college of mount saint vincent

NEWSALUMNAE/I, STUDENTS, & FRIENDS SPRING 2014

COLLEGE OF MOUNT SAINT VINCENT 6301 RIVERDALE AVENUE | RIVERDALE, NY 10471 | PHONE (800) 665-CMSV | (718) 405-3345 | WEB:WWW.MOUNTSAINTVINCENT.EDU

The College of Mount Saint Vin-cent and New York Law School are preparing to open the Charter High School for Law and Social Justice in 2015. The Charter High School is the product of a unique partnership between two institu-tions of higher learning, which combined their resources to design the School. In December 2013, the New York State Board of Regents approved the application to estab-lish and operate the high school in the southern Bronx, issuing a five-year, renewable charter.This project began last year when the College and the Law School, which were separately pursuing the possibility of charter schools, decided to cooperate. Professor Richard Marsico from New York Law School was interested in opening a charter high school in the Bronx with a theme of law and social justice. President Charles Flynn of the College of Mount Saint Vincent was interested in opening a charter school that would serve as a laboratory of good practice in teacher prepara-tion and become home to a new “clinically rich” teacher educa-tion program. When the Teacher Education department, including Chair and Associate Professor Dr. Mary Ellen Sullivan, met the law professor, they saw great potential

WORLD-CLASS INTERNSHIPS

AT THE UN

“I MAY NEVER GET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY

TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN”

Like many Mount students, Carolyn Sepulveda ’14 wants to make a difference in the world. A psychology major with a strong interest in international affairs, she has gained first-hand experience in international diplomacy at the United Nations. Carolyn is one of four Mount students interning at a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) office, advocating for social justice at the United Nations. She is joined by Erika Pichardo ’16, Katherine Moreira ’15, and Amanda Soliman ’14. Carolyn and Erika serve at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary NGO, while Amanda and Katherine serve the UNANIMA NGO.

FACULTY FOCUS

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

Dr. Cynthia B. Meyers, Associate Professor of Communication has been studying advertising for two decades—from radio jingles and product placements to the future of branded entertainment—but only recently did she finally get the chance to write her very own ad.“Read the fascinating tale of how ad agencies helped invent broadcast entertainment in the 1930s and 1940s! Thrill to stories of admen boldly combining jokes with Jell-O, dramas with soap, celebrities with cheese! Enjoy 27 illustrations: Hollywood stars! Vintage trade ads!” reads the ad she wrote for her book, A Word From Our Sponsor: Admen, Advertising, and the Golden Age of Radio, published this year by Fordham University Press.

When asked about writing her first ad, she laughed.“I’ve never worked in the ad industry,” said Meyers, who has been teaching in the Mount’s Department of Communication since 2004. “In one of my previous lives, I was a modern dancer. I had to work several jobs as a dancer and I didn’t get paid very much.”

continued on page 6continued on page 7Carolyn Sepulveda ’14

THE CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

continued on page 5

EDUCATION AND OPPORTUNITY:

by Belle Hann

by Belle Hann

by Adam Wiesniski

2 SPRING 2014

COLLEGE NEWS

SAVE THE DATE! REUNION: Return, Reconnect, RevisitThe College of Mount Saint Vincent celebrates Reunion Weekend for classes ending in “4” and “9” from June 6-7, 2014. Celebrate with faculty, friends, classmates, and other alums. Learn the latest Mount news and developments, visit the College’s newly renovated facilities, and engage in exciting programs. Visit www.mountsaintvincent.edu/reunion for more information, and to register online.

HOLLYWOOD COMES TO THE MOUNT The Mount is a popular location spot for TV and movies, and this year has not been without the odd celebrity sighting! In October, Al Pacino filmed the upcoming movie “The Humbling,” and in April, James Spad-er was on campus filming an episode TV show “The Blacklist”.

OCTOBER MONTH OF SERVICEThe College hosted its inaugural “Month of Service” as part of its Leaders in Service initiative this past October. The “Month of Service” engaged 568 students in 1508 hours of service. Volunteers collabo-rated with numerous agencies in the community, including the Mid-night Run, POTS Soup Kitchen, local elementary schools, Habitat for Humanity, American Cancer Society, Sisters of Charity of New York, as well as campus projects and student-led initiatives.

DANCE FOR PARKINSON’SThe College has collaborated with the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, and the Riverdale YM-YWHA to host Dance for PD®, a program that offers dance classes for individuals with Parkinson’s disease. All classes are offered free of charge to peo-ple with Parkinson’s, their families, friends, and care partners.

LENTEN LECTUREThe annual Lenten Lecture on Wednesday, March 5, 2014, featured the presentation, “Lord, help me! Praying with Dorothy Day this Lent,” with Dianne M. Traflet, J.D., S.T.D.

CONFLICT AND COMPASSION Faculty, students, and staff part-nered with the Sisters of Char-ity of New York for a three-part event series on March 24, March 31, and April 3 titled “Conflict and Compassion: The Civil War, Sisters of Charity, and New York’s Catholics.” This dynamic series explored the role of the Sisters of Charity in the Civil War.

SCHOLARSHIP TRIBUTE DINNERThe annual Scholarship Tribute Dinner on April 28, 2014 at Cipriani Wall Street raised over $670,000 for scholarship funds for talented and deserving students. Honorees were Ibrahim K. Naimi, president of Saudi Petroleum International, Inc., and Edmund C. Duffy, Of Counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates.

COLLEGE OF MOUNT SAINT VINCENT NEWSEditor Belle Hann, Director for College Relations

Contributing Ana Barbu, Michael Doughty, Leah Munch ’12,Writers Adam Wiesniski

Photography Ben Asen, Kathryn O’Loughlin, Leah Munch, Dana Maxson

College of Mount Saint Vincent News is a publication of the College of Mount Saint Vincent Office of Institutional Advancement & College Relations.

