Brooklyn College Magazine, Fall 2012, Volume 2
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From arts and culture to boutique Brooklyn College Magazine B businesses, Volume 2 | Number 1 | Fall 2012 Brooklyn College is helping to fuel the borough’s growing economy. 9 The Past Materialized Students unearth clues to life in eighteenth-century Brooklyn at the historic Lott House. 14 Thinking Outside the Box Three alumni turn their passions into small businesses, tailor-made for Brooklyn’s eclectic and diverse neighborhoods. 18 Brooklyn’s New Creative Class M.F.A. alumni hone their literary voices and find a launchpad for their work right here in the borough. 2 From the President’s Desk 3 Snapshots 6 Notables 9 Features 23 College News 27 Career Corner 28 Athletics 30 Alumni Profile 31 Class Notes 36 Out and About 38 In Memoriam 40 Photo Album Brooklyn College Magazine Editor-in-Chief Art Director Advisory Committee 2900 Bedford Avenue Keisha-Gaye Anderson Lisa Panazzolo Nicole Hosten-Haas, Chief of Staff Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889 Simeon Iheagwam ’06, Staff Writers Production Assistant Brooklyn College Foundation Trustee 718.951.5882 Dominique Carson Mammen P. Thomas Steven Schechter, Executive Director of Government and External Affairs [email protected] Ernesto Mora Ron Schweiger ’70, President of the Brooklyn College Alumni Association © 2012 Brooklyn College Staff Photographers Andrew Sillen ’74, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Richard Sheridan David Rozenblyum Jeremy A. Thompson, Executive Director of Marketing, Jamilah Simmons Craig Stokle President Mark Zhuravsky ’10 Communications, and Public Relations Karen L. Gould Colette Wagner, Assistant Provost for Planning and Special Projects Contributing Writers Provost Alex Lang William A. Tramontano Anthony Ramos Izabela Rutkowski ’11 Patricia Willard Editorial Assistant Mark Zhuravsky ’10 Karen L. Gould, President arlier this fall, those with only a high school more than 150 alumni from the diploma, our alumni bring nearly from Efirst three decades of our $800 million more into our eighty-two-year history came to borough’s economy every year, campus to celebrate at our annual simply because they earned a the post-fiftieth reunion. The event degree at Brooklyn College. By was filled with fond memories this measure alone, our impact of Brooklyn College—favorite on the borough of Brooklyn is PRESIDENT’S DESK professors, country fairs, and old substantial. Add to that the two friends. It was wonderful to be thousand faculty and staff we reminded once again that our employ; the jobs we generate department, who lost his life Arthur Bankoff ’65, professor of legacy is not simply about courses, through multimillion dollar during the height of the storm. archaeology and anthropology, grades, degrees, and diplomas; construction projects, such as Our entire campus mourns for guides college and high school it’s about making a difference in the Leonard & Claire Tow Center Jake and his family and for all of students in an effort to preserve people’s lives. for the Performing Arts; and the those who experienced Sandy’s one of our borough’s important I was particularly pleased to research leading to real-world full devastation. historical sites. And several meet Ethel Lagarrene Hagquist innovation, and it is clear our In the aftermath of the storm, graduates of our world-renowned and Gandolfa Aiosa DeFronzo, institution is a critical economic our college community has come M.F.A. program in creative writing alumnae from the college’s very engine for Brooklyn and for the together to help those in need, are sustaining Brooklyn’s decades- first graduating class in 1932. entire city of New York. giving generously of their time old tradition as a literary hub. These two women, ages 101 and Even so, just as our legacy and resources. In fact, as I write In this edition, we turn our 99, spoke of Brooklyn College is not only about classes and this message, alumni have already focus to Brooklyn. Some of us with great affection and gratitude. degrees, our impact on the city is donated nearly $14,000 to help give back to Brooklyn by building That they chose to return to not only about dollars generated our students who were affected a stronger economy. Some campus more than eighty years and jobs created. At Brooklyn by Hurricane Sandy. On behalf of contribute by volunteering in their after receiving their degrees is College, we care about people everyone at Brooklyn College, neighborhoods. Still others turn just one example of the lifelong helping people, about making a I am truly grateful. a lifelong passion into a source impact of a Brooklyn College difference in our neighborhoods. Several students, faculty, of community pride. Together, education. Ethel and Gandolfa Every year, our students and and alumni who are profiled all of these efforts enhance the remind us of our great history, faculty volunteer thousands of and they are remarkable role hours to