Press Release May 31st

Queens College Marks Its 98th Commencement with June 2 In-PersonCeremony

 –Honorees are Tony-Winning Actor Danny Burstein ’86, Who Will Deliver the Commencement Address, and Renowned Microbiologist and Immunologist Arturo Casadevall ’79, MD, PhD, a Cuban Émigré Who Arrived in Queens at Age 11–

May 31, 2022

ALL MEDIA MUST REGISTER WITH Linda.Pacheco@qc.cuny.edu for campus access, reserved seating, and parking.

• Media must provide proof of vaccination to access campus on June 2; negative PCR tests will not be accepted at the entrance
• Unvaccinated attendees must pre-register by COB, May 31, in the Cleared4 system.
• Media tent is located to the right of the stage as you are facing it, in front of the ramp.

WHAT: Queens College President Frank H. Wu will preside over the college’s 98th commencement exercises that will recognize over 2,100 degree candidates. It will be Wu’s first in-person ceremony—and second overall—since being named president in July 2020. The college is holding its first in-person ceremony since 2019. In total, the college will award 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 is expected.  

WHEN: Thursday, June 2, 2022, at 9 am | WATCH the livestream here.

WHERE: Queens College Quadrangle—Rain or Shine | 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY                                         11367 | Directions | Campus Map

WHO: Danny Burstein ’86, Tony-winning star of theatre, film, and television, is this year’s commencement speaker; he will receive 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.

He 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, will receive 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 City University of New York (CUNY) Salk Scholarship, 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 will address the graduates. Saab, who holds an MD from the Universidad de Carabobo in Venezuela, is graduating with a BA in Political Science; her grade point average (GPA) is 4.0. She 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, Saab 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. 

INVITED SPEAKERS: Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., NYC Council Member James Gennaro, CUNY Trustee Ken Sunshine; and Queens College Student Association President Zaire Couloute.

PRESIDENT FRANK H. WU QUOTE: “Commencement marks the beginning of a new chapter in our students’ lives. A new era full of excitement and potential awaits them. Thanks to the well-rounded liberal arts education they received at Queens College, I know they are ready to achieve greatness in whatever path they choose as they live out the motto of Queens College: ‘We learn so that we may serve.’ The wealth of experience and depth of knowledge they received during their time at Queens College has prepared them for this ‘brave new world.’ I am exceptionally proud of each and every one of our graduates.”

BACCALAUREATE 2022 HONOREES
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, will be recognized with the Queens College President’s Medal, the school’s highest administrative honor. The ceremony will take 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 is 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, is 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 is among only eight university-wide recipients of the Jonas E. Salk Scholarship, one of CUNY’s highest honors. A resident of Flushing, he is graduating from Macaulay Honors College, CUNY at Queens College. Musheyev has 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 is 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.

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