Hunter News & Events

Three recent Hunter graduates have been awarded Fulbright Fellowships for the 2000-2010 academic year. The three recipients of the Fellowship—one of the most prestigious in the academic world—are Thomael Joannidis (BA’04, MS ’06), Tonia Tiewul (BA’09), and Matthew Willis (BA’09).

Joannidis, who earned her bachelor’s in sociology and English and her master’s in urban affairs, was a New York City Urban Fellow in 2006-2007, working with the first deputy commissioner of the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunication. She will spend her Fulbright year focusing on conflict resolution in Cyprus, where she will identify methods of increasing young Cypriot women’s participation in reconciliation efforts.

Tiewul, who majored in psychology, was in Hunter’s Thomas Hunter Honors Program and the College’s National Institute of Mental Health-Career Opportunities in Research program. She has won a Fulbright grant to Jamaica, where she will organize a pilot project to provide social and psychological support to children affected by HIV/AIDS. This year’s U.S. Student Fulbright Program in the Western Hemisphere was one of the most competitive in the world.

Willis, whose Hunter degree is in biology and German, has received a Fulbright grant for study combined with a teaching assistantship. The grant will take him to Austria, where he will teach English in a secondary school and study communication and language in a health care setting. Willis, who has worked as a medical technician and an emergency medical technician, intends to study medicine when he returns to the U.S. and work in underserved areas.

Hunter Professor Michael Thomas Wins $140,000 Literary Prize

Hunter English Professor and novelist Michael Thomas has been awarded the Dublin Literary Award for his debut novel, Man Gone Down. The prize is among the literary world's most lucrative, with a cash award of $140,000. Thomas, who is also a Hunter alumnus, beat out a pool of finalists that included Junot Diaz' Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

A panel of judges from Ireland, Britain, Switzerland and Canada named Thomas the winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and said the book was a “masterful debut.” They described Thomas as “a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight.”

Man Gone Down follows a thirty-something African-American man, who is at a crossroads in his life and races against time to find the money to keep his family from falling apart.

Thomas' novel was selected from 145 books nominated by libraries around the world. The prize is open to any novel, whether English-language or translated, published in English in the preceding year.

The other finalists were The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz; The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles, by Roy Jacobsen; Ravel, by Jean Echenoz: Animal's People, by Indra Sinha; The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid; The Archivist's Story, by Travis Holland; and The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt.

The prize is run by Dublin's public library system and financed by Improved Management Productivity and Control, a Florida-based management consultancy that has its European headquarters in Dublin.

A Tree Grows on E. 69th Street

Actually, let’s make that two more trees are now growing on 69th St. As part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s MillionTreesNYC Initiative, Hunter is helping to "green" the Upper East Side by planting two trees on the south side of 69th Street, near the college entrance between Park and Lexington Avenues.

In addition to the two leafy additions to Hunter’s main campus, 14 trees were planted on the Brookdale campus. Franz Helmke, Hunter’s Administrative Superintendent for Facilities, spearheaded Hunter's participation in the citywide effort to plant one million trees in the five boroughs over the next ten years.

To learn more about other sustainable initiatives at Hunter, visit http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/huntergreen.

Sociology Professor Stone Wins Award for Her Book

Add one more accolade to Hunter Sociology Professor Pamela Stone’s repertoire. The American Sociological Association (ASA) has awarded the 2009 William S. Goode Award for Best Book Length Contribution to Family Sociology to Stone for her book, Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home.

The award, established in honor of the former president of the ASA. is granted annually to the best book on family sociology.

Opting Out? (University of California Press, 2007) challenges the conventional wisdom that women are voluntarily choosing to leave the workforce to stay home with children. In her research, Stone found that women are forced out due to work and social conditions. Based on a series of candid, in-depth interviews with women who returned home after working as doctors, lawyers, bankers, scientists, and in other professions, Stone explores the role that husbands, children, and coworkers play in the decision.

Stone’s title was called “provocative, superbly researched, and required reading,” by BusinessWeek, and was featured on NBC’s “Today” and “Weekend Today,” “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,” and “ABC World News Tonight,” among other TV and radio appearances. Stone has been quoted in Time, USA Today, US News & World Report, and Newsweek.

The former chair of the Department of Sociology at Hunter, Stone was the recipient of a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, where she also served as Associate Director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute. She is a fellow of Hunter’s Gender Equity Program, supported by NSF’s ADVANCE program, which promotes women in science.

Public Service Scholar Wins Prestigious Fellowship

Hunter May ’09 graduate Jenny Alcaide, a 2009 Public Service Scholar, has been awarded a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Public Policy Fellowship. She is one of 16 students chosen from a national pool of applicants.

