Alumni Affairs Director Maria-Cristina Necula, center, with Tony Martignetti, left, and Carlos Flynn, University Dean for Institutional Advancement, on the right.

Maria-Cristina Necula, Director of Alumni Affairs at Lehman College, was awarded the 2013 Outstanding Achievement in Alumni Outreach Award at the CUNY Philanthropy Forum held at the Graduate Center last month.

“I felt very honored to receive this award and to be included among my outstanding colleagues throughout CUNY,” Necula said. “This recognition is a truly meaningful acknowledgment of all the work of my three years at Lehman, work that couldn’t have been successfully accomplished without the invaluable support of the Institutional Advancement team and many other colleagues throughout Lehman. I share this award with all of them. It brings an added inspiration in continuing to expand the outreach to alumni, and explore various possibilities of engaging them to their alma mater and to each other.”

Necula was recognized for her outstanding work in expanding the office of Alumni Affairs. Recently, she organized several events to help alumni better connect with their alma matter, such as the second annual Richard Tucker Foundation concert in the Multimedia Center, Lehman’s on-campus reunion for the first graduating classes of 1968-1975, the Lehman College Donor Recognition Reception, and a professional networking event in Manhattan, among others.

Carlos Flynn, University Dean for Institutional Advancement, started the CUNY Philanthropy Forum in 2010 as an opportunity to encourage CUNY’s fundraising efforts and create a platform where philanthropists can exchange ideas with CUNY leaders.

“Lehman StudentConnect is the latest addition to our evolving suite of services at the College. The site is designed to build on our previously released faculty and staff portal, ‘Lehman Connect,’ and joins our other applications comprising Lehman’s Web ecosystem,” said David Stevens, manager of Web Services at Lehman. “Content published on any of these sites can be easily promoted and shared across Lehman’s communication channels, including the College’s public website, blog, calendar, portals, and social media sites.”

Students log in to the new portal using their Lehman e-mail username and password. The site gives students the opportunity to learn more about College and student events, and access CUNYfirst; SkyDrive, a component of the student e-mail system; Mobile Printing, which allows students to use their mobile devices to schedule a print job from off campus; class schedules; and more.

The portal also provides a wealth of Student Life information regarding  clubs, organizations, Student Government, and other activities.

Lehman also recently introduced its new online media platform, Digital Connect, which makes it easier for faculty to capture, manage, and deliver videos to the community. Faculty can record lectures, class sessions, or podcasts that can later be viewed on any device. Users can also share the content publicly, so that the entire community can learn more about campus events, or privately, within a course or a department.

Lehman Connect launched last year and in November, grew to include Lehman Community Connect, a new platform aimed at providing residents, students, faculty and others a map-based resource to find Bronx-related data to facilitate research and community interaction.

Professor Victoria Sanford

In an op-ed piece published in The New York  Times, Professor Victoria Sanford writes that although the recently concluded trial that found ex-Guatemalan dictator General Ríos Montt guilty of genocide is a historical victory for justice, there is much more work to be done. Prof. Sanford, the director of the Center of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College and a faculty member of the Anthropology department is an internationally recognized expert on the Guatemalan Genocide and the author of several books including Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala.

Professor Susan Watson Turner

Professor Susan Watson Turner’s (JCT) 2009 film The Mattress Hustle has been selected as a finalist for the 2013 Hoboken International Film Festival, which will run from May 31 through June 6, at the Paramount Theatre in Middletown, New York.

The film beat out more than 1,300 submissions for the privilege of being shown at the seven-day Festival, which presents feature-length films, shorts, animation, television pilots, and screenplays from around the world.

The Mattress Hustle follows a young couple as they transition from entry-level jobs to the careers of their dreams. Unable to maintain their lifestyle in their Manhattan apartment, they return to their childhood home, where they find little privacy. The film, which will be screened on Thursday, June 6, at 8 p.m., was written by Professor Watson Turner’s sister-in-law, Vanessa Turner.

The Festival will culminate with a special awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Gilbert Gottfried. Prizes will be given out in the following categories: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Short Film, Best Documentary, Best TV Pilot, and Best Unproduced Screenplay.

“There was some pretty tough competition, so this is very exciting for me and those of us who worked on the film,” says Professor Watson Turner, who launched her career in the theater at the Karamu Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio.

She holds a B.F.A. from Ohio University and an M.F.A. from Columbia University in theatre directing and management. In addition to independent films, Professor Watson Turner has directed regionally and off-Broadway productions as well. Her book, The Fire Inside (The Story and Poetry of Nikki Giovanni) was published in 2012 by XLIBRIS.

