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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2011Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Emily Sherwood -
Authors
▪ Alyssa Alicino
▪ Brandon Baksh
▪ Ru Xiao Chen
▪ Belinda Chiu
▪ Els de Graauw
▪ Becca Glickman
▪ Elisabeth Greenberg
▪ Doris Hu
▪ Peky Huang
▪ Toby Joseph
▪ Haesol Jun
▪ Nika Kartvelishvili
▪ Farrukh Khan
▪ Holly Kiang
▪ Julian Kipnis
▪ Kar Yi Lim
▪ Yang Lin
▪ Cait McCarthy
▪ Sofya Moshkovich
▪ Mariya Tuchinskaya
▪ Ying Zhang Login
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Our Roots at a Glance
We are drawn together by the fact that we live in the United States and are a part of the same seminar at Macaulay at Baruch. However, as you read the biographies below, you will notice that our backgrounds and interests are diverse and we, our parents, and our distant ancestors hail from around the globe. You can move your curser over the above world map to find out to which countries we trace our roots!
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One More Brown Guy
Hello everybody. I’m Farrukh Khan. Boys usually call me “Fark” and girls call me either Farrukh or “Farooqui.” I live in Floral Park, Queens but I was born in Pakistan and immigrated here when I was two months old. I like playing basketball and video games. I have a basketball hoop in my driveway and I own a PlayStation 3. I try to be as outgoing as I can when meeting new people. I’m not sure how well it works though.
The first thing that most people notice about me is that I’m skinny. However, I’m big in spirit. As you get to know me you will realize that I love making innuendos. I am that guy who always says “That’s what she said.” In high school I was in the film club. I love to watch movies, new or old. You’ll find that going to the movies is one of my favorite activities.
Like many other Indian/Pakistani people I’m going to become a doctor. You’re thinking, “Why did he come to Baruch?” I came here because I know that business is important no matter what you become and obviously Baruch is a good business school. Also, I love the downtown area (as opposed to uptown, where Hunter and City College are) and the cool looking vertical campus. Hopefully I will make many good friends here at Baruch and they’ll be my friends for a very long time.
A Bilingual Immigrant
Hi everyone! My name is Nika Kartvelishvili and it is a challenge for many people to pronounce my last name because of its length! I am a true immigrant as I came to the United States at age 7 from Russia and have visited Russia many times since. My parents are actually double immigrants; they first migrated to Russia from Georgia (the republic) and then from Russia to the United States. Unlike many other immigrants who come here as children, I was able to maintain my native language and I am currently able to speak, read, and write in Russian as well as in English. Ever since my family and I came to America, we have been living in Brooklyn. As a result, I’ve never went to school in Manhattan up to this point. Going to college in the City is a great experience for me since Manhattan is a lot prettier and more exciting than Brooklyn. I am very glad to be studying at Baruch College under the Macaulay Honors Program, even though it is not always easy. This class appears to be quite challenging in terms of the workload (as are all Macaulay Seminars), but I expect the content of the material to be very interesting! I am eager to learn how the many immigrant groups living in our city manage to get by in this tough world of ours despite many cultural and economic barriers.
I Will Always Be a New Yorker, but…
…I want to travel everywhere. My name is Holly Kiang, I was born in Manhattan, and raised in Forest Hills, Queens. Both my parents are from Hong Kong, arriving when they were eight and sixteen. Having 
arrived in the United States when they were young, my parents are quite Americanized, as am I. Their siblings and parents have immigrated as well, making celebrations more traditional than I would have probably ever experienced. My paternal grandmother recently became an American citizen and will speak English on occasion but reprimands me for not remembering more Chinese.
I am making an ad hoc major in Environmental Science, Economics, and Political Science and I hope to minor in International Business and Latin American and Caribbean Studies (along with the New York Studies minor). I plan to attend graduate school, but I want to join the Peace Corps and see the world. There are so many natural wonders to see and think about how humans interact with this natural world; I want to explore it as much as I can.
Having commuted to Manhattan for high school and various activities, I want to experience something different and new. At heart I’ll always be a city girl because there’s always something to do and something unique and interesting to explore, but there are just some things the city can’t offer. My main goal for the future is to travel, and become a citizen of the world.