CHCI Fellows have the opportunity to work in congressional offices, federal agencies and national advocacy organizations, depending on their particular area of interest. Alcaide has applied to work in the White House, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Education and will receive her assignment shortly.

The Fellowship, a nine-month program, offers Latinos who have recently earned a bachelor's (or master’s) degree the opportunity to gain hands-on experience at the national level in public policy.

Prior to starting her Fellowship, Alcaide will intern this summer for New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. A political science and urban studies major, Alcaide worked for Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh on the Lower East Side this past year as a Hunter Public Service Scholar. She plans to attend law school and pursue a career in public-policy law.

Hunter Wins Award for Pioneering Career-Development Program

(L to R) Shayne Bernstein, Ilene Drapkin, Keith Okrosy & Susan McCarty

An innovative Hunter program designed to help college seniors get their degrees on time and get good jobs won first prize in a competition sponsored by the leading New York organization of college career planners.

The prize—the Alva C. Cooper Award for Best Practices in Career Development—was presented by the Metropolitan New York College Career Planning Officers Association (MNYCCPOA) at the Association’s Spring Program, held in May.

The prizewinning program was the Senior Year Network, a week-long program that offers students a rich array of workshops and other events on such wide-ranging subjects as clothes and cosmetics in the world of work, résumé writing, job interviewing, financial planning, business etiquette, networking, and admission to graduate school. Students participating in the program receive a Career Kit that includes steps they should take to prepare for graduation and mount a successful job search, recent newspaper articles about the U.S. economy, and information about specific career fields. The culminating event of the Senior Year Network is the Alumni/Student Reception, where current students can meet successful Hunter alumni in various careers.

Launched in Fall 2007, the Senior Year Network is held once every semester and draws nearly 2,000 students a year. It is developed, organized, and conducted collaboratively by Career Development Services, Academic Advising, departmental faculty advisors, Graduate Advising, the Writing Center, the Office of Alumni Relations as well as individual alumni who mentor and network with students, and the Registrar’s Office.

“Our success is largely a result of the close collaboration between these varied offices and individuals,” noted Susan McCarty, director of Career Development Services, who added: “Hunter is a commuter school where the majority of the students are extremely busy going to and from classes while also carrying work and family responsibilities. In the Senior Year Network, we have developed a one-stop shopping approach that enables us to give our busy students guidance from many different areas at the same time with the same message.”

The Senior Year Network was presented at the MNYCCPOA meeting by McCarty; Shayne Bernstein, associate director of Career Development Services; Keith Okrosy, career counselor; and Ilene Drapkin, director of student retention.

Hunter Celebrates Its 199th Commencement

Actor Tony Plana made a surprise visit to address graduates and their families at the 199th Hunter College commencement ceremony Thursday at Radio City Music Hall. The Cuban-born actor, who stars on the ABC show Ugly Betty, said his story was Hunter’s story. Plana came to the United States as an immigrant who spoke only Spanish and had to struggle to make it through school.

“Dare to dream,” Plana told the 3,000 graduates. “Dream big, dream difficult, dream challenging. Find something that makes you want to get up in the morning.”

Commencement speaker Hilda L. Solis, the United States Secretary of Labor, said she was proud to represent the Obama administration at Hunter’s ceremony, and that she was impressed with stories of success against-all-odds that accompanied so many of Hunter’s grads.

“You represent a new light, a new hope for the planet,” she told the packed crowd.

Sheila Birnbaum (BA ’60, MA ’62), who has been named one of the best attorneys in the country and most influential women in business in New York City, received an honorary doctorate of law, while Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer received the President’s Medal. Former ballerina Corinne Vidulich, who graduated with special honors in biology and minors in art history and chemistry, gave the valedictory address. She shared the valedictory title with two other graduates: Jorge Baquero and Alexander Kohen, who along with Vidulich, earned a 3.983 grade point average.

English Professor Named National Academy of Education Fellow

Angela Rosario Reyes has been named a 2009-2010 National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. One of 20 fellows selected out of a competitive pool of more than 150 applications, Reyes will receive a $55,000 fellowship award, which will help support her research expenses during the fellowship period.

Dr. Reyes, an associate professor of linguistics, teaches courses in the structure and history of English; language and ethnicity; and sociolinguistics—the study of language in relation to its social and cultural context. Her research areas include linguistic anthropology and Asian-American studies, and her current research focuses on how links between dialects and ethnic groups develop and change as the dialects are used in real-life situations.

The fellowships are administered by the National Academy of Education, an honorary educational society. The aim of the award is to enhance education research by developing new talent in a variety of disciplines.

