Sculpture Club composed the initial design for the project. After studying various shapes, a 3D model came together, and the sculpture was constructed from amendable birch plywood and acrylic.

All summer and fall, students Vanessa Medina, Harold Tandjung, and Anthony Espinosa worked diligently to build, paint, and gild the sculpture. In fact, Medina, Tandjung, and Espinosa were so dedicated to “Life Unfolding,” they all returned to BMCC after they graduated to complete the artwork.

“It was a carefully planned, ambitious design that required many hours of labor to finish, but the students and I are very proud of the final results,” says Professor Sarah Haviland, advisor to the Sculpture Club, who oversaw the project.

Thanking the students

Dr. John L. Graham, MEOC’s Executive Director, thanked BMCC students “for being so creative and authentic in their ideas on this initiative.”

He added: “I am very pleased that we have accomplished together a very important project to help accentuate the value and virtue of the MEOC in full support and partnership with BMCC.”

The commissioned artwork is currently on display on a main wall at the MEOC.

Howard Prince, then associate dean for academic affairs at BMCC, was in his office when the call from Deland, Florida, came through. Library Science Professor Vicente Revilla was on the line.

“We won, Howie,” Revilla said. “We won the whole thing.”

It was mid-afternoon on December 30, 1993. BMCC’s four-person chess team, piloted by coach Revilla, had just accomplished what no community college had ever before done: Finish first in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Tournament.

“I threw up my hands and shouted, ‘Wow’,” recalls Prince, who recruited the members of that championship team and encouraged them to enter the fray.

“The Pan American Tournament began in 1946 and was always dominated by teams like Harvard and the University of Texas. It’s the oldest and most prestigious college chess tournament in the U.S.”

When the Mets crushed the Orioles

To pull off its impossible victory, BMCC outplayed vaunted teams from Yale, Princeton, MIT and, in the final match, Harvard University, the reigning champion. It was an upset that brought to mind David’s beat-down of Goliath, and the Miracle Mets’ victory over the Orioles in the 1969 World Series. Lest skeptics consider the win a fluke, BMCC repeated it in 1994 and added a third championship in 1997.

Players from those fabled teams will reconnect on November 2, at a BMCC 20+ Reunion at Fiterman Hall. The event will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the team’s 1993 victory as well as the 50th anniversary of BMCC’s founding.

All four members of the 1993 team, as well as their coach, were foreign-born. “Growing up in Peru, I played chess all the time,” says Revilla. “I continued playing a lot, with Howie and others, when I joined the BMCC faculty in 1985.”

He and Prince were playing speed chess on campus with some students in the fall of 1993 when Gennady Sagalchik strolled by “and asked if he could have a game,” Prince recalls. “He wiped the floor with us.”

BMCC had a chess club at the time, but it was Sagalchik’s quick work of the players that day that pointed to greater possibilities. Soon, other talented players were recruited from BMCC’s student body, and a few weeks later, they were competing in the Pan American Tournament.

“We didn’t know how we’d do, but we thought it was worth trying,” says Prince. “Up till then, the Tournament had usually been won by schools like Harvard and Yale. No community college had ever placed even second or third.”

Filling out the team were Philipppine-born Cassidhee Santos, a relative newcomer to chess; Oleg Shalumov (from the former Soviet Union); and Nikola Duravcevic, who grew up in Montenegro and emigrated to New York with his family in flight from the Bosnian War.

“Although I was a faculty member at the time, I was relatively young and related easily to the players,” Revilla says. “It wasn’t a typical professor-student relationship. We all shared the experience of being foreign-born. The chemistry was amazing.”

Face-off with Harvard

The team won all its matches on days one and two of the four-day tournament, playing to a draw against NYU on day three. BMCC then beat the University of Toronto and found itself in its historic face-off with Harvard for the championship.

For Revilla, the November 2 reunion will be a treasured occasion to “remember a moment in time when all the right pieces seemed to fall into place.”

He expects the event to be tinged with a bit of sadness too, “since our victory is part of the past. We’re all in different places now and have our own lives.” But BMCC’s 1993 victory will live forever in the annals of underdog triumphs, and Revilla is looking forward to sharing the memories with his players.

“It will be a beautiful moment,” he says.

Music to BMCC’s Ears

BMCC’s newly-formed faculty chamber ensemble offered a double treat at its first formal recital at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center on October 16, with works from both the chamber and operatic repertoires.

Joined by mezzo-soprano Christine Free, soprano Eugenia Yau and baritone John Uehlein, the group performed instrumental works by Bohuslav Martinu and César Franck and selections from operas by Mozart and Johann Strauss.

The musicians, all members of the Music & Art Department faculty, included pianists Howard Meltzer and Jin-Ok Lee, flautist Maureen Keenan, and cellist Robert Reed.

A dream becomes reality

While the group came into being this year, creating a faculty chamber ensemble has been a dream of Howard Meltzer, the department’s deputy chairman for music, for nearly a decade.

“When Maureen Keenan came on board this summer as a full-time assistant professor, we knew we could make this happen,” he says.

As a child, Keenan says, she took up the flute as a matter of convenience. “We had one in the house,” she recalls. “I wanted to learn to play an instrument, but my friends all had these icky rental instruments provided by the school. The one we had at home was in pretty good shape, so I went with it.”

Keenan teaches introductory courses in music appreciation as well as Music in Western Civilization, which approaches music in its historical context.

“I love exploring the classical repertoire with students who might not be familiar with it,” she says.  “Hopefully, they come away with new skills in critical thinking and a new love for this kind of music.”

