Eleanor Fallon
Eleanor Fallon is a pre-med major at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. She plans to serve as a primary-care physician in a medically under-served area in New York State, as well as to influence health-care policy. Her interests include community-oriented primary care, chronic illnesses such as diabetes and asthma, and other topics central to family physicians. She is president of CCNY’s honor society, Phi Eta Sigma. Ms. Fallon also volunteers as a diabetes care-management counselor at Elmhurst Hospital, in Queens, and has begun participating in cancer research through a Rudin Research Fellowship. Her plans this year include volunteering at the Family Practice Center at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and serving as co-president of the local chapter of the American Medical Student Association. In her spare time Ms. Fallon enjoys sailing and dancing.
Kambi Gathesha
Kambi Gathesha is a transfer student to City College, majoring in anthropology. Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, Kambi spent most of his youth with his time divided between Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Through his cross-cultural background, Kambi has been exposed to the ideologies of individuals around the world. He arrived in the United States just before September 11, 2001, to study drama and dance. In the tragedy's aftermath, he became not just a student of the arts, but also a student of the city. Additionally, his growing awareness of the dissatisfaction Africans have with the portrayal of their history and culture prompted Kambi to explore the identities of Black people worldwide and the role he can play in their struggles for freedom. His particular areas of interest include the African roots of all forms of dance, the connections between African dance and Black American dance, social construction of the reasons for creative movement, Pan-Africanism, and Africa’s place in human history.
Hashim Hassan
Hashim Hassan grew up in a small village in western Sudan until the country's civil war displaced his family. He graduated from high school in Khartoum, and began his studies in computer science at the university level. Civil unrest led Hashim to move to Egypt where he taught English and worked in the field of human rights. He immigrated to the U.S. in 2005 and settled in California. There, he restarted his studies at a community college, worked as an Arabic-English translator, and taught Arabic. He joined CCNY in 2007 as a transfer student, with a double major in international studies and political science, and a minor in French. In the U.S., Hashim has delivered a number of presentations on the human-rights situation in Sudan, and in Darfur in particular. He is actively engaged in public service and hopes to dedicate his career to helping and inspiring the underprivileged in the U.S. and around the world.
Dato Mio
Dato Mio is a writer and artist born and raised in Harlem. At City College, he is an art major in the Art in Education program, which prepares students to teach the arts in New York City Schools. Dato believes in the power of art to transform lives and communities through organization, collaboration, and action. He has a longstanding interest in public service, particularly with respect to the lives of young people who often find themselves without any support or mechanism for making their voices heard. Dato’s interest in public service incorporates the use of art to enhance the quality of life for all in the community while providing platforms for youth development within a framework of sustainability. He is currently developing an uptown youth arts festival and envisions creating a collective of artists who are focused on transforming themselves and their community.
Opeyemi Oladele
Opeyemi Oladele is a fourth-year student at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education who has a longstanding passion to become a physician. A native of Manhattan, Opeyemi graduated from the Manhattan Center for Science and Math, where he was a biology tutor and a National Honor Society member. At CCNY, Opeyemi is an active member of the Sophie Davis Black Male Initiative, which aims to encourage minority males in high schools to study medicine. Opeyemi has interned with the Brooklyn Hospital Department of Family Practice and has worked as a nurses' aid at Burke Rehabilitation Institute in the spinal cord and brain injury unit. He hopes to combine his M.D. with an interest in health-care policy. In particular, he is focused on the shortage of male minority physicians, and contribution of this deficit to the unequal quality of care of minorities in the U.S.
Tiffany O’Neal
Originally from North Carolina, Tiffany O’Neal attended Wake Forest University and received a bachelor of arts in psychology. At City College, Tiffany O’Neal is pursuing a second undergraduate degree, in political science with a concentration in policy studies. She aspires to attend graduate school for social policy and believes poverty is an issue that deserves greater governmental and public attention. In particular, she is focused on the social causes of poverty, such as the reasons that 24 percent of the African-American population lives below the poverty line. Additionally, she is interested in the role nonprofits and philanthropic foundations play in alleviating the levels of U.S. poverty. Tiffany hopes one day to work for a nonprofit organization or a think tank whose mission is to ameliorate poverty and its related effects. Tiffany spends her spare time volunteering in New York City.
