Pace Magazine Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022

AHEAD OF THE

CLASS At just 14 years old, SHAHAB GHARIB isn’t your typical college student

On May 16, Pace celebrated the Classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022 in style—held at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, in Queens, New York. This year’s Commencement was the largest in school history.

Turn to page 36 for more.

Photographed by Kenneth Gabrielsen

VOLUME X X X VII / SUMMER 2022

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SHAPING HE ALTHC ARE ' S NE X T GENER ATION Read how a $2M grant is being used to increase diversity in the nursing workforce.

18 FARE TR ADE/ FAIR CHANCE These Pace students are working to fight food insecurity on campus.

30 COV E R S TO RY

AHE AD OF THE CL A SS At just 14 years old, Shahab Gharib isn’t your typical college student.

05 08 16 24 36 38 40 2

LEADERSHIP LETTER PAC E A H E A D : 1 0 T H I N GS TO I N S PI R E YO U S T U D E N T- FAC U LT Y R E S E A RC H AT H L E T I C S CO M M E N C E M E N T 2 0 2 2 PAC E PE O PL E A LU M N I

PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

Grammy Awardnominated artist Lil Yachty performs live for Pace students inside the Goldstein Gym for Spring Fest 2022.

Photography by Marquis Pickering.

PR E S I D E N T Marvin Krislov C H I E F M A R K E T I N G O F F I C E R A N D V P, U N I V E R S I T Y R E L AT I O N S Mary Baglivo E X E C U T I V E C R E AT I V E D I R E C TO R Aliatu Burke D I R E C TO R , CO M M U N I C AT I O N S A N D D I G I TA L E N GAG E M E N T Alyssa Cressotti D I R E C TO R , M A R K E T I N G Wendy Metzger WRITERS Johnni Medina Lance Pauker CO N T R I B U T I N G PH OTO G R A PH E R S Carolyn Bajzer, Ibrahim Boran, Gerard Gaskin, Kenneth Gabrielsen, Gianni Mogrovejo, Marquis Pickering, Piero Ribelli, and Bowstring Studios A S S I S TA N T D I R E C TO R , PRO D U C T I O N Maria De La Cruz A S S O C I AT E A R T D I R E C TO R Cicero Clamor PAC E M AGA Z I N E D E S I G N Made Visible Studio D I R E C TO R , BUDGET AND REPORTING Mechita Self Pace Magazine is a publication of the Department of Marketing and Communications, Office of University Relations, distributed free to alumni and friends of Pace University. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of its staff or of Pace University. Copyright © 2022 Pace University S E N D A D D R E S S C H A N G E S TO : Office of Alumni Relations Pace University One Pace Plaza New York, NY 10038 Phone: (212) 346-1489 Email: pacealum@pace.edu Pace University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action university.

W W W. PAC E . E D U/M AGA Z I N E

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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Go-Getters Give to Pace Alumni participation and engagement builds momentum for the next generation of Pace students.

Gifts made to Pace University support virtually every area of campus life, from academics to financial aid to the arts.

Your support is essential to further enriching the student experience and the University’s ability to be responsive to urgent student needs.

Plus, your gift helps Pace attract and support the brightest students, recruit and retain world-class faculty, and build and innovate vital teaching and research facilities.

Pay it forward at

www.pace.edu/givetopace

G ER A R D GA S K I N

LEADERSHIP LETTER

W

ELCOME TO THE NEW PACE MAGAZINE .

Across our campuses, we’re looking to the future—innovating new programs, forging new partnerships, preparing our students for the workplace of tomorrow. It’s time for Pace Magazine to get a fresh new look and feel, too.

This redesign is part of the new brand platform we launched last year, which no doubt you’ve noticed in other communications from our University. We call it “Go-Getters,” and it’s a new framework for telling the Pace story of success. As alumni and friends, you know well that we’re a hard-working, ambitious community of doers and strivers who are determined to get ahead. This new brand platform— and its visual expression, which you’re seeing on these pages—creates a framework for us to tell our story, and it brings a powerful and dynamic look and feel to everything we do.

In this issue, you’ll read about many of those doers and strivers, from a remarkable 14-year-old student who just finished his first year as a history major in Dyson, to students working to fight food

insecurity in their community, and first-gen students eager to enter the nursing profession.

You’ll also see highlights from our extraordinary Commencement 2022, when we celebrated the classes of 2022, 2021, and 2020 in the biggest and highest-profile event we’ve ever put together.

We went to one of the largest venues in the region—the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens—and we welcomed 16,000 family and friends to help celebrate 4,000 graduates from our six colleges and schools across our three campuses and three graduating campuses. It was a beautiful spring day, headlined by a visionary speech from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, heartfelt advice to our Lubin School of Business graduates from banking and philanthropy leader Baroness Ariane de Rothschild ’88 MBA ’90, and wise counsel to our Haub Law grads from US Representative Grace Meng.

It was a day to be reminded why Pace is such a special place. We’re excited to get that word out to the world—and we hope you enjoy reading all about it in this reinvented magazine.

With Pace pride,

RO B S A N DS , J D ‘ 8 4 Chair, Board of Trustees

M A RV I N K R I S LOV President

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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Amazing is running a marathon 3 months after shattering your shoulder.

Dan Levinsohn dreamed of running the NYC Marathon. While training, he was hit by a car, breaking his shoulder in three places. Dan met with Dr. William Levine and his orthopedic team at NewYork-Presbyterian, who operated on his shoulder and designed a physical therapy plan to get him to the marathon. Just months after it seemed impossible, Dan crossed the finish line.

Learn more at nyp.org/orthopedics

IBR AHIM BOR AN

NEWS AND THINGS HAPPENING AROUND CAMPUS

PACE STUDENTS BREAK WORLD RECORD

COMING TO YOU LIVE! ON APRIL 22 , IN CELEBRATION OF EARTH

Day, more than 60 Pace students from the New York City and Pleasantville campuses visited the TODAY Show set in Rockefeller Plaza for a recordbreaking televised event. Joined by hosts Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly, Pace students broke the Guinness Book World Record for Most Plants Watered Simultaneously. To achieve the feat, organizations from across the globe—spanning multiple time zones—joined in to make it happen. Viral internet star Terrill Haigler, aka Ya Fav Trashman, was on location when the Pace group was presented with the plaque from Guinness officials. Nice work!

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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PACE NOW

NEWS

10 THINGS TO INSPIRE YOU #1 in the Nation Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law is once again ranked number one in the country for Environmental Law by the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. This is the second year in a row, and the third time in four years, that Haub Law has received the number one ranking. The program continues to recruit top faculty, establish leading-edge programs, and attract students who seek to become the environmental law leaders of the future.

RADical Health Pace is leading the charge when it comes to managing mental health—and is proud to be a partner of RADical Health, an innovative skill-based resilience program from the Radical Hope Foundation that empowers students to work through challenges before reaching a crisis point.

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Healthcare Access for All Physician Assistant student Elyse Hopper was selected as a Student Delegate for the American Academy of Physician

Winner, Winner

Associates (AAPA)

Pace’s Federal Reserve Challenge Team made history at the 18th Annual Federal Reserve College Challenge, winning the national title for the fifth time. With the victory, Pace now has won five of the last seven titles and has the most victories of any team in the history of the competition, surpassing Harvard University’s four wins.

and represented Pace

House of Delegates at this year’s AAPA conference. In her role as a Delegate, Elyse worked to increase the access to healthcare to the sick and underinsured.

Expanding STEM Education Pace’s School of Education and the Elisabeth Haub School of Law have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to expand STEM education for K–12 students in NYC. Pace undergraduates, overseen by JD and LLM law students, will provide access to dynamic and immersive learning experiences for under-represented communities.

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PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

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A Tribute to DJ In an effort led by Pace students Irach’e “Shea” Teague ‘22 and Ja’Rette Mungin ‘21, a newly commissioned mural of Danroy “DJ” Henry, a student

who was shot and killed by a Pleasantville police officer in 2010, was installed on Pace’s Pleasantville Campus during the second annual Social Justice Week. “This is my most heartfelt piece to date,” shared artist Brittney S. Price. “I’ve done memorial murals before, but not for the subject’s direct community for unifying and healing.”

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ESG Thinking The Elisabeth Haub School of Law recently announced the launch of the Haub Sustainable Business Law Hub (say that 10 times fast!). The Hub will serve as an incubator, studenttraining program, and think tank devoted to addressing global sustainability challenges through policy, research projects, relationships with the business community, and capacity building in private environmental governance.