Madeleine Melkonian Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement & College Relations

Address all Letters to the Editor and suggestions for future issues to: Belle Hann, Director for College Relations College of Mount Saint Vincent 6301 Riverdale Ave., Riverdale, NY 10471, (718) 405-3345 or belle.hann@mountsaintvincent.edu

Send all Address Changes and Alumnae/i Updates to: Alumnae/i Relations Office College of Mount Saint Vincent 6301 Riverdale Ave., Riverdale, NY 10471 (718) 405-3336 or alumnioffice@mountsaintvincent.edu

AROUND CAMPUS

by Leah Munch ’12

Scholarship Tribute Dinner Co-Chair and CMSV Trustee Stephen Manzi, 2014 Honoree Edmund C. Duffy,, CMSV Board of Trustees Chair Noreen M. Culhane, Honoree Ibrahim K. Naimi, and Dinner Co-Chair and Member of the CMSV Board of Trustees Steve Acunto.

SPRING 2014 3

COLLEGE NEWS

› President Charles L. Flynn was quoted in a May 25th article in the New York Times “Colleges Rattled as Obama Seeks Ratings System” regarding the US Dept. of Education plans to develop a rating system for colleges and universities. He was profiled in Arab Spring daily newspaper regarding the College’s emerging relationship with Egypt.

› Dr. Cynthia Meyers, Associate Professor of Communication, and her new book have been featured on Reuters, Forbes, Business Week, and Wisconsin Public Radio. Her work has also been discussed by renowned journalists Jack Shafer and Andrew Sullivan.

› Amber Lennon, Director of the Oxley Career Education Program, was featured on Yahoo! Education in “6 Degrees To Prep You For A High Paying Job.” Ms. Lennon provided advice on pursuing degrees in growing fields of business.

› Dr. Kristin Lawler, Assistant Professor of Sociology, was featured at nurse.com, a national nursing website, to discuss the Mount Mentors Program.

› CMSV’s Men’s Basketball made the nightly news for The Tablet/NET-TV. The team played in the third annual Swish for Kids Basketball Classic hosted by St. Ephrem’s parish in Dyker Heights.

RELAY FOR LIFERain couldn’t stop the College’s second Relay for Life! The all-night walkathon raised money for the American Cancer Society on Friday, April 4, 2014.

FOUNDERS WEEKThe College celebrated the 167th anniversary of the institution dur-ing Founders Week, Tuesday, April 22nd – Friday, April 25th. The Founder Week celebration included campus-wide service activities in the spirit of the Sisters of Charity, employee service awards, and a forum on Elizabeth Seton.

IPSLThe College’s collaboration with the International Partnership for Service-Learning (IPSL) continues to grow. The Mount/IPSL pro-grams for undergraduate students combine academic courses, in-depth cultural and linguistic immersion, and service-learning expe-riences through study-abroad. The new Master’s degree program in International Service and Development, launching in the fall 2014, is designed to prepare individuals for careers with non-profit, govern-mental, educational and other organizations throughout the world. Visit www.mountsaintvincent.edu/ipsl for more information.

4TH ANNUAL STUDENT RESEARCH & SERVICE SYMPOSIUMOn May 15, Mount students showcased their outstanding original re-search and service learning projects to the Mount community. Presi-dent’s Associates and Centennial Society members were also honored at the event where they had the opportunity to meet and speak with students and faculty.

102nd COMMENCEMENTThe Mount celebrated its 102nd Commencement ceremony on Satur-day, May 17th on the Riverdale campus. This year’s 2014 Commence-ment speaker was Eugenia Ulasewicz, a global leader in the fashion industry and advocate for women’s issues. Ms. Ulasewicz is the for-mer President of Americas Operations of the Burberry Group, and also served on Burberry’s executive committee. She is a Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Women In Need (WIN), and serves on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Forum, Inc. Ms. Ulasewicz is the daughter of Edna Ulasewicz ’49 who also attended the event.

SAVE THE DATE! RIVERDALE RIVERFESTThe College of Mount Saint Vincent will host the fifth annual Riverdale Riverfest celebration from noon to 6:00 pm on Sunday, June 15th on the Great Lawn on the College’s Riverdale campus. This year’s event which his free and open to the public, will feature boats, music, and activities. Visit www.mountsaintvincent.edu/riverfest for more information.

Al Pacino with CMSV staff Leah Munch, Christina Gonzalez-Aguirre, and Michael Sin.

Actor James Spader with Christopher Encalada, Assistant Custodian Manager/Event Coordinator.

CMSV IN THE MEDIA

WANT TO LEARN MORE? VISIT OUR WEBSITE

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, EVENTS AND MEDIA COVERAGE AT

MOUNTSAINTVINCENT.EDU

4 SPRING 2014

COLLEGE NEWS

With a long tradition of excellence in the science-related fields, the Col-lege of Mount Saint Vincent has been awarded a Robert Noyce Teach-er Scholarship Program grant from the National Science Foundation, totaling $868,618 over 5 years. The grant recognizes the College’s ex-cellence in preparing teachers and will serve biology, chemistry, and math majors who are pursuing initial New York State certification in adolescent education (seventh grade through high school in math and science).

“Nationwide, there is a shortage in math and science teachers at the secondary level. This is reflected in the Teacher Education adolescent program at the College,” said the grant’s principal investigator, Dr. Mary Ellen Sullivan, Chair and Assistant Professor of the Department of Teacher Education. “In 2012, 91 students declared majors in sci-ence and math but only seven students enrolled in teacher education. The College applied for the grant to meet this great need for math and science teachers.”

Starting fall 2014, selected students will receive up to $16,000 per year for two years to complete their bachelor’s degree and earn initial New York State certification. The College will engage in recruitment strategies targeting current, full-time junior and senior Mount students majoring in math or science who have at least a 3.0 G.P.A. and have completed at least 75 percent of the semester credit hours attempted in the most recent academic year.

CMSV is also targeting transfer students from the eight community colleges with which it has articulation agreements, namely Bergen Community College, NJ; Queensboro Community College, NY; Nor-walk Community College, CT; Rockland Community College, NY; Kingsborough Community College, NY; LaGuardia Community Col-lege, NY; Warren County Community College, NJ; Suffolk Community College, NY.

