Having trouble viewing this email?  Click here
July 2018
From my desk: News from President Riordan
Seven Summer Stories: Adelphi University Students and Professors Shine in July
From oyster reefs to theater stages, and from chem labs to quarries in Montana, many Adelphi students and professors are having a summer they won't soon forget. The students profiled in my letter this month are having extraordinary experiences that could shape the rest of their lives. For them, our personalized approach to learning doesn't stop at the end of the term. In fact, it picks up speed.

Jennefer Maldonado was told when she was younger not to bother studying math or computer science. Thankfully, she refused to listen. Now a junior studying both subjects at Adelphi, she has been accepted into a prestigious National Science Foundation program—and this summer she is studying cryptography. My advice to Jennefer: Keep following your heart!

Our Jaggar Community Fellows are working with 44 different nonprofits around Long Island and New York City, from public parks to urban centers. Perhaps most surprising is Alexa Annese, whose internship is with the American Tap Dance Foundation, where she is helping to plan Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival. Read below about how a deep dive into tap is changing Alexa's life, and how being personally mentored by the foundation's co-founder is pushing her to see this uniquely American art form in a new way.

As a fan of Long Island Bluepoint oysters, I am proud of our students who are working alongside Dr. Aaren Freeman, an Adelphi marine ecologist and the graduate coordinator of Adelphi's environmental studies program . He and his students are working this summer to build our oyster population back to its historical numbers. These students are learning that you don't have to travel across the world to be an environmentalist—they are learning how to save a species here at home.

Adelphi students interested in acting and stage design are getting the rare chance to view off-Broadway plays before they go live, as the New York Theatre Workshop creates and refines its productions on our Garden City campus' award-winning Performing Arts Center stages. To see a work of art in progress is a tremendous hands-on learning experience for theater students. Also, I am so proud that the Alice Hoffman Young Writers Retreat—here for the 14th straight summer—will be helping student writers create their own works and find lives as successful writers.
Other Adelphi students are looking very far into the past—working with Dr. Michael D'Emic, assistant professor of biology, at his yearly dinosaur dig in Montana and Wyoming. My favorite student quote this month is the one summed up by this photo (right). Student Tom Pascucci tried to describe the feeling of being "the first person to view something that has been buried for 150 million years!" Not surprisingly, he couldn't.

I will add that I am also proud of and impressed by Adelphi students who choose to spend their summer working or taking a course during our summer session to stay on track in their studies. All our Panthers are inspiring, and I hope all our summer stories leave you equally inspired.
Christine M. Riordan, Ph.D.
President
Willpower

Charlotte Champigny ’18 has never let the strokes she suffered as a child slow her down. This May, thanks to the Bridges to Adelphi program, help from physical and speech therapists on campus, and her own indomitable spirit, she graduated from Adelphi with a degree in biology. Be inspired.
The secret of smarter science teaching
Can a new teaching method increase learning and boost graduation rates among STEM students? There's proof it can. This summer, Adelphi will be hosting a conference for our faculty, and for other New York universities, about how this innovative method works.
Drama arrives after classes end. Every summer, the theater world comes to Adelphi when New York Theatre Workshop arrives for its two-week residency. It's an opportunity for promising performing arts students to learn from the pros.
Overcoming obstacles, a science student stands out. Junior Jennefer Maldonado was told in high school to forget about studying math or computer science in college. This summer, she's doing original cryptography research as part of a prestigious National Science Foundation program.
A glimpse of the writing life. Just as she's done every summer since 2005, the best-selling novelist Alice Hoffman ’73 is returning to campus to host a writers retreat for high school students who'd like to follow in her footsteps.
A summer delving deep into the past. For the third straight year, students are carefully poking around in the Jurassic world on a dinosaur dig with Michael D'Emic, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology.
Finding a way to dance through life. Jaggar Community Fellowships give top students the chance to find their career path through paid summer internships. Junior Alexa Annese is using hers to see how she can build a life based on her passion for dance.
Paving the way for an oyster revival. Oysters were once so plentiful in New York that their shells were used to surface roads, but that was before their Long Island breeding grounds disappeared. Biology grad student Laura Fallon is spending her summer trying to restore mollusks to local waters.
Athletics Update
Bowling Lessons on the Hard Courts
Adelphi athletes aren't on campus at the moment, but they're staying busy studying abroad, working at internships or playing in summer leagues. Some are even applying their skills to new sports. For instance, members of our bowling team traveled to Queens, New York, to help prepare ball people for the new procedures at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. The on-court helpers used to toss out-of-play balls to one another, but starting this year, they will roll them. Sophomore Skylar McGarrity and junior Olivia Lopera were happy to share pointers with the hopefuls at the Ballperson Tryout as well as with a television news reporter and thousands of viewers who saw the segment on the June 21 ABC 7 Eyewitness News telecast.
Alumni Making a Difference
2018 President's Gala Honorees
Each year at the Adelphi University President's Gala, I shine a spotlight on alumni who stand out among all the incredibly generous and involved members of the Adelphi community. This year, it was my honor to recognize the philanthropic leadership of the lifelong friends who call themselves the Adelphi 7 Sisters and the distinguished service of Nicholas Papain ’74, J.D. I urge you to click on these links to read their inspiring stories.
Momentum Tour 2018–2019
Make plans to join me this coming school year when my Momentum Tour: Changing Lives, the Next Chapter: Sharing Our Stories comes to your area. I'll be making stops in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Naples, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and, of course, across the New York area. Stay tuned for the dates as well as news about other cities added to the tour.