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Empowering Queer Leaders

Pace’s LGBTQA+ Centers have received a $23,000 grant from the Leonard Litz-Foundation to help empower the next generation of queer leaders. The grant will fund Pace’s annual Q-Camp leadership retreat and a new program, the TGNCNB and QTPOC Leadership Series.

Addressing the Nursing Shortage New York State Senator

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Pete Harckham visited Pace’s College of Health Professions for a tour of its clinical simulation labs and held a roundtable discussion on addressing New York’s

$1.2 Million Grant for SOE

critical need for nurses and other primary care

With the support of this NYS Department of Education grant, Pace’s School of Education will recruit, support, and retain candidates from historically underrepresented communities into the teaching profession, who are highly qualified, value equity, and reflect diversity in today’s classrooms, particularly in high-need schools where there are local teacher shortages.

professionals. “It is critical that we encourage and reward people to join the nursing profession, which needs rejuvenation and reinforcements,” said Senator Harckham.

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SHAPING HEALTHCARE’S

NEXT GENERATION

BY A LYS SA C R E S SOT TI PH OTO G R A PH Y BY G I A N N I M O G ROV E J O

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PACE MAGA ZINE

This inaugural cohort of nursing students is poised to change the face of patient care. “ F O R T H E M O R E T H A N 5 0 Y E A R S T H AT I T ’ S B E E N I N

existence, Pace’s Lienhard School of Nursing has been committed to serving diverse communities,” says Rhonda Maneval, DEd, RN, vice dean of Pace’s College of Health Professions. “Part of that commitment is educating nursing students from diverse backgrounds in order to create a nursing workforce that can better address the health care needs of our diverse communities and improve health outcomes for all people.”

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a stark reminder that people from underserved communities suffer from severe disparity in health outcomes—due in part to lack of access, linguistic and cultural barriers, and economic and job conditions. For Maneval and the other leaders at Pace’s College of Health Professions (CHP), that experience emphasized the need to attract and support more diverse nursing students at Pace.

Last summer, CHP’s Lienhard School of Nursing received a nearly $2 million federal Nursing Workforce Diversity grant, funded through the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The grant works to increase educational opportunities and retention rates for first generation college students from underrepresented ethnic and racial minority groups in nursing.

The grant—facilitated through CHP’s innovative STEPS to Success program and authored by Maneval—provides support, scholarships, mentoring, tutoring, wellness workshops, and resiliency training aimed at preventing burnout and promoting academic success for nursing students.

For the nine nursing students who have just completed their first year as part of the inaugural HRSA cohort, the support, guidance, and mentorship they’ve received through the program have provided unparalleled opportunities.

“Many minority groups, especially those who are of Hispanic or Latin descent—like myself—tend to avoid health care institutions

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Students in the cohort attend classes together and study together as a group.

because of the fear of the language barrier that is so prevalent when trying to receive care,” says HRSA scholar Joeleena Hernandez ’25.

A HIGHER CALLING “My first ‘ah-ha’ moment was when I was nine-years-old,” says Alessandra Gutierrez ’25, whose grandmother, Tita, lived with her growing up in Ossining, New York. “She had broken her dominant arm and was diabetic, so she needed assistance with her insulin and testing her glucose levels. That was when I realized I loved helping others and wanted to help them as I did with my grandmother.”

That call to caring is what eventually brought Gutierrez to Pace.

Sofia Garcia ’25 had never considered a career in health care until her senior year in high school, when her father suffered a medical emergency that left him fighting multiple organ failure for weeks. “I observed how attentive the nurses were and the difference they were making in my dad’s recovery, and realized I wanted to have that same impact on someone else’s life as well,” she says.

The impact these students will have after graduation doesn’t begin and end with just patient care—they’re being educated to critically examine care in the clinical environment and strive for leadership roles within the nursing industry to carry the wave of change forward to the nurses who will come after them.

“Part of this program is really introducing the scholars to nursing leaders, because we need them to be the next generation of leaders,” says Maneval. “I tell the students all the time, ‘We need you to be registered nurses, but we also need you to be leaders. We need you to go out there and take charge and lead.’ And that’s something we do well—we give you the skills to begin that leadership journey.”

TOTAL IMMERSION Scholars in the nursing diversity program come from an underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in nursing, and they must also be

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PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

first-generation students, meaning they are the first in their family to attend college. While going off to college is a feat in itself, doing so as a first-gen student presents its own set of challenges. To help ease students and their families into college life, the scholars had the opportunity to participate in a week-long summer immersion program that introduced them to campus, their future faculty, advisors, and alumni who were working in area hospitals.

“Being part of the summer immersion program allowed me to meet students who were experiencing the same things as me,” says Evelyn Cabrera ’25, who is also in the Pforzheimer Honors College.

“I was more comfortable going into the school year because I felt as if I already had a group of people I could rely on. Being part of a cohort really allowed us to build connections with faculty and other students to create a big family who supports one another.”

During that week, students in the cohort lived together on campus, met their peer mentors (nursing students further along in Pace’s nursing program), got connected with key resource offices at Pace, and started building connections with each other and their individually assigned faculty mentors.

And it wasn’t just the scholars who built connections—their families were invited to campus to meet each other, meet their student’s faculty and advisors, and learn about how the program will impact their children.

“I’ve always said that people who choose nursing are very, very special people, and we wanted to communicate that with the families, and we wanted them to know how challenging nursing school can be,” Maneval says. “We invited the families to be cheerleaders and supporters for their students because we know that their students will sometimes feel overwhelmed. Having families know that these things are going to happen in advance means we can prepare them to help their students in positive ways.”

Now a year into the four-year program, students and their families have already felt the impact that this type of comprehensive and immersive support can have on student success.

“Everything is kind of new to us, in terms of college, but I think we’ve both adjusted well and are doing great so far,” says Hernandez about her and her mother. “My mom is so happy and excited for all the new things I’ve learned and been able to do and accomplish in the program. She always says that my hard work will pay off, and this opportunity is one thing that proves it.”

IT TAKES A VILLAGE “This grant gave us a great opportunity to capitalize on the strengths that we already had,” explains Maneval. “We were able to say to HRSA ‘You should invest in us because we have a good track record in educating diverse students, but we need help to do more.’”

As part of the funding, there is a deep focus on student retention and persistence to graduation—meaning no missed semesters, no drop-outs, and an always-forward academic progression for students. And, of course, one of the most important facets of the grant is the financial support from which the students benefit.

“It’s important, because not only does the scholarship say to the student that they are being invested in and that we believe in them, but it also helps to limit the amount of outside work they need to engage in,” Maneval says. “We know that many students are working lots of hours outside of academics, and that can be a major barrier to success.”

For nursing students in particular, the level of academic commitment required is extremely high. Between full class loads, labs, and on-site clinical rotations, it’s an intensive and full-time effort.

To help these students balance it all, peer and faculty mentors step in to offer guidance, moral support, and serve as sounding boards.

“It was incredibly reassuring to see an adult nurse who succeeded in her journey and still had time to dedicate to her relationships with her family and friends,” says Garcia, who was able to travel with her faculty mentor to Utah for the National Student Nurses Association Convention. “It was also delightful to talk to her about her experiences growing up.”

“We all were able to build great relationships and bonds with our peer mentors,” Gutierrez says. “They’re all nursing students who are one or two years older than us and it’s great to be able to talk to someone who has walked in our shoes.”

And it’s not just the people at Pace who are making a difference in student outcomes—it’s their families, too. By getting them involved in the process early, it paves the way for understanding and compassion when the road to graduation gets a bit rocky.

“My family was very proud of me when I started this journey and still are,” says Jahaira Pereira ’25. “They realize that being a nursing major is hard work, but they are there with me every step of the way to remind me that I am capable of becoming a nurse. “They help keep me relaxed and calm when things get to be a handful and without my family I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

“There’s real intentionality behind involving so many people and resources in the success of these students,” says Maneval.

“When we designed the program, we looked at what the best evidence was for the things that seem to make the most difference to the success of students. And in four years, we’ll be evaluating what really worked and what didn’t and use that information and those strategies to support all of our students in the best ways.”

IT ALL ADDS UP Prior to their junior year, these scholars will spend time in externship placements at partner hospitals in the Westchester area.

They’ll be earning wages and working closely with registered nurses in areas that are of interest to them as they begin to explore future career paths.

