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GROUNDBREAKING

New York City College of Technology Spring 2014 Vol. 6, No. 2

City Tech Breaks Ground for New Academic Complex

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Connections is the online magazine of New York City College of Technology of The City University of New York, 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201-1909, © 2014. All rights reserved.

Editor-in-ChiefDale Tarnowieski

Contributing EditorsJewel Trowers Escobar

Michele Forsten

Jessica Malavez

Guest Contributing EditorFaith Corbett

Graphic Designer Jamie Markowitz

City Tech MTC Teams

Team 2 – MET Students Team 1 –CET Students

4th Annual ASEE-SME Competition in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25, 2013

City Tech Team Takes ASEE Most Creative Design Award

Professor’s Work Exhibited at U.S. District Court in Brooklyn

Klitgord Mosaic Preserved

Students Help Rockaway Non-Profit

Alum Wins Attorney General’s Community Service Award

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CiTy TECH BREAKS GRoUND foR NEW ACADEMiC CoMPlExIn October 2013, New York City College of Technology held a ceremonial groundbreaking to mark the construction of a new academic complex at the corner of Tillary and Jay Streets in Downtown Brooklyn. The new complex will rise on the site formerly occupied by Klitgord Center.

“The groundbreaking for this state-of-the-art building,” Interim Chancellor William E. Kelly stated, “will ensure that New York City College of Technology remains at the forefront of technology education, preparing students to compete in a changing and global economy. We thank Governor Cuomo, the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly for their support on behalf of the people of Brooklyn, the City and the State.”

The new eight-story complex, which is currently unnamed, will be home to City Tech’s expanding programs in clinical healthcare and the sciences. The academic departments that will occupy the new building include Chemistry and Biological Sciences (including Biomedical Informatics). It will also be home to the health programs – Nursing, Radiologic Technology & Medical Imaging, Dental Hygiene, Restorative Dentistry and Vision

Care Technology. Included is a 1,000- seat auditorium, a wellness center, and an 800-seat gymnasium.

From the health sector to the hospitality industry, technology allows businesses that drive local, national and global economies to seamlessly produce products and provide services while communicating with consumers anywhere in the world. City Tech is at the forefront of this technology boom.

Over the last decade, City Tech has seen rapid growth in student enrollment, increasing nearly 50 percent since 2003. This increase has been attributed to evolving workforce demands, new high-tech program development and the growth of employment opportunities in new and existing technology firms, both locally and nationally.

“This project is coming to fruition with the support of policy makers who understand City Tech’s institutional strengths and economic relevance,” said the College’s President Russell Hotzler. “When completed, it will provide the tools needed to improve and refine programmatic outcomes and allow City Tech to offer a high quality education that makes its graduates relevant to the needs of our rapidly changing economy.”

City Tech interns Partner with High Tech firmsDowntown Brooklyn is becoming a hub for tech firms more rapidly than ever. To help train and prepare college students for today and tomorrow’s growing number of high tech jobs, New York City’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has partnered with City Tech, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Brooklyn Tech Triangle to offer students paid summer internship positions.

Initially, the interns came exclusively from City Tech, according to a feature article in Commercial Observer, the only weekly publication dedicated to covering the city’s commercial real estate industry. Fifty City Tech students applied and 28 were selected for the program. Students from other schools may join the program this year.

Interviews were held in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where 18 companies had a chance to interview the City Tech students and to match prospective interns to their business needs. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation worked with tech businesses to find the most suitable companies for learning and development. Both students and employers were given the opportunity to rank their ideal matches.

The student interns worked Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays, the entire group visited technology firms, including major players like Facebook, Kickstarter and SecondMarket. Also on Fridays, students attended a Tech Entrepreneurship 101 class, where they learned the entrepreneurial skills necessary to start a new business. The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment is funding the program, while SBS runs the program’s day-to-day operations.

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In a fall 2013 message to City Tech faculty and staff, President Russell Hotzler began by citing three critical objectives that held priority for the College during academic year 2012-2013: implementation of CUNYfirst campus solutions, implementation of the Pathways initiative, and the development and submission of a Periodic Review Report (PRR) to the College’s primary accreditor, the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association.

“Through significant effort extended by members of the faculty, staff and administration,” Hotzler wrote, “we were able to successfully achieve these objectives and I extend sincere appreciation to all the individuals who worked to ensure that the College fulfilled its obligation to our students.”

Appropriately, the preliminary response to City Tech’s PRR from reviewers designated by the Middle States Commission was highly complementary of the College’s accomplishments. The school’s 2008 self-study told a story of the beginning stages of the re-invigoration and renewal of a college as evident in its responses to the Commission’s recommendations. City Tech took the Commission’s recommendations seriously and surpassed most of them through careful planning, resource allocation and faculty involvement. In a later message in December,

President Hotzler notified the College community that the full Commission had accepted City Tech’s PRR and reaffirmed accreditation.

The president also reported that despite the challenges posed by the transition to CUNYfirst and Pathways, City Tech experienced a strong student registration during fall 2013. The preliminary student headcount was 16,900 and freshmen enrollment exceeded 3,600, an increase of 700 freshmen over the previous year. Baccalaureate offerings continued to grow as well, with enrollment in these programs exceeding 6,000 students.

The president added that the State Education Department had approved the registration of new baccalaureate programs in Electrical Technology and Construction Engineering Technology – programs that began admitting students during the 2013-2014 academic year. City Tech’s BS degree in Bioinformatics enrolled its first students in spring 2013 and enrolled more than 200 students last fall. This was triple the projection. The College also implemented program concentrations in African American Studies and Physics.

President Hotzler noted that student performance on professional licensure and certification exams remains superior with the percentage of students passing the Nursing NCLEX exam at 95.1 percent,

the pass rate on both the Dental Hygiene licensure exam and the Rad Tech licensure exam at 98 percent, and the pass rate for students taking the Career & Technical Teacher Education Content Specialty Tests at 100 percent.

According to the president, remedial outcomes continued to improve somewhat as did student performance on gateway mathematics courses. Both retention and graduation rates for baccalaureate degree students continue to show gradual increases. The graduation rate for baccalaureate transfer students – a meaningful cohort for City Tech – reached 41.2 percent.

The Commission on Opticianry Accreditation awarded the College’s Vision Care Technology program a full six-year reaccreditation and the bachelor’s degree program in Nursing was reaccredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.

The College’s digital learning platform – the Open Lab – exceeded 6,000 users, and 185 faculty members were involved in workshops focused on Blackboard, blogs, ePortfolios, wikis, collaborative online tools and videos, as well as online seminars.

Eighteen new full-time tenure track faculty were appointed for fall 2013, and the College’s scholarship report indicated that last year faculty authored and edited 28 books, contributed 25 book chapters, had 39 conference presentations published as proceedings, and 110 articles published in refereed journals.

The number of undergraduate students involved in research during the past academic year reached 501 (an increase from 296) and 19 of these students had papers accepted for presentation at regional and national conferences. This outcome reflects a well-coordinated effort of City Tech’s Honors Scholars and BMI programs and a number of faculty members with NSF grants.

The City Tech Foundation’s fundraising outcomes posted approximately $1.4 million in collections and plans were completed to initiate a $10 million Major Gifts Campaign that will accompany construction of the College’s new academic complex.

PRESiDENT’S REPoRT oN RECENT ACCoMPliSHMENTS

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Disaster Recovery Expert Helps Prepare New yorkers for Hurricane Season

Biological Sciences Seminar Examines Unresolved inflammations Triggered by Pathogens

Joint Mathematics & Physics Colloquium

A Joint Mathematics & Physics Colloquium, “Search for Higher Symmetries in Physics,” on December 12, 2013, featured a review by Professor Sultan Catto, Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, of the historical role played by symmetry groups in Nature and their extension into kinematic (spacetime) and dynamical (internal) supersymmetry. Emphasis was on the role played by the four number fields: Real, Complex, Quaternionic and Octonionic numbers. Professor Catto also demonstrated new multiplication rules for octonionic doublets and triplets, and showed how these lead into connecting some special geometries, as well as leading to the description of algebra of quarks.

A Biological Sciences Seminar held in December 2013 featured a presentation by Deepshika Ramanan, Cadwell Laboratory, NYU Langone Medical Center, on her research on how host-pathogen interactions establish the course of the ensuing inflammatory response. The immune system is faced with

the incredible responsibility of controlling infectious agents, but at the same time must limit the collateral damage to surrounding tissue that inevitably occurs during this process. Accumulating evidence suggests that many serious disorders are due to unresolved inflammation triggered by pathogens.

Ramanan is a senior graduate student in the lab where she is studying the role of NOD2 in Crohn’s disease. Originally from India, she is working with worms to see if they can relieve Crohn’s symptoms in mice and using metagenomics to see which populations of bacteria are involved in the disease.

As the 2013 hurricane season approached, Illya Azaroff needed to empty his voicemail inbox at least once a day. His expertise in disaster recovery, resilience and rebuilding, and his activity in the post-Hurricane Sandy recovery campaign have made him increasingly popular with government officials, architects and engineers.

Azaroff, an associate professor of architectural technology at City Tech, is co-chair of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)’s Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee, which established the Post Sandy Initiative Task Force.

The committee and task force work with planning, engineering, housing, landscaping and other organizations involved with sustainable design on issues of building codes, the environment, transportation, infrastructure, urban planning and design, zoning, health facilities, waterfronts and other areas of concern.

“What got me interested in designing for resiliency is the combination of my degrees in geography and architecture. That background gave me the opportunity to think about the relationship of earth science to the way we build and live,” said Azaroff. “Growing up in tornado-prone Nebraska helped me understand the toll of destruction caused by natural disasters.”

