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	Spring 2001

Ellis Island Award to Trustee Pesile

or her work "to preserve this country's magnificent, diverse ethnic heritage," CUNY Trustee Kathleen M. Pesile will receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations Foundation at a gala celebration-with fireworks by Grucci, of course-under the watchful eye of Liberty.

The Coalition is the largest representative of ethnic and heritage organizations in the U.S., comprising more than five million family members. Pesile, who held important positions in international banking, has taught as an adjunct at the College of Staten Island since 1978 and has served as a trustee since 1998. She currently is the principal of her own financial services firm, the Pesile Financial Group.

Why Teach?

hen Milt Hinton, the dean of American jazz bassists died last December at 90, countless Hunter and Baruch College students of jazz-some of whom enjoyed the Milton J. Hilton Scholarships he established in 1980-had special reason to give thanks.

Though Hinton, known as the Judge, was self-taught on the string bass, he was dedicated to formal education and taught at the two CUNY campuses in the 1970's and 80's. In the closing pages of his 1988 memoir, Bass Line, Hinton offered a teacher's modus vivendi that would be hard to beat for elegant simplicity: "I was pretty young when I realized that music involves more than playing an instrument. It's really about cohesiveness and sharing. All my life, I've felt obliged to try and teach anyone who would listen. I've always believed you don't truly know something yourself until you can take it from your mind and put it in someone else's."

Hunter Biologist Honored by Mayor

unter College's leading research biologist Jill Bargonetti was among those given the Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology (Young Investigator category) at a ceremony on March 6 at Gracie Mansion.

She is seen here speaking on the occasion, with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Bargonetti, formerly a professional dancer, went on to an N.Y.U. doctorate in molecular biology and was instrumental in discovering that a gene known as p35 is capable of suppressing the growth of cancer tumor cells. In 1997 she also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton.