Nov

Supporting Excellence

Name: Supporting Excellence
Start: 2020-11-19T17:30:00-05:00
End: 2020-11-19T19:30:00-05:00
Location: Online Event

by Student Development

Social Event SD Events '20-'21

Thu, Nov 19, 2020

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST (GMT-5)

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The 2020 Supporting Excellence Conference Theme:
Navigating the Virtual World: Student Advocacy, Activism, and Social Media

Join the Macaulay Diversity Initiative for an evening of speakers, workshops, and panels on topics of student advocacy, activism, and social media. The conference aims to open up a dialogue on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion and foster an anti-racist community of scholars.

Macaulay Honors College is committed to creating a welcoming, healthy, and safe learning environment. All are welcome.

Event Itinerary:
5:30-5:40pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks: Macaulay Diversity Initiative and Dean Mary C. Pearl

5:40-6:00pm: Keynote Speaker: Khaleel Anderson
-Winner of the New York State Assembly in District 31; Democratic and Working Families Party
-Khaleel will share more about his experience with CUNY, activism, organizing, and running for office, offering advice on how you can get involved.

6:00-6:30pm: Macaulay Alumni Panel: How to tell if a Potential Employer values Diversity and Inclusion
-Sponsored by Career Development and Alumni Relations
-Whether it’s an internship or job opportunity, join this discussion to learn ways to vet your potential work environment and how to help make effective change in an organization from within. Alumni panelists Melanie Boyce (Hunter '13) and Evelyn M. Pérez-Albino, Esq. (Hunter '08) will discuss their personal experience and expertise, share advice and offer tips on how to ensure you are joining an inclusive work environment.

6:30-7:30pm: Workshops

Workshop Option 1: Student Activism Panel
-Sponsored by the Macaulay Diversity Initiative
-Zoom Link: https://baruch.zoom.us/j/6761053195 (Meeting ID: 676 105 3195)
-Zoom Call-In: +16465588656,,6761053195# US (New York)
-Student mobilization and activism has consistently been at the center of so much progressive change throughout American history. Join Macaulay Diversity Initiative on November 19th to discuss the first steps to becoming a student activist and leader on your campus. Connect with our student panelists Caroline Schwab, Teona Pagan, Zalal Ahmad, and Aaron Narraph Fernando as they discuss their journeys to becoming student activists and change makers at their colleges and beyond. You'll learn how you can make an impact, start getting involved with activism work, and meet new people.

Workshop Option 2: Integrating Integrity into your Academics
-Sponsored by the Macaulay Scholars Council, Academic Affairs Committee
-Zoom Link: https://ccny.zoom.us/j/96967965085
-This workshop focuses on how to integrate integrity into your academics. What is integrity? How do you incorporate the concept into your everyday life especially as a student? We will be discussing how to have complicated and hard to navigate conversations in the most mindful manner, being more empathetic and considerate of others, how to work collaboratively in an academic setting, and the manners in which one can educate themselves to be more sensible scholars overall. By attending this workshop we hope you are able to take away tips and strategies on how to be more productive members of your academic community and incorporating those strategies in a manner most comfortable and natural to you.

Workshop Option 3: Activism in Art
-Sponsored by the Macaulay Scholars Council, Diversity Committee
-Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/92352193219?pwd=TWsrMjgrR1JzYlVWUXgxcitsQzhLZz09
(Meeting ID: 923 5219 3219; Passcode: 4Bg4r8)
-We will present a number of powerful art pieces (visual art, music, short films, poetry/writing) by a diverse group of artists that are heavily engaged in activism on social media. We will also feature creators/activists at CUNY. Students will have the opportunity to express their interpretations of the art pieces and connect them to topics such as diversity, racism, and inclusion. Then, we will include an interactive component of the workshop where students will work together to construct a piece of visual art that exhibits diversity at CUNY. Finally, we will provide students with a list of sources for education that include activism instagram pages, YouTube channels, and Netflix shows/movies.

The Supporting Excellence Conference was founded by students in the Goldsmith Scholars Program in 2012. We appreciate this generous foundational support that was provided by Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

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Speakers

Khaleel Anderson

Keynote Speaker

Khaleel was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and raised in Far Rockaway, Queens. Growing up, his father was a part of the powerful health care workers union 1199 SEIU and his mother was a community organizer for ACORN (now defunct), active during the years 1996-2005. In 2005 his family moved to Far Rockaway because rent prices became unaffordable. In his pre-teen years, Khaleel struggled with mental health and behavioral problems, but these challenges did not hinder his ability to speak on behalf of his peers when he felt things were unfair. He was able to find his activist voice while advocating for students through middle school, high school, college, and in his professional life.

Khaleel was a youth organizer for a non-profit group in the Rockaways, organizing hundreds of young people to become more engaged civically and politically. He helped lead efforts to convert a vacant lot into a full acre urban farm in Arverne and fought the MTA to extend Q-52 bus service further east along the Rockaway peninsula. Khaleel graduated from a BA/MA program at Queens College with a degree in Urban Studies and a minor in Cities and Social Medicine. He serves on Queens Community Board 14, the 101st Police Precinct Council, and is a member of the NAACP Far Rockaway Branch. He currently is a member of PSC serving as a Supplemental Instructor for the SEEK program at his alma mater. Today, he is the winner of the New York State Assembly in District 31; Democratic and Working Families Party

Evelyn M. P├®rez-Albino, Esq.

Alumni Panelist

Hunter '08

Evelyn Pérez-Albino is a Labor and Employment attorney and Fortune 500 executive. She is currently the Director of Labor & Employment at JetBlue Airways Corp., where she counsels the airline and related entities on a myriad of U.S and international employment, labor relations, and workplace compliance issues, as well as manages related employment litigation matters. Evelyn is also a member of JetBlue’s innovative Diversity Leadership Council, serving as a thought leader for the airline’s diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in NYC's Washington Heights, Evelyn is a native Spanish speaker and an avid champion of diversity in the legal profession and beyond, long committed to social issues affecting communities of color. She is a frequent speaker and enthusiastic mentor to young professionals of color and is wholeheartedly invested in our collective success. In her limited spare time as wife and toddler mom, Evelyn enjoys cooking, trying new restaurants, and making use of JetBlue’s travel perks.

Evelyn is a graduate of Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and received her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Melanie Boyce

Alumni Panelist

Hunter '13

Melanie Boyce is a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Analyst at NBCUniversal, where she manages and analyzes workforce, programming, and community investment data for the media and entertainment company. She frequently partners with NBCU’s business units and parent company Comcast to track metrics, develop diversity reports, and contribute to company-wide reporting.

A native New Yorker, Melanie’s passion for DEI sparked while developing her undergraduate thesis on the lack of diversity in NYC’s ballet companies. She continued developing the project in graduate school, bringing in a qualitative lens while studying audience engagement with diverse performers. Before joining NBCU, Melanie worked with researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School to examine how law firms’ DEI efforts and initiatives affected their financial performance.

Melanie is a graduate of Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and received her MSc from the University of Oxford. She is an avid dancer and amateur aerialist, mentors high school students through the Fresh Air Fund’s College Connections Program, and enthusiastically watches and answers Jeopardy questions with her grandmother on weekdays.