Hunter Distinguished Professor Siraisi Named 2010 Haskins Prize Lecturer

Hunter Distinguished Professor Nancy Siraisi has been named the 2010 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer by the American Council of Learned Societies. Named for the first chairman of the ACLS, the Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture series celebrates lifelong dedication to the advancement of the humanities. The lecture will take place on May 7 at the 2010 ACLS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

Dr. Siraisi has been a prolific and leading scholar in the history of medicine and science of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Her research has ranged widely across these two distinct fields, from her first book on the university curriculum in medieval Padua to her current work on the role of doctors in history-writing in the Renaissance.

Through her numerous publications and professional activities Siraisi has contributed to the growth of the history of science and medicine while also fostering the continued close interaction of these fields with "mainstream" history, notably through her faithful teaching of general medieval and Renaissance history and her insistence on careful contextualization.

Her award-winning Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils: Two Generations of Italian Medical Learning is reconstructed from extensive manuscript research the teaching of medicine in 13th- and 14th-century Bologna. In Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Canon and Medical Teaching of Italian Universities after 1500 she traces the longevity of the Canon of Avicenna through commentaries in Italian universities after 1500. In The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance Medicine, she illuminates the medical activities of the sixteenth-century Italian physician Girolamo Cardano, from his authorship to his bedside practices. Her most recent book, History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Renaissance Learning, is an investigation of the role of history and historical writing in the interests and activities of Renaissance physicians. Nancy Siraisi's most widely read book, Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice, is universally praised as a model of a textbook.

Dr. Siraisi received her BA from Oxford University, her PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and taught in the Department of History at Hunter from 1970 until her retirement as Distinguished Professor in 2003.

Hunter Teams Score at Model UN Conference

Hunter’s Model United Nations Team took top honors at the National Model UN Conference, the country’s premier competition for model UN groups. The Hunter team won awards in the top three categories—Outstanding Delegates in Committee, Distinguished Delegation, and Honorable Mention—making Hunter one of the top five award winners among the 300 colleges that competed at the conference. The team has competed at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and CUNY Model UN competitions, where they won more awards than any other delegations.

Most members of the team—which comprises students from six continents and more than 15 countries—are students in Hunter’s Model UN class, a political science course taught by Professor Pamela S. Falk. At the conference the group represented Estonia, Italy, Rwanda, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Among the problems the team had to tackle were the global tracking of nuclear materials, the international rights of enemy combatants, and jurisdiction over objects orbiting the Earth.

Nikolay Lisnyanskiy, a junior from Russia who served as the Hunter team’s head delegate at the Nationals, called the Model UN course and the competitions “the best educational experience for all of us. We are indebted to the College for supporting this rigorous and exciting program.”

Also competing at the same event was a group of students from the Hunter College UN Student Association, a ten-year-old student-run club. The group, which represented the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, won a Distinguished Delegation award based on the performance of the team’s members during debate. This year’s prize—one of the highest awarded at the conference—was the second consecutive national award won by the group.

The conference was held April 7-11 in New York City.

Hunter Alumna Wins Prestigious NSF Fellowship

Hunter physics graduate Amy Colon (BS ‘08) has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will fund Colon’s doctorate research into the evolution of galaxies and star formation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“It’s a huge thing for me,” Colon said. “I never thought I’d be considered for it at all. I’m still in shock.”

Colon is an astrophysics graduate student at UNC. Her fellowship will allow her to concentrate solely on the research she will do in pursuit of her PhD, so that she will not have to teach or work. It’s quite a change from when Colon was studying physics and astronomy in New York City and working as a car dispatcher and other odd jobs while taking care of her young daughter.

“I’m still expecting it to be a dream, that I’ll tell everyone I got it and then wake up and get an email saying I didn’t get it. But my name is on the list, so I guess it’s true. I’m blown away,” Colon said.

Colon, whose Hunter mentor was Physics Professor Steve Greenbaum, was one of few physics majors at Hunter as part of the MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers) and MBRS (Minority Biomedical Research Support) scholarship programs. “They funded me so I could do the research and attend Hunter and get the experience I needed to have a nice CV to send to the National Academy. I’m very grateful. So many people helped me along the way. I was at the right place at the right time. My ultimate goal is to give back and mentor others as I was mentored. “I miss Hunter a lot,” she added.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to Speak at Hunter’s 2009 Commencement

Secretary Hilda L. Solis, who was confirmed as Secretary of Labor on

February 24, 2009, will address Hunter graduates and their families at Hunter’s 199th Commencement on May 28, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall. Prior to confirmation as Secretary of Labor, Secretary Solis represented the 32nd Congressional District in California, a position she held from 2001 – 2009.

In the Congress, Solis’ priorities included expanding access to affordable health care, protecting the environment, and improving the lives of working families. A recognized leader on clean energy jobs, she authored the Green Jobs Act which provided funding for “green” collar job training for veterans, displaced workers, at risk youth, and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

A nationally recognized leader on the environment, Solis became the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000 for her pioneering work on environmental justice issues. Her California environmental justice legislation, enacted in 1999, was the first of its kind in the nation to become law.