While BMCC does not have a major in music, the department’s academic offerings include a rich array of instrumental classes, as well as advanced classes in arranging, harmony and musicianship—and the musicians and singers who performed at the October 16 recital all agree that the opportunity to provide students with their first exposure to classical music can be especially gratifying.

To be sure, the themes and story lines of grand opera tend toward the tragic, but the scenes performed by Eugenia Yau from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte  were light and funny, and that can be a key part of their appeal for students.

“My students love to sing and act,” Yau says, “and they’re especially drawn to musical theater and stories they can relate to.”

Finding the entry point

John Uehlein, who joined Yau and Christine Free in sparkling renditions of the Strauss and Mozart vocal selections, similarly finds it very rewarding to provide students with an entry point to classical music.

“I try to include as many as 25 pieces over the course of a semester,” he says. “There may be some initial resistance—but often it’s followed by an awakening of the students’ curiosity and a desire to hear and learn more.”

Christine Free, who also sang two arias from Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, says that her experience at BMCC has been “a perfect marriage” of her passions for teaching and music.

“I love helping my students take every ounce of knowledge that I’m able to share with them and use it with such eagerness, excitement and ferocity,” she says. “Teaching at BMCC has been the most amazing experience of my life.”

Alumni Natalia Sorokina and Nechama Gluck were among the first communication studies majors at BMCC, where they met and became friends.

Now, Sorokina is enrolled at Columbia University, and Gluck is at New York University (NYU)—both having earned generous merit scholarships to attend the prestigious schools.

But what they have in common goes much deeper than that.

“My first night, I slept on Brighton Beach with my suitcases,” says Sorokina, who collected money in small amounts from as many relatives as possible, to buy her airfare from Russia to New York City.

“Somebody on the plane had told me there was a Russian community there,” she explains.

“I walked around the next day, asking people if they needed a cleaner, a cashier, or a delivery person. A woman in a flower shop said, ‘I need a cleaner, a cashier and a delivery person’, and I said, ‘I can do all that!’”

Breaking free

Before moving to New York, Natalia Sorokina had been teaching high school English in Russia with the equivalent of an associate degree, and her aspirations to continue her education were not, she says, well received.

“In Russia, I didn’t feel like I was free to be who I am,” she says. “It’s hard to speak up, if you’re a woman there. Moreover, nobody expects you to speak up—but I always did.”

She not only spoke out in Russia, she defied the norms expected of her, by having a relationship with a woman.

“I was beaten up by skinheads, right in front of my building, just for holding her hand,” she says. “The police were watching, and their response was, ‘Skinheads and gays, let them kill each other’.”

Meanwhile, almost 5,000 miles away, Nechama Gluck was coming of age in Rockland County, upstate New York.

“It was a very closed Hasidic Jewish community,” she says. “My dream was to go to college, but I never thought that was possible, because a woman in that community is expected to marry early and be a housewife.”

As a girl, “I spent all my free time in the library, reading secular books that weren’t allowed at home,” she says, “and I saw my first movie, The Princess Diaries, at age 16 at a friend’s house. I was terrified, I thought I’d be struck by lightening.”

The last straw, as she calls it, was watching her nine older siblings enter into arranged marriages by age 20—something she adamantly opposed, for herself.

“So I dropped out of high school,” she says, “and ran away to Queens. I have an aunt there; she’s a lot more liberal, kind of a black sheep in my family, and she had run away herself, when she was young. She encouraged me to get my GED, to get a job.”

First steps

While Natalia Sorokina slept in the florist shop, “with all the roses,” she says, saving money for the apartment she would share with three roommates in Sheepshead Bay, Nechama Gluck set out looking for a job.

“I worked in a medical office, I was a cashier in a hardware store, and I worked at the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center,” she says.

One memory stands out for her.

“I was skating by myself one night after the rink closed, but about a hundred people were there at the restaurants, watching, and when I did a cool trick on the ice, they would cheer.”

Slowly, each young woman gained confidence, and began to seek a college that would encourage their growth.

“Definitely going to a community college, to BMCC, and majoring in communication studies was a big step in the right direction,” says Gluck.

“For me too,” Sorokina adds.

Gaining skills

Both Natalia Sorokina and Nechama Gluck have vivid memories of their time together in BMCC’s first class of communication studies majors.

“What we learned was amazing, but how much they cared about our futures was even more amazing,” says Gluck.

“Dr. Poster, when she enters a room, she has this energy,” says Sorokina. “She told us, ‘Relationship dominates content, in every type of communication’, and I have found that to be so true.”

“They made us examine our values,” adds Gluck.

“Professor Blank, his conflict resolution class felt like stress-relief sessions,” says Sorokina. “He would give us contexts—landlord/tenant; business partners—and a conflict we would resolve, reviewing each other’s solutions.”

“Professor Chang, he told us, ‘I’m not trying to break you, I’m trying to make you flexible,” Gluck remembers, and, recalls Sorokina, “Professor Glaser taught small group communication, and we examined different roles people play in a group. I learned a lot about non-verbal communication.”

“Me too,” says Gluck. “I was working in a school that semester, and mediating between the parents of a child and the administration, and everyone’s body language gave me cues and helped me redirect the conversation in a productive way.”

Next steps

Now pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Media, Culture and Communication Studies at NYU, Nechama Gluck is also completing a minor in Korean language.

“I wanted to continue what I started at BMCC,” she says. “I had become so passionate about culture and communication, and now, when I graduate from NYU, I plan on living in Korea a year and teaching English. I’m taking intercultural and communication classes, so it’s not just language that I’m learning, but culture and sensitivity skills.”