“Again,” says Maneval, “these placements are another strategy to build confidence and skill sets.”

“I am very thankful for the grant,” says Pereira. “It’s helped me be able to afford to attend school, but also helped me realize the impact I am making for the future of nursing. Being able to relate with my fellow students about how we want to make the representation of Hispanic nurses larger just helps to show the impact everyone in the program wants to make in the future. Overall, I hope that this grant will impact the industry and patient care by making more of a diverse community in the nursing community.”

For students like Hernandez, the grant has helped remove obstacles that she may have otherwise faced as a first-gen student entering a challenging program like nursing.

“I hope that more people in minority groups are propelled in the health and patient care industry because their contribution is so important to promoting wellness everywhere,” she says. “The HRSA program and grant is truly aiming to combat obstacles and barriers to education and access to health care and I have no doubt we can all achieve it.”

By progressing through Pace’s nursing program as a cohort, students have a built-in support system.

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PACE NOW

ROB SANDS: AT THE HELM

Alumnus. Attorney. Entrepreneur.

And now—Chair of the board. After years building his business and cementing his reputation, Rob Sands is excited to build Pace bigger and better than ever.

R

O B SA N DS , J D ’8 4 , K N OWS TH AT BO LD D ECI S I O N S

and calculated risks form the path to success.

Sands, who this summer is completing his first year as chair of Pace’s Board of Trustees, joined his family’s wine-wholesaling business, then called the Canandaigua Wine Company, in 1986. Over the next three and half decades, and in partnership with his brother, Rich Sands, he pursued a strategy of aggressive acquisition that both expanded the company’s footprint

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PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

and moved it into premium products. In 2000 it was renamed Constellation Brands, and today, thanks to the moves Sands made, Constellation is a Fortune 500 company with more than $8 billion in annual sales across such iconic brands as Modelo and Corona beers, Modavi and Kim Crawford wines, and Svedka Vodka, among many others.

“Rob has been a truly visionary and entrepreneurial leader for his business,” says Pace President Marvin Krislov. “We are so fortunate to be able to benefit from his leadership and wisdom at Pace.”

A native of the Rochester area, where Constellation is headquartered, Sands earned an undergraduate degree at Skidmore College before coming to Pace for law school.

After graduation, he practiced for a few years at the Rochester firm Harter Secrest & Emery LLP before joining the family business as general counsel. In 2007, he succeeded his brother as CEO, and in 2018 he became executive chairman.

“I had a great experience at Pace Law School, and I found the education to be excellent,” Sands says. Serving as Board chair is his opportunity to give back to the University. “I think my entrepreneurial spirit and success will be valuable to Pace in moving forward with our mission and setting us up for future success,” he says.

Sands first became involved with Pace as an alumnus in 2016, when the Sands Family Foundation and Constellation Brands made a $400,000 contribution to launch the Food and Beverage Law Clinic at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law. Through the clinic, the first of its kind in the country, Haub Law students and faculty provide legal services to farmers, food and beverage entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations seeking to improve our food system.

In 2018, he joined the Board of Trustees, and when the University kicked off a new strategic planning process in the summer of 2019, he became deeply involved in that effort, leading a Board committee to drive the planning process. Last summer, when Mark Besca ’81 decided to step down after an eight-year term as Board chair, Sands stepped up to lead the implementation of the new plan, Pace Forward. He’s ready to make big steps that yield big results.

“Pace is a great institution,” he says. “This is our opportunity to make it even greater.”

G ER A R D GA S K I N

SPOTLIGHT

PACE NOW

RESEARCH

REMOTELY TALENTED

The Great Resignation. Remote work. COVID-19 and the future of the office.

You’ve heard it all, but what does it mean? Talent management expert and Pace professor Ibraiz Tarique, PhD, flips the script on the traditional employer/employee conversation and breaks down the ever-evolving relationship between employers and the people who truly make workplaces tick.

PACE MAGAZINE: What impact has

through technology? This will require

Most homes are not designed for work and

the COVID-19 pandemic had on talent

managers to have a new mindset.

couples/families are not used to spending

management?

PM: Over the past year, there have been

so much time together. It got complicated.

IBRAIZ TARIQUE: Technology has really

a lot of headlines about labor shortages

impacted how we manage people and

and The Great Resignation. Can you

Management, I argue you must customize

how work is done. Employees have

discuss these trends from a talent

careers for the current employees. I

more control over their work now—

management perspective?

challenge the traditional philosophy of

how they work and where they work.

IT: What the pandemic did was move peo-

“what can you do for your employer” to

If you’re a high-potential employee or

ple indoors and to remote work, and a lot of

“what can your employer do for you?”

high performer, you’re controlling the

social and psychological aspects came in.

When you have that conversation as an

conversation. You’re dictating the terms.

The boundaries between work and life dis-

employer, you might ask: how can we help

Employers are now listening.

appeared. Companies entered our homes.

you move forward in your career? When

Working remotely has caused a lot of stress

you start the conversation from that

PM: What are some ways that companies

and burnout—people end up working more

angle, people get motivated, engaged,

can adapt to these shifts?

and questioning the meaning of their work.

committed, and eventually stay.

In my book Contemporary Talent

IT: Traditionally, performance management has had two components: results and behaviors. Now with remote and virtual work, observing workplace behaviors is challenging.

Whether that’s negative or positive is debatable, but there is a lot of focus on results. But focusing on “results” takes personality and other individual traits out of the equation.

From a company perspective, there’s now a focus on virtual leadership and virtual talent. We are moving from a traditional leadership model to virtual and S H U T T ER S TO C K

hybrid. How do you develop virtual leaders and virtual talent?

And who will be able to manage and engage a geographically dispersed workforce and talent

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THE SONG AS STRUGGLE

Researchers at Pace dive deep into hip hop’s emotional undercurrents.

H

I P H O P, I N A L O T O F WAY S ,

is a manifestation of pain,” says Justin Winley, a 2021 graduate who majored in Film and Screen Studies. “It’s a manifestation of the struggle, whether that be the dayto-day economic struggle of living in an impoverished community or the struggle against ‘The Man.’” Winley, working together with Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Melvin Williams, PhD, and independent researcher

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Justin Causey, used that insight as the basis for an innovative academic research project exploring the role of hip hop music in conveying grief, generational pain, and other emotions that might otherwise go unexpressed among Black men. Their researched was published this past winter in the peer-reviewed Journal of Hip Hop Studies.

As part of the research team, Winley and Williams conducted an investigation, framed by critical race theory and gender role conflicts, of twenty-six rap tribute songs

PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

written by twenty-eight Black male artists in the aftermath of the killing of rapper, entrepreneur, and activist Nipsey Hussle.

“We used this hip hop cultural moment—the death of Nipsey Hussle—to raise larger conversation about this epidemic of gun violence and its devastation of not only the Black community, but Black men specifically,” says Williams, whose areas of research focus on Black representation in pop culture, queer studies, and media.

Hussle, the stage name of Ermias As-

PACE NOW

C H EL S E A G U G L I EL M I N O/G E T T Y I M AG E S

RESEARCH

ghedom, was a Grammy-nominated West Coast rapper who was fatally shot outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles in 2018. A community leader who was an advocate for STEM education and worked to curb gun violence, he was 33 years old when he died. Following his death, more than 50 murals dedicated to his memory appeared in LA, book clubs popped up that focused on works he had referenced in interviews and in his lyrics, and dozens of tribute songs were produced by other rappers.

The concept of tribute songs is nothing new to the hip hop community—in fact, in 1997, following the LISTEN W H I L E YO U murder of ChristoREAD pher “The Notorious Scan the QR code B.I.G.” Wallace, artists above to listen to our Spotify playlist of Sean “Diddy” Combs songs examined by and Wallace’s widow, Williams and Winley.

Faith Evans, released “I’ll Be Missing You.” A few others to mull over include Jay-Z’s “The City is Mine,” Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads,” and 2Pac’s “Life Goes On.” “We really wanted to examine how Black male rappers were using these rap tribute songs to commemorate the grief of being a homicide survivor,” says Williams.

“In so doing, we start a larger conversation about how the Black community grieves, how Black men grieve, and how they communicate these narratives which are so vital to the grieving process.”

In Williams and Winley’s research partnership, the pair began analyzing nearly 30 tribute songs, each one memorializing the life and legacy of Nipsey Hussle.

They identified common themes in the tribute songs about survivorship, about anger, and about the desire to seek vengeance.

