Macaulay Connections

With tales of her humble origins, New York Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch inspired a roomful of Macaulay Honors College students, almunae, and friends of Macaulay at a networking dinner during Women's History Month in March. The students, representing each of the seven senior colleges that are part of the Macaulay program, did some inspiring of their own as they introduced themselves, describing pivotal experiences and opportunities at Macaulay Honors College and speaking about their own rise to academic excellence.

Merryl H. Tisch, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, at Macaulay Women's Forum March 23.

Jung Yeon (Christina) Lee '10 (City) listens to Meryl Tisch's words of encouragement.

Dean Ann Kirschner

Linda Macaulay addresses students, alums, friends of Macaulay at the Women's Forum.

Olga Barskaya '10 (Baruch) introduces herself.

Congratulations to Adina Leon Benitez (Queens '05) and Camilo Benitez on the birth of a baby boy.

Christopher Figueroa is the owner of Chris Fig Productions, a full-service video production company in New York City, which specializes in event/wedding documentaries, shorts films, and commercials. The company was founded in 2005 while he was a junior at Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College and to date his company has grossed over $150,000 in revenue.

In 2006, he graduated from Macaulay with a BA in Film Production and in 2008, he completed his graduate studies at The City College of New York with a MFA in Media Arts Production. Currently, he is in his second year as a Van Lier Fellow at Bronxnet Television at Lehman College where he serves as a news reporter, videographer, and editor. In addition, his company now has offices in Larchmont, NY and New York, NY. You can find Christopher online at http://www.chrisfig.com

Wedding Video by Chris Fig

News Report by Chris Fig

Documentary Film by Chris Fig

Recently, about a dozen Macaulay alumni in the education sector have come together to explore the creation of an alumni education affinity group. Representing educators in the private and public schools, from early childhood through high school, classroom teachers, administrators and others in the teaching and curricular fields, the group aims to harness the resources and experiences of its members and offer opportunities to share, learn, network and grow.

Inspired by Macaulay’s mission to prepare outstanding future leaders to solve the social, economic, cultural, and scientific challenges of New York City and the world, the alumni education group, the brainchild of Russel M. Neiss (Queens), hopes to provide its members with the tools, resources and connections to help them in turn provide quality educational opportunities to students across New York City, the state, and the world.

Russel Neiss is currently the Elementary and Middle School Librarian for the Rodeph Sholom Day School in New York City and a Co-Founder and Coding Monkey (Lead Coder) for MediaMidrash.org , an online Jewish educational platform linking multimedia content to innovative curricula. He has previously worked in the rare book room of the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as a traveling Jewish educator in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana with the Institute of Southern Jewish Life. He received his Master of Library Science degree with a specialization in digitization and information technologies from Queens College, and his Bachelor's degree in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies from CUNY's Macaulay Honors College at Queens College. He was the receipient of the Senior Thesis Award and the Chancellor's Community Service Award, and was the president of the CUNY Honors College Student Council (now Macaulay Scholars Council). He is currently matriculated in Brooklyn College's School of Education, pursuing a MSEd in school leadership, which will lead to certification as a School Building Leader (Principal) and School District Leader (Superintendent).

Russel has also studied Yiddish with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, and at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute in Lithuania. A recipient of the Association of Jewish Libraries Scholarship Award, Russel is especially interested in the intersection of technology and Jewish education, and is committed to helping individuals access Jewish resources and promoting Jewish literacy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Rori Picker Neiss, a consultant in interfaith dialogue.

At the Senior Scholars Dinner on February 25, Virginia Slaughter was honored for her leadership in public higher education and her efforts as a longstanding champion of honors education. Her commitment to identifying, inspiring, and supporting the aspirations of undergraduate intellectual laders has profoundly shaped honors education at CUNY, and continues to influence its ongoing evolution.

Ms. Slaughter was presented with a book of tributes from some of the Macaulay students she has helped over the years. Ryan Merola ’07 (Brooklyn) introduced her at the event with these heartfelt remarks.