She chose her minor in Korean, she says, “because I just fell in love with the language; there’s a certain musicality to it.” Also, she thinks that being fluent in Hebrew might give her insight in reading a phonetic alphabet that looks symbolic.

Easing the expense of NYU’s private-college tuition, Gluck was awarded a CCTOP (Community College Transfer Opportunity Program) scholarship, as well as a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship.

Eventually, she says, “I’d like to pursue a career in broadcast journalism, exploring the media. One of my dream jobs is being a newscaster for Al Jazeera. They really try to give an unbiased presentation of news events around the world.”

Natalia Sorokina’s plans are just as well defined.

She transferred to Columbia University after a year at BMCC, and is seeking a bachelor’s degree in Human Rights and International Public Affairs—all made possible when she was awarded Columbia’s coveted New Student Scholarship.

She is also planning to start an internship at the United Nations.

“In the summer I went there for a tour, and spoke to people who work there,” she says. “You don’t have to have a bachelor’s degree to intern at the U.N., which is good, but I speak two languages and they said it’s better to have three, so I’m taking French.”

“My dream,” she says, “is to get a position where I’ll be able to affect policy regarding the LGBT community, and women around the world.”

Looking back

What about the worlds they left behind?

Natalia Sorokina remains distanced from her family, and hopes to reconnect with them someday—though she never plans, she says, to return to Russia.

“I love my country,” she says. “I love the people, the literature, the history—but the government’s human rights policies sicken me.”

Nechama Gluck reflects that, “It was almost two years before I saw my family again, after I ran away. We’ve reconciled, though, and grown from it. We accept each other for who we are. We love each other, and they’re proud of me now, that I’m in college.”

Professor Ivelisse Rodriguez, Co-Chair of the Hispanic Heritage Month 2013 Executive Committee, delivered welcome remarks at the month-long celebration’s Opening Ceremony in BMCC’s Theatre I, and Co-Chair Professor Rosario Torres, hosted the event.

“I hope you have your soles ready to do some dancing,” said Dr. Torres, introducing the first of several songs by Lamar NYC, a musical group that “draws on the spirit of flamenco and world music.”

The band—featuring Amanda Ruzza on a baby-blue bass guitar; lead singer Nilko Andreas on acoustic guitar; Alex Terrier on saxophone and Reid Andres on percussion instruments including ankle shells and the cajon (Spanish for “box”)—punctuated the program of guest speakers, which began with BMCC VP for Legal Affairs, Robert Diaz.

The month-long events, said VP Diaz, who also served as Executive Director of the Hispanic Heritage Month 2013 Executive Committee, “cover the spectrum, from Caribbean to African to Spanish” cultures.

Guest speaker and BMCC alumni Giovanni Ortiz received a warm welcome from Professor Torres, who noted that he grew up in the South Bronx and “is a real Nuyorican.” Oritz, who recently earned a B.A. in Creative Writing at Lehman College and is about to publish his first book, a memoir, told the students in the audience, “I was in your shoes not too long ago. I went back to school after 22 years.”

In Spanish, and then in English, he presented the Latino Hero Award to Dr. Gladys Cifuentes, who has served since 2011 as Consul General of Colombia in New York City—the first woman to hold that position. The award, Professor Torres translated from Dr. Cifuentes’ speech, “is a symbol of connection between CUNY and Colombia, and represents education for all immigrant students.”

Business Administration major Whitnney Dihmes also spoke, describing her experience growing up in the Dominican Republic and coming to New York to attend BMCC.

“Education is the thing we will carry with us for the rest of our lives,” she said, and decried the portrayal of Dominicans in the media, saying, “I want to change that.” Professor Carmen Martinez-Lopez closed the event.

For more information on this month’s Hispanic Heritage events, which include panel discussions, poetry readings, movie screenings and exhibits, click here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Hispanic Heritage Month 2013 Executive Committee also includes Dr. Racquel Goodison, Treasurer. The artwork featured in this article’s homepage blurb is by Marcelo De Stefano, part of an exhibit at BMCC’s main campus, 199 Chambers Street, opening November 7 at 6 p.m.

“It’s hard to believe a painter can rein in such color and make sense out of it,” art critic Stephen Westfall writes about Joan Thorne, whose recent work is currently on view at the Sideshow Gallery in Williamsburg.  The one-person exhibition opened on October 12 and will run until November 10.

An adjunct professor in BMCC’s Music and Art Department, Thorne has collected a vast array of awards and honors over the course of a career that spans more than four decades.  Her work has been featured in numerous one-person gallery shows, two Whitney Museum Biennials and major group exhibitions in Europe and the Americas.  In addition, many of her paintings are part of the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Albright Knox Gallery, the Houston Fine Arts Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Colors that produce their own light

In reviewing Thorne’s last solo exhibition at the Sideshow Gallery in 2010, New York Times art critic Ken Johnson described her paintings as “optically captivating—the work conveys a state of visceral and cosmic ecstasy.”  Douglas Manson, writing in Art in America, said that Thorne’s colors “seem to produce their own light.”  To sample Thorne’s creative vision, you needn’t look past the cover illustration of the 32-page catalogue that accompanies the current show—her 2013 painting Ananda, a mesmerizing, multilayered array of colored lines, bands and swirls.

“I consider myself a metaphysical abstractionist, making images which come out of my life experience,” says Thorne, who joined the BMCC faculty in 1993.  “The images in my paintings are not only drawn from visual inspiration, but from memory, and dreams as well as the intuitive process of painting.”  Notwithstanding the trend toward placing artists in neat categories,  “Joan’s art is unique,” says painter Thornton Willis. “It comes from a highly personal vision, as does all moving art.”

