The Portfolio includes in-progress and final drafts of integrated City Seminar assignments, as well as Studio exercises students complete throughout the semester. The exercises are developed by the Studio teams and feature clear and specific objectives derived from the City Seminar learning outcomes and skills spines. The exercises give students opportunities to practice core academic skills. Students create a virtual learning community through the ePortfolio by sharing work-in-progress and commenting and reflecting on one other’s work.

Maria Lissete Estrada is a dedicated student who has embraced all the opportunities the college offers. A student leader in many activities, she represented the College at the MSNBC Town Hall meeting, “Education Nation,” where students were invited to discuss the issues affecting them and their proposed solutions. Maria was also one of 20 students from the college selected to be part of the Mobilizer Academy inaugural class—a twelve-month virtual and in-person program to equip millennials across the country with the skills and resources necessary to realize their leadership potential and to create and implement successful social ventures, focused on addressing an unmet community need. On track to earn her Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2014, Maria lives by a strong work ethic: “If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard work that makes it great.” She knows hard work pays off and strives for the best.

Khalifa Ndiaye continues to utilize his leadership skills gained from his pervious experience as president of his high school student council to contribute to campus events and his community. Khalifa currently volunteers with the National Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals, an independent all volunteer association dedicated to promoting access to legal resources for individuals who cannot afford legal services and are denied due process. Most recently, as part of NCC Community Days, he volunteered to help adults improve their language skills at the Arab American Family Support Center, an organization that provides comprehensive social services to Arab-American immigrant families in New York City. Khalifa intends to earn an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences and is planning to transfer to City College to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in science.

About New York Needs You
New York Needs You aims to build a movement of like-minded individuals who believe that one day there will be no barriers to economic mobility for students with ambition and ability. By mobilizing, training, supporting and rewarding volunteers we will ensure that students from low-income backgrounds attending under-resourced colleges have the support, information and access necessary to realize their career aspirations. For more information about the Fellowship Program, visit New York Needs You.

Standing (L to R):: Provost José Luis Morín, Arthur Getman, President Scott E. Evenbeck, and Dean Stuart Cochran
Sitting: (L to R): Elizabeth Rivera Rodas, Director Elisa Hertz, Professor Laura Gambino, and Allyson Bergman

More about the Center for College Effectiveness.

On Thursday, May 23, Guttman Community College held its first annual Health & Wellness Fair in the Atrium from 12:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. This one-day event helped students, faculty and staff set on a path toward improved health and wellness. Comprised of representatives from New York’s healthcare, mental health and nutrition areas, the fair provided excellent opportunities for attendees to learn new strategies to enjoy a healthier, happier life. Among the areas represented:

Suicide Prevention- Mental Health Association of NYC

Disaster Distress Helpline- Mental Health Association of NYC

Nutrition- Jackie Batruch, certified nutritionist (smoothie demo and samples)

Food Wellness- brochures/literature on healthy eating

Blood Pressure Testing

Dental Health- Toothpaste/toothbrush giveaways

Stress Reduction – Mind-body lab on laptops with headphones and stress balls

Smoking Cessation and Drug/Alcohol Awareness information

Mental Health therapists Kristine Brambury and Courtney Stephenson

Breathing/Meditation/Mindfulness demonstration

One Stop Benefits Office 

LGBTQI-Trevor Project

Sexuality-Michael DeMarco, Clinical Sexologist

Sexual Health Information

Health Screening for Diabetes, Cholesterol, Healthy Achievers

Sadie Nash Leadership Project

Domestic Violence Awareness – literature from Safe Horizons

Music, multiple raffle prizes and loads of free giveaways ensured a great time for attendees.

From left to right seated- Angie Urena (new VP), Jessica Leung (new Treasurer), Reina Osario (new Secretary), Samuel Van Der Swaagh (new Senator), Daphne Oliveira (new Senator), Takima Marshall (new Student Representative), and Sean Charles Jr. (new Student Representative).
Standing left to right- Stephen Icaza (President), Sherine Smith (VP), Henesse Molina (Secretary), Paloma Cruz (Senator), and Cassandra Ortiz (Senator).

Congratulations to the new members:
Alfajo Jallow — President
Angie Urena — Vice President
Jessica Leung — Treasurer
Reina Osorio — Secretary
Senators:
Samuel Van Der Swaag
Daphne Oliveira
Christopher Sanchez
Hussein Nasrallah
Student Representatives to the Faculty-Student Disciplinary Committee
Sherine Smith
Stephen Icaza
Henesse Molina
Sean Charles Jr.
Tamika Marshall

(New York, NY): On Tuesday, May 7, President Evenbeck, Professor Derek Tesser, and students went on a late afternoon bird walk in Bryant Park with ecologist Robert DeCandido (aka Birding Bob).

