Zicklin Students Can Now Concentrate in a Weissman Discipline | |
In a move towards further uniting Baruch College’s two largest schools, and in keeping with President S. David Wu’s recent reflection on the vital importance of the arts and sciences for every educational trajectory, Baruch students who major in a discipline housed by the Zicklin School of Business—whether it be finance, marketing, or real estate—can now complete a liberal arts or sciences concentration at the Weissman School.
This new path for students represents a timely opportunity for them to bring tailor-made combinations of skills onto their resumes and into the workplace.
One such student is Cindy Espinoza Garcia. A native of Ecuador, Garcia is a first-generation college student who intends to become a Marketing major at Zicklin with a concentration in Graphic Communications in Weissman’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts.
“In my senior year of high school, all my friends were applying to college except me; I felt confused and without a purpose,” she said. “I didn't know what career to study or what to do for the rest of my life. I remember telling my family: 'I just want to do something that would allow me to help people, do my best, and leave a unique mark on the world.' By putting these two disciplines together, Garcia feels that she will now be equipped with the skills to bring her purpose to fruition.
With a family background in party planning, Garcia has recently started her own business, Soul and Balloons, which offers bespoke balloon design for events in New York City and the surrounding area.
“When I started my business, I knew I needed a good understanding of the principles of marketing, but I also knew I needed to learn more about design from design experts. I got really excited when I heard about the new concentration option. Putting all these different ideas together is really going to help me create a business that feels like mine," Garcia said.
Strictly speaking, Baruch has never encouraged its students to focus solely on the humanities or business education. The College’s curriculum has long recognized that for the business innovators of the future, as well its creatives and communicators, leaders that the College is now famous for producing, training in the arts and sciences provides the very bedrock from which they spring. Because of this, every student at Baruch, regardless of their eventual major is educated in Weissman classrooms.
Now with an official option for Zicklin students to add a Weissman Concentration, the College takes a more forward-facing stance, preparing students to think critically, creatively, and readying them to seize ahold of newly emerging career paths—many of which they themselves will create.
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MFE Co-Director Dan Stefanica Receives Distinguished Faculty Award at Bernard Baruch Dinner | (L to R): Dan Stefanica, Abide Kakou (Baruch MFE 2005), Warren B. Gordon (Co-Director of MFE) | |
Capping off a remarkable year of wins, records, and firsts, Dan Stefanica, Co-Director of the Master in Financial Engineering Program ever since its inception in 2002, was honored at the 2023 Bernard Baruch Dinner with the Distinguished Faculty Award.
"This was a celebration of our entire Baruch MFE community and its success over 21 years! Having 90 alumni there and 259 alumni from all over the world (Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, India, Singapore, UK, to name a few) who kindly contributed to the financial success of the event was marvelous and showcased the closeness of our alumni community." Stefanica reflected. "It was especially great to see the joy alumni had to see one another after many years, and how they made many new friends there!"
It is no surprise that Stefanica's leadership has led to record-breaking numbers, even for the dinner that honored him. At an event with more than 500 guests, an all-time guest and alumni attendance record, and $1.6 million raised to support the College, Stefanica together with the entire Baruch community, proudly continues their winning streak.
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Meet the Class of '23 Valedictorian, Weissman Student Emanuela Gallo |  | |
Emanuela Gallo, a first-generation college student and member of Macaulay Honors College who will graduate with a degree in Journalism and Political Science, is Baruch College's Valedictorian of the Class of 2023.
Asked about her success, Gallo identifies her interdisciplinary orientation and involvement in Baruch's lively clubs and student organizations. "I would say I have had my feet in two different worlds at Baruch," she said. "On the one hand the legal and political science worlds, and then simultaneously the journalism and literary world. I've had internships in both fields. I've been in both kinds of clubs, and I think having that interdisciplinary approach during my time at Baruch has been really great for my education and my future career goals."
In addition to double majoring, Gallo served as the editor-in-chief of The Ticker, Baruch’s undergraduate student-run and independent newspaper. In this role, she oversaw the editorial direction and production of 25 issues. In previous years, she acted as its news editor and undergraduate student government columnist. She also was active in the Baruch Pre-Law Society, serving as its co-president in her junior year and the director of mentorship in her senior year.