They saw that Black male rap artists use the rhetorical power of rap tribute songs to engage with their complex bereavement processes, advance vital counternarratives, and offer rich criticisms of gun violence, internalized racism, poverty, and systemic oppression. They also found that artists use these songs to explore Black men’s mental health experiences in the face of repeated exposure to violence, death, and homicide.

“When we see examples of gun violence, particularly in the Black community, it’s always a very charged conversation,” says Winley. “What’s great about being able to do this research is that it takes those emotions into account, but it doesn’t let them rule the discourse.”

MENTORING MATTERS For 15 years, members of the Shades Women of Color Collective on Pace’s NYC Campus have been meeting, talking, and uplifting one another. “Shades is a mentoring program but in a nontraditional sense,” says Denise Santiago, PhD, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and coordinator for the collective.

“It’s a support space for Black and Latina women, and all women are welcome.”

The weekly discussion groups tackle everything from social media, mental health, wellness, leadership, politics, and more.

But it’s not just talk. The women of Shades attend outings together, organize special events, and share professional opportunities.

Nina Riley ’22 came to Shades as a student and grew into a role as a facilitator. She finds that having a space to share experiences can lead to real change. “People value transformative storytelling,” she says. “Students come in and share their hair stories, or stories related to other topics, and we learn from each other.”

At the heart of Shades is a sense of community. “We welcome all women and femmes into Shades,” Riley says. “If you want to be a part of the conversation, you are welcome.

And we really do create a family.

If you keep showing up, we keep showing up.”

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BY J O H N N I M E D I N A PH OTO G R A PH Y BY I B R A H I M B O R A N

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S H U T T ER S TO C K

FARE TRADE/ FAIR CHANCE

Three Pace students are innovating the way food insecurity is addressed on campus.

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Surviving on instant ramen.

This is the image of the quintessential college student— perpetually tired but unrelenting, hungry yet insatiable.

Unfortunately, the “starving college student” is less romantic notion and more harsh reality. Across the country, nearly 40 percent of college students report going hungry, and 52 percent have utilized food pantry services at some point.

College is expensive. Living (and eating) in New York City is expensive. And with two years of a destabilizing pandemic further increasing disparities, food insecurity on college campuses is only getting worse. Fortunately, the fight against food insecurity at Pace just gained three dedicated advocates.

Students allocating Fare Trade funds during a snack purchase at a kiosk in One Pace Plaza.

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AGENTS OF CHANGE Pace is part of the United Nations Millennium Campus Network, a global student movement designed to address our society’s greatest challenges. Students at network schools can apply to be part of the UN Millennium Fellowship. This

PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

is an incredibly selective program, with only 6 percent of students worldwide chosen. Yet for the past three years, nine Pace students per year have been made Fellows.

Change-making students apply to this program with the goal of tackling one of the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. “These are goals that leaders from all over the world, about 190 countries, put together to promote peace, justice, and environmental sustainability,” says Sue Maxam, EdD, assistant provost for Special Projects and Retention Initiatives, and Pace’s liaison for the program.

For many, the program is a chance to learn something hands-on and add to their resume. But for Fellows Alexandra Kennedy ’22, Marisa Medici ’22, and Tasfia Rahim ’23, this was their chance to change their school for the better.

GOAL: ZERO HUNGER Alexandra Kennedy was already immersed in the fight against food insecurity as a volunteer at Pace’s food pantry Provisions. Growing up food insecure meant she also had firsthand experience. “When I came to college, I didn’t have any money and my meal plan money typically ran out very quickly,” says Kennedy. “Honestly, when we were sent home for COVID [in Spring 2020], I said ‘thank goodness’ because I only had a hundred dollars left for the semester.”

For Tasfia Rahim, it did not escape her notice how much the pandemic had changed her community, with food pantry lines growing longer by the day. “Seeing that, it really tapped into my interest in what food insecurity is and its prevalence in my community,” she says.

Marisa Medici can’t help but connect food insecurity to deeper systemic issues that she finds fascinating—and concerning. “Personally, I’m interested in the complexities of the food production/distribution system,” she says. “I feel like a lot of people aren’t aware how they contribute to some of the most con-

temporarily pressing issues—from carbon emissions to increasing health disparities.”

They knew their peers were struggling, even going so far as skipping meals they couldn’t afford and taking “poverty naps,” sleeping to keep hunger at bay. Maxam brought the three students together and they decided to take on the UN’s second goal of Zero Hunger, believing they could find tangible solutions to ease food insecurity on campus. And so, they got to work.

THE COST OF GOING HUNGRY When Denise Santiago, PhD, director of Pace’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, set out to create a campus food pantry in 2014, she conducted a survey to gauge need. The results were concerning.

“We had 1,500 students that were living below the poverty line,” says Santiago. “But we don’t know the number living at the poverty level, or slightly above—which is also cause for food insecurity, especially in places like New York City.” The results of the survey were part of the impetus for the creation of Provisions, a Bhandari Jain Family Food Pantry on Pace’s NYC Campus.

Maxam worries students are going hungry to pay for an education that is ultimately impacted when they go without enough food. “Students who deal with hunger get lower grades, very often they withdraw from college, if they withdraw or drop out entirely, they end up applying for lower paying jobs, they still have their college debts and they have to repay their loans,” she says.

“It’s a vicious cycle.”

“Society normalizes the idea of college students eating ramen or mac ‘n’ cheese, but it’s problematic because a lot of students have to decide whether they want to continue to pay for tuition, housing, or books rather than feeding themselves,” adds Rahim.

“We want to make sure our peers are set up for academic success and are aware of food insecurity, and that they don’t feel ashamed by it. It’s more common than a lot of people think,” says Medici. “We want to make sure they are being supported and can succeed. That requires being healthy in mind, body, and soul.”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Even before they were formally accepted into the Millennium Fellows program, the students were already hard at work conceptualizing solutions. They were certain of one thing: they didn’t want their project to be theoretical or

temporary, but sustainable and institutionalized to serve the Pace Community for the long term.

The idea started from their observations and grew.

“We knew that graduating students had a surplus of meal plan money and nowhere for that money to go,” says Kennedy. At Pace, unused meal plan money is forfeited at the end of the spring semester, meaning many students went home for the summer or graduated with unused balances on their meal plan. “We felt that students should be able to share that with each other, especially if that money would just go away when they graduated.”

This observation eventually materialized into Fare Trade, a program that would empower students to reallocate excess meal plan money to other Pace students who may be in need—a fair trade for food fare.

Kennedy and Rahim are focusing efforts on spreading the news about Fare Trade to the NYC Campus.

CHARTING THE COURSE WITH CHARTWELLS John Olsson arrived at Pace 10 years ago as a chef for Chartwells, Pace’s dining service provider. Now he’s the

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The three UN Millennium Fellows met over Zoom during the pandemic to keep momentum going for Fare Trade.

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Director of Dining Services and he’s seen several programs dedicated to combating hunger.

With the help of Olsson and Pace’s Auxiliary Services team, the three students were able to bring Fare Trade to life. Here’s how it works: when students pay using meal plan money in the dining hall, they can donate up to $5 which goes into a fund that is then distributed to students in need towards the end of the semester, when meal plans tend to run low.

Through Fare Trade, food insecure students can confidentially get the support they need, whether they are chronically food insecure, or just going through a rough patch. “No one is going to know about your situation,” Rahim says. “Our ultimate goal is to help you.”

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PROVISIONS PROVIDING They could have stopped with Fare Trade, but the students felt they could do more. “Food insecurity is not a one size fits all issue,” Medici says, “so it shouldn’t be a one size fits all approach.”

They looked to the Provisions food pantry and brainstormed ways to increase its impact. Santiago, the founder of Provisions, was concerned especially about members of Pace’s Active Retirement Community, a formal social group for NYC senior citizens. “One of our collective concerns is how to get our pantry items to that community, especially during inclement weather or when they are not feeling well,” she says.

To support these senior citizens, the Fare Trade team partnered with Invisible Hands Deliver, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering groceries to the most vulnerable during COVID-19. Now, anyone who relies on Provisions could get their food pantry groceries delivered to them.

With the delivery service established, the Fare Trade trio turned once more to spreading awareness about food insecurity.

