 I want to welcome you to the Dean's List's Award Ceremony for the School of Science, Health and Technology at Med River College. I am Dr. Terrence Blackman, and I am the Dean of the School of Science, Health and Technology. Welcome. It's okay, you don't have to applaud for that. That's what I'll say after I think it's more deserving of applause. So nearly 50 years ago, this great institution was founded in order to provide members of this community with an opportunity to experience something even greater than they'd ever imagined. A life enhanced by academic achievement. This evening, we're gathered to lift up and to commend academic excellence in this beloved community. And so permit me a few words about this community. The School of Science, Health and Technology at Med River College. We have a philosophy of teaching and learning and knowledge creation that is rooted in our attempt to engage the question how do we as individuals, students, faculty, staff, more broadly as a School of Science facilitate meaningful participation in science of the highest quality students, our faculty, and all those who come to us seeking to make a way in the 21st century. So we ask, and I think this room is evidence of that, how do we shape this endeavor within the contours of the African-American and other underrepresented communities where the need for scientific innovation is most acutely evident? And so our mission, the mission of the Med River College School of Science, Health and Technology, the place where you have demonstrated excellence, demonstrated the excellence that we honor today, where you have worked with us to advance knowledge in mathematics, nursing, physics and computer science and in other areas of scholarship that will best serve our community and our nation and will broadly our world in this 21st century. This faculty who has certified your excellence is deeply committed to generating, disseminating, preserving knowledge and to working with you to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenge. This School of Science, Games You Worthy, is dedicated to providing you with an education that combines the rigorous academic study that you've experienced and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a vibrant community like the one that you're a part of here that only we believe Med River College can offer. This institution, Med River College that honors you today, seeks to develop in each of you the ability and the passion to work wisely, creatively and effectively for the betterment of humankind. I know this seems like a big stretch but it is really true and so this evening, me, the faculty, the school, the college, we congratulate each of you and the members of your family who are here to support you today, the folks who you've relied on to be here today. We commend you for your courage, strength, your fortitude and in the days ahead let's endeavor to continue the conversations about what tools we need to be our best possible researchers, teachers, mentors, guidance, and students. Tonight, and here you should applaud, we celebrate you being the support of the 2019. We honor tonight of sharing the stage with our Senior Vice President and Provost and our Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Augustino Carrique and our President. And so I just wanted to say one word in introducing Dr. Carrique. You know, leadership matters. You know, everyone, it matters who runs the bodega across the street. It matters who runs the elementary school that your child goes to. It matters who runs this college. And so leadership is profoundly important. It's even more important in this 21st century. And we here at VendReverse have been really fortunate to have a Vice President and a Chief Academic Officer who stands above many in the world being provost. And so tonight I want you to welcome my friend and my boss to the stage here. It can be long. I just want to say good evening. Good evening. See, this is the joyous moment for you. Be on the this list, not easily. So you have to be very happy and very cheerful about that. And that's why we are here to greet you today, celebrate your academic achievements. So it's truly an honor standing before you today as we recognize your academic achievements in the field of science. But we always hear that science is... When will that future come? So science is... And we always say that. So as Dr. Blackburn said moments ago, the work of scientists is some of the most important work being done all the time. I know you'll be very happy about that, that scientists are working very, very important. This is the work of problem solving, but an ever greater part of that work includes healing. But that means the healing of the mind or the body or our planet. So thank you for your commitment to this field. I know that many of you are here today with your family and friends as they share this celebration of excellence. And I just want to say never take their presence here for granted. So I would like you now acknowledge your parents for last years, last years. Thank them for holding you forth while you have all had me and light. School of Science here at Megabas College is truly a gem. We are able to offer our class lab equipment, the opportunity to travel to major conferences and meetings across the country and the opportunity