The applicants will interview with Dr. Sullivan and faculty members from science and mathematics departments who will facilitate the Noyce Scholarship program at the College. Upon being successfully chosen for the scholarship, students will enroll in the 31-credit Adolescence Educa-tion program offered by the Department of Teacher Education.

Beyond scholarship funding, Noyce scholars will have intensive pro-fessional opportunities, such as clinical training mentorships and teacher-in-residence workshops. For each year of the scholarship,

Noyce scholars will work in high-needs New York City District 10 high schools. A semester prior to ending their program through their first year of employment, students will be paired with an alumna/us mentor working at the same school, who will provide pedagogical ideas and sup-port for learning the culture of the particular public school.

“The mentors are a bridge between the Mount and the public schools,” Dr. Sullivan said. “Many novice teachers leave during their induction period because they don’t have support, so the support is critical.”

Additionally, the College will welcome K-12 math and science teachers-in-residence to showcase best teaching practices in workshops open to all Teacher Education students.

The Noyce Grant will facilitate a paid summer internship program exploring the teaching profession for 25 freshman and sophomore students, over five years. “The internship program is one way of pro-viding students with information about teaching in science as a viable career,” Dr. Sullivan said. “It’s important to give some hands-on expo-sure to freshman and sophomore students. Having the information is not enough; they have to be involved in teaching.”

Interns will work at local environmental education centers, such as the Groundworks Hudson Valley Science Barge, a prototype sustainable ur-ban farm floating on the Hudson River in Yonkers, NY. They will teach school students about the benefits of hydroponic agriculture and vertical agriculture in urban areas. Other potential internship locations include the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and summer camps with academic components where interns will tutor students.

To further spread the word about teaching careers in the STEM field, the College’s faculty are developing a freshman seminar in science that will be required for all first-year science majors. A portion of the semi-nar will focus on career exploration. Freshman science majors will also have the opportunity to participate in science education activities, such as working with faculty members to develop a “Fun with Science” work-shop presented at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, tutoring afterschool programs, and participating in AAUW/Westchester Branch’s “Exploring Your Opportunities” conference, held on the College’s Riverdale cam-pus. Additionally, math, science, and education advisors will be trained to discuss teaching as an option and the Noyce Scholarship, with quali-fied students.

NATIONAL GRANT IN THE SCIENCES:

THE ROBERT NOYCE TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

by Ana Barbu

SPRING 2014 5

COLLEGE NEWS

for this combined endeavor and agreed to form a partnership. “The mission of the proposed school aligned very strongly with the mission of our College and our department,” shares Dr. Sullivan. “The opportunity to participate in the development of the Charter High School is a natural extension of my philosophy. Education is a vehicle through which social justice can be achieved.”In addition to a comprehensive high school education, the Charter High School will offer an innovative four-year legal curriculum. Stu-dents will receive rigorous academic preparation necessary to gain entrance to college and law school, including exposure to higher edu-cation experiences at Mount Saint Vincent and New York Law School. The Charter High School will offer an innovative program in civics, law, social justice and constitutional law combined with experience in social justice community service projects and internships. For the Mount, the Charter High School will not just be a top-notch practicum placement site for teacher education students. The College is also developing an innovative master’s program for teacher certifica-tion. To be admitted to the new program, students will have already earned bachelor’s degrees and passed subject area examinations. Over a summer, the full academic year and the following summer, students at the College will pursue an innovative, intensive curriculum that will allow students who do not hold teacher certification to earn their grad-uate degree and fulfill certification requirements over an 18-month period. “It will have a clinically-rich resident opportunity by placing

graduate students in teaching assistant positions at the School,” said Dr. Sullivan. “The graduate student will work side by side with a mas-ter teacher for a full academic year.” Mount faculty will provide Charter High School teachers with profes-sional development, and offer summer college immersion and “mini-classes” for the students. In their senior year, qualified students from the Charter School will have the opportunity to gain college credit through Mount classes.Dr. Sullivan will serve as the Vice President of the School’s found-ing Board of Trustees in addition to her role as Chair of the College’s Teacher Education program. She brings decades of expertise to her involvement. A lifelong resident of the Bronx and Mount alumna, she has 15 years of experience in K-12 education, including 12 years as a high school English teacher in the Bronx community. For the past 11 years, she has taught and mentored aspiring teachers at the Mount, and is primarily responsible for the Adolescent Education concentra-tion at the College. She has brought all of this expertise and experience to bear in designing the educational, professional development and evaluation plans for the new Charter School. Opening in September 2015, the Charter School’s Board of Trustees is conducting a search for an exceptional candidate to serve as the found-ing principal. The board continues its efforts to locate an appropriate facility for the school in the Southern Bronx region. Dr. Sullivan strongly believes in the power of education to help fashion a world in which all students will have an equal opportunity to suc-ceed in life. “ The Charter High School graduates… will have the skills, knowledge and confidence to enter a college classroom, engage in aca-demic discourse, think analytically, speak persuasively, problem-solve, and successfully collaborate with peers. We are committed to provid-ing the academic, social, and emotional supports so that each student believes success is possible.”

CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

This Spring, 21 Business and Economics students visited Deloitte Consulting, LLP, a global professional service network in Manhattan. Deloitte Consulting, LLP provides auditing, financial advisory, tax, and consulting services to clients through independent firms. Mount students networked with Deloitte executives, and participated in an interactive panel discussion and Q & A session on careers in busi-ness. During the visit, members from Deloitte reflected about their careers and their own job search experiences. They stressed the ben-efits of a liberal arts education, emphasizing how writing skills, oral expression, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking will allow them to be competitive in a global marketplace.

“I believe this was the most successful networking event of students with professionals due to their relatively young age and high level of professionalism,” says Dr. Titos Ritsatos, Assistant Professor of Business and Economics.

