L EHMAN L I G H T N I N G spring/summer 2006 Lehman Senior Captures Top National Award inside… lice Michelle Augustine, a senior who “I feel as though all my years of hard work works full-time in a Bronx pre-kinder- have paid off,” she said when she was told of Agarten program, has captured one of her selection. “I also realize that a lot of people ▼ the nation’s most prestigious academic awards: around me contributed to this day, especially the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New my professors at Lehman.” LEHMAN GRAD STUDENT HEADS FOR Americans. She is one of 30 A double-major in English and politi- ENGLAND, THEN BACK TO THE BRONX .....2 students nationwide—and cal science, Augustine previously won DR. GREGORIO VALDEZ (’96) HAVING the only undergraduate from a Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship, which ‘LOTS OF FUN’ DOING NEUROSCIENCE New York City—selected in led to internships at the State Supreme RESEARCH AT HARVARD ........................3 the competition, which drew Court, the New York City Council and almost 800 applicants from the Commission on Human Rights and SYMPOSIUM ON RUSSIA AND CHINA 257 undergraduate and 150 Administrative Justice in Ghana. She is COMMEMORATES LEHMAN’S U.N. ROLE ...5 graduate institutions. a member of both the Lehman Scholars PROFESSOR DAVID GILLISON RETURNS TO A native of the Caribbean Program and the Ronald E. McNair CRATER MOUNTAIN .............................6 nation of Dominica, where she Postbaccalaureate Achievement Award helped to found the St. Vincent Program and has also ESTEBAN RAMOS (’06) RECEIVES AWARD de Paul Youth Conference, Augustine worked as a house manag- FOR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ..............7 plans to earn a law degree and hopes er at a facility for men and GALA AT NYBG SALUTES BOTH to continue on for her doctorate. women who are homeless Her goal is to work in the area of and HIV-positive. PRESIDENT AND COLLEGE ...................10 international policy to help the poor Her mentor, Dr. Gary HONOR ROll OF DONORS ............ 11-15 and disenfranchised. The award will Schwartz (Languages and A MAN OF VISION, STEVE SLOAN (’81) provide one-half of the tuition for Literatures), describes her her first two years of law school, plus as “a most compelling per- SEES WITH HIS HEART ........................16 an additional grant of $20,000 per son.” ◆ ALUMNI NEWS ............................. 16-20 year. She and her family arrived in the United Alice Michelle Augustine (top) and with her mentor, States six years ago. Dr. Gary Schwartz. Holding Your Family Together In a Time of War Herring Finds a Home (Again) in the Bronx River xperts estimate that the last herring spawned in New York City waters in E1643. That is, until this March. Lehman College, together with the Wild- life Conservation Society and a coalition of community organizations, released 201 adult herring into the Bronx River on March 21 in an experiment to see if the fish will produce young. The adult herring would then swim out to sea, followed later by their offspring, who Steven Rivera (right) and his wife, Janet, would return to their birthplace as grown-ups met at Lehman in 1990. They’ve stood by in three or four years to repeat the cycle. one another ever since, even through his When early Dutch settlers built dams in the deployments to Iraq. See page 18. river, the herring were blocked from swimming Photo by Jason Green LEHMAN COLLEGE Greeting the herring at river’s edge are members of upstream to reproduce. The plan is to build The City University of New York Lehman’s LaMER (Laboratory for Marine and “fish ladders” at two key dams in time to help 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West Estuarine Research) team. Pictured from left are Dr. the herring when they make their return trip. If Bronx, New York 10468 Tony Pappantoniou, Lehman alumna Dr. Barbara it works, the Bronx River will be the only New www.lehman.edu Warkentine and LaMER director Dr. Joseph Rachlin. York City waterway where this species spawns.◆ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • C• AMPU• • • •S • N• EW• • S• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Lehman Grad Student Julia Rafal Headed for President Fernández Elected Vice Chair University of Cambridge—Then Back to the Bronx Of Key Educational Body ehman graduate student Julia Rafal is “Being a special education teacher in the one of 43 people nationwide to win the Bronx opened my eyes to an entirely different Lprestigious Marshall Scholarship, which way of life,” says Rafal, who grew up in New will give her $60,000 to pursue a doctorate at Jersey. “I had no idea what it meant to be the University of Cambridge in England. culturally diverse until I started teaching at my Rafal was nomi- school and realized how intense these students’ nated for the award lives can be.” by her undergraduate She says that much of the success she sees alma mater, George in her classroom in terms of implementing Washington Univer- education plans for special education students sity, where she or working