Month: November 2021

A string of alumni who worked as assistants for the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program and/or who interned at The New York Review of Books are launching careers in the publishing industry.

Baruch alumna Ashley Candelario, a former NYRB intern, recently got a job at HarperOne Group (HarperCollins Español, HarperVia, Amistad, HarperOne) in the publicity department. Alumna Nikkia Rivera, who does publicity for Flatiron Books, was a Harman program assistant. Katherine Hernandez, who works at Simon & Schuster, was also a Harman assistant.

The pathway to the publishing industry “seems to be a lovely pattern for former Harman assistants,” said Professor Bridgett Davis (Journalism), former director of the Harman Program.

Student Sable Gravesandy and Baruch alumna Anacaona Rodriguez Martinez, who are both interning at The New York Review of Books, recently earned a double byline in NYRB for an interview with Ed Park, a novelist, journalist, former executive editor at Penguin Press, and founding editor of The Believer magazine.

“Our Harman interns are doing us proud over there,” said Harman Program director Esther Allen, who coordinates the NYRB internships for Baruch students.

Rodriguez is studying for her master’s at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Candelario decided to pursue a career in publishing after her stint at NYRB. The internship provided “the skill set and experience that made me confident in pursuing other internships, and eventually, my current role” at HarperCollins, she said.

We can’t stop loving this photo of the cast and crew of And Then There Was Us posing with Baruch President S. David Wu after last night’s performance.

NYC is back, baby, and live theater at Baruch is part of it! Just wow.

The show at Mason Hall is sold out but sources tell us if you get to the box office at 7:15 pm, you just might score standby tickets.

This text is reprinted from a Twitter thread by Professor Els de Graauw about an inspiring speaker she hosted in a recent class: 

“In my ‘Immigrant Cities’ course, I have amazing students. Behind them stand amazing parents. The mother of my student Marc serves on the leadership team of @unitehere100, and she visited our class today. Sussie Lozada is the union’s Secretary-Treasurer.

“…In an hour-long conversation, Sussie shared with us the work that the union does, what motivates her in her work, and the importance of community organizing around issues affecting workers, immigrants, and women.

Students pursuing master’s degrees in corporate communication heard from three alumni in a panel organized by Professor Caryn Medved for her “Introduction to Corporate Communication” course. The theme was “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities for Communication Professionals.”

The alumni were Mary Anne Ravenel, diversity business partner at Facebook; Sabina Mehmood, product manager, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and Meeckel Beecher, global head of DEI at Shutterstock. They were joined by Carmella Glover, DEI director for the Arthur Page Society and president of the Diversity Action Alliance.

Glover’s organization would like to see the communication industry “as diverse as the United States is by 2025.” That will require a major acceleration in progress, but she said it’s become easier to get organizations to sign on to DEI goals in the wake of the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder.

But because DEI is a relatively new area, “there’s no real roadmap” for achieving goals, Ravenel said. The speakers agreed that simply collecting data and being transparent about demographics is a key starting point for any organization–though that’s often easier pledged than done. But you can’t identify gaps or track progress without detailed information on a company’s makeup and how it changes over time.

The speakers noted that improving DEI isn’t just about recruitment and hiring. It also involves an unflinching examination of track records and policies in areas like promotion, salaries, and retention. At the same time, “DEI is not just HR,” as Beecher put it. Depending on the company, DEI principles may also need to be applied to areas like product development, marketing, and how customers are cultivated.