FOR STUDENTS, BY STUDENTS Professor Meghana Nayak, PhD, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, met the Millennium Fellows after seeking out resources for one of her students facing food insecurity. She shared their vision of seeing the program institutionalized and offered up Pace’s Women’s and Gender Studies department as a sponsor. “The people who experience food insecurity are also more likely to experience the forms of oppression that we study when we are looking at feminist theories and social justice movements,” she says.

Even though Kennedy, Medici, and Rahim connected with and involved academic and administrative departments at Pace, they continued to stay dedicated to one of their earliest decisions—this would be a program for students, by students.

“We were really embraced so much by Pace administration and faculty so that we could take the lead,” says Medici. “They were really comfortable with letting us make those mobilizing actions and being that support system for us. We are so grateful every day.”

Empowerment is a key phrase when it comes to Fare Trade, as the students wanted to emphasize the power of community mobilization. “Students make up a majority of the Pace Community,” Kennedy says. “When there’s a problem, students should feel like they have the chance to help.”

Medici wants her peers to see that a big impact can start small, and that what they are learning can contribute to making their community better. “Every small change can make a bigger difference,” she says. “It’s about fostering that community around wanting to do public service and civic engagement work and how important that can be.”

THIS YEAR, AND THE NEXT, AND THE NEXT It will be some time before the impact of Fare Trade can be officially measured and quantified—but the short-term effects are clear.

“This program will grow beyond them,” says Olsson of Chartwells. “We’ll use it as a model at other schools, because it really is an engaging way for students to pay it forward.”

For Nayak, Fare Trade is another example

of student excellence at Pace. “Every wonderful thing we have at Pace is because a student thought, ‘What if this could happen?’ or because they have taken a great idea to the next level.”

“Fare Trade is leading by example. It ties into Pace’s mission of Opportunitas—that experiential learning,” says Medici. “We’re taking what we’re learning in the classroom and being able to apply that critical thinking in real life.”

PACE’S FOOD

PANTRIES Fare Trade launched early in 2022, but food insecurity had not gone unnoticed or unaddressed at Pace before its formation. At both the New York City and Westchester campuses, community-led food pantries have been offering support for years.

On the New York City Campus, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs Denise Santiago and a handful of student volunteers offer twice-monthly pick-ups of grocery boxes, containing up to two weeks of food.

Provisions, a Bhandari Jain Family Food Pantry, opened in 2019, and today 250 guests utilize the pantry, many of whom belong to the Pace Active Retirement Community.

According to Santiago, the help Provisions offers has an impact on everyone involved. “It brings a lot of joy,” she says. “And then people send us these wonderful emails, really thanking us. We don’t do it for the thanks, but it just humbles you.”

The Pace Pleasantville Mobile Food Pantry has been feeding the Westchester community since 2018. The pantry itself is

the product of an award-winning partnership with the nonprofit Feeding Westchester. Feeding Westchester covers food costs, and Pace staff and students volunteer their time to ensure that the 100 or so people who utilize the pantry once a month can have access to nutritious food.

Heather Novak, director of the Center for Community Action and Research, took over as coordinator for the pantry this year. She is happy to see the community using the pantry, but what she really appreciates are the conversations happening about food insecurity. “We want to be able to look at it from a larger perspective,” she explains. “It’s not just about feeling good that we’re helping our community members, but also normalizing the conversation around food insecurity. So when someone says ‘it’s good we have so many people using the pantry’, the conversation doesn’t end there.”

Get involved through nonperishable food donations. Email Heather Novak in Westchester at hnovak@pace.edu or Denise Santiago in NYC at dsantiago@pace.edu for details.

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PACE NOW

AT H L E T I C S

Pace’s varsity esports team is the first athletic offering on the NYC Campus.

Esports (read: competitive video gaming) arrives at Pace as our 15th varsity sport.

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League, Super Smash Bros Ultimate. These online, multiplayer games have long offered a way to unwind and bond with friends, and their popularity is only growing. In fact, competitive video gaming is one of the fastest growing activities in the world. Over the past decade, it has garnered 300 million players and spectators worldwide. And yes, fans do regularly watch their favorite players compete online.

At Pace, these games are more than just a casual hobby—they’ve become the backbone of the new esports program. And the Pace gamers (nearly 250 strong) are in it to win it. Building off existing student-led efforts, the program comprises two distinct groups: the club players and the varsity team, of which members compete as part of the College League of Legends, and the National Association of Collegiate Esports Starleague.

Julia Cardillo ’22, vice president of the esports club, and one of her closest friends, Mahir Kamal ’21, coach for the League of Legends teams, have been part of Pace’s gaming community since they were first-year students and are thrilled that the club is now an officially recognized varsity sport at Pace. “Now that we have the Uni-

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“WATCH US. IN SIX MONTHS, WE’RE GOING TO BE BREAKING RECORDS.” MAHIR K AMAL ‘21

M A R Q U I S PI C K ER I N G

PLAYING TO WIN

versity’s support, we can get stuff that makes the players feel like they’re actually competing—like jerseys and in-person practice spaces,” Kamal says. “Just having the college back this program, it makes me and the players feel more involved and ready to try our hardest in these tournaments.” But it isn’t just jerseys—Pace has also announced the development of a dedicated esports and gaming center on its New York City Campus.

Jesse Bodony is the newly appointed director of Esports and his enthusiasm matches that of the student players, especially because of the level of support from Pace. “It’s amazing, the energy and the drive that it’s taken for the program from conception—starting with Athletic Director Mark Brown—to get it to where it is now, live and engaging students,” he says.

While gaming may seem like just a fun pastime, Pace’s Esports program is creating opportunities for students to compete, enrich their academic experience, and explore vocational pathways in the growing gaming industry.

Cardillo, Kamal, and Bodony all expressed their happiness at yet another student-driven program that helps students come together in an increasingly digital world. “We want students to connect— whether they’re a competitive gamer that wants to join one of the teams, or a casual gamer that just wants to chill and find people to play with,” Bodony says. Cardillo lights up as she recounts the connections she has built through esports at Pace. “One of my favorite things is seeing people who didn’t know each other at all suddenly hanging out on campus,” she says.

But these teams aren’t here just to play. The Super Smash Bro Ultimate Gold II team reigned victorious over a previously undefeated team in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East Open Division Grand Finals. Kamal is confident Pace is going to be a new esports titan. “Watch us,” Kamal says. “In six months, we’re going to be breaking records.”

PACE NOW

AT H L E T I C S

Coach Carrie Seymour addressing the Women’s Basketball team.

DAN MULHOLLAND ENDOWED FUND FOR MEN’S LACROSSE Alumni Terri and Alex Rohan made the lead gift to establish the Dan Mulholland Endowed Fund for Pace Men’s Lacrosse, named in honor of Pace’s long-time men’s lacrosse coach and founder of the program.

Muholland helped develop countless student-athletes in his 14 years as coach, including Alex Rohan. Mulholland earned

SETTER BASKETBALL RETURNS TO THE BIG DANCE

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a career record of 104-77 and was inducted into the Pace Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

The Rohans’ gift, made through the May Ellen and Gerald Ritter Foundation, will help support scholarships for Setter lacrosse players through the fund.

Supporters can contribute to the fund by visiting www.pace. edu/settersclub and choosing

O T FA M I L I A R W I T H T H E B I G

Dance? We mean the NCAA tournament. The men’s and women’s basketball teams represented Pace on the national stage in 2021–22, both earning at-large bids to their respective NCAA tournaments.

The women, led by head coach Carrie Seymour and All-MBWA Division II Player of the Year Lauren Schetter ’21, ’24, were crowned the regular season champions of the NE-10 Southwest Division, and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2001 and

for only the third time in school history. The Setters also led Seymour, who just finished her 30th season at the helm, to career win number 500 this season; she currently sits at 35th on the all-time Division II wins list.

Head coach Matt Healing and the men’s basketball team won the NE10 Southwest Division Regular Season title for the first time in program history as the Blue and Gold went unbeaten divisionally. Healing and the Setters won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2002 before losing in overtime to Bentley University.

“Dan Mulholland Endowed Fund for Men’s Lacrosse.”

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PACE NOW

H E A LT H A N D T E C H

MAKING GREAT STRIDES IN HEALTHTECH

Pace’s faculty are working across disciplines to address the health needs of today.

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COVID tests, technology is revolutionizing healthcare. By working across disciplines, faculty at Pace are turning groundbreaking ideas into reality.

Juan Shan, PhD, an associate professor of computer science in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, is focused on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyzing medical imaging—things like breast ultrasounds and knee MRIs. The basic idea is to take advantage of those advanced models in machine learning and apply those to the medical domain to help solve medical problems.

