Four distinguished alumni came back to the College in late August to motivate and inspire more than 1,100 new students and their parents during the Fall 2008 Freshman Orientation sponsored by the Office of Student Development. Each spoke with humor and candor about their life experiences and told the Class of 2012 to work hard, make wise choices, and never doubt their ability to realize their dreams. Kudos to:

Michael McCann (BS '74, JD) President, John Jay Alumni Board. McCann was formerly the commanding officer of the 25th Precinct in East Harlem and subsequently Chief of Security for the United Nations. He is now president of McCann Protective Services, Inc.

Teresa Coaxum (BA '93) 2nd Vice President, John Jay Alumni Board. Coaxum was manager of the Community Relations Bureau for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and is now the Deputy State Director in the Office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

Carmen Velasquez (BA '84, JD), a former Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, is now an attorney in private practice. She is a candidate for Civil Court Judge in Queens County.

Thomas Ridges (BA '95, JD), a former member of the NYPD, is now the Senior Assistant District Attorney in the Homicide Bureau for the Office of the Kings County District Attorney.


Endowed Alumni Scholarship
Through your generous gifts, Michelle Hershkowitz just began her junior year at John Jay. The forensic psychology major with a 3.9 GPA and a history of giving back to the community, was the first recipient of the $4,000 John Jay Endowed Alumni Scholarship. This summer, the Alumni Board began fundraising to give yet another student the same opportunity. To all those who responded to the recent scholarship appeal letter, we greatly appreciate your donations as well as the continual increase in the number of alumni donors. Through your support, the Alumni Board plans to fully endow the scholarship fund and offer at least one award annually. If you have not yet contributed to this important initiative, please consider making a gift. Your support -- at any level -- makes a difference. Donations may be made by credit card or check. To use your credit card, just call the Office of Alumni Relations at 212.237.8547 or 212.484.1375. If you are sending a check, please make it payable to the "Endowed Alumni Scholarship Fund" and mail it to: Endowed Alumni Scholarship Fund, Office of Institutional Advancement, 899 Tenth Avenue, Room 623T, New York, NY 10019. Please include your name, address/city/state/zip, degree(s) and year(s), home email address and phone, employer and title, work email and phone.

College Launches Christian Regenhard Center for Emergency Response Studies
On September 4 John Jay launched the Christian Regenhard Center, a research repository and information clearinghouse for the study of emergency responses to disasters. The Center is named for probationary firefighter, Christian Regenhard, who was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11. "The Center will undertake important research for developing integrated comprehensive approaches to the study of emergency responses to large-scale disasters," said President Jeremy Travis. "We are especially appreciative of the support from Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer as well as Representative Jerrold Nadler (who attended the press conference) and other members of the New York Congressional Delegation who have supported the creation of the Center." Holding back tears, Sally Regenhard, Christian's mother, noted, "Through the work of its dedicated faculty, this center will honor all first responders who lost their lives as a result of 9/11 and can help to ensure the safety of all responders in the future." Professor Glenn Corbett, Chair of the Department of Protection Management and Chair of the Center's Advisory Board, said, "For a very long time, there has been a desperate need for an academic center that collects and analyzes the oral histories of emergency workers who respond to large scale disasters." Charles Jennings, former Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety for the City of White Plans and Professor of Protection Management at John Jay, was named the Center's director.

Was it Really Arson?
John Jay's Center for Modern Forensic Practice is the recipient of a $248,000 grant from the JEHT Foundation to establish an Arson Screening Project to assess possible wrongful arson convictions that were attained through "bad science." "This JEHT funded project will enable the College to utilize its expertise in examining cases where questionable forensic techniques were used to obtain an arson conviction," said President Jeremy Travis who also noted that the grant "reaffirms John Jay's position as a leader in criminal justice research." Developed in consultation with the Innocence Project, which already has a backlog of arson cases deserving scrutiny, the project will "enable us to collect and evaluate claims of wrongful conviction based on the use of a faulty, folk-science of fire indicators...and will expand upon the Innocence Project tradition to take a systematic look at old convictions where there is no DNA evidence," said James Doyle, director of the Center for Modern Forensic Practice. The project will be led by Doyle, along with Professor Emeritus Peter DeForest and Peter Diaczuk, the Center's director of forensic science training. For more information about the project, click here.

The Performing Arts at John Jay
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College is hosting a series of cultural events that are sure to complement the arts and entertainment scene on Manhattan's upper West Side this fall. They include:

Bach's Fight for Creative Freedom, Saturday, October 18,
7:30 PM

The Castle, Wednesday, October 15, 6:00 PM

Dahlia, October 24, 25 & 27, 7:00 PM

First Vote 2008, Monday, November 3, 7:30 PM

A Few Good (wo)Men, Tuesday - Thursday, November 20-25,
8:00 PM

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th Anniversary Concert, Thursday, December 4, 7:30 PM

Concerts by Children - A Musical Holiday Celebration, Thursday, December 18, 6:30 PM

For more information, reservations and tickets go to johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/theater .

Over the next five years, nearly one-third of the country's federal workforce will reach retirement age. In the next two years alone, the government will need to hire more than 173,000 people in mission critical areas. To help spread the word about these job opportunities on college campuses, the Federal Service Student Ambassadors program was created to increase interest in federal service by developing a corps of passionate student advocates who will actively promote public service. At John Jay, Nadia Bruce, a senior majoring in forensic science, is one of only 15 students nationwide selected as an ambassador.

Bruce grew up in Trinidad and came back to New York when she was 16. She was interested in forensic science and was steered toward John Jay. "I came here on a hope and a dream," she says. "John Jay was my number one choice." She applied for the ambassadors' program while she was in Washington, DC completing a toxicology internship with the Office of Food Additive Safety of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "It was wonderful. I had such a good experience with the FDA that I felt I could easily talk to other students about federal service." On campus, Bruce is reaching out to students and faculty, has recruited other students to advocate for careers in public service, and recently addressed more than 150 students at an orientation for those who are interested in participating in an internship. "The ambassadors have a slogan, 'It's not just making a living, it's making a difference," she says. "The area of federal public service is so personally rewarding, so varied, so flexible, with so much opportunity and mobility, that students should certainly consider the federal government for jobs when they graduate."