A Relaxed New Yorker
Greetings all! My name is Peky Huang and I am a Chinese-American. Something that I am always asked is whether or not my name has a meaning, and the answer is no. It has no meaning and its origins are unkown. My parents were immigrants from China. My mom’s side of the family is from Guangzhou and my dad’s side is Toisan.
I actually found it a bit difficult to find a picture of myself to put up. 1) I am not the type to take pictures of myself because I am always the one taking pictures of everything else around me. 2) My hairstyle and look has constantly changed over the past few years, so finding a picture that accurately portrays me was hard. I guess this one will have to do.
So a little bit about me. I am a native New Yorker and I have spent all my life living in Brooklyn. I went to Stuyvesant High School thinking I would be a bio major, but changed my mind when I took AP Bio. I then decided that going Business would be the most efficient way of making money, thus I ended up in Baruch. I have been deciding between Finance, Accounting and Marketing; one of those will be my major and another will be my minor. I have now chosen to be an Accounting major, but my minor is still unknown.
I am generally a very relaxed person who likes to make jokes and have fun. When I set my mind to something however, I can get quite serious. Things I like to do include eating, sleeping, watching movies, playing basketball, and playing video games. Though I haven’t danced in a while, I plan on picking it back up sometime in the future. Something else I like to do is travel; I want to someday fill up my passport with stamps and visas from many different countries. I hope to start by exploring the fifty states of the United States. This though, is not to say that I don’t like the city. To me, New York City is truly the best place on Earth and I love it.
Made in China
Hi everyone! My name is Ru Xiao Chen and I was born in Fuzhou, China. I came to the U.S.A. seven years ago. Like Yang, Haesol, and Prof. de Graauw, I am not a U.S. citizen yet, holding a green card, which will expire in 2013. I either need to renew it (soon) or become a naturalized citizen. I am still deciding, which is why I am interested in the dual citizenship topic. Having influences from both Chinese and American cultures, I am planning to be an International Business major. After the fun explore of Arts in New York City last semester, I am looking forward to learn about Immigration in NYC.
Nice to meet you all!
From the Forgotten Borough
Hello! My name is Julian Kipnis and I was born in Brooklyn, New York to a pair of Russian immigrants. I moved to Staten Island at the age of five and have been living there ever since. I plan to major in accounting and will see where it goes from there, perhaps going to law school and becoming a tax attorney .
Before starting college I was a foreigner in my own city. I didn’t know anything about the train system and must have spent at most two days a year in Manhattan. Now that has all changed, and Manhattan is like a second home to me. However, no matter how much time I spend in NYC, there’s still so many things I have yet to see and do. I can’t wait to learn more about this city that I call home and experience all it has to offer.
From the Low Countries to the Empire City
Welcome to Seminar 2! I’m Els de Graauw, your professor, and I look forward to working with all of you this semester. I’m a faculty member in the Baruch political science department, where I teach courses on American government and immigration. In addition to teaching, I conduct research on the local politics of immigrant integration, and currently I am completing a book manuscript that analyzes the role of community-based nonprofit organizations as public policy advocates on behalf of disadvantaged immigrants in San Francisco, CA.
Els in Lucerne, Switzerland
I am an immigrant myself. I was born and raised in the Netherlands, where I also completed my college (with a major in American Studies). I then earned a Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, worked as a researcher at Harvard University, and came to Baruch in the fall of 2009. I’ve been enjoying teaching at Baruch in large part because of the incredibly diverse study body here. You might not think much of it, but it’s very unusual to teach (or be part of) a class like ours, where the majority of students are first- and second-generation immigrants and we collectively trace our roots to 16 different countries!
While I love big city life, I also like the wild outdoors to camp, hike, and ski. This year, I also hope to work on my photography skills, finish a couple of sewing projects, and learn a few new baking recipes. Finally, I’m spending my free time reading up for a big trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong this coming summer.
If you have questions about any aspect of the course, I invite you to come to my office hours (every M 1-3pm) or send me an email at Els.deGraauw@baruch.cuny.edu.
An Unexpected Native New Yorker
Hi, my name is Kar Yi Lim. Although my name may sound foreign, I was actually born and raised in New York. My parents immigrated to New York City from their home country of Malaysia where their parents had immigrated to from China. I lived in Malaysia for a year when I was two years old but my parents decided it was better to bring me back to live in America and I have no memories of my life there. Since then I have been living in Queens.