Azaroff is helping on the local, state and federal levels. “Some communities may want to build back affected areas the way they were before, but that’s not listening to or understanding the new paradigm,” he explained. “Resiliency requires rethinking how the power grid is distributed, for example, and how to make it safe. The goal of resilience is to get businesses back in business and people back in their homes as soon as possible, in the safest way possible after an event such as Sandy.”

In keeping with that need, Azaroff was asked to lead a task force to review the NYS 2100 Commission’s report, “Recommendations to Improve the Strength and Resilience of the Empire State’s Infrastructure,” and provide feedback to Governor Cuomo’s office. In New York City, he is part of a team that confers with the Mayor’s Office, City Council and Department of City Planning on damage assessment, identifying areas of continued risk and making recommendations about recovery, flood prevention and rebuilding.

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, Azaroff and other AIA leaders presented the “Post Sandy Initiative” report to members of Congress and met with legislators to discuss disaster recovery and resilience. The visit inspired the formation of the AIA Post-Sandy Regional Working Group, an alliance of architects and allied professionals from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and

Rhode Island, who share information and advice as their states recover from the same problems.

Azaroff and his colleagues have been offering local workshops about recovery and resiliency, and more are planned. “We want to make sure the city is better prepared,” he says.

“Sandy’s impact on the DUMBO area of Brooklyn caused inundation and several businesses suffered a lot of damage. Red Hook was severely damaged, people displaced, businesses affected. Electricity, plumbing and heating went down when buildings were inundated, unusable or destroyed. People were without services for a long time.” Several CUNY campuses were seriously affected, including Kingsborough Community College in Sheepshead Bay, which was flooded.

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For the second year in a row, City Tech’s Department of Entertainment Technology projects display won a Blue Ribbon Editor’s Choice award at the Maker Faire, New York. This award is given “to the Makers that

have demonstrated great creativity, ingenuity and innovation for their Maker Faire project. This year’s Entertainment Technology display featured two interactive projects developed and presented in the collaborative way that is at the heart of the department’s process.

“Trash Can Man,” pictured here, is a pop-up animatronic character that is a part of the department’s

annual “Gravesend Inn” haunted hotel attraction. The pop-up head was crafted by now-alumnus John Tamerlani when he was a student in Professor Charles

Scott’s “Monster Shop” class. Tamerlani is now working at CBS Television and is a member of the Local 1 stagehands union. The pop-up effect is a theme park quality interactive mechanical, audio and lighting control system featuring control gear from Automation Direct and Alcorn McBride. It was designed and programmed by Professor John Huntington and built, wired and installed by a student crew.

Professor Sue Brandt presented her Arduino-powered interactive LED children’s book, Princess Quest. This book leads young children on a treasure quest and features an interactive wand and wirelessly linked crown. When readers discover the secret in the reading, selected LEDs in the book and crown light up when readers move the wand over the correct place in the associated illustrations.

City Tech’s Entertainment Technology Department Wins ‘Blue Ribbon’ Editor’s Choice Award at Maker faire

The Northeastern Gnathological Society (NGS) Fall Meeting took place on November 8, 2013, and was hosted by City Tech’s Department of Restorative Dentistry. Third semester students and department faculty were exposed to top international speakers, developed contacts and relationships with leaders of the dental laboratory profession, and had an enjoyable day at Chelsea Pier 60. Professors J. Balla, A. Sena, A. Smith, S. Greenberg, N. Manos and R. Budny supervised the group throughout the day.

The NGS 2013 Fall Meeting featured world-renowned speakers Tord Berglundh, DDS, who presented “Peri-Implantitis – Prevalence and Risk Factors,” David Guichet, DDS, presenting “Computer Enhanced Implant Dentistry,” Domenico Cascione, BS, CDT, presenting “A Novel Approach for Non-invasive Pontic Site Development,” Christian Coachman, DDS, CDT, presenting “Improving

Dentist/Technician Communication for Optimum Smile Design and Ceramic Restorations,” and Richard B. Smith, DDS, presenting “Immediate Molar Implants: When: Where, Why and How.”

Both students and faculty members from the Department of Restorative Dentistry gained first-hand insight into modern dental practices and newest technologies. The research findings and information given

during the event’s presentations were exceptionally informative and educational. The department is grateful to the Northeastern Gnathological Society for its continuous support of our program as well as our entire profession, and for promoting and so strongly believing in teamwork between dentists and dental technicians in creating the best possible outcomes for their patients-clients.

RESToRATivE DENTiSTRy HoSTS NoRTHEASTERN GNATHoloGiCAl SoCiETy fAll 2013 MEETiNG

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EffECTS of SiMUlATED ‘DiRTy BoMB’ oN NyC SUBWAy, STREETS STUDiED By CiTy TECH AND oTHER STUDENTS, BRooKHAvEN lAB AND NyPD

City Tech was at the hub of the largest field study of its kind investigating how airborne contaminants disperse in a dense, complex, urban-coastal environment like New York City.

Ninety students from ten universities that included The City University of New York participated in this cutting-edge research as summer interns in July 2013, measuring and helping to model the atmospheric concentrations of a simulated “dirty bomb’s” plume above and below the ground in various locations in the city. Forty of the students were from City Tech.

Risks posed by airborne contaminants launched by chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) weapons as they are dispersed in the atmosphere and in New York City’s subway system were assessed. Data the students collected will be used to optimize emergency response following an intentional or accidental release of hazardous materials and refine evacuation or other responses in the event of an emergency.

The Subway-Surface Air Flow Exchange (S-SAFE), as the project is formally known, was commissioned by the NYPD and funded through a $3.4 million Department of Homeland Security Transit Security Grant. Undergraduate students, field meteorologists and engineers, and researchers from Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories supported Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists as they tracked the movement of

perfluorocarbon tracer gases (PFTs) above and below ground in the city. PFTs present no health or environmental hazard. They are used in medical applications including eye surgeries and artificial breathing systems. Approximately 200 sampling devices were deployed by CUNY students and others involved in the study.

According to one of the project team captains, Charlyne Sainrose, “It was very gratifying to be part of this project.” Her group of six students was assigned to monitor the Times Square, Union Square and Canal Street areas of Manhattan. “The data we collected will help the NYPD figure out where to put sensors to monitor the city’s air in case of an emergency.”

Echoing Sainrose’s remarks, City Tech liberal arts major Saba Jaleel said that it meant a lot to her to participate in a project to make New York City safer. “I also learned the value of teamwork and practiced my communication skills when we had to explain to the public what we were doing.”

For José Rivera, a biomedical informatics student at City Tech, the internship was a chance to explore areas of science with which he wasn’t that familiar. “The research opened my eyes to the field of geoscience, specifically the vast array of issues facing the world, including terrorism, and how scientists, like those at Brookhaven Lab, are trying to solve them.”

“Brookhaven Lab is a world leader in the use of tracer gases to study airflow, and we are excited about this opportunity to apply that expertise to enhancing the safety of New York City residents and emergency responders,” said Brookhaven Lab Director Doon Gibbs.

The project was supervised by the Department of Homeland Security, The Department of Energy, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the NYC Police Department and the NYC Office of Emergency Management. Two City Tech professors, Dr. Reginald Blake and Dr. Janet Liou-Mark, were co-Project Coordinators, and Dr. Blake was also a Team Leader for the project.

”This S-SAFE geoscience internship is an excellent example of service learning,” said Professor Blake.

“As educators, our primary responsibility to our students is dual-pronged: to educate them and then to create opportunities for them to exercise that education,” said Professor Liou-Mark. “That is what this special project achieved.”

Together with the assistance of Ms. Laura Yuen-Lau and Professor Viviana Vladutescu, this City Tech team synergized the S-SAFE project with Dr. Blake’s National Science Foundation’s Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences grant and created a comprehensive geoscience internship experience for the 90 interns.

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CENTER foR THEoRETiCAl PHySiCS HoSTS SEMiNAR SERiES AND oTHER SPECiAl EvENTS

The Physics Department and the Center for Theoretical Physics hosted a seminar, “Atomtronics: Probing Mesoscopic Transport with Ultracold Atoms,” in September 2013, featuring guest speaker Professor Kunal K. Das, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Das told the gathering that Atomtronics, or electronics with ultracold atoms, is an emerging field with broad potential. It’s most promising immediate application lies in probing mesoscopic and coherent transport phenomena.

A second seminar, “Nano-Structured Superconductors,” in October 2013 featured City Tech’s Dr. Ilya Grigorenko, whose presentation highlighted some recent advances and studies of superconductivity on the nanoscale. In particular, Dr. Grigorenko discussed how geometry and inhomogeneity control the superconducting properties.

A third seminar, “Quantal Heating in Electron Systems with Discrete Spectrum,” held in November 2013 featured City College of New York Professor Sergey

A. Vitkalov, who spoke about peculiar Joule heating, which occurs exclusively in conducting quantum systems, has extraordinary properties and provides extreme violations of Ohm’s Law in normal metals.

A fourth presentation, “One-Dimensional Contacts: Bridging the Three-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional Worlds,” held in December 2013 featured City College of New York Assistant Professor Cory Dean, who examined how the capability to assemble two-dimensional materials with complementary properties into layered heterogeneous structures presents an exciting new opportunity in materials design.

In another event held in October of last year, the department played to the public’s fascination with magic. Through the program, “The Magic of Physics,” the department showed how the magic of Nature is revealed in physics and incorporated in its laws.

