THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY: Press Information

Nanette Shaw
Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs

PRESS CONTACT:
David Manning
212. 817.7177 or 7170
dmanning@gc.cuny.edu


May 1999

for IMMEDIATE release



Breslin to Speak, Senior Citizen Graduates to be Honored at CUNY BA/BS Commencement




Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Jimmy Breslin will be the speaker and three graduates who are over 65 years old will be honored at the CUNY Baccalaureate Program Commencement on Monday, June 7. Beginning at 10:15 a.m., the ceremony will be held at the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street. Ana Aslan will speak for the 215 students who are graduating.

Famous for his hard-bitten style and delving analyses of the underside of public life, Breslin worked for the New York Herald Tribune until its demise in 1966. He went on to write for the Daily News until 1987 when he joined the staff of Newsday. Among other things, he is known for championing causes of the poor and the oppressed.

Several of the 1999 CUNY BA/BS recipients are senior citizens who have made significant professional accomplishments during their lives and have seen children and grandchildren graduate from college. The senior graduates to be honored include George Triffon, a psychology major and acclaimed jazz trumpeter who originally began his college studies in 1954; Annette Zickl, a 74-year-old English major whose six adult children and several grandchildren will be on hand to see her graduate cum laude; and octogenarian Irene Cohen, who worked as a clerical secretary for 29 years in the Fashion Fabrics Department at Bloomingdales before starting in the CUNY BA/BS Program.

Aslan, the student speaker, is an Argentine photojournalist who has focused on international human rights both in her photojournalism and her college studies. Her photos have appeared in the New York Times.

The CUNY Baccalaureate Program operates as a small, individualized program within The City University of New York. Drawing on university-wide resources, the program reflects the CUNY-wide consortium model of The Graduate Center, where it is headquartered. The program allows academically motivated students the freedom and independence to work with faculty advisors in developing an individualized course of study. In offering students an unusual amount of flexibility, the program appeals to many individuals who have been away from school for a long stretch, work full time, manage a family, or have noncollege experiences that can be credited toward degree requirements. Students in the CUNY Baccalaureate Program can attend classes at all 17 CUNY colleges, as well as at The Graduate Center. Since it was founded in 1971, nearly 5,000 students have received their undergraduate degrees through the program, 45% of the graduates have gone on to obtain master's degrees, and 12% have since earned doctorates. About 30 CUNY BA/BS graduates are currently CUNY Graduate Center students.

The program's web site is http://www.cunyba.cuny.edu.

The Graduate School and University Center is the doctorate-granting institution of the largest urban university in the U.S. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center draws its faculty of more than 1,700 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City.

Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students in 31 doctoral programs and seven master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 23 research centers and institutes and administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program.

According to a recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast.


1999 CUNY Baccalaureate Program Commencement
Profiles of Interesting Graduates



Francoise Bennett was born in Brussels, Belgium during the onslaught of the Second World War. She studied briefly at the Université Catholique de Louvain and, following emigration to the United States in the early 1960s, Columbia. In addition to raising a family, Ms. Bennett has worked as a community activist in Westchester County and teacher with the First Unitarian Society of Westchester before entering the CUNY Baccalaureate Program in 1997. An urban studies major, she hopes to "be useful to young people and women" after graduating, which she will do cum laude.

Brigitte Antonocci, a student majoring in Biological Anthropology and Environmental Science and Conservation, has more than a textbook knowledge of primates. She has cared for privately owned chimpanzees for several years! The cum laude graduate hopes someday to earn a doctorate in physical anthropology.

Tarik Cherkaoui was born in Morocco. He worked on a documentary about the participation of women in the Moroccan Resistance movement of the 1950s. The film inspired an animated short on a similar topic which received the award for best animation and sound design in the 1998 Brooklyn College Film Festival. Mr. Cherkaoui is seeking work in an animation studio upon graduation. He is graduating magna cum laude with a degree in animation and computer information systems.

Heidi Dehncke-Fisher is a mother of two and a skilled clarinetist affiliated with the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. But this summa cum laude graduate, who majored in government and media studies, has a wide array of interests including politics. In fact, she interned with Sen. Charles Schumer (D — New York) and has been accepted to law school.

Joseph Ilardo admits that his first two years of college, which he began at the "immature and naive age of sixteen," were something of a disaster. He went to find work as a bank clerk, letter carrier for the post office, police officer, court officer, and court clerk, the last of which he recently retired from. Even with the demands of supporting a family, Mr. Ilardo, whose major is writing and culinary arts, has been actively involved in community work. For example, he has organized an annual event which has raised thousands of dollars for children with AIDS/HIV.

Sharif Rahman hails from Bangladesh. The lingering impact of a traumatic head injury four years ago encouraged him to major in developmental disabilities. He hopes one day to become a doctor.

Karen Marie Ann Kennedy, who taught cosmetology for ten years, has had plenty of life lessons in addition to her formal schooling. Four years ago, in order to save her mother's life, Ms. Kennedy donated one of her own kidneys. The magna cum laude graduate has expanded her studies in psychology and marketing management to include the world of organ donor research.
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