FROM BACKPACK TO BRIEFCASE:

MOUNT STUDENTS

TAKE ON WALL STREET

continued from page 1

by Leah Munch ’12

6 SPRING 2014

FACULTY NEWS

Unlike most book editors, Mount Professor of Teacher Education Dr. Ron Scapp and his longtime friend Dr. Brian Seitz write the introduction for their books before a word of it has been written.

For their latest book, “Living With Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture,” a collection of essays published by Palgrave Macmillan in December, their introduction begins with a math lesson: “99%? The numbers just don’t add up, since the complementary figure is far less than 1%...”

It concludes with a challenge.“The fact that around the world we are witnessing the continued growth of and disparity between the wealth gained by the super-rich and the decline in the standard of living of the poor and working poor should cause all of us to take a pause and rethink the very dynamic and nature of class...”

When finished, about two years ago, they sent the introduction to colleagues, scholars, journalists, and social activists around the country. And then they waited.

“We cast a wide net,” said Dr. Scapp. “We invite people who we trust will have something interesting to contribute to the overall discussion.”They invited writers to read the introduction and like guitarists soloing over a steady beat provided by the Dr. Scapp and Dr. Seitz rhythm section, add new sound to the discussion.

“Sometimes it goes this way or that way and we just let it go where it goes,” said Dr. Scapp.The result is a collection of essays, or as the title suggests, “philosophical reflections,” on class. Some essays challenge current cultural perceptions of class while others look back at American history to see how the past applies to today. The goal of the book is to offer readers, who are not necessarily academics, a “fresh and novel” approach to the debate on wealth and class, something that has been highlighted in recent years time and again.The book is the fourth volume in an ongoing series of books edited by Dr. Scapp and Dr. Seitz. But this one is special for Dr. Scapp, who has been teaching at the Mount for 20 years.Two of his colleagues at the Mount wrote reflections for the book. Dr. Ted Kafala, an associate professor of Communication and Media, wrote “New Materialism and Digital Culture: Productive Labor and the Software Wars,” and Dr. Kristin Lawler, an assistant professor of Sociology, contributed “’Fix the Tired’: Cultural Politics and the Struggle for Shorter Hours.”“I’m excited that I was able to invite some colleagues. It allows for a nice sense of collaboration and collegiality amongst the community,” he said, adding that it’s also great to show students that their teachers are writing and publishing books tackling issues of today.

Dr. Cynthia B. Meyers continued from page 1

Back then, while she was dancing at basement art spaces, she knew people who did commercial work like appearing on Miami Vice, which paid very well. So she started thinking about the relationship between fine arts and commercial media.

“I was just curious about how that worked. Why was there so much money over there?” she said.

She studied communications at Hunter College and then started writing her book as a dissertation while she earned her Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin.

More than twenty years in the making, A Word From Our Sponsor is published and has received rave reviews for examining the advertising industry’s role in shaping radio programming. The book is the culmination of Dr. Meyers’ papers and presentations she’s given at conferences around the country.

“If you want a more comprehensive understanding of how mass marketing came to define our culture, then ‘A Word From Our

Sponsor’ is definitely a book you’ll want to pick up,” writes Aaron W. Hughey in his review of the book for Bowling Green Daily News in Kentucky.

Dr. Meyers spent years flying around the country looking through advertising agency archives, memos, meeting transcriptions, and personal papers. She learned advertising companies were not only the money behind radio programs of the 30s and 40s, they had a direct hand in creating the programming.

“...I challenge conventional views about the role of advertising in culture, the integration of media industries, and the role of commercialism in broadcast history,” she writes in her introduction.

Her goal was not only to uncover the changing relationship between admen and broadcasters in the Golden Age of radio, but to apply that relationship to today.

“The last place you’d expect to discover a map to navigate the future of the content-advertising landscape would be a book about the golden age of radio. But damn it all to

hell, there it is on the concluding 12 pages of Cynthia B. Meyers’ new book,” wrote Jack Shafer in Reuters in March.

Looking at the past to make sense of the present is a part of Dr. Meyers’ work. She was included on Forbes.com’s “Must-Follow Marketing Minds on Twitter 2014.” She often comments on what is going on today in advertising and broadcast media, though her Twitter handle — @AnneHummert — is a tribute to Anne Hummert, who produced dozens of radio serials in the 1930s and 1940s.

The accolades have been rolling in for Dr. Meyers. In March, she won an Alvin A. Achenbaum Travel Grant from Duke University’s Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. She’s also been interviewed about her book on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Her work is not done yet. She recently viewed records of the prominent ad agency BBDO at their headquarters downtown — the first scholar to do so — and plans to continue what she started in her radio book in television.

“The story is still going on,” she said.

FACULTY FOCUS

DR. SCAPP’S ‘LIVING WITH CLASS’by Adam Wiesniski

“I’m excited that I was able to invite some colleagues. It allows for a nice sense of collaboration and collegiality,”

SPRING 2014 7

COLLEGE NEWS

“Charity is the cement which binds communities to God and persons to one another.” Thus wrote Vincent de Paul to his superior in the 1640s. Yet the venerable French saint could well have been describing the College of Mount Saint Vincent in 2014.

Honoring the College’s tradition of charity, our student community has long been celebrated for their extraordinary commitment to ser-vice—and this commitment shows no sign of slowing down. Over the past few months, Mount students have continued to make a difference in their community; both locally and abroad.

In October 2013, the College launched the inaugural “Month of Ser-vice”—culminating with 1,505 hours of service by 568 students. These students engaged in a myriad of service and leadership opportunities, volunteering at the Midnight Run, POTS Soup Kitchen, local elemen-tary schools, Habitat for Humanity, American Cancer Society, and the Sister of Charity of New York.

Mount students, alumnae/i and friends raised more than $50,000 for Concern Worldwide’s Typhoon Relief campaign to help the 11.8 million people displaced by the natural disaster in the Philippines. Students organized fundraising breakfasts and t-shirt drives to raise money, and Filipino student group SAMAHAN (Students at the Mount Advancing their Humanity and Nationality) donated funds from their benefit show and annual Mass towards the relief campaign.