to conduct some great research right here in Central Brooklyn. Our students are really taking advantage of that as evidenced by the large number of honorees here tonight. And that is very encouraging for the future of this history. Once again, I thank you and I welcome you coming here today. So at this point, I will also introduce my boss. And they go the way of the day, you know. I'm the president of the institution here of our group. He is someone we all know. He is a very big, if I may use the term of my people, an Iroko 3, public 3. He is someone who inspires us all and I'm sure he's someone who inspires you too because all of you want to aspire to be other presidents one day. Me too. All the loved ones who are assembled here, thank you very much for being here. Does our home crowd help here celebrate with us the accomplishments of so many? Provost, when you were just talking about, I'm a big tree. I don't know if that was code for I need to lose the way. We'll have that conversation in a little bit. But I do want to write out something that both me and the Provost indicated really important to me. There are times in our lives when we get to come together like this and we look at one another, some of whom we know, some of whom we don't know. We are happy to be here because we celebrate the academic success and the students who have prospered over the course of many years. We're on the eve of graduation, June 5th, Barclays. We're on the year's eve of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Menger Rivers College. All of that brings us together but what we ultimately celebrate is this wonderful understanding of what comes next. So I came here this evening. I won't be able to say it the entire time, but I came this evening because I wanted you to know that in my mind, here's what's next. We talked about the various opportunities that will exist for the students who will graduate soon and be, if you will, researchers. There'll be doctors, there'll be people who are going to be an allied health field, there'll be nurses, there'll be people who understand the world of science in ways that will find solutions, problems that we've been talking about in presidential debates and all kinds of other forums over the course of the last five to ten years. There will be somebody in this audience who will actually discover the cure to something that, here to for, we did not think was cure. They'll save a life. You'll build the opportunity for people to feel that the field of science is available to them in ways that they never understood to be available to them in the past. You in many cases tonight for being on the beat, you are craving a whole new pathway into a whole new world. I came here because I wanted to tell you that this is what is the refreshment when you were a senior in high school, when you were somewhere back in your academic history, you might not have known that this was on your path. What I was suggesting to you was in the same way as you might not have known it then, trust and believe that it's there now and that it will always be there for you because you have mastered it. You have gained respect the academic community has taught you gained the respect of the people around you. No doubt the world will come knock on your door and ask intellectual, social, heartfelt, faith, a hopeful world of science. Thank you very, very much for the work that you've done. Thank you for attending. It is now my pleasure to introduce you to the cheers and perhaps if I could just before this introduction say I think it's important for us to really reflect on the words of Dr. Crew. Often we, if we thought about this five years ago, we would never have believed that we would be the people sitting here in the room at this moment. And so there are some things that are down the road for you five years from now that you will not believe it's there for you five years from now. So I want you to take that apart. And for me, there are some things that were down the road for me that I didn't believe in. So part of that is meeting these wonderful people who I have the pleasure to introduce to you now. I'm excited because I've worked with them now for three years as their dean and it's been three of the most rewarding years of my life. Many of these folks have become cheers of the department while I've been the dean and so I have the pleasure to see them first as cheers and as regular faculty members and then as cheers. Tonight it is my pleasure to introduce to you first the cheer of the biology department who's not here. She's just been under the weather please. Dr. Kamal with whom we've had a wonderful bit of work over the last year of Dr. Kamal. Dr. Reed who I think everyone in this room knows she's the person who holds the key to organic chemistry. One, two, in biochemistry and he's tough and good. Everyone appreciates that but I also appreciate him more for being a very logical and normal and really hard working and dedicated chair of the department of chemistry and environmental science. So I'm a mathematician so Dr. Jean-Michel kind of stepped into the role of chair of the mathematics department after I stepped out of that role and it's always difficult in the beginning to have a relationship with someone who's doing the job that you just did and so you feel sometimes your role