Conntections Vol.4 No.1

connections New York City College of Technology

Fall 2011

Vol. 4, No. 1

connections

City Tech to Build Partnership with NASA Iron Skillet Cook-Off Jr. Event Chefs to Celebrate City Tech on October 4 City Tech Students Design Website for United Nations Agency ‘City Tech Writer’ Now Online

Connections is the online magazine of New York City College of Technology 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201-1909. © 2011. All rights reserved.

Dale Tarnowieski Editor-in-Chief Jewel Escobar Michele Forsten Contributing Editors Jamie Markowitz Graphic Designer

Photo credit: Al Vargas

CITY TECH’S 2011 COMMENCEMENT AT MCU PARK HITS HOME RUN The Parachute Jump stood watch just beyond the outfield as 2,000 City Tech students received their degrees at the College’s 71st commencement exercises.

Starting off the festivities, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz brought greetings. “After years of having its commencement in the outer borough of

Manhattan, welcome home, City Tech, to the republic of Brooklyn!” he exclaimed, to wild applause.

Lisa P. Jackson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, and 2011 Valedictorian Theresa Evans were among the featured speakers.

MORE ▼

The day dawned sunny with low humidity, perfect for an outdoor commencement. At Municipal Credit Union (MCU) Park in Coney Island, blue and gold flags – the colors of New York City College of Technology and, coincidentally, of the home team Brooklyn Cyclones – formed a circle around the infield, waving in the breeze.

REDESIGN OF GENERAL EDUCATION FOR 21ST CENTURY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY UNDERWAY As New York City College of Technology continues the redesign of its general education program for a college of technology, the context for the Bonne August study of the humanities is undergoing profound change, according to

Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs Bonne August.

Aspects of this change include the introduction of digital tools and methods, promise new discoveries and knowledge, as well as opportunities for new forms of collaborative work. At City Tech, a Title V grant helped fund the implementation of a digital platform, enabling students to represent their own experience and understanding of the liberal arts and link their general education meaningfully and personally to their career studies. Faculty members are collaborating

across disciplines to redefine general education in an institution that specializes in preparing graduates for professional success in a wide range of technology-driven fields.

“The role of the liberal arts at City Tech,” Provost August noted recently, “is not simply foundational or instrumental; it is an essential facet of the education we offer our students, who will be not only workers but also parents, citizens, artists, innovators and leaders. They will need to make moral choices, evaluate complex situations and tread turbid emotional waters.” http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

1

City Tech to Build Partnership with NASA to Prepare Students for Aerospace Careers City Tech was recently awarded $442,000 in funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) earmarked for the College’s project, “Achieving Proficiency in Engineering Research and STEM Education through NASA Initiatives.”

As a result, this summer six City Tech students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields

worked with NASA and Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) scientists as full-time interns for eight to ten weeks on research projects at the New York City Research Initiative (sponsored by the NASA Education Office), the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Before starting the internships, the students received special training to strengthen their research skills.

NASA is funding these research opportunities through its Curriculum Improvement Partnership Award for the Integration of Research (CIPAIR), with the goal of attracting more minority students to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The project aims to help increase the transfer rate of STEM students from two- to four-year colleges, the graduation rate from 20 to 50 percent, and the retention rate from 44 to 65 percent, as well as make the City Tech community more aware of NASA’s mission.

With those goals in mind, City Tech is collaborating with CUNY-LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) and Hostos Community College’s previously NASA-funded Proyecto Access Pre-Freshman Engineering Program (NYPREP). Four Hostos students will participate in the internships with NASA and GISS scientists.

This summer, project co-directors Dr. Gaffar Gailani (City Tech assistant professor, mechanical engineering and industrial design technology) and Dr. Nieves Angulo (associate professor of mathematics at Hostos) will work on research projects at NASA facilities. Also co-directing the project are City Tech’s Dr. Sidi Berri (chair, mechanical engineering and industrial design technology) and Dr. Reginald Blake (associate professor of physics and coordinator of the College’s Black Male Initiative, BMI).

CITY TECH ADDRESSES IGNORANCE ABOUT ORAL CANCER With approximately 30,000 cases of oral cancer diagnosed each year, the disease is more prevalent than melanoma. So why is it that only 20 percent of dental offices perform oral cancer screenings on their patients?

“If your dentist does not routinely examine your mouth for oral cancer, it may be time to find a new dentist,” says City Tech Dental Hygiene Professor Gwen CohenBrown, DDS. “Oral cancer screening saves lives and should be a routine part of your annual dental visit. It is painless and can easily be completed in a few minutes.”

A pilot project in the works at the College has the goal of teaching the dangers of oral cancer and how to screen for it to City Tech students majoring in the health professions.

Students who enrolled this fall in oral pathology, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, and physics courses offered by the Schools of Professional Studies and Arts

2 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

and Sciences will benefit from case studies and collaborative work related to oral cancer awareness.

The project is being led by Biological Sciences Professor Laina Karthikeyan and includes, in addition to Dr. Cohen-Brown, Physics Professor Boris Gelman and Biological Sciences Professor Sanjoy Chakraborty. All four were invited to

participate last year in a Summer Institute offered by the National Science Foundation’s Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER), which subsequently funded the pilot project.

Their initiative built on the annual, free oral cancer screenings offered on campus by City Tech’s Department of Dental Hygiene, in collaboration with the Russian Dental Association. During the visit, dental hygiene students review a patient’s medical and basic dental history, perform an initial clinical exam and then present the case to the faculty or medical personnel involved.

Dr. Pamela Brown, City Tech’s dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, explains the project’s purpose. “It improves science education by connecting course content in physics and biology with the engaging and important topic of oral cancer awareness, a real-world problem.”

CITY TECH OPENS ITS FIRST PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH LAB City Tech has inaugurated a new stateof-the-art psychology research laboratory, the first such facility in the College’s history. The new lab, funded in part by The City University of New York Graduate Research & Technology Initiative and PSC-CUNY grants, is enabling students and faculty to develop and conduct psychology research projects and allows for the integration of laboratory research and technology into the psychology curriculum.

According to Assistant Professor of Psychology Jean Kubeck, what sets this lab apart from others is that “it is the only one we know of that allows researchers to combine state-of-the art immersive virtual reality (VR) technology – giving users the sense of ‘stepping’ into a 3D computergenerated world in a believable way – with

repeatable experimental setups and manipulate the world in ways normally impossible or prohibitively expensive in reality.

An automatic motion tracking system, the PPT X2 by WorldViz, synchronizes movement in the real world with movement in the virtual world. The new lab is ideally suited for research that presents stimuli in traditional or nontraditional formats like virtual Photo credit: Al Vargas reality and collects multiple kinds more traditional psychophysiology, of data at one time. behavioral and cognitive research The College’s School of Arts and Sciences equipment and methodology.” is exploring the creation of a technologyDonning a high-resolution head-mounted focused baccalaureate degree program in display, lab users can immerse themselves applied psychology and an associate in a 3D stereoscopic virtual world where degree track for students working towards they are free to walk and explore naturally. a two-year liberal arts or liberal sciences Researchers can create controlled and degree.

CITY TECH WINS $900K IN GRANTS FOR TWO EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS City Tech – in partnership with two Brooklyn high schools – was awarded two of just 16 state-wide Smart Scholars Early College High Schools (ECHS) grants funded

by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Each of the two grants was for $450,000 and covers a three-year period.

City Tech’s partners are City Polytechnic High School (City Poly High), launched in fall 2009 in Downtown Brooklyn, and the brand-new Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-Tech), which opened its doors in Crown Heights this fall.

In announcing the awards, Governor Cuomo said, “Smart Scholars allows New York high school students to receive college credit, finish their degrees faster, and do it at a significantly reduced cost. I commend my partners in government for working together and delivering a program that is beneficial to so many young New Yorkers.”

At City Poly High, the grant will enable up to 70 students to have their first year of tuition at City Tech paid in full. This is in addition to the 78 students who are being supported by one of the initial ECHS grants funded privately in 2009 in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. City Poly High students are required to meet one requirement for eligibility to qualify for the free first year of tuition at City Tech – they must complete their high school requirements in three years.

P-Tech, a collaboration with IBM and the New York City Department of Education, will be using the first year of the funding mainly for curriculum development. A team of City Tech and high school faculty worked together on an innovative plan of study for the 108 students who began their studies this fall. The remainder was targeted towards paying the salary of a liaison to oversee the partnership.

‘Tubman Legacy’ Was Theme of Black History Month Celebration City Tech celebrated Black History Month with a series of events in February 2011, including African American Studies Professor Tshombe Walker’s examination of the legacy of Harriet Tubman as the embodiment of African cultural survivals.

Sundog Theatre actress Christine Dixon performed “Harriet Tubman Herself,” and Dr. Sherrill Wilson, cultural anthropologist and founding director, Office of Public Education and Interpretation, NY African Burial Ground, delivered a keynote address, “Celebrating Freedom.” The month’s activities also featured a performance by the City Tech Community Choir and an Ursula C. Schwerin Library exhibition, “African Cultural Survivals in the Americas: The Legacy of Harriet Tubman,” of posters created by Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts students.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

3

Professor’s Study Finds Nursing Case Management Affects Outcomes of High-Risk Patients with Diabetes Patients with diabetes who follow a self-care regimen generally have success in controlling their disease. But what about patients whose other health conditions, such as cognitive impairment and/or depression, create barriers to effective treatment?

