Announcements

Jian Liu an SSSP student has won a Math for America Fellowship  - a highly selective five year program, with an monetary award of $100,000, for students committed to teach mathematics in high schools.

Jian graduated as a Pure Mathematics major in 2011, with a minor in Secondary Math education and Physics. He has received many CCNY and SSSP awards. In 2010-11 he received the SSSP $5,000 Zitrin Award, a CUNY Pipeline Fellowship in 2011, and the 2011 Ellen Knowles Harcourt Scholar at the CUNY Teacher Academy Program at CCNY. He is a member of the Chi-Alpha-Epsilon National Honor Society, Beta chapter at CCNY.

He will be attending New York University Graduate school this fall. We wish him all the best!!!

Deborah Ayeni a SSSP biochemistry major with a minor in mathematics and one of three CUNY students to receive the Jonas Salk Fellowship, is Yale bound for doctoral studies in Pharmacology. Her research focuses on synthesizing Trifluormethyl vinyl derivatives using the Julia Kocienski olefination. Deborah joined SSSP as a freshmen, served as a peer mentor, and tutor for SSSP.She received many awards from SSSP, CCNY and CUNY!. In 2008 she received the Eber Mentor Scholarship, and in 2009 she became  a Zitrin Scholar. In addition she received the Jonas Salk Award, Bernard Levine Scholarship, the CCNY Black Alumni Scholarship,  the Ernest Borek Scholarship and the Mathematics Departmental award. She is a member of the MARC fellowship, City College fellowship, Alpha Chi Epsilon Honors society, the Golden Key Honors society and the Phi Beta Kappa honors society. She volunteered at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, volunteered as a science and math tutor to middle and high school students at her church and served as a treasurer on the executive board of the Baskerville Chemical Society at CCNY. Finally, she is  a member of the City College Gospel choir. 

Deborah has presented her research at the CCAPP annual poster presentation in 2009 and 2010, at the annual CSTEP conference in 2010 where she received an award for her presentation. She also presented at the ABRCMS conference as well at CCNY Fellowship annual conference. She graduates with honors in chemistry for successful completion of three semesters of honors research as well as presentation of her research. As an undergraduate she participated in two summer research programs. The first was in 2008, at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health where she was engaged in a Biostatistics Enrichment program as well as in computationall research in genetics. The second was at the University of Pennsylvania where she worked on Radiation-oncology laboratory validating the efficacy of certain compounds in inhibiting a critical survival pathway in cancer cells. She was awarded the best summer intern while at Upenn.

Deborah participated in a study abroad program in Italy in January 2011 where she studied Italian food, culture and society by preparing the several foods that were created at different points in time in the history of the Italy.  At Yale University she plans to focus on cancer pharmacology investigating survival mechanisms in cancer cells and developing novel means of undermining such mechanisms.

Deborah states: "My journey through SSSP and CCNY has been a unique, humbling and enlightening experience and I am immensely grateful to all the counselors, the tremendous friends I made through SSSP, my family and most especially God for such an experience."

We wish her all the best at Yale!!

Prince Baawuah (class of 2011) Corris Boyd Scholar in Health Management

Prince Baawuah an Economics graduate and a Premedical student at CCNY is one of two students, nationwide, awarded the Corris Boyd National Scholarship by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration. Prince is a SSSP alum, a Zitrin Scholar and peer tutor. A member of the Chi-Alpha-Epsilon National Society and has participated in the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and worked for the Development School for Youth by the All Stars Project Inc., where he helped the youth learn about the corporate world. He was offered a paid summer internship at MetLife Inc. Prince will be heading to The University of Michigan for a Master's degree in Public Health. We wish him all the best!!!

Sandra Pirela (class of '08) a SSSP student and Zitrin Scholar is Harvard bound for a Doctor of Science degree in Toxicology. Sandra will graduate from New York University this May with a Masters in Toxicology.

Sandra joined SSSP as a freshmen and graduated with honors as a Biology major. She received the prestigious Zitrin Scholarship at SSSP and served as a tutor and mentor to students.

Her achievements and membership include: Zitrin Scholarship winner, Golden Key Honor Society, Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), The City University of New York Leadership and Service Award, The City College of New York Alumni Association Scholarship and Who's who among American College Students nominee. Summer Medical Education Program (SMEP) at Columbia University School of Physicians and Surgeons in the summer of 2005, and a paid summer internship at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Troy, New York in the summer of 2007. After graduation from CCNY she was in a Summer Program for Under-Represented Students (SPURS) at the Columbia University Medical Center.

We wish her all the best at Harvard.

Congratulations and Hats Off Dr. Ruhul Amin!!

**Dr. Ruhul Amin CCNY /SSSP student class of '05 and PhD class of '09. Dissertation topic: Optical Algorithms for Assessment of Fluorescence Sources in Sea Water"

Ruhul Amin joined SSSP as an undergraduate Computer Engineering major. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2005, a Master of Electrical Engineering in February and defended his doctoral dissertation on September 17, 2009. He has published nineteen articles and has received job offers from the US Navy and Army based on  his publications and the many algorithms that he has authored. Here is an excerpt of what was said about him from someone at the Stennis Space Center where he served as a research assistant:

"...life is full of surprises. NASA, NOAA, EPA  has tons of famous scientists working on the red tide problem ..then one day this quiet graduate student from the Electrical Engineering Department at CCNY…develops the algorithm of the century that can detect red tides once it becomes a bloom..."

SSSP welcomes Mr. Carlito Berlus as its newest counselor!!

Carlito is a CCNY alum with a Masters degree in Psychology. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department. He has served as a teaching assistant and course coordinator, has advised and counseled students, and supervised tutoring services to students. We are delighted he has chosen to join us at SSSP.