Flushing, NY, June 3, 2022—Queens College President Frank H. Wu officiated at the college’s 98th commencement exercises that recognized over 2,100 degree candidates on Thursday, June 2, in a 9 am ceremony on the campus quad. Wu’s first in-person commencement—and second overall—since being named president in July 2020, was the college’s first in-person ceremony since 2019. In total, the college awarded just over 5,536 undergraduate and graduate degrees this year to candidates from summer and fall 2020, and winter and spring 2021. An estimated audience of 6,800 was in attendance.
Watch the commencement highlight video here and the full ceremony here.
“Isn’t it great to be back in person again?” Wu asked the cheering crowd as he took the podium to begin the ceremony. “The word commencement, although it occurs at the end of each academic year, means the beginning,” he said. “We call it commencement because this moment signals your new beginning in your lives beyond Queens College. You’ve been prepared well; just as you’re beginning a new chapter, I feel as if I am with you, almost a member of your class. Though I am about to start my third year of service here, this is my first in-person commencement, and it’s wonderful to be back. All of us here today—including graduates, faculty, staff family members, loved ones, and alumni from the classes of ‘52, ‘62, and ‘72—have gathered to celebrate you, our great class of 2022.”
New York City Mayor Eric L. Adams was the first mayor to address graduates at a Queens College commencement since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2003. Adams, who grew up in Queens, urged graduates to remain focused on their futures as they “leave these important places of higher learning.” He shared a word that he “embraces”—euthymia—explaining, “It’s a Greek word that means knowing your path and how to stay on it without allowing distractions to get in your way.” Recalling his difficult youth, he described his journey to success as “arrested, dyslexic, and now I’m elected—as the mayor of the city of New York.”
As U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Charles Schumer took the podium, he congratulated the graduates and offered thanks ranging from Wu “to the people who keep this place clean late at night,” for making Queens, “not only one of the finest institutions of higher learning in New York, but in all of America.”
Danny Burstein ’86, Tony-winning star of theatre, film, and television, was this year’s commencement speaker; he received the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa. Burstein is the son of Queens College Philosophy Professor Harvey Burstein and Virginia Vega Burstein ’78. Burstein began acting in community theatre and summer stock while attending the High School of the Performing Arts. He started working professionally while still at Queens College, where he earned a BA in drama before completing an MFA in acting at the University of California, San Diego in 1990.
Burstein has performed in Broadway productions such as The Seagull, The Drowsy Chaperone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, South Pacific, Cabaret, and Fiddler on the Roof; he won the Tony last fall for his role in Moulin Rouge: The Musical! Off Broadway, he has appeared in numerous shows, often in nonprofit and experimental venues. He has appeared on stages around the country, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Arturo Casadevall ’79, a world-class researcher who has published more than 746 papers and 33 book chapters in immunology, microbiology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and medicine, received the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa. Casadevall holds appointments as the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
The son of Cuban emigrés, Casadevall arrived in Elmhurst, Queens, at age 11. His early jobs included positions at McDonald’s and as a bank teller. At Queens College, Casadevall majored in chemistry with the goal of becoming a scientist, but his father urged him to attend medical school. With the help of a Jonas E. Salk Scholarship, one of CUNY’s highest honors, he entered the MD/PhD program at New York University, graduating with an MS and PhD in biochemistry in 1984 and an MD in 1985.
Karina Abou Orm Saab addressed her fellow graduates. Saab, who holds an MD from the Universidad de Carabobo in Venezuela, graduated with a BA in Political Science; her grade point average (GPA) was 4.0. Upon her arrival in New York, she worked as a waitress to help pay her tuition at Queens College. Saab is one of this year’s recipients of the college’s Paul Klapper Scholarship, presented annually to two graduating students. An active member of the Political Science Club and the school’s Amnesty International chapter, she has published research on the sexual and reproductive health of women, violence against women, and public health. She plans to pursue a PhD in Public Health.