She also won three writing contests by the Harman Writer-In-Residence Program, and Baruch’s 2022 Supporting First Generation College Students Writing & Art Contest. She also received the 2022 Morton Wollman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Law and the 2021 Edyth Becker Scholarship in Creative Writing.
Last year, she was admitted into Fordham Law School’s competitive IDEAL Pipeline Program, completing a 6-week summer pre-law institute, a judicial experience at Kings County Supreme Court, and an LSAT prep course.
When asked if she's planning on taking a break after all she's accomplished, she insists that she's not taking the summer off. She'll be continuing to prepare for the LSAT.
"My intention after graduation is to apply for law school." Gallo said. I'm not sure which field in particular I want to work in, though I have an interest in communications and media law which is a blend of my two interests in journalism and political science, basically dealing with things like copyright and 1st amendment rights."
It's plain for anyone to see. Emanuela Gallo is just getting started.
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Celebrating the Winners of the 2023 WSAS Faculty Excellence Awards | |
At the year's final Weissman Faculty Meeting on May 2, Dean Jessica Lang announced the winners of the 2nd annual Weissman Faculty Excellence Awards.
We'd like to celebrate each of our extraordinary winners.
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Min Xiang (Toby) Gao, Technology Assistant
Winner of The Gary Hentzi Award for Excellence in Staff Contribution and Leadership
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Amanda Becker, Administrative Coordinator
Winner of The Gary Hentzi Award for Excellence in Staff Contribution and Leadership
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Elizabeth Edenberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Winner of The Award for Excellence in Teaching for Full-Time Faculty
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Rebecca Salois, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Winner of The Award for Excellence in Teaching for Part-Time Faculty
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Jonathan Gilmore, Professor of Philosophy
Winner of The Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Activity for Full-Time Faculty
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David Jones, Professor of Political Science
Winner of The Award for Excellence in Institutional Leadership or Service for Full-Time Faculty
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Harold Ramdass, Lecturer of English
Winner of The Award for Excellence in Student or Peer Mentorship for Full-Time Faculty
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A Tribute to Elyse Mendel |  | |
Join us in congratulating Elyse Mendel on her many years of dedicated service to Baruch College and its students. After nearly three decades, Elyse will be officially retiring at the end of June. Elyse began her career at CUNY in 1993 at LaGuardia Community College before moving on to Baruch College in 1999. In 2013, she joined the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences where she has made invaluable contributions to the success of students in our graduate programs.
Elyse's sage advice to students, enthusiastic outreach to employers, and unwavering commitment to our continued development of the Weissman’s Graduate Career Services office have resulted in numerous successful launches for our graduates. As she prepares to embark on a new chapter in her life, we are grateful for her many years of service to Baruch College and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
If you would like to join us in congratulating Elyse and leaving a kudos to celebrate this momentous occasion, please use this link.
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FACULTY NEWS, PUBLICATIONS, AND MEDIA MENTIONS | | |
Eric Mandelbaum Wins Stanton Prize
Associate Professor of Philosophy Eric Mandelbaum has been awarded the prestigious Society for Philosophy and Psychology’s 2023 Stanton Prize.
The prize is given to a young scholar who has made significant contributions to interdisciplinary research and been active in the Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
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Elisabeth Gareis' Award-Winning Film 13 Drivers' Licenses to be Screened at Yad Vashem
Professor of Communication Studies Elisabeth Gareis, who served as producer and intercultural and language expert for the short film, 13 Jewish Driver’s Licenses – 13 Jewish Fates, will screen the documentary at Yad Vashem in Israel in July. The film tells the story of thirteen Jewish citizens who were persecuted during the Nazi era in Lichtenfels, Germany, and the discovery of their driver's licenses in 2017.
The film was funded in part by the WSAS Dean's office and made in collaboration with two other CUNY professors, Ryoya Terao, who teaches video production at City Tech, and Vinit Parmar, who teaches film at Brooklyn College.
Read more here.
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Els De Graauw in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Els De Graauw, Associate Professor of Political Science, together with Raffaele Bazurli, has published the open access article “Explaining Variation in City Sanctuary Policies: Insights from American & European Cities,” in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
In the article, the authors compare four immigrant-dense cities—San Francisco, Houston, Barcelona, and Milan—to develop a framework for explaining variation in the types of sanctuary policies adopted there.