For more information on the Hoboken International Film Festival, visit hobokeninternationalfilmfestival.com

Titled “Summer’s Coming,” the concert will feature a mix of popular selections for wind band the entire family can enjoy, including Aaron Copland’s ever popular “Buckaroo Holiday” from Rodeo, Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” from The Planets, and a beautiful arrangement of Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria, sung by guest vocalist, baritone Darian Worrell.

The band will also perform a folksong-themed work, entitled American Hymnsong Suite by Dwayne S. Milburn, Ricard Wagner’s lush “Prelude” from Die Miestersinger, and a stately Norwegian march by Johannes Hanssen, entitled Valdres.

Rounding out the program will be a special guest performance by the winner of the 2013 Jerome Sala Memorial Competition, trumpeter Frank Gyeabour from Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, who will perform Alexander Arutiunian’s dramatic Trumpet Concerto.

Directed by Professor Alan Hollander, the Lehman College Community Band includes Lehman students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members.

For more information, contact the College’s Music Department at 718-960-8247, e-mail music.department@lehman.cuny.edu, or visit lehman.edu/music.

Kermit Raphael Ureña

Lehman alumnus Kermit Raphael Ureña ’07 is the producer of a new comedy, Gym Shorts: The Show. Performances will run from May 10 through May 26, at the 777 Theatre on 8^th Avenue. Written and directed by Eric S. Robertson, the play is set at a local gym and is presented in five vignettes. Tickets to the show are available now at www.gymshortstheshow.com. Lehman students will receive a discount when they use the code STU25. Students must show ID at the Box Office.

In Gym Shorts, a group of men exorcise their insecurities and demons in this light comedy about relationships, companionship, and acceptance.

It’s a topic that Ureña is intimately familiar with. He describes his life since graduation as one roller coaster ride after another. Upon earning his degree in business administration, he went to work for the Hebrew Home at Riverdale as a development associate. Eager to launch his career as a business professional, Ureña left the Hebrew Home in 2008 to start work in real estate management and administration.

Soon after, the bottom fell out. The financial and real estate markets continued to decline, and Ureña was eventually let go from his job. Unemployed and with few prospects, he turned to exercise. Ureña dove into the relatively new P90X fitness program, through which he lost 101 pounds.

Always the business man, Ureña formed new partnerships with coaches associated with the P90X series with the aim of educating others on fitness and making healthy lifestyle choices. He named his new business “Real Easy Fitness: The Ref of Fitness.”

This new initiative led to a chance encounter with the man behind P90X, Tony Horton. Following their meeting, Horton’s representatives contacted Ureña about going on tours with Horton and starring alongside him in new infomercials.

“I was on top of the world at that point,” recalls Ureña. “I was really looking forward to being part of something that I was excited about.”

Life, as it happens, had other plans for the burgeoning fitness guru. Ureña and his girlfriend were struck by a car while crossing a street in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Both have since recuperated from their injuries, but doctors told Ureña that he would have to stop the rigorous P90X series—his injuries were such that extreme forms of exercise were no longer possible. This also meant no tour and no infomercial.

When One Door Closes, Break Through Another…

Ureña is nothing if not resilient. Disappointed over his lost opportunity and disillusioned with his new physical reality, Ureña turned to something that he hadn’t done since second grade—acting. He enrolled in acting classes at a studio in SoHo, and soon he was going on auditions and landing bit parts in independent films, music videos, and off-Broadway theater productions.

Ureña eventually teamed up with a group of actors to start a production company, “Naked Chicken Productions” in 2011. He and his cohorts went on to produce their first showcase at the Roy Arias Theatre in Manhattan. The production generated some excitement among theatre professionals, and “Naked Chicken Productions” was soon being asked to produce other events.

He says producing Gym Shorts has served as an outlet for him. “In light of everything that’s happened in my life, I thought it was appropriate for me to produce this play,” laughs Ureña.

“If someone had told me three years ago that I would be producing plays, operating my own accounting office, and giving talks about healthy life habits, I would have thought they were crazy,” says Ureña. “But despite all the ups and downs, I have to say, I’m glad I’m still in the game. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

David Jonah Goldhagen

Worse than War, a PBS documentary on the nature of genocide, will screen at the Leonard Lief library on May 9 at 11 a.m., to be followed by a discussion with writer and filmmaker Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. The screening, presented by Lehman College’s Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies, is free and open to the public.

Worse than War follows Daniel Goldhagen as he travels to Rwanda, Kenya, Guatemala, Germany, Bosnia, the United States, and Ukraine to meet victims and perpetrators of genocide as well as historians and witnesses. The documentary also analyses what kind of efforts can world leaders implement to prevent future genocides.

The documentary, directed by the award-winning Mike DeWitt, was adapted from Goldhagen’s book, Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, which explores the phenomenon of genocide around the world.