11th ANNUAl PoSTER SESSioNOrganized by faculty members Roman Kezerashvili, chair, Renata Budny, Candido Cabo, Bronwen Densmore, Andrea Ferroglia, Ilya Grigorenko, Delaram Kahrobaei, German Kolmakov, Darya Krym, Alexander Rozenblyum and Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Advancement Stephen Soiffer, the College’s 11th Annual Poster Session in November 2013 exhibited the research of faculty and students. Featuring 100 exhibits, the Poster Session created a spirit of College community, honored its intellectual achievements, and inspired its members.

Over the past decade the Poster Session has grown, diversified and evolved into a well-known and cherished tradition at the College. By promoting faculty and student research, the Poster Session initiative has added a new dimension to life at City Tech. This dimension has continued to grow as the success and popularity of the original Poster Session spurred the creation of the Honors and Emerging Scholars Poster Presentation by students, an exhibition that focuses on student research. The Poster Session is generously supported by the City Tech Foundation and the School of Arts & Sciences.

Kunal K. Das

Sergey A. Vitkalov Cory DeanIlya Grigorenko

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BlACK SoliDARiTy DAy CElEBRATioN fEATURES TAlK By AWARD-WiNNiNG WRiTER fARAi CHiDEyAHosted by the Department of African American Studies, the 2013 Black Solidarity Day celebration at City Tech on November 4, 2013, featured a talk by award-winning author, journalist, professor and lecturer Farai Chideya, who addressed the Black Solidarity Day theme, “Understanding Trayvon Martin in the Age of the Obamas.” In addition to her lecture, the event featured a theatrical presentation by City Tech Black Theater students.

Chideya has combined media, technology and socio-political analysis during her 20-year career. She is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and was also a spring 2012 fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. She frequently appears on public radio and cable television, speaking about race, politics and culture. She also hosts a series of town hall meetings in both New York and San Francisco, with New York Public Radio and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, respectively.

Her current project on the future of work, “Work and Us,” grew out of her reporting

on the “great recession” throughout her recent years in public radio. In 2010, Chideya produced multimedia political specials about the midterm elections in partnership with WNYC and American Public Media. The team behind “Pop and Politics with Farai Chideya” toured America to conduct interviews about economic anxiety and the national identity crises in religion, immigration and race.

Chideya originally launched PopandPolitics.com as a blog in 1995.

From 2006 to early 2009, Chideya hosted NPR’s News and Notes. She has been a reporter for ABC News, a political analyst for CNN, a host for the Oxygen Network, and continues to appear on television as a cultural commentator. She and the teams she has worked with have won awards, including a National Education Reporting Award, a North Star News Prize, and a special award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association for coverage of AIDS. Earlier in her career she worked for Newsweek, MTV News, CNN, and ABC News.

Chideya has written three nonfiction books: Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters; The Color of Our Future; and Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans. Her novel, Kiss the Sky (Atria Books), was released in hardcover in May 2009 and in paperback in May 2010. All are taught on college campuses across the country in subjects from ethnic studies to pop culture.

SiRoNA TRAiNiNG foR DEPARTMENT of RESToRATivE DENTiSTRy fACUlTy MEMBERSIn September 2013, Thomas Nieting, CDT, Cerec inLab trainer and business consultant, presented hands-on CAD/CAM instruction to the faculty of the Department of Restorative Dentistry. The training sessions allowed the educators to familiarize themselves with equipment, materials and design techniques used to create dental restorations with the latest CAD/CAM offered by Sirona. The unique Bluecam technology employed in the InEos Blue scanner and the design software were discussed and practiced.

The Department of Restorative Dentistry is currently utilizing Sirona technology in a Fixed Prosthodontics II course coordinated by Professor Renata Budny, but hopes to find more applications in additional courses. Others attending the training sessions

included Professors Nicholas Manos, Jules Balla, Anthony Sena, Daniel Alter, Philip Russo, Laura Andreescu, Lawrence Araneo and Avis Smith. The department extends a special note of thanks to Sirona, Thomas Nieting and Elizabeth

Ashworth, Sirona’s representative for organizing the training and providing one of the very best technicians available to instruct faculty members in proper product usage.

Pictured left to right: Professors Renata Budny, Nicholas Manos, Jules Balla, Anthony Sena, Daniel Alter, Philip Russo, Laura Andreescu, Lawrence Araneo and Avis Smith

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In summer 1962, a large mosaic measuring 34 x 17 feet was affixed to the front of the then-new Klitgord Center building at 285 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. A joint venture of the New York City Board of Education and New York City Community College (now City Tech), the building housed the school’s 900-seat auditorium and a gymnasium that could accommodate up to 1,200 spectators. The mosaic, which featured images of the arts, recreation, health and competition, and reflected the curriculum of the College, would attract visitors from around the world for the next fifty years.

Klitgord Center honored Dr. Otto Klitgord, the first president of the institution. The Center and its mosaic were envisioned and funded through a team effort spearheaded by Dr. Klitgord, members of the institution’s Board of Trustees, faculty, staff and students, and political and other community leaders, who in the 1950s supported the mission of the College and the need to expand its facilities.

Foremost among these leaders was President Klitgord himself, an engineer with an interest in international exchanges as well as technical education. Working closely with him was the college’s Board of Trustees, in particular its chairperson, Benjamin H. Namm, a philanthropist who owned the A. I. Namm & Son Department Store (later Namm-Loeser’s) on Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Street and served as director of the U. S. National Retail Dry Goods Association.

The design of the Center’s mosaic was spearheaded by a team of educators and business leaders who recognized the growing need for education in the emerging technologies of the Post World War II era. New York City Community College, chartered in 1946 as the New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences, would address that need head on, offering courses on a campus that was to expand along Jay Street over the next fifty years and that continues to expand today.

The mosaic was created by a group of internationally recognized professionals, including architect Francis Keally, designer Nathaniel Choate and ceramic engineer Joseph Von Tury. The three had worked together previously and had, by 1960, achieved international recognition in their respective fields.

Mr. Keally, president of the Municipal Art Society and the Fine Arts Federation of New York, and an advocate of historic preservation and public art, had won acclaim for previous designs, including the Oregon State Capital building, the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, the campus of Carnegie Institute of Design, the United States Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens, the Public Library in Berlin, Germany, and the United States military cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg, the resting place of General George Patton and thousands of soldiers who fought under his command. Mr. Keally also had worked previously with Von Tury, who created the Klitgord mosaic tiles.

Nathaniel Choate, a painter, designer and sculptor who worked in bronze, marble, onyx and aluminum, designed the Klitgord mosaic. A native of Southborough, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard College in 1922 and later traveled abroad to

study art. His paintings and sculptures won high praise when they appeared in New York City galleries, and became part of collections at the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, the National Academy of Design, New York City, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He made bas-reliefs for the main entrance doors of the Federal Building at the New York World’s Fair of 1939.

Together in 1961, Keally, Choate and Von Tury, who had achieved international fame for developing new firing techniques at his kiln in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and lectured about them around the world, combined their respective areas of expertise in Brooklyn to create the Klitgord Center mosaic.

The fame of the mosaic was re-discovered by Dr. Mary Nilles, English, with the help of a group of her students. On April 25,

KliTGoRD MoSAiC PRESERvED

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2013, members of a writing class taught by Dr. Nilles toured the MetroTech area near the college to study the changing landscape of Downtown Brooklyn. When photographing the mosaic on the front of the Klitgord auditorium, they noticed two inscriptions in the tiles: “Nat Choate, designer, 1962” and “Von Tury, ceramist, Perth Amboy, N. J.” Research on the names began immediately.

Working together, professor and students soon found information on the international reputation of Choate and Von Tury. Students wrote reports and created power point presentations on the famed mosaic, which they soon learned was scheduled for imminent demolition. In June, Dr. Nilles began to work with others, including former Acting President Emilie A. Cozzi, Professors Robert Holden, Joel Mason, Alice Richardson and Diane Wilson, to organize a group interested in saving the mosaic. The City Tech Library’s Morris Hounion and Keith Muchowski conducted extensive research on behalf of the group.

Dr. Nilles was joined in her preservation effort by a diverse group of City Tech and CUNY students, faculty and staff, several members of the CUNY Board of Trustees, and by several museums, galleries, public art installations, libraries, members of the media, government officials, and the local community. These include Andrew Namm, son of Benjamin H. Namm and former chair of the City Tech Foundation; Dr. August Molnar, professor and president, the American Hungarian Foundation, New Brunswick, NJ, with special interest in preserving the legacy of Hungarian-born Joseph von Tury; Mary Jo Von Tury, educator, ceramicist and daughter of tile artist Joseph Von Tury.

City Tech President Russell Hotzler concurred with the group’s sentiment and subcontractor Nicholson & Galloway was engaged to work with the Sciame Corporation to cut the mosaic into sections and to move them to safe storage. Numerous students and faculty members are working with Dr. Nilles on further researching the mosaic and its history and organizing a spring 2014 exhibition focused on all who created it.

Institutions and associations that also provided information on the mosaic and supported its preservation included The Brookgreen Gardens, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Public Library, Curran-Pfeiff Corporation, New York City Department of Education, New York Historical Society, New York Public Library, Harvard University Archives and Fogg Art Museum, Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Indiana University, Long Island University, Luxembourg American Chamber of Commerce, New York, and the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations, Muskegon, Michigan Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, New York City, National Museum of African American History and Culture, New York University, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Smithsonian Institution, Spanierman Gallery, and William Erath & Son Tile Setters.

Are you Eligible for federal 9/11 Health Program Benefits?Some City Tech alumni and still working or retired faculty and staff who were in certain areas of Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO during and immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center may be eligible for a government program that will monitor their health and provide benefits if they became sick or become sick as a result of the attack.

