New Professors Help Create Unique Undergraduate Experience at BMCC

The Fall 2018 semester brings a new wave of freshman at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY)—and 36 new faculty members.

“It’s a great pleasure to welcome new faculty into the BMCC community,” said Karrin E. Wilks, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “As always, our new colleagues bring an impressive range of teaching and field experience, community service and advocacy, and scholarly achievement. I look forward to our collective work to improve student success and institutional excellence.”

The incoming professors will join a teaching staff of more than 1,500 scholars, many of whom are recognized nationally for the passion they bring to their fields of study. BMCC faculty have published op-eds and been interviewed in The Journal of Higher Education, The Hechinger Report, Community College Daily and other high-profile trade publications. They lead higher education trends including the Open Educational Resources/Zero-Cost Textbook movement, accompany BMCC students to national conferences, and mentor their internships. As principal investigators of state and federally funded research, BMCC professors guide students in projects that contribute to some of the most relevant knowledge bases in existence today, including those that relate to HIV treatments and decoding active galaxies.

“The unique undergraduate experience found at BMCC is made possible, in large part, by the commitment and generosity of our professors,” says Jim Berg, Associate Dean of Faculty. Dean Berg and other administrators and faculty took part in the New Faculty Orientation held August 22-23 at BMCC. The program addressed everything from the practical—enrollment and grade protocols—to the pedagogical—engaging students from the first day of class and supporting student success.

Expertise that spans from jazz to Wall Street

Among the incoming faculty is Christian de Rojas, who joins the Department of Business Management as a full-time faculty member. He holds both a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a masters degree in financial engineering from Baruch College, CUNY. “Most importantly,” he says, “I am a BMCC alumnus and former Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society member.”

Prior to joining BMCC, Professor de Rojas was immersed in fixed-income and commodities management on Wall Street. “My areas of expertise are finance and investments,” he says. “My scholarly interests range from market volatility and optimal asset allocation to blockchain technology, crypto-currencies and the technical analysis of financial markets.”

Of his students, de Rojas says, “I measure my success by their success. As a professor, I want students to understand that success is a process, not an event, and that excellence is a habit that begins with hard work. I also want to create social value by educating traditionally underrepresented students.”

“Already, BMCC feels different from any place that I have taught,” says Nursing Professor Catherine Mbewe. “There is a genuine, student-centered pedagogical approach that I am witnessing and a genuine desire to assist faculty in developing as educators.”

Professor Mbewe, originally from Zambia, has taught at the Helene Fuld College of Nursing in Harlem, and in the nursing program at Bronx Community College, CUNY. Her special areas of focus are medical-surgical nursing and neuro ICU.

“Having been a non-traditional student myself, I see myself in every student at BMCC and understand the struggles that students go through,” says Mbewe. “I look forward to learning as much as possible via the many faculty development and scholarly programs offered at BMCC and using that knowledge to graduate competent, qualified professionals.”

BMCC Professor of Music Quentin Angus is an accomplished jazz guitarist whose Ph.D. dissertation, Phrasing and Polyrhythm in Contemporary Jazz, reflects his continued research published by Mel Bay Publications, Jazz Heavenand the NZMIC Music Journal.

Angus was an adjunct professor at BMCC for four years, he says, before being offered his current full-time position. He has also taught in Australia at the University of Adelaide, Griffith University (Queensland) and the Australian National University (Canberra).

“I love teaching at BMCC. I love the diversity, and I love helping students in the same way professors helped me when I was completing my Certificate IV in Jazz,” says Professor Angus, referring to his own early studies in what he describes as “the community college equivalent in Australia.” He went on to earn both a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Jazz Performance, as well as a Ph.D. in Jazz at the University of Adelaide, and also studied at Purchase College, SUNY.

At BMCC, he says, “We play such an important role in the students’ development and future success. We are building the groundwork for the rest of their careers.”

It has also been exciting to be part of the new degree program in Music at BMCC, he says. “The fact that I have been involved since the beginning of the program and can help it grow and flourish is very exciting and motivating.”

New faculty by department

Academic Literacy and Linguistics: William Koch, Tudor Protopopescu, Vanessa Roe and Danesh Singh

Business Management: Christian de Rojas and Shawn Grant

Computer Information Systems: Ora Kenneth Melie, Rachel Nossa and Maryam Vatankhah

E-Learning Center: Eliza Osao-Kwapong

English: Francisco Delgado, Boyda Johnstone, Ellen Lewis and Jason McCormick

Center for Ethnic Studies: Lisette Acosta-Corniel

Health Education: Alex Evangelista

Mathematics: Ivan Retamoso, Marlon Seaton and Gary Leo Welz

Media Arts and Technology: Carlo Diego and Sam Sloves

Modern Languages: German Garrido

Music and Art: Quentin Angus and Siobhan McBride

Nursing: Arntrica (Mindy) Antoine, Catherine Mbewe, Abdur Raheem Nizar-Moses, Laura Penalo and Janet Schwenk

Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice: Keith Carter, Satenik Margaryan, Zalman Newfield and Shruti Sharma

Speech, Communications and Theatre Arts: Naseer Alomari, Antoine Jardy and Christopher Moss