Read the article here.
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Steven Swarbrick Unites Psychoanalysis and Early Modern Ecological Poetics | | | |
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In his new book The Environmental Unconscious: Ecological Poetics from Spenser to Milton, Steven Swarbrick, Assistant Professor of English, introduces concepts from psychoanalysis as keys to understanding the force of early modern ecopoetics. Swarbrick urges literary critics and environmental scholars fluent in the new materialism to rethink notions of entanglement, animacy, and consciousness-raising. Ultimately, he offers a provocative challenge to ecocriticism that, under the current regime of fossil capitalism in which everything solid interconnects, a new theory of disconnection is desperately needed.
PRAISE FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL UNCONSCIOUS:
"Situating early modern poetry in conversation with Lucretius and Lacan, The Environmental Unconscious resists conventional critical distinctions between linguistic and materialist turns.... Because early modern poets take the environmental unconscious as the model for human desire (rather than vice versa), Swarbrick shows, this body of work offers an overlooked yet urgent mode of theorizing life beyond the human." — Melissa E. Sanchez, University of Pennsylvania
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Gisele Regatao's Podcast Nominated for Webby Award
The fiction podcast, "A Hit Dog Will Holler," which was produced and directed by Assistant Professor of Journalism Gisele Regatao has been nominated for a Webby Award.
Look for an upcoming feature on the podcast in the next Weissman Newsletter and listen in here!
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George Gonzalez at the Annual Implicit Religion Conference
On May 19th, George Gonzalez, Assistant Professor in Sociology and Anthropology, will be delivering the 2023 Edward Bailey Keynote Address at the 45th Annual Implicit Religion Conference in the U.K.
His talk is entitled "Prismatic Religion: The Stop Shopping Church & the Post Religious Critique of Post-Secular Capitalism."
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Howard Sherman in The Washington Post
Baruch Performing Arts Center's Managing Director and advocate for uncensored high school theatre, Howard Sherman, is quoted in a recent article in The Washington Post.
He observes that while this kind of censorship is nothing new, schools have most recently taken aim especially at plays and musicals with LGBTQ content.
Read "The Culture War’s Latest Casualty: The High School Musical" here.
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MICHAEL L. BLACK, 1940 - 2023 | | |
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Professor Michael Black was held in the estimation of his colleagues as a touchstone of integrity and far-sighted vision. His dedication to rigorous scholarship, his enthusiasm for teaching, and his collegial manner combined to make him an admired and well-liked member of the department. Students held him in high respect for his supportive attitude toward them and his maintenance of high academic standards. Professor Black was a man of high culture, deeply knowledgeable not only with respect to his own academic field, but also with respect to associated areas of scholarly inquiry, particularly those touching on French literature and art. He was engaged for a lengthy period of time in a study of the architecture and literary resonances of the Bourges Cathedral. He was always a good friend to his colleagues and a font of knowledge concerning French wines. When he retired years ago for reasons of health, his absence was keenly felt, as it is to this day by those of us who had the honor to know him.
— Harold Brent, Professor Emeritus of English
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Distinguished intellectual, brilliant poet and essayist, outstanding university professor, Lourdes Gil was born in Havana Cuba. She left the island in 1961 as part of the Peter Pan children’s exodus program.
Gil began to show her passion for writing at an early age. Her talent continued to grow during her years at the Colegio del Apostolado in Cuba and then in high school in the United States of America.
She studied literature at Saint Peter’s College, the Complutense University of Madrid, New York University and Fordham University in New York City.
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Gil co-directed the literary magazines Románica (1975-1982) and Lyra (1987-1990). Her poetry and her essays on Cuban art and literature of the diaspora have been included in numerous magazines and encyclopedias. She is the author of several poetry collections including Neumas (1977), Manuscrito de la niña ausente (1979), Vencido el fuego de las especies (1983), Blanca aldaba preludia (1989), Empieza la ciudad (1993), El cerco de las transfiguraciones (1996), and Anima Vagula (214). In addition, the book of essays Journey through the temperate zones: Cuban art and literature of the extra insularity (forthcoming), and several collections of poetry and essays, still unpublished.