The most common health problems resulting from the 9/11 attack are asthma, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, sinus congestion, laryngitis, heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux, stomach problems, anxiety, nervousness and depression. Many cancers are covered by the World Trade Center Health Program as well.

The program is open to anyone who was present in the “New York Disaster Area” (including City Tech buildings north of Tillary Street) for at least four days during the time period from September 11, 2001, to January 10, 2002, and became or become ill. The deadline to sign up for some parts of the multifaceted program was October 3, 2013. Eligibility for other parts is ongoing. For complete eligibility requirements and additional information, visit www.cdc.gov/wtc.

Haunted Hotel Scares Crowds Silly Again!

The crowds are never prepared to be scared as much as City Tech’s high-tech haunted hotel, “The Gravesend Inn,” always scares them. Bigger and more hair-raising than ever, this theme-park-quality Halloween attraction, with ghouls and goblins galore, returned for its fourteen year in October and November 2013 to thrill hundreds of adults and children alike. The Gravesend Inn is produced by Theatreworks, City Tech’s resident theatrical troupe, with design, construction and operating support provided by students and faculty of the college’s nationally unique Entertainment Technology program.

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CoNTiNUiNG EDUCATioN

Get in touch by visiting our website at www.citytech.cuny.edu/academics/continuinged. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and You Tube

yoU CAN fix iT – BUT SHoUlD yoU TRy?

Have you ever watched a repairperson or installer and thought to yourself as you paid the bill that you could have done that? Come to City Tech and take the fear out of trying home repair and home improvement projects. Hands-on Home Repair Workshops are geared for the homeowner and apartment dweller alike. The course materials are aimed at the novice to intermediate do-it-yourselfer and focus on the most common repair and enhancement projects.

The goal of the program is to give the homeowner both the basic tools and experience necessary to tackle repairs themselves, rather than having to call a professional. Each three-hour class is packed with information and hands-on lessons that can save the homeowner hundreds of dollars on small repairs and thousands on bigger home improvement projects.

The plumbing class is always among the most popular, and students really enjoy learning how easy it actually is to repair or even replace a toilet, change a faucet, unclog a trap, or even fix a leaky valve. The class on repairing plaster and sheetrock walls is also a favorite. Everyone seems to have cracks, holes, dents or mysterious stains on their walls and ceilings, and spackling is an art that can be mastered. Our instructor, Richard Crabbe, knows the secrets of the professionals and is anxious to share them with you by giving you tools and hands-on experience to take on new projects. You will learn to make repairs that any pro would be proud of.

From electricity to tiling to lock installation, Hands-on Home Repair Workshops will equip homeowners with the knowledge, expertise and confidence to tackle the projects that have had them searching the Yellow Pages in the past. Our students get a little dirty in the process, but they love it. Check out our spring workshop offerings at www.citytech.cuny/edu/academics/continuinged.

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Student Among 2013 NyS Assembly’s Distinguished intern Reports Award Winners City Tech student Lourdes J. Cajamarca, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Legal Assistant Studies, was named one of nine 2013 New York State Assembly Distinguished Intern Reports award winners. The nine winners were selected by the Intern Committee chaired by Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick, A.D. 66, who also chairs the Committee on Higher Education.

The New York State Assembly Internship Program has two vital components:

the practical educational experience in an Assembly office and the academic component. Each year the Assembly Internship Program has published a volume that honors the best writers in the Program’s challenging academic curriculum. Of the 175 interns in 2013 session, sixteen of their papers were nominated for consideration for publication in this year’s volume and nine were published.

Ms. Cajamarca’s report on Assembly Bill 1056, which would alter the statute of limitation for medical, dental and podiatric malpractice to two years and six months from the time when a person knows or reasonably should have known of the alleged negligent act or omission and knows or reasonably should have known that such negligent act or omission has caused an injury, was written during her service as Session Intern with Assemblymember Helene E. Weinstein, A.D 41.

In mid-2013, more than 100 seniors from City Tech and 13 city high schools were congratulated by Robert W. Walsh, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), for successfully completing the Scholars at Work program.

A partnership between the NYC Department of Education, SBS and The City University of New York, Scholars at Work helps graduating students from select city career and technical education high schools and City Tech find careers after graduation in the high-demand transportation and manufacturing sectors. This is the first year the program was expanded to include college students through the City Tech partnership. In total, the program placed over 100 students from City Tech and participating high schools into internships. Graduation was held at Steiner Studios, located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“City Tech’s technology programs are constructed to blend theory and hands-on experience. We teach students to be ‘scholars at work,’” says Bonne August, provost and vice president for academic affairs at City Tech. “This NYC SBS program is a perfect

fit and a great opportunity for our students looking to pursue careers in advanced manufacturing and transportation.”

“It is our goal that every New York City student graduates high school ready for success in college and a career,” said Department of Education Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott. “Scholars at Work connects students from high-quality transportation and manufacturing CTE programs with leading employers in the field, which provides an invaluable work experience and a much deeper understanding of what it takes to advance their personal career path.”

As part of the program, students completed a 14-week paid internship during

the spring 2013 academic semester with over 40 New York City employers in the transportation and manufacturing industries. Manufacturing interns gained vital paid work experience with businesses focusing on architecture, plumbing, welding, carpentry, electrical, wholesale distribution, wholesale trade and more. Transportation interns were placed with employers engaged in high-level automotive, aviation, electrical, engineering, ground transit and maritime work. Participating employers included 15 businesses from the Brooklyn Navy Yard that hired interns for positions in production, fabrication, inventory management, design and various tech-related roles.

CiTy TECH STUDENTS AMoNG ‘SCHolARS AT WoRK’ GRADUATES

STUDENT ACHiEvERSMaking their Mark on caMpus and off

Scholars at Work graduates at Steiner Studios

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MoRE STUDENT ACHiEvERS

2013 CUNy Thomas Tam Scholarship Honorable Mention Award for City Tech StudentCongratulations to architectural technology student Sittha Siriprakaisak, recipient of a $250 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship Honorable Mention Award presented at the Asian American/Asian Research Institute’s (AAARI) 12th Annual Gala in November 2013. The Thomas Tam Scholarship is funded by an endowment established by CUNY in recognition of Dr. Thomas Tam’s contributions as a former member of the Board of Trustees, founding executive director of AAARI, and leadership in the Asian American community. The Scholarships are awarded to qualified Asian or non-Asian undergraduate CUNY students who have demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian

American community in areas such as health, education and culture.

At City Tech, Siriprakaisak participated in a design studio that studied the urban fabric of Manhattan’s Chinatown. For his project, “The First Step to Redevelop Chinatown,” he researched and designed solutions for several sites in Chinatown to address the needs for open space and quality housing. His redesign concept concentrated on the area of Walker, Canal and Baxter Streets and proposed improvements that included pedestrian walkways for the side streets, a waterfall wall to reduce noise pollution and serve as an area for people to relax, and the creation of a structure that serves as a recognizable focal point for visitors to the Chinatown area.

CiTy TECH CHAPTER of NATioNAl SoCiETy of CollEGiATE SCHolARS iNDUCTS 191 STUDENTS

One-hundred-ninety-one students were inducted into the City Tech chapter of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) in October 2013. Dr. Sandie Han, Mathematics, who earlier this year received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics, was keynote speaker at the ceremony.

NSCS is a national honors organization that recognizes and elevates high achievers. It provides career and graduate school

connections, leadership and service opportunities and gives out nearly a million dollars in scholarships annually. NSCS members are deeply committed to scholarship, leadership and service that impact their campuses and local communities every day.

In addition to the 191 student inductees, NSCS at City Tech also honored Professors Han, Laura Ghezzi and Lin Zhou, Mathematics, Diana Samaroo, Chemistry,

and Melanie Villatoro, Construction Management & Civil Engineering Technology, as 2013 Distinguished NSCS Members for their dedication to the Peer-Led Team Learning project headed by Mathematics Professor Janet Liou-Mark, NSCS faculty advisor, and Dr. A.E. Dreyfuss, learning specialist. The project empowers students to be peer leaders for workshops in science, engineering and mathematics. Because of their mentorship, these student leaders are receiving prestigious local and national internships and scholarships to graduate schools. Also honored was Daniel Fictum, Director of Student Life & Development and Charter Advisor. He was recognized for his dedication to serving the NSCS chapter as an advisor since its inception in 2003.

Pictured here, left to right, are Dr. Samaroo, Dr. Han, Daniel Fictum and Dr. Liou-Mark, Bojkena Selmanaj, NSCS Chapter Executive Vice President, Tamrah Cunningham, NSCS Chapter President, Shamsan Ahmed, NSCS Chapter Treasurer; Christian Sebastian Dalencourt, NSCS Chapter Vice President of Community Service, and Ruchoma Kaganoff, NSCS 2012 inductee.

Student Wins Week-long ASDP Scholarship City Tech student Cesar Morban won a week-long scholarship to the Accounting Scholars Development Program (ASDP) hosted by Howard University and sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The program provided an all-expense-paid trip to introduce participating students to the field of accounting.

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MoRE STUDENT ACHiEvERS

City Tech Student Teams Take Two Blue Ribbons, Earn Jury felicitations at 2013 international Restaurant ShowCongratulations to all City Tech Hospitality Management students, faculty and staff who participated in the 2013 International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show, November 9-12, at Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The Confectionery Team’s Occasional Cake received Felicitations of the Jury and the City Tech team table garnered two blue ribbons.

