On Friday, May 17, approximately 150 first graders from P.S. 41 in New Dorp Beach, a school severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy, spent the morning on campus, visiting the library, planetarium, sports center, and dining hall, and meeting students and faculty.

“The school has been dealing with much disappointment this year post-Sandy and asked me to facilitate a campus visit to end the year on a positive note,” said Jennifer Lauria, Wagner College associate professor of education. “Having the first graders spend time on a campus like ours will hopefully give the children a taste of what college life is like and help them realize that it is an attainable life goal.”

This campus visit was the culmination of many lessons the children have been receiving at their school. Every day, the students at P.S. 41 are greeted by a large banner proclaiming the school’s motto, “We are all going to college!” They see that message throughout the school and in every classroom.

P.S. 41 Principal Elise Feldman said that they have been reading books about going to college and learning vocabulary words like “dorms” and “faculty.”

Many of the children who attend P.S. 41 are first-generation Americans, and many of them have the potential to be the first in their families to attend college. Feldman says that for them and their parents, the visit to campus is a chance to feel a part of this learning community and to know that what they learn and how they perform in school today has a purpose and meaning for their future.

“It’s about what do I aspire to be? What big dreams do I have when everything is possible with a good education?” Feldman says. “Everything we learn today matters for the future.”

“You can’t decide when you’re 18 that you’re going to college,” adds Assistant Principal Adele Carbonella. “It starts now. Why not start with first grade?”

— Laura Barlament, Editor, Wagner Magazine

ECSC Excellence Awards went to FAIZ ABED, EDEN STARK and VINCENT LOMBARDO

On Saturday, April 20, approximately 360 participants from 17 institutions of higher education — mostly undergraduates in the physical, chemical, biological and social sciences — attended the 67th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference on the campus of Providence College in Rhode Island.

Wagner College undergraduates gave three platform presentations and 12 poster presentations of their empirical research. One Wagner student submitted a completed scientific paper for consideration for an excellence award. For many, it was the first time they had presented their research in the context of a scientific meeting.

Three Wagner students, shown in the photo here, won excellence awards for their presentations:

• Faiz Abed, a biology major who was mentored by Dr. Ammini Moorthy, won for his poster presentation, “Teratogenic Effects of Stannous Chloride at Various Concentrations on Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos”
• Eden Stark, a microbiology major mentored by Dr. Kathleen Bobbitt, won for her poster presentation, “Presence of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Wagner College Athletic Facilities”
• Vincent Lombardo, a physics major mentored by Dr. Otto Raths, won for his platform presentation, “The Brachistochrone Problem”

Next spring, the ECSC host will be Marist College. Wagner students who are beginning empirical research are encouraged to present their findings there next year. For more information about the conference, please visit the ECSC website. — or for more information, email Dr. Donald Stearns.

Monday thru Friday

• Coffee — 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Breakfast — 8 to 10 a.m. (grill only)
• Lunch — 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (grill & pizza)
• Dinner — 3 to 6 p.m. (grill & pizza)

Saturday & Sunday

• Coffee — 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• No breakfast service
• Lunch — 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (grill only)
• Dinner — 3 to 6 p.m. (grill only)

CLOSED

• Main Dining Hall (for renovation)
• The Wag convenience store (Guild Hall)
• Foundation Hall Starbucks

Special thanks to junior nursing students Ashley Cacares and Vanessa Ayllon for their Spanish translation skills, senior nursing students Stephanie Hopkins and Marcel Kaganovskaya for their volunteer efforts, pre-dental students Radislav Meylikh and Gregory Balaes for their toothbrush donations, anthropology and Spanish major Molly Delbridge for her counseling and help, and pre-med students Philip Fomina and Enri Citozi for their commitment to volunteer their time next semester. The wellness program could not have been a success were it not for the Wagner Health Sciences departments working together to make health a priority for the individuals at El Centro.

“Our students make me so proud,” said Professor Cherofsky.