While her work is striking in its originality and the singularity of her vision, Thorne is quick to note that “artists don’t hatch out of thin air” and places herself in “a long, amazing and beautiful continuum” of artists, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, and Joan Mitchell.

“We’re always influenced by the artists who came before us,” she says.

Decoding “spatial conundrums”

The paintings on view at Sideshow are as exuberant as ever, Westfall says,
“posing a renewed, vital, imaginative, phenomenological pictorial space.”  The dimensions are generous, with many canvases measuring at least four or five feet across. “We look through levels of color and decipher spatial conundrums…and experience color and brushstrokes as psychologically suggestive,” writes Westfall. “Every formal element is a vehicle for emotional content: anxiety, tenderness, and joy.”

The Sideshow Gallery is located at 319 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211. Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 12 noon-6pm.   You may see Joan Thorne’s work in the 32-page catalogue that accompanied her recent Sideshow Exhibition, and on her web site at www.joanthorne.com.

The Journey of Daryl Griffin

Education wasn’t a priority in Daryl Griffin’s family. “I lost my father at a young age and my mother, brothers and I moved around a lot,” says Griffin, a fourth-semester Criminal Justice major at BMCC. “I didn’t put much effort into schoolwork. My attitude was, ‘whatever grade I got, that’s what I got.’”

Unsure about what he wanted to do with his life, Griffin enlisted in the Marines and served honorably in combat. But by the time he was discharged and returned home, he was burdened with a drinking problem and severe anxieties about his future. “It was a tough time,” he says.

But Griffin was tougher. With the encouragement of friends, he quit drinking and smoking, got back into shape—and, one day in 2009, called Eric Glaudé, BMCC’s counselor specializing in veteran affairs.

Getting back on track
“He wanted to know how to go about enrolling in BMCC as a veteran,” recalls Glaudé, who asked questions, learned about Griffin’s military background, and suggested that he come to the campus to continue the conversation.

“We hit it off from the beginning,” Glaudé says. “This was a bright, highly motivated young man, willing to do whatever was asked of him—and determined to get an education.”

An ex-Army man himself, Glaudé works closely with veteran counselors in each of the college’s administrative departments, helping veteran-students navigate the complexities of enrollment and registration, learn what benefits they’re entitled to, and “deal with any issues they may face—academic, administrative, vocational or psychological.”

Griffin worked hard in his first year at BMCC, making ample use of the services available to him and meeting often with Glaudé, who became his advisor, cheerleader and friend.

By the end of his second semester, Griffin was active in the BMCC Veterans Club, initially serving as treasurer and eventually as president. “He was a great president—hands-on, creative, and extremely well-liked,” Glaudé says.

Meanwhile, Griffin was pulling straight As. He was also thinking about ways to reach out to others who had traveled the same road as he. That’s when he learned about PROVE.

Another chance to help
Through PROVE—the Project for Return and Opportunity in Veterans Education—interns from the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work provides counseling services to returning veterans enrolled at a CUNY school.

The program also recruits student veterans as mentors. “Naturally, Daryl signed on,” says Glaudé. “Whenever there was a chance to help, he was there.”

At the same time, Griffin played—and continues to play—an active role in the Veterans Resource Center. “All sorts of problems can arise when you’re a newly-returned vet, or even if you’ve been back a while,” he says. “For example, sometimes a vet will have trouble getting their pay or VA benefits.” With nearly four semesters behind him, not to mention his own frustrating encounters with administrative snafus, Griffin is well-qualified to help.

“VA benefits can be tricky, and sometimes a hold-up in pay means that school isn’t paid for,” he says. “But we have good working relationships with the college’s bursars and registrars, so that I can usually intercede on a veteran’s behalf and solve the problem.”

Somehow, Griffin found the time to fall in love with a fellow volunteer. Their son Isaiah spends virtually as much time as his dad on the BMCC campus—specifically at the Early Childhood Center (ECC).

“Isaiah absolutely loves the center,” says Griffin. “When I go to pick him up, I have trouble getting him to leave; he just wants to stay and keep playing with the friends he’s made there.”

The ECC, he adds, “gives Isaiah a wonderful place to be, where he can be with other kids and start learning to read and write. At the same time it frees me to focus on my education. It’s been an amazing resource for my entire family.”

Veteran, father, student
Griffin’s daily interactions with Isaiah reveal “a strong commitment to family,” says ECC’s executive director, Cecilia Scott-Croff. “Darryl is a loving and actively involved dad. If there is a family that stands out and speaks to the mission of the ECC, his family is it.”

Griffin credits BMCC as an integral part of his reentry to civilian life. “The opportunity to work with other veterans here and help them reintegrate back into society has been incredibly rewarding,” he says.

Those opportunities, together with the support of the ECC, “have helped me become a solid man—as a veteran, a father and a student—while giving my son an opportunity to flourish.”

Griffin will continue his studies next semester at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Darryl’s emotional resiliency is going to take him far in life,” says Scott-Croff. Glaudé agrees. Griffin, he says, “is one class act.”

According to a report by the Center for an Urban Future, raising the college graduation rate by just 10 percent in one decade would benefit NYC and NY State in the amount of almost $700 million. In two decades, it would be almost $1.5 billion.

Likewise, the cost of not raising the college graduation rate—in terms of lost dreams and aspirations—is incalculable.

BMCC President Antonio Pérez is well aware of these equations. Speaking at BMCC’s recent Out-in-Two Award Ceremony held in the Hudson Room, he shared some history.

“There was criticism during Mayor Giuliani’s administration,” he said. “He was asking, ‘Why aren’t more students graduating in two years, from community colleges?’”