Student Garde Manger Team participants were Carlos Cole, Nelson Corona, George Brittney, Jessica Hernandez, Faith Johnson, Jodian Laird, Brian Lindsay, Linda Luo, Martin Miller, Kenneth Palacios, Kiba Perez, Sherri Royes, Elizabeth Ubinas and Kimberley Woodberry. Student Confectionery Team members were Milton Barrera, Magou Camara, Paula Charles, Min Jee Lee, Amy Maharaj, Erica Press, Amanda Zhang and Yomaris Estrella.

CiTy TECH STUDENTS HElP RoCKAWAy NoN-PRofiT CREATE viSUAl iDENTiTyA group of City Tech students recently presented the design work they created for the non-profit organization You Are Never Alone (YANA) at the MoMA PS1 VW Dome 2 in Rockaway Beach.

YANA is a worker-training center whose purpose is to bring jobs to the Rockaways focused on green, sustainable technologies. It was established a week before super-storm Sandy devastated the area. VW Dome 2 is a temporary geodesic dome erected in March 2013 as part of MoMA PS1’s EXPO 1: New York, in partnership with Volkswagen, to serve as a center for art exhibits, performances and community events.

The class initially worked collaboratively in researching the assignment, but each student created the actual design work independently. A design by Verónica Silva, an international student from Mexico, was eventually chosen by YANA to become the organization’s logo.

“I’m glad they chose my design, especially because there were so many

good ones to pick from,” says Silva. “Now I have a great addition to my portfolio!”

The pro-bono YANA project was an ideal service-learning assignment for City Tech advertising design and graphic arts students taking the “Advanced Vector Art” course, taught by Assistant Professor Genevieve Hitchings. Students were asked to design the organization’s visual identity, communicate its mission and generate public awareness.

“The 15 weeks of pro-bono, creative collaboration not only fulfilled the needs of YANA, but fostered learning and research in the classroom while benefitting the community,” says Hitchings. “We had regularly scheduled meetings with YANA founder Salvatore Lopizzo. Students were able to ask questions about the client’s goals and receive honest feedback on their work.”

According to Lopizzo, “The decision on which design to go with was not an easy one and did not happen quickly.

Ultimately we felt Ms. Silva’s design perfectly captured our organization’s ethos and could also effectively be used as the visual representation of our brand.” It was Lopizzo who connected the class to MoMA PS1 VW Dome 2 in Rockaway Beach.

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2013 ASEE SME Design and Manufacturing Competition

MoRE STUDENT ACHiEvERS

City Tech’s Jacqueline Anscombe and Alexandria Bottiglieri were two of just six students worldwide honored with the 2013 John and Helen Meyer Scholarship to the Live Design Broadway Sound Master Classes (BSMC).

The two entertainment technology students were chosen from a pool of promising sound designers from around the world, which included undergraduate students, graduate students and recent graduates.

The two-day class was held at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and brought together Broadway’s top audio professionals to discuss the creative, technical and practical challenges involved in creating sound for Broadway. The participants included undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students looking for additional training, working professionals looking to gain insight into theatre sound and anyone looking for networking opportunities with both established and rising sound design professionals.

For Bottiglieri, a self-described “theater nerd,” winning the Helen Meyer Scholarship to attend the master classes was the culmination of her hard work and sacrifices she has made to realize her dream of mixing sound professionally on and off Broadway.

“I remember seeing Chicago on Broadway and wondering how they made the sound so crisp and clear, yet able to fill an entire

professional theater,” says Bottiglieri. Her experience includes working on a community theater production of Les Miserables and sitting with the board operator for The Lion King on Broadway.

Anscombe, City Tech’s other Broadway Sound Master Class scholarship winner, graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in entertainment technology, cum laude. She has her sights set on being a sound designer for theatre and film.

“I’ve always loved the theatre,” she says. “I entered City Tech as a computer systems major and transferred into entertainment technology when I found out about the program. I fell in love with my “Sound for Multimedia” course, working on my projects until the lab was closing and they had to come throw me out!

According to Abe Jacob, creative consultant for the BSMC, who helped select the winners,

“The John and Helen Meyer Scholarships provide students – past, present and future – the opportunity to attend the Broadway Sound Master Classes and to experience the unique interplay of ideas and implementations going on in the theater today. I am grateful to John and Helen Meyer for their continuing generous support of this event.”

TWo CiTy TECH STUDENTS WiN SCHolARSHiPS To ATTEND BRoADWAy MASTER ClASSES

City Tech MTC Teams

Team 2 – MET Students Team 1 –CET Students

4th Annual ASEE-SME Competition in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25, 2013

In June 2013, two City Tech teams participated in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s (SME) Design and Manufacturing Competition at the ASEE Annual Congress and Exposition held in Atlanta, Georgia. One of City Tech teams won the Most Creative Design Award and the other team took third place.

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From left to right: John Monitto, Meyer Sound Worldwide Technical Support Director; City Tech students Anscombe and Bottiglieri; and Gavin Canaan, Meyer Sound Education Director

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fACUlTy & STAffCiTy TECH PRofESSoR iNTERviEWED By DEUTSCHE WEllE oN fiNANCiAl ASPECTS of CoMMoDiTy TRADiNG

City Tech Assistant Professor of Business Lucas Bernard was interviewed last fall by Deutsche Welle, the German equivalent of BBC or National Public Radio, on the financial aspects of commodity trading. Although prompted, in part, by news that Goldman-Sachs was involved in “warehousing” aluminum to avoid pricing regulations, the interview focused on the financial aspects of commodity trading that are not obvious to the casual observer and that can go beyond the simple supply-demand models most frequently used to organize thinking about these phenomena.

Says Professor Bernard in comments for Connections magazine that echo much of his Deutsche Welle interview, “The popular notion of commodities trading is something between that portrayed in the Frank Norris novel The Pit, which is about wheat traders in late 19th century Chicago, and the macho images portrayed in the popular film The Deal of young, high-testosterone trading ‘jocks’ in expensive suits and private jets and corruption set in the high-stakes world of corporate investment and international oil trading. While both of these clichés are surely aspects of markets, they are by no means the bulk of them. Instead, modern commodity markets are shaped by a variety of other forces.

“First,” notes Professor Bernard, “modern commodity markets have more in common with the fruit vendors we see on the streets than with the reckless risk takers of Hollywood imagination. Just like fruit vendors, financial firms make much of their money off the buy/sell spread of their goods, investment-related products of one sort or another which they hold in inventory. Just as the fruit salesman buys fruit at a low price in order to sell it at a higher price, companies like Goldman-Sachs buy financial instruments at one price in order to sell them at a higher price.

“But both the fruit vendor and the financial company,” Professor Bernard adds, “run the risk of not being able to sell their entire inventory. The fruit vendor, may ‘hedge’ his or her bets by making a deal with a smoothie operator, who agrees to take delivery of the vendor’s damaged fruit at a reduced price. Similarly, the financial company must also hedge its position. However, because of the complexity of financial products, there are a great many more options available. Thus, a considerable amount of trading involves the balancing and rebalancing of financial products, which includes commodity-related products, in order to hedge inventory. In fact, the famous Black-Scholes pricing model derives from exactly this observation: that market makers need to maintain neutrality with respect to market forces on their inventory. Occasionally, this hedging involves taking physical delivery of commodities.”

Professor Bernard says that as financial companies are dealers in commodity futures, forwards, options and other products deriving their values from commodities, termed “derivatives,” again, as in the hedging scenario, they must sometimes take delivery of physical product. There are many legal and logistical complexities involved in commodity trading. For example, the Jones Act requires that shipment of goods between U.S. ports be handled by ships that were built in the U.S.A and that fly the U.S. flag. As a consequence of the recent boom in domestic shale gas, a market opportunity for American

shipbuilders has, thus, resulted. Regulations such as these constrain the transportation of commodities in non-obvious ways and can impact prices.

“In addition,” Bernard goes on to say, “as was the case with mortgages and, in general, with defaultable obligations, e.g., bonds, complex securitizations and structured financial vehicles have injected a myriad of further intricacies into the commodities industry. For example, future-flow securitizations may be built to use the forward receivables of commodity producers as collateral for loans at below sovereign rates. As many commodity producers are legally located in ‘stressed’ countries where high yields are demanded on their country’s general obligations, these agreements allow for sustainable borrowing on behalf of the producer. However, tranche-holders may enter into complex positions in these instruments, which may impact on commodity prices, again in non-obvious ways.

“Some journalists,” Professor Bernard concludes, “have a tendency to fail to realize that many complex phenomena cannot be easily popularized for the casual reader. This is why newspapers tend not to discuss the latest developments in solid-state physics or non-linear partial differential equations. But the same is true of modern structured finance and the macroeconomics of global warming. As a result, isolated facts are ‘cherry-picked’ and presented out of context in the press. Sometimes, there is no shortcut to the truth, and even the ‘truth’ may be a bit more involved than one would expect.”

Professor Bernard is co-editor of a forthcoming book, The Oxford Handbook of the Macroeconomic of Global Warming (Oxford University Press, 2014), with Willi Semmler, Henry Arnhold Professor of Economics at The New School for Social Research of New School University New York. The book analyzes the macroeconomics of global warming, especially the economics of possible preventative measures, adaptation, various policy changes, and the potential effects of climate change on developing and developed nations.

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fACUlTy & STAff

lionel Presume Named Chief of Public Safety

Lionel Presume, left, was named New York City College of Technology’s Chief of the Department of Public Safety in late August 2013. He started at the College in 1985 as a Campus Special Officer/Peace Officer, rose to the ranks of Sergeant in 1991 and to Lieutenant/Assistant Director of Public Safety in 2001. His service includes Acting Security Director in 2010 and from 2012 until his recent appointment as Director. He is pictured here with Assistant College Security Director Efren Maldonado.