Solis was first elected to public office in 1985 as a member of the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees. She served in the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1994, and in 1994 made history by becoming the first Latina elected to the California State Senate. As the chairwoman of the California Senate Industrial Relations Committee, she led the battle to increase the state's minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75 an hour in 1996. She also authored a record seventeen state laws aimed at combating domestic violence.

Solis graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California. A former federal employee, she worked in the Carter White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and was later appointed as a management analyst with the Office of Management and Budget in the Civil Rights Division.

Salk Scholarships Awarded to Two Pre-Med Hunter Students


Mikhail Bekarev	Michael Ignat

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced today that eight outstanding City University of New York pre-medical students have been awarded Jonas E. Salk Scholarships to study medicine, two of whom are Hunter seniors, Mikhail Bekarev and Michael Ignat.

"This year's Salk Scholarship winners continue the tradition of academic achievement, research excellence and public service exemplified by Dr. Jonas E. Salk, one of CUNY's most illustrious graduates," Chancellor Goldstein said.

Mikhail Bekarev began his collegiate studies at Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute in Uzbekistan before transferring to Hunter. At Hunter, he has majored in computational biology and interdisciplinary sciences while pursing his passion for medical research. He served as a research assistant in two different Hunter College labs and participated in the Summer Undergraduate MSTP Research program at the University of Iowa, which included both laboratory research and clinical participation. Bekarev was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships and was accepted into several special academic programs at Hunter that allowed him to pursue multidisciplinary research and to present at national research conferences. He will be one of the first graduates of the bioinformatics concentration, a highly challenging interdisciplinary program that combines both biomedicine and computer programming. Bekarev hopes to become a physician scientist and will attend Albert Einstein College of Medicine this fall.

Growing up in a small Ukrainian village, Michael Ignat could never have imagined that he would have the opportunity to study in America or to achieve his dream of becoming a physician. During a turbulent period in his family’s life, he lost hope and nearly dropped out of college. His grandfather’s death made him realize the fragility of life and the importance of pursuing one’s dreams. In his quest to become a physician, Ignat volunteered at the New York Presbyterian emergency room and became a registered EMT, working as a first responder for the last two years. His science classes whetted his appetite for research, and he has assisted in the laboratories of two Hunter College professors, studying the rodent hypothalamus in one and cellular response to DNA damage in the other. Ignat graduated from Hunter College with a degree in psychology in 2008 and will graduate with a biochemistry degree in 2009. He will attend New York College of Osteopathic Medicine this fall.

The Salk Scholarships are the legacy of Dr. Jonas E. Salk, who developed the polio vaccine in 1955. A 1934 graduate of City College, Dr. Salk turned down a ticker-tape parade in honor of his discovery and asked instead that the money be used for scholarships. The city provided initial funding for the Salk Scholarships in 1955. The endowment provides a stipend of $8,000 per scholar, to be appropriated over three or four years of medical studies, to help defray the cost of medical school.

Benefactor Gives Hunter $5 Million -- But Don’t Ask Who

A mystery donor has given Hunter College $5 million, the largest donation in the school’s history. The gift comes from the same anonymous benefactor who has given more than $74 million nationwide to 14 colleges and universities, almost all of them headed by women.

President Jennifer J. Raab welcomed the donation, saying, “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

The donation was actually received last fall. It was only after news stories began to appear about similar anonymous gifts that officials realized that Hunter is part of a far larger philanthropic program.

The anonymous donor specified that $4 million should be used for scholarships and that $1 million should go into a president’s discretionary fund. Hunter has already offered more than $1 million of the money for scholarships for women and minority-group members. The discretionary fund will be used to update the library, improve technology and give students more group-study space.

Another stipulation attached to the gift was that the college should make no effort of any kind to trace the identity of the benefactor. President Raab said in response, “That’s fine with us, except we would like to say, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ ”

Hunter Graduate Student Takes Top Singing Honors in India

Hunter ethnomusicology graduate student Deepali Sandeep Kulkarni scored No. 1 in India in the country’s master-level music exams and won a series of top honorary awards in vocal Hindustani music. Kulkarni scored an 81 percent for the top score on the “master” level of the exam, which was about singing primarily, but also about music theory, she said. The exams are administered by the Akhil Bhartiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, a large public music school in India with more than 1,000 affiliated institutions. She is now studying ethnomusicology and pursuing a master’s degree at Hunter.

Kulkarni’s teachers in India will also receive awards for her achievement. “This will remain in my lifetime golden memories,” Kulkarni said. “When I heard the news of scoring first in India, I felt really excited. I feel this is also an award for my devotion towards music and my teachers. “I feel proud of my teachers and my parents for their teaching and encouragement. They took great efforts to make me a good musician.”