It is those individuals facing such obstacles to successful diabetes management that City Tech Nursing Professor Kathleen Falk made the focus of a year-long study. She provided a community-based care plan – followed by testing and evaluation every three months to monitor disease markers – to see if such a strategy could make a difference in health outcomes. Falk, chairperson of the Adult Day Health Council (ADHC) Research Collaborative Diabetes Management Study, obtained the participation of 104 clients from 10 Adult Day Health Care Centers in New York City, Long Island, upstate New

Professor Kathleen Falk

York and Buffalo.

The study employed what are known as the ABC’s of diabetes care: A1C blood tests to check blood sugar, blood pressure control and cholesterol management. At each three-month assessment point, at least 60 percent of participants, including those with depression or cognitive impairment, showed a statistically significant decrease in A1C levels, while approximately 25 percent worsened. The

How Race Shapes Educational Outcomes and Social Experiences of Students and Faculty The Black Women’s Networking Committee (BWNC) at City Tech, in conjunction with the PSC Project on CUNY and Race, hosted a presentation by Carol Wright, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Initiative on Faculty Race & Diversity, in February Carol Wright 2011. An expert in the field, Wright examined the ways race shapes educational outcomes and the social experiences of students and faculty in American educational institutions. According to Wright, underrepresentation of ethnic and racial minorities on U.S. faculties and in the academic workplace continues despite years of affirmative action policies.

Barriers exist to the full participation of faculty and professional staff of color throughout higher education.

4 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

PSC-CUNY has chosen to take on the important task of better understanding these issues by investigating racial disparities in the career trajectories of faculty and professional staff over a 10-year span from 2000-2010. The PSC will manage a two-year research and communications effort involving the collection of information from a wide range of sources that include CUNYfirst, individual CUNY campuses, focus groups and interviews. The project will document existing practices in recruiting, hiring, retaining, mentoring and promoting faculty and professional staff, while addressing barriers faced as departments and work units make efforts to deepen diversity and inclusiveness.

analyses demonstrated the program’s general effectiveness in reducing the A1C levels of participants.

Falk attributes the positive outcomes to the way the centers conducted the clients’ evaluation visits. Clients were able to get immediate feedback about the A1C test, which reinforced their efforts and engaged them in setting goals for managing diabetes. She notes that whenever people participate in their own health care management, they do better.

Falk wants to build on her study in order to educate community nurses on identifying depression among diabetics and making interventions on their behalf. She believes that this work has the potential to become a national model. “It will be a lot of work, but worthwhile,” she says.

“Nurses are on the frontline in pulling together management of care.”

Sapphire Headlined 30th Annual Literary Arts Festival In April 2011, the Departments of English and African American Studies co-sponsored the College’s 30th Anniversary Literary Arts Festival, featuring readings by bestselling author and poet Sapphire, who wrote the novel Push (1996) which was adapted into the Oscar-winning 2009 film Precious. Push won the Book-of-the-Month Club’s Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s First Novelist Award, and, in Great Britain, the Mind Book of the Year Award. The film of her novel received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance.

English Professor George Guida coordinated and hosted this year’s festival.

CITY TECH PRESENTED ‘LOOKING GLASS REWONDERED’ IN APRIL

Phyllis Chen

In April, City Tech’s Department of Entertainment Technology, in collaboration with performance artist Phyllis Chen and video artist Rob Dietz, presented “Looking Glass Rewondered,” a multi-media show inspired by the themes and objects from Lewis Carroll’s prized novels. Professor Sue Brandt coordinated the show’s three performances.

A whimsical and thought-provoking journey into the fascinating world of Lewis Carroll, the production was the newest multi-media creation from Chen, who in addition to being a performance artist is also a toy pianist and composer. She has been praised by The New York Times for her “delightful quirkiness matched with interpretive sensitivity.” In addition to “Looking Glass Rewondered,” Chen performed “Down the Rabbit-Hole,” a New York State Council on the Arts-funded commission, also based on Carroll’s work and scored for toy pianos, music boxes, electronics, live and edited video and amplified objects.

Rounding out the show was her earlier work “The Memoirist.”

The College’s entertainment technology program educates students for careers backstage at concerts, corporate and special events, cruise ships, film/television productions, sports venues, theatres, theme parks and trade shows. The department accepts beginners looking to break into the industry, as well as seasoned professionals and IATSE Union members who would like to update their skills to keep up with the demands of new technology in this everaccelerating market. City Tech also offers a new bachelor’s degree program in emerging media technologies.

Donna Rosenthal Honored at Annual Seder The City Tech Jewish Faculty & Staff work in research, public education Association honored Donna and services for people with Rosenthal, alumni relations advisor developmental challenges. She in the Office of Alumni and came to the society after a decade Development at Columbia University of work at United Neighborhood and a consultant in not-for-profit Houses of New York, the federation organizational initiatives, at its of settlement houses, where she Annual Passover Demonstration was the assistant director, Seder in March 2011. establishing employment, home Rosenthal was the executive vice care and outreach programs which Donna Rosenthal chairman of CLAL–The National have been replicated nationwide.

Jewish Center for Learning and Ms. Rosenthal created the Leadership for fifteen years, administering all of volunteer program, Project Child, which was designated the 149th Point of Light by former the operations for this nationally recognized leadership training institute, think tank and President George H. W. Bush. She is co-editor of resource center. Prior to joining CLAL, Rosenthal the book, Down Syndrome: Living and Learning served as executive director of the National in the Community, and served as consultant to Down Syndrome Society, recognized for its the television show, “Life Goes On.”

3RD ANNUAL IRON SKILLET COOK-OFF JR. EVENT

The 3rd Annual Iron Skillet Cook-Off Jr. competition was held at New York City College of Technology in May 2011. The 30 students from Brooklyn afterschool programs who attended the event were organized into several teams and assisted by members of the New York City Fire Department.

The cook-off was organized by Monique Russell, coordinator of Brooklyn Afterschool, and the firefighters in attendance were Robert Diaz (Ladder 166), Khalid Baylor (Ladder 14) and Sal De Paola (Engine 60).

The teams prepared a variety of pasta dishes, including Antipasto Hearty Salad, Lasagna Verdi Al Forno, Pasta Halal St. Johns, Bed-Stuy Pasta and Lasagna Di Spezia Di Sole.

At the conclusion of the competition, five awards were presented: 1st Place to Robert Diaz and Red Hook Recreation Center’s Afterschool Program, 2nd Place to Khalid Baylor and Sunset Park Recreation Center’s Afterschool Program, 3rd Place to Sal De Paolo and Brownsville Recreation Center’s Afterschool Program, 4th Place to Robert Diaz and St. John’s Recreation Center’s Afterschool Program, and 5th Place to Sal De Paolo and Von King Cultural Arts Recreation Center’s Afterschool Program.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

5

UPCOMING EVENTS: FALL 2011 CHEFS TO CELEBRATE CITY TECH ON OCTOBER 4 City Tech’s Department of Hospitality Management will host a spectacular culinary event on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, from 6:00-8:30pm, in the Janet Lefler Dining Room, 300 Jay Street (at Tillary), 2nd floor, Downtown Brooklyn.

The evening, coordinated by celebrity chef and City Tech graduate Michael Lomonaco, managing partner of Porter House New York at Time Warner Center, will mark the grand opening of City Tech’s new state-of-the-art main teaching facility and feature a round of tastings of the signature dishes and desserts of a dozen of America’s most talented chefs. Tickets are $100/$50 for students, with proceeds to benefit the department’s scholarship fund and other activities. For tickets and sponsorship information, call 718.260.5025.

JFSA Speakers Series to Feature Professor Menachem Z. Rosensaft on November 10 On Thursday, November 10, 2011, from 12:45-2:15 p.m., the Jewish Faculty & Staff Association will feature a talk by Professor Menachem Z. Rosensaft, general counsel of the World Jewish Congress, adjunct professor of law at Cornell University, Columbia University and Syracuse University, and the son of two survivors of the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Rosensaft will speak in the College’s Atrium Amphitheater, 300 Jay Street (at Tillary), Downtown Brooklyn. JFSA will honor Rosensaft with Its Distinguished Humanitarian Award and also bestow its Distinguished Achievement Award on Sonia Beker, author of Symphony on Fire: A Story of Music and Spiritual Resistance During the Holocaust, the inspiring account of her parents, violinist Max Beker and pianist Fania Durmashkin-Beker, members of well-known Vilnius musician families who perished in the Holocaust.