IN PHOTO: Noelle DeNome, Stephanie Hopkins, Liz Harrington, Marcel Kaganovskaya teaching individuals at El Centro about caring for their liver and the functions of the liver (March 20)

Students made several trips to New York City museums whose missions are the display of Native American material culture. They developed their knowledge of the museum exhibition methodologies behind this fascinating and sometimes problematic category of objects.

They also took part in the cataloguing of a collection of artifacts from an archaeological dig known as the Slackwater Site, in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, on loan from the State Museum of Pennsylvania. The exhibit on display here represents a number of topics developed through the students’ research projects that reflect ideas and concerns investigated during the semester.

One group looked at the process of archaeological excavation. This group examined how a site is investigated, beginning with the initial research phase, obtaining of permits, primary survey, through the actual digging process, artifact recovery and analysis and record keeping.

Bridging this topic with that of Eastern Woodland Culture was another group of students that worked on how the materials from an excavation are reassembled in the process of reconstruction. Reconstructing a site is essential for interpreting the excavated remains and gleaning information from them about the culture or civilization that originally inhabited the site. Students collected important artifacts from three specific houses to display in the Spotlight Gallery, illustrating how the reconstruction process facilitates understanding of particular dwellings’ functions in their original context.

The most common artifact type found at Slackwater was ceramics. However, chipped stone, beads, pipes and organic materials were also excavated. Students interested in these particular artifact types have illustrated how an understanding of the manufacture, use and symbolic meaning of these objects help to advance our understanding of the culture that created them.

Another group of students then developed research projects on how the Slackwater site fits into the larger Shenks Ferry archaeological horizon, and ultimately the even broader group of cultural developments in Eastern Woodland Native American civilization.

The exhibition of Native American material culture is sometimes problematic, as the students have learned from museum trips and class readings. Objects are frequently purchased, looted or, in some cases, even excavated through unethical channels, only to appear in museums. Although not all objects of Native American origin are acquired through unethical channels, the display of such objects is sometimes problematic. Issues of cultural patrimony, museum display theory and national laws relating to the exhibition of Native American culture are thus an important part of the class’s research agenda as well. Particularly engaging is the involvement of contemporary artists with Native American heritage.

Accounting Department

• Outstanding Academic Achievement — Michael Krebs, Kohei (Steve) Nakajima, Hamza Khan
• Highest Academic Achievement — Kayla Colin, Nicole McErlean
• Delta Mu Delta Prize — Anthony Parenti

Business Department

• Accelerated MBA Highest GPA — Alessandra D’Onofrio, Brian Bugbee
• Accelerated MBA Leadership Award — Alessandra D’Onofrio
• Accelerated MBA Teamwork Award — Alessandra D’Onofrio
• Accelerated MBA Development Award — Anthony J. DiMaio
• Traditional MBA Walter Rohers Memorial Award for  Highest Academic Achievement — Drew Fitzgerald
• Traditional MBA Highest Finance GPA — Keith Onto
• Traditional MBA Highest Management GPA — D’mya Clay, Danielle Parenteau
• Traditional MBA Highest Health Care GPA — Liana Gonzalez
• Traditional MBA Highest International Business GPA — Kathryn Younkins
• Traditional MBA Highest Marketing GPA — Drew Fitzgerald

Education Department

• Outstanding Achievement Adolescent Education — William Dowd
• Outstanding Achievement Childhood Education —Kimberly Kosnac
• Outstanding Achievement Early Childhood Education — Paige Fazio
• Outstanding Achievement Teaching Literacy — Rebekah Varga
• Highest Academic Achievement Graduate Education  — Gabrielle Grassulo
• Education Chair Award  — Ryan Cornell
• Katherine & Egon Wendel Award — Ashley Deon, Dedrick Dye
• Norbert Leeseberg Graduate Education Award — Jennifer Derevjanik