“In computer science, we know more about machine learning and computer vision techniques than about medical problems,” Shan says. “But we want to apply these techniques to help doctors solve the medical domain problems.”

Shan and her students are using machine learning and computer vision techniques to help doctors solve problems detecting the precise details of a tumor more accurately and efficiently or providing a second opinion on the severity of knee osteoarthritis.

“My students here at Pace get involved in my research projects,” she says. “Research informs my teaching, and I can always bring new ideas back to my classroom and discuss them with my students.”

Shan and her doctoral students design Computer Aided Diagnosis Systems (CADs), systems that are programmed to do particular tasks—pinpoint location, measure joints, estimate size. Her primary focus is developing robust and efficient CAD algorithms to help doctors analyze medical images, discover distinguishing features, and classify

data utilizing machine learning methods. In one recent research endeavor, for example, Shan created a system where a computer was able to estimate the severity of osteoarthritis in a hand after learning how to read and interpret thousands of X-rays—a technique that Shan says helps save on labor and time for medical professionals that would otherwise be manually diagnosing the severity of the osteoarthritis.

“RESEARCH INFORMS MY TEACHING, AND I CAN ALWAYS BRING NEW IDEAS BACK TO MY CLASSROOM AND DISCUSS THEM WITH MY STUDENTS.” J UA N S H A N , P H D

At the College of Health Professions, Assistant Professor John Damiao, PhD, has spent the past several years figuring out how to leverage gains in scanning technologies to build customized wheelchairs tailored toward the needs of an individual user. His work makes the wheelchairs more comfortable, and potentially helps reduce the risk of future injury.

“Traditionally, the wheelchair user is seated in a molding bag that makes an imprint of their shape,” says Damiao. “The molding bag is hardened, and that bag shape

is scanned, sent off to a company and they make a cushion from that imprint.”

But his work is driving a paradigm shift in how wheelchair seats are constructed.

“The problem with the traditional method is that the person is sitting in a loaded fashion, and their body contours are being distorted from sitting in a loaded fashion,” he says. “The innovation in my research is scanning the person directly, or in an unloaded position, which should make for a more accurate custom contoured seat.”

Custom contoured seating refers to wheelchair seating systems to fit people with severe deformities—whether its postural or a skeletal deformity, and they can’t sit in a typical linear wheelchair seating system because it would cause discomfort, or eventually cause pressure ulcers because of the mismatching of their shape to what is a typical wheelchair seat shape, explains Damiao.

Pressure injuries kill 60,000 people are a year and are, as Damiao describes, a “$10 billion per year problem.” Damiao’s inventive use of custom-contoured seating utilizes everimproving technology to potentially save lives.

As a 21st century occupational therapist, Damiao understands that, while academic research is vital and will continue to be vital, it is just as important to be able to leverage technological advances to implement changes rapidly. He hopes that increased interdisciplinary collaboration—for instance, better collaboration between those developing healthcare technologies and researchers—can help take the theoretical into the practical much faster, and thus positively impact lives.

As per the work of Shan and Damiao, it seems that when it comes to the intersection of health and tech, Pace is certainly building an effective algorithm.

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PACE NOW

IN THE CLASSROOM

21ST CENTURY ACADEMICS

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students for the demands of an evolving job market for more than 115 years. Now we’re creating new academic programs that will help our students succeed in the careers of the next 115.

It’s part of the commitment to academic innovation in our new strategic plan, called Pace Forward, that ensures we meet the needs of today’s students and employers.

In 2021, the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems launched a master’s program in Human Centered Design. It’s a discipline that blends art, design, psychology, and technology to focus on how people interact with machines. For some considering grad school, this degree can mean a significant value-add to a career in tech not only now, but especially during the transition into Web 3—the umbrella term used to describe emerging technologies such as the metaverse, blockchain, and NFTs. Together with the College of Health Professions (CHP), Seidenberg is also offering a new master’s degree in Health Informatics. It’s an interdisciplinary program designed to launch careers at the intersec-

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tion of health and technology—ranging from telehealth, to artificial intelligence, to software development, and much more.

“Healthcare technology is bringing us into an exciting world of truly personalized medicine and healthcare,” says Jonathan Hill, DPS, dean of Seidenberg. “Right now, faculty from CHP and Seidenberg are working with students on innovative, interdisciplinary research projects that seamlessly blend healthcare and technology in ways that improve the healthcare experience not just for patients, but for medical professionals as well.”

Finally, the School of Education has a new master ’s program in Early Childhood Development and Learning.

This new degree program draws upon all the latest advancements in the field to best prepare educators to succeed in the ever-changing education landscape— ensuring that while GO the educational tools FURTHER and strategies may be with a graduate different, the quality degree from Pace.

Explore our programs will continue to be of at www.pace.edu/ gradprograms. the highest caliber.

PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

A CUSTOM SOLUTION FOR EY When EY needed an online solution for educating their tax professionals in India and Argentina, the Legal Studies and Taxation department led by Professor Vince Barrella made it happen.

Legal Studies and Taxation faculty formulated a plan drawing on Pace’s pivot to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The faculty was able to convert the existing MS in Taxation program to a completely asynchronous format that met the needs of EY employees abroad, while ensuring that the historic quality of the degree was preserved. The EY program has served as the prototype for the new asynchronous online MS in Taxation degree available to all tax professionals this coming Fall 2022 semester.

“Pace’s strong focus on the accounting and tax profession, with a record number of Big Four partners and a top-tier MS program made the University a natural front-runner,” says Ashu Rathor ’01, an alumnus who leads EY’s Global Tax Delivery team around the world.

Rathor found an ideal proposition at Lubin as he and his learning team were scouting for a school to bring a master in tax program for their top US tax executives.

“Coupled with that, Pace presented a customized virtual program that became critical during the pandemic. Flexibility on timing to line up with our busy season, topped with best faculty and commercial proposition convinced us we had no other option to go with but Pace.”

BOWSTRING STUDIOS

Our innovative new programs in human centered design, health informatics, and more are ensuring that today’s Pace students will be tomorrow’s leaders in emerging industries.

PACE NOW

IN THE CLASSROOM

PERFORMING ARTS: TAKING CENTER STAGE

PAC E PER F O R M I N G A RT S

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NEW COHORT OF LE ADERS

at Pace’s School of Performing Arts (PPA) is embracing change and continuing to enable students’ professional success—all while guiding the way toward a more equitable arts community.

“We’re thinking about all the ways in which the industry is changing,” says Jennifer Holmes, PhD, who returned to Pace last fall to serve as executive director of PPA. “It’s an opportunity to look at the curriculum, look over our policies and procedures, and ensure that they are relevant and inclusive.” A performer and director, Holmes started her teaching career at Pace and went on to lead theater and communications programs at The New School and Long Island University.

“We’re making a real push toward interdisciplinary collaboration,” she says. That includes training students for today’s world of digital content creation—setting them

up to be able to write, produce, and star in their own online series—and planning a new graduate program at the intersection of performance, design, and technology.

The new PPA leadership team includes Amen Igbinosun, an actor and educator, who joined Pace as program head for acting for film, television, voice-overs, and commercials, and Jesse Carlo, an actor, director, and choreographer, who is the new program head for musical theater. Commercial dance professors Lauren Gaul and Scott Jovavich also took on new leadership roles.

“PPA students are so talented, and they’re really the heart of the performing arts in New York City,” Holmes says. “We’re training them, and they’re also out there working. They’re bringing the things that they learn from us into the professional space, and what they learn working into our classrooms. We’re really changing the industry from the inside.”

A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED TRAINING GROUND FOR ACTORS, WRITERS, DIRECTORS, AND DESIGNERS: • One of the best 19 MFA Acting Programs in the US and UK according to Backstage.com • 3 students in featured roles on Broadway this season • 1 student has a recurring role in a TV series • 14 students and alumni appeared as Radio City Rockettes this year • #10 Best Performing Arts School in New York according to College Gazette

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“HE CAME TO CLASS, AND HE WAS BRILLIANT.” E U G E N E R I C H I E , PH D

AHEAD

BY L A N C E PAU K E R PH OTO G R A PH Y BY I B R A H I M B O R A N

OF THE

When Pace University’s Admissions team received Shahab Gharib’s application, they were thoroughly impressed.

Here was a student with excellent academic credentials and a wealth of extracurricular interests—someone who would certainly make a positive impact in the Pace Community.

