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The 14 students taking part in the New York City Program this spring began their semester with a whirlwind tour of the art, food, history and culture that New York City has to offer. The program, directed this semester by Professor of English and Creative Writing Naomi Guttman, is titled “Eating the Big Apple: Global Food and Food-writing in New York City.”

Andy Chen ’16 has a short-term plan and a long-term plan. He’ll spend a semester studying biotechnology at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan, then launch a cell phone-based health and education service in Kenya with Leonard Kilekwang ’16.

Elisa MacColl ’16 will take her biology background to Boston management consulting firm L.E.K. where she will combine her science research experience with business.

The Multicultural Peer Mentoring Program provides new students with a fellow student mentor who can guide them, help them access people and resources as needed, and act as a role model and advocate.  Associate Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs Allen Harrison explained that the program is open to any new student who wants a mentor but its purpose is to assist international, first-generation (first in the family to attend college) and historically underrepresented students with their transition to college life.

Writer and comedian Jenny Yang began her April 20 lecture by playing a modified game of “Heads Up, 7 Up” to get a sense of the crowd in the Red Pit. She started with general questions like class year, and asked attendees to cover their eyes as she asked more sensitive questions, including financial aid status and families’ academic backgrounds.

The sixth Entrepreneurship Workshop and Pitch Competition for current students and Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) took place from April 8-10. Nile Berry ’14 won first place pitching his Brooklyn-based company, Marvel Vision, a creative content studio which uses drone technology to produce aerial analytics.   

Hamilton Reads started anew this semester at two local schools, Westmoreland Elementary and Rome Elementary.

 Among the Levitt Center’s programs aimed at connecting Hamilton students with the Utica community are Project SHINE and VITA. SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders) is a service learning program in which Hamilton students tutor refugees and immigrants learning English. VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) offers free tax help to families who cannot prepare their own tax returns. Hamilton students become certified volunteer tax preparers through the IRS.

As Associate Professor of Chemistry Adam VanWynsberghe noted in his introduction, Rigoberto Hernandez embodies the Phi Beta Kappa motto that “Love of learning is the guide of life.” Hernandez, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Georgia Tech, is the 2015-16 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar and his Feb. 25 lecture “Advancing Science Through Diversity” focused on promoting what he called diversity excellence in terms of gender, race, sexual orientation and ability.  

“I am a farmer, I grow food, I feed people body and mind,” Karen Washington said by way of introduction at the beginning of her Feb. 16 lecture. Washington, a board member of the New York City Community Garden Coalition and co-founder of the Black Urban Growers organization, spoke on Feb. 16 about the failure of the American food system, the importance of knowing where food comes from, and the intersections of food justice, racism and socioeconomic inequality.