Microbiology Department

• Microbiology Award — Alex Molesan
• Highest Academic Achievement — William Rivera
• Outstanding Academic Achievement — Julianna Maniscalco, Ashley Polizzotto
• Roy H. Mosher Award in Microbiology — Julia Mullins

Nursing Department

• Highest Nurse Educator GPA — Lisa Farina
• Highest Family Nurse Practitioner GPA — Naira Feinberg
• Highest Nursing GPA — Yekaterina Mahoney
• Constance Byron Award — Nicole Quinzi
• Annemarie C. Sortino Nurse Educator Award — Christopher Governo
• Maria Pickett Award — Nwando Nzegwu, Cicely Edwards

Physician Assistant

• Highest Academic Achievement — Robert Liberto
• Outstanding Academic Achievement — Erica S. Guidicipietro

Diversity Action Council Award

• MaryEllen Bonito
• Princess Poku
• Esta Neyman

Internationalization Action Award

• Alexandra Bauer

Watch a short video clip below of the Red Bull Stratos jump:

GENERAL COVERAGE

Jan. 2 — Julian Smith, writing about “The Water Temple of Inca-Caranqui” for an Archaeology magazine story about Inca hydraulic engineering, quoted Wagner College anthropology professor Gordon McEwan, an authority on the subject.

Feb. 5 — Wagner College political science professor, Jewish chaplain and sometimes blogger Abe Unger wrote an essay for the Huffington Post, “How our Children Learn.”

Feb. 11 — The Staten Island Advance previewed the upcoming Black History Month lecture by Tricia Rose. You can watch an excerpt of her inspirational address on our website.

March 2013 — The CPA Journal featured an article by Wagner College accounting professor Margaret “Peg” Horan and her husband, Thomas Horan, on “Strategies for Reducing the Alternative Minimum Tax Liability.”

March 11 — The Advance announced that our upcoming commencement speaker would be noted civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams.

March 16 — The Advance featured a story on the history-making wedding of former Wagnerian editor Gene Barfield ’75 and his partner, Tim LaCroix, who were the first gay couple to marry in Michigan.

March 21 — The Advance AWE section featured “Paintings by Chandini Pinilla,” the current exhibition in the Horrmann Library’s Spotlight Gallery, in a standalone illustration on its calendar page.

March 21 — Advance Arts Editor Michael Fressola prominently featured a performance by the Wagner College Choir and vocal ensemble Stretto in his AWE story on two vocal concerts scheduled that coming weekend on Staten Island.

March 29 — Advance City Editor Ken Paulsen wrote a humorous news story, triggered by a Twitter posting, about a minor auto accident on campus that left some bystanders wondering if a little dog had been driving the car in question.

April 5 — The Advance Jewish Life page highlighted the winners being honored at the upcoming Wagner College Chai Society Community Mitzvah Awards banquet.

April 19 — The New Books Network posted an interview with Wagner political science professor Cyril Ghosh about his new book, “The Politics of the American Dream: Democratic Inclusion in Contemporary American Political Culture.”

April 29 — Crain’s New York Business editor Judith Messina included a Wagner College accounting student in her story about business graduates who were bypassing Wall Street in their post-commencement job search.

May 7 — New York 1 reported that Wagner College had celebrated Nurses Day this year with an important distinction as they received the Center of Excellence Award from the National League for Nursing.

ATHLETICS

Jan. 23 — The Staten Island Advance ran a photo of Wagner College Athletic Hall of Fame gathered during a basketball game against St. Francis of Brooklyn.

Jan. 31 — The Staten Island Advance covered Wagner College Athletics’ reinvention of last year’s successful philanthropic partnership with Shop Rite supermarkets and the Advance: the “25 Tons of Food” drive to stock Project Hospitality’s food pantry shelves. The new target for 2013 doubled that goal.

Feb. 17 — The Newark Star-Ledger profiled Wagner College’s basketball head coach in “Bashir Mason Survived Jersey City’s Streets.”