Kulkarni is pursuing a PhD-equivalent level of vocal studies in India, called Sangeet Acharya. She said she hopes to become a professor at Indian music colleges, and perhaps become a singing instructor. The singer has studied music since she was 8 years old. For ten years, she has practiced every day at 5 a.m. “I spend all the day singing, listening and thinking of music. I really enjoy all this,” Kulkarni said.

Hunter Graduate Student Wins Horniker Prize in Economics

Hunter master's student Nouhoum Traore has won the Horniker Prize in Economics, a CUNY-wide award given annually to the student who writes the best economics thesis or equivalent paper. It is open to all MA students at CUNY or PhD students at the Graduate Center. Traore’s thesis, written under the direction of Hunter Economic Professors Jonathan Conning and Sangeeta Pratap, addresses the issue of whether better nutritional status leads to higher farm productivity.

Traore, who is from Mali, came to the U.S. In 2003. At Hunter, he completed all courses required for a BA and an MA in economics in three full time semesters.

Traore is currently back in Mali working for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a US-based non-profit organization that conducts research on issues related to international economic development.

“Because of the quality of the education at Hunter College and all the support that I got from the faculties of the economics department and the College in general, I did not only graduate with a masters in economics but also got most of the skills that made me who I am today,” said Traore.

Grad Student Hired for HUD Job After Shining in National Competition

Hunter graduate student Amanda Nogic will soon begin a position with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, thanks to her winning performance in a nationwide competition.

Nogic, who is slated to get her MS in Social Research in May, was a finalist in the 2009 Presidential Management Fellow Program, which entitled her to apply for a position in a federal agency. The PMF Program, which is under the aegis of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, seeks to attract to the Federal service “outstanding men and women” who are committed to “excellence in the leadership and management of public policies and programs.” Applicants—all of them master’s, doctoral, or JD candidates who are near completion of their studies—must take a rigorous examination and submit a detailed resume and an in-depth explanation of their experience. The highly competitive program draws thousands of applicants from all over the country, and fewer than 20 per cent are named as finalists.

A finalist is eligible for a two-year paid fellowship that includes formal classroom training, challenging work assignments, potential for accelerated promotions, and opportunities to network with other future leaders. Nogic’s fellowship, which will begin this summer, will be with HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing, which manages state-level public housing. She will be based in the Office’s Los Angeles headquarters, which handles properties in Arizona, California, and Nevada, and she will also do a rotation in the Gulf Coast area, which, she notes, “is still facing federal issues related to Hurricane Katrina.”

Nogic’s position, as a program analyst, will include gathering, evaluating, and reporting information on public housing and community development issues.

The first in her family to go to college, Nogic has a BA in English and sociology from Bucknell and hopes to get a doctorate in sociology. While at Hunter she was an intern for the New York City Public Advocate’s Office, where she worked with recipients of public assistance. Her central interests, she says, are “public service—responsibility for other people—and public policy issues.”

Newsday’s Les Payne Wins Aronson Lifetime Achievement Award At Hunter College

Hunter College's Department of Film and Media Studies has awarded a James Aronson Lifetime Achievement Award to Les Payne, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist at Newsday for career achievement. Three other journalists will receive 2009 James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism for their incisive investigative articles on critical issues:

	E.J. Graff of Foreign Policy
	Joseph Huff-Hannon of The Indypendent
	Nick Turse of The Nation

Kevin Buckley of Newsweek will also be honored with an Aronson Award for reporting he did in Vietnam during the 1970s that had been largely buried until it was resurrected by Nick Turse.

Danny Schechter of NewsDissector.org is the winner of the Aronson Blog Award for his muckraking reports on economic, political and social issues.

Ed Stein will receive the Aronson Award for Cartooning with a Conscience for his graphic commentary on the economy, torture and other critical issues of 2008.

The 2009 Aronson Awards will be presented in a public ceremony on May 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the 8th floor faculty dining room of the Hunter West Building at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

The Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism (filmmedia.hunter.cuny.edu/aronson) have been presented since 1990 to journalists who measure business, government and social affairs against clear ideals of the common good. The awards are named in honor of James Aronson, the distinguished Hunter College professor of journalism who was editor from 1949 to 1967 of the crusading newsweekly The National Guardian. Aronson also worked on the staffs of the Boston Evening Transcript, New York Herald Tribune and New York Times.

“In their 19 years of existence,” said Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab, “the James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism have consistently recognized and promoted journalism that keeps a well-trained and principled eye on the common good. That is a mission that Hunter, as a public institution with a diverse student body, tried to pursue throughout its research and teaching.”

