Study Abroad at Adelphi University, NY: News From President Riordan

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June 2018

From my desk: News from President Riordan

A passport to transforming lives: Adelphi students make the world their classroom

You may already know that Adelphi professors know their students by name—that's part of what makes Adelphi unique . What you might not know is that they also sometimes pack a suitcase, grab their passports and travel right alongside them—all over the world.

The study abroad program at Adelphi can make a student’s journey here so special. During January Intersession, spring break and over the summer, you’ll find faculty and students heading off to truly enhance the studies they tackle in the classroom in New York. Students earn credits while they trade in classrooms for caves in northern India, huts in Costa Rica, theater seats in London or chemistry labs in Poland.

While students and their professors are traveling to all points of the globe this summer, we are already setting up programs for the upcoming January Intersession. With recent news of a pilot whale dying after ingesting 17 pounds of plastic waste, perhaps our Marine Ecology students will discover ways to change the course of such tragedies while they study in Belize. I am also thrilled to announce Adelphi students will be visiting the fascinating country of Botswana to study culture, health and healing with its people. And through our Robert B. Willumstad School of Business , young entrepreneurs will travel to India to observe management styles and visit start-ups and tech companies in one of the world’s emerging global markets.

All told, throughout the year, professors and students will be visiting 15 different countries to learn, explore and delve into the topics that interest them most.

I have to mention here that sometimes our field trips only seem like they are in a foreign country—especially if you are from Long Island. Dr. Michael D’Emic, assistant professor of biology, heads west each summer to dig for dinosaur bones , bringing Adelphi students with him to shovel, sift and try to put together the history of dinosaurs and early mammals. This summer, they will be just east of Yellowstone National Park, digging in three quarries in three different geologic layers, looking for fossils. According to Dr. D’Emic, “The greatest moments are when a student makes a real discovery—either a fossil nobody has ever seen before or an idea nobody has ever thought of before.” That’s what we call changing lives at Adelphi.

Last week, our associate professor of anthropology Dr. Brian Wygal’s mom sent him a crossword puzzle that she had clipped from a newspaper that contained this clue: "A seven-letter word for a Long Island university ." Of course, she aced the puzzle! But this just highlights the fact that Adelphi is not really just a Long Island university anymore. Our students and our faculty are everywhere else in the world, too.

Please enjoy these stories of how our students’ lives were changed by studying abroad with Adelphi. From New Zealand to Japan, they prove that the writer Henry Miller was right when he said, “One's destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things.”

Christine M. Riordan, Ph.D.

President

A Life Transformed at Adelphi: Chitralekha's Story

A new alumna, ready for the world stage

Chitralekha Kar '18, a Levermore Global Scholar who just received her degree in accounting, wants to help change the world. At Adelphi, she learned that doing so begins with changing our own lives and actions. Meet her.

A personal approach to thinking globally: Levermore Global Scholars

Study abroad is just one aspect of Adelphi's Levermore Global Scholars program, a learning community for top students who are committed to understanding and solving problems that affect people everywhere.

» Read about it

A change of course Down Under. Senior Carolina Medina left for a semester of study in Australia thinking she would major in organizational psychology. By the time she returned, she thought otherwise.

» Learn why

Getting an education teaching art in Kosovo. Senior Brian Testa welcomes life-changing experiences, and he got one when he joined a study abroad program that took him to a town still recovering from civil war.

» Get his story

Studying in Japan opened new vistas for Andrew Fuchs, a junior who'd always lived at home and had never been abroad. Now he's considering returning there after graduation to teach English.

» Meet him

Teaching and teatime in New Zealand . When graduate student Stephanie Acierno spent a semester abroad as a student teacher, she discovered a different, more relaxed style of schooling.

» Find out about it

Nursing student does the impossible—or at least what seems impossible, given the academic demands she and other nursing students face. The student, Julia Abey, spent a semester abroad, studying in South Korea.

» Learn more

Making it his business to study abroad. Matthew Petrouskie, an Honors College student interested in international business law, has traveled to Europe twice, once on a short faculty-led trip to Paris, then for a semester in Spain.

» Tag along

Athletics Update

Adelphi Standouts Earn Top Honors

With grades in and the semester complete, it's now awards season, when the accolades roll in for our student-athletes. Brenna Martini, a senior softball star, earned her third All-American honor in four years and was named the Northeast-10 Conference Woman of the Year. That distinction puts her in the running for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. Seniors Michael Coffey (men's basketball) and Rebecca Fakas (women's tennis) earned inclusion on the NE10 Scholar Athlete of the Year lists, with Fakas ranking in the conference's top 3. Our last competitor of the year is Victoria Major, a four-time NE10 individual champion in the high jump, who made her fourth trip to the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships, this year in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Alumni Making a Difference

This month, we celebrate not one alum, but more than 1,700 of them. Congratulations, Class of 2018!

As our graduates head out into the world to begin their careers or go on to graduate school, I wish all our graduates success, happiness and a lifetime of good memories about their time at Adelphi. Their joy on graduation day was infectious! If you weren't in the audience that day, watch it here .

The 18th Annual President's Gala

Join me for one of the most exciting events of the year. Celebrate Adelphi with alumni, students and their families, faculty members and administrators, and friends of the University at my President's Gala on Saturday, June 16 . It's a highly entertaining evening supporting student scholarships and helping endow the new President's Student Success Scholarship , assistance for juniors and seniors facing financial setbacks. To learn more, click here .