Tiffany Merlinsky Wins a McNulty Scholarship

 

Macaulay is thrilled that Tiffany Merlinsky ’19 (Hunter) has won scholarship from the John P. McNulty Scholars Program for Excellence in Math and Science. The program provides unique opportunities for leadership development, and hands-on research experience at the undergraduate level.

“Being a part of the cohort has been an amazing experience,” says Tiffany. “Over the past year I have been able to develop as a scientist while working in a lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering.”

Tiffany had the opportunity to share her research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, where her oral presentation in cancer biology earned an ABRCMS award. She says the conference “was an amazing learning experience and further solidified my passion for research.”

Tiffany credits Dr. Kelly O’Donnell at Macaulay for providing guidance in the field of research. “Without her encouragement I would not have been able to receive the John P. McNulty scholarship.”

“I was impressed with how much prior research experience she had for second year student.” says Dr. O’Donnell, “She would use that experience to give insightful comments during class discussion. She also once called UV safety glasses ‘cool,’ firmly establishing her science cred!”

In addition to her academic and research interests, Tiffany has been a member of the Hunter Hawks cross country team for 3 years.

Macaulay Student Named Rhodes Scholar for 2018

Thamara V. Jean is the College’s Third Recipient of This Prestigious Award

Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York is pleased to announce that Thamara V. Jean ’18 (Hunter College) has been selected to the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2018.

Thamara is a senior majoring in Political Science and Media Analysis and Criticism. She completed her senior thesis in her junior year on the Black Lives Matter movement, and it was subsequently published in The Journal of Politics and Society. She followed this with research in the Harvard African-American Studies Department on black nationalism in the 1960s. She has worked at nonprofit organizations Democracy Works and Generation Citizen, and was a producer at the CUNY Film Festival. Thamara will study for the Master of Philosophy degree in Political Theory at Oxford.

Thamara V. Jean, 2018 Rhodes Scholarship Winner
Thamara V. Jean, 2018 Rhodes Scholarship Winner

Thamara was selected from a pool of 866 candidates who had been nominated by their colleges and universities. “Macaulay Director at Hunter College Lev Sviridov, who’s a former Rhodes Scholar himself, and the entire Macaulay community, were instrumental in making sure I was not only prepared, but also went into my interviews feeling encouraged,” says Thamara about the selection process. “The support really helped me go into the experience feeling confident.” She will begin courses at Oxford next year.

“It is so exciting to have Macaulay’s third Rhodes Scholar in its young history, and for Hunter and CUNY to add to our collective stellar record of prestigious prizewinners through the years,” says Macaulay Dean Mary C. Pearl. “Macaulay not only challenges students like Thamara to aspire to the highest levels of achievement, we make certain they have the support, encouragement, and opportunity to succeed.”

Macaulay’s two previous Rhodes Scholars are David L.V. Bauer Macaulay ’09 (City College) and Zujaja Tauqeer ’11 (Brooklyn College).

About Macaulay Honors College

Ranked as one of the top ten honors colleges in the nation, Macaulay provides exceptional students with a rigorous education drawing on the vast academic resources of the nation’s largest urban university and the rich, cultural diversity of New York City. Our students represent the top 4% of the 13,000+ incoming freshmen on eight CUNY campuses, including Brooklyn, City, Hunter, John Jay, Lehman, and Queens Colleges, and the College of Staten Island.

 

Contact:
Geoffrey M. Glick
VP, External Relations
212 729 2939
communications@mhc.cuny.edu

 

Alumni Spotlight: Penny Phillips

 

I graduated from Macaulay at the Queens campus in 2010. I went into a career in financial services, I’m a consultant now and do business consulting specifically in financial services. I worked in the corporate world for about seven years, and was the youngest-ever vice president at New York Life Insurance Company.

I travel a lot for work, but any opportunity I can get to give back and speak on behalf of Macaulay, I’m there. My parents were born in Greece, and I didn’t have any family members, friends, or anyone who worked in finance, so my mentor was Macaulay.

“Everything I have today, every success point that I’ve reached in my career professionally also personally is because of Macaulay. I will speak and donate to this school. I started doing it the minute I got into finance and I’ll do it forever.”

How you can support the Opportunities Fund

 

One thing that’s incredible about Macaulay is that it was designed to identify students who have an X-Factor even when they don’t realize that they have an X-Factor. Macaulay accepts kids that they see real potential in; I was one of those students.

I knew that I wanted to go into business but didn’t know what that really meant. Other kids were playing with dolls and wanted to be teachers, maybe, or doctors, while I would be organizing files at a desk in the basement.

My advisor, and also the Dean, spent an enormous amount of time helping me figure out the business world and where I might fit in. They helped identify an opportunity for me at the London School of Economics that was designed to help students hone entrepreneurial skills, leadership skills, and really closely study cooperate finance, economics and marketing. I didn’t tell my parents I was going there until the week before (true story!) because they were strict immigrant parents. They didn’t want me to go, but they supported my decision and it completely changed my life.