I am still undecided on my major but I am looking into Business Communication or something of the type. I enjoy spending time with friends, watching movies, and exploring different parts of the city. After having a great time in my previous seminar class I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone better throughout the semester.
City Girl
Hello everyone. My parents blessed me with the name Alyssa Jean Alicino eighteen years ago in Beth Israel Hospital on this wonderful island of Manhattan. I am a fourth generation Italian-American; my great-grandparents came to the United States a long time ago from Sicily and Naples. I believe that I am the epitome of “American.” I spent the first seventeen years of my life in a small town called College Point located in Queens. I attended a private Lutheran School for all of grammar school and spent the last four of my years at Townsend Harris High School, a school for the Humanities. Even though I lived in Queens as a child, I spent most of my time in Manhattan and currently reside with my grandmother on the Lower East Side. As a child I took pretty much every lesson available for a young girl to attend. Piano lessons, Ice-skating lessons, swimming lessons, girl-scouts, you name it I’ve probably done it. However, the one activity which stuck to me was dance. At a young age, I began taking dance lessons and always enjoyed it. From ballet to modern to hip hop to contemporary to tap, I loved the way my body felt when in motion. It was a way of life. This love for dance evolved into a love for musical theater and eventually performing of all types. With law school in my future, I believe that theater has given me the skills necessary to take control of any situation placed in front of me. During my next four years at the Macaulay College at Baruch, I believe that I am going to major in International Business with minors in Spanish and Political Science.
Flying Across the Globe
- On a Beach in Hainan, China
Hello, my name is Yang Lin. I was born in the town of Chang Le in Fuzhou, China and I immigrated here with my mom when I was 4. As of now, I am a “permanent resident”. It took me a long time to get my green card, especially with the difficulty of understanding legal jargon and having to go through lawyers. I have lived in the Lower East Side/Chinatown area for as long as I have been in the states. Growing up, I realized the difficulty in making transitions and in balancing both the American and the Chinese culture. My dad is a very, very traditional man; so needless to say, it has been hard for me being in the middle. But, you know, when life gives you lemons… I speak my native language of Fuzhounese, and I picked up Mandarin and Cantonese along the way. In high school, I volunteered to teach old immigrants English because I know the hardships with learning a new language.
To the exciting stuff! I am an avid photographer and volleyball player. I am currently not on any teams, but you will see me playing every day when it gets warmer. I also dabble in basketball, ultimate, football [I love to tackle], and handball. Also, I love to travel. Hence the International Business major. Company-sponsored trips here I come!
Long Island Import
My name is Becca Glickman, and I am a 3rd generation American. My grandfather came from Poland after the Holocaust and settled in Brooklyn. The rest of my grandparents are American born. I grew up in the Five Towns on Long Island and lived there up until 2 months ago when I moved into Manhattan. I know reside in Chelsea just a few blocks away from Baruch! I attended a private Hebrew school called HAFTR for high school, where I studied a dual curriculum. Which means I didn’t get out of school until five o’clock everyday.
My favorite sport, in fact the only sport I play, is tennis. I have a dog named Alfie; he’s an adorable Havaniese who is originally from South Dakota. I work in a florist every Friday and most Sundays. It’s not a field I want to go into but I happen to be good at it.
Proud to Be an ABC
My name is Belinda Chiu. I was born and raised in New York City. I’m trying to follow a pre-med track so I can get into a great medical school and become a doctor who can help many, many people.
My mother was born in Taiwan and came to New York when she was almost 20 years old, and my father was born in Hong Kong but came to America when he was about 6 years old and lived in many states before permanently residing in New York City. My sister and I were taught Mandarin Chinese until we were 5 and entered kindergarten when my father decided we needed to start learning English. Ever since that point, my sister and my knowledge of the Chinese language went out the window, and attending Chinese school did not help at all… However, I am taking Chinese now so I will be able to speak it fluently by the time I finish college.
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Third Generation New Yorker
My name is Elisabeth Greenberg and I am American. My lineage, however, includes two German grandparents, both of whom were Holocaust survivors, as well as an English grandfather and an American grandmother whose personal genealogy traces back to a drummer boy in the Civil War. My mother and father were raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn respectively, and although I have lived in a pampered suburb of New Jersey for most of my life, I consider myself a seasoned New Yorker.
