College Accomplishments

 
  • FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS | SPRING/SUMMER 2021
     
    Professor Henry Lesnick is retiring as professor emeritus. OAA is proud to share a few highlights from his career as a member of the Hostos Community College faculty.
     
    Henry Lesnick, Hostos CC Professor Emeritus, taught and developed courses in Language and Cognition, English, and Humanities departments. He was an active member in multiple national professional organizations, chairing committees, organizing presentations, and publishing in journals. Professor Lesnick helped organize the Hostos committee to stop English only and worked to defeat the national effort to pass the English language amendment (ELA). He spoke to the NY State Senate education committee on the discriminatory and educationally destructive effects of the amendment and the white nationalist agenda of its prime promoters. And, wrote a paper on the ELA for Governor Mario Cuomo, at his request, and worked with Jose Serrano who was the major opponent of the ELA in congress.
     
    Professor Mohammad Usman has a new article in the International Journal of Housing Policy titled, “Urban informality in the Global North: (il)legal status and housing strategies of Ghanaian migrants in New York City.” The article focused on how documented and undocumented Ghanaians access housing in the Bronx. The findings reveal how strong ties to one's ethnic social network critically influence access to housing, irrespective of legal status.
     
    Mohammad Usman, Sabina Maslova, and Gemma Burgess (2020). Urban informality in the Global North: (il)legal status and housing strategies of Ghanaian migrants in New York City, International Journal of Housing Policy, DOI: 10.1080/19491247.2020.1814189

    Professor Elys Vasquez-Iscan was appointed Co-Chair of the NYS AIDS Institute HIV Advisory Body in the fall of 2020. In spring of 2021 She received a scholarship to attend a certificate program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
     
    Professor Herve Fossou, who graduated in 2015 from Hostos in the Community Health degree program has been accepted in a Ph.D. program in epidemiology at Washington State University. He will start in the fall 2021.
     
    Professor Iris Mercado applied for the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiative, and the Mindset GPS (Growth Mindset, Purpose & Relevance & Sense of Belonging) course. Professor Mercado was quoted in an article published in Consumer Report magazine earlier this year, and is a serving Board Member of the BronxCare Martin Luther King Jr. Health Centers.
     
    English Department
    This year, CUNY TV's EdCast, hosted and produced by Dr. Linda Hirsch, devoted five episodes to addressing the effects of the Pandemic on education:

    1. The Digital Divide and COVID-19
    2. Returning to Campus during COVID-19
    3. Children, Trauma and COVID-19
    4. Education 2020: How COVID-19 Shaped the Curriculum
    5. Reaching Vaccine Resisters: CONVINCE USA
     
    Assistant Professor Ana Ozuna was a $40,000 Grant Awardee recipient from the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship from Spring 2020-Spring 2022.
 
  • Incredible Achievements of Hostos Writing Center Tutors
     
    The Writing Center is incredibly pleased to announce that 7 WC tutors are graduating from their Bachelor's degrees, with 3 entering graduate programs in Fall 2021. When these tutors were recommended to the Writing Center by their Hostos professors, we knew they were going to accomplish great things. We are so proud of Jenifer Vivar, who was awarded a prestigious NOAA-CESSRST scholarship to pursue a Master of Science in Data Science and Engineering at City College; only ten fellowships are awarded each year to promising stars in Data Science. Alyesha Alston will be commencing a Master of Arts in Forensic Mental Health Counseling at John Jay, having soared to the President's list, Dean's list, and June 2018 Honors Convocation Speaker at Hostos and graduated from SUNY Potsdam with a B.A. in Psychology. Ashley Barreto will be entering a Master of Fine Arts (Studio Arts) program at Michigan State University after graduating magna cum laude from Lehman College. Victor Valerio, a former fellow of the competitive Skadden Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies at City College, graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Political Science and English. He was also selected to be a Partners for Change Fellow in 2019 and completed 150 hours of service in community organizing. Eva Soriano earned a B.B.A. in Marketing Management and a minor in Theater, for which she has been awarded outstanding performance in the theatrical arts. Ashley Thomas, Hostos class of 2017, received a B.A. in Social Work from Lehman College, having interned at Bronx Parent Housing Network Promise Place as well as Lanet's Place. Shaneka Crossman, who graduated magna cum laude from City College, was the recipient of an NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates internship to apprentice as a developmental and comparative psychology researcher at Yale University. Please help us to offer hearty congratulations to these Hostos alumni who have built on the foundations Hostos has provided them to shine big and bright, as well as to Maya Abdoussala, who is graduating from Hostos with the Presidential Medal of Honor. What a year!
     
    In addition, please enjoy this new published piece by Sarah Key, our Poet-in-Practice, in Heartwood Literary Magazine:
    http://www.heartwoodlitmag.com/lucky-thirteen
     
     
    Scholastic Achievement Candidate Reflection
     
    Class of 2021, Mark W. Davy, candidate for the Scholastic Achievement Award, shared the following reflection with Provost Drago and the Office of Academic Affairs.
     
    I am humbled by this recognition. I've had to knock down so many more obstacles than the front doors of Hostos to enter these hallowed halls. Even this acknowledgement, near the end of my junior college journey, found me in need of uplifting. It has bolstered my faith beyond imagination into certainty, for I know now that I am not alone. Hostos has aided me in that realization. My journey, however personal, is not unique- nor my burden the heaviest. I have seen young children sitting quietly beside single mothers, and shared notes with young fathers late to class from work. I have felt the weight of the world lifted off my back by the combined strength of a thousand bright minds laboring together. I have become part of a communal struggle, and I am better for it. Thank You, Dreams! Thank You, Hope! Thank You, Hostos! 
     
    Mark W. Davy '21