Gareth Rhodes
Gareth Rhodes grew up in a faith-based intentional community in the rural hills of upstate New York. After graduating from Kingston High School, he took a year’s break, during which he worked with a water-well drilling company. Afterward, Gareth moved to Harlem and enrolled at City College. He is currently a dual major in political science and English. During his freshman year, Gareth worked as news editor for The Campus. He is also an active participant in the college’s Model United Nations program. Gareth interned for Congressman Charles B. Rangel during the spring 2008 semester, and he volunteers with the Harlem 40 and Harlem 50 mentoring programs. He has also volunteered widely with other nonprofit organizations. Through these experiences, Gareth has gained an interest in the social and public policies that affect the lives of neighborhood residents, and he hopes to become active in policy research and in developing policy that addresses important social issues.
Lili Salmeron
Lili Salmeron, who was born in Brooklyn, spent much of her childhood in Central America. Her family’s experience with the turbulent politics there inspired an early interest in political science. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she traveled to New Orleans to work with the affected Latino communities. There, a major concern of hers was providing access to free health care to residents, as well as to the (mostly) undocumented workers on the downtown clean-up crews. Shortly thereafter, Lili enrolled at City College to pursue a degree in political science and economics to better understand the relationship between America's political economy and immigration. She is particularly interested in questions of how to best meet the social needs of underserved immigrant communities. She also intends to pursue graduate work in economic development with a focus on urban politics and public policy implementation.
Stephanie C. Tardieu
Stephanie Tardieu, a pre-med major at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, grew up in a family and community of Haitian immigrants in New York City. She enrolled at CCNY in the spring of 2006 and has worked as health editor and journalist at The Campus. She also has volunteered in a variety of capacities, including tutoring CCNY students in the sciences and collecting clothing, toys, and other items for Haitian children. In 2007-2008, Stephanie volunteered with the coordination of PROJECT PROM, a yearly project dedicated to supplying needy youth in New York City with prom dresses, tuxedoes, and accessories necessary attend their senior prom. This fall, she plans to volunteer at the Hebrew Geriatric Center, helping to run group activities such as arts and crafts, and singing for seniors with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Stephanie's goal is to develop her understanding and awareness of policy and learn what can been to solve problems relating to community, health, and education at the policy-making level.
New York Life Undergraduate Scholars: 2007-2009
Lynne Allen
Lynne Allen is a native New Yorker who comes to City College after a career in financial services and in the arts and professional theatre. While working at Ground Zero during the recovery and restoration efforts after September 11th, Lynne made the decision to formally pursue studies in the behavioral sciences. Her goal is to ultimately pursue a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and to dedicate the balance of her working career to advocating for and treating individuals coping with psychological stress and mental illness, particularly in underserved urban communities. She is involved with national organizations like NAMI and ASPA, which address mental health and public policy issues and sponsor local outreach programs for individuals impacted by or suffering from mental illness. In addition to her recent award of the New York Life Endowment Scholarship, she is a City College Fellow and Vice President of the CCNY Chapter of Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology. Lynne spent the summer of 2007 interning with the Ministry of Health’s Psychosocial Trauma Counseling Unit in Rwanda.