Gibsy Lino chose The New Community College at CUNY because of its small size and its collaborative and integrated model. She maintains 3.8 GPA and is very supportive of the College’s mission. Gibsy has represented the College as a student leader at its first Foundations for Excellence (FoE) Retreat and offered valuable insight and feedback in discussions and strategies about advancing the college’s collaborative model. In addition, Gibsy volunteered with New York Cares, an NCC Community Partner, on MLK Service Day for Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts in the Rockaways. Dressed in a hazmat suit, she climbed 10 flights of stairs with tools in hand to rip out dry walls and clean out debris left from the storm. Unmindful of her own danger and discomfort, she expressed her disbelief that victims were still living in dismal conditions months after the hurricane. Gibsy notes that “the experience was very touching but at the same time it was amazing.”

Additionally, she is a student leader in many other college activities: she was selected the team leader for her City Seminar group to lead a discussion on immigration; she participated and was recognized in the Economic Ventures Entrepreneurship workshop; led many discussions in the College’s What’s Trending in the News Forum; and is currently nominated by faculty and staff to be a Peer Mentor. In her own community, she volunteers at outreach centers and works with cerebral palsy patients and children in foster care. For these reasons, Gibsy intends to earn an Associate’s Degree in Human Services at The New Community College in 2014 and hopes to attend Lehman College to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work.

Samuel van der Swaagh, a member of the inaugural class of The New Community College, maintains a 4.0 GPA and is very active in co-curricular activities on and off campus. He represented the college at the MSNBC Town Hall meeting, “Education Nation,” where students were invited to discuss the issues affecting them and their proposed solutions. Sam has been selected to participate in What’s Trending in the News, a school forum that examines social and political trends as reported in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Huffington Post. He is always leading group discussions and participating in college service activities, and is a member of the Student Government Club that will produce Fast Times, the College’s first student newspaper. Most recently, he was elected to serve as a Senator in the Student Government Association, as well as hopes to be a Resource Peer Mentor in the next academic year.

Although Sam is legally blind, he has learned to work around his visual impairment by concentrating on the details of objects. As a result, he engages in detailed analysis of scientific and cultural information. He appreciates how the College accommodates his special needs, and uses New York City as a laboratory by integrating it in the curriculum. On track to earn his Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts in 2014, Sam intends to attend Cooper Union because of his passion for science and visual arts. To this end, he is excitedly developing his e-portfolio for his next college career. His strong interest in the visual arts has afforded him the honor of participating in the Noguchi Museum’s Make Your Mark program as well as an internship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has had several of his works included in exhibitions around New York City.

College staff and student accept the $10,000 grant award check from Verizon Wireless.

(New York, NY): On Thursday, May 2, 2013, Verizon Wireless presented a $10,000 HopeLine® check to The New Community College at CUNY in recognition of the college’s participation in the HopeLine campaign during fall 2012. This national program turns no-longer used cell phones into support for domestic violence victims and survivors. As part of a student-led campus initiative, the college collected over 350 cellphones and devices—an extraordinary level of participation given the college’s small size. Funds from the award will be used to create a campus domestic violence resource center.

“We were very pleased by the strong campus support for the HopeLine campaign and are honored to create a domestic violence resource center for students and staff as a lasting testimony to this initiative. All of us extend our gratitude to Verizon Wireless for its ongoing support of this important cause,” commented Scott E. Evenbeck, New Community College President.   

Verizon Wireless is committed to preventing and raising awareness about domestic violence through its community efforts. Through HopeLine, Verizon Wireless collects used cell phones to be recycled or sold and donates the proceeds in the form of cash grants and pre-paid wireless phones to advocacy groups for use by survivors.

Verizon Wireless representative Esmeralda Diaz Cameron explained that “…it is so rewarding to be able to recognize the efforts of the students at New Community College with this HopeLine donation on behalf of their collection of phones and devices. Collecting phones and devices to help empower domestic violence survivors is the cornerstone of HopeLine which Verizon created in 2001.  We are particularly inspired by the fact that the good work started here will continue as the campus creates an on-site domestic violence resource center.”

