A Point of Pride: Hofstra University is 1 of Only 2 Schools to Host Consecutive Presidential Debates (2008, 2012)

As many members of our community are aware, Hofstra was given the rare opportunity to host not only one, but two presidential debates, consecutively! On October 15th, 2008 Hofstra hosted their first Presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. The debate focused on domestic policy and the economy. The second Presidential debate hosted by Hofstra was the following debate on October 16th, 2012 was between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. This debate like the first at Hofstra primarily focused on domestic policy, but also touched on foreign affairs. 

I bring up these debates now because Hofstra has in fact applied to host what would be their third consecutive Presidential debate in 2016! While the debate would be quite a while from now, it is quite exciting to know that Hofstra could be one of the ONLY universities to host three consecutive presidential debates! As a student here on Hofstra’s campus I put my name into the lottery to hopefully be chosen as a lucky ticket holder, however I was not one of the lucky random winners. Myself, and I am sure many other hopeful Hofstra students, are hoping for the 2016 debate to be on our campus and for more students to be chosen to attend as a guest! When I applied to be in attendance for the 2012 debate, I believe only 100 students were chosen at random to attend the debate. However, this event typically does provide students with at least one great opportunity. Students are allowed to volunteer to help out with necessary preparations for the day. This gives students a behind the scenes look at what it takes to host such a major national event and also provides some volunteer experience that can be put on a resume.

Written by Stephanie Iaccarino

Discovery Program 2015! "Discover Your Path"

Hello! My name is Wendy Markert and I am the Discovery Program Coordinator. I am a Discovery Program graduate from the Outdoor Exploration Path, and I would not be where I am today without this program.  The Hofstra Discovery Program has four different paths to choose from, Community Empowerment, Social Awareness, Outdoor Exploration and, our newest path, Leadership. Although Hofstra was close to home, I did not know anyone here and I was nervous about making friends. The Discovery Program really helped me to find and expand my boundaries, helping me to make friend easier and overall making the transition from high school life to college life less stressful. The Discovery Program takes place from August 23rd to August 27th this year and during my experience with the program I created great friendships with the other students that I know will last for many years to come. I recommend this program to any and every student, so don't forget to apply today! If you have any questions about the Discovery Program I would be more than happy to answer them!

For more information about the Hofstra Discovery Program please visit the Discovery Webpage

Gina Arfi: Head Orientation Leader

Hello Class of 2019!  

I hope you have been enjoying your first few official days of summer.  My name is Gina Arfi and I am one of the Head Orientation Leaders here at Hofstra's amazing New Student Orientation Program.  I'm writing to report that we have already had three fantastic weeks of Orientation, and our staff cannot wait to see what the next five weeks of Orientation hold!  Our staff is made up of eighteen Orientation Leaders, two Head Orientation Leaders, three Graduate Orientation Leaders, and three Welcome Week Coordinators who have all been working hard since February to bring you a fun-filled three days at Orientation.  We have designed the program to make it easy to meet a lot of new incoming students and give all our soon to be first-years lots of opportunities to experience our beautiful campus.  Our Orientation Staff is eager to help you all and answer any questions or concerns that you may have.  Our goal is to get you excited about attending Hofstra in the fall and we are excited to get to know you.  So with that, welcome to the Pride Class of 2019, and we can't wait to see you soon!

P.S. - Be sure to check us out at our New Student Orientation Facebook Page throughout the summer!

The Game Changer

Malaysian student Indrani Kopal is taking the world of student filmmaking by storm with her documentary The Game Changer. The film, which follows Susan Slotnick on her weekly visits to the Woodbourne Correctional Facility where she teaches dance, recently won Emerging Filmmaker Best Student Documentary at Cannes.

I reached out to Indrani days after she returned from her amazing trip to France asking her to share some of her experience.


Did you see any celebrities while you were attending the Cannes Film Festival?
                Who were you most excited to see?
                Did you talk to any of them?
                Which celebrity do you think was best dressed?

I attended a panel talk by Salma Hayek, where she talked about her role in director Matteo Garrone’s “The Tale of Tales” and Kahlil Gibran's “The Prophet” that was produced by Salma herself. Just seeing her that close and hearing her passion though her speech, was thrilling for me to see an actress whom I adore a lot, in an ordinary setting like that.

There weren't any distinctions whatsoever between the industry people and the "celebrities" when you mingle and network at a business level. For some strange reason, the grandeur and the glamour of the festival made whoever attended it seem like celebrity themselves, and celebrities seemed like any ordinary people; I liked that experience.

After 5 p.m. almost every day during the festival, the streets near Palaise De Festival, where the majestic Grand Lumière Théâtre is located, gets into a red carpet frenzy. Literally everyone you see on the streets would be all dressed up - what a treat that was to see gorgeous and beautiful people everywhere.

What did you wear? Did you have a difficult time choosing what to wear?