Karina DeLeon
Karina DeLeon spent most of her youth in the Castle Hill area of the Bronx, before moving to the suburban town of New Rochelle. Shortly after graduating high school in Westchester, Karina postponed college in favor of full-time work at a women's health clinic where she came into intimate contact with the plight of impoverished African American and Latina women and their struggle for adequate health care. The experience drove Karina to restart her educational career, with the ultimate goal of attending law school. She plans on devoting her life to public service and to women’s health care policy in particular. Karina has been awarded numerous honors for her academic achievements and community service, including the Petrie Foundation Scholarship; a Fellowship from Rosenberg/Humphrey Program in Public Policy; and an induction into the Young Latinas Leadership Institute. She currently divides her time between school, work and volunteering at a New York City public school in the Bronx. She spent the summer of 2007 interning in the Washington, D.C. office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Melissa Frakman
Melissa Frakman is pursuing a dual major in Economics and International Studies, with a concentration in trade and finance and an emphasis on Central and Latin America. She is most interested in the intricacies and political economy of the region, as well as macroeconomic policy as it relates to economic growth and development throughout the world. Melissa currently is a Gilman Intern with the Leaders Project of the Howard Gilman Foundation where she is co-organizing a conference of international leaders from various sectors on India-US relations. She also works with Oxfam America as a leader for their Fair Trade “Change” Initiative, based in Boston. Melissa is a member of CCNY’s Business and Economics Society, and a recipient of the Rhoda Harnick Award for excellence in Economics. Originally from Vancouver, BC, Canada, Melissa maintains an active career in the world of dance, continually exploring, teaching, and creating from the movement and rhythms of the very cultures throughout the world in which her scholarly interests lie.
Kadian Kurt Johnson
Kadian Kurt Johnson is an international transfer student from the University of Technology-Jamaica, where he obtained a Diploma in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Telecommunication and Electronics. Currently, he is pursuing a Bachelors’ Degree in the same area of study, with intent to minor in Public Policy. His personal objectives include involvement with public policy environmental issues, as well as plans to research, educate and raise awareness about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the environment. Kadian believes that engineers too often focus on the benefits of proposed projects at the expense of environmental issues, and that they should prioritize planning that has a positive effect on the environment and the population.
Renee Rolston
Renee Rolston is a fourth year student at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, planning on a career in medicine. She aspires to relieve the shortage of primary care physicians in underserved minority communities by practicing in such a community, as well as by being actively engaging in public policy as it relates to health care. Renee recently volunteered in a Harlem elementary school nurse’s office where she found most children were without health insurance. Her training and related research in public health at Sophie Davis further opened her eyes to the varying disparities and health concerns affecting many minority communities in the U.S. These experiences drove her to become a member of Physicians for National Health Care, a professional group that actively advocates for a universal health care system in the United States. As a New York Life Scholar, Renee intends to continue to increase her knowledge base of public health issues and to hone in on the skills necessary to be a public advocate for underserved minority communities.
Felicity Tsikiwa
Felicity Tsikiwa was born in Zimbabwe, Africa, arriving in the United States at the age of three. Felicity studied at Xavier University of Louisiana and was forced to relocate in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; she moved to Harlem and transferred to City College. In addition to Felicity's academic work, she serves her community at large as a member of the AIDS ministry at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where she hopes to continue educating her community about HIV/AIDS. Felicity’s ultimate goal is to make the high level of HIV care and education that exists in New York available to communities throughout the U.S. and around the world. She plans to use her time as a New York Life Fellow to better understand public policy related to these pursuits.
New York Life Undergraduate Scholars, Alumni 2007-2008
Veneta Dontcheva
Veneta Dontcheva transferred to CCNY’s School of Architecture from Montgomery College in Maryland, where she was a student in the competitive Montgomery Scholars honors program and earned an associate’s degree in General Studies and Computer Aided Building Design. She has also spent time at Cambridge University pursuing studies in the field of Architecture History. Veneta is currently employed by the United States General Services Administration in the construction and design of large scale federal buildings. For her public service, she merited the 2007 Federal Executive Board Student Intern of the Year Award. Veneta is passionate about public architecture and the integration of sustainable design, as it relates to public policy.
Andrea Patterson
Andrea Patterson, who has a combined psychology/pre-law major, received her bachelor's degree from CCNY in May 2008. Born during the height of the civil rights movement, Andrea believes strongly in the power of fighting for change. Andrea believes that if more African Americans were represented as policy writers, they would be able to create more effective policy to advance African American issues. Of particular interest to Andrea are policy issues pertaining to public education, community resources, abused and neglected children, juvenile delinquents and young adult offenders and recidivists. Andrea volunteers with CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates in the Bronx, working with youth in foster care. Her goal is to become a law guardian, safeguarding the best interests of children in the legal system, and she plans on attending a law school with an excellent child advocacy clinic. Her policy goal is to help develop policy for the Child Services Administration.