Professor’s film Wins Award at Red Hook international film festival

A documentary film, Sunny’s Renaissance: Raw Hospitality Along the Waterfront, by Hospitality Management Professor James Reid won the Spirit of Red Hook Award at the 7th Annual Red Hook International Film and Video Festival in October 2013. Reid’s film is a story about resilience in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the focus of this year’s festival.

The film recounts how Antonio “Sunny” Balzano’s family moved from Italy to what is

now known as Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sunny’s Bar and the adjacent family home on Conover Street survived numerous and profound social, economic and demographic changes during the 79 years of Sunny’s life. These transitions and challenges pale, however, in comparison to the devastation and destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy that left both Sunny and his wife, Tone, wondering if their iconic and treasured gathering place would ever, could ever be open again.

Entertainment Technology Assistant Adjunct Professor Cory Einbinder has parlayed his fascination with how puppets can interact with live performers by designing one that took top honors at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s 2013 Tech Expo held in Milwaukee, WI.

Einbinder, who has taught at City Tech for the past seven years, was recognized for creating an interactive puppet featuring a video projector embedded in its head. That puppet had a major role in the City Tech/Adhesive Theater Project’s production of The Service Road earlier in the year.

The puppet’s face was designed with a rear projection screen to display the expressions of an actor/puppeteer wearing a head-mounted camera. “I really wanted the puppeteer to be unencumbered by wires and have the freedom to move about the stage and for the display to be bright enough to compete with the stage lighting,” Einbinder explains. “Even one year ago, this would not have been possible, but with the advent of smaller, brighter, and battery

powered projectors and cameras I was able overcome these issues.”

Properly harnessing the technology was a challenge for Einbinder. There couldn’t be a delay between the puppeteer’s performance and what was displayed on the puppet’s face – even a fraction of a second would have been distracting for

the audience. Plus, his design had to allow the audience to be able to see this puppet’s face from many angles.

Einbinder, artistic director and co-founder of Adhesive Theater Project, which commissioned The Service Road, discussed the idea of incorporating a video puppet into the show with playwright Erin Courtney before she had finished writing it. She created the character of the Big Headed Toddler with this in mind.

Einbinder and his students built a prototype of the puppet that was used in the rehearsals, and Courtney was able to craft some dialogue around its performance. “This project was a great learning experience for me, my students and the playwright,” he notes.

Entertainment Technology Adjunct faculty Member Cory Einbinder Designs Award-Winning interactive video Puppet

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Professor Emeritus of Music Jesse McCarroll was named recipient of the National Alliance of Black School Educators’ (NABSE) 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is bestowed upon individuals in recognition of their outstanding lifetime efforts and achievements on behalf of the African American and larger communities. The award was presented in November 2013 at the NABSE Awards Celebration in Detroit.

Dr. McCarroll currently teaches part-time in the College’s African American Studies program and has instructed City Tech students since 1970. He has proven himself to be an outstanding music educator, enriching the lives of thousands of students during his

long career. Moreover, he is a dedicated supporter of the arts who has made significant contributions to the field of music in general and Black Music in particular.

A former junior high school music teacher in the New York City Public School System, Dr. McCarroll is co-author of Making Music Fun: A complete collection of games, puzzles, and activities for the elementary classroom (1981) and of Elementary Music Teacher’s Almanack: Timely Music Lessons Plans For Every Day of

the School Year (1978). He is a contributing author of Teaching Jazz: A Course of Study (1996).

In June, l999, Dr. McCarroll received City Tech’s Performance Excellence Award. The award is given for excellence in teaching and service to students. His honors also include being selected Educator of the Year by the Association of Black

Educators of New York, CUNY Scholar by The City University of New York and Scholar on Campus by City Tech.

PRofESSoR EMERiTUS JESSE MCCARRoll NAMED RECiPiENT of NABSE lifETiME ACHiEvEMENT AWARD

fACUlTy & STAff

“Critical Portraits,” works by City Tech Department of Advertising Design & Graphic Arts Professor Bernard Aptekar, were on display at the Charles P. Sifton Gallery in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Downtown Brooklyn through January 2014.

Professor Aptekar has exhibited frequently in both group and one-person shows in venues as diverse as the Conde Nast Building (where his work was censored prior to the show’s opening), DeCordova Museum, Whatcom Museum, Stony Brook University, New York State Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, New Jersey State Museum and Brooklyn Museum.

An artist, Aptekar was one of the original homesteaders maintaining a studio in the area of Manhattan now known as Soho. The recipient of a national scholarship from Seventeen Magazine that enabled him to go to college, Professor Aptekar won a Fulbright Fellowship and an Ida C. Haskell Traveling Fellowship. He has received a CAPS Fellowship from the New York State Council on the Arts and has been a program supervisor for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

CHARlES P. SifToN GAllERy fEATURiNG WoRKS of PRofESSoR BERNARD APTEKAR

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fACUlTy & STAff

In fall 2013, So Lan Liang was named manager of the CUNY Service Corps (CSC) at City Tech. CSC is a new University program that places selected students in year-long paid internships in government and non-profit agencies. City Tech is one seven CUNY colleges whose proposals were accepted for the first round. Following an extensive recruitment and selection process, City Tech anticipated having more than 150 students participating in paid internships through the CSC during 2013-2014.

So Lan Liang comes to City Tech from Hamilton-Madison House where she directed a wide range of services at the Chinatown Resource Center. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale with dual majors in History and East Asian Studies, as well as an M.S.W. from Columbia University, School of Social Work. She reports to the provost and her office is located in the Placement Center.

Before Ms. Liang was named to manage CSC, the complex and demanding process of getting the CUNY Service Corps launched at City Tech was led with extraordinary energy and skill by Dr. Cinda Scott, program manager for our NSF I-cubed grant. Many thanks to both Cinda and Professor Barbara Mishara, Architectural Technology, who dedicated many hours to creating this opportunity for City Tech students. Thanks also to Professor Lynda Dias, Adrian Griffith, Alice Tucker, and to those who evaluated student applications: Professors Robin Michals, Masato Nakamura and Selwyn Williams and Ms. Jodi-Ann Young, the LSAMP Coordinator. Karmen T. Yu did a fantastic job as a recruiter and Patty Barba Gorkhover and Eleanor Bergonzo from the Office of Sponsored Programs provided much valuable assistance.

So lAN liANG NAMED MANAGER of CUNy SERviCE CoRPS AT CiTy TECH

CiTy TECH DENTAl HyGiENE lECTURER REPRESENTS ADHA oN NATioNAl BiliNGUAl RADio MEDiA ToUR

Kimberly Cardascia Named Executive Associate for Academic Administration and Special Projects in Provost’s office

In fall 2013, Kimberly Cardascia joined the Office of the Provost as Executive Associate for Academic Administration and Special Projects. She assumed many of the responsibilities formerly handled by Vinny DeFazio, who had retired, including purchasing and the academic content of the catalog. A major part of her position, however, will be coordinating the curriculum approval process for the office.

Ms. Cardascia comes to City Tech from the U.S. Department of State, having served most recently in the Consul General’s Office in Shenyang, China, and before that in Hong Kong and Botswana. Prior to that, she was an Associate Editor at St. Martin’s Press.

The American Dental Hygiene Association’s (ADHA) 2013 observance of National Dental Hygiene Month (NDHM) in October featured a national bilingual radio media tour that focused on the importance of proper dental hygiene. Last year’s NDHM was the capstone of ADHA’s yearlong centennial celebration of the founding of dental hygiene in 1913.

Representing ADHA on the October 2 radio media tour was ADHA President Denise Bowers, RDH, PhD, and Diana Macri, RDH, BSDH, M.S. Ed., a lecturer in City Tech’s Department of Dental Hygiene. Macri is also a part-time faculty member of the New York University College of Dentistry. Bowers provided information and advice on how to maintain good oral health to English

language radio stations. Macri, being of Latin descent and speaking fluent Spanish, was the counterpart to Spanish language radio stations. Together, Bowers and Macri conducted more than 25 live and taped interviews which aired in 12 states across the country.

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fACUlTy & STAff

In his latest work, The Cult of Individualism: A History of an Enduring American Myth (Praeger, 2013), Assistant Professor of English Aaron Barlow tells us that American culture is divided and always has

been. American individualism is both the reason for American success and also tears the nation apart. Why do Americans have so much trouble seeing eye-to-eye today? Is this new? Was there ever an American consensus?

Barlow’s new book explores the rarely discussed cultural differences leading to today’s seemingly intractable political divides. After an examination of the various meanings of individualism in America, he describes the progression and evolution of the concept from the 18th century on, illuminating the wide division in Caucasian American culture that developed between the culture based on the ideals of the English Enlightenment and that of the Scots-Irish “Borderers.”

The “Borderers” legacy, generally explored only by students of Appalachian culture, remains as pervasive and significant in contemporary American culture and politics as it is, unfortunately, overlooked. It is from the “Borderers” that the Tea Party sprang, along with many of the attitudes of the contemporary American right, making it imperative that this culture be thoroughly explored.

in Memoriammichele Forsten, Communications

Betty greenfield, Mathematics

charles hirsch, English

herman sands, Architectural Technology

On November 20, 2013, the College community gathered to celebrate the life of Michele Forsten, City Tech’s director of communications, who passed away on October 22 following a brief illness.

Michele became City Tech’s communications director in November 2000. Over the ensuing years, she published hundreds of stories celebrating the achievements of students, faculty and staff. Many of the stories that appeared in the College’s Connections magazine (including this issue) and on its “News & Events” webpage were the product of Michele’s tireless labors.