For more than two decades she served as a professor of Latin American history and culture at the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences. In recognition for her long and distinguished academic career, a scholarship in her name was established in 2020.
Lourdes Gil’s invaluable contributions to Baruch, to the Department of Black and Latino Studies, to the Feit Interdisciplinary Seminars, to the Myrna Chase Seminars for Freshman, to the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, and her mentorship to the Latin American Student Clubs and Community at large are deep and forever lasting.
Her passing is a profound loss for the Latin American community and particularly for Baruch College students. Lourdes Gil has been vital to the study of Latin American culture at Baruch College, and she will be remembered as an inspiration for students and faculty alike.
—Hedwig Feit, Professor of Latin American and Latino History
Rain of Stones
by
Lourdes Gil
Those who are no longer with me: those of blood and spirit.
They talk to each other, whisper.
They feverishly unleash my wrongs, reconcile me with the plagues and the Elysium.
They trace paths that I have never traveled, the hidden paths where the sun does not reach.
Secret paths of telluric signals, imposing trees, sound majesties.
The dawn sky reddens,
I recover the laughter,
the silence,
the divine grace.
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The Lourdes Gil Scholarship offers a full scholarship to a student with a demonstrated interest in Latin America. It was established in 2020 by Hedy Feit in honor of Lourdes’s retirement from Baruch College.
To make a gift online, visit https://www.alumni.baruch.cuny.edu/donate and indicate “Lourdes Gil Scholarship” in the notes.
To make a gift by check:
Baruch College Fund/Lourdes Gil Scholarship
Baruch College
One Bernard Baruch Way
Box A1603
New York, NY 10010
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MISHKIN GALLERY'S CAMPUS ART TOUR PROFILED IN THE TICKER | | | |
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Last week Mishkin Gallery offered students a reminder that Baruch's campus is full of often unnoticed, amazing works of art.
The tour was organized by Dasom Sohn, Mishkin Gallery's Nagelberg Graduate Fellow, and Carlos Nazario, Mishkin Gallery's Curatorial and Collections Assistant.
The tour was beautifully profiled by Baruch's Ticker.
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Weissman Grad Represents New York City Globally in NYC Mayor's Office
When Aissata M. B. Camara (’11) came to New York City from the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, it was supposed to be a temporary thing. She was 13 years old, undocumented, and didn’t speak a word of English. Over the course of the next 22 years, she would become a vital part of the fabric of New York City political life.
She began to learn the language, culling a few phrases from children’s shows like Blue’s Clues and Dora the Explorer, and eventually earned her U.S. citizenship and two college degrees. She has since gone on to become the deputy commissioner for policy and strategic initiatives in the NYC Mayor’s Office for International Affairs—making her one of the youngest deputy commissioners in the city’s history and the first Black African woman to hold that position in the office.
Camara cites her experience as an undergraduate at Baruch’s Weissman School of Arts and Sciences as a crucial moment in her development.
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Entanglement: Spring 2023 New Media Arts Capstone Exhibition. May 5, 2023 – September 1, 2023 The Spring 2023 New Media Arts Capstone class exhibition Entanglement will be on view on Floors 2 and 3 of the New Media Artspace. They will be holding an opening event for their exhibition on May 5, 2023 4:00–6:00 p.m. ET. in the New Media Artspace and room 415 in the Library and Information Building. Members of the public who wish to attend may RSVP to newmediaartspace@gmail.com.
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After Hours, Our doors stay open late to celebrate the current exhibition. Light refreshments will be served and artist Aura Rosenberg will be in attendance. May 8, 6-8pm
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The Learning Community Welcome Luncheon - Tuesday, May 9 from 12:30-2pm in VC 8-210. This informal welcome to the 2023 Learning Community program is an opportunity to meet fellow LC faculty and your Associate Dean's Office liaisons, and to share preliminary ideas and resources.
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Research & Creative Inquiry Expo 2023 -The Research & Creative Inquiry Expo aims to promote undergraduate research and creative expressions at Baruch College by allowing students to showcase their work and knowledge beyond their classrooms. Undergraduate students in all majors may submit either an individual or group project. The Expo will take place on Thursday, May 11. For more information, please visit the Expo website.
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