That criticism, President Pérez said, didn’t take into account the challenges students face, and in a letter to The New York Times, he vowed to increase the two-year graduation rates at BMCC, creating Out-In-Two, thanks to generous private donors and friends of the college.

“You provide the energy that I need, when I sit in front of somebody and request funding on your behalf,” he told this year’s Out-In-Two scholars. “We believe in you. We expect you to succeed.”

Signing a contract

Senior Academic Advisor Brandon Graham, and Student Academic Advisor Christopher Pierre co-coordinate the Out-In-Two program, and hosted the award ceremony honoring the new inductees.

“This was the largest applicant pool we’d ever seen,” said Graham, congratulating the awardees—“The Super Eight”—and thanking the administrators and staff who evaluated this year’s submissions.

Out-In-Two scholars must maintain at least a 3.0 average, he explained, “but this group has an average 3.8 GPA.”

The scholars sign a contract, committing to graduate in two years, he said, and receive $1,500 a semester for three consecutive semesters. They are also provided with one-on-one advisement and priority registration, and are expected to volunteer as peer mentors and for causes off campus.

Making an impact

Acting Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs Robert Messina reminded the Out-In-Two awardees, “Each one of you has an impact on someone else. Think of the compounding of that scholarship, as it impacts others in your lives, and generations to come.”

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Michael Gillespie told the group, “You are starting on a path, and going to wind up in awesome places. Wherever you end up, remember that the doors are always open to you, where you started—BMCC.”

Guest speaker Sebastian Suarez, a former Out-In-Two scholar who earned an associate degree in Liberal Arts at BMCC and is majoring in English literature at Hunter College shared that he is a second generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

“Growing up in two places prevented me from completing high school,” said Suarez, who earned his GED and then attended evening and weekend classes at BMCC. “Not all schools offer those schedules. Take advantage of the resources at BMCC.”

He also encouraged the inductees “to get involved in the campus community,” and referred to his own experience donating time as an ambassador at BMCC events as well as for cancer walks and coat drives, at soup kitchens, and with Meals on Wheels, “which gave me a different perspective on the elderly in our city,” he said.

Getting to know the new scholars

Standing in a welcome line at the front of the room, President Pérez, VP Messina, Dean Gillespie and Dean of Academic Affairs Erwin Wong presented a plaque to each new out-in-Two scholar.

A luncheon followed in the Hudson Room, and the new Out-In-Two scholars mingled with their supporters.

“I was aware of women’s lack of access to health care in my community,” said science major Hajaru Hamza, who grew up in Ghana and wants to return to her home country someday as an obstetrician/gynecologist.

Serafin Gonzalez, a Computer Network Technology major, describes himself as a “full-time employee of the City of New York, full-time father and full-time student,” while Lirwane Barry, from Guinea, West Africa, is an accounting major. “Three years ago I would never have thought I would be here,” she said. “I was barely speaking English.”

Jonathan Blake grew up in Brooklyn and is “the second in my family to go to the college,” he said, adding that he wants to attend Baruch College or City Tech someday, and work in finance.

Video Arts & Technology (VAT) major Oshton Cox is another Brooklynite. “Six years ago, I was going nowhere,” he said. “Now I feel like I have a lot of opportunity.” Yunen Espinal, also a VAT major, is from the Dominican Republic. “I fell in love with New York City when I came here two years ago to learn English,” he said. “Eventually I want to be part of a TV channel’s creative team.”

Early childhood education major Sarah Tiapula-Stein grew up in Singapore and is fluent in Mandarin and ASL—American Sign Language. “I’m also participating in a research fellowship at Teacher’s College now, a Saturday enrichment program for children,” she said.

Patricia Zeballos thanks her accounting professor Joel Barker for encouraging her to apply for Out-In-Two.  “I grew up in Switzerland and I’m half Caribbean,” she said, and is making decisions now such as which language to add to her repertoire of English and French, and would best serve her career.

African American studies scholar Andrew Smallwood, a professor in the Ethnic Studies department, was one of the evaluators of the Out-in-Two applications.

“I looked at the students’ ability to communicate their family situation, or pressures they may be experiencing, as they’re pursuing their education—that’s one factor,” he said, “but we also take into account their career goals, and how they plan to use this opportunity to make a larger contribution to their family, their field, the City, or society in general.”

“I didn’t have an easy time in high school, so I was able to get my grades up at BMCC and transfer to a four-year college,” says Patricia Kettles, now manager at the Port Richmond Library on Staten Island, where she grew up.

“Plus I found the students at BMCC were there because they wanted to be there— maybe they didn’t have an easy time, but they were serious.”

As was she.

“I couldn’t go to college, straight out of high school, because I couldn’t get access to my stepfather’s tax returns,” she says. “I couldn’t fill out the FAFSA forms. So I had to wait till I could claim myself as an independent, to start college.”

In the meantime, she says, “I went to Europe. I had been working two jobs and saving, at a law firm during the day and then waitressing at a pizza place at South Street Seaport.”

Working and traveling, she says, helped prepare her for college.

“I loved participating in lectures,” she says. “I enjoyed learning. Where I come from is very homogenous; everyone is the same, but BMCC has everyone, and I liked that about it.”

Two classes in particular, stand out for her: Anthropology and Music and World Culture.

“I still remember something my professor [Shanti Raval] said, and that was, ‘Music is not universal. Music does not mean the same to everyone’—and that the only thing that’s cross-cultural about music is that there’s violence to children in lullabies.”

Sadly, violence is an issue she knows first-hand.