important causes in our Our alumni bring nearly $800 models for our students. community. Like many others With more than a hundred throughout Brooklyn, we volunteer million more into our borough’s thousand alumni living in every for homeless shelters, mentor neighborhood in New York City, struggling teens, and tend to economy every year simply every state in the country, and much-needed green space in our because they earned a degree at all around the world, the positive urban setting. influence of our graduates At this difficult time for Brooklyn College. extends well beyond our campus. the entire region, our college At the same time, Brooklyn remains has once again demonstrated an intrinsic part of Brooklyn a commitment to caring. In the in this edition of the magazine quality of life in our city. With College. It is the borough we call wake of Hurricane Sandy, we have found personal ways students, faculty, and alumni, our home, and it is in this great city banded together to respond to to make a difference here college community is more than that we set our direction and the needs of our students, faculty, in Brooklyn. Former model fifty thousand strong in Brooklyn measure our success. staff, and neighbors, some of Amy Gunther turned a love alone, and we are working to build In fact, nearly forty thousand whom lost everything to the storm. of skateboarding into a retail a better Brooklyn every day. of our alumni live in Brooklyn— We are particularly heartbroken business in Williamsburg that one in every twenty Brooklyn by the death of Jacob Vogelman, grew to become one of the residents with a college degree. a twenty-three-year-old student most popular hubs in New York With average earnings well above pursuing an M.F.A. in our theater City’s skateboarding scene. 2 BROOklyn COLLEGE Magazine | FALL 2012 Rosen Fellow Gives Back to His Rural Community with SNAPSHOTS TECHNOLOGY Apollo Namalu touched a “One of my biggest computer keyboard for the memories growing up is group of programmers. There first time just seven years ago. standing in line for a really were about twenty students Growing up in Budadiri, a village long time to get treatment at and recent college graduates of about ten thousand people a hospital,” he says, explaining who developed applications for in Eastern Uganda, computers that a big part of the holdup the project. were only something he knew at many healthcare centers is Then, Namalu spent time about from movies. When his due to the jumble of records at the hospital, interviewing school opened a new computer on patient medical histories. staff in each department, lab, he would initially stand over Records are kept on paper, often learning their lingo for use in his classmates’ shoulders and stacked in an overwhelmingly the software his programmers look on. cluttered closet, as Namalu were creating and trying to get “It was one of those situations witnessed this summer when he a good grasp of their current where, even to touch it, you had visited his hometown hospital. methods for recordkeeping. to get permission,” the Brooklyn Patients also have the option of “I wanted to involve College senior recalls. purchasing their own medical everyone as much as possible Then someone showed record book that they keep for a throughout each stage so that him how to turn one on. “That doctor to update after each visit, this wouldn’t feel like something Rosen Fellow was huge for me,” he says now, however the books —though strange when it’s implemented,” remembering how he tentatively they cost fractions of a penny Apollo Namalu he says. “I knew we weren’t moved the mouse around. —are too expensive for many stands in the going to switch from writing all That moment sparked Ugandans to afford. cluttered closet of the time to typing overnight.” something within him, inspiring So Namalu called the head a hospital in his In just three weeks, Namalu him to pursue a career as a of the hospital in Budadiri to was able to develop and test a native Uganda, software designer in the United feel him out. “I was offering my system that allowed hospital where patient States. But even before he services, but at the same time, staff to enter information graduates next spring with a I wanted it to come from him,” records are weekly from their huge ledger bachelor’s degree in computer Namalu says. routinely stored. book into a software program. information science, he is trying Having witnessed many He also provided training to the to help update his native well-intentioned projects fall healthcare workers. country’s technology. flat after their benefactors The system, which he A 2012 Rosen Fellow, left town, he knew he would named “Kyitara,” the local word Namalu used his $5,000 award have to come up with a way for granary, proved to be an to create a patient record- for the hospital staff and the effective way for the staff to management software system to community to feel a sense of enter information to generate be used in a Ugandan hospital.