What ultimately launched and catapulted my career in finance was coming back to speak about my experience in London and talking about what it did for me personally, and what it did for me in terms of understanding my abilities as an entrepreneur and a leader. I spoke to an audience similar to this, and in the audience was the CEO of New York Life, and he said, “I’ve got a job for you. And you will be perfect.” And that started what has been a very successful career for me. I’m most proud because it allows me to give back to my family, provide for them and help them, but also give back to the College.

I’m often asked by students and even some parents, “Do people really know the name Macaulay? Do they know that name in the profession my child is going into?” And what I say to everybody is: “Tell your children, if employers in New York City do not know Macaulay then personally I probably wouldn’t want to work for them. They should know Macaulay because the school is designed to raise future leaders for the city and the state!”

I’m very proud to recognize Macaulay and I’m very proud of the school.

Humans of Macaulay: Nazia Begum ’21 (Hunter College)

Major: Biochemistry

“Coming into college I didn’t know what to expect. I had no idea how classes worked, what subjects I liked, or how to make new friends. I’ll admit, at first, everything felt so scary and I thought I was doing everything wrong. But I think it’s important to realize that all those feelings are normal. The transition from high school to college is a little bumpy. However, taking the steps to make new friends and having people you can talk to made everything a lot less intimidating. I’m still trying to figure things out, but I’ve realized I like my science courses more than my other classes.”

Interviewer & Photo Credit: Jannatul Ahmed ’21 (Hunter College)

Special thanks to student group Humans of Macaulay for this Macaulay student story.

Forming a New Strategic Plan

Macaulay Honors College announces the launch of a new strategic planning initiative.

During the 2017-2018 academic year Macaulay Honors College  will develop a new strategic plan that establishes clear goals to guide the college into the future. The plan will help us define our vision and ensure our longterm capacity as the honors college of the City University of New York.

“We will develop a strategic framework that builds upon the strengths of Macaulay, our partner campuses, and CUNY,” said Dean Mary C. Pearl. “We will also design a process of inclusive, continuous planning to ensure that we are aware of our environment and responsive to any challenges and opportunities that arise.”

The initiative will culminate in the early fall of the 2018-2019 academic year with the release of a strategic plan.

The strategic planning process is intended to be a process with input from all college  stakeholders:

  • faculty
  • students
  • staff
  • alumni
  • Foundation Board members
  • Advisory Board members
  • other supporters

The process provides an opportunity for stakeholders to work together to evaluate Macaulay’s mission, values and priorities.

Participants will be able to access up-to-date information about the plan’s formation and have opportunities to provide input based on their unique relationships to the college.

To guide the plan’s development, Dean Pearl has established a committee of faculty, administrators, staff, alumni and students. The committee’s first milestone has been to create an online portal that tracks the college’s progress and provides mechanisms for ongoing feedback from the community. (Photo: Anthony Delanoix)

MORE ABOUT THE STRATEGIC PLAN

The Sounds of Shakespeare

Professor Steve Monte is a literature scholar who specializes in Shakespeare and the Renaissance. He also loves theater, opera and music and shares his combined passions in a popular course called Shakespeare and Musical Adaptations of Shakespeare at Macaulay Honors College.

“This is a dream course for me,” says Monte. “In my research and writing, I mostly focus on understanding Shakespeare in his own time as a poet and a playwright; but in this course, I feel that I am being both a scholar and a fan.”

The works of William Shakespeare, who lived from 1564 to 1616, have inspired countless adaptations worldwide, with his themes and characters appearing in every known art form. Scholars have identified over 20,000 pieces of music drawn from his work—not bad for someone with no known musical talent.

For Macaulay students, this creates a broad basis from which to study history, social systems, and even architecture in addition to music and literature. “Like the plays, the adaptations are stylistically diverse, encompassing both pop culture and high culture,” explains Monte. “From Shakespeare’s time to ours, there is a rich performance history to draw upon.”

New York City itself plays a role for experiencing musical Shakespeare. “The city offers regular opportunities to enjoy performances of adaptations, and this is a course that partly depends on seizing those opportunities.” Students in Monte’s course listen to music, watch movies, travel to performances, and hear from guest lecturers from fields of musicology and acting.

“In the classroom, approaching Shakespeare’s works as both historically specific and evolving through adaptation is exciting for everyone in the class, says Monte. “I am often delighted to find that juxtaposing the plays and the music generates new interpretations. Students make connections between works that I had never even considered.”

Professor Monte’s Playlist

  • “Brush up Your Shakespeare” by Cole Porter
  • “Lady Mac” by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
  • “Cemetry Gates” by The Smiths
  • “The Evil That Men Do” by Iron Maiden
  • “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Opus 6”1 by Felix Mendelssohn
  • “Titus Andronicus Forever” by Titus Andronicus