Students organized a second “Relay for Life” event on Friday April 4, 2014, a night-long celebration of cancer survivors that raises funds and awareness of the devastating disease. The entire campus commu-nity, including alums, took part in the fundraising event that raised over $20,000 for the American Cancer Society. Student Government President Rema Sayed ’14 has been the key organizer for this year’s event, after volunteering in 2013. She notes that Relay for Life is a communal effort to promote an important issue. “Relay For Life is important because it brings together the community for one great charity cause. We are appreciating life, and those that have survived cancer.”

Our culture of volunteer service extends to our student athletic teams, who are attracting significant attention for their leadership in service activities. Every athletic team volunteers in a service activity in the community, such as running volleyball camps for underprivileged children in Costa Rica. In January, the CMSV Men’s Basketball team ran a basketball clinic for more than 20 children who are experiencing cancer at St. Ephrem’s parish in Dyker Heights. The team coached the kids and showed them their best on-court moves, and participated in the parish’s annual Swish for Kids Basketball Classic. Not only were the children thrilled to meet the players, the basketball team was fea-tured on the Tablet/NET-TV television nightly news.

“We are creating a culture of community and service campus-wide”, says Kathryn O’Loughlin, Assistant Director of Campus Ministry. “Every service project that we engage in is important because every student is a link in the chain. [We are] remembering that every small act we do, if it is done with love, that it can make a difference.”

These NGOs advocate for social justice, gender equity, eradication of HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, and development and environmental issues. Interns work alongside staff to educate and influence policymakers at the global level while learning more about the mission of the United Nations.

“Students are being exposed to the etiquette of international diplomacy and are gaining awareness of the role that they play in the social and political structure of the world,” shares Dr. Mariela Wong, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Director for the Center of International Studies. “I would hope that this awareness, in itself, will aid them in any career that they choose.”

The internships became possible through Sr. Caroljean Willie, who is the representative of the Sisters of Charity Federation NGO at the United Nations. She was impressed at the level of engagement from our students and connected

with other NGOs who offered competitive internship opportunities to four students from the Mount.

After graduation, Carolyn hopes to draw upon her UN experience as she pursues doctoral studies in psychology. “I may never get another opportunity to do something like this again,” she says.

“Students are being exposed to international diplomacy and

are gaining awareness of the role that they play in the social and

political structure of the world,”

CHARITY STARTS AT HOME OUR CULTURE

OF COMMUNITY AND SERVICE

WORLD-CLASS INTERNSHIPS

continued from page 1

by Belle Hann

“Charity is the cement which binds communities to God and persons to one another.”

Richard Barnet (Associate Professor of Fine Arts) was featured at the William Holman Gal-lery in New York for the Summer Show - New Artists from June to July 2013, for the Annual December Drawing Show from December 2013 to January 2014, and for Times and Places from February to March 2014. He had a sculpture on exhibit at the Greenhut Gallery in Portland, Maine in June, July, and August 2013. He also had a sculpture in the 2013 Annual Instructors Exhibition at the Arts Students League of New York in September, and one of his sculptures was featured at the Sideshow Gallery in Brook-lyn, from January to March 2014.

Eileen Fagan, SC (Assistant Professor of Phi-losophy and Religious Studies) has been selected to participate in a seminar on Teaching Inter-faith Understanding, held at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. in June 2014.

Nina Aversano (Assistant Professor of Man-agement) has been named the recipient for the Region 1 2014 Accreditation Council for Busi-ness Schools and Programs (ACBSP) Teaching Excellence Award. The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs recog-nizes individuals annually from each of its 10 regions who exemplify teaching excellence in the classroom.

Lisette Dorfman (Assistant Professor of Nursing) published the article, “Workplace Etiquette,” in ADVANCE for Nurses, in August 2013. She also published the article, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety,” in Behavioral Health News, in Fall 2013.

Sandra Hillman (Associate Professor of Nurs-ing) mentored senior honors student Besiana Roch ’13 in presenting her research at the IPSL Symposium, Re-thinking Study Abroad: Innova-tions in Advocacy, Partnership, and Service Eth-ics in London, England at St. Mary’s University College in November 2013. Additionally, she presented, “Encouraging Advocacy Research: Resolving Practical Problems for the Student Researcher,” with Paul Newton and Director of Center for Undergraduate Research and Asso-ciate Professor of Sociology, Omar Nagi.

Daniel Hrubes (Chair and Associate Pro-fessor of Psychology) along with two student co-authors, Carolyn Sepulveda ’14 and Amy Fox ’15, presented the poster, “The Influence of Deception Role and Relationship Type on Judg-ments of Deceptions,” at the Annual Confer-ence of the Eastern Psychological Association in Boston, Mass. in March 2013.

Margaret Hughes (Assistant Professor of Philosophy) presented “Humor, Hope, and the Human Being” at the first U.S. conference at the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas in Houston, Texas in October 2013, and “Josef Pieper on Love and Moral Formation” at the American Catholic Philosophical Association conference in Indianapolis, Ind., in Novem-ber 2013. She also had the article, “The Emo-tional Education of the Reader: A Progression through Works and Time,” published in the Journal of Aesthetic Education (JAE).

Rob Jacklosky (Director of Writing and Pro-fessor of English) has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to study Charles Dickens. He will participate in the NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers, called “Performing Dick-ens: Oliver Twist and Great Expectations on Page, Stage, and Screen,” at the University of California, Santa Cruz from July 6 to August 1 with 16 other faculty members and independ-ent scholars. Additionally, he will participate in “Dickens Universe,” a yearly gathering of Dick-ens scholars and enthusiasts which this year will study the novel Our Mutual Friend from August 3 to August 8.