“My father was killed crossing the street, coming home from a parent/teacher conference—a drunk driver,” she says. “At the time the guy only got six months suspended license, no jail time.”

The emotional weight she was carrying, took a toll on her performance at school—she was forced to repeat first grade, and was woefully behind in reading, she says, by fourth grade.

A goal to survive
“I went through counseling when I was little, and worked on my reading every day at the kitchen table while my mom cooked, till I could read on my own,” she says. “By junior high, I was an ARISTA student,” a member of the national honor society of public schools.

She next attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts near Lincoln Center in Manhattan, then Tottenville High School on Staten Island.

“My goal was to survive,” she says. “I was very abused by my stepfather.”

In the painful years that followed, she left home and struck out on her own, working as a receptionist and other entry-level jobs. Eventually, she found her way to BMCC—and hit the challenge of CUNY’s entrance exams.

Ironically, she says, “I passed the reading, but failed the writing and math and had to take remedial classes.

Then there was the matter of tuition—which was low, compared to other colleges—but still a hurdle.

“I made $17,000 a year when I was at BMCC, but I didn’t qualify for financial aid,” Kettles says.

Once again, though, she persevered, and when she felt more confident, academically, she transferred to the College of Staten Island/CUNY—and hit another roadblock.

“I cannot pass that CEP [CUNY Proficiency Exam],” she says. “I freak out. I have to get my adult disability papers so I can have more time on the test, but it’s expensive, and they tell me I’ll need at least three sessions with a counselor.”

Future plans
Despite the hurdles, Kettles has big plans for herself.

“I’m going to finish my bachelor’s degree, positively,” she says. “That’s a goal I’ve set for myself. I’m thinking about doing Empire State College, and the library provides some tuition reimbursement.”

The Port Richmond Library, built a century ago, provides a place where adults raise their literacy level.

“I tell them, ‘You can do it, at one time I couldn’t read, either’,” Kettles says, adding that it also includes a basement theatre provided by the Work Projects Administration.

Kettles, who herself “performed on the stage at age 11,” is proud of the colorful stage and spacious audience area filled with tables where students complete crafts, homework and other projects.

“We’re an Enrichment Zone,” she explains, part of the New York Library program proving free afterschool help to students in grades one through eight.

“We have tutoring, and provide the kids with laptops. It’s the first time the library has had this kind of project.”

Something to celebrate
While she plans to return to school, and even wants to be a parent someday, she admits she wants to “stay right here,” at the library, in terms of her career.

“If I go higher up, I won’t be working with the public and I love that,” she says. “I love my community. I like it when we have our big celebrations the best—the kids get so excited. We have huge summer and Halloween parties, and they don’t normally get that.”

Looking back, she appreciates having started college at BMCC.

“I think community colleges are a wonderful opportunity for students,” she says. “You never know what people’s circumstances are before coming to college, and it gives them a chance to prosper. I could never have started in a four-year college. It’s important for our country, to have option for people.”

Even her sister—now an oncology nurse—attended BMCC. She had already earned a bachelor’s degree in history, but decided to change her career direction.

“I told her to go to BMCC,” says Kettles. “It gave us both opportunities.”

“New York City is the ‘Number One’ destination in the U.S. for international students,” says Matthew Peipert, BMCC’s new Student Life International Student Specialist, in the Office of Student Affairs.

“A lot of them come from halfway across the world. They’re brave, to take that jump. They’re adventurous—and ambitious. For those who come from less advantaged countries, this is their shot. Often, they’re alone, and their families are pooling their entire savings to send them here.”

With so much at stake, he says, international students choose BMCC for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the value BMCC provides.

“There’s a lot of academic support, and the tuition is affordable, even if you are not a New York City resident.”

Another plus, he says, is that “BMCC is a real reflection of New York—I think of New York City as the hotel lobby of the United States. A lot of people start their American experience here—and wherever you’re from, you have access to cultural resources. If you’re from Uzbekistan, you can find an Uzbek community. If you’re from Korea, you can find a Korean community—and these are strong communities, and I think that helps with retention, for international students at BMCC.”

A ‘world-class’ environment
“Simply having been born in another country doesn’t make you an international student,” says Matthew Peipert. “Of course, we welcome students of all immigration statuses, but CUNY defines international students as F1 visa holders.”

There are about 900 international students on the BMCC campus, he says, and a student with an F1 visa must carry a full course load—12 credits—or lose their F1 status. Also, there are some restrictions regarding their leaving the U.S. and returning.

Overall, though, international students share the goals and concerns of their non-immigrant peers. Plus, he says, “These days, if your college or university doesn’t have a strong international component, it’s not really considered ‘world class’.”

“Every good school tries to attract international students. The more perspectives you can bring to a learning environment, the better. Plus, we live in such a globalized world, if you’re not educated in a globalized environment, you might have a harder time advancing your career in a worldwide and culturally diverse economy.”

Special programs
Lily Yi-Elkin, BMCC’s Director of International & Transfer Services in the Office of Admissions, works with the International Student Services team, which processes international students’ applications, and helps them maintain their visa status.

The team also organizes special workshops on topics such as how to leave and return to the U.S. without jeopardizing immigration status, and how to obtain health insurance.

“We believe in the personal touch,” says Yi-Elkin. “We encourage international students to come talk with us whenever they have any questions about their studies, their immigration status, housing or anything getting in the way of their success as students.”

Matthew Peipert adds that BMCC holds an International Students’ Orientation each semester, and the BMCC Single Stop office “provides free workshops addressing the concerns of any BMCC student who needs to speak to an immigration lawyer. They even have workshops for ‘DACA students’.”