Yet, when it was the Pforzheimer Honors College’s turn to look over his application, they noticed something extremely odd. A clerical error? They sought to investigate.

“They called back to confirm Shahab’s date of birth,” says Bardia Gharib, the student’s father. “I said no, it’s not a typo—he’s really 12 years-old.”

This is a common through-line for Shahab, who began his undergraduate studies at Pace at the age of—again, not a typo—12 years old.

“At first, people are kind of shocked,” he says. “But after a while, I’m like anyone else.”

Shahab Gharib, despite his modest, easy-going demeanor, is certainly not like anybody else. Born in Bruchsal, Germany, Shahab moved with his parents to Hollywood, Florida, when he was a young child. Even then, it was clear that he was unusually gifted. For one, it seemed that he was already devouring books well-beyond his reading level. His teachers and school administrators took note of Shahab’s clearly advanced intellect, and in fourth grade, he moved to a gifted school.

Then, as a fourth-grader, Shahab had the opportunity to take the PSATs—a trial run for the SATs, typically taken by high school juniors a few months prior to the big test.

Shahab scored a 1250, in the 99th percentile for his age group.

“That was the ‘OK’ moment,” his father says. “We knew he was gifted, but this was clearly something else.”

GETTING AHEAD Talking to Shahab, you instantly realize that he is, above all, curious. It’s likely this insatiable hunger for knowledge that made Shahab excel beyond his peers, even in middle school. While most sixth graders, for example, might be pining to play video games after a school day filled with algebra and world history, that wasn’t exactly the

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case for Shahab. Instead, while not in the classroom, he started taking electives for high school credit through Florida Virtual School.

He also made it a point to finish every book he picked up— whether that be popular favorites like the Harry Potter series (which he finished in first grade), personal favorites such as Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One, or dense non-fiction such as The Washing of the Spears, a comprehensive history of the Zulu nation.

“I may have a slight reading problem,” admits Shahab.

Eventually, Shahab took so many classes through Florida Virtual School that he had, in effect, completed high school at age 12. He and his parents had a decision to make—should he actually go to high school and study subjects he had already mastered? Or was he ready to keep challenging himself intellectually and make the leap to college?

“We had said if he was going to go to college, it had to be New York,” said Bardia, referencing the endless cultural opportunities offered by the city, as well as a “real-world” crash-course the frenetic nature of Manhattan inevitably provides. So, he applied to Pace.

And he was accepted. Through credits from the Florida Virtual School and CollegeBoard CLEP exams, he even entered with 12 college credits.

IN THE CLASSROOM In some ways, Shahab’s time at Pace has been like that of any other student. Like the rest of his peers, he diligently balances his time between a full course load and extracurriculars. He’s majoring in history, and has greatly enjoyed his courses in other disciplines, including economics, computer science, and creative writing. He’s earned praise from professors with whom he’s developed strong relationships, including his English professor, Eugene Richie, PhD, who is also Pace’s director of creative writing.

Richie has been sincerely impressed with—as he describes— Shahab’s maturity and sense of connection. Given his stellar work, Richie recommended him for the Andrew W. Mellon Pace Storytelling Fellowship for Equity and Inclusion, which Shahab was recently awarded. As part of the Fellowship, Shahab will be participating in a fully paid internship this summer with a creative organization that matches his future interests.

“I got a call from the Honors College director who said Shahab wasn’t 18 and was going to enter college early,” Richie says. “He came to class, and he was brilliant. He talked all the Shahab spars with another student as time, and he really engaged with the material.” part of his boxing After enrolling in a modern and contempoclub, Soulfighter. rary international poetry course—in which, Richie notes, Shabab provided a unique perShahab and his father on the way to spective given his early upbringing in Germathe subway to head ny—he then signed up for an Honors course downtown to Pace’s campus. focusing on poetry, memoir, and creative fiction. After writing a few poems, the class Shahab working moved onto the memoir, during which Shahab at home in his bedroom. revealed his story more in depth—to the great

surprise of his classmates and even his professor, who had assumed he was closer to 18.

“When he did the memoir, he revealed to the other students that he could’ve gone to high school but decided that he’d rather start college because he was able to do it,” said Richie. “Then I realized, wow, he must be 13 or 14 years old—I had no idea!” …AND BEYOND If your impression is that Shahab camps out in the library 24/7, you’d be wrong. While clearly prolific in his studies, he’s also made time for a number of activities outside of the classroom. Last fall, he got involved with Pace’s student-run radio station, WPUB, and started hosting his own radio show. Titled Books, Ballads, and Blasts from

“IF SOMEONE TELLS HIM ‘YOU CAN’T— YOU’RE TOO YOUNG, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO’—THAT’S

A CUE FOR HIM, AND HE’LL PROVE THEM WRONG.” BA R D I A G H A R I B , S H A H A B ’ S FAT H E R

“I MAY HAVE A SLIGHT

READING PROBLEM.” S H A H A B , F E E LI N G E X T R E M E LY AT H O M E I N T H E FA M I LY LI B R A RY A LO N GS I D E T H E FA M I LY D O G, B U M B L E

Like many Pace students, Shahab spends a lot of his time on campus working with his classmates.

the Past, the show uses reading and history as a conversation starter and introduces the world of Shahab to a wider audience. And, as WPUB asks: Everyone always wants to know what a 13-year-old has to say about history, books, and all genres of music, right?

“Alliterations are a running joke in my family,” he says, explaining the title of his radio show. “The experience so far has been really great—I usually bring a friend who has a different perspective on a lot of things, and it has been a lot of fun.”

He’s also punching above his weight—literally. The sport of boxing has long been a family endeavor. Bardia, a boxer who ran a boxing gym in Bruchsal, has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for Shahab.

During their time in Florida, the Gharibs were members of a boxing gym, where Shahab met Max Schillinger, who is now himself a student at Pace’s Lubin School of Business. The two bonded over their admiration of hip-hop artists, which Schillinger joked that Shahab was definitely too young to be listening to.

“Back when we met, he told me he was in 10th grade,” said Schillinger. “He was 11 years old. I was in disbelief.”

The two ended up keeping in touch after the Gharib family left Florida for New York City, and Schillinger was entering his senior year of high school. Schillinger, unbeknownst to Shahab at the time, was also looking to study in New York City and coincidentally was also accepted to Pace last spring. Although the two didn’t plan to attend college together, their continued friendship has blossomed.

“We ran into each other in the elevator on the second day of school,” said Shahab. “I said, Max! We need to do some boxing.”

And so they have. The pair recently started Soulfighter NYC, a Pace boxing club that meets twice a week in either the Pace gym or in City Hall Park. Each class spans about an hour, and is led by Bardia, who teaches students the basics of boxing, footwork, and strategy—while making sure nobody is skimping on the push-ups.

At a recent session, Shahab, despite being clearly younger than the other dozen or so other Pace students, did not seem remotely out of place. In fact, while sparring with his partner, he was both focused on his own footwork and technique and encouraging of his partner, once again suggesting a maturity beyond his years. At the end of the training session, he lay down on the floor exhausted, in a way only possible after a grueling but rewarding workout.

Schillinger, while not surprised Shahab is able to excel in this environment just like he did in Florida, is no less impressed.

“What seems like an abnormality is possible, if you look at where hard work can get you,” said Schillinger.

GOING PLACES With Shahab, there is often a question about his future—if someone who was born in 2008(!) has been able to accomplish so much

already, what will he be able to do by 2030? 2040? And although some might want to put grand aspirations on his shoulders, Shahab, with the help of Bardia, seems to be quite adept at not looking too far down the road.

Because he is looking to graduate next year—early of, course— his primary concern is focusing on his plans immediately after graduation. After a few long conversations with his family, professors, and mentors, he has decided he would like to attend law school. He recently applied to Pace’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law, where he hopes to take advantage of the 3+3 program, in which students can earn their BA and JD in only six years.

Although he’s not entirely sure what he’d like to study, he notes the environmental law program, currently ranked the best in the country, holds great interest.

Shahab is also excited for another element of a typical university experience. While it’s not unusual for college students to live at home, it is a bit unusual for their parents to regularly accompany them to campus. Because of his age, Shahab who lives with Bardia and mom, Amorita, on the Upper West Side, goes back and forth to campus with Bardia. He acts as a chaperone of sorts—bringing Shahab down to One Pace Plaza each day on the subway, providing guidance, and helping ensure Shahab grows socially and culturally as well as academically. At law school however, the plan is for Shahab to further his growth and live in the dorms.

