Deborah Walnicki, a Sociology student with a Concentration in Human Services and a minor in Spanish, had been named a 2014 recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.  Deborah is an alumna of the AmeriCorps City Year program, having served in East Harlem, NY.  She was subsequently named City Year Recruitment Ambassador at SUNY New Paltz in City Year’s first campus recruitment pilot program.  The success of this pilot led to this becoming a model for nationwide recruitment. 

A member of the Honors Program since Fall 2010, Deborah was the recipient of the Cetrino Family Scholarship in 2013.  During 2013 Deborah worked as research assistant to sociology professor Dr. Eve Waltermauer at the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) developing the Community Health Assessment and the Community Health Improvement Plan, commissioned by the Ulster County Departments of Health and Mental Health.  Deborah has also found time to study abroad in Guayaquil, Ecuador where she interned at a Global Education Project, Fundacion Crecer.   Deborah has taken her talents beyond the campus and has played an active role in the local community.  She is currently working with the Greater New Paltz Community Partnership, offering yoga classes to high school students as part of their “stress busters” initiative.  As part of a human services internship, she is also working with community member, Amy Frisch, launching a “Girls on the Run” program (a girls’ empowerment program) for the first time in New Paltz. 

On campus Deborah is a certified yoga instructor, is president of the Yoga Club, and has been a volunteer at Oasis/Haven.  As a significant contributor to the Concentration in Human Services, Deborah’s other internships include Riverhaven Youth Shelter in Poughkeepsie, Ulster County Department of Social Services Children’s Services Division, and Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany.  She has also worked as a job coach at the Northeastern Association for the Blind in Albany.  This summer she plans to study abroad with the International Social Welfare program to Denmark.

Academy Award nominated documentary film maker, Josh Fox, addressed a capacity crowd in Lecture Center 100 on October 29.  Fox’s films include Gasland and its sequel, Gasland 2, both of which address the controversial issue of hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking.  This is a process used to extract natural gas from deposits trapped underground in shale rock.  While this technique has not been permitted thus far in New York State, Fox discussed the experiences that citizens are having in other parts of the country where fracking occurs.  He described environmental problems and health issues

among people living in the vvicinity of fracking operations.  Fox encouraged audience members to contact their elected officials and encourage them to oppose fracking in New York State.   

Brown University sociologist, Jose Itzigsohn, offered a lecture on his new book to sociology students and others on October 21^st.   Dr. Itzigsohn’s talk, “Class, Race and Mobility between Immigrant Generations,” addressed the issue of how well Latino immigrants to the United States are faring economically.  His research demonstrates that Latin American immigrants experience upward mobility, but only for one generation, after which their socioeconomic status stagnates.  Itzigsohn finds that racial inequality is central to understanding the class structure in the United States.”  Unequal educational opportunities play a role in perpetuating class inequality, but given that career advancement is often dependent upon social networks, Itzigsohn concludes that addressing educational issues alone is not likely to solve this problem. 

Dr. Jose Itzigsohn

 A crowd of over sixty attended Dr. Itzigsohn’s lecture in the Coykendall Science Building.  His talk is the second in a series of lectures on the issue of immigration sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program and the Department of Sociology.  Dr. Alejandro Portes of Princeton University spoke in September.  Colgate University sociologist, Dr. Jacqueline Villarrubia-Mendoza, is offering a talk titled “Social Networks and Internal Hiring Practices of Hispanic Immigrants in the Hudson Valley” on November 21^st at 5:00 in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium.