Lorenzo LaRoc

Monday marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. In celebration of the occasion we hosted a talented performer, Lorenzo LaRoc. LaRoc is a New York born, Dominican who plays the electric violin, a beautiful instrument crafted from clear Plexiglas. If you are a regular subway rider you may have seen him feature in the "Music Underground" series. This is the first of a number of programs being hosted to celebrate the rich history of Hispanics at City Tech and in New York.

New Student Orientation

New Student Orientation was held on Monday and Tuesday, August 25 and 26, 2008. The successful event was attended by over 1400 students and over 500 parents and family members. This is the largest number of attendees that I have seen. On Tuesday we were forced to use every available seat in the auditorium. This is a great way to start the year.

Kristin Skarie was the featured speaker both days. There were separate programs for the new students and for their families. Students met with faculty and were introduced to the college by the Student Orientation Guides. Parents met with the President, the Provost, the VP for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and several other representatives from various offices.

Kristin Skarie

Students at Orientation

Parents Orientation Program

SGA Dinner with Kristin Skarie

Student Government members hosted a dinner with Kristin Skarie, motivational speaker and leadership trainer on Monday night. Krisitin is part of the Teamworks group and was in New York to present at City Tech New Student Orientation

The students had a very enjoyable conversation with Kristin. Some of the topics included how college student compared throughout the world (she recently traveled to South Africa), the exciting opportunity that the SGA has by being able to work with such a diverse group of students, leadership tips, characteristics of campus politics and how it applies to the world of work and how she started her business.

A highlight for me was when she asked the question "How do you define success?" I think it left all of participates thinking about their personal definitions of success.

Almost Ready for Orientation

On Thursday afternoon the Orientation Guides finished up the preparations for New Student Orientation. Here are a couple pics of them having fun preparing hats and just relaxing for a few minutes. This is a great group of students to work with as they are fun and dedicated to helping new students.

New Student Orientation Prep Work

Today was the first work day for a group of great new Orientation Guides. Some are returning and some are brand new and they are all excited. I am excited to have such a great group to work with. Today the guides worked from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. preparing information packets for new students. They successfully stuffed 2000 information folders and backpacks. It was a very productive day.

Here are a couple quick pictures from the day.

It's Back To School Time

After what seemed like a very short summer we are in full swing for the fall academic year. Students do not start classes until Wednesday, August 27 however we are preparing for New Student Orientation, Club Re-certification, and fall programs. Welcome back.

Student Affairs Conference

Members of the Student Life staff attended the City University of New York Regional Student Affairs Conference Friday, May 2 at York College. Vice Chancellor of CUNY Gary Moore, who attended our City Tech President’s Leadership Conference in the fall, was one of many inspirational speakers, stressing the simple - yet not always the case - notion of student affairs being there primarily for students.

Faculty and staff representing City Tech were later able to attend a variety of workshops ranging from emotional intelligence to student leadership and development to the social networking technology information, which focused on the student-friendly networks of facebook and myspace. It was a day dedicated for us to learn, being able to put into action new ideas and perspectives in the hopes of improving student life for all our students, the ideal of student affairs and services at City Tech.