6 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

Visit Haunted Hotel, October 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30 and 31 Prepare to be scared if you dare to venture inside “Gravesend Inn: A Haunted Hotel” in October at Voorhees Theatre, 186 Jay Street (north of Tillary), Downtown Brooklyn. A whole new room awaits your arrival, plus a newly married ghost, Tina Terminal, who is forever searching for her groom. New York City College of Technology’s high-tech haunted hotel is a theme-park-quality Halloween attraction that has been thrilling children and adults alike since 2000. General admission is $5 per person, $4 per person for group sales.

Not advisable for pre-school age children.

Open to the college community and general public. For more information, call 718.260.5588 during regular business hours. For recorded information, call 718.260.5592 or visit www.theatreworkscitytech.org.

SCHEDULE Thurs, Oct 20 ............1:00-5:00pm Fri, Oct 21 ................1:00-5:00pm Fri, Oct 21 ................6:00-9:00pm Sat, October 22 ........1:00-5:00pm Sat, October 22 ........6:00-9:00pm Thurs, October 27......1:00-5:00pm Fri, October 28 ..........1:00-5:00pm Fri, October 28 ..........6:00- 9:00pm Sat, October 30 ........1:00-5:00pm Sat, October 30 ........6:00-9:00pm Mon, October 31 ......1:00-5:00pm

WHAT’S NEW IN CONTINUING EDUCATION? ACCESS Hosts International Delegation of Women

A delegation of women from around the world gathered at City Tech in June 2011 as part of a weeklong professional study tour designed to stimulate ideas on how to increase the number of women in their countries pursuing careers in science and technology. The tour was coordinated by the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership program.

The women heard a presentation by Nona Smith, director of the City Tech Division of Continuing Education’s ACCESS for Women (AFW) program, supplemented by input from faculty, staff and students involved with the College’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

initiative. AFW is designed to increase the representation of women of all ages in technological education and careers – especially in the engineering technologies and related fields.

The City Tech program was selected as part of the delegation’s itinerary to address one area of the group’s interest – the best practices, funding sources, success stories and current work of programs like AFW. Among the participants were Dr. Judith S. Satoguina (Benin), lecturer on immunology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Abomey-Calavi Cotonou; Dr. Hassanata Millogo-Kone (Burkina Faso), general secretary, Ministry of Scientific

Research and Innovation (MSRI); Ms. Fatou E. Bah-Baldeh (The Gambia), principal laboratory technician, Medical Research Council (MRC); Ms. Sherine Butros Nabih Rahil (Jordan) orthodontic consultant, selfemployed; Dr. Baatar Munkhtsengel (Mongolia), associate professor, Mongolian University of Science and Technology; Dr. Ansam F. D. Sawalha (Palestinian Territories), dean, faculty of pharmacy, AnNajah National University; and Department of State employees Tatiana Rodzianko (program officer) and Diane Fisch (English language officer).

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

7

STUDENT ACHIEVERS MAKING THEIR MARK ON AND OFF CAMPUS

FORMER STUDENT CO-AUTHORS PAPER WITH PHYSICS PROFESSOR ON ‘NEO-HITCHHIKING’ TO MARS “Hitching a ride on an asteroid may be the safest way for humans to travel to Mars,” according to former City Tech student Monika Wilga and Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics and NASA consultant Gregory L. Matloff in a paper published in a special March-April 2011 issue of Acta Astronautics. The two call this means of interplanetary travel “NEO-hitchhiking.”

Two dangers, in particular, confront astronauts on what could be a three-year round-trip voyage to the Red Planet by conventional, rocket-propelled means. Such a trip would take nine months or so each way, and the ship’s crew would have to remain on Mars for well over an Earth year until the two planets were again in the proper relationship for the return journey to their home world to commence.

The dangers to life and limb stem from two significant barriers to long-duration travel far from Earth. The least significant of these – although the one that has received the most publicity – is bone degradation stemming from prolonged weightlessness. Solving this problem involves spacecraft design, whereby spinning an interplanetary craft to provide at least partial artificial gravity would almost certainly lessen these damaging health effects.

A more significant impediment to rocketpropelled interplanetary travel was experienced by Project Apollo astronauts between 1968 and 1972. The first and only humans to travel beyond the influence of Earth’s magnetic field, to date, they reported visible flashes when their eyes were closed in a darkened spacecraft. These flashes were produced by the impact on the ship of high-energy high-Z cosmic rays.

“At the present time,” say Wilga and Matloff, “little is known about the longterm health effects of exposure to these

8 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

particles. On a trip to Mars requiring nine months or more, it’s possible that galactic radiation might impair mental acuity or result in life-threatening cancers.

“Two methods have been suggested to shield interplanetary voyagers or spacehabitat dwellers from cosmic radiation,” they add. “The most technically sophisticated utilizes magnetic fields on the ship to simulate the shielding effects of Earth’s magnetic field, but this ‘active’ approach is not yet in an advanced stage of development.”

A second and far simpler “passive” approach is mass shielding. “Here,” say the authors, “astronauts would be protected by layers of water, sand, aluminum or other material thick enough to sufficiently attenuate the high-Z galactic cosmic-ray flux. But a lot of mass would be required.”

According to one NASA study the paper cites, about 5,500 kg/m2 of shielding would be needed to simulate Earth-surface radiation levels

According to the authors, the area of assembly of a craft consisting of two joined cylindrical modules with a diameter of 4 m and a length of 16 m (not counting the end caps) is about 200 m2. The shield mass would have to be a whopping one million kilograms!

“The projected costs of Mars expeditions with ‘dry’ (unfueled) masses of 100,000 kg, give or take,” the authors note, “is approximately $100 billion. So if we are to launch our Mars-bound astronauts with passive cosmic ray shielding, trillion-dollar costs per mission might be more realistic.”

Wilga and Matloff suggest that before sticker shock sets in, “we might consider an alternative to launching a fully shielded interplanetary mission. This approach makes use of space resources located not too far from the Earth – those small celestial bodies dubbed NEOs or near-Earth objects.

“Most of those celestial icebergs we call comets,” they say, “reside in two locations very distant from the sun in the Kuiper Belt

MORE STUDENT ACHIEVERS

and the Oort Cloud. Most of the rocky and stony minor planets or asteroids reside between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. In recent decades, however, increasing numbers of extinct comet and asteroid-like objects have been observed in orbits that bring them close to the Earth.”

For use as stepping stones to Mars, Wilga and Matloff add, it is necessary to locate NEOs near the ecliptic since Mars’ inclination is about 2°. The perihelion of a candidate NEO should be about 1 AU, or the mean distance of Earth from the sun; its aphelion should be about 1.5 AU, or Mars’ mean distance from the sun. A survey of NEOs known prior to 1994 indicates that a number of Apollo-class NEOs (those with orbits that cross Earth’s orbit) satisfy this requirement.

The authors then suggest that the sizable number of NEOs that fit this requirement raises the possibility of a mode of travel to Mars that would substantially reduce a crew’s exposure to galactic cosmic radiation. In this approach, a NEO is located that orbits close to the ecliptic plane with a perihelion near Earth and an aphelion near Mars.

After Earth escape, a velocity increment is applied to the spacecraft which allows it to rendezvous with the NEO within two to three months. During the balance of the interplanetary flight and after imbedding itself within the NEO, the object’s material is used as a cosmic-ray shield. Approaching Mars, the spacecraft would emerge from the protective cover of the NEO, alter course for the Red Planet and decelerate upon arrival by aerocapture, a process that would use the drag created by the atmosphere of the planet to slow the approaching object.

During the ship’s return to Earth, a similar strategy is followed.

In August 2008, there were approximately 5,500 NEOs in the data base. Since this is

thought to represent only a small percentage of NEOs large enough to shield an interplanetary spacecraft from galactic cosmic rays, many more candidate NEOs are likely to be located as detection sensitivity increases.

“There are many issues and opportunities to be considered regarding this approach to interplanetary travel,” according to Wilga and Matloff. ”First, is the obvious trade of cosmic-ray shielding for flight time.

Interplanetary trips using NEO-hitchhiking will be longer in duration and considerably longer in distance. For the approach considered here to be applied, the spacecraft would have to be buried under 2∏ of NEO material to provide adequate shielding.

Unless massive mining equipment was carried aboard the spacecraft, asteroid equivalents to iron meteorites would probably be inappropriate for this application. A volatile-rich NEO or one with a thick regolith layer would probably serve better. Moreover, in such a long-duration flight, microgravity will almost certainly be an issue. It might be necessary to place the spacecraft in a small crater near the pole of a slowly rotating NEO and spin [the craft] slowly to create partial gravity after covering it with regolith, rubble or ice.”

Many asteroids are suspected to be volatile-rich, according to the authors, or composed, that is, of chemical elements with low boiling points. If water-ice-rich NEOs were used in the application described here, they conclude, water could be gathered by the crew and stored aboard the spacecraft.

Using solar-electrolysis equipment, hydrogen and oxygen could be separated for use as rocket fuel. This material could be applied during Mars approach after separation from the NEO or perhaps used during the return voyage to Earth.

CITY TECH STUDENT SIMEON COKER IS ONE CLUB CREATIVE BOOT CAMP MERIT AWARD WINNER The One Club Creative Boot Camp is a diversity initiative with the goal of recruiting creative students from multicultural backgrounds who were not aware of advertising and design as a viable career option. The purpose is to introduce these students to the art of conceptualizing and building a campaign for a real client from the ground up.