Verizon was the first wireless carrier in the nation to collect and recycle old cell phones and has done so on behalf of survivors of domestic violence since January 1999 – first in New York and then across the U.S. Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 10 million phones, properly disposed of 1.7 million no-longer-used wireless phones, and has raised over $18.1 million in cash grants donated to domestic  violence organizations nationwide. To learn more about HopeLine, visit: www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About The New Community College at CUNY

The New Community College at CUNY is an urban public institution located in midtown Manhattan that offers associate degree programs in an environment that nurtures student success. Our goal is to increase the graduation rate for our students, many of whom are the first in their family to attend college. The NCC connects field experiences with classroom learning in a structured and supportive environment. All students begin in the Summer Bridge Program and engage full-time in a city-centered first-year experience before starting their major coursework in one of six degree programs. Instructional teams comprising faculty members, student success advocates, graduate coordinators, peer mentors and library staff create a rich classroom environment complemented by an integrated advisement program to help students stay on the path to graduation. To learn more about The New Community College at CUNY, visit www.ncc.cuny.edu.

Elizabeth Olofson, Executive Director, and Ernest Rubenstein, Board President of the Guttman Foundation, pose with NCC President Scott E. Evenbeck and college staff and students to celebrate the Foundation’s major gift to the college.

Foundation’s Largest Gift Endows Community College Programs and Transfer Scholarships

The City University of New York has received a $25 million gift from the Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation to support The New Community College at CUNY and two other community college initiatives to boost student retention and graduation rates.  In honor of the gift, the foundation’s largest and the largest ever given to a New York State community college, the CUNY Board of Trustees passed a resolution to rename The New Community College the Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.

The Trustees on April 29 approved the naming of the college and of the Guttman Student Success and Engagement Fund, which will promote further development of the college’s innovative programs. The Board of the Guttman Foundation is committing half of its current assets to CUNY. The Guttman Board approved the gift on April 11, 2013.

To read the full press release, click here.

Guttman Foundation Board President Ernest Rubenstein discusses the gift to the College during the CUNY Board of Trustees April 29, 2013 meeting. Watch the video.

Media Coverage:

The New York Times

Chronicle of Higher Education

The Wall Street Journal

Inside Higher Ed

Albany Times-Union

CBS New York

BloombergBusinessweek

Community College Times/American Association of Community Colleges

Assistant Professor Lori Ungemah’s Composition I students pose with author Jean Kwok during her visit to The NCC on April 24.

(New York, NY):  On April 24, Jean Kwok, author of Girl in Translation, visited The NCC to speak with students who are currently reading her novel in Composition I, a semester-long course focused on the theme of immigration. The novel chronicles the immigration of a young girl, Kim, and her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, New York, where they work in a factory. Moved while reading her student essays on the novel, Assistant Professor Lori Ungemah sent Jean Kwok a message on Facebook. Much to her surprise, the author immediately responded, mentioning she would be traveling to New York on business and asked if she could speak to the students.

Kwok captivated the students by discussing her own immigration experience from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, New York, and the similarities and differences between herself and the young character in the novel. She also read passages from the novel, noting why she included them and what ideas she hoped readers might take away. Additionally, she shared her experiences as an author and a writer and, with a great sense of humor, admitted that she, too, procrastinates. Her talk concluded with a motivational message about success, the importance of failure and the need to work hard.

About Girl In Translation
A resolute yet naïve Chinese girl confronts poverty and culture shock with equal zeal when she and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn in Kwok’s affecting coming-of-age debut Girl in Translation. Ah-Kim Chang, or Kimberly as she is known in the U.S., had been a promising student in Hong Kong when her father died. Now she and her mother are indebted to Kimberly’s Aunt Paula, who funded their trip from Hong Kong. They dutifully work for her in a Chinatown clothing factory where they earn barely enough to live. Despite economic hardship and living in a condemned apartment that is without heat and full of roaches, Kimberly excels at school, perfects her English, and is eventually admitted to an elite, private high school. It is the portrayal of Kimberly’s relationship with her mother that makes this more than just another immigrant story.

About the Author
Jean Kwok emigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. She won early admission to Harvard, where she worked as many as four jobs at a time, and graduated with honors in English and American literature before going on to earn an MFA in fiction at Columbia. Her debut novel Girl in Translation (Riverhead, 2010) became a New York Times bestseller. It has been published in 15 countries and chosen as the winner of an American Library Association Alex Award, a John Gardner Fiction Book Award finalist, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, an Orange New Writers title, an Indie Next Pick, a Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award nominee and the winner of Best Cultural Book in Book Bloggers Appreciation Week 2010. It was featured in many publications, including the “New York Times,” “USA Today,” “Entertainment Weekly,” “Vogue” and “O, The Oprah Magazine.”