As of now I plan to double major in journalism and political science while triple minoring in Chinese, film and New York City studies. I am however begrudgingly aware that my plans for the future may change drastically between now and May of 2014.
I love playing table tennis, finding ways to express myself artistically through both image and word, traveling and interacting with people around me. Lastly, my favorite words are polydimethylsiloxane and zugzwang.
An Immigrant in Disguise
My name is Doris Hu and I am a freshman at the Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College. I hope to pursue a major in finance, but I am still very open to other fields.
I was born in America in 1992. However, my parents struggled taking care of me and my brother. They made the decision to have me be raised by my grandmother from my mother’s side. Since she lived in China, I migrated there when I was just a few months old. Later on, I moved back to the United States just in time for kindergarten. My home was at China. I knew no one here. Not even my family members. I had to battle the difficulty of learning a new language and the hardships of integration. Even though I was born here, I feel that I have had the experiences of an immigrant.
Not Exactly Off the Boat
Hey, my name is Cait McCarthy.
Nice to meet you.
I am a lot of things; I am 18, a Brooklynite, a New Yorker, a student, an actress, an undecided major, and three generations away from being anything close to an immigrant. My father’s parents came from Ireland in the 1950s, and my mother’s parents have pretty much been here since the Mayflower. So, in a way, my family were some of my first immigrants.
Even though I didn’t pass through Ellis Island like my family did over 60 years ago, I have seen my fair share of changing neighborhoods, and could pretty much rattle off what groups live in any given Brooklyn neighborhood with the wink of an eye. We live in a land of immigrants, and we’re all living in the heart of it.
A Ukrainian Who Can’t Speak Ukrainian
Hi, my name is Mariya Tuchinskaya. I was born in Kiev, Ukraine but my family moved to New York City when I was only six years old. I am fluent in Russian, but ironically can’t speak Ukrainian. New York City is the place I call 
home, because most of my fondest memories were made here. I’m an only child so my family has pretty much placed all their hopes and dreams on me.
I’m still undecided about a major, but I’m considering business communications. I love traveling to different places, spending time with my friends and reading good books.
A 1.5 Generation Korean
Hi everyone! My name is Haesol Jun, and I look forward to getting closer with all of you this semester.
I was born in Seoul, Korea and came to the U.S. in 2002. I believe it was a crazy decision since it was after the 9/11 tragedy, but I’m here now! I live currently in Queens with my parents and my little sister, whom I came here with 9 years ago. This makes me a 1.5 generation Korean, which makes me unique in this class. I hope to learn a lot about immigration in this class for it is a very significant issue in this country, New York especially, and is a personal matter as well.
An Indian American… No, Just An American
Hello! My name is Toby Joseph, and I was born and raised in New York City. I’m not sure what I want to major in, but I’m leaning towards law, finance, or psychology.
My parents came to America from a state in India called Kerala. My dad had come here legally through the help of his sister, who was already in America. After a couple of years, my dad had married my mother, bringing her to America as well. This makes me an Indian American. However, I do not really consider myself Indian at all. Sadly, I cannot speak any of the Indian languages I should know. In addition, I do not know of, follow, or observe, any Indian traditions or holidays. I barely even eat Indian food, which is kind of pathetic for an Indian.
From this class, I hope to learn more about the controversy with affirmative action, as well as the concept of crime amongst immigrants.
From Russia, With Love
My name is Sofya Moshkovich. I am
from Moscow, and I have lived in NYC since I was three. I am absolutely in love with NY not just for all of the opportunities it opens up to me but also because it is just so beautiful, vibrant, and full of art and adventure. I am a psychology major with plans to go to grad school after I graduate from Baruch. I live in Brooklyn with my mother, younger brother, and cat. I love history and have an interest in law so I look forward to learning how immigration ties into these topics.
PDX to NYC
I’m Emily Sherwood, your friendly neighborhood Instructional Technology Fellow. When I’m not in the Honors College Lounge waiting for you to ask me interesting questions, I’m a student in the PhD Program in English at The Graduate Center, CUNY. My specialty is Renaissance Drama; I also dabble in a little Medieval Lit and I’m interested in various aspects of the legal system in early modern England, particularly the development of marriage law. For the last three years I’ve taught courses at Hunter College on Shakespeare and British Literature from the Anglo Saxon period to Romanticism. Basically, I read old stuff. While not first, second, or even third generation, I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, which is almost another country when compared to New York City.
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