The Boot Camp is a program that has been created for future advertising and design “creatives” and is run by “creatives” currently working in the industry. The 2010/2011 academic year saw nearly 80 CUNY students take part in an intense four-day simulation activity held at the Macaulay Honors College, where they engaged in the actual work of producing and presenting advertising.

Ad agencies provided actual product profiles and support, and the students, divided into teams, created real campaigns for presentation to agency executives. City Tech student Simeon Coker entered the One Club Education competition and was one of two CUNY merit award winners.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

9

MORE STUDENT ACHIEVERS STUDENT’S RESEARCH CONCLUDES THAT MOST YOUNG PEOPLE AREN’T USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO IMPROVE THEMSELVES OR SOCIETY A survey of 2,000 young people, ages 15 to 24, from countries around the world by City Tech student Nurudeen Busari supports the idea that few are using social media to enrich their own lives or the larger society.

Busari, a computer information systems major born in Nigeria and now residing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, represented City Tech and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at the 2011 Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) held in February 2011 in Washington, DC. At the conference, Busari presented the results of his study to student researchers and representatives of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Education and Human Resources Programs, and the National Science Foundation’s Division of Human Resource Development, Directorate for Education and Human Resources.

Planning to become a career network administrator, Busari, was not particularly surprised by the results of his research conducted under the guidance of City Tech Computer Systems Technology Professor Marcos Pinto. “Young people, 15 to 24, are at the age when most Nurudeen Busari are only just beginning to think about their future and what they want to accomplish in life. Social networks can be a tremendous tool in helping them make such critical decisions, but need to employ every means possible to put the idea in young people’s minds of using these tools for more productive purposes than they are currently

using them – purposes that serve to enrich their experience and promote their growth through proper applications.”

Busari also believes that parents and teachers need to provide young people with better guidance in terms of their use of social networks, and suggests that online advertisers, as well, have a role to play in encouraging the young to put social networks and all facets of the Internet to better use for learning and other beneficial purposes.

“I’m not against social networks,” Bursari adds. “But I am for a more effective use of them. They were created to enable people to rapidly interact, to share and grow from one another’s experiences. Like any tool, they can be used for positive and negative purposes. Both my research and personal experience suggest that today’s youth are not putting this powerful tool to the best possible use.”

CITY TECH STUDENTS DESIGN WEBSITE FOR UNITED NATIONS AGENCY Five City Tech students – Matthias Blonski, Nadia Saleh, Andre Burrell, Jenny Huang and Kathlyn Lam – recently took their talents onto the global stage by redesigning the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) website. The site is located at http://www.unaoc.org/.

The five students involved in this project were members of the Design Team course offered by the College’s Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts.

“UNAOC’s site needed to maximize ease of use and to simplify the content displayed,” said their professor, Douglas Davis. “The students had to keep in mind that the site had a truly global audience.

The final design was a result of many explorations and revisions, sometimes in class and sometimes directly with our contact at the UNAOC, Aaron Fineman, web and multimedia manager.”

10 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

Rearranging the order of the content was a key to the City Tech revitalization of the UNAOC site. “The students were challenged to organize and simplify placement of essential items in such areas as the header and footer. Challenges like integrating social media and automating regular updates were also solved,” Professor Douglas explained.

The team also created a modular main display space used as a way to draw the viewer’s eye to what is most important on the page. A scrolling image was chosen to keep things simple, yet interesting. The rest of the site was organized in a logical manner to stay consistent and easy to understand. UNAOC was given templates and style sheets for proceeding with future

updates and alterations.

“Every student played a crucial role in developing the UNAOC website, and it was great to have one of the team members intern at the organization to see it through,” Professor Davis said. Kathlyn Lam was chosen to intern with the UNAOC to help finalize the redesign and launch of the site following graduation.

MORE STUDENT ACHIEVERS TWO CITY TECH TEAMS TAKE THREE AWARDS IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ASME DESIGN COMPETITION

DENTAL HYGIENE STUDENT TAKES THIRD PLACE IN ADHA SESSION TABLE CLINIC PRESENTATIONS Toni-Ann Restivo

ASME Competition Group

Pictured here are most of the 23 City Tech students from five academic programs (mechanical engineering technology, electromechanical engineering technology, industrial design technology, computer engineering technology, and arts and sciences) who participated in the 1st Annual Metropolitan Intercollegiate ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Design Competition held at Cooper Union in Manhattan in April 2011. Other participants included students from Cooper Union, Manhattan College and Columbia University.

In the competition, a total of 14 teams signed up to compete in separate events in the Most Creativity and the Overall Best Design Award categories. The competition provided a great opportunity for City Tech students to meet and network with students from the other New York City engineering schools participating.

In the first event, the goal was to build a bridge that spanned a gap between two desks and included a platform that could withstand weights without breaking. The second event involved designing a catapult with the ability to fire a ping pong ball,

without any assistance after it had been prepped for launch. In the final event, the objective was to construct a balloon car, with the balloon as the driving force.

Therefore, the car could not float or be pushed, nor in any other way propelled after the initial start.

City Tech was the only public college participating in the competition and two of its six teams won three of six top prizes.

Although, the competition was fierce, Team 4 from City Tech demonstrated a high level of ingenuity and won a Most Creativity Award for its balloon car. Team 4 also took Second Place in the Overall Best Design Award, while Team 3 took Third Place.

Professor Andy Zhang, mechanical engineering and industrial design technology, and Professor Iem Heng, computer engineering technology, served as advisors for the six City Tech teams. Annette Carrington, computer engineering technology CLT, and Gordon Chen, the City Tech Mechatronics Technology Center Club’s student reporter, served as photographers for this event. Professors Zhang and Heng salute all who participated in this competition.

City Tech dental hygiene student ToniAnn Restivo won third place among 50 participants in the student table clinic presentations at the American Dental Hygienists’ Association 88th Annual Session held in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2011. She received a cash award and the College received a matching grant.

Ms. Restivo made a science-based poster presentation titled “Alternative Smoking Using a Hookah or Bidi Cigarette: Implications on Oral Health.”

Her presentation was based on a research paper she wrote that investigated the historical usage of both hookah and bidi, and misconceptions and concerns related to health, oral health in particular. She was mentored

by City Tech Dental Hygiene Professor Susan Davide.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

11

MORE STUDENT ACHIEVERS SIXTH EDITION OF ‘CITY TECH WRITER’ CELEBRATED AT PRESIDENT’S RECEPTION

▼

City Tech Provost Bonne August sang the praises of 41 newly published student authors at a reception in May 2011 hosted by President Russell K. Hotzler. The event marked the publication of the sixth edition of City Tech Writer. In her remarks, Dr. August told the students that writing is both a great challenge and satisfaction, and reminded them to put this impressive credit on their résumés.

During the reception, President Hotzler congratulated faculty members who had assigned and inspired the writing selected for

this year’s edition of the annual publication, a forum for the best student writing produced in courses across the curriculum. The president congratulated the writers, who this year represented 12 different disciplines, and Svetlana Akhmadieva, the student whose design was chosen for the journal cover.

City Tech Writer is under the direction of English Professor Jane Mushabac, who commended the exuberant crowd for the bold and memorable writing in the issue. She noted that getting accepted for publication in the journal is highly competitive with only 20 percent of the professor-nominated submissions winning acceptance. Professor Mushabac invited the student authors to read aloud short excerpts from their works, and a dramatic ‘sprint’ through the issue followed with lively one-minute readings from each work.

Faculty, staff and others acknowledged for their assistance in the production of the publication included Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Advancement Stephen M. Soiffer, Executive Assistant to the President Marilyn Morrison, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Pamela Brown, Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA) Professor Lloyd Carr, who is the journal’s art director, English Department Chair Nina Bannett and ADGA Chair Mary Ann Biehl.

READ THE ISSUE

NEW STUDENT PUBLICATION

A new magazine, SMH, created by City Tech Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts Design Club students inaugurated a new Society of Publication Designers (SPD) website series earlier this year at http://www.spd.org/studentoutreach/2011/02/meet-smhmagazine.php. SMH is home to news, opinions and reactions to New York student life and how it relates to the world of design. The new SPD series features some of the best magazine, yearbook, newspaper, literary journal and newsletter designs generated by college students.

9TH ANNUAL GIVE KIDS A SMILE DAY A group of Brooklyn youngsters visited City Tech’s Dental Hygiene Clinic in February 2011 for an annual national event co-sponsored by the American Dental Association. Under the supervision of faculty, volunteer dentists from the Second District Dental Society and senior dental hygiene students provided dental screenings, prophylaxis, fluoride treatments and referrals to participating kindergarteners, first and second graders. The children also took part in a dental health education workshop which included nutrition counseling, animation and hands-on homecare instructions. Both alum and dental hygiene freshmen joined in making the occasion a fun-filled learning event with all participating teachers and children. This annual activity is coordinated by Professor Anty Lam.