Feb. 20 — An Advance story looked at how the latest Internet meme, the Harlem Shake, had manifested on Staten Island — including a hilarious rendition staged in the Spiro Sports Center VIP Room by Wagner Athletics. Watch the video on the Wagner Seahawks YouTube channel.

April 13 — Two local papers — the Advance, and the Post — reported on the arrest and expulsion of two Wagner College football players over allegations of theft from a dorm room.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

Feb. 18 — An article in the Staten Island Advance, “A Crime Unsolved,” recalled the tragic hit-and-run killing last year of Wagner College nursing student R.J. Tillman.

April 22 — The Advance reported on the dedication of a new bike rack on campus to the memory of the late nursing student R.J. Tillman. Present for the dedication were Tillman’s mother and brother, Nancy and David Tillman.

FACULTY OBITUARIES

March 2013 — This issue of VdGSA News, the monthly newsletter of the Viola de Gomba Society of America, featured a touching memoriam for Dr. Ronald Cross, Wagner College’s late Auguste Riemann Professor of Music.

March 6 — The Staten Island Advance obituary for Wagner music professor Ron Cross.

April 2 — The Staten Island Advance ran this warm obituary profile of indefatigable Wagner booster Bunny Barbes ’39. Also read Wagner Magazine’s tribute to Bunny, and the Wagner Athletics salute to the late Hall of Fame member.

April 9 — An Advance obituary memorialized the late English Professor Emerita Jean Normandy ’61 M’64.

HUGH L. CAREY INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNMENT REFORM

Jan. 25 — Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, wrote an op-ed essay for the news magazine, The Week, on the Electoral College system.

Jan. 28 — City & State magazine invited Seymour Lachman, director of the Carey Institute, to comment for a story on “The 10 Greatest Governors” of New York State. Naturally, he picked Governor Carey.

Feb. 12 — The Carey Institute’s Joshua Spivak wrote an op-ed essay for The Week on “Why the State of the Union Still Matters.”

April 9 — The Carey Institute’s Joshua Spivak wrote for The Week about the possibility of Massachusetts’ U.S. Senator Scott Brown moving to New Hampshire to run for office there.

April 24 — The Advance reported on the return visit to the Carey Institute of Joseph Salvo, chief demographer for the City of New York. Salvo laid out the patterns of foreign immigration to NYC, breaking out the differences between Staten Island and the other four boroughs. Watch a video of Salvo’s presentation, take a look at the figures from his Power Point slideshow, and read the Advance story in our online Newsroom.

May 8 — When New York Times political reporters Thomas Kaplan and Jesse McKinley put together a story about how the recent spate of corruption arrests in the New York State Senate would affect the blue:red balance of power, they naturally called upon former Seymour Lachman, a former state senator and founding director of Wagner’s Carey Institute for Government Reform, for an informed opinion.

WAGNER COLLEGE THEATRE

Feb. 17 — Staten Island Advance Arts Editor Michael J. Fressola previewed the Wagner College Theatre production of Jonathan Larson’s classic rock musical, “Rent,” 20 years after Wagner awarded the playwright/composer the Stanley Drama Award for a developmental version of the show.

Feb. 19 — Broadway World previewed the Wagner College Theatre production of “5 Women Wearing the Same Dress.”

Feb. 21 — The Advance Weekly Entertainment tab featured Michael Fressola’s story, “ ‘Rent’ Control,” as its cover/centerspread story, highlighting it with a front-page “skybox.” Fressola reviewed the WCT’s Main Stage production of “Rent.”

March 1 — Eric Petillo, a Wagner College student interning in the Staten Island Advance newsroom, wrote a preview of the benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” being staged that coming weekend at the college.

March 22 — Wagner intern Eric Petillo’s story in the Advance previewed a benefit show being staged that coming Saturday for AIDS relief by Wagner College Theatre students.

April 30 — An Advance story highlighted the final Main Stage show of the Wagner College Theatre’s 2012-13 season, “Guys & Dolls.”

