CUNY Newswire

A newfangled nicotine man and a student inspired by the rhythmic tap tap of that ancient relic the typewriter are the winners of the 2012 Brooklyn College Library Art Award.

Business and finance major Klleba Moleste always knew about the importance of the internship experience, but as a full-time student and mother of two, she wasn’t able to take on additional responsibility. So she waited until her senior year to enroll in a summer internship, and it has made a world of difference.

Kalin Ivanov, who earned an M.F.A. in television production in 2000, was “ecstatic” earlier this year when he and his colleagues on the production staff at CUNY TV won three local Emmys.

Andy Goldberg, a self-described theater practitioner for the past 20 years, has turned his bold idea about staging Macbeth as a one-actor play into reality. After a hugely successful run at the National Theatre of Scotland, the play opens the Lincoln Center Festival today.

“Drop a bomb and wipe them all out” is not exactly the type of public comment one would expect to hear about Brooklyn’s festive West Indian American Day Parade. So, when the New York Times exposed NYPD officers who posted remarks like this on Facebook, Ann-Marie Adams ’99 decided to take action.

Nicholas Lease arrived at chemistry by way of biology, his original choice of study when he enrolled in college. Now, after four years at Brooklyn College and many hours in Associate Professor María Contel’s laboratory, he landed an invitation to discuss his research at the American Chemistry Society’s National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego. The metal compounds he is studying may prove to be a promising scientific breakthrough in the fight against some types of cancer. Lease’s change of heart has clearly paid off.

Medical school is known for its challenging curriculum and rigorous course work — a stressful environment for a student not acclimated to the quickened pace. One such school, located in the heart of Brooklyn, is SUNY Downstate Medical Center, home to 1,430 students and 649 faculty members. Acceptance into SUNY Downstate is the goal of many ambitious college students, and its Early Medical Education (EME) Program provides an opportunity for students to learn the ropes and lock down strong study habits before taking on the full course load.

For many international students at Brooklyn College, commencement was more significant than it might seem — most of them mastered the art of speaking and writing English in just a few years and were proudly holding their American diplomas while posing for pictures with their families, many of whom had traveled for days in order to attend the commencement.

When the lights went down at Symphony Space, the Upper West Side performing arts center and home to the 30th Annual Brooklyn College Film Festival, the student films on display felt like labors of love crafted by hardworking, talented filmmakers-in-training. The films spanned numerous genres —documentaries, thrillers and comedies along with a lavishly produced World War II drama and a stop-motion short on the perils of writing. The festival also featured an opportunity to look back as a retrospective unspooled, highlighting memorable works from the past 30 years.

When 18-year-old Avtandil Chachibaia played with his mini DV camera in his hometown in the country of Georgia, he did not expect that it would become a film. Four years later, after Chachibaia immigrated to the United States and enrolled in the film program at Brooklyn College, he came back to his old tapes and made a movie. That retooled movie has now been selected for the Cannes Film Festival and was a semifinalist for the Student Academy Awards.

The road to commencement has been a long and bumpy one for Ocean Vuong, but the B.F.A. creative writing graduate handled it all with unparalleled grace. What others might regard as burdens, he sees as blessings, as keen experiences that serve to inform his writing and give it grit and edge.

Few people truly understood how hard it was for Titanya Charles to get out of bed and get to school every Monday and Wednesday, catching the Access-a-Ride from her home in East New York to campus and making her way to the third floor of James Hall, where, as a sociology major, she took most of her classes.

Approximately 4,500 students will graduate from Brooklyn College in the Class of 2012, making it the largest graduating class in 35 years. Brooklyn College will confer the baccalaureate and master’s degrees as well as several advanced certificates to the graduates at three commencement ceremonies scheduled for Wednesday, May 30, and Thursday, May 31.

Brooklyn College is on track to reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2017, which is one of the many reasons why the college has once again earned a spot in the Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges. The annual report, compiled in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, highlights the colleges and universities that demonstrate a superior commitment to environmental sustainability.

On a breezy spring morning, four Brooklyn College students huddle inside a tomato-red trailer on a gated campus at the corner of Linden Boulevard and Van Siclen Avenue. Soon, roughly 15 high school students will file into this makeshift classroom, and Jumana Morciglio, a senior majoring in philosophy and the designated lead on today’s lesson, is going over the game plan for the philosophy course they are co-teaching at East New York Family Academy.

Following the news of his second prestigious commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, Associate Professor of Music Jason Eckardt shows little sign of slowing down. In fact, his newest piece, a six-minute composition titled “to be held…” performed by violinist and singer Wendy Richman, incorporates a novel twist — Richman must compete against herself via an electronically manipulated prerecorded performance.

Senior Catherine W. Chan has been selected as a 2012 recipient of CUNY’s Jonas E. Salk Scholarship, an award given annually to eight students who have the potential to make significant contributions to medical research. The scholars are selected by a panel of distinguished physicians — all Salk alumni — based on the quality of their research, academic excellence and recommendations by professors and mentors.

On April 30, Barry Salzberg ’74, the CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohamatsu Ltd., one of the four largest international accountancy firms in the world, returned to his alma mater to discuss the career path that has led to his incredible success.

Twenty honors students were selected from among thousands of submissions to present papers at two important research conferences: the 2012 National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which took place in Ogden, Utah, and the 2012 Northeast Regional Honors Council Conference (NRHC), held in Baltimore.

Emma Eden Ramos, a creative writing major who transferred to Brooklyn College this semester, has already won over the publishing industry: So far, she has published a collection of poetry, a children’s novella and a novelette in an anthology for teens.