“Going to the places that I had often researched and talked about was profoundly moving and disturbing,” Goldhagen said. “Sitting across from people who had suffered incalculable degrees of pain and loss is something which is both humbling and thought-provoking.”

Before writing about the overall phenomenon of genocide, Goldhagen researched the root causes and different facets of the Holocaust in his 1997 book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. His ideas inspired worldwide debate and convinced him to explore the more contemporary problem of mass murders, a natural offshoot of his early work.

“Having worked for years on that subject, I was used to talking to victims,” he said, “but going from countries to countries, continents to continents, and spending time with victims and perpetrators of genocides extended my personal experience and enriched my work in this film incommensurably.”

“Even though there have always been Mexicans living in New York City, it has been thirty years since the first massive wave of migration from the state of Puebla began,” said the Institute’s director, Dr. Alyshia Gálvez of Lehman’s Department of Latin American, Latino and Puerto Rican Studies, who has written extensively about issues affecting Mexican immigrants. “Today, the population has grown and become more diverse in state and community of origin, gender, ethnicity, language, and more,” she added, noting that part of the Institute’s work is to promote the educational attainment of the Mexican immigrant community in New York City.

The conference, entitled “Mexico-NY: Thirty Years of Migration” will bring together internationally recognized experts on Mexican immigration, such as keynote speaker Dr. Federico Besserer, professor of anthropology of the autonomous national university of Iztapalapa (UAM). The conference also marks a year-long collaboration with the Benemérita Universidad de Puebla and several scholars from that university will present, as well as scholars from other parts of Mexico, the University of Kentucky, University of Texas at El Paso, Manhattan College, Columbia University, New School, SUNY Albany, and Rutgers University, in addition to experts from several CUNY Campuses (Lehman College, John Jay College, Baruch College, College of Staten Island, Medgar Evers College), for a variety of panels and discussions.

The Institute builds on nearly a decade of work by the CUNY Working Task Force on Strengthening Educational Opportunities for the Mexican and Mexican-American Community, which held four conferences on Mexican immigration in New York City between 2006 and 2012. This conference continues a dialogue, under the Institute’s auspices, between local and national scholars, as well as among academics, advocates and practitioners.

At the conference, there will also be an awards ceremony for the CUNY-IME Becas Scholarship Program, in which 13 students will be given full tuition scholarships for studying at the graduate and undergraduate level at the City University of New York. Scholarship winners were selected for academic merit, financial need, and commitment to service in the Mexican immigrant community. The scholarship winners are also placed in service-learning internships with community based organizations that serve the Mexican community such as La Union, La Casa Azul Bookstore, MASA-Mex-Ed, Memorial Sloan Kettering Immigrant Cancer Disparities Service, Office of State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Qualitas of Life Foundation (financial literacy), Tertulia Resolana (Latino education in NYC High Schools), New York State Youth Leadership Council, Consulate of Mexico.

For a listing of the full program and to register for the conference, visit http://www.lehman.edu/cuny-mexican-studies-institute/annual-conference.php. The conference will be webcast live on May 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/msc.

For more information please call (718) 960-5115 or email mexican.studies@lehman.cuny.edu.

Hosted by the Lehman College Sustainability Council, the event seeks to raise environmental awareness.

2 Minute 6 Seconds

Look for us at the Lehman College YouTube Channel.

This video is also part of the “Lehman on iTunes U”:

“Strides in Sustainability” takes you through the Bronx’s journey toward energy efficiency in its new buildings and transportation systems and explores some of the environmental efforts underway on the Lehman campus as well as in the borough.

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Tobi Alli

The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association has named Lehman College’s Tobi All as its Division III Women’s National Athlete of the Week.

Alli had perhaps the most successfully diverse weekend of any non-combined events track and field athlete, with wins in four individual sprint and jump events, two relay wins, and a third-place finish in the shot put at the CUNYAC Championships.

To add to her accomplishments, her marks in two of those events were among the top 10 in Division III this season. With a winning triple jump mark of 38-10½ (11.85m), she claimed the No. 6 spot on the Division III list, while her winning time of 12.05 at 100 meters clocked in as the sixth fastest in the division.

She also claimed the long jump with a mark of 18-3 (5.56m, +4.1m/s) and the 200 in 25.40, as well as running legs of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. As if she hadn’t already done enough running and jumping, she also tried her hand at the shot put, where she earned her team some more points with a third-place throw of 31-2½ (9.51m).

Alli was named the CUNYAC Most Valuable Performer of the CUNYAC Championship meet, held at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island. “We put a lot of work into this,” she said. “It feels amazing. We would not have won without every single person on this team. We made it and it feels great.”