12 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

FACULTY & STAFF DEAN PAMELA BROWN ACCEPTS ONE-YEAR APPOINTMENT WITH NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Pamela Brown, who has served as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at New York City College of Technology since 2005, has accepted an invitation to serve a one-year appointment as a program director in the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program for the National Science Foundation (NSF). At NSF, she will help to oversee the peer review process to assure that the most deserving initiatives receive funding, as well as contribute to defining national science policy in the future.

“I see this as an opportunity to increase my knowledge of U.S. and international science, engineering and education,” says Dean Brown. “I will return to City Tech with new contacts and insights that will be of value for future grant opportunities and development of new initiatives.”

At City Tech, Dean Brown provides leadership for eight academic department employing approximately 150 full-time and 250 part-time instructors, plus support staff.

Her responsibilities include support for curricular development, coordination of

course offerings with Enrollment Management, oversight of departmental budgets, assistance with accreditation, assessment and program review, support of professional Pamela Brown development for faculty, and outreach to business and government agencies. Dean Brown has worked to promote student success through initiatives to increase opportunities for undergraduate research, curricular innovations, civic engagement and peer mentoring. She has served as the principal or co-principal investigator on more than $3 million in National Science Foundation grants in her tenure as dean.

A chemical engineer by training, Dean Brown earned a PhD from Polytechnic

University, an SM from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in chemistry, summa cum laude, from SUNY Albany. She began teaching at New York City College of Technology in 1998. As a faculty member, her research interests included microwave induced chemical reactions, crystallization, as well as development of engaging curriculum.

Dean Brown has published in American Institute of Chemical Engineering Journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, American Laboratory, Chemical Engineering Education, Journal of Chemical Education, and Woman Engineer. She recently learned that an article she wrote with her daughter Heather, a Research Fellow in Health Economics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, titled “Lessons from the Past – Economic and Technological Impacts of US Energy Policy” was accepted for publication in the summer 2011 issue of Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal.

Bookshelf These days, it’s hard to imagine a popular magazine devoid of celebrity stories, fitness advice, recipes or sports, and, instead, full of thought-provoking articles on timely topics by major names in American literature, sociology and politics, between

covers designed by well-known artists.

In his new book, Reading the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine: American Literature and Culture, 1870–1893 (Kent State University Press), City Tech Associate Professor of English Mark J. Noonan explores just such a publication. Professor Noonan takes readers on an adventure in American history, from the postCivil War era to nearly the turn of that century, through the pages of America’s leading cultural arbiter of the day.

MORE

▼

PROFESSOR MARK NOONAN’S NEW BOOK EXPLORES MAGAZINE’S ROLE IN 19TH CENTURY AMERICA

PROFESSOR MARTIN GARFINKLE’S NEW BOOK LOOKS TO GREAT LEADERS TO MODEL SUCCESS FOR CHILDREN AT RISK FOR DEPRESSION Great leaders exhibit courage, vision and charisma that make them role models.

City Tech Professor Martin Garfinkle is more interested in a lesser-known trait common to several – clinical depression – to show how their

personal struggles could be used to help children at risk for this condition. That’s the focus of his new self-help book, The Lion’s Roar: Dealing with Life’s Ups and Downs Using the Wisdom of Winston Churchill and Other Great Leaders Week by Week (Park East Press), which delineates how despite early traumas, serious illnesses, speech defects, lack of confidence, personal and political setbacks, Churchill became one of the world’s most revered statesmen and orators.

Garfinkle believes that children at risk for affective disorders should continued on page 15

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

13

FACULTY & STAFF PROFESSOR JANE MUSHABAC NAMED 2011 SCHOLAR ON CAMPUS

Writer, historian and playwright Jane Mushabac performed and discussed her Sephardic short story, “Pasha: Ruminations of David Aroughetti,” in her Scholar on Campus Lecture in April 2011.

Dr. Mushabac, associate professor of English at City Tech, specializes in American literature, New York City history and JudeoSpanish Ottoman-American culture. She wrote “Pasha” under the pen name Shalach Manot (which refers to the gifts of food given on the holiday of Purim to friends and family). It’s about a Turkish Jew in the deteriorating Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s who talks tough like a pasha, but it’s ironic because he has neither status nor money.

Dr. Mushabac wrote the story in JudeoSpanish – Ladino – and translated it into English for publication in the Jewish journal Midstream. Ladino is the language spoken

by Spanish Jews for well over 500 years, since their 1492 expulsion from Spain and migration to the Ottoman Empire. “The language includes many Turkish and Hebrew words,” she explains. This July, Sephardic Horizons, founded last year, published the original Ladino version of “Pasha.”

14 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

‘

Jane Mushabac

“Pasha,” she says, “is a Turkish word Jersey” (a story that was published in which means a high-ranking official and Chautauqua in May 2010) will soon be represents a kind of machismo. My fiction, available in French.

As a historian, Dr. Mushabac appeared in based in this culture in Turkey and the U.S., the television documentary, “Diamond at the provides a way of exploring gender, identity Rock: 75 Years of Radio City Music Hall,” and survival. ‘Pasha’ is a Spanish story, also which premiered on NBC-TV, and also a Turkish story, a Jewish story, an immigrant created a National Endowment for the story and an American story – but mostly it Humanities (NEH)-funded podcast audio is a story about manhood.” tour, “Civil War Stories,” on Walt Whitman After a brief introduction to place the story in the context of Turkish-Jewish culture, and the Civil War. As an NEH Faculty Fellow at City Tech, she participated in the faculty Dr. Mushabac, who teaches literature and writing at City Tech, performed it rather than development initiative “Retentions and Transfigurations: The Evolution and Social simply reading it. “Just as I encourage my Histories of Five New York City creative writing students to get into the Neighborhoods.” In February 2011, she was roles they read, I wanted to experience the a guest presenter at an Institute for Jewish fun of performance art,” she says.

Ideas and Ideals-sponsored program on This unusual work exemplifies Dr. “Jewish Arts & Creativity” at Congregation Mushabac’s multidisciplinary approach. She Shearith Israel in Manhattan. was inspired to delve into her Sephardic As a creative artist, Dr. Mushabac has culture, she says, because, “It was my life. written a radio play, “Mazal Bueno: A Portrait From the songs my father taught me, from in Song of the Spanish Jews”, which was studying Spanish in high school, from my broadcast on NPR and is available as a CD on mother saying, ‘Let’s do a Sephardic Western Wind Records. Her monologue “Joya cookbook,’ I was in the culture. I wanted to Gormezano” is performed by Tovah Feldshuh communicate what was distinctive.” in her one-woman show “Tovah: Out of Her Dr. Mushabac’s works in print include the Mind!” seen by audiences in many cities here critically acclaimed Melville’s Humor: A and abroad, including at Lincoln Center.

Critical Study (Archon) and (with Angela JUST AS I ENCOURAGE MY CREATIVE WRITING Wigan) A Short STUDENTS TO GET INTO THE ROLES THEY READ, and Remarkable I WANTED TO EXPERIENCE THE FUN OF History of New York City PERFORMANCE ART (Fordham University Press), selected Dr. Mushabac was selected as a as one of the “Best of the Best” university 2007–2008 Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for press books in 2000 by the American fiction at The CUNY Graduate School’s Association of University Presses.

Center for the Humanities for work on her She also has published essays in novel, The Hundred Year Old Man, an periodicals and scholarly journals, including episode of which is set in Brooklyn. She also “Notes on Teaching Moby-Dick,” in the has been awarded fellowships from the Modern Language Association’s Approaches American Association of University Women to Teaching Melville’s Moby-Dick (1985). Her and Harvard University as well as three PSCwriting has been translated into German, CUNY grants for her fiction and essays about Russian and Bulgarian. “Pasha” and “New Judeo-Spanish characters and culture.

FACULTY & STAFF A Fulbright grant recently took Assistant Professor Caroline Hellman from the English department at City Tech to the University of Antwerp, Belgium, where she got as much of an education as she gave her students there.

Hellman, who holds a BA from Wellesley and a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center, explains that “Considering American literature in a foreign setting has provided me with new perspectives, combating the isolation that can limit the field. I now have a greater understanding of American literature and American education, as well as the cultures that challenge and sustain them.”

At the University of Antwerp, Hellman taught a graduate course on geography, archive and memory in the 20th and 21st century ethnic American novel. Along with the readings in contemporary ethnic American literature for the course, her students also were responsible for making presentations on local ethnic enclaves in Belgium or a neighboring country, comparing and contrasting them with the American counterparts in their readings.

Caroline Hellman

Hellman also taught an undergraduate course on alternative domestic constructions in 19th century American literature, examining issues of race, class and gender. The course was entitled “Upstairs, Downstairs,” alluding to the British television series, and students went far downstairs through a class trip to Antwerp’s sewer system.

Hellman believes that teaching abroad enhanced her ability to reach the multilingual, multinational student body at City Tech, as the experience exposed her to some of the challenges of communicating with college students in a foreign country.

