EOF Newsletter

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FUND 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430

Upcoming events (Fall 2011)

Director’s Corner

• EOF graduating senior etiquette dinner (October 2011)

It is with great pleasure that we bring to you our very first addition of the EOF newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is to communicate EOF program news, and the student activities& accomplishments, to the Ramapo community and program alumni.

• Kaplan GRE prep course (October 2011) • Teacher Education/EOF welcome luncheon (September 2011) • Teacher Education/EOF Praxis preparation workshop (November 2011) • Faculty mentor’s and researcher’s luncheon (TBA) • Supplemental Instruction (Begins September 2011) • Alumni Advisory Board meeting (September 2011) • Chi Alpha Epsilon Induction Ceremony and Luncheon (October 2011)

Alumni Profile: Mr. Wilkis Figuereo Ramapo date of entry: 1998 date of graduation: December 2002 Place of residence before attending Ramapo college: Jersey City, NJ current place of residence: Bayonne, NJ Major at Ramapo: Fine Arts Music Masters degree: Saint Peters College, Jersey City, New Jersey Major: MA - Education; Administration and Supervision current Position: Audio Technology Instructor/Advisor and currently running own business, www.ItecAudio.com duties: Budgeting and designing Audio Technology Labs, Teaching, mentoring

“I was really afraid and thought that I was not good enough, or smart enough to make it through college. The summer program, the staff, as well as others helped me adjust to the college environment with all the help and support. Without the EOF program, I do not think I would be where I am today.” 8

Currently, we have 367 students registered for the fall 2011 semester including 88 first year students. (Please join us in welcoming the EOF class of 2015 into the Ramapo community). 87% of our students are in good academic standing, 128 have overall grade point averages of 3.0 and 33 have overall grade point averages above 3.5. At the conclusion of the spring 2001 semester, 50 students made the dean’s list and 4 students earned a semester grade point average of 4.0. In the year 2002 we planted a tree on campus to symbolize the access and opportunity that the program represents, and like our students the EOF tree of access and opportunity continues to grow, flourish and add to the beauty of the campus. We in EOF are very proud of the academic and personal accomplishments of our students. Much of the success of our program and its students can be directly attributed to the hard work and dedication of the following talented team of professionals working for the program: deirdre Bright-Foreman, Associate Director nicole Baker, Student Development Specialist Marita esposito, Student Development Specialist natasha Rodriquez, Office Manager erika Vega, SPS The EOF program is not without its struggles. Budgetary cutbacks resulted in the elimination of the second year EOF scholarship, as well as the cancellation of this year’s graduating senior retreat. However, much has been retained and we will continue to refine and expand our services in order that we may continue to deliver a quality program to our students. Lorne Weems, Director, EOF

Fall 2011

Volume 1 Issue 1

InsIde thIs ReFlectIons Issue director’s Inside ................................1 eoF 2011 Graduates..........................2 chi Alpha epsilon Inductees..............3 dean’s list.........................................3 study Abroad .....................................4 eoF Alumni Advisory Board ..............4 Mentor Programs ..............................5 Graduating senior Retreat ................5 eoF summer Program 2011...........6,7 upcoming events...............................8 Alumni Profile ...................................8

Visit the EOF website at: http://ww2.ramapo.edu/EOF3/ index.aspx

EOF Summer Program 2011 (continued from page 6)

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2011! 55 EOF students graduated last year

The Potter library staff did an outstanding job delivering the information literacy program to our students. The Deans of all five schools and their faculty once again participated in the academic exposure program, where our students were not only introduced to the school majors, but also experienced simulated classes and discussions involving career choices. The career exposure component consisted of visits to UPS World Technologies Headquarters, Stryker, Englewood Hospital &Medical Center, and the Bergen County Justice Center. There are countless individuals here at Ramapo that play an integral role in the success of the EOF summer program but we would like to acknowledge a special few: Donald Fucci, Dorothy Gillman, Jose Vallejo and Judy May.

Congratulations and good luck to Carolina Gonzalez (formerly Perez) in her new position of Director of EOF at The College of Saint Elizabeth.

2

7

EOF Summer Program 2011

Chi Alpha Epsilon Academic Honor Society Inductees

A

diverse group of 88 students were enrolled in the 2011 EOF summer program and although the academic component was as always very vigorous, 98% of credits attempted were successfully completed.