Rajkumar Kempaiah (Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Center for E-Learning Excellence) presented “Analysis of Strategic Alignment Maturity in Financial Institutions and Global Benchmarking” at the Academy of Business Research Fall Conference at the Grand Palladium in Montego Bay, Jamaica in Novem-ber 2013.

Pamela Kerrigan (Associate Professor of Chemistry) will serve as the 2014 Chair of the New York Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Kristin Lawler (Assistant Professor of Sociol-ogy) has been published in Journal Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination for “Oceanic Futures: Mataroa and the Mediterranean Im-aginary,” and in Living with Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture for “Fix the Tired: Cultural Politics and the Strug-gle for Shorter Hours,” published by Palgrave Macmillan and edited by Professor of Humani-ties and Teacher Education, Ron Scapp.

Mary K. Lindberg’s (Adjunct Instructor, English) essay on William Hogarth, “Drum-ming Up Business: The London Theatre in Ho-garth’s Benefit Tickets and Southwark Fair,” will appear in 250 Years On: New Light on William Hogarth in October 2014.

Thomas W. Lollar (Adjunct Instructor, Fine Arts) completed a ceramic mural commission of GE Capital, Chicago, Ill.

Cathryn McCarthy’s (Associate Professor and Chair of English) paper, “Visions and Re-visions: Margery Kempe as Regina Coeli,” was published in the 2013 General Proceedings of the Medieval and Renaissance Forum. She also presented “Monastic Chronicles, Monstrous Storms, and Moral Authority: Margery Kempe Interprets the Weather,” at the 38th Annual Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Conference at Villanova University, in October 2013.

Andrea Minei’s (Assistant Professor of Chem-istry) paper, “Microwave Spectra and Structure of the Argon-Cyclopentanone and Neon-Cy-clopentanone van der Waals Complexes,” was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. She will also attend the Innovative Pedagogy and Course Redesign XIII Conference at Fair-field University in 2014.

Victor A. Miroshnikov (Assistant Professor of Mathematics) chaired a section in fluid dy-namics and presented “Computing Nonlinear Waves of the Korteweg - de Vries and Korteweg - de Vries - Burgers Equations in Invariant Structures,” at the annual meeting of the So-ciety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in San Diego, Calif., in July 2013.

8 SPRING 2014

FACULTY NEWS

Rob Jacklosky Richard BarnetMichelle Scollo

FACULTY NEWS & NOTES

by Leah Munch ’12

SPRING 2014 9

COLLEGE NEWS

Joseph Molinatti (Assistant Director and Assistant Professor of Nursing) presented on “Incivility on the Internet” at the International Euro-American Conference in Bad Hofgastein, Austria, with Dr. Suzanne Maniss and Dr. San-dra Murray, both from the University of Ten-nessee at Martin in June 2013. He also co-wrote an article on that topic with Dr. Maniss and Dr. Murray that was published in the International Journal of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, he has an article coming out in the Spring Issue of Tennessee Educational Leadership titled, “I’m in Charge!: How to Lose Friends and Alienate Your Staff,” with co-authors Dr. Maniss, Dr. Murray, and Dr. David Dietrich, also from the University of Tennessee at Martin, in 2014.

Amir Niknejad (Assistant Professor of Math-ematics) worked as a visiting research math-ematician in the computational drug design research group at Zuse Informatics Institute Berlin (ZIB), Germany, analyzing large-scale bio molecular systems through bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to protein misfolding, resulting in a joint paper entitled, “Efficient Identification of Metastable States in Molecular Dynamics by Singular Value Decom-position,” July through August 2013. He also organized a symposium in Matrix Methods in Computational Systems Biology and Medicine, and gave an invited talk, “Stochastic Dimension Reduction via Matrix Factorization in Genom-ics and Proteomics,” at the International Linear Algebra Society 2013 in Providence, R.I. in June 2013. Additionally, he invited Dr. Natasa Dur-

devac, a research mathematician from ZIB to give a talk at the College titled, “Modeling Real World Systems Using Networks,” in June 2013.

Ana Ribeiro (Assistant Professor of Biology) has been invited to submit a chapter in the laboratory protocol book series “Methods in Molecular Biology,” published by Springer, fo-cusing on “Silencing estrogen receptor-α with siRNA in the brain of the intact mouse.”

Janet Rollins (Assistant Professor of Chem-istry) was featured in the 2014 Nikon’s Small World Calendar with an image of distinction.

Ron Scapp (Professor of Humanities and Teacher Education) edited Living With Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Mate-rial Culture with featured articles by Associate Professor of Communication and Media, Ted Kafala, and Assistant Professor of Sociology, Kristin Lawler.

Michelle Scollo (Assistant Professor of Com-munication) was a guest editor of a 2013 special issue of the Russian Journal of Communication on “New Directions in Russian Interpersonal Communication Research,” and co-authored an article in the issue with Donal Carbaugh, enti-tled, “Interpersonal Communication: Qualities and Culture.” She organized and chaired a pre-conference at the 2013 National Communica-tion Association (NCA) Convention in Wash-ington D.C. with fifteen international speakers on “Talking Technology: New Connections in the Ethnography of Communication and

Technology,” in November 2013. Additionally, she was a speaker at the convention on a panel sponsored by NCA on “The Academic Ecosys-tem: Transfer, Articulation, Pathways and Other Kinds of Connections Among Academic Insti-tutions in the USA,” for which she represented communication departments at small colleges.

Joann Smith (Adjunct Instructor, English) had the short story “Taking Notes” published in Serving House Journal in Fall 2013.

Sarah Stevenson (Dean of the Undergradu-ate College and Assistant Professor of English) has been appointed as the new Dean of the Undergraduate College at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

Roberto Villanueva (Adjunct Instructor, Fine Arts) executive and artistic director of the College’s resident dance company, BalaSole, has been appointed as a grant panelist by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for arts projects in Manhattan, including the Fund for Creative Communities and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund. He also received a “Distinguished Alumni” award from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Theatre & Dance as an alumnus of their 40-year old resident credited perfor-mance company.