Introductory Remarks for Ms. Virginia Slaughter
Macaulay Honors College Reception

By Ryan Merola ’07 (Brooklyn)
February 25, 2010

I am very happy to introduce tonight’s guest-of-honor, Ms. Virginia Slaughter.  For alums of the Horace W. Goldsmith Scholars Program and Macaulay staff, Ms. Slaughter is known simply and affectionately as Ginny Slaughter – a generous supporter of the Honors College, an advisor to the Goldsmith Scholars, and, depending on your answers and attitude during the Goldsmith interview, a very tough interviewer.

I think it’s fair to say most of us who are Goldsmith Scholars don’t often recognize the full extent of Ginny Slaughter’s work on our behalf.  We know well the tangibles of the Goldsmith Scholars Program – a month of workshops to make us better writers and thinkers when it comes to fellowship applications, seminars during the academic year at cultural and historic venues across the City, and dinners or other events that are done to bring us closer together as Goldsmith Scholars.

The other tangible that I am sure we are all familiar with comes in a corporeal form, and he’s sitting with us tonight – that of Michael Lamb, the Goldsmith Fellowship advisor.  Ginny Slaughter’s award from the Horace W. Goldsmith foundation guarantees each of us the chance to work and learn closely with this dynamic, devoted, and out-of-the-box thinker.  I can tell you that Mike’s help, and the help of his predecessors like Patricia Duffet and Ken Estey, were integral to the success I’ve had with fellowship competitions and the application process or graduate programs.  We’re incredibly lucky that Ginny Slaughter’s support means we are able to do more than simply turn to Mike for advice and assistance, but rather that Mike actively engages us in our college and post-college pursuits.

These, again, are the obvious benefits of being a Goldsmith Scholar, and these are all things we know well and take advantage of.  But what I just mentioned is by no means the full picture of what we get as Goldsmith Scholars from Ginny Slaughter – we also get her time and efforts on our behalf, much of it behind-the-scenes, to ensure that after our winter workshops, we have what we need to be successful and are taking advantage of the opportunities before us as University Scholars.

Ms. Slaughter is constantly in contact with Macaulay staff to find out about how we as Scholars are doing in our studies and beyond.  This alone is an action wholly unnecessary for a representative of a philanthropic organization to engage in, but she does this because she is a believer in the Honors College and what we, its students and alums, can accomplish.  Ginny Slaughter comes to the winter workshops so that she can put more than a face to a name, but to better know who we are and in whose future she has invested.  And Ginny has pushed for Goldsmith activities year round because she values the community aspect of the Goldsmith Scholars program – she knows we learn a great deal, and sometimes best, when we are collaborating with our peers who have similar interests and goals.

Ginny Slaughter has been a CUNY supporter for some time and we’re fortunate that the Honors College not only came around when it did for our own educations, but because it connected us to her.  At Macaulay, we are fortunate to be the beneficiaries of the generous support of many grants and foundations, but it’s one thing to receive financial support; it’s quite another for the face of that foundation to give personally of herself and her time.  To that, the Goldsmith Scholars are fortunate that we can call you, Ms. Slaughter, our friend and supporter.

Without a doubt, we are fortunate to count ourselves among those for whom Ginny Slaughter cares and encourages.  We are a better institution because of your efforts, and we owe you our gratitude.  With that, please join me in thanking Ms. Slaughter for her continued commitment to the Macaulay Honors College.

Ryan Merola has continued his award-winning ways since graduating from the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College in 2007.

The high-achieving and much-honored Merola, a third-generation Brooklyn College student who pursued a double major in political science and philosophy, was recently named one of nine scholars chosen for the 2011 class of Mitchell Scholars, named in honor of former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who negotiated the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement between nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland.

Mitchell Scholar Ryan Merola '07 (Brooklyn)

As a Mitchell Scholar, Merola will focus on the study of violence, terrorism and security at Queen’s University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland. He noted that he has a personal interest in Irish affairs because his maternal grandparents came to New York from Ireland in the 1950s, shortly before his mother was born.