The program embarked on some new initiatives during the 2011 summer program; We introduced a newly created wellness component with the help of Dr. Judy Greene and the Counseling center staff, Ms. Jaime Marzocchi from the office of Upward Bound and a nutritional component under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Jackie Ehlert-Mercer. Also, with assistance of The Center for Reading & Writing staff memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Iris Bucchino & Priscilla Tovey, we successfully expanded our academic module program to include an academic skills series that ran for five of the six weeks of the program.

(continues on page 7)

F

ounded at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Chi Alpha Epsilon Academic Honor Society was organized in 1989. Responding to an increased need to acknowledge the continuing successes of students in the Academic Development Program and recognizing that students who share similar experiences could serve as significant models for others, a Greek letter honor society was proposed by Dr. Elbert Saddler. Members of XAE pledge to continue to excel academically, promote academic excellence in others, and to help those who genuinely aspire to the same goals. Membership in Chi Alpha Epsilon is offered to eligible students and alumni who hold a 3.0 cumulative G.P.A. for two consecutive full-time semesters and who were admitted to the college/university via developmental or higher education opportunity type programs are eligible for membership. Alpha Chi Chapter at Ramapo College of New Jersey was founded by eighteen members on May 1, 2000. Since 2000, there have been 270 students inducted into the Ramapo Chapter of Chi Alpha Epsilon Academic Honor Society. The following students will be inducted on October 2011: Neysalee Acosta Victoria Adam Jennifer Alfonso Alexis Almenas Maria Ameralis Andrea Arias Nancy Bautista Bria Beaufort Brandi Borke Kathleen Capiroso Jesenia Chamorro Muniath Choudhury

Norbelis Disla Jacquelyn Feliciano Tania Flete Cynthia Florencio Macrae Francis Ling Gao Shamyra Gatling Patricia Jakubova Blagica Jankuloska Valmire Kaba Kelsey Kozak Thanh Lai

Chelsea Lewis Jean Llerena Adlyn Maldonado Alexandria Mazza Samantha Mazza Keble Mcdermoth Giselle Morales Christian Munoz Shanee Murdaugh Jack Nesmith Rachel O'Brien Yaslie Pared

Coral Peguero Rafael Quinones Salatur Rahman Hayley Rappa Andrea Sanchez Ashleigh Sanderson Ritchie Stephanie Schumody Rigo Ventura Esther Wasserman-Plaza Alexa Ziemkiewicz

Christopher Kipkoech Thanh Lai Joaquin Maravillas Samantha Mazza Keble Mcdermoth Domenica MiloMastrobuono Ruqiya Mohamud Maria Molina Alyce Muhammad Christian Munoz Rachael O'Brien Digna Oviedo

Hayley Rappa Augusto Reynoso Danielle Rodgers Porfirio Rodriguez Stephanie Schwartz Molly Senese Jinal Shah Brenda Torres Alexandra Wehr Miranda Wyatt

Deanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s List Spring 2011 Kadiann Afflick Jennifer Alfonso Gil Almonte Bria Beaufort Chase Burns* Julissa Candelario Jesenia Chamorro Raven Clarke-Lucas Jamiel Conlon Lina Damrah* Pablo De La Cruz Natalia Delgado Yisel Espinal 6

Jacquelyn Feliciano Macrae Francis Malika Gilliam Rosa Gomez Juanling Guo Richard Hall Lazaro Hernandez Chikara Iwuagwu Anthony Jabra Patricia Jakubova* Brooke Jamison Valmira Kaba Rudina Kajacka 3

*Students who earned a 4.0

Study Abroad

Mentor Programs

tudy abroad offers so many life-changing and enduring academic, career, intercultural, personal, and social benefits. It affords students the opportunity to broaden their world understanding and perspective on just about anything. This is why we as a program are committed to financially supporting EOF students (when we can) and consistently encouraging them to consider the possibility of studying abroad. As a result, more EOF students are beginning to participate in short term, long term, and alternative spring break study abroad programs.

