CUNY Newswire

July 14, 2010 | The University

The City University of New York has announced the new stellar team of award-winning “All-Star” students.

“We are enormously proud of their significant academic achievements and, to recognize their success, the University has designed a new website with virtual ‘baseball cards’ crafted in their honor,” said CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein.

“Because increasing numbers of CUNY students are competing successfully for “major league” awards, we selected our team from a deep pool of talent. They boast impressive statistics and have earned superb reputations reflected either in highly competitive awards won or the prestigious graduate or professional schools that have accepted them for advanced study,” Chancellor Goldstein said.

By clicking here, you can read about CUNY’s 2010 All-Star team:

Pitcher: Ryan Merola

Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College 2007

Truman Scholar 2006; George J. Mitchell Scholar 2011

One of nine  2011 Mitchell Scholars, Ryan, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate, is an analyst with the New York City Police Department’s Counterrorism Bureau.  The scholarships are named for former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who negotiated the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland.  As a Mitchell Scholar, Ryan will focus on the study of violence, terrorism and security at Queen’s University, Belfast.  His goals include attending law school and becoming a prosecutor.

Catcher: Crystal Ferguson

John Jay College of Criminal Justice 2011

White House Intern 2010

Crystal competed against hundreds of applicants from the nation’s top universities for the coveted internship.  She also participated in the All-Star Project’s Development School for Youth, a 14-week leadership training program and worked on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s re-election campaign.  Majoring at John Jay in deviant behavior and social control, she plans to become an attorney.

First Base: Zoie Blackwood

Baruch College 2010

Colin Powell Fellow 2010

A highly competitive award, the Colin Powell Fellowship requires a high level of security clearance. It provides Zoie, a political science major, with an internship in Washington this summer, one that generally marks the start of a Foreign Service or State Department career.  She also studied non-profit management and, in 2008, she had a summer internship in Jaipur, India, where she worked for a development agency that built schools and irrigation projects.

Second Base: Hendia Raisa Edmund

Hunter College 2011

2010 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar

A biochemistry major, Hendia is a research assistant to Elion Endowed Scholar Dixie Goss, Hunter’s chemistry chair, and has interned in Princeton University’s department of molecular biology.  Her aim is to earn a Ph.D. and conduct research in biomedicine, particularly quorum sensing, which many bacteria use to detect and respond to extracellular signaling molecules.  The very competitive Congressionally-funded Goldwater scholarship provides up to $7,500 a year.

Third Base: Jasmaine Calizaire

York College 2012

Thurgood Marshall Scholar 2010

Jasmaine’s goal is to teach in New York City and get an MA in Speech Pathology.  She also hopes to study abroad in Hungary, where a friend runs a school, or in Brazil. She is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in the field of education.  A singer, she participates in the choir at York and in church choirs.  She is also active in community service programs at her church.

Short Stop: Andrea Marie Balbas

Queens College 2010

National Science Foundation Fellow 2010-2013

Andrea won her fellowship for her challenging graduate research proposal on testing volcanic eruption sequences.  She wants to track the sun’s behavior by using the terrestrial rock record on Earth to understand if solar variability affects global climate.  Among the scientific research she did at Queens College was attending an Independent Ocean Drilling Program in South Korea and joining geology professor Stephen Pekar on an NSF-funded two-month expedition to Antarctica. She also took part in a NASA Academy at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., winning a John Mather Nobel Scholarship for her work.   She will pursue a Ph.D. at Oregon State University.

Left Field: Igor Labutov

Macaulay Honors College at City College 2010

National Science Foundation Fellow 2010-2013

Since starting as a freshman at the Center for Perceptual Robotics, Intelligent Sensors and Machines at CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering, Igor has been working on robots—designing a wearable glove that would remotely control a robotic hand, later developing a better award-winning design using fiber optics and working with Brooklyn College Distinguished Professor Theodore Raphan to replicate the involuntary eye movements for a two-footed robot.  He led a team that helped CCNY leap from 22^nd place to fourth place in the 2008 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition by improving the vehicle’s vision system.  Further study and research led to a first prize in the 2010 Junior Science Conference at the Technical University of Vienna.  Igor will study engineering and systems engineering in a doctoral program at Cornell University, where his work will focus on autonomous driving.

Right Field: Lauren Vriens

Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College 2010

Fulbright Fellow 2010

Lauren, who majored in political science and minored in Arabic, will use her Fulbright grant to travel to Bahrain to explore how youth and women entrepreneurs play important roles in the socio-economics of the country.  She also received a Critical Language Award and is spending the summer in Cairo, Egypt, taking advanced Arabic classes.  Last summer Lauren interned in the public affairs office at the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain, assisting with high-level events and creating a guide for undergraduate study in the U.S. in English and Arabic.  This time she plans to develop a mentor program for high school students.  She plans to get a dual master’s degree in international affairs and business administration and to work in the field of economic development in the Middle East.

Center Field: Komi Attitso

Bronx Community College 2010

Kaplan Leadership Scholar 2010

Given the shortage of doctors in his native Togo, West Africa, Komi is passionate about becoming a physician. In Togo he worked as a radiologist technician.  He arrived in the U.S. four years ago. A liberal arts chemistry major at BCC, he worked as a chemistry lab workshop leader, tutoring and assisting students. Before enrolling at BCC, he earned a nurse’s assistant certificate.  He learned medical screening test skills, which he uses one day a week at the Jewish Home and Hospital in the Bronx.  He also works as a baker at Au Bon Pain Restaurant to support his wife and son.  The Kaplan Leadership Foundation Scholarship provides an award of $60,000.

Designated Hitter: Ain Richardson

College of Staten Island 2012

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholar 2010

Ain received a travel grant to study in China during the Spring semester. A sophomore majoring in international business, she has studied Chinese since she entered CSI with the ultimate goal of working for an international firm in the world’s largest market.  On the Gilman Scholarship she studied at Nanjing (Nanda) University through the College Consortium of International Studies.

Designated Hitter: Elias Alcántara

Lehman College 2008

Organization of American States Scholar 2010

One of three Americans to win a 2010 OAS graduate student scholarship, he is attending the Institute of International Studies at the University of Chile in Santiago to earn a master’s in international studies, while also researching the rights of indigenous people.  The award covers tuition, books, airfare, health coverage and a living allowance.  A Lehman College Foundation award of $10,000 supplements the scholarship. Elias, whose parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic, completed his freshman year at Medgar Evers College before transferring to Lehman, where he majored in political science and philosophy.  He was elected student government president during his senior year, earned induction into the Golden Key Honor Society and served as a mentor in the Herbert H. Lehman College Public Service Leadership Institute. Since graduation, he  has worked as campus engagement coordinator for Lehman’s SEEK program.

Designated Hitter: Winston Scarlett

CUNY BA/City College 2011

Mellon Mays Fellow 2010

Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellow 2011

Winston‘s areas of concentration are Twentieth Century Literature of the African Diaspora and Publishing.  His goal is to teach literature to students from a broad range of backgrounds and to pursue a graduate degree in Library Sciences and/or African Diaspora Studies.  Getting a head start on his goals, he has founded an organization called Convent Collective that strives to link arts, education and activism within the Harlem community.

The virtual baseball card program was developed by CUNY’s Office of University Relations in consultation with the Office of Student Academic Awards and Honors.

The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as The Free Academy, the University’s 23 institutions include 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the CUNY School of Public Health. The University serves 260,000 credit students and 269,808 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. More than 1 million visitors and 2 million page views are served each month by www.cuny.edu, the University’s website.

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