Prior to coming to City Tech, Michele worked in magazine editorial positions, served as a public relations specialist, and later held positions at Lehman College and Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. A graduate of The New School for Social Research and City College of New York, she was a 2012 Inductee in City College’s Communications Hall of Fame and was recipient in 2004 of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Media.

Michele’s personal essays and other works have appeared in The New York Times, New York Daily News and other publications nationwide. Her short plays, “Winning?” and

“Dinosaur Doc” have been performed coast to coast. “Winning?” was published in Smith & Kraus’ Best Stage Scenes of 2000 and in the Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly (Volume I, Number 2). In 1993, Michele and Joan Jubela co-produced the award-winning documentary “Homoteens,” in which five teenagers talk about homophobia. Another work, “Improv at the Altar,” was published in the anthology A Cup of Comfort for Couples.

Michele’s full-length play, Be My Baby! was a semi-finalist in Playwrights’ Circle’s National New Play Festival in Palm Springs, California, a finalist in the Pittsburgh New Play Festival and a semi-finalist in the Moondance International Festival Stage Play Competition and in the London Borough of Newham’s Lesbian & Gay Stage Play Competition. A monologue from Be My Baby! was published in Smith & Kraus’ Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 2000. She penned a New York Daily News guest column on same-sex marriage.

Her own struggle with breast cancer was profiled several years ago in Lives Inspired: Portraits of Breast Cancer Survivors. She talked about breast cancer screenings on cable news and was a prolific advocate and spokesperson for lesbians living with cancer. Her story also appeared in The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Fitness Plan and in various NYC LGBT Center publications and at the center’s first “C Word: Lesbians Coming Together Around Cancer” support group session. In 2004, she co-founded the New York City Lesbian Cancer Support Consortium and served as its first co-director.

It was a joy working with Michele, and the College community and I miss her, her wit and sense of humor dearly. She is survived by her spouse, Barbara, her sister, Marla, and her cousins Binky, Joan, Robin and Holly.

dale tarnowieskiEditor, Connections

Editor’s Tribute to Michele forsten, 1954-2013 Bookshelf

NEW BooK looKS AT THE CUlT of iNDiviDUAliSM AND AN ENDURiNG AMERiCAN MyTH

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

foUNDATioN CoRNERMENU of STAR CHEfS To CElEBRATE CiTy TECH AT TASTiNG EvENT/SilENT AUCTioN oN MARCH 13

Some of the nation’s top chefs will help City Tech raise money for its Hospitality Management program on Thursday, March 13, 2014, at 6 p.m. in the College’s Janet Lefler Dining Room, 300 Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn. The public is invited to this event, which is being chaired by celebrity chef and City Tech alumnus Michael Lomonaco ’84, Porter House New York. Admission is $150 and is fully tax-deductible. For sponsorship, ticket and other information, call 718.260.5025.

In addition to Lomonaco, among the star chefs (many of whom are City Tech graduates) who contributed to previous tasting events are Michael Romano, Union Square Café; Julian Niccolini, The Four Seasons Restaurant; Uwe

Toedter, Faculty House and president of Les Amis d’Escoffier Society of New York; Michael Ayoub, Fornino, The Art & Science of Pizza; City Tech Professor Jean Claude; Ebow Dadzie, New York Marriott Marquis; Joseph Fortunato, Extra Virgin Restaurant; Gilles A. Guillou, Club 101; Neil Kleinberg, Clinton St. Baking Co. & Restaurant; Anthony Smith, The Cosmopolitan Club; and Thalia Warner, Cakes by Thalia.

“This is a great way for guests to experience signature dishes and desserts prepared by some of the nation’s top chefs and to support one of the College’s flagship programs,” says City Tech Director of Development Jewel Escobar. “Many of our students would not be able to attend City Tech and go on to contribute to our city’s

remarkable foodservice industry without the financial support this event provides.”

Escobar added that in addition to the tasting there will be a silent auction with some very attractive items thanks to generous corporate sponsors and donors, including TD Bank, Disney, The Four Seasons Restaurant, Zagat Survey, Icydrink, DeBragga & Spitler, and Pasternak Wine Imports. Auction items include roundtrip airfare to Orlando and Disney Park Hopper tickets; New York City weekends, including hotel accommodations and brunch and dinner for two; two tickets to a Broadway show of choice; lunches, brunches and dinners at The Four Seasons and other top New York City restaurants; electronics; and gift certificates.

Michael Romano Julian Niccolini Uwe Toedter Michael AyoubMichael Lomonaco

Donor Plaque UnveilingWe have a very strong and growing network of alumni, business leaders, current and past faculty, staff and other partners that are helping to make a positive impact on the College as evidenced by the increasing number of graduates and other supporters who will be listed on the 2013 Donor Plaque to be unveiled at the Annual Donor Recognition Reception in spring 2014.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Best of New York Award Dinner6:00 p.m. • Trianon Ballroom • Hilton New York • Avenue of the Americas at 53rd Street

SAve the DAte!

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni I 21

foUNDATioN CoRNER

2013 CoRPoRATE & foUNDATioN DoNoRS

Through the hard work of City Tech’s faculty, staff and administrators, the City Tech Foundation is pleased to report that gifts were forthcoming from the following corporate and

foundation donors during 2013.

ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF STEEL CONSTRUCTION, INC.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

AMNA DEVELOPMENT LLC

APICHA INC.

ASIAN AMERICAN ARTS ALLIANCE

ASTORIA FEDERAL SAVINGS

ASTORIA SAVINGS BANK

BALZAC COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

BASS & LEMER LLP

BELLE ZELLER SCHOLARSHIP TRUST FUND

BEOC

BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

BRIDGES OUTREACH, INC.

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY

BROOKLYN BREWERY CORP.

BROOKLYN COLLEGE

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD DEVELOPMENT CORP.

C.D.E. AIR CONDITIONING CO., INC.

CAMBRIDGE ASSOCIATES

CENTER FOR MUSIC BY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

CITI

CITIZENS UNION

CITY MEAL ON WHEELS

CITY TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

COCA-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY OF NEW YORK

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE

COLLEGE ACCESS & SUCCESS GRANT

COLLEGIATE MAIL SERVICE, INC.

CONSOLIDATED EDISON

CSEA, LOCAL 1000 AFSCME

CULLEN & DYKMAN LLP

CYPRESS HILLS LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORP.

DENIHAN HOSPITALITY GROUP MANAGEMENT CO LLC

FIRST

FOOD & BEVERAGE SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION, INC.

FREDERICK WILDMAN AND SONS LTD

GILBANE

GLORIA AND SIDNEY DANZIER FOUNDATION, INC.

HAKS ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS AND LAND SURVEYORS PC

HEALTH PLUS AMERIGROUP

HERBERT H. LEHMAN COLLEGE

HILTON NEW YORK

HUMANSCALE

INFORMA

INGRAM & HEBRON REALTY CORP.

INTERNATIONAL CHEFS’ ASSOCIATION, INC.

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS

JEWISH FOUNDATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN

KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

LEHMAN COLLEGE

LEWIS ALAN OFFICE FURNITURE

LIBERTY MUTUAL

LITTLE ORCHESTRA SOCIETY

LOCAL 1 IATSE

M & J ENGINEERING PC

MANAGER/WINE BUYER

MCNEIL-PPC, INC., JOHNSON & JOHNSON

MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE

MEXICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK, INC.

MEYER AND ASSOCIATES

MINKWON CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ACTION, INC.

MIONETTO USA, INC.

MORGAN STANLEY C/O CYBERGRANTS, INC.

NAMM FAMILY FOUNDATION

NEW YORK POST

NEW YORK STATE HOSPITALITY & TOURISM

NOBEL BIOCARE

NORTH CAROLINA STAGE

OPICI WINES

PARIS GOURMET OF NEW YORK, INC.

PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF GROUP ADMINISTRATION, INC.

PERKINS EASTMAN

PERSHING LLC

PETRIE FOUNDATION

PFIZER FOUNDATION

PITNEY BOWES

PORTER HOUSE NEW YORK

PSC/CUNY

QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

QW WINE EXPERTS

R & D HEBRON

ROBERT SILMAN ASSOCIATES

ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION

ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

SAINT ANN’S SCHOOL

SHINN ESTATE VINEYARDS

SOCIéTé CULINAIRE PHILANTHROPIQUE

STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

SUNY BEOC

TD BANK

TDX CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION

TIGER BARON FOUNDATION

TMI TRADING

VERIZON

VIGNAIOLI SELECTION

WARREN GEORGE, INC.

WELLINGTON SHIELDS & CO. LLC

WINE & FOOD ASSOCIATES

WINE MEDIA GUILD

WINES OF SOUTH AFRICA

YORK COLLEGE

22 http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni I22 http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni I

foUNDATioN CoRNER

CTf’S ANNUAl GiviNG PRoGRAMFor those contributors whose names have not yet been added to the Donor Plaque, you still have the opportunity to be listed among the many alumni and friends whose contributions through the City Tech Foundation’s Annual Giving Program are critical to the wellbeing of the College and its students.

Your fully tax-deductible gift should be made payable to “City Tech Foundation” and mailed to New York City College of Technology Foundation, 300 Jay Street, Namm Hall 323, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Or, you may give on-line by visiting our website at www.citytech.cuny.edu and clicking “Support City Tech.”

CiTy TECH foUNDATioN RECRUiTiNG BoARD MEMBERS

2013 DEPARTMENTAl & PRoGRAM GRANTSThe City Tech Foundation is pleased to have provided grants during spring and fall 2013 to the following academic departments and programs.