ASB Faculty/EOF Student Mentoring Program

S

“I feel that being giving the opportunity to study abroad had a tremendous affect on my life personally…Academically, I feel I have become more motivated to learn because there are students in impoverished countries that dream of getting the education that I’ve been afforded.” -Whitney Gordon, Sierra Leone “After participating in the study abroad program, I have learned that there are many opportunities out there to do what you really want to do, all you need to do is be willing to work for it and step out and try something new.” -Clifton Shambry, China “It is important for EOF students to take advantage of this opportunity because you develop new skills and most importantly you learn about yourself.” -Runa Khanom, Sierra Leone

EOF Alumni Advisory Board

T

Current members: Richard McDowell, Chair person, Sandy Mcdowell, Jose Vallejo, Kameisah Sykes, Maria Marte, Obie Hill, Patricia McClenton, Gaudy Rodriquez, Viva White

he EOF alumni Advisory Board serves as a consultative body to the director and staff of EOF on issues related to alumni learning experiences, learning outcomes, and post-graduation professional and academic experiences. Some of its goals are to: 1) help create a network of EOF alumni and strengthen relations among the alumni, the staff, director, and students of the program. 2) Enhance the financial resources of EOF and to better serve current and future students. 3) Serve as role models for EOF students and help them secure Co-op, internship, service learning, and other types of off-campus experiential learning opportunities. 4

The Anisfield School of Business and The Educational Opportunity Fund Program 2nd Year Partnership: The EOF program is proud to announce the third year of the EOF/Anisfield School of Business Faculty/Student mentoring program. The purpose of the program is to increase EOF student interest, retention and graduation in the school of business. There were 17 faculty mentors/student mentees in the EOF/ASB mentoring program.

SSHS Faculty and Student Majors/Faculty Research and Mentoring Program: The Educational Opportunity Fund Program and the School of Social Science and Human Services have partnered to develop initiatives benefitting both the faculty and students. Thirteen (13) students with majors both in Social Work and Psychology have been matched with 13 faculty members from the two respective schools. The goals of this partnership are: • To provide EOF SSHS students with the opportunity to explore academic and career choices through one-to-one relationships with SSHS faculty; • To provide students with the tools to make the transition from college to careers a successful and rewarding experience; • To increase the enrollment and success of EOF SSHS majors; • To increase the awareness of students’ perception of the benefits of SSHS majors The Psychology and Social Work faculty involved in the mentorship initiative are, Jackie Braun, Christian Reich, Peter Heinze, Lysandra Perez-Strumulo, Naseem Choudhury, Leah Warner, Nicholas Salter, Kim Lorber, Cort Engelken, Kathryn Krase, Sue Scher, Linda Gilman, and John McLaughlin. We have also organized a faculty-student research initiative where a number of students interested in working with faculty members on research projects have been matched with professors. The six (6) Pyschology and Law and Society faculty members involved in this initiative are, Joseph Cataliotti, Sandra Gonsalves-Domond, Lysandra Perez-Strumulo, Jillian T. Weiss, Dominique Johnson and Mia Serban. Three EOF students attended the Eastern Psychological Association conference in March with Dr. Joseph Cataliotti. Such experiences and partnerships are directly in line with the College’s goal of expanding its opportunities for student-faculty research collaboration.

Graduating Senior Retreat Last fall, 15 graduating seniors attended the EOF senior retreat at the Warwick Retreat House in Warwick NY. We started the weekend off with an outdoor fire side chat where we toasted marsh mellows and reflected back to the students first days at Ramapo. Early the next day the students participated in a morning long workshop entitled “Launching from Ramapo College and Moving Forward” presented by EOF alumnus ,Marci Wolff-Ober, MA, LMFT. This powerful and often emotional session was followed by three more workshops; “Tips for the young fabulous and broke” and “The critical first year on the job” and “Networking” presented by Vice Chair of the Ramapo College board of trustees, Sharon K McGahee, Esq. The highlight of the retreat has always been the alumni roundtable discussion. Alumni from varying graduating classes travel up to the retreat house to spend time with our graduating seniors. The discussions, advice and role modeling that the alumni provide is invaluable. Later in the evening, along with the alumni, we celebrated the accomplishments of our graduating seniors with cake, food, music and lots of balloons and streamers. We closed out the weekend the next morning by reflecting on the last four or five years, the weekend retreat experience, and what lies ahead. GREAT WEEKEND! 5