Bookshelf continued from page 13

▼

be encouraged to develop skills that reward tenacity and steadfastness, to try new things, even if they fear they will not be good at them, and to develop age-appropriate goals. He recommends meditation as a focusing technique to quiet the mind and decrease anxiety. If these children compensate for their weaknesses with hard work, they will develop self-confidence and see their own progress.

MORE

PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SHEPARD SHOWS THAT ACTIVISM CAN BE FUN IN TWO NEW BOOKS Changing the world can be fun, according to Benjamin Shepard, assistant professor of human services at City Tech. His two recently published books

Professor Gaffar Gailani’s Paper Among Best in International Competition A paper, “Determination of the Permeability of the Lacunar Canalicular Porosity,” co-authored by Assistant Professor Gaffar Gailani, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design Technology, and published in the American Society of Mechanical Engineering Journal of Biomechanical Engineering in 2009, was among the top seven of 53 papers submitted in the 2010 Zwick Science Award international competition.

For more than 150 years, the name of Zwick Roell has stood for outstanding technical expertise, innovation, quality and reliability in materials and component testing.

Headquartered in Germany, the firm is the world’s leading manufacturer of static and dynamic materials testing systems and the development and use of new materials and technologies have always played a commanding role in the company’s success.

Much of this research is done at universities worldwide and the development of new materials and technologies inspired by papers written by university professors. The Zwick Science Award recognizes the most innovative use of a materials testing machine for groundbreaking research. The competition is international and open to all scientists and other professionals.

explore the use of play as a valuable component of social movements and political activism, from the local to the national level.

In Play, Creativity, and Social Movements: If I Can’t Dance, It’s Not My Revolution (Routledge), Shepard, a longtime activist who is president of the Mid Atlantic Consortium of Human Services, reviews how humor has been used by Dadaists, Surrealists, Yippies and ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), community garden, cycling and

public space activists to call attention to pressing social and political problems. In The Beach Beneath the Streets: Contesting New York City’s Public Spaces (State University of New York Press), Shepard and co-author Greg Smithsimon examine the use of public space in New York City and the conflict between its privatization and public use.

MORE

▼

Fulbright Award Takes Professor Caroline Hellman to University of Antwerp

continued on page 16

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

15

FACULTY & STAFF the Gateway Music Festival The National Association for (located at the Eastman School of the Study and Performance of Music) as well as treasurer and African-American Music board member of the Harlem (NASPAAM) recently honored Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Jesse McCarroll with its Dr. McCarroll is the national Lifetime Achievement Award at representative of the United its Eleventh National Biennial States to the Pan African Society Conference in Houston, TX. Dr. of Musical Arts Education and McCarroll, professor emeritus serves as senior advisor to the of music at City Tech, currently Pan African Society for Musical teaches part-time at the Arts Education. In addition, he College, where he has Jesse McCarroll was chair for two consecutive instructed students since 1970. terms of the Multicultural In announcing the award, Awareness Commission, New York State School NASPAAM President Ina R. Allen said, “Jesse Music Association.

McCarroll has proven himself to be an He has been honored by the Black Music outstanding music educator, enriching the lives Caucus of New York and by the National Black of thousands upon thousands of students in his Music Caucus (now the National Association long career. Moreover, he is a dedicated for the Study and Performance of African supporter of the arts who has made significant American Music) of Music Educators National contributions to the field of music in general and Conference (MENC), of which he is a member Black Music in particular.” of the board of directors and one of two Dr. McCarroll’s commitment to music members at large. education is evident from the many Dr. McCarroll is co-author of Elementary Music organizations he has served in various capacities.

He is a board member, treasurer and membership Teacher’s Almanack: Timely Music Lessons Plans coordinator of the African American Jazz Caucus For Every Day of the School Year. He is a of the International Association of Jazz Education contributing author of Teaching Jazz: A Course (IAJE). He is on the board of advisors of the of Study and Making Music Fun: A complete Living Encyclopedia of Global African Music, a collection of games, puzzles, and activities for member of the advisory board and secretary of the elementary classroom.

Bookshelf continued from page 15

NEW BOOK EDITED BY PROFESSOR AARON BARLOW RECOUNTS EXPERIENCES OF 76 PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS The Peace Corps is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and Aaron Barlow, assistant professor of English at New York City College of Technology, is providing the perfect

gift. He has edited One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, Volume OneAfrica (Travelers’ Tales/Solas House), a hand-picked collection of 76

16 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

Dr. James A. Goldman (Retired) Honored at Brooklyn Borough Hall Jewish Heritage Night Salute to Israel New York City College of Technology’s former Acting Dean of Continuing Education James A. Goldman (retired), at right in photo, was one of four people honored in March 2011 at a Brooklyn Borough Hall Jewish Heritage Night Salute to Israel hosted by Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Dr. Goldman was saluted for his many contributions to the College, the Jewish community and the world at large. For many years he has coordinated the City Tech Jewish Faculty and Staff Association’s Distinguished Speakers Series, bringing to campus such luminaries as acclaimed columnist Pete Hamill, Ground Zero Freedom Tower designer Daniel Libeskind, New York Times senior reporter on ethnic affairs Joseph Berger, Macaulay Honors College University Dean Ann Kirschner, author of Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story, and interactive design pioneer Edwin Schlossberg, among many others.

He also has been active in countless endeavors on behalf of the New York City Jewish community.

Brooklyn Jewish Heritage Committee Co-chair and former Brooklyn Bar Association President Steven Cohn, Esq., awarded the committee’s special recognition citation to Dr. Goldman. City Tech President Russell K. Hotzler is pictured with Goldman.

essays by Peace Corps volunteers from 31 countries in Africa.

Although not an official publication of the Peace Corps, the book is the first of its kind to provide an overview of 50 years of Peace Corps service. The book just took the silver award for travel essays in the 2011 Independent Publisher (IP) Book Awards. The “IPPY” Awards, launched in 1996, are designed to bring increased recognition to “the

deserving but often unsung titles published by independent authors and publishers,” the organization’s website proclaims.

MORE

▼

NASPAAM Honors Professor Emeritus Jesse McCarroll with Lifetime Achievement Award

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Who’s News?

An exhibition of works of art, “Portraits of an Intellectual and Political Landscape,” by Professor Bernard Aptekar, Advertising Design and Graphic Arts, opened at Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, Poland, on April 19 and will run through October 30, 2011. Fifty works by Professor Aptekar’s were previously part of Poland’s observance of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II and the 20th anniversary of regaining its independence.

Assistant Professor Holly Carley, Mathematics, published an article, “A Note on Fraction Reductions through Continued Fractions,” in the January 1, 2011, edition of Mathematics and Computer Education.

A personal essay by Michele Forsten, Communications, “Improv at the Altar,” was published in A Cup of Comfort for Couples: Stories That Celebrate What It Means to Be in Love in February 2011. It was the only piece about a GLBT couple out of 48 love stories included in the book.

Adjunct Associate Professor and NASA consultant Gregory L. Matloff, Physics, gave a Saturday Science Lecture in May 2011 on “Biosphere Extension” at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. The talk was part of the museum’s “I Am the Cosmos” exhibition, which included works by artist and Matloff collaborator C Bangs, whose holographic images have been sent into space and some donated to the College. Earlier, Matloff presented similar work

to amateur astronomers at the American Museum of Natural History in April 2011. Then, in June 2011, Matloff and Bangs, who collaborated together with NASA administrator Les Johnson on Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth in 2010, presented a talk following a performance of Galileo the Musical at the 3rd Annual Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in Manhattan, with part of the proceeds benefitting the East Coast Maine Coon Rescue, an organization dedicated to rescuing cats and placing them in homes. Finally, Matloff presented on his latest work involving the diversion of near-Earth objects at an International Academy of Astronautics symposium in Italy in July 2011.

Assistant Professor Robin Michals, Advertising Design and Graphic Arts, was one of 11 artists to participate in an exhibition, “Augmented Realities for the Smartphone,” held April 16 through May 8, 2011, at Ventana244 Art Space in Brooklyn. Visitors to the show started at the Ventana244 Art Space, where they viewed documentation of the works in the show and receive a map and instructions for downloading Junaio® and Layar® smartphone apps. Once these apps were downloaded, visitors used their smartphone’s camera to access the artworks that were located within a 10minute walk in the surrounding neighborhood. Also, a new photoblog by Michals at http://www.e-arcades.com/ resources/images/photos/castles/

index.html documents New York City’s waterfront before inevitable rising tides and storm surges come to wipe it away.

Recent monotypes by Adjunct Assistant Professor Linda Plotkin, Advertising Design and Graphic Arts, whose works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Library of Congress, and numerous other public and private collections, were exhibited at the Walter Wickiser Gallery in Manhattan from February to April 2011. Inspired

by Renaissance choral music, the works express the relationship between harmony in music and harmony in color through a process of layering only the three primary colors to create the other hues of the spectrum.

Assistant Professor Jenna Spevack, Entertainment Technology, gave a presentation, “Domestic Detox: Pollution is Personal,” at The Commons Brooklyn in February 2011. The talk was designed to raise awareness about the thousands of untested and unregulated synthetic chemicals found in everyday household products. Spevack offered practical solutions to help families create a healthy toxinfree home.

