Hello. I’m Sara Leonor Clemente. I would like to major in Spanish, concentrating on the Literature and Culture aspects rather than purely Language. Additionally, I plan on getting the Human Rights certificate. I also work at the Queens Central YW&YMHA as an afterschool counselor on weekdays. A lot of the children that I work with are first generation Americans, much like myself so I always hear interesting stories from many of them.
I recently turned 19 years old, while vacationing in Panamá with some friends. I really love traveling and getting to know different people from various cultures, which is why I decided to take a trip to Panamá in the first place. I was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1995. About a week after I was born my mom took me back to her natal city, Cuenca, in Ecuador, where I grew up until I was 6 years old. My mom originally came to the United States to visit a friend but later realized that she had more opportunities here than she did in Ecuador. So, she soon became the first and only member of our family to move from Ecuador and come to the United States. Since then I have lived in Jackson Heights, Queens. I went to IS145 and then Townsend Harris High School in Flushing. Fortunately, I am quite in touch with my heritage and try to go to Ecuador every summer.
Hi! My name is Emily Stone, I am 19 years old and I am (hopefully) pursuing a major in music and a minor in legal studies and/or public policy. I am the lone Jersey girl in the Macaulay @ Hunter Class of 2017, and hail from the township of Teaneck, a suburb only fifteen minutes away from the George Washington Bridge (by car). I deferred a year after high school and spent my gap year traveling, studying and working on a Kibbutz in Israel. I love to sing, and am a member of Macaulay’s acapella group, the Macaulay Triplets. I am also passionate about politics, particularly as it pertains to the Middle East. My long-term professional goal is to connect youth from across enemy, political, and social line using music (or more specifically, singing) as a form of dialogue.
As for my story, I am a Modern Orthodox Jew of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic descent. My father’s ancestors are from Eastern Europe, while my mother’s are from Aleppo, Syria. Much of my father’s side has lived in New York for generations (the last of the immigrants came before World War II), while both sets of my mother’s grandparents came with their families in the 1920s, and settled in Brooklyn with the rest of the Syrian Jewish community. My mother ended up going to Binghamton, leaving behind the traditional, and somewhat insular community in which she grew up, and after meeting my father on a singles retreat, married and had three daughters. With the birth of their second daughter, they moved from Brooklyn to Northern New Jersey. I am the youngest.
Hello! My name is Jason Joseph Vayner, I am 18 years old and live in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, NY. I am (obviously) a student at Macaulay @ Hunter and my intended major is Chemistry and am currently on the Pre Medical track. Although Chemistry will be my focus in college, I am considering minoring in Religious Studies for personal knowledge of religions and cultures around the world. In my free time I enjoy swimming, chess, biking, playing video games and video editing for myself and other people. I have volunteered bi-weekly in a senior center for the past 3 years and I also babysit my siblings who are 16, 4, and 3. However, I’m not sure who is more difficult to handle, the toddlers or the emotional teenager…
My father is from Odessa, Ukraine and my mother is from Bobruisk, Belarus, both of which are former republics of the Soviet Union. Their parents took them to America to escape religious and cultural persecution in order to have a better life for their children. They fled from the USSR to Austria, then Rome and from there my family split up for Israel, Australia, and the US. My parents met in Brooklyn and I was born a year and one day after their marriage on August 15, 1995. Due to immigrating to America at the ages of 10 and 15, (my mother and father respectively), we speak Runglish at home, sentences that combine the two languages Russian and English,and my broken Russian speaking skills reflect that.
Hi, I’m Fiona, the Instructional Technology Fellow or, ITF, for this course. I’ve worked with Macaulay Hunter students and faculty members since 2009. I am currently completing my doctoral dissertation in the English Program at The Graduate Center, CUNY. My research examines the role of translation in shaping the national racial imaginary of Malaysia through the analysis of literature and visual culture. In addition, I’ve also taught transnational literature and digital composition courses at CUNY.
Here’s my story of how I came to New York City: I was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and came to the United States to complete my college degree. I moved to Brooklyn after graduating from SUNY Geneseo in 2004. I have come to love Brooklyn, and am often surprised at how rapidly the borough has changed in the time I have been here. I regularly travel to Kuala Lumpur to see my family. A while ago, when Apple first released its oh-so-reliable Maps app, Mad Magazine did a spoof cover of The New Yorker magazine. I found it amusing that the two places I call home, located on opposite sides of the planet, were right next to each other on the map. I also wished it were true.
Source: Mad Magazine, Jan 10, 2012
I am sociologist at the Max Planck Institute, which is in Germany, but I am neither German nor live there. Instead, I live in New York City, where I conduct research on immigration, race and ethnicity, and public space. As part of my work, I recently traveled to South Africa, Singapore, and Germany. I got my PhD from Princeton University, where I wrote a dissertation about immigrant naturalization, which will soon appear as a book. I enjoy reading contemporary novels, urban gardening, hiking, and kayaking New York waterways. I am also involved in local activism. Over the holiday break, I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time.
I am an immigrant. I moved to New York from Moscow with my family when I was 12 years old. My parents, like many of their peers, took advantage of the American initiative to ‘rescue’ Soviet Jews, and arrived to the United States as political refugees in 1991. As refugees, my family received assistance with settlement, including initial help with rent and English classes. I grew up in Bensonhurst, where I attended IS 281. I commuted to Manhattan to attend Stuyvesant High School. After high school, I left New York, living in Connecticut, Texas, and New Jersey, before returning to Brooklyn three years ago.
