QView #192 | November 19

A reception celebrating the new Ally Bridge Endowed Deanship—supported by Frank Fan Yu ’94—was on the agenda for the Queens College Business School on Tuesday, November 12. Administrators, faculty, alumni, students, and friends of QC participated in the festivities.

Frank Fan Yu took one photo with President Frank H. Wu and students . . .

. . . and another with faculty, staff, and alumni.

President Wu talks business with tennis team member Mariana Ling.

That evening, a delegation from Russia came to the auxiliary gymnasium to learn about CUNY's adaptive sports as a bridge to inclusive education for everyone of all abilities.

QC serves multiple on-campus and off-campus communities. Wednesday, November 13 was particularly busy.

At 9:30 in the morning, the New York Board of Rabbis and the leadership of Hillels at CUNY, SUNY and Long Island private colleges gathered for a discussion of ways to combat antisemitism. The event was led by Executive Vice President Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, who is highly regarded for initiating interfaith partnerships against bigotry.

Slightly later, New York City Department of Education District 29 collaborated with QC’s School of Education to hold a My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper (MBSK) conference in Colden Auditorium. The program, which Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado joined, featured presentations by educational leaders and music and dance performances by students from Queens public schools. (This highlights video captures the excitement of the event.) District 29 in Southeast Queens is the first New York City district to roll out MBSK—an initiative President Barack Obama launched as My Brother’s Keeper—in all its schools.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to change how many of us work. At lunchtime, the Queens College Student Chapter of the Association of Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business sponsored “AI and Leadership Navigating Digital Transformation,” a talk by Alice (Yajing) Chen, a member of the Gen AI 2.0 Core Solution Team at Accenture.

Meanwhile, Political Science faculty analyzed the 2024 elections in a roundtable moved to Kiely Hall 264 to accommodate all the people who wanted to attend.

Early that afternoon, student leaders from multiple faiths broke bread with each other and President Frank H. Wu in the Student Union.

Last but not least, Kappa Gamma, the Queens College chapter of education honor society Kappa Delta Pi, celebrated its 60th anniversary and the induction of new members with a gathering and a ceremony in LeFrak Concert Hall.

Colleagues and students threw a party on November 14 for Joan Nix (Economics) ’79, who has been promoted to full professor. Nix has taught at QC for more than 30 years, including five years as an adjunct while she pursued her doctorate at New York University. Among other distinctions, in 2007 she received a President’s Grant for Innovative Teaching Projects for developing a class that used the virtual world Second Life, and in 2013 she received a President’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

TIME 2000, QC’s signature program created by Alice Arzt for preparing mathematics teachers, held its 21st annual Celebrating Mathematics Teaching conference on Friday, November 15, in LeFrak Concert Hall. New York-area teachers—many of them TIME 2000 alumni—and their students attended the free conference, which featured innovative workshops and a keynote by Jim Matthews, a computer science professor at Siena College and an inaugural inductee into the New York State Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame (2008).

Kupferberg Center for the Arts marked the tenth anniversary of the CUNY Dance Initiative on November 16 with a double-bill program showcasing two alumni of the university-wide residency: Los Ricos, featuring flamenco artists Sonia Olla and Ismael Fernández, and Sekou McMiller, an Afro-Latin dance collective. In the days leading up to the performance, Sekou McMiller conducted an Afro-Latin workshop in the QC Dance Studio for more than 40 QC students. 

Lucille Kyvallos, Former QC Women’s Basketball Coach, Elected to Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

Lucille Kyvallos, former Queens College women’s basketball coach and a pioneer of the sport, has been selected to the 2025 Class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kyvallos will take part in the 2025 induction ceremony, which will be held on June 14, 2025, at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Kyvallos had unprecedented success as the head coach of the Queens College women’s basketball team for 12 seasons, beginning in 1968. In addition to her success on the court, she was at the forefront of the Title IX movement and positioned women’s basketball on the national sports media scene. 

In just a few years at QC, Kyvallos turned the Knights women’s basketball team into one of the top programs in the country. During her tenure, the team had a record of 239-77 and was ranked among the top ten nationwide from 1972­ to 1978. In 1973, Queens College hosted the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Championship Tournament in front of packed FitzGerald Gymnasium. QC lost in the finals to Immaculata University, but the popularity of the event got the attention of many in New York City, including Madison Square Garden (MSG).

