By Lindsey Schwarzbach
Seahawk Spotlight is a monthly roundup covering campus happenings and student, faculty and staff accolades for Wagner College. Below are highlights from October 2023.
Wagner faculty and alum present research on impact of Wagner College learning communities
Bernadette Ludwig, associate professor of sociology and faculty director of Civic Engagement, and Connie Campbell ’22 presented their research on Wagner’s learning communities (LCs) at the American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting in August 2023.
Their study analyzed attitudes that first-year students from three different LCs had about service learning, revealing that service learning courses are most likely to have the intended outcome when experiential hours are an integral and important part of the class in addition to the crucial role of instructors. The paper was also published in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning and will be featured in a Campus Compact event on November 2.
Brandli wins 2023 Stanley Drama Award
Jami Brandli won the 2023 Stanley Drama Award for her play The Magician’s Sister, the Wagner College Theatre announced.
Brandli was a participating playwright at Center Theatre Group's 2022 L.A. Writers' Workshop led by Luis Alfaro where she developed her play about female magicians. The Magician's Sister was presented last September as part of CTG's New Works Festival at The Kirk Douglas Theater. The Magician’s Sister recently won the 2023 Jane Chambers Award and it was workshopped and publicly presented at the 2023 Kayenta New Play Lab in Ivins, Utah. It was also a finalist for the 2023 Risk Award.
Brandli’s play, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce will receive a forthcoming Rolling World Premiere with Mildred’s Umbrella (Houston) in January 2024 and with Inside Out Theatre (Los Angeles) in January 2025.
Three plays were also announced as finalists for this year’s Stanley Drama Award: The Great White Way: The Bert Williams Story by Aaron Alon; Martha and Me by Lynn Hoffman; and Tennessee Wet Rub by Kim E. Ruyle.
The Stanley Drama Award has a long and distinguished history. It was established in 1957 by Staten Island philanthropist Alma Guyon Timolat Stanley and endowed through the Stanley-Timolat Foundation to encourage and support aspiring playwrights. The national Stanley Award competition is administered by the Wagner College Theatre program, listed for the last decade among the top five college theater programs in the country in the Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges Guide.
Nicotra Foundation supports Da Vinci Society and Holocaust Center
The Lois & Richard Nicotra Foundation awarded Wagner College two grants, each for $1,000 dollars, to the Da Vinci Society and the Wagner College Holocaust Center. The Nicotra Foundation has donated more than $1 million in grants and scholarships across Staten Island.
New Hillel and JCC partnership
Hillel of Staten Island and the Joan & Alan Bernikow JCC announced they will join forces to provide more resources for Jewish students on campuses including Wagner College. The initiative, funded by UJA-Federation of NY, links Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization, and the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island. The goal is to “enrich the lives of Jewish college students and inspire them to make an enduring commitment to meaningful Jewish life and community.”
Wagner alum earns psychology award
Matthew Kane ’15, who received his bachelor’s in psychology from Wagner in 2015, then earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Kansas in 2022, has been awarded the Loren Frankel Student Research Award by Division 51, The Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities, of the American Psychological Association. The award honors “a graduate student, post-doc, or new psychologist who has recently completed and defended a dissertation pertaining to boys, adolescent males, men or masculinity.”
Recognizing Chef Appreciation Week
Chartwells Higher Education, Wagner College’s dining company partner, recognized several institutions that honored chefs during Chef Appreciation Week last month. Wagner honored three chefs, Michael Purpura, Christian Belger, and Natoya Walters for their dedication to the students and community of Wagner.
Game on in the Seahawks locker room
Gloria Malchiodi, administrative assistant in campus life, donated a ping-pong table to the new Wagner football locker room facility after a suggestion from Lou Arnarumo ’90, the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Wagner alum and wife release second novel
Keith Giglio ’85, a screenwriter, producer and professor, has added a second book to his credits. Giglio and his wife, Juliet Giglio, recently released The Trouble With Tinsel, the second novel they have written together.
Read more Wagner news here. Got a story? Share it with us.