Although Bardia will certainly be a little bit sad to not be in the company of Shahab each and every day, he’s also incredibly proud of what his son has been able to accomplish. He looks at Shahab living without parents as an essential aspect of growing up. And even though Shahab will only be 15 when he starts law school, it’s safe to say his life experience is a bit beyond his years.

“People ask, ‘You bring your son to school?’” jokes Bardia. “No, my son brought me here.”

And his son is clearly going places.

“If someone tells him ‘You can’t—you’re too young, you won’t be able to’—that’s a cue for him, and he’ll prove them wrong,” Bardia says.

Shabab smiles. “I may be a tad competitive,” he says.

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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COMMENCEMENT 2022: On Monday, May 16, Pace held the largest Commencement ceremony in our history to celebrate the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. As this was our first full-fledged Commencement ceremony in three years, we savored the opportunity to celebrate in style with our entire community at a truly incredible venue—fitting of the accomplishments and perseverance of our graduates.

This year’s Honorary Degree Recipients included New York City Mayor Eric Adams; US Representative for New York’s 6th Congressional District Grace Meng, JD; and finance and philanthropy leader Baroness Ariane de Rothschild ’88, MBA ’90. This year’s Opportunitas in Action Award winners included Marco Damiani, CEO of AHRC NYC, and Joseph Kenner, CEO of Greyston.

“WE CHOSE PACE. LITTLE DID WE KNOW, WE WERE NOT JUST GAINING A HOME, BUT WE WERE GAINING A COMMUNITY FILLED WITH PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SEE ALL ITS MEMBERS ATTAIN THEIR DREAMS.” V I C TO R I A L . R O O N E Y ‘ 2 2 , VA L E D I C TO R I A N S P E A K E R

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PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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PACE PEOPLE

F A C U LT Y

DRINKING IT IN

Y

O U P R O B A B LY H A V E N O

idea what’s actually in your drinking water. How would you?

Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems Professor John Cronin, formerly New York’s first full-time Hudson Riverkeeper, is aiming to change that. With the help of a donation of over $200K in water testing equipment from General Electric, he founded Seidenberg’s Blue CoLab. In this lab, he leads a team of nine students who work with equipment that allows them to test water conditions in real time. They’re creating apps. Reviewing data. Mapping

38

visualizations. Basically, they’re working on the technology that will help ensure a future where no one has to wonder what’s in their drinking water.

“I’ve worked for Congress, and for the New York State Legislature. I was the Hudson Riverkeeper for 17 years. I brought all those skills together at Pace. And now at Seidenberg, I’m able to pursue what is needed: more innovation, better use of technology, how to protect people in real time,” says Cronin. “I want to pass on those skills and give students real opportunities. Show them what is possible. That’s my calling: training the next generation to make a difference.”

PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

JOHN CRONIN IS JUST THE PERSON THE WORLD NEEDS TO TRAIN UP THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS.

BOWSTRING STUDIOS

Through Blue CoLab, John Cronin is helping to build a future in which our drinking water is truly clear.

PACE PEOPLE

ALUMNI

SABRINA A. GRIFFIN ’92 Creating a Blueprint for Leadership

M I C H EL E M EC H L ER

I

N A 3 0 -Y E A R C A R E E R AT T H E

Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Sabrina A. Griffin ’92 built community and connections as a diversity manager and later as an assistant vice president. As the company grew to become the world’s largest publicly traded insurer, Griffin worked to maintain its supportive environment—and to promote increasingly diverse executive ranks. She designed and implemented leadership development programs for women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ employees.

That experience left Griffin well positioned for a new role: she is the first-ever Leadership Council Chair of the new Pace University Alumni Association, launched in September 2021.

“I want the Alumni Association to be a space where programming is accessible to all alumni, regardless of life experience, graduation year, or school,” Griffin says. “I want it to be a place where alumni can seek meaningful engagement and truly create a Pace alumni community.”

When Griffin left the corporate world in 2016, she found herself able to pursue new opportunities. She continued her professional work, joining the diversity, equity, and inclusion firm Jennifer Brown Consulting as a senior consultant. And she rekindled a connection with her alma mater, where she’d earned an MBA while working full-time at Chubb.

“I came to Pace because I knew the MBA program was excellent, and that it offered an outstanding evening component” that enabled her to study while continuing her career, she says. “It had a reputation of offering

students the opportunity to learn in the field. And it was accessible, inclusive and diverse.”

Seeking to provide the same kinds of educational opportunities for a new generation of students, Griffin first joined Pace’s President’s Council and then the recent Presidential Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion.

She lends her expertise to Career Services and to Lubin’s Human Resources and Talent Management Club.

“Sabrina brings such great energy to everything she does,” says Pace President Marvin Krislov. “She has a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience, especially on DEI priorities. But even more than that she’s just

such a positive, constructive force.” Griffin will rely on that force as she works to connect more than 158,000 alumni worldwide.

“When my new role was announced, I received an outpouring of congratulations from alumni on LinkedIn,” she says. “They were all wonderful, but the ones that really stood out were from the international alumni. One alumnus in the United Arab Emirates told me how much he wanted to be involved.”

Naturally, she’s promptly started brainstorming programming ideas for international alumni—and recruited her LinkedIn correspondent to help engage other alumni in his region.

SUMMER 2022 • PACE MAGA ZINE

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PACE PEOPLE

ALUMNI

KEEPING PACE

Get connected with your fellow classmates at one of our special alumni events or through our online Class Notes.

30TH ANNUAL PRESIDENT’S SCHOLARSHIP RECEPTION

ABOVE: Jaime Mantilla ’95 and Linda Fu ’96 with Seidenberg student Alyssa Lahaise ‘26.

LEFT: Mark ’81 and Geri Besca with Dyson student Ndaya Hoskin ‘26.

The President’s Scholarship Reception, hosted by President Marvin Krislov, celebrates the life-changing generosity of Pace University scholarship benefactors.

This year’s Spirit of Pace Awards dinner was held as Pace Magazine went to press.

To see photos and highlights from the event, visit www. pace.edu/alumni.

2022 SPIRIT OF PACE AWARDS Rising Star Award Recipients. From L to R: Fatima Silva ’08, Cherie PhoenixSharpe ’07, Dean Horace E. Anderson Jr., Kevin Sylvester ’15, and Cayleigh Eckhardt ’15 (Not photographed: Michael Bauscher ’10.)

The Spirit of Pace Awards celebrates Pace University’s role as a national leader in providing a college education of clear value. This event provides us with the opportunity to come together to recognize

27TH ANNUAL LAW LEADERSHIP DINNER The annual Law Leadership Dinner event honors exceptional alumni or organizations who made outstanding contributions to the legal community, the Elisabeth Haub School of Law and/or the practice of Law.

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PACE MAGA ZINE • SUMMER 2022

WANT MORE? Head online to see who got a new job, landed a big promotion, got married, published a new book, and so much more. Plus, it’s your opportunity to share YOUR good news.

Get going: www.pace.edu/classnotes

A LU M N I R EL AT I O N S

outstanding members of the Pace Community.

PACE UNIVERSITY’S ONLINE ALUMNI-STUDENT MENTORING PROGRAM CONNECTS STUDENTS AND ALUMNI

Pace University’s Neil S. Braun Student Mentoring Program brings the student and alumni community closer together. Sign up today to become a member of our signature online mentoring community. As an alumni mentor, you can: EXPAND your own network by meeting bright up-and-comers • ENHANCE your leadership and communication skills • GET inspired through sharing ideas and brainstorming • LEARN what motivates the next generation of professionals • GIVE back to the Pace Community in a meaningful way •

Please visit www.pace.edu/mentoring to get started or email us at mentoring@pace.edu.

Pace Magazine Marketing and Communications One Pace Plaza New York, NY 10038

www.pace.edu

www.pace.edu/pacemagazine

160,000

ALUMNI STRONG

Receiving your diploma is only the beginning of your journey with Pace. When you walk across the stage, you automatically become part of a community of 160,000 strong where your voice matters; the Pace University Alumni Association.

Being active in Pace’s Alumni Association means you have the opportunity to engage with fellow alumni, current students, and the University to enrich your alumni experience through volunteering and programming. We want you to shape your community, celebrate Pace, and share innovative ideas that help move the University forward.

Get involved today:

www.pace.edu/alumniassociation