Two years later, on February 22, 1975, MSG invited Queens College and Immaculata to play the first-ever collegiate women’s basketball game at the world’s most famous arena. Nearly 12,000 fans came out to witness this historic event, with Immaculata edging Queens in a thrilling contest.

In 1977, Kyvallos was selected as the head coach of the United States women’s basketball team at the World University Games in Sofia, Bulgaria. She led USA to a silver medal, losing only to the Soviet Union in the gold medal game. Kyvallos also served on the United States Olympic Committee from 1969 to 1972 and from 1974 to 1976.

Kyvallos’ 1972–73 QC squad was the first women’s basketball team to be inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame. She was individually inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame, the West Chester College Hall of Fame—she coached at West Chester before QC—and the Queens College Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2017, Queens College renamed its basketball court Lucille Kyvallos Court in her honor. 

The other members of the Class of 2025 are Alana Beard, Sue Bird, Mark Campbell, Danielle Donehew, Sylvia Fowles, and Cappie Pondexter. For more information on the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025, visit www.wbhof.com.

Moving Images

With the help of QC student interns, the Office of Communications and Marketing produces multiple videos; topics have included the college’s history, its contributions to the world, and cutting-edge research by faculty. Now these videos and others can be found on the college website at Videos Page - Communications & Marketing.

Of course, American Museum of Natural History President Sean Decatur’s tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the Louis Armstrong Center and meetings with QC faculty and staff earlier this month was recorded on video. To share his experience, watch A Visit with American Museum of Natural History President Sean Decatur. New partnerships were explored during this first-time visit.

Remembering Giving Tuesday

The Tuesday following Thanksgiving is Giving Tuesday, a “global generosity movement” launched in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations. People participate by supporting a cherished cause or volunteering their time.

This year, in connection with the university campaign CUNYTUESDAY, Queens College is asking for donations to the Knights Table Food Pantry. Stocked with canned and packaged items, the pantry works to reduce food insecurity among QC and CUNY students. The facility also offers toiletries and sanitary supplies. In October, the Knights Table took on the challenge of helping students dress for success: They can visit the Knights Armory to find something to wear to job interviews. (All Knights Table services are free to qualified students.)

Giving Tuesday will fall on December 3.

Advancing Linguistic Justice

The New York Neuropsychology Group NYNG, in collaboration with QC and the CUNY Graduate Center, will present the symposium Bridging Neuropsychology and Language Equity: Evolving Our Practices, on December 3, 5 to 8 pm, over Zoom. The symposium has four goals: to enhance language justice and cultural competence; to promote best practices in interpreter use; to foster collaborative partnerships; and to discuss integration of interpreter training into clinical education.

To attend, register at NYNG - Language Justice Symposium - BRIDGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE EQUITY: EVOLVING OUR PRACTICES. Attendees are eligible for one continuing education credit. The price is $15 for NYNG members, $30 for non-members, and free for those who are not seeking CE credits. 

The Triple Impact of QC's Peer Ambassador Program

The Queens College Peer Ambassador Program is helping new QC students reach their academic goals all while providing valuable experience to mentors and much-needed support for the college.

The Peer Ambassador Program, which falls under the direction of the Academic Advising Center, trains excelling QC students to provide individual support to new freshmen and transfer students to help them thrive academically and socially during their first year at Queens College. Primarily consisting of upper classmen and graduate students, Peer Ambassadors offer in-person and virtual office hours and assist new students in matters such as managing online systems like CUNYfirst, DegreeWorks, and QC Navigate; registration, including adding/dropping classes, course selections, and deadlines; and providing information about available campus resources.

Peer ambassadors help the college close the advising gap and stay aligned with the QC in 4 program, which empowers incoming freshmen to graduate within four years. The program gives freshmen and transfers, who often need navigational support, extra assistance during their first year at QC.

“Peer ambassadors assist the college by creating another level of support for students and professional development for themselves,” explained Laura Silverman, director of the Academic Advising Center. “We call it a triple impact. The college benefits, the students receive benefits, and the mentors benefit as well.”