"I still have not processed it yet," Merola says. "I’m overjoyed by the honor. I’ve never studied abroad before, and I’m awed by the opportunity to do so. But it really hasn’t sunk in."

Merola is an analyst with the New York City Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, where he has served since he was awarded a New York City Urban Fellowship in 2007. The previous year he won a prestigious Truman Scholarship, worth $30,000 toward a graduate degree in public service. He also was selected to Phi Beta Kappa.

His ultimate goal is to attend law school with the aim of becoming a prosecutor.

Before joining the NYPD Merola was an aide in New York State’s 10th Congressional District office under Rep. Edolphus Towns, handling immigration and housing cases and serving as the congressman’s representative in several neighborhoods of the district.

During his time at Brooklyn College, Merola focused on New York City, with an emphasis on the operations of the city’s government and politics. He interned in various government offices, including the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, and volunteered in several local political clubs while studying urban policy and New York City history, conducting independent studies on the political debate surrounding the public references to revise the city charter, and researching the changing nature of First Amendment rights in New York City in the wake of 9/11.

“Macaulay prepares its students for leadership positions in the greatest city in the world by giving a strong institutional knowledge of New York—and makes them responsible for its future by giving them the tools to navigate the many different sectors of industry and culture.” That’s Dan Allen’s view of the value of the Macaulay Honors Education—and how it serves him today in his professional role.

Dan Allen '08, Hunter

Now the Community Engagement Coordinator for Friends of Thirteen, Inc.  at THIRTEEN, New York’s public television station, Dan connects community groups and institutions to opportunities for collaboration with public media. “While at Macaulay, I chose a more professionally oriented approach to my education, and now I have a network of contacts in the non-profit, arts and culture, and media world. Just knowing the resources available to me has made me a valuable team member—not to mention the in-depth analytical experience I had examining the people, places and institutions across all five boroughs.”

When WNET.ORG President Neal Shapiro asked Dan and Friends of Thirteen to help recruit college students to help produce a local program related to Ken Burns’s epic “The National Parks: Americas Best Idea,” the answer was a resounding "yes!" Dan first turned to Daniel Cowen, a Macaulay Honors Scholar and film student at Hunter College (also profiled in the January 2010 edition of Macaulay Perspectives). Daniel brought along Andres F. Otero from Hunter College, an accomplished documentarian who has freelanced for the NY Daily News and NY Post, and Davi Santos, another Macaulay Scholar who hosts a TV program at Lehman College in the Bronx. Together, they helped produce National Parks: New Yorkers’ Memories, filming many of the interviews in Macaulay 67’s black-box theatre. You can view the film at http://www.thirteen.org/localparks/. Dan’s blog on the project can be found here.

Dan began taking media production courses as early as high school, where he was active in drama and musical productions. He went to Somers High School in Westchester County. He notes, “Unlike many of my colleagues, my family has firmly planted roots in the United States over several generations.” But the interesting diversity in his family background mirrors that of his Macaulay classmates: “My grandmother was the child of Russian Jews and my grandfather was a Georgia native who grew up on a farm with 12 siblings: he met my grandmother during the war and was able to speak more Yiddish than most Jews by the end of his life!”

“Spending so much time around ridiculous overachievers forces you to stay on the top of your game,” he notes. And he certainly did so during is time at Macaulay. He used his Opportunities Fund for study abroad in Chengdu, China (he was a Mandarin minor), and did five different internships during his undergraduate career: at WNET, K-Rock Radio, the Asia Society, WNYC, and Parnassus Productions.

On a closing note, Dan reflected on how his Macaulay experience prepared him for today’s challenges: “Macaulay students were not born into a life of privilege. They’ve worked for everything they’ve got and that fire, that passion, permeates everything that they do. These students are the real McCoy, or the real Gupta, or the real Goldstein, or the real Yang. They have their fingers on the pulse of what’s affecting their communities right now. They speak every language on earth and, mark my words, they will be edging out Ivy League competition in tomorrow’s professional and academic worlds for many years to come."

Contact Dan at AllenD@thirteen.org.