is interfering in the job that the person is doing that's how we had those fights but I will say this meant where ever the person is blessed to have as the chair of its mathematics department Dr. Jean-Michel Jean-Michel The next person who I want to introduce to you is, well, I think many of you in this room have come to Med River's college with the thought of nursing on your mind I don't know, it's okay you can say it and the point is you were right to come to Med River's with nursing on your mind because we have some really good people in the field of nursing here at the college and as I noted before a really good nursing department can't be a really good nursing department if it doesn't have a really good leader and I know well the leadership qualities of Dr. Hazel Sanderson she has guided her department through perilous waters and she's brought it home really wonderful places and so tonight I want to give a very very special join me in giving her a very very special welcome here this evening I should note the chair of her physics and computer science department Dr. Leon Johnson who's not here this evening he too has an engagement that is of vital importance but it's important you can see all of the chairs on the dais are very young Dr. Leon Johnson is the oldest of the chairs in the school of science and I don't mean that he's old meaning you know but he's also wise and so I have as the dean relied tremendously on the guidance of Dr. Johnson and his wisdom and his 50 almost 50 years of being a faculty member in university and so even though he's not here I know that I'm streaming this and I told him that if he I sent him the link so it'd be nice to give him a really round of applause so we're ready now for the exciting part of the event so the recipients will be announced by Dr. Derek Steed and Professor Cynthia Sterling-Bach so I will begin the first two before we get to this place perhaps I should acknowledge since I talked about our faculty earlier I should ask members or faculty who are here to simply stand and be recognized by the folks who are here so faculty members can you stand and be recognized I see so we will also I'll say this at the end too but I wanted to acknowledge you here so I will ask Dr. Kamal from the biology department to come forward and to ask the folks biology department Will all biology and science AS students please be line up the right of the auditorium Patricia King Patricia King let me come right back to your seat the very first group of biology students we didn't have a group photo with them so if the very first group is still here it'd be nice to just come right back up so we can have where did the other folks go there's oh come on out by yourself Dr. Jean-Michel Jean-Michel I'm sorry I went too quickly Dr. Alicia Reed from the chemistry and environmental sciences department Dr. Reed it is my pleasure to ask the chemistry and environmental science students please line up to the right of the auditorium Alicia Kulman Jennifer J. Marie Neary Tazelle Schatz-Varska we will now let's give another round of applause for the students please bring them on thanks Dr. Jean-Michel Jean-Michel to come forward my next students please line up to the right of the auditorium Kesson Ford applause for the mathematician Dr. Kesson Samerson to come forward for all persons to raise the sign up to the right it's Esteban Sharon Cirrus Sharon Ever Selene Martinez Sienna Ruff Ruff is a gatherer Cindy Perniel Smith Johnson the nurses once again a small picture of this announcement someone has dropped some car keys it looks like keys for a teyotulu it's got a blue blue bottle on it so if this belongs to you it's sitting here you get to your car and you don't have the keys it's Kesson so continuing on we're going to ask Dr. Alicia Reed to stand in for Dr. Leon Johnson this evening good evening again will all my physics will all physics and computer science students please line up to the right of the auditorium Jonathan James after that let's give a big round of applause once more for physics and computer science students I'll have the task for those students who are part of the CUNY and Baccalaureate program do we have students from the CUNY and B8 program if you're here please line up on the right side of the auditorium CUNY and B8 okay if we have no students who are part of the CUNY and B8 program then the next list kind of we're getting close to the the real things slightly more challenging is the provost list and so in order to be on the provost list you needed to satisfy the requirements for the dean's list for four consecutive semesters so if you were in spring 2018 it meant that you were on the dean's list for fall 2016 spring 2017 fall 2017 and spring 2018 or if you were fall 2018 it means that you are on the dean's list for spring of 2017 the fall of 2017 the spring of 2018 and the fall of 2018 so for those of you who are on the provost list and let's see I'm going to call the names and so if you're here just come to the just come to the right hand side of the auditorium Dorina Aldrich Uma Hafsa Carrie Ann Anderson Tameka Gale Anastasia Mansohin Steven Lawrence Shanika Kadil Arusha Brayquay France Salina Bevy Ortiz Lin Nana Mba Tulupe Akimu Kelina Beckford Oyamise Omotoe Kuei Fiannigos Nashid Manan Amida Mostafa Thalmer Seguencia Renice Noelle Bonere