News at Adelphi

With a new emphasis on student outcomes in its 2025 list of America's Best Colleges, The Wall Street Journal now ranks Adelphi as the top university on Long Island. Numerous initiatives promoting career readiness have propelled Adelphi's rise.

President Christine M. Riordan’s meeting with university officials in the Dominican Republic is the latest development in Adelphi’s strategic efforts to create global connections that benefit our students.

Driven by a desire to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, Alicia Wilson, PhD ’24, left her job in mental health to become a leader in the social work profession.

At Adelphi, research is highly valued for undergrads as well as graduate students. This summer, six undergraduates are making new discoveries—inside and out of the lab.

Miguel Velasquez ’23, MA ’24, a bilingual history major who was Adelphi’s 2021 Newman Civic Fellowship winner, has already secured a teaching position—in the same school where he held his Adelphi internship.

The “bible of school psychology” has a new lead editor: Professor Lea Theodore, PhD, whose work is helping to guide practitioners in this evolving field.

The three-year-old program introducing high school students to advanced research received a national honor for its commitment to increasing diversity in the STEM fields.

Adelphi is moving ahead into the era of online education, offering more than 30 fully online, career-oriented programs for working adults and graduate students. More are on the way.

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.

Candice Garwood, a student in Adelphi's Levermore Global Scholars program, is this year's recipient of the fellowship from Campus Compact for students working to bring about change. She is the seventh consecutive Adelphi student to win the annual award.

Hear Eduardo Vilaro ’85, recognized by the Ford Foundation as one of “America’s Cultural Treasures,” talk about the impact of his Adelphi dance degree. And learn why Patrick O’Shaughnessy, DO, MBA ’13, president and CEO of Catholic Health, believes an Adelphi education “builds great people.”

Watch Adelphi’s president, provost, board of trustees chair, and faculty and student leaders share words of encouragement, new perspectives and compelling life stories. Their messages highlighted a day to remember.

Adelphi’s graduate students—from age 20 to age 64—hail from 23 states and 24 countries. The exceptional strength and diversity of this class reflect Adelphi's increasing emphasis on graduate education, an important tenet of our Momentum 2 strategic plan.

These extraordinary students, many of whom missed their in-person high school graduation four years ago due to the pandemic, were excited to celebrate with classmates, family and friends. Adelphi President Christine M. Riordan noted, “This ceremony is a testament to your hard work and dedication.”

This fall, Adelphi made significant jumps in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and undergraduate programs. In the recently released U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate School list, Adelphi’s programs in nursing, public health, audiology and social work all made ranking jumps. Read about these exceptional programs, and learn why they are gaining national recognition.

Undergrad Nino Burjanadze, a Levermore Global Scholar, has been selected for a semester-long internship with The Washington Center Academic Internship Program in Washington, D.C. She will advocate for better resources for schools located in areas with funding challenges, like Native American reservations and low-income housing communities.

According to nurse.org, 80 percent of nurses say their patient care units are inadequately staffed, and almost 90 percent felt burned out in the past year. America’s nursing shortage is in need of a new solution, which inspired Professor Edmund J.Y. Pajarillo, PhD, to find one. Read what he and other nurse educators recommend to support the nursing workforce by increasing the number of nurse educators.

Despite physical and mental health challenges stemming from his time in the military, Gavin Walters, MSW ’20, is now thriving as director of a veterans program in two counties in New York state and facilitator of a coalition that covers the entire state. Adelphi’s Hudson Valley Center—and an exceptionally dedicated professor—made a life-changing difference for Walters.

An Adelphi professor changed the course of this brilliant NASA researcher’s life—by connecting her with internships, helping her secure an opportunity with the National Science Foundation and serving as an extraordinarily caring mentor.

At the Adelphi University Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, the postgraduate programs in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy have made history by surviving—and thriving—for 60 years. Learn how the programs have evolved through the decades of psychoanalytic thought, from Sigmund Freud to today’s new approaches.

The data is in: The average annual salary for the Class of 2022 is almost 30 percent higher than the national average for baccalaureate graduates. Students who received a graduate degree earned an average base salary of $90,853. Explore other impressive results from the yearly survey by the Center for Career and Professional Development.

Krista Aliscio ’23 anchored the women’s soccer team throughout its trip to the Division II Final Four this fall while working on her master's degree in school psychology. Jamie Yonker ’22 continued studies for her master's degree in exercise science even as she led Adelphi’s volleyball team back to the NCAA tournament. Both share how much work it took to excel as athletes and NE-10 Conference honor roll students.

A $2.49 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the largest ever received from the NSF by the University, will fund scholarships for high-achieving, Pell-eligible students from local high schools who want to major in STEM fields.

Who are Gen Z, and how can we understand them better? Two of our faculty members have recently published research providing insights into the mental health challenges facing this distinctive group and its political viewpoints. Now 20 percent of the American population, Gen Z individuals are a powerful voice for change.

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

The U.S. Digital Corps, a program launched in 2021 by the White House to bring civic-minded early-career technologists to serve in the federal government, has selected Adelphi alum Lylybell Teran ’22—one of just 4 percent of applicants chosen for this honor. Meet Teran and hear why this project is so important for her career and the veterans who will benefit from her work.

Whether it is getting Adelphi involved in state environmental initiatives, addressing the challenges of food waste on campus, or studying shorebird ecology for the National Park Service, these environmental science students are making remarkable strides for our planet.

MS student Samuel Sey spent the summer conducting research as one of Adelphi’s competitive Jaggar Community Fellows. Unique to Adelphi, Jaggar internships advance student careers with paid internships while supporting important nonprofit missions.

The recent rankings from U.S. News & World Report show double-digit leaps for Adelphi in four categories. Named a Best College, our ranking moved up 19 spots. As a Best Value School, we rose 35 spots. Adelphi surged an unprecedented 85 spots as a Top Performer on Social Mobility.

Two new deans, Joanne Corbin, PhD, and J. Christopher Muran, PhD, are ushering in an era of change, fresh perspectives and new initiatives at Adelphi. Meet them both, and see what’s ahead for our high-ranking social work and psychology schools.