“DACA” stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and “DACA students,” he explains, are undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children and have pursued education or military service.

As for academic support, he says, there is the BMCC Language Immersion for International Students program, or BLIIS, for students holding F1 visas. This intensive program runs for 16 weeks in the summer, and 25 in the winter, and enables participants to maintain their F1 status while preparing for college-level work.

Another support at BMCC is CLIP—the CUNY Language Immersion Program, which is for “non-F1 students for whom English is not a first language,” Peipert says.

Lifelong cultural learning
“I’ve been working with international students for 12 years, and previous to this position I was working with the ESL [English as a Second Language] community,” says Matthew Peipert, adding that he taught ESL in Japan for over five years.

He knows first-hand, what it’s like to be part of a culture within a culture. Born in England to American parents, he grew up in South Africa, Kenya and Texas.

“My dad was a journalist,” Peipert says, explaining why the family lived outside the U.S., and adding that he is happy to be living now, in Astoria, Queens, “one of the most international neighborhoods in New York City.”

The thriving immigrant communities of New York City could well account for why BMCC has more international students than any other community college in the Northeast, according to a study from the Institute of International Studies.

“In addition to students with F1 visas, there are students holding H1-B visas through their employers, or who work as an au pair, on a J1 visa,” says Yi-Elkin.

“Whatever their visa status, in addition to language support and other services, we guide them to scholarship opportunities,” she adds, “because international students are not usually eligible for federal financial aid. We also alert them to opportunities like student clubs related to their home country, or simply focused on their subject major and other interests students share.”

On November 13, an all-day conference, Fundraising and Philanthropy, How They Impact Education and the City of New York, was held in the Fiterman Hall Conference Center at BMCC.

Presented by BMCC and President Antonio Pérez, in collaboration with NYU’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising and its Executive Director Naomi Levine, the conference was hosted by BMCC VP of Development Doris Holz.

President Pérez gave welcoming remarks, noting that while New York State financial aid to the City University of New York (CUNY), has declined in recent years, philanthropic gifts have increased.

“We are here today to commit to continue that trend,” he said, “to understand it better, and to strengthen our different roles in helping it continue. I would like to make fundraising a priority at BMCC and I hope that this seminar will spark ideas and collaborations.”

Joining the conversation
The conference began with a panel conversation between Chris Riback, host of the ABC radio show, Conversations with Thinkers, and President Pérez.

Their discussion, which focused on community colleges, brought up topics including the role of technology in learning, and graduation rates. The President discussed academic challenges facing many freshmen, and his own experience as a first-generation college student.

“Students who make A’s here would make A’s at any other school,” he said. “Our students are no different from students whose parents are paying $50,000 a year for their tuition—and I want to replicate whatever parents are paying for, at that institution, here.”

Following the panel discussion were presentations by Heyman Center Executive Director Naomi Levine, and NYU law professor and former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the NY State Law Department’s Charities Bureau, William Josephson.

Another speaker was Richard Brown, a clinical professor at the Heyman Center who oversees the Center’s masters degree program and who has served for organizations including Autism Speaks, as well as Heyman Center professors Ruthellen Rubin and Marian Z. Stern, who examined “The Art of the Ask.”

The day’s presentations closed with Marcia Stepanek, an award-winning new media strategist and author of the forthcoming book, Swarms: The Rise of the Digital Anti-Establishment.

A special tribute
After guests enjoyed a buffet luncheon, BMCC VP of Development Doriz Holz presented certificates of recognition to four renowned philanthropists who have set an example for generosity and vision, in New York City and beyond.

She started by honoring Barbara and Donald Jonas, “noted art collectors who auctioned off 15 of their valuable abstract expressionist artworks in 2005, generating $44 million in seed money for the Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund.”

Among other endeavors, the Jonas Fund supports students in the field of nursing.

“The future of our health care system is our nurses,” said Barbara Jonas, adding that there will be a “huge shortage of doctors” in the not-so-distant future, making the role of nurses more critical than ever. She was joined at the podium by her husband, Donald Jonas, who spoke of another project, the Joans Veterans Healthcare Program, that the Fund supports.

“We are in the midst of funding wounded veterans,” he said, describing teh Program’s efforts linking nurses with veterans who need their services.

Planting trees
The next philanthropist honored was H. Dale Hemmerdinger, a trustee of NYU and chairman of its Alumni Relations and Public Affairs committees.

Together with NYU President John Sexton, Mr. Hemmerdinger initiated a three-to-one matching campaign to support the university’s scholarship funds.

President of The Hemmerdinger Corporation, he is also a Chairman of the Citizens Budget Committee, a Trustee of the New York City Police Foundation, an Executive Committee Member of the Association for a Better New York and a Partner of the New York City Partnership.

“What I really am, is a student of Naomi Levine,” said Mr. Hemmerdinger in his acceptance remarks, and shared what he described as “the best definition of philanthropy I’ve ever heard: Planting trees under whose shade you will never sit.”

A world of concentric circles
Also honored in the recognition ceremony was Daniel Rose, whose non-profit efforts have resulted in providing fresh drinking water to 12,000 Ashanti villagers in Ghana.

Having created the Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership at the Urban Land Institute and the Yale/Technion Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism Program, his most satisfying philanthropic undertaking, he says, has been to form the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, an after-school program in which 100% of its participants graduate from high school.

Mr. Rose, who is well acquainted with the challenges students face accessing higher education, suggested that BMCC focus its message on the fact that “community colleges change lives for those who, absent this opportunity, wouldn’t become the people they could be.”

He also tied social responsibility to a personal story.