“Journalism that conveys a clear idea of forces and decisions that lead to injustice has never been more needed than it is today," said Peter Parisi, coordinator of the award and an associate professor in Hunter’s Department of Film and Media Studies. “Yet too often journalists duck social justice issues, fearing their commitment will be called partisan or will draw political ‘flak’. This award is designed to embolden them to pursue their highest ideals.”

The 2009 Aronson Award Winners

Career Achievement: Les Payne

“Don't pull your punches, tell the truth and duck.” — Les Payne

Payne is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who worked for 28 years at Newsday as a reporter, foreign correspondent, columnist and associate editor. In 1974, he shared a Pulitzer for his investigative work on the heroin trail from Turkey to the United States. He was a founder and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists and in 2008 was inducted into that organization’s Hall of Fame. Over the years, Payne has been variously recognized as the most influential African-American editor and columnist in the United States. Murray Kempton described him as “a great editor because he is always his own man.” He trained generations of reporters to cover the basics and to dig deeper; his news staffs won every major award in journalism, including six Pulitzer Prizes. Payne is currently writing a biography of Malcolm X and continuing his work as an independent blogger at blog.lespayne.net

Incisive Investigative Articles on Critical and Timely Topics:

E.J. Graff, Foreign Policy, “The Lie We Love," for exposing the corruption that underlies many international adoptions and highlighting international efforts to deter illegal practices. Graff probes and dissects her subject with a scholarly approach, but presents her findings with an engaging, journalistic sensibility.

Joseph Huff-Hannon, The Indypendent, “Facing Foreclosure: Brooklyn Retiree on Verge of Losing Home as Sub-prime Lenders Target Cash-Poor Black Seniors," for a local view of a national crisis. Huff-Hannon tells the story of Simeon Ferguson, an 86-year-old Brooklyn resident who was sold a policy he couldn't possibly afford and his family’s fight to forestall foreclosure.

Nick Turse, The Nation, “A My Lai a Month," for revealing that the My Lai massacre of 1968 was just one among many during the Vietnam War, and for documenting government efforts to stall investigations and quell media coverage.

An Aronson Award will also go to Kevin Buckley, whose original reporting on the issue in the 1970s as Newsweek’s Saigon bureau chief was largely buried, only to be resurrected 30 years later by Nick Turse.

Blog Award: Danny Schechter, NewsDissector.org.

Veteran journalist, author, television producer and independent filmmaker Danny Schechter has been dissecting news and exposing government and corporate malfeasance and the media's failures to inform since the 1970s. The Aronson Award goes to Schechter for his latest venture, the NewsDissector.org blog, which he began after 9/11 as a mini-newspaper, with analyses and muckraking news reports on the economic, political and social crises of the day.

Cartooning with a Conscience: Ed Stein

For the graphic sophistication and range of his work in 2008 on the economy, torture and other crucial issues. In January of 1978, Ed Stein gave up on his lifelong dream of becoming a caped superhero and joined the staff of the now defunct Rocky Mountain News as its editorial cartoonist. The recipient of numerous awards, Stein is a former president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

This year's Aronson student award winners are Prakirti Nangia, class of 2010, and Sarah Grieb, class of 2009, for their articles in The Hunts Point Express, the community newspaper whose reporters are members of the Neighborhood News class in the Department of Film & Media Studies.

The members of the Aronson Awards Committee are David Alm, Grambs Miller Aronson, Christopher T. Cory, Steve Gorelick, Marya Grambs, Kathy Kadane, Philip Kaye, Rhoda Nayor, Peter Parisi, Robin Reisig, Cindy Rodríguez, Dr. Naomi Rosenblum, John J. Simon, Alice Slater, Ida Susser, Blanca Vázquez and Diana Powell Ward.

Graduating Senior Wins Fulbright Grant to Jamaica

Psychology major Tonia Tiewul, a member of the Thomas Hunter Honors Program, has won a Fulbright Grant. She will be piloting a psychosocial support program directed towards children affected by HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

A member of Hunter’s National Institute of Mental Health-Career Opportunities in Research Fellowship, Tiewul plans to graduate next month from Hunter.

Administered by the Institute for International Education, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards full research grants to graduating seniors and young alumni after an extensive application process. Recipients receive a stipend to cover housing and living expenses.

Doctoral Student Wins Prize for Poster on Energy-Saving Device

Hunter doctoral student Gabriel Goenaga is working on a device that promises to help solve critical energy problems—and his work is winning prizes, awards, and widespread professional notice.

Most recently Goenaga won the Best Poster Prize in the Graduate-level Condensed Matter and Materials Physics category at the annual joint meeting of the National Societies of Black and Hispanic Physicists. His poster is the result of research he carried out as a guest graduate student at the Argonne National Laboratory.

Fuel cells, he explained, are “electrochemical devices that use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and provide a clean way to produce energy. These devices are one of the tools that the government hopes will help us deal with major energy problems.” In his research, he continued, “we are trying to improve the performance of the device and make it cheaper.”