ADVERTISING DESIGN & GRAPHIC ARTSADGA STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGYBUSINESSCITY TECH LECTURE SERIESCITY TECH PHILIPPINES RELIEF FUNDDENTAL HYGIENENURSING ENGLISHGAMMA EPSILON TAUHONORS SCHOLARS PROGRAMHOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT PARIS EXCHANGE PROGRAMJFSALAW & PARALEGAL STUDIESLITERARY ARTS FESTIVALMATHEMATICSOFFICE OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRSPEER LED TEAM LEARNING PROGRAMPHYSICSRADIOLOGIC TECHNOLOGY & MEDICAL IMAGINGRESTORATIVE DENTISTRYSCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCESSCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIESSCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY & DESIGN

PlANNED GiviNG

Contact the City Tech Foundation at foundation@citytech.cuny.edu for a free booklet on How to Make a Will That Works and Giving Through Gift Annuity. For information on remembering City Tech in your will, visit www.citytech.cuny.edu/aboutus/foundation/giving.shtml.

This is an exciting time for City Tech, with construction of a new academic complex beginning and student enrollment at an all-time high. As the Foundation addresses these and other challenges, it is looking for individuals with energy and commitment to join its Board of Directors.

If you are interested in Board membership, please let us know by

e-mailing foundation@citytech.cuny.edu and we will contact you with the next steps. If you are not interested but know someone who might be, please provide us with their contact information and let them know that we will be in touch with them.

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni I 23

AlUMNi NEWSCity Tech Joins in Mourning Passing of World-Acclaimed Alum Stephen Antonakos

The City Tech community was saddened to learn of the passing of alumnus and internationally acclaimed artist Stephen Antonakos, 86, in August 2013. Mr. Antonakos was a 1949 graduate of the New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences, the name City Tech carried until 1953. Mr. Antonakos began his career as a commercial illustrator, who went on to make illumination an essential component of his work.

Half a century ago, Mr. Antonakos ushered neon out of the periodic table

of chemical elements and into the realm of fine art. “His work, which encompasses public-art installations and pieces in the collections of the world’s foremost museum,” wrote New York Times journalist Margalit Fox in a September 7, 2013, feature article on the artist and his work, “is leagues apart from the commercial signage that until the late 20th century was neon’s fundamental expression.

“Mr. Antonakos used neon as a painter uses paint,” Fox went on to write. “Minimalist, with fluid lines and saturated colors that recall Matisse, his art has appeared in spaces as diverse as airports in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Bari, Italy; metro stations in Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Athens; a power station in Tel Aviv; and a police station in Chicago.”

Works by Mr. Antonakos are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan. City Tech is proud to have played a part in the early education of this innovative, world-renowned artist.

AlEx SPEKToR ’95 NAMED 2013 AlUMNUS of THE yEARAt its Annual Meeting on December 12, 2013, the City Tech Alumni Association presented the 2013 Alumnus of the Year Award to Alex Spektor ’95, general manager of the Affinia Dumont Hotel in Manhattan. Among his contributions to his alma mater, he gave a presentation at the College in 2009 which launched the

B. J. Denihan Lecture Series coordinated by Hospital Management Professor Patrick O’Halloran. Naming the series after the Denihan organization’s founder was City Tech’s way of honoring the Deniham Hospitality Group for its unwavering support for the College’s hospitality management program.

Jay Gropen, now a graduate of City Tech’s Vision Care Technology program, is shown here with Professor Kimberly Strickler (left) and National Federation of Opticianry Schools (NFOS) President Kristi Green (right). Gropen walked away with the $500 first prize in the NFOS College Bowl. The competition was held in September 2013 at the ABO-NCLE Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sponsored by Essilor of America, the event is modeled on the television show “Jeopardy” and features questions in anatomy and physiology, ophthalmic dispensing, ophthalmic fabrication, contact lenses and optics.

This was the third year in a row that City Tech won the award. In addition, it was the fifth time in six years that City Tech won the top prize, beating out students from colleges in Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, Georgia, New York, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Virginia, Michigan, Washington State, Nevada, New Mexico and North Carolina.

City Tech Graduate Jay Gropen Wins first Prize in NfoS College Bowl

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

AlUMNi NEWS

Class Act!Jean-Michel Voltaire ‘00

former City Tech valedictorian Wins AG Community Service Award for founding Haiti Relief organization

Brooklyn Mourns a Giant of the Human Spirit

Jean-Michel Voltaire, City Tech’s 2000 valedictorian who went on to become a U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney, was awarded the Attorney General’s 2013 Community Service Award for his humanitarian work in Haiti.

Voltaire, originally from Port-Salut in southern Haiti, is the founder of Réunion Sportive d’Haiti (RSH), an organization providing relief to youths affected by the 2010 earthquake. This year, RSH, whose mission is “building skills, character and community through sports and education,” served nearly 900 young people in the Port-Salut area.

RSH organizes soccer teams and tournaments, teaching leadership, prevention of delinquency and youth violence, conflict resolution and practical skills to help

prepare young people to become productive members of their communities. It also has held an essay competition and musical performance, and built an elementary school in nearby Roche-Jabouin so that children do not have to walk three hours to and from their classrooms, as Voltaire did.

“Seventy percent of the Haitian population is under 30 years old,” says Voltaire, who has siblings in Haiti, “and has experienced two coups d’état, hurricanes, two foreign government occupations, an earthquake, violence, extreme poverty and political chaos. The idea of creating RSH was to give back to my native country and to assist marginalized youth in becoming more responsible citizens, because youth violence is an important issue there.”

Future plans include more soccer camps and working with the Digicel Foundation to rebuild Port-Salut’s only school for girls. Since cholera is a major concern, RSH is working with Water Mission International to provide clean water and adequate sanitation, and construction of wells and/or installation of solar-powered pumps may begin soon.

Voltaire’s motivation is the children’s success. “I’ve learned as much from those kids as they have learned from me by watching them playing sports, interacting with each other, and being so devoted They demonstrate such love and compassion, despite the struggles and obstacles they confront every day. They have taught me that life can be challenging but rewarding as well. These kids have been my role models. They are a source of strength, and that’s one of the reasons I find the time to focus on them and try to help them have a better future.”

City Tech’s 2013 Scholar on Campus George Guida and several of his English Department colleagues support Voltaire’s fundraising efforts. Guida, one of Voltaire’s English professors and now an RHS board member, has organized two benefit poetry events. The most recent event featured readings by Guida and colleagues Nina Bannett, Monique Ferrell, Camille Goodison, Mark Noonan and Julian Williams, and other New York poets. For more information on Réunion Sportive d’Haiti, visit www.rshaiti.org.

City Tech alumna Miriam Francis, died on June 23, 2013, at the age of 82. She was a scientist, a master artist, a steadfast community advocate, and loving matriarch to an adoring family. In a newspaper article recounting her lifetime of service and achievement, the Rev. Dr.

Herbert Daughtry, national presiding minister of The House of the Lord Churches and an activist in the struggle for school integration, described Ms. Francis as “a brilliant scholar and rare, lovable soul who was diverse in her intellectual pursuits, community involvement and global

interests.” Rev. Daughtry went on to note that she “participated in Sisters Against South African Apartheid, a group of African American women who, inspied by the courage of Winnie Mandela, raised consciousness in the U.S.A. regarding the racist, Apartheid system in South Africa.”

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/alumni I 25

AlUMNi NEWS

The City Tech Alumni Association, in collaboration with Meyer & Associates, offers an Alumni Insurance Program as a service to graduates. The program provides a variety of attractively priced insurance products, most of which are available to alumni, students, faculty and staff, as well as their spouses, domestic partners, parents, children and siblings.

Plans include Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Long Term Care Insurance, Travel Insurance, Pet Insurance, Identity Theft Protection and Advisory Services. For more information visit http://meyerandassoc.com/citytech or contact the program administrator at 800-635-7801.

NEW AlUMNi CAREER NETWoRK MENToRiNG PRoGRAMA new mentoring program, Alumni Career Network, will pair City Tech students in their senior year with alumni who share similar career paths. If you are interested in volunteering as a mentor, please e-mail alumni@citytech.cuny.edu to request an application.

You have already shown interest in becoming a volunteer mentor and the Alumni Association would like to invite you to participate in a 2014 inaugural mentoring group! We are in the midst of launching the newly designed program, and what will set this program apart from past programs is how it is designed with the busy mentor and busy student in mind.

Mentors will help students by guiding them through a critical stage in their

college career: the time between their last months at City Tech and taking their first steps onto the career ladder. Students will meet with their mentors on a one-on-one basis, giving them the opportunity

to effectively engage with the latter in an informal setting outside of the traditional classroom environment. Students will be encouraged to connect with their mentors regularly via phone, e-mail and even in meetings with them at their respective workplaces for networking/shadowing opportunities. The ultimate goal of the program is to teach students how to cultivate professional relationships and learn from established alumni in their chosen field of interest.

City Tech has arranged for you to have a FREE lifetime membership in The Five O’Clock Club, a national organization that helps people grow their careers or find new jobs and that is recognized as an authority on career management issues.

As a Five O’Clock Club Member, you will get LIFETIME Membership, a monthly magazine containing information on career development and job search, access to the Members Only section of the website, including all monthly magazines going back to 1999 and all worksheets for career and job development, access to both a 111-page Career and Job-Search Bibliography and How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search (a large download).

To get your free membership, go to fiveoclockclub.com/lets-get-started. Complete the form and be sure to enter NYC College of Technology as the organization that referred you.

THE fivE o’CloCK ClUB MEMBERSHiP

MEyER & ASSoCiATES AlUMNi iNSURANCE PRoGRAM