on behavior management problems graduated summa can be attributed to what she has learned from President Fernández cum laude in 2004 her Lehman professors. with a bachelor’s After completing her doctorate in inclusive Lehman College President Ricardo in psychology and Photo by Keisha-Gaye Anderson education and comparative education from R. Fernández has been elected Vice sociology. the University of Cambridge, she hopes to Chair/Chair-elect of the American The scholarship Cambridge-bound Julia Rafal return to the Bronx and open the borough’s Council on Education (ACE), the seeks to strengthen first all-inclusive charter school. Rafal believes major coordinating body for higher the relationship between the British and this approach to education will give children education in the United States, with American people and their institutions by the chance to really learn from each other by more than 1,800 member institutions. creating opportunities for high-achieving young accepting differences and removing the label Americans to study at British institutions. It is of “special education,” which can be very A member of the ACE Board of Direc- named for George C. Marshall, whose Marshall stigmatizing to young people. tors since 2003, he was elected by Plan helped to rebuild Europe after World War II. “I have ties here now, from working for two acclamation earlier this year during Rafal is pursuing her master’s in childhood years and going to school,” Rafal says. ”I really the organization’s 88th annual meet- education and special education at Lehman identify with this community, and that is why I ing in Los Angeles. Next year, he will through the Teach For America program, while plan to open that charter school—so I can give automatically assume the position of also teaching fifth and sixth grade at PS 246. back to the children and their families.” ◆ Chair, following the term of Syracuse University President and Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Professor Mary Rita Donleavy Based in Washington, D.C., ACE seeks Doesn’t Stop to Count the Years to provide leadership and a unifying n 1948, shortly after graduating from Hunter College in Manhattan, voice on key higher education issues Mary Rita Donleavy received a card from the College’s Bureau of and influence public policy through IEducational and Vocational Guidance, asking her to come in for a advocacy, research and program ini- job interview. As it turns out, she had been selected from the class for a tiatives. ◆ clerical position, which she took. That began what has become one of the longest periods of service for any CUNY employee. On this jour- ney, she notes, she was “a witness to the University’s response to social, economic and technological change.” After teaching in Bronx public schools and working for a time at Manhattanville College, Professor Donleavy began teaching at Hunter- Mary Rita Donleavy in-the-Bronx in 1956. In 1968, when a new institution, Lehman Col- Lehman College of The City University of New York is located at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard lege, was being formed on the campus, she decided to stay in the Bronx. West, Bronx, NY 10468. Anne Johnson, Vice “I made that choice,” she says, “with the hope that new approaches to teacher education President for Institutional Advancement; Bar- could be developed.” Today, at 82, she is still at Lehman, still teaching and able to look back bara Smith, Director of Alumni Relations. on a lifetime of contributions in her field. These include creation of an alternative field-based Lehman Lightning is produced in the Office program in teacher education called “Eureka,” pioneering work in the field of organization of Media Relations and Publications. Editor: Marge Rice. Staff: Keisha-Gaye Anderson, development, and dozens of publications, presentations and teacher-training sessions. Barbara Cardillo, Joseph McElligott, Lisandra Athough Professor Donleavy retired from Lehman in 1991, she continues to teach a graduate Merentis, Yeara Milton, Florian Penev and course that promotes the use of action research, which is being advocated as a method of bring- Phyllis Yip. ing about change in educational settings. She is continuing her own research, too. Particularly interested in the knowledge economy, she plans to write her next paper about the application of the behavioral sciences to working experiences in this new “knowledge world.” ◆ 2 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •C • AMPU• • • •S • N • EW• • S• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Dr. Gregorio Valdez (’96) Having ‘Lots of Fun’ Nobel Laureate Doing Neuroscience Research at Harvard Jody Williams oming out of high in neuroscience from SUNY Delivers Lehman Lecture school, Gregorio at Stony Brook, opening the CValdez knew very door to the opportunity at little about the sciences. Now Harvard. the 1996 Lehman graduate The research he is is a postdoctoral research conducting there in fellow at Harvard University’s neuroscience has great Department of Molecular implications for treating and Cellular Biology.