Lecturer Claire Stewart, Hospitality Management, was interviewed for an article that appeared in the May 1, 2011, issue of Women’s World magazine, a warmhearted weekly national publication for busy women. Stewart discussed

the best types of honey used in cooking.

Assistant Professor Vivianna Vladutescu, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering Technology, and two of her students, Antonio Aguirre and Agossa Segla, spent summer 2011 at Brookhaven National Laboratory in an Observational Field Campaign for the measurement of physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols.

Former Student Government Association President and Law and Paralegal Studies student Terrel Watson was one of 12 student attorneys to receive an Outstanding Attorney Award in the American Mock Trial Association Regional Tournament held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, in February 2011. Watson was a member of the City Tech Mock Trial Team, one of 28 teams from schools in the Northeast Region participating in the tournament.

In Memoriam Joseph D. Tarantino Associate Professor (retired) Department of Hospitality Management Rudolf Bauer Adjunct Professor (retired) Career and Technology Teacher Education

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

17

FOUNDATION CORNER ‘HERE’S TO YOUR HEALTH!’ WAS THEME OF 2011 BEST OF NEW YORK AWARD DINNER

Alan Aviles

On May 16, 2011, New York City College of Technology and the City Tech Foundation honored Alan Aviles, president and CEO, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Salvatore Cassano, a 1970 City Tech graduate and New York City Fire Department Commissioner, and 1982 City Tech graduate Julia Jordan, acting director of the College’s Faculty Commons, a professor of hospitality management, and founder and president of Spoons Across America. 1974 City Tech graduate Julian Niccolini, co-owner of The Four Seasons Restaurant, served as Honorary Dinner Chair and celebrity chef Michael Lomonaco, a 1984 graduate of the College and managing partner of Porter House New York at Time Warner Center, again served as Dinner Chair and Master of Ceremonies.

As president and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, Alan Aviles leads the largest municipal healthcare system in the nation. Before assuming his present role, he served in a series of increasing responsible positions within HHC, including as a regional network senior vice president and general counsel. Under Mr. Aviles’s leadership the city’s public healthcare facilities not only rank among the best in the city, but also are securing a national reputation for high quality medical care

18 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

Julia Jordan

and leadership in innovative patientcentered initiatives.

Salvatore Cassano, a graduate of City Tech’s associate degree program in Fire Protection, was appointment the 32nd Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department on December 21, 2009. In making the appointment, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised Cassano as bringing “a lifetime of unmatched experience to the task of managing the world’s greatest fire department. We are choosing Sal not just on the basis of that very impressive record, but even more important, because of Sal’s vision for the future of the FDNY.” Professor Julia Jordan, recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Alum Award is also a graduate of the College and currently serves as acting director of the Faculty Commons established in 2009 to provide programs and other opportunities designed to enhance faculty development and support faculty research and other efforts. In addition to her administrative and teaching responsibilities on campus, Jordan is founder and president of Spoons Across America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating children, teachers and families about the benefits of healthy eating.

Salvatore Cassano

Bringing the College’s annual scholarship fundraising dinner to a close in stirring remarks, City Tech Student Government Association President Terel Terel Watson Watson challenged the audience “to join City Tech Alumni Association President Yvonne Riley-Tepie of TD Bank as a provider of internships, to join Porter House New York managing partner Michael Lomonaco as a mentor, to join Con Edison’s Antonia Yuille in providing much needed grants for the environmental programs in which so many City Tech students are involved, to join Pfizer’s Caroline Forte in providing corporate support for scholarships, and to join Andrew Namm, Martin Jaffe, Lorraine Beitler, Garey Ellis and their families in providing such generous support for the programs that benefit so many students in so many ways.

City Tech students represent what this great country is all about – family, hard work, dedication, commitment, service and all else that makes possible a better life for all of us,” Watson concluded.

FOUNDATION CORNER

NEW JFEW SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCED The City Tech Foundation has received a substantial grant to support students in healthcare programs. The grant is from the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women (JFEW). In selecting JFEW Scholars, preference will be given to women, but religion is absolutely irrelevant.

Through the JFEW Scholars Program, recipients will receive a grant of up to $2,500 per year, dependent upon financial need, for their two years of participation.

They will be expected to graduate within two years and to complete a paid summer internship (up to $3,500) in the summer between their first and second years. The program will include on-going faculty mentoring and special assistance in preparing for employment. All qualified radiological technology and medical imaging, nursing and dental hygiene students attended a special seminar to discuss the particulars of the program and the scholarship application process.

2010-2011 CUNY CAMPAIGN

JFEW is a private, nonsectarian organization that provides scholarships to women with financial need who live in the New York City area. It has been supporting women in attaining their educational goals and becoming economically independent for more than 125 years.

CTF TO HOST BOARD DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS FOR CUNY COLLEGE FOUNDATIONS To ensure that the City Tech Foundation’s volunteer leadership capacity is replenished as experienced board members and officers leave or retire, systematic planning is required for identifying and training qualified potential new members to succeed those that are departing and to prepare sitting members for leadership positions on the board.

New York City College of Technology will host a day-long workshop for Institutional Advancement staff and

related professionals within The City University of New York. The workshop will be led by specialists in the field, and will include representatives of all CUNY Institutional Advancement, Development, Foundation and Alumni offices.

The workshop will include evaluation of need, analysis of sitting board members, preparing current members for leadership roles, board recruitment, providing other volunteer opportunities and an outline for a five- and 10-year succession plan.

Twenty-eight years ago the City University of New York established a single vehicle for CUNY employees to direct their charitable contributions through The University. Many employees were tired of repeatedly being asked to contribute to individual charities at different times of the year and encouraged The University to create a single charity drive. The CUNY Campaign for Voluntary Charitable Giving (CUNY Campaign) was designed to provide the CUNY community the opportunity to donate to various charities of choice through one vehicle.

All of the funds raised through The CUNY Campaign come from individual employees, who contribute through voluntary payroll deductions or check donations at the workplace.

The funds raised help support an immense array of services offered by campaign-related agencies, including individual CUNY college foundations.

City Tech is proud to announce that more than $22,000 of the $36,000 raised during the 2010/2011 Campaign was earmarked for the City Tech Foundation and will assist it in providing additional student financial, research and internship opportunities as well as emergency loans for student awaiting financial aid approval. http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

19

FOUNDATION CORNER

INVEST IN CUNY Invest in CUNY, Invest in New York, The Campaign for the Colleges is the most ambitious comprehensive campaign undertaken by a public urban university in the United States.

The overwhelming response from alumni, businesses, foundations and friends in support of CUNY colleges helped the campaign surpass its goal of $1.2 billion four years ahead of the 2012 target date. This unprecedented level of philanthropic investment now exceeds $1.4 billion, including funds raised by each of The University’s 23 colleges and professional schools.

This investment in CUNY and the City of New York is providing: n Student support in the form of endowments and scholarships to help attract top students, encourage diversity and educate the leaders of tomorrow n Faculty support to assist in the recruitment and retention of eminent scholars, scientists, artists and professionals as full-time faculty n Program support to foster a research environment, promote interdisciplinary approaches, facilitate ground-breaking research, leverage connections to industry and lead the nation in creating the latest educational technologies n Facilities and equipment to supplement implementation of the Master Facilities Plan, create an environment that supports the work of students and scholars, renovate buildings, equip new scientific facilities and build strong and diverse communities within the commuter colleges The success is driven by initiatives at the campuses. Colleges are strategically identifying program priorities, determining their timelines and establishing targets. Invest in CUNY also includes fund-raising to support University-wide initiatives.

The University’s leadership is embarking on a bold and ambitious second phase.

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, Chairman Benno C. Schmidt Jr., and the presidents of the colleges have announced the launch of Invest in CUNY: Expanding the Vision, which sets a new total goal of $3 billion by 2015.

COMING SOON! Major Gifts Campaign and Naming Opportunities Watch for details!

20 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT Philanthropic contributions through the City Tech Foundation have totaled more than $11,800,000 over the past 11 years, funds used to support areas that include scholarships, research internships, travel to conferences and international exchanges.

Donations also have provided seed money for scholarly faculty activities. The projected philanthropy target through Fiscal Year 2015 is $23,000,000. The City Tech Foundation is pleased to announce that during Academic Year 2010/2011 more than $135,000 was awarded to the College through the Foundation.

ALUMNI NEWS Alumna Thalia Warner Takes First Place in 2011 Cupcake Wars Competition City Tech hospitality management graduate Thalia Warner (front row right), owner of Cakes by Thalia and a former pastry cook at the Ritz Carlton took the first place prize in The Cupcake Wars NYC in March 2011. Held at Katra Lounge in Lower Manhattan, the competition was hosted by A Young Mother’s Dream, Inc., a non-profit organization that assists young women in completing their education.

This year’s Cupcake Wars NYC competition featured nine pastry chefs and bakers from the tri-state area. Each presented two flavors for the tasting judges, in addition to tastings for the event’s estimated 100 guests. Thalia Warner’s winning cupcakes were Decadent Chocolate Cake with Bailey’s butter cream and The Espresso Crunch and Red Velvet with cream cheese butter cream. Both

were decorated with hand-crafted sugar paste butterflies and flowers.