Preparing Peers 

Peer ambassadors are thoroughly vetted before being hired and receive more than 70 hours of professional training in preparation for the role from QC’s partner, College Access: Research & Action (CARA) and their College Allies program, which works with colleges and high schools across the country to address retention for first-generation, low-income, and students of color by positioning trained students to support their peers in applying to and persisting through college.

In return, peer ambassadors receive valuable work experience and are compensated for their time. Most students who are peer ambassadors are in related majors such as psychology, sociology, and education, which helps prepare them for their future careers.

“It’s really nice to be able to offer our mentors this opportunity for professional development but also minimize financial concerns,” added Silverman. “In the past, when it was on a volunteer basis, it was very challenging, especially when our students need to work or have other responsibilities.”

The college is already seeing positive results. 90 percent of the 1,653 freshman students served by peer mentors in Fall 2023 were retained into the Spring 2024 semester. Among the 316 transfer students in Fall 2023 who participated in the program, 82 percent enrolled in Spring 2024 and 60 percent either declared a major, a minor, or completed the required prerequisite courses needed to apply to their field of choice.

The Peer Ambassador Program was born in the Fall of 2021 and evolved from a small program called QC ADAPTS (Academic Development Program for Transfer Students) which supports undeclared new transfer students’ transition to a field of study within their first academic year. Based off the success of the program, the Academic Advising Center at Queens College was approached by CUNY Central to create a similar support program for incoming freshmen.

Supportive Sponsors

The Peer Ambassador Program is made possible by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, the Heckscher Foundation for Children, and the Gray Foundation.

CARA is also preparing a research study on QC’s peer advising program, which CARA sees as a model for similar programs at other schools. The case study indicates the need for more advising on campuses, demonstrates how the peer-to-peer approach is effective for both mentor and mentee, and shows how to institutionalize a program like this at scale.

“The goal of the project writ large is to expand advising capacity and high-quality internship opportunities at under-resourced colleges,” explained Lori Chajet, co-executive director of CARA. “At the campus level, the goal is to expand the capacity to meet the needs of students. And at a systems level, it is to create a template to do it. For the larger field, CARA hopes to take our work from CUNY and bring it to other places.”

The Academic Advising Center has a shiny new office space for the peer ambassadors to work, which opened this past August. Located in Kiely Hall 226, it is spacious enough to accommodate the 16 freshman and six transfer peer ambassadors as well as the peer coordinators, supervisor, and students they assist. The office hours are Monday–Thursday, 10 am–4 pm and no appointment is necessary.

For additional information on the Peer Advising Program, visit their website or email aacpeers@qc.cuny.edu.

Cristina Di Meo and Olivia Tcholakian (both of Experiential Education) and Ashlee Sinnerine ’27 presented “Assessing Career Competencies in a Nonprofit Internship Program” at the November 14 NACE 2024 Competency Symposium. Their session ​highlighted the use of the NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) career competency assessment tool in the QC Service Corps internship program. Ashlee, a program participant, is a Science Explainer intern at the New York Hall of Science . . . . Zadia M. Feliciano (Economics) has been elected president of the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE) . “It is a big honor for me, and I look forward to serving ASHE and representing Queens College with distinction,” says Feliciano . . . . Gregory O’Mullan (SEES) reports that his lab group is collaborating with counterparts at Columbia University on water quality research, one of 2024 Funded Projects with the U.S. Coastal Research Program/U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Undergraduates will have the opportunity to participate in the work . . . . President Frank H. Wu delivered the keynote at the ACP MetroCon in Dallas on November 16. The ACP Foundation, formerly known as the Association of Chinese Professionals, is a nonprofit organization with 1,200 members from Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and the United States . . . .

QC students participating in U-RISE presented posters at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in Pittsburgh last weekend. Three students in the QC delegation—Diya Sharma, Neli Kotlyarova, and Labiba Aziz—won awards for best poster within their discipline. Graduate student Vaneeza Kausar also presented a poster; she received a travel award to attend the ABRCMS . . . .

Diya Sharma

Neli Kotlyarova

Labiba Aziz

The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute has just published, in its Studies in Italian Americana series, The Italian Immigrant Experience: Between Black and White, an anthology of articles resulting from the 2022 symposium of the same title convened at Tulane University in New Orleans.