May 3 — A final Advance story from graduating Wagner intern Eric Petillo highlighted the final performance of the season in the Stage One studio theater, the annual “Dance Project” program of original choreography.

IMMIGRATION

April 10 — The Staten Island Advance featured a story on a student- and faculty-organized rally supporting immigration reform in the runup to a major demonstration scheduled later that week in Washington. Watch the New York 1 story, or watch the complete event video on our YouTube channel.

April 11 — The Advance followed up on its April 10 story with this feature on the Staten Island delegation’s trip to Washington for the national immigration rally at the U.S. Capitol. The group included a contingent from Wagner College.

April 24 — The Advance reported on the return visit to the Carey Institute of Joseph Salvo, chief demographer for the City of New York. Salvo laid out the patterns of foreign immigration to NYC, breaking out the differences between Staten Island and the other four boroughs. Watch a video of Salvo’s presentation, take a look at the figures from his Power Point slideshow, and read the Advance story in our online Newsroom.

April 25 — The following day, the Advance reported on an annual awards program that opened a panel discussion on the Hispanic identity on Staten Island. Watch a preview story by New York 1’s Amanda Farinacci, read the Advance story, or watch the complete event video.

April 28 — The Sunday Advance featured a story by Arts Editor Michael Fressola on an exhibition, “Hispanic Staten Island,” on display in the Horrmann Library’s Spotlight Gallery.

WAGNER EVENT VIDEOS ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Jan. 29 — History professor M. Ousmane Traore moderated a panel discussion of “Strength in What Remains” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder, which was last summer’s reading selection for the incoming freshman class. Kidder relates one man’s inspiring American journey from homelessness in Central Park to Columbia University Medical School after surviving genocide and civil war in Burundi and Rwanda. The panelists were: Carl-Olivier “C.O” Prime, a senior from Haiti whose family lives in Montreal; Yvonne Taylor, a freshman from Liberia; Sidiq Souleman, a senior from Ghana; Rebecca Barrett, a freshman from Hawaii, and Gabrielle Tricorico, a freshman from Staten Island who traveled last summer to Tanzania to do volunteer work in a remote village.

Feb. 12 — On Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Wagner College sponsored a panel discussion on Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film, “Lincoln,” titled “Spielberg’s Lincoln: Fact or Fiction?” The panel members appearing in the video are, from left to right: Dr. Steven Thomas, an English professor who wrote a popular blog contrasting “Lincoln” and another contemporary film about American slavery, Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”; Anthony Trombetta, a junior history major from Staten Island; Dr. Rita Reynolds, moderator, a history professor who studies American slavery; Erin Pentz, a sophomore and president of the History Club, from Kenilworth, N.J., and Patrick Bethel, a junior history major from Waterbury, Conn.

March 7 — Crain’s New York Business columnist Greg David visited the college to talk about his new book, “Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City.” The book follows the high-stakes drama since the 1960s of real estate development, the growth of inequality, the role of immigration and the prospects for diversification in New York City.

April 4 — Wagner College held its annual Civic Engagement Recognition Awards program to support those members of the college community and its community partners who have gone the extra mile in furthering Wagner’s goal of changing the world, one neighborhood at a time, through partnerships between higher education and community leaders. Those attending the program said it was one of the most inspiring of the year.

April 10 — Wagner College’s Social Justice Dialogue series re-examined the topic of diversity at the college. Presentations were given by Lonnie Brandon and Toni Whitlock, two Wagner alums who, while they were students, participated in the occupation of Cunard Hall in 1970 as members of a student organization, Black Concern, to press the college to address diversity issues in student recruitment, faculty and staff composition, and curriculum. Wagner Provost Lily McNair talked about what the college is doing today to address those issues.

April 25 — Wagner College’s 4th Annual Presidential Economic Summit featured legendary executive Jack Welch, author and commentator Suzy Welch and CNBC Wall Street journalist Maria Bartiromo for a free-wheeling conversation and audience Q&A session. The program was livestreamed over the Internet.