30 Student Profiles

Inspired by his grandfather’s struggle with Broca’s aphasia, molecular neuroscience major Hemish Naidoo explores scientific literature for patterns in language loss. His goal is to find clues that could inform future treatments and support those affected by similar conditions.

Kyana Gordon ’24 was turned away from doing research at her high school. Now, after two years in Adelphi biology labs, she’s off to conduct epidemiological research in Jamaica as a Fulbright Scholar. Meet her and three other winners of prestigious national academic awards.

Meet two students in Adelphi’s highly selective—but life-changing—Early Assurance Program. Milly Tenenbaum was able to start dentistry school at just 20 years old, while Tommy Joseph will already be a medical resident at 24—four years earlier than average.

Senior Honors College student MacKenzie Pina joined a prestigious dig at Sibiloi National Park in Kenya over the summer. Her experience there is an example of Adelphi’s emphasis on undergraduate research. “I could not have been better introduced to fieldwork if I had asked,” she said.

Summer internships at Adelphi continue to expand and offer our students extraordinary opportunities. This summer, junior Honors College student Edward Jansen earned a federally supported internship at Brookhaven National Laboratory working with emerging AI programming. Learn about his experience working near a nuclear reactor and a particle accelerator at one of Adelphi’s most prestigious STEM partners.

Adelphi’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) offers a place for Muslim students from all backgrounds and cultures to embrace their faith, participate in activities and connect with one another. Club president Tasmiah Basher shares the importance of the group for Adelphi students.

For her senior thesis, physics major Gabriella (Gabi) Vidad ’21 used remote sensing and widely available resources such as Google Earth to chart the severity of coral reef changes in the Philippines.

Rising junior Danelya Zholdasbekova’s path to Adelphi was unexpected. While searching the internet for top New York business schools, the Kazakhstan native said she was attracted by descriptions of Adelphi’s “close-knit, diverse community, its Honors College, scholarship opportunities, and beautiful campus and location.”

The Adelphi University Honors College has graduated many students who have gone on to law school, including 10 Under 10 Young Alumni honorees Christian Fundo ’07, JD; Adaeze Udoji ’08, JD; Philip DiSanto ’12, JD; and Joseph Bruno ’13, JD. These alums serve Adelphi by mentoring current students interested in attending law school, including Rachel Vacca, Maria Giovanna Jumper, and Iffat Naveed.

That college-level sports carry significant risk of physical injury is not news—even the most casual athletes and fans will be familiar with the toll intense exercise can take on the body. But an Honors thesis written by Stephanie Milillo demonstrates that in addition to common sports injuries such as sprains, tears, breaks and concussions, the risk of another serious impairment lurks unnoticed: negative changes to athletes’ voices.

When senior Jessica Colonna interviewed for a graphic design internship at NBC, she was ready. She had two years of on-campus job experience doing graphic design for Adelphi’s Office of University Communications and Marketing, which gave her a portfolio with diverse examples of her design work.

When she signed up for an honors seminar about problem-solving, math major Christina Sullivan ’20 was not expecting anything out of the ordinary. “The beginning of the semester focused on understanding different methods of problem-solving,” said Sullivan, who minored in statistics and data analytics. “That’s what I thought the whole course would be like.”

Music students Dori-Jo Gutierrez and Kevin Lubin turn Walt Whitman’s poetry into song for the poet’s 200th birthday celebration.

Tasneem Shoubir hated going to the dentist as a child. Now she’s entering the Honors College and starting Adelphi’s seven-year joint program with NYU’s School of Dentistry.

Senior Lila Woodbridge worked with Joan L. Schimke, associate professor of communications, on a documentary short about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire screened at Cinema Village in Manhattan.

Dirt covered the hands of Queens, New York, native Julio RuizDiaz last summer as he excavated artifacts in the Alaskan wilderness.

Graduating seniors Jai Punjwani and Jack Demm honored faculty members who have influenced them the most. Those inspirational professors were Diane Della Croce, Ph.D., and Salvatore Giunta.

Victoria Grover, a physics major in Adelphi’s joint degree engineering program with Columbia University spent a summer researching solutions to a deteriorating dam on her family’s land.

Samantha Shay beat some stiff competition to win the America’s National Teenager Scholarship Organization (ANTSO) national title for 2016.

Adelphi dance students, Kara Hauenstein and Marion Davidson had the opportunity to spend three weeks working in close study with Taylor 2 dancers.

With Adelphi set to launch its online M.S. in Sport Management program in Spring 2015, morestudents like Victoria Chelsea will gain exposure to the wide range of opportunities in sports.

“Computer graphics enabled me to draw in ways that I never thought possible,” Zachary Brandt wrote in his Adelphi Honors College thesis.

Adelphi University’s Honors College helps Tiffany Poteat enhance her leadership skills to excel in the field of nursing.

When choosing a college, Joseph Taglienti knew he did not want to be in an academic environment where classes were held in large lecture halls and taught by professors he might never truly know.

Hannah Rohrs chose Adelphi University and is now interning at a branding and design agency on Park Avenue South in Manhattan.

Enas Elmohands finds abundant support and great success in combining a passion for human rights and love of the arts.

Kristen Lalima has relatives who are hearing impaired, which influenced her decision to major in speech pathology.

From Sesame Street to S.T.E.P., Emily Ladau began an enriching career advocating for disability awareness after graduating Adelphi University in 2013.