The poster prize that Goenaga won at the meeting was sponsored by the renowned Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was held earlier this year in Nashville, Tennessee.

Goenaga also won a grant from the CUNY Graduate Center for his work on fuel cells. He is about to submit his work for publication in professional-level journals and has been a co-author of articles related to his research at Argonne. He has made presentations at two Electrochemical Society Meetings and a Conference on Analytical Chemistry and has contributed to a Department of Energy Meeting and other professional venues.

Goenaga hopes to complete his doctoral work—and gain a PhD in solid state physics—this summer and then get a postdoctoral position in a national laboratory. “My dream,” he says, “is to have my own company producing fuel cells.”

Goenaga has a BA in computer analysis and programming, a BS in mathematics and physics, and a BS in electronic engineering, all from universities in Colombia, and an MS in physics from the University of Puerto Rico.

Hunter SSW Receives $100K Grant for Military Veterans

The Hunter School of Social Work has won a $100,000 Success for Veterans Award grant from the American Council on Education (ACE) and Wal-Mart. The grant will support Hunter’s ongoing efforts to reach out to veterans on campus, educate them on the variety of benefits available, and keep them in school.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to expand our services,” said Social Work Associate Professor Roger Sherwood. Sherwood said the grant is in collaboration with CUNY’s Office of Veteran’s Affairs.

The grant will allow Hunter to expand veterans’ outreach programs to CUNY community colleges, where most veterans begin their higher education journey, Sherwood said. “We’re very fortunate to have the support of Hunter President Raab and other administrators who have supported our veterans outreach and have dedicated space for us on campus where veterans can go,” Sherwood said.

The funding will allow Hunter to create veterans-specific online orientation programs and increase capacity for counseling and psychological services, and comes on the heels of Hunter’s critical work in veterans’ outreach. In 2007, the School of Social Work launched a dynamic program to help veterans transition to college after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The program is called PROVE (Project for Return and Opportunity in Veterans’ Education), and funding was granted by the City University of New York. CUNY has more than 1,600 full or part-time military veterans (46 percent of whom are women), and is expecting more in the next few years. PROVE hires graduate social work students and student veterans to work with veterans on campus and veteran’s groups. In anticipation of the rising number of returning soldiers, PROVE will have services in place to make sure veterans’ mental health and social needs are met.

The grant was one of 20 awarded to institutions of higher education across the country that operate model programs for veterans and their families. The other recipient institutions are: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; California State University, Sacramento; Clackamas Community College; Colorado State University; Empire State University, SUNY; Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey; Fresno City College; George Mason University; Lane Community College; Los Angeles City College; Madison Area Technical College; Onondaga Community College; Park University; Ramapo College; Southwestern College; Trident Technical College; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Maine, Augusta; and University of Maryland, University College.

ACE represents more than 1,600 college and university presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. Over the past year, the Wal-Mart Foundation has awarded more than $3.6 million to support education assistance for veterans.

ACE received nearly 250 applications for Success for Veterans Award Grants, which were reviewed by a selection committee of higher education leaders, program and policy directors, and veterans. The grants are part of ACE's Serving Those Who Serve initiative, a multi-year effort designed to effect major changes in how veterans learn about their education benefits, and how institutional leaders can build capacity to serve veterans on their campuses.

Health Warning: April 27, 2009

Hunter College is monitoring the news about the swine flu, which has appeared in Mexico and among a handful of New York City residents in Queens.

The New York City Department of Health is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor and coordinate response actions. We at Hunter are following recommendations from these agencies and will appropriately implement their recommendations.

Meanwhile, in Sunday's New York Times (April 26, 2009) Dr. Thomas Frieden, NYC's Health Commissioner, is urging New Yorkers not to go to a hospital if they have typical mild cold or flu symptoms. If you are seriously ill, especially with lung problems, said Frieden, you should seek medical attention promptly because antiflu drugs work best if taken in the first 48 hours.

According to the NYC Health Department's website, patients experiencing severe symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, should seek health care and treatment. Otherwise, the Health Department recommends at-home care. The most effective way to lower the risk of transmission is for people with symptoms to stay home.

All New Yorkers should cover their mouths when they cough. Additional precautions:

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
If you get sick, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to avoid infecting them.

Swine influenza cannot be transmitted from eating pork or pork products. The symptoms of swine flu in people appear to be similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.

The Hunter College Wellness Center is available to answer questions about this and any other health-related matters. The Center can be reached at 212.772.4800 and is located in Room 307 in the North Building.

For facts about influenza, and more information about swine flu, please visit the Health Department and CDC websites. Some specific resources:

Facts about flu: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/cd/cdinflu.shtml
General information about swine flu: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/general_info.htm

New York State Department of Health has set up a 24-hour hotline to answer questions about swine flu: 800.808.1987.

