Fifth Scholarship Plus Class

Welcomed at WNYC Ceremony

Attended by Members of First Class

     Families of the new scholarship winners joined friends and supporters of Scholarship Plus at a gathering at the Jerome L. Greene Space on June 12^th to introduce the members of the latest scholarship class. 

     Also on hand were several members of our first class, new college graduates from Brown, Harvard and Smith. One of them is continuing to Yale Medical School, another to graduate school in public policy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and another is joining Teach for America.      

Voices of Scholars and Teachers

The Class of 2014: From left, Natalia Munoz Perez, Muska Akbari, Karen Izquierdo, Kevin Baichoo, Fabien Paul, Malik Gomez and Lhamo Dorje.

Soma Golden Behr, Executive Director of Scholarship Plus, welcomes the members of the fifth class.

Part of the audience at New York Public Radio's Jerome L. Greene Space.

Mary McCormick, President of the Fund for the City of New York, and Lev Sviridov, Acting Director of the Mccaulay Honors College at Hunter College.

Harvard student Leticia Quezada, Melanie Rosen Brooks, co-founder and Director of Scholarship Plus,  and Prince Antwi, who just graduated from Harvard and will go to Yale Medical School.

Ellen Marson, Pod coordinator, with Vidal Nino de Guzman, who is entering his second year at Columbia.

Justine Hwei Chi Lee of Newtown High School with Fabien Paul, who will be attending Brooklyn College.

Jerry Gray, a New York Times editor, talks with Floyd Norris, a Times financial columnist.

Muska Akbari with her Teacher Who Makes a Difference, Haydee Racinos of Hillcrest High School .

Sheila Rule and Marsha Scipio, both Scholarshiip Plus Advisers, and Lawrie Mifflin, who heads one of the Pods that support specific students.

Yale-bound Natalia Munoz Perez with Dr. Henry Ruiz, Queens College, her Teacher Who Made a Difference.

Joan Mark, a Pod supporter, and Melanie Rosen Brooks with Leila Shakkour, a generous friend of Scholarship Plus since the beginning.

In front, Teachers Who Made a Difference await call to stand onstage with students who nominated them.

Andew Hillman of the Weill Cornell Youth Scholars Program was a Teacher Who Made a Difference.

Eileen Duran, a Binghamton junior, with her former N.Y. Public Radio supervisor, Brenda Williams-Butts.

Kate Fenneman Stokes of Scholarship Plus with Bryan Mera, who is entering his senior year at Brown.

Students interning at New York Public Radio this summer with their supervisors.  Back row, from left, Krista Richardson and Schuyler Duveen of New York Public Radio, scholars Emony Robertson and Philomina Kane, Brenda Williams-Butts and Sara Troiano of N.Y. Public Radio and Melanie Rosen Brooks. Front row, Soma Golden Behr, Kevin Baichoo, Vidal Nino de Guzman, Malik Gomez, Muska Akbari and Fabien Paul.

First Voters at the Battery, Then

All Aboard for the Statue of Liberty

     The Battery Conservancy once again graciously hosted our students working at New York Public Radio and at other internships in the city.  Warrie Price, the Conservancy's head, described the public/private effort that has transformed the area, then led the students into the park.  There they became the first to vote on the final selections in an international contest to pick a design for innovative outdoor seating for the park.  Next was a voyage through the harbor to Liberty Island.

             Photographs by Michael J. Leahy

Arrival at Liberty Island, from left: Emony Robertson, Vidal "Jaimie" Nino de Guzman, Fabien Paul, Kevin Baichoo, Malik Gomez, Natalia Munoz Perez, Karen Izquierdo, Muska Akbari and Philomina Kane.  

Warrie Price welcomes the group and tells about how the Battery has changed, and  plans for more change.

Into the park along the pathway outlining the Battery Oval, walks that had just opened that day after a year of construction as part of the park's master plan.

Which way is up? Both!  Jamie and Kevin try out one of the five finalists in the park's Draw Up a Chair contest, which drew 679 entries from 15 nations in the Americas. This one, called U Rock, is from Brazil.

Jamie and Fabien examine another finalist, called Pivot and designed in the United States.  The public will vote on the chairs, displayed at Castle Clinton.

Ranger Steven Baker tells the students about Castle Clinton, which has served as a fort, an opera house, the city's first aquarium and as an immigrant processing center, a forerunner of Ellis Island.

Natalia, Karen and Muska take a classic skyline photo from the ship's stern as it cruises to Liberty Island.