This year’s judges included City Tech hospitality management graduate Ebow Dadzie, assistant pastry chef at the Marriott Marquis, Marco Lopez from Butter Lane Cupcakes, Jude Nwabuoku of Cake Ambiance in Brooklyn, Erick Wolitzky, pastry chef at Baked NYC and a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef Just Desserts.”

Alumna Jessica Malavez ’01 Named to Head Office of Alumni Relations City Tech hospitality management graduate Jessica Malavez ‘01 has been named to head the Office of Alumni Relations following a six-month nationwide search.

While a student at the College, Ms. Malavez worked for the City Tech Foundation and also with the Alumni Relations Office through the Federal Work Study Program. Following graduation, she worked as an event planner with Bear

Dallis Associates and as a transportation account manager, special events manager and food service manager with the New York City Board of Education. She served for three years as secretary of the City Tech Alumni Association board of directors and helped launch and later managed a mentoring program in collaboration with neighboring George Westinghouse Information Technology High School.

“I have a true love for and commitment to City Tech,” says Ms. Malavez. “I have a strong desire to see the College grow and prosper at the forefront of the nation’s colleges of technology.”

Construction Technology Graduate and Wife Build Lasting Marriage Staten Island natives Peter Angelo, a City Tech graduate who earned a degree in construction technology, and wife, Virginia, know how to build a lasting marriage. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year, capping the festivities with a trip to Barcelona and a Mediterranean cruise.

Over his career, Mr. Marotta, a professional store planner and member of the Institute of Store Planners, helped to design and build over 1,000 supermarkets in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In 1975, he received an award for Barrier-Free Accessibility from The Easter Seal Society of New Jersey and later started his own company, Supermarket Technical Services, Inc. The company has been in business for more than 35 years.

Mrs. Marotta, the former Virginia Ann Joy and a descendant of Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition), studied elementary education at Wagner College, while working as an assistant in the law library at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Manhattan. After raising a family, she briefly returned to the work as an assistant in the student government office at the College of Staten Island. She has been a member of the Staten Island Institute of Art and Science and served as guild president.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

21

ALUMNI NEWS

City Tech Alumni/SGA Host Graduation Celebration for Class of 2011 The City Tech Student Government Association in collaboration with the College’s Alumni Association hosted an on-campus Graduation Celebration & Alumni Reunion Dinner Dance for more than 200 graduating students, alumni, faculty and staff, retirees, academic advisory commission members and other good friends of the College In May 2011.

The fun-filled evening began with a VIP Reception in the Atrium 1st Floor Gallery, followed by dinner, dancing and free casino games. The event featured a lavish buffet with both vegetarian and halal dishes included, a live DJ and free casino

Photo credit: Alvin Espinosa

games, including Roulette, Black Jack and Craps. The event concluded with a Chinese Auction drawing for other sensational prizes.

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WANTS YOU! The City Tech Alumni Association is currently seeking graduates to serve as Class Agents and as members of the association’s Board of Directors.

Board membership offers rewarding opportunities to shape the direction of the Alumni Association, by promoting and strengthening relationships with City Tech alum, assist with cultivation

and have fun. Led by the board president and guided by the director of alumni relations, the Board meets several times throughout the year.

Please e-mail a letter detailing the reasons you are interested in joining along with your résumé to alumni@citytech.cuny.edu. Thank you for your interest.

Photo Collection by Alumnus H. C. Solomon Captures Beauty of Caribbean City Tech alum H. C. Solomon, an accomplished photographer and sailing enthusiast whose yacht, Bojendi, operates out of Tortola British Virgin Islands, recently published The 1994 Explore Diving Calendar (Rosedog Books), a 68-page collection of spectacular photographs of the Caribbean and environs. A Kindle edition of the work is available through Amazon Digital Services.

22 connections | http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

In 1972 Mr. Solomon produced a film, South Street, on the South Street Seaport Museum. He and his work have appeared on the television series “Inside Travel,” hosted by travel writer Theodore Fisher, and more recently in a one-man show at the University of the Virgin Island’s Reichhold Center for the Arts.

Class Act! Alumna Ijana Nathaniel ‘10 Founds Dare 2 Dream Leaders, Inc. It was about five years ago that Ijana Nathaniel made the decision to work towards starting her own nonprofit youth organization. A 2010 human services graduate, it wasn’t until her final year of college, however, that she began to really believe in her dream and herself.

Today, she runs her own nonprofit youth organization, Dare 2 Dream Leaders, Inc., cooperated by a dynamic team of five board members, including two other City Tech graduates, Oriel Best and Charise Nicole Smith. The team’s mission is to empower youth to become dynamic future leaders. Dare 2 Dream equips young people ages 11 to 18 years with life skills, self sufficiency and entrepreneurial skills, and involves them in collaborative efforts aimed at community building.

“It feels great to go back to my community in East Flatbush, Brooklyn,” says Nathaniel, “and to provide such a needed program to our youth. I am honored to collaborate with City Tech and the Department of Human Services in efforts aimed at recruiting interns and volunteers to work with the Dare 2 Dream program. Current students and others interested in working with the program can obtain information at www.dare2dreamleaders.org.”

Nathaniel is especially grateful to Human Services Professor Marsha Powell for always practicing tough love on her students and to Oprah Winfrey for inspiring her with these words: “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”

ALUMNI NEWS

ALUMNI NEWSMAKERS Anthony Barna, a Con Edison research and development engineer who holds a degree in automotive technology from City Tech, received the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame’s Patent of the Year Award in March 2011 for his work on a Hybrid Vehicle Recharging System and Method of Operation.

Frank Eppinger, a graduate of City Tech’s mechanical engineering technology program, was appointed to a one-year term as a Village of Monroe, NY, trustee in 2010 and has served as primary representative to the Village’s Department of Public Works.

1984 graduate of City Tech’s hospitality management program Michael Lomonaco, former Windows on the World executive chef and now managing partner of Porter House New York, is looking together with partner Kenneth Himmel to add two more restaurants to his portfolio – a more causal eatery in New York City and a second Porter House in Italy or elsewhere in Europe.

In partnership with chef Tom Schaudel, City Tech’s hospitality management graduate and restaurant owner Adam Lovett opened

a new restaurant, A Lure Chowder House & Oysteria, located in Port of Egypt Marina in Southhold, Long Island, in May 2011. The pair’s previous collaborations include A Mano in Mattituck, PassionFish in Westhampton Beach and Jedediah Hawkins in Jamesport. Lovett is also a co-owner of Ross Schaudel Catering and Events Planning on the North Fork.

Roland A. Rodriguez, a 1973 graduate with a degree in drafting, recently let City Tech’s Office of Alumni Relations know how very pleased he is to be working for consulting engineering firm Jaros, Baum & Bolles on the HVAC, electrical, plumbing and fire protection aspects of the College’s new academic building, auditorium and athletic facilities to rise where Klitgord Center now stands and what fond memories he holds from time spent in Klitgord Gym. Rhonda Rondon, a graduate of City Tech’s award-winning hospitality management program, was on campus in March 2011 as B.J. Denihan Lecture Series guest speaker, recounting her years at the College where “a solid education” provided her with the tools needed for upward mobility in the hospitality industry.

In April 2011, Eventi, a Kimpton Hotel, hired City Tech hospitality management magna cum laude graduate Eugenia Simons as hotel manager responsible for leading day-to-day operations of the front office, facilities, banquets, security and housekeeping departments.

Mark Straussman, a graduate of City Tech’s hospitality management program, prominent chef and restaurateur, was the subject of a feature article in the March 1, 2011, “Dining Issue” of Hudson Valley magazine.

On weekdays, Straussman caters to the “size two, PradaManolo crowd” at Fred’s, the chic eatery at Barney’s in Manhattan. Weekends find him at Agriturismo, his recently opened restaurant in Pine Plains, where heartier eaters can tuck into the rustic Italian fare for which he was known at Sapore de Mare in the Hamptons, Coco Pazzo on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and, more recently, at Compagna, his own ravedabout restaurant in the Flatiron District.

Emilio Suarez, a 1970 City Tech drafting design program graduate, and wife Yolanda were recently named the Bensonhurst West End Community Couple of the Year in recognition of their many

outstanding contributions to the betterment of their community over much of the past 20 years.

Maxine M. TownsendBroderick, a 1964 graduate of City Tech’s advertising design and graphic arts program, has learned to immerse herself in art as a way of reliving her and her family’s past. Among her works are “The Dream Lives,” a series of paintings, sculptures and prints by means of which she painted a portrait of her cousin, Maurice Bishop, the former prime minister of Grenada who was assassinated in 1983 after having ascended to power in 1979 following revolutionary coup.

In Memoriam City Tech recently learned of the passing in late February 2011 of Cyril Young, a 2007 graduate of the College’s baccalaureate program in facilities management technology. Mr. Young was pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University, where he served as assistant director of the university’s power plant.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni

| connections

23