Obhem Lillian Utunemou Mjokou Shaleen Gil Alina Jones Samuel Joseph Marianna Diallo Winsome O'Sullivan Darrell Ambersly Natalia Jones Taz Kiyakin and Tisha Apte those were folks who were on the provost list for spring 2018 and then somebody will give them all positive ones and the second group students who were on the provost list for fall of 2018 are Tameka Gale Aspana Ali Marela Murray Anastasia Mansohin Steven Lawrence Lin Ba Andrea Barrett Leithia Nikos Ernie Charles Monair Coppin Jaleen Gill Collina Jones Marianna Diallo Crystal Bailey Lillian Rodriguez Natalia Jones Taz Kiyakin and Tisha Apte congratulations to everyone of you Tazia Mansohin Shaleen Gill Alina Mustafa Natalia Jones Ambersly Ernie Charles Marela Murray Crystal Bailey Shemabu Kwan A great service announcement seems like everyone is very excited today they've been using their stuff someone left a cell phone here so I now have and I have car keys so hopefully the cell phone owner will show up very shortly all of these things you first you're on the deans list as the order of things worked here the dean works for the provost provost works for the president so first you're on the deans list for a long time and you get on the provost list and then if you've gotten the provost list for a while then you get on the president and so finally we're at the place where we want to honor those folks who are on the president so our requirements here again you want to satisfy the requirements of the deans list for four consecutive semesters in addition to obtaining a 4.0 GPA we want to honor more of those semesters and so tonight we have poor people who are on the president's list Natalia Chapman Helmers Wenshia Antonio Wilson and Jonathan James and I also have three more I'm sorry I only looked at the fall 2018 I have Afsana Ali Janabu Kurameo Wilson congratulations to each and everyone Shilohu Nelson you have the academic scholarship two special awards so we have Emiko Rie one of the deans list are future science scholars here in case anyone has been missed if there's anyone to lose is on the deans list who has not been acknowledged in some way please come to the right sometimes we make mistakes and I don't want someone to be here who has not been acknowledged the end here so I thought it appropriate so I won't keep you long but I think it's always important to to acknowledge that this was a wonderful evening it is a celebration of the things that we hold dear here at college we really believe that excellence and excellence go together and so we create an opportunity for people to start but you know where we start is not where we want to end and you can be sure that under our stewardship that you will be challenged in every one of those courses and so you will earn your right to be on the deans list and on the presidents list and on the provost having said that I want to say just a few words of thanks it's you know things like this don't just kind of happen easily they require a tremendous amount of work they require a number of people doing a number of things in the background and tonight I just wanted to acknowledge first off the acknowledger and the office of academic affairs for the support that they have given to this effort to acknowledge the cheers and the respective departments for the work that they have put in this regard I want to acknowledge the members of the committee who have done the sort of putting together of a program in particular I wanted to say a thank you to Derek Skeet Dr. Derek Skeet Dr. Samuel O'Rourkeman Dr. Niko Clarke Dennis Blue Filales Professor Cynthia Sterling Fox Professor Niko Horry from the nursing department who you saw earlier Dr. Sanderson from the nursing department who helped to put things together for us I also want to introduce someone to our community tonight who you've probably seen who is technically in the biology department but is someone who will be heading up our new PA program and this is our new professor Professor Adrian Llewellyn who is standing there that's the person who is going to be responsible for it and he will let you know as soon as it's there Professor Leslie Ann Rohl who is also part of the PA faculty I saw her she wasn't here Jermaine Hodge from Graphics so we had to work really hard to get these things in and I wanted to recognize Gregory Mock also from ReproGraphics Gregory David from ReproGraphics getting the space ready for you is also a challenge and I wanted to recognize Conrad Johnson Martin for the work that he did with the space reservation and then finally at the end of this I think I get to be the dean and stand up and sort of pontificate from the script that's already been made out for me and so sometimes it's always been to give some acknowledgement to the people who put the script together and the people who kind of make me look good and so I wanted to acknowledge the two people in my office but in particular I wanted to acknowledge I don't know where she is I wanted to acknowledge Kenia Smith and I wanted to acknowledge Patricia Burley-Anne Sheik for putting the podium and so with that she's also arranged for you to have punch and cake and this should be in the welcome center and I'm trusting it is there so certainly I I want to bring her proceedings to a close so we can find you in the welcome center for one dessert of punch and cake