CUNY Newswire

FLUSHING, N.Y., May 20, 2013 – A diploma from Queens College pays off, literally. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett, co-author of Is College Worth It?, has evaluated 3,500 U.S. colleges and universities for their return on investment, or ROI. Citing PayScale surveys of jobholders who earned bachelor’s degrees, but nothing higher, Bennett finds that [...]

Madeline Yap, who will be graduating from Macaulay Honors College at Queens College on May 30, has received a Fulbright scholarship to teach English
in South Korea. She is the second QC Fulbright winner to receive this teaching assignment.

Queens College sets the stage for success in the arts with the school’s unprecedented acceptance of four of its Drama, Theatre and Dance Department students into prestigious graduate programs this year. They are bound for San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, the London Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts, Juilliard, and the Yale School of Drama. The attached release details their shared experience under the mentorship of professor Claudia Feldstein.

Andy Statman, one of the world’s premier mandolinists and clarinetists, will perform at Queens College May 22. Made possible through a grant from
NYC Councilman James Gennaro, the free concert is part of a national tour in honor of Statman’s recent National Endowment for the Arts
National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest award in the folk and traditional arts.

Three Queens College graduates have received National Science Foundation Research fellowships to continue their research. The NSF fellowships are among the most prestigious and highly competitive grants in the country.

The Tokyo Oratorio Society will join the Queens College Choral Society and Orchestra to perform J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor on May 18. Bach’s
Mass is considered one of the great masterworks of all time.

–“Out of the Shadows – The Path to Citizenship” Will Also Feature Presentations from Academia and Community-Based Organizations, and Explore Undocumented Students’ Perspectives – WHAT: A panel discussion and information sessions presented in partnership with Latin Women in Action (LWA). Topics of discussion to include the history of U.S. immigration policy and the meaning of [...]

Artist Jon Imber, diagnosed last year with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), will exhibit his work in the Godwin-Ternbach exhibition, “Palaemon: A Survey of Paintings by Jon Imber,” from May 1 through June 15, 2013. The 35-year span of work on display will include landscapes and abstracts, as well as work that Imber produced after teaching himself to paint with his left hand. Former MOMA curator Deborah Wye will discuss Imber’s work with him during the opening reception on Saturday, May 11, from 3 – 5 pm. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

Four Broadway stars and the Queens College Orchestra will perform May 5 at a QC memorial concert for alumnus and legendary stage and screen composer/conductor
Marvin Hamlisch. All proceeds from the concert will benefit the college’s Marvin Hamlisch Scholarship Endowment.

On Sunday, April 21, Stephen Maitland-Lewis will be at Queens College to read from his award-winning novel, Emeralds Never Fade, a story of the Holocaust. He will also discuss his friendship with jazz legend Louis Armstrong, how it affected his own life and career and the musician’s legacy on the world. The event is free and open to the public.

International perspectives on the spirit of the South Asian word “namaste”—meaning, “I bow to you”—will be presented at the Queens College Art Center from April 8 to June 27, 2013. The 21 contributors exploring the theme of respect through art, language, music, and performance in the exhibition, Friendly Gestures [NAMASTE], are from places as wide-ranging as their methods of expression–Brooklyn, Genoa, the Sudan, UK and Paris. The exhibition is free and open to the public. An opening reception and talks by the artists will take place Thursday, April 18, from 5 to 8 pm.
The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the college’s Year of India, a multidisciplinary exploration of the country’s rich history and culture with events scheduled throughout the academic year.

De Novo is a play chronicling the life-and-death struggle of Edgar Chocoy, a teenaged boy who sought–and was denied–U.S. asylum to escape gang violence in his native Guatemala. This dramatic story, which resonates today, will be presented April 11 – 20 by the Kupferberg Center for the Arts in partnership with the Houses on the Moon Theater Company. Crafted entirely from immigration court transcripts, interviews and letters from Chocoy’s case, the play challenges the nation to reconsider the treatment of children in U.S. immigration custody. The off-site performances, which are free and open to the public, will take place at Long Island City High School and the Elmhurst Hospital Center.

When Darya Rubenstein, 22, a senior majoring in psychology at Queens College, volunteered to be part of the QC “Global Brigade” to Nicaragua during this year’s winter break, she had no idea what a life-changing trip it would be.

The March 22 Queens College Business Forum asks three finance and banking experts—-led by Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent for the New York Times—-to weigh in on Is the Economy Really Getting Better?

The New York State Department of Education has awarded Queens College’s Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department $497,000 in federal Race to the Top funding to develop the Bilingual Common Core Progressions, a roadmap for language learning and literacy aligned to the New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards.

When Yevgeniy Viller received an Academic Excellence Award at Queens College last November it was not just an acknowledgment of his gifts as a student; it was also testimony to his perseverance under extremely challenging circumstances.

More than 30 million U.S. residents—one in 10—are non-citizen immigrants. In New York City, it’s one in five adults. They pay taxes, send their children to public schools, revitalize neighborhoods, and are hired in every sector from health care to Hollywood. Many find it takes 10 years to become U.S. citizens. Their bootstrap struggles—especially for the right to vote on matters affecting their daily lives—galvanize Ronald Hayduk as author, activist, and animated teacher.

Assuring everyone in the room that as a Chinese American he could make the statement without reservation, Queens College student Jacob Zhang offered this premise upon which he believed a thriving new business could be founded: “Chinese wine is terrible.”

Queens College MFA student Jamie Hittman is the first recipient of a new fellowship offered by Paper Lantern Lit (PLL), a company that develops young adult literary properties and markets them to commercial publishers. Hittman, a Johns Hopkins graduate who is also applying to medical school, is fulfilling her passion for writing this semester by reviewing manuscripts from potential authors to assess whether they are a good fit for PLL’s projects. The Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, introduced in fall 2007, is the newest of CUNY’s MFA programs.

With the global influence of women on political and historical change continuing to grow, organizers of the Women’s Studies Conference at Queens College on March 11 are focusing on the topic of women’s activism. Panelists will discuss human rights issues worldwide, including Mexico, Africa and the U.S. The conference is free and open to the public.