Hunter Alum to Exhibit at Prestigious Venice Biennale

Artist Zilvinas Kempinas (MFA ’02) has been selected to exhibit his large-scale installation, “TUBE,” at the world-famous Venice Biennale art exhibition in June. A prestigious event in the international art community, the Venice Biennale has been held every two years since 1895, interrupted only by the two world wars.

Kempinas uses video images to create an appearance of a sculpted space, and TUBE appears to be a barely-visible, laser-light tunnel. Kempinas says the work does not "represent, mimic, symbolize or narrate," but is rather "a sensual instrument for experiencing a new sense of space and one’s body in a moment of time.”

A native of Lithuania, Kempinas received his BFA from the Vilnius Art Academy in 1993. Since completing his master’s at Hunter in 2002, he has made New York his home and has exhibited his works – primarily large installations – at museums and galleries around the world.

Kempinas says he thinks of his work as more “democratic” than simply interactive: “I want my art to be accessible to everybody, not only for those who devote several years to studying art. I love when museum electricians, security staff or other random people stop on their way and spend a few minutes looking at my work.”

Kempinas credits Hunter with playing a significant role in his career: “I ‘placed my bet’ on Open Studios [studio spaces in the MFA Building on W. 41st St.], since for me as a foreigner without any support or connections, this was the one and only way to show my work for outside visitors — I mean people from the ‘real world.’”

That’s exactly what happened. Anthony Huberman – who worked at PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens at the time – stopped by Kempinas’ studio, and then invited two curators from the museum to see the artist’s work, which resulted in Kempinas' first public show in New York.

The artist credits Hunter with his marital bliss. “Here I met someone whom I later married, and now we have two fantastic boys! Thank you, Hunter!”

Recent venues showcasing Kempinas’ work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Vienna’s Kunsthalle Wien and the Art Basel Miami exposition, another significant event on the art world calendar. A recipient of the prestigious Calder Prize in 2007, Kempinas has been profiled in The New York Times, Art & Antiques, and the New Yorker, as well as in publications in London, Paris and other major art centers. In New York, he is represented by the Spencer Brownstone Gallery in SoHo.

Hunter Welcomes New Pre-Business Advisor

Roszell Mack III has joined the Hunter community as the new Pre-Business Advisor. The newly created part-time position is meant to provide a formal advisory resource for undergraduates who wish to pursue further education in business administration.

Mack is a co-founder of and Partner in Ascend Venture Group, LLC, a New York City-based private equity firm. Ascend was founded in 2000 by Mack and three former colleagues from Goldman, Sachs & Co. who successfully invested as a coordinated angel group from 1996 to 1999.

Mack has a deep interest in education and has been an investor in for-profit education and technology companies at Ascend since its founding. Mack has served as an advisor and board member to numerous public and private companies and is currently a board member of two for-profit education companies: ClassLink Inc. and Tabula Digita, Inc. Prior to co-founding Ascend, Mack was an investment banker for more than ten years.

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Mack earned a Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering Sciences (Chemical) from Yale University.

Hunter Alumnus Wins 2009 Pulitzer Prize

Hunter alumnus Holland Cotter (MA, Art History ’88) has won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his wide ranging reviews of art, from Manhattan to China, “marked by acute observation, luminous writing and dramatic storytelling.”

Cotter has been a staff art critic at the New York Times since 1998. Between 1992 and 1997 he was a regular freelance writer for the paper. During the 1980s he was a contributing editor at Art in America and an editorial associate at Art News. In the 1970s, he co-edited New York Arts Journal, a tabloid-format quarterly magazine publishing fiction, poetry, and criticism.

Art in New York City has been his regular weekly beat, which he has taken to include all five boroughs and most of the city’s art and culture museums. His subjects range from Italian Renaissance painting to street-based communal work by artist collectives. For the Times, he has written widely about “non-western” art and culture. In the 1990s, he introduced readers to a broad range of Asian contemporary art as the first wave of new art from China art was building and breaking. He helped bring contemporary art from India to the attention of a western audience.

Cotter was inducted into the Hunter Hall of Fame in 2005. He received an AB from Harvard College, where he studied poetry with Robert Lowell and was an editor of the Harvard Advocate. He later received an M. Phil in early Indian Buddhist art from Columbia University, where he studied Sanskrit and taught Indian and Islamic art.

Jon Stewart to interview UPH Professor Alcabes on The Daily Show

Hunter Urban Public Health Professor Philip Alcabes will be discussing his new book, Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu, with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show on Wednesday, April 22 at 11pm. Alcabes’ work challenges the conventional wisdom about health, disease, and risk.

In his recently-published book Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary to bioterrorism, as new o