The student commencement speaker is one of two recipients of the college’s Paul Klapper Scholarship, the college’s highest honor for graduating seniors. It is provided annually by the staff of Queens College and other friends in memory of the school’s first president and intended to encourage scholarly accomplishment, moral and intellectual integrity, and good citizenship. The College Committee on Honors and Awards selects the student speaker based on criteria that include high grades and other forms of academic achievement, leadership, community service, breadth of courses taken, as well as evidence of originality, creativity, and promise of future contributions to society.
Other speakers were Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., NYC Council Member James Gennaro, CUNY Trustee Ken Sunshine, and Queens College Student Association President Zaire Couloute, who also graduated.
At the college’s Tuesday, May 31 Baccalaureate—a commencement-related event focusing on student achievement—Christopher Rosa, PhD ’89, president and CEO of the Viscardi Center and former CUNY interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs, was recognized with the Queens College President’s Medal, the school’s highest administrative honor. The ceremony took place at 7 pm in Colden Auditorium. On Wednesday, May 25, the college launched the Chris Rosa Scholarship for Student-Athletes with a Disability.
The Baccalaureate student speaker was Michael Amrami, who earned a perfect 4.0 GPA while pursuing two majors—neuroscience-biology and psychology; three minors—chemistry, health sciences, and biology; and a concentration in honors in math and natural sciences. Amrami, who attended Macaulay Honors College, CUNY at Queens College, was one of two Fulbright Award recipients this semester, as well as a recipient of the Paul Klapper Scholarship. Amrami will use his Fulbright Award toward seeking a master’s in public health at the University of Haifa in Israel. A Great Neck resident, he hopes ultimately to become a physician and already has extensive experience as a medical assistant; he holds several certificates as an EMT and in other capacities.
OTHER OUTSTANDING GRADUATES
Zainab Farooqi received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award, which is sending her to Korea, where she will assist English-language teachers in the classroom. She earned a 3.9 GPA while majoring in psychology and media studies with minors in Korean and English, earning honors in her majors and Korean. Last year Farooqi received the Critical Language Scholarship Study Abroad award in Korean. A poet who is proficient in both Urdu and Hindi, Farooqi has served on the college’s student senate, on the board of the Pakistani Student Association, and in the Muslim Student Association. A former assistant teacher of preschoolers for the Super Kickers Sports Corporation and a social media intern with the youth education team at the Wildlife Conservation Society, she currently teaches kindergarten at Al-Iman School in Jamaica, Queens. As a Jackson Heights resident, she also is active in the community, where she has worked on voter and small-business initiatives for Chhaya CDC, a non-profit serving south Asian and Indo-Caribbean residents of New York. During the last census, she conducted door-to-door interviews for the Census Bureau as an enumerator. Farooqi hopes to pursue a master’s in psychology and conduct research on child development.
David Musheyev was among only eight university-wide recipients of the CUNY Salk Scholarship. A resident of Flushing, he graduated from Macaulay Honors College, CUNY at Queens College. Musheyev carried a heavy academic load, with a double major in neuroscience and biology and a double minor in chemistry and health sciences. While in school, he volunteered in New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s emergency room and at Gallop NYC while also serving as president and treasurer of Future Healers of America and as vice president of the Bukharian Cultural Club. He works under world-renowned surgeon Ash Tewari at Mount Sinai’s Department of Urology, where he helps coordinate clinical trials of prostate cancer patients. At Queens College, Musheyev’s faculty research mentor was biology professor John Dennehy, a virologist who has been at the forefront of monitoring pathogens—like COVID-19—in wastewater, which allows him to identify the presence of new variants like Omicron even before they have been detected clinically. The Salk Scholarship is awarded annually to academically gifted students in the CUNY system who have been admitted to medical school or a graduate program in biomedical sciences. They are selected based on their demonstrated potential to make significant contributions to medical research.
