CSI honored its best and brightest recently as students, their families, and friends, and College faculty and staff gathered in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall for the Third Annual Honors Convocation. Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Jerald Jones-Woolfolk was the event’s emcee.
After opening remarks from Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. William Fritz, CSI President Dr. Tomás Morales, in his comments, told the honorees “your accomplishments not only further your dreams, but we can proudly point to you and say, ‘these are the best of our students’. Your achievements reaffirm us–faculty and staff–the very reasons we have devoted our lives to public higher education.”
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At the end of his address, Dr. Morales introduced the student speaker, Melissa DeMartino, who majored in mathematics with a concentration in adolescent education.
DeMartino discussed how her time at CSI helped her to understand and appreciate mathematics in new ways, helping her to transform her entire way of thinking about the subject. “My journey here at CSI,” she explained, “can best be described as follows: imagine you enter a dark room for the first time, as you are looking for the lights you stumble around, and perhaps, bump into a few things. Eventually you learn where each object is, and finally, when the lights turn on, you see exactly where you are.” DeMartino concluded her speech by encouraging her fellow grads to keep learning, “keep an open mind, [and] embrace any obstacle that comes your way….”
The evening also included Carol Brower, Director of Student Life, ceremoniously presenting the Student Dolphin Award to Dennis Gaffigan. (He will receive the actual award at the Dolphin Award ceremony following Commencement.) In addition, Dr. Christine Flynn Saulnier, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr. Alfred Levine, Interim Dean of Science and Technology, presented the Academic Honors and Student Leadership Awards.
Michael Daniels, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, chaired the Honors Convocation committee and Dr. Jones-Woolfolk was the presiding officer.