Mirian Zavala (Assistant Professor of Nursing) has been appointed to the SUNY Downstate Medical Center Council. She is also a member of the American Heart Association Advocacy Coordinating Committee.

In May 2013, we lost a very special member of the Mount community. Margaret L. (“Peg”) Decker ’43 passed away last year, and we celebrate her achievements, her character, and her generosity to her beloved alma mater.

Peg was a strong and independent woman. In a time when few women had jobs, she entered the business world shortly after graduation. She launched her

career at Exxon Mobil Foundation, working in administrative and personnel departments. Margaret excelled at her professional responsibilities and she worked at Exxon Mobil for 38 years until her retirement.

Family friend Eileen McIntyre remembers Peg as a “well-educated woman who made her own way in the world.” She recalls that she loved to share Exxon souvenirs, and continued to volunteer in the business arena after retirement. “Peg’s pride at being a woman in the corporate world was evident,” shares Eileen.

A New Yorker born and bred, Peg relished the abundance of cultural opportunities offered by Manhattan. She explored many passions, such as travelling internationally, painting watercolors, and attending the opera. Most evident was her passion for friendship. She enjoyed life-long friendships with her Mount classmates, such as Kathleen (“Kay”) O’Neill ’43.

Peg’s enduring affection for the Mount continues after her passing. We were honored to learn that she had generously included a provision for the College in her will. Peg’s legacy support will offer transformative opportunities to the next generation of business pioneers. The College has established a scholarship in her honor that will provide funding for a student who has elected to pursue a bachelor’s degree in business.

By virtue of her gift, Peg became a member of our Centennial Society, a group of donors who support the Mount through planned giving. To find out more about the Centennial Society, visit mountsaintvincent.edu/plannedgiving or contact Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Colette Atkins at (718) 405 3744.

REMEMBERING PEG

10 SPRING 2014

COLLEGE NEWS

The College of Mount Saint Vincent has no shortage of fascinating friends. From CEOs to artists, novelists to endocrinologists, we are proud of our connections to leaders and innovators in the global community. This past year, we have been privileged to welcome members of the extended Mount community into the classroom. They have brought their real-life wis-dom while sharing industry knowledge and career insights with our stu-dents. The Paramount Perspectives lecture series launched in 2013 and has since received several members of the Board of Trustees and other friends of the College to campus to meet students and to present a classroom lecture. The Paramount Perspectives program is mutually enriching, introducing stu-dents to highly successful and accomplished professionals, who can then experience and participate in the lively intellectual life at the Mount. This year’s featured Paramount Perspectives guest lecturers included: Rob-ert B. Mills, Chief Operating Officer, Assured Guarantee; Michael R. Mills,

Global Sales Trading, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; sculptors Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman; William J. Fishlinger, Chairman and CEO of WRM America Indemnity Corporation and CMSV trustee; Dr. Kristin Winford, Chief Operating Officer, Mesirow Financial Consulting LLC and CMSV Trustee; Dr. Mark Soloski, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of medicine; Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley, Chief of the Divi-sion of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Weill Cornell Medical College; Dr. Sylvia Christakos, Professor of Biohemistry and Molecular Biology, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School; Stefano Acunto, President, CINN Group, Inc. and CMSV trustee; and Edmund C. Duffy, Of Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates and CMSV Trustee.As the lecture series evolves, the College will continue to engage a broad spectrum of prominent and influential people whose insight and experience

can enhance and complement the academic content of the classes they visit.

“So far the guest lectures have been very successful, and they have allowed our visitors to discuss with our students topics on the course syllabus that our speakers find especially interesting or compelling,” says Dr. Lynne Bongiovanni, faculty coordinator of the Paramount Perspectives Speaker Series and Associate Professor of English. “I think that our expert guests have enjoyed meeting and engaging with our students, and I know that our students have learned a great deal not only about the subject matter of the day’s lecture, but also about interacting with and learning from accom-plished professionals.”

Additionally, the College launched the Writers at the Mount Series, wel-coming different novelists to read from their works through a Sisters of Charity Ministry Grant awarded to Dr. Rob Jacklosky, and with the support of the Alumnae/i Office, the English department, the Office of the Provost, and student publications The Underground and The Mount Times.

The Writers at the Mount series featured three acclaimed novelists this past spring semester: Myla Goldberg, Karen Shepard, and Darin Strauss. The au-thors delivered craft talks before each of their readings in Dr. Rob Jacklo-sky’s Contemporary Writers in the 21st Century class. Myla Goldberg is the author of the novels Bee Season, The False Friend, Wickett’s Remedy, and the children’s book Catching the Moon. Karen Shepard is the author of the novels The Celestials, Don’t I Know You?, and The Bad Boy’s Wife. Darin Strauss is the author of the novels Chang and Eng, More than It Hurts You, and The Real McCoy, and the memoir Half a Life.“I think the students in my Contemporary Writers in the 21st Century class in particular were energized and inspired by having the chance to talk to the authors of books we had just read in class,” says Dr. Rob Jacklosky, Director of Writing and Professor of English.

LEARNING FROM LEADERS:

THE PARAMOUNT PERSPECTIVES AND WRITERS AT THE MOUNT SERIES

Pictured above, left to right:Dr. Lynne Bongiovanni, Dr. Heather Alumbaugh, Kristin WinfordMyla Goldberg reading from The False FriendJulianne Imperato-McGinley and Dr. Ioanna VisvikiDarin Strauss reading from his memoir Half a Life