“When my father was told it’s a small world, he said, ‘No, it’s a very large world, made of thin, concentric circles’,” Mr. Rose shared, and counterbalanced earlier discussions of fraud in fundraising by quoting the 3rd-century Roman theologist Tertullian: “Any calling is noble, if nobly pursued.”

Naomi Levine and William Josephson: Legends in their field
The final award was presented to iconic fundraiser, Heyman Center Executive Director and former civil rights lawyer, Naomi Levine.

Director Levine—who shared that her age is 90—inspired the day’s participants in talks that applied her considerable lessons learned in the field of fundraising, to today’s challenges.

“In 1978, NYU was bankrupt,” she said, “and today, we raise over $400 million a year.”

Larry Tisch joined the NYU board of directors as president at that time, she said, and was instrumental during that transformation, as were new members anchored in “finance, real estate, insurance—that’s where the big money comes from.”

In fact, she said, “Fundraising became everyone’s job—every faculty member, every dean, every administrator. The deans had a quota, the faculty was judged by their ideas.”

Moving to the topic of higher education, she spoke of the “essential role” of community colleges.

“Minorities today, are majorities tomorrow. These students will be running the country in 20 to 30 years,” she said, and quoted the founders of Harvard University, who asserted the need for “an educated electorate to run a democracy.”

Speaking to new fundraisers in the audience, she stressed the importance of knowing as much as possible about potential donors before meeting with them, and suggested that fundraisers “take with you to those meetings, some of the people who developed the program … Talk about everything in the world—but not your school or money.”

Her point? “The relationship is what matters… There is no substitute for being smart, but you can help yourself by being widely read. Know what’s going on in the world. Don’t just read The Chronicle of Philanthropy, read novels.”

With her colleague, NYU Law Professor William Josephson, she touched on the complexities of ethical issues: “They don’t always involve a right and wrong, but often, two rights.”

Professor Josephson, who served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the New York State Law Department’s Charities Bureau, shared an insider’s perspective on what can happen when good governance—transparency and accountability—is ignored.

Mr. Josephson, who testified to the U.S. Senate Committee of Finance in 2009 on ponzi schemes and charities, wove together the issues of ethics and good governance.

He gave the multi-billion-dollar Bernie Madoff scandal as an example of the worse that can happen when “no one is paying attention,” and reviewed a non-profit board of director’s compelling duty to read audits and other fiduciary reports “line by line”; to disclose, to not conceal, to avoid conflict of interest, and other responsibilities.

Applying for federal tuition aid is built into the registration experience at BMCC. In other words, it’s virtually impossible to skip that step of the process.

But what about smaller scholarships, ones that might be offered by a foundation or private organization, and aren’t usually based on a student’s income?

“I constantly Google scholarship contests and research them, to make sure they’re legitimate and appropriate for our students,” says BMCC Scholarship Coordinator, Sussie Gyamfi.

Next, she says, “I use email to get the word out about scholarship contests coming up. For example, the Courage to Grow contest, which awards a gift of $500, has a 2.5 GPA cutoff, so I sort students by GPA and send an email to all who qualify.”

Understandably, she emphasizes the importance of students checking their BMCC email.

“Otherwise,” she says, “they miss out.”

A wide array of contests

The BMCC website lists scholarship opportunities, and off top of her head, Gyamfi mentions a few with cash prizes large enough to cover almost half of a student’s tuition for one semester, or help out with books or other expenses.

“There’s the David A. Garfinkel Essay Contest from the Historical Society of the New York State Courts,” she says, “and the University Student Senate scholarship, which is CUNYwide.”

She adds the CUNY Ethics and Morality Essay Contest to her list, “plus there’s the Dream Deferred Essay Contest about civil rights in the Middle East, and the Bird-X Essay Contest from Generation Green where you write a short essay about how you live green. And if you’re the creative type, there’s the Frame My Future Scholarship Contest, from a custom-frame manufacturer that invites students to submit a collage, poem, drawing or photograph.”

Support for the contest essay

The scholarship contests “are all very different and appeal to different strengths students might have,” she points out.

Christian Meyers, a computer network technology major, received several scholarships, including the David Garfinkel award for his essay on cyber-bullying, “The Day of the Internet Gangster.”

Whichever contest students enter, “The common denominator is that most of them involve writing an essay,” says Gyamfi, who helps applicants with that part, while the BMCC Writing Center is available for more guidance.

“Plus I do BMCC scholarship workshops where we walk through the application process,” she adds, “and students can talk to their teachers for help. I have a list of faculty members who have volunteered to help students with their scholarship essays.”

Scholarships within BMCC

Scholarship funds generated within BMCC include the English department’s Writing & Literature Faculty Awards of up to $1,000—funded through faculty and staff donations and co-sponsored in the past by publishing companies including Pearson Publishing, Cengage Publishing and Norton Publishing.

Another resource for students is the BMCC Foundation Scholarship Fund, which helps out high-performing, full- or part-time students who demonstrate financial need and meet other requirements.

“We send emails about the Foundation Scholarships to students who have at least a 3.0 GPA and have completed 12 credits,” says Gyamfi. “We also send a mass email through the BMCC Help Desk, to encourage faculty and staff to nominate students for the scholarships.”

‘Check your BMCC email!’

Gyamfi uses every available mode of communication to reach students and inform them of well-known and sometimes obscure scholarship opportunities that might interest them.

“It’s email, word-of-mouth, faculty and staff nomination, workshops; I go to the student clubs and promote the scholarships, and we post flyers and put notices on the BMCC website,” she says, “but mostly, students learn about it through their email so I can’t say too many times—‘Check your BMCC email!’”