Back at the Battery, on a bench made of granite from Stony Creek, Conn., which furnished stone for the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

At a Print Studio, Students Learn

How to Make A Great Impression

Continuing the summertime tradition of visits to artists' studios, this year's destination was the Lower East Side Printshop. There the students were introduced to the techniques of producing fine prints at the country's largest printmaking workspace.  

Christine Walia, the printshop's programs director, at left, describes the activities of the facility.  The visit was arranged by Diane Exavier, at right, a former New York Times Scholarship winner now studying for a master's degree in playwriting at Brown.

Inside one of the printmaking rooms at the nonprofit facility on West 37th Street, open 24 hours a day.

Erik Hougen, the Master Printer, describes the technique of layering different colors in individual impressions on the paper.

Keigo Takahashi lowers a frame onto a print in preparation for adding a layer of color. 

A picnic on the High Line had been the plan for ending the excursion. A deluge of rain forced a change, to the hospitable dining area of the City University's Graduate School of Journalism.

College Advice in a Classroom

Then Shakespeare in the Park

The realities of college life, from time management to roommates, were explored in a gathering of members of the latest class with several from the Class of 2013. Next, after pizza, 'King Lear' under the stars. 

Discussions were led by Marilee Jones, a consultant, author and former dean of admissions at M.I.T.   

Kate Fenneman Stokes of Scholarship Plus, at left, encouraged older students to contribute insights. 

Gathering in Central Park before the performance, which starred John Lithgow as Lear.

Teasing the photographer, from left: Philomina Kane, Fabien Paul, Kevin Baichoo and Emony Robertson.  

A Party to Celebrate

Summer's End and More

     The newest Scholarship Plus winners marked the end of their New York Public Radio internships by gathering with older members of the program along with former New York Times Scholarship winners. 

Old friendships were renewed and new ones started among scholarship winners, alums, staff members and supporters.

Jayson Jones, at left, a former Times Scholar who recently earned his M.S. in Social Work from Columbia and is a staff member at New York University, with Fabien Paul, a Brooklyn College freshman.

The question for discussion was "What do you wish you had known before you arrived at college?" From left: Soma Golden Behr, Executive Director of Scholarship Plus; Kevin Baichu, a Stanford freshman; Diane Exavier, a Times Scholarship alumna and friend of Scholarship Plus who is now studying for an M.F.A. at Brown;Erica Sue, a research assistant at Weill Cornell Medical School and Times Scholarship alumna, and Santy Barrera, a Times Scholarship alumnus who is an admissions coordinator at Prep for Prep.

Karen Izquierdo serves fresh ceviche prepared by her mother, Lourdes, at left.  Judith Watson, at right, is Academic Adviser of Scholarship Plus, and Chief Academic Officer for the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.

Two engineering sophomores with something to smile about: Jeffrey Ng of N.Y.U. Polytechnic, at left, with Jamie Vidal Nino de Guzman of Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering. 

Winter Gathering, 2014

     At the annual get-together in early January, the extended Scholarship Plus family exchanged news and got to know one another better.  Students from all four classes mixed with friends of the program, as well as former New York Times Scholarship winners.  Several members of "pods" -- small groups that together fund an individual scholarship -- were able to talk with the students whose education they are supporting. 

From left, Sino Esthappan, a Vassar sophomore, Twinkle Morgan, a friend of the program, Ellen Marson, who heads the "pod" support system, Leticia Quezada, a junior at Harvard, and Soma Golden Behr, Executive Director of Scholarship Plus.

Eileen Duran, a SUNY Binghamton sophomore, Mylasha Furlonge, a Smith senior, and Esthefany Castillo, a Wesleyan senior. 

Three college graduates from the New York Times Scholarship Program: Diana Shifrina, who went to Brown, Anna Umanskaya, a Brandeis graduate, and Daphne Lundi, who attended Wellesley.

Bryan Mera, a junior in Brown's pre-med program, and Vidal Nino de Guzman, a freshman at Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Melanie Rosen Brooks, Program Director of Scholarship Plus, with Prince Antwi, now in his final year at Harvard, who will attend medical school in the fall.

Kate Feneman Stokes, our Program Manager, with Marshall Goldberg and Peter Samton, supporters of the program.

Aixin Li with Lynn Povich, a longtime Scholarship Plus friend and the leader of the group -- or "pod" -- that funds Aixin's scholarship.

Emony Robertson, a freshman at Cornell.

Marsha Scipio, a friend of the program who is the executive director of the Berean Community and Family Life Center in Brooklyn, spoke movingly about the challenges of living in two worlds.

Judith Watson, Academic Adviser of Scholarship Plus, with Diane Exavier, a former Times Scholar now juggling playwriting, working on an advanced degree, leading an arts organization and generously arranging arts experiences for our students.