Pictured right:Dr. Rob Jacklosky and Karen Shepard

Dr. Lynne Bongiovanni, William Fishlinger, Dr. Margaret Hughes, and Madeleine Melkonian

by Leah Munch ’12

The 2013-14 academic year was a successful one for the College’s department of Athletics and Recreation. Seven teams qualified for Skyline Conference Tournament play and the Women’s Soccer and Women’s Basketball team competed in the ECAC Metro Division Tournament. Individually, Mount student-athletes have been recognized with 22 All-Skyline Conference selections, including the Rookie of the Year in Men’s Soccer and Men’s Cross Country, the Defensive Player of the Year in Women’s Basketball and the Pitcher of the Year in Softball. Two head coaches have been named Coach of the Year in their respective sports and a player was named Second Team All-Met Writers in Women’s Basketball, Second Team All-ECAC Metro Division in Men’s Soccer and Third Team NSCAA All-New York Region in Men’s Soccer. In addition, Mount student-athletes have been recognized with 34 Skyline Conference Weekly Awards, five ECAC Weekly Awards and two members of the Men’s Cross Country Team competed in the NCAA Atlantic Regional. “This has been an outstanding year for the College of Mount Saint Vincent’s Department of Athletics and Recreation. The hard work and dedication by our student-athletes and coaches produced these results and on behalf of the entire CMSV community we congratulate them on their efforts,” stated Director of Athletics and Recreation Jay Butler. During the fall season, the Dolphins had seven student-athletes named All-Skyline Conference in four different sports. Maria Leineweber ’17 (WVB),

Vanessa Cornacchio ’16 (WSOC), Erica Lencsak ’17 (WSOC) and Charlotte Barnham ’16 (WSOC) were all

made Second Team All-Skyline Conference selections, while Ashleigh Scozzari ’16 (WVB), Patrick Goldberg

’17 (MXC) and Kevin Jardines ’17 (MSOC) earned First Team All-League recognition. Goldberg and

Jarindes were each named the Conference’s Rookie of the Year following their first season of collegiate

competition. Goldberg along with his brother James represented the Mount at the NCAA

Atlantic Regional. In team competition, the Women’s Soccer program made its first ever appearance

in both the Skyline Conference and ECAC Tournament and the Women’s Volleyball program hosted a Skyline Conference Tournament match. The Men’s Soccer team improved its win

total by 10 from 2012 to 2013. Mount Saint Vincent continued its success both individually and as a team

in the winter season with the Women’s Basketball program competing in the Skyline Conference Championship game for the first

time ever and advancing to play in its fourth ECAC Tournament. The Women’s Swimming

program posted its highest point total ever at the Skyline Conference Championship meet and

the Men’s Basketball program hosted the Second Annual CMSV Tip-Off Tournament. Individually, Kelly Fraser ’15 was named First Team All-Skyline Conference in Women’s Basketball and

was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. For the second straight season she was made a Second Team All-Met Writers Association pick. Teammate Christina Barone ’17 was named Second Team All-Conference for the Dolphins following her first collegiate season. Head Coach Kevin Clifford was named the league’s Coach of the Year. In swimming, the 200-yard medley relay team made up of Janna Libby ’14, Brook Baltazar ’15, Kylee McGrane ’17, and Erin Maloney ’16 won the Skyline Conference Championship and individually, McGrane was named First Team All-League after winning the 100-yard butterfly and Maloney earned Second Team honors after placing second in the 100-yard backstroke. In Men’s Basketball, Brandon Serrano ’14 was made a Second Team All-Skyline Conference selection after leading the Dolphins in scoring and rebounding. The success continued into the spring with three teams qualifying for the Skyline Conference Tournament and 10 individuals earning All-Skyline Conference accolades. In Men’s Volleyball, Tyler Cucullu ’17 was named First Team All-Conference after leading the league and the country in service aces per set. Teammate Jacob Johnson ’17 was named Second Team All-Conference and the two newcomers led the Dolphins to the league tournament. The Baseball team made its first appearance in the league tournament for the first time since 2012 and had senior Josh Sharpe ’14 named Second Team All-Conference. Earlier in the season he became the Dolphins all-time leader in games played. Brian Rush ’14 matched the program’s single season record for wins by a pitcher with five, posting a 5-3 mark for the Dolphins. Laura Carr ’14 and Colleen Walsh ’14 each earned Second Team All-League recognition in Women’s Lacrosse as the Dolphins returned to play in the Skyline Conference Tournament in 2014. Walsh was a Second Team pick for the fourth straight season in 2014. Senior Kyle Kalibat ’14 became the first First Team All-Skyline Conference selection in Men’s Lacrosse program history in 2014 after leading the conference in saves per game. He made at least 20 stops in a game three times for the Dolphins, making 183 saves on the season. The 2014 Softball season was the best on record, as the Dolphins won 28 games and made just their second appearance ever in the Skyline Conference Tournament. The Mount won its first game in the double elimination event, downing Sage 3-1 for its initial win in program history at the tournament. Mackenzie Heizer ’17 was named First Team All-Conference and Pitcher of the Year in Softball after leading the conference in strikeouts and opponent’s batting average. She worked two no-hitters in her first season with the Dolphins, including one in her collegiate debut. She was joined on the First Team by teammate Kathleen Davis ’15, who threw a perfect game against Yeshiva and led the team with 11 wins. Sophomore Danielle Maffei ’16 and freshman Brittany Lee ’17 represented Mount Saint Vincent on the Second Team All-Skyline Conference list. Maffei paced the Dolphins with eight home runs and 34 RBIs, while Lee connected on six home runs and hit .387 as a freshman. In addition, head coach Mark Roldan was named the league’s Coach of the Year.

ATHLETICS

SPRING 2014 11

ATHLETICS 2013-2014

by Michael Doughty

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 1782White Plains, NY

6301 RIVERDALE AVENUE | RIVERDALE, NY 10471

college ofmount saint vincent

college ofmount saint vincent

For more than 100 years, the College of Mount Saint Vincent has enabled students from every background to fulfi ll their destinies. Whether that

dream is to be the fi rst member of your family to graduate from college, or to realize your goal of becoming a doctor, lawyer, scientist, or teacher, the College provides students with the necessary education to combine their

passion with practical skills to realize their dreams.

Help enable the next generation of Mount students to realize their dreams by giving to the Annual Fund today. Visit mountsaintvincent.edu/annualfund.php

to make your secure, tax-deductible online donation.

college of mount saint vincent Help Make Dreams Possible.