During the 2014-2015 academic year, we have seen some exceptional feats accomplished by our students, alumni and faculty on campus, off-campus and across the world.
Some examples are Rebecca Flores, who presented her research to Congress people (and impressed them); Mi-Yeon Park, a student who created a project around empowering North Korean refugees through education; Women’s and Gender Studies students who presented their research at a conference in Puerto Rico on the intersection of feminism, power, and technology; and students in the Alcalá, Spain program who trained local immigrants in job readiness skills and provided simultaneous translation for an international conference where dignitaries attended – among their other impactful community-engaged work.
The Highlights
Across the School
- The debut of the “Happy and Smart Students” series, which features the unique success stories of students and faculty (in a Humans of New York-feature style). Two examples were the eye-opening interviews were with Dr. Ashley Borders and Navid Radfar.
- The model for success in HSS was coined as “ExCEL” or “Explore, Contribute, Engage, Learn Away.” We even made an info-graphic about how many students get these signature experiences.
Students
- A sophomore Spanish major won a hefty grant from the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society to study abroad in Argentina.
- Two History students wrote award-winning papers about different themes in the history of New Jersey. There is an info-graphic that explains the full scope of their achievements, including the comments on their impressive original research and in-depth analyses.
- Students worked with the only organization that supports autistic children in Tajikistan over the summer. One of them provided circus therapy for the children.
Alumni
- A Sociology alumna started her journey to becoming an early childhood educator at one the Peace Corps’ most geographically isolated posts.
- A Sociology alumnus was honored for his contributions to the Queer Rights movement.
- An English alumna became the newest TCNJ librarian.
Faculty
- Dr. Sisko and Dr. Toloudis (Political Science) spearheaded the Exploring Economic Justice Series, which featured such famed speakers as Matt Taibbi and Charlow Blow. The article on Taibbi’s speech in TCNJ’s campus newspaper did his brilliant commentary on the U.S. financial system “justice.”
By Jack Meyers