I was there for almost two weeks, mostly dressed casual during the day, but I did bring some beautiful sarees and dressed for the evening screenings and outings. A designer friend of mine, Maaya Prakash who is set to launch her own line of sarees in NYC, helped to design a couple of sarees for Cannes. I wore one of them on the red carpet, and I also did a special photoshoot to thank her, it was a very beautiful piece, definitely one of the best in my saree collection.


The guideline that all women attending the festival had to wear high heels made news headlines, were there any other guidelines you had to follow? Do you have any thoughts about these guidelines?

I did notice that these guideline were mostly ignored by the French themselves. I was surprise to notice how casual and laidback most French women were during the red carpet screening. Foreigners are the ones seem to take these guidelines seriously. As for me, I love dressing up and I do love wearing heels for special occasions, so, they didn’t bother me. I was comfortable. However, heels are not the only formal footwear and it should not be imposed on women who not comfortable wearing them. That's completely inappropriate.

Did you get to do any sight-seeing while you were traveling?
                Where did you go?
                What did you see?
                Where would you like to visit again?

This is my first Europe trip, believe it or not, many asked me to visit Paris, but I was so busy with the festival, there was no time to go anywhere really. But I did visit an old medieval village called Mougins; it was a little charming village, only 15-min away from Cannes. Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life living in here. It was little “touristy” for me. But, for art lovers, it’s a heaven. In the narrow streets of Mougins, you will find so many tiny little art studios and galleries and the town's open-air exhibition of sculptures are pretty phenomenal. A must visit if you are in Cannes.


What was the first thought in your mind when you won the award?

I've been to almost over ten festivals, but I have never seen the kind of work I saw at Cannes. Even the student films were incredibly well done with nice budget and crew, so, I didn’t at all expect "The Game Changer" to win. So, I was really shocked and had my "Oscar" moment and pinched myself, hahaha. It was so funny!


If you could make a documentary about anything, what would you choose?

Not only that I could, I will and going to make a documentary about women, menstruation and the cultures & rituals around it - across the globe.

Guest Blogger: Lauren Krampen, Graduate Student Coordinator, International Student Affairs
M.S. Ed. Candidate 2017

2015 Fall Festival – Parade of Floats Theme Announced!

Hofstra’s 2015 Fall Festival, Parade of Floats theme has been decided by student voting as Superheroes and Villains.  This year’s other two theme finalists were: Decades and Hofstra Helps (service-themed floats).  Students were able to vote by visiting the Student Life Facebook Page and “like”ing their favorite theme.  This year’s voting tallied over 497 votes and with Superheroes and Villains winning in a landslide.

 

Hofstra’s Fall Festival will be held Friday through Sunday, September 25-27, 2015 with the Parade of Floats, Vibe Live concert and carnival, and a comedy performance on Saturday, September 26, 2015 in addition to numerous alumni and family events. Keep an eye out for email and social media updates throughout the summer, and be sure to check the Fall Festival Website for more information.

Holi – The Indian Festival of Colors

“Diversity” is something that Hofstra welcomes and the students enjoy and appreciate. With students from almost every part of the world, Hofstra makes sure to keep its students connected to their culture so they never feel home-sick. By celebrating various festivals of different nations, students can make another home-away-from-home and enjoy different cultures apart from their own culture; hence allowing them get involved in things outside of their academics.

Colors, music, food, love, forgiveness, smiles, joys, fun and enjoyment are the words that describe this amazing Indian festival “Holi.” At this event, participants are given packets of different color powders that they can throw at each other. Imagine a water balloon fight, but instead of getting wet, you are doused with amazing array of colors.

This year’s Holi was organized by Zarb South Asian Student Association and Hofstra Indian Student Association on April 26 at the Hofstra Intramural Field. There was free Indian food for lunch that allowed students to tantalize their taste buds, especially for Indian students who had been craving for good Indian food for long time. The Indian DJ was an add-on at this event as students really enjoyed dancing to Indian beats.  


It was a warm sunny Sunday morning, perfect to celebrate this festival and welcome the spring. There were more than 150 students that participated in this event. The best part was that there were not only Indian students but also huge number of American and other international students that came out to celebrate this exciting festival.

Guest Blogger: 

Kavneet Baweja
Graduate Student – MBA Business Analytics
Graduate Student Coordinator, Multicultural and International Student Programs Office

Exhibit of Nations

Looking back at the spring semester, we would like to highlight one of the cultural events that our students coordinated to celebrate the diversity of the world.

On April 29, 2015 Hofstra International Students Club (H*INT) organized an extravaganza event “Exhibit of Nations.” The idea behind this event was to celebrate the international diversity that our international students from over 62 nations across the globe bring to Hofstra University.

Our international students from various nations actively participated in this event. There were different tables set up by the students exhibiting the culture of their respective nations. These tables had collection of many interesting things like flags, stamps, currency, photographs, traditional dresses, snacks, handmade things etc. The tables were then judged based on how well they displayed and explained their culture to the audience. The judge panel included Sonia Fernandes - Assistant Director from MISPO, Kavneet Baweja – Graduate Coordinator from MISPO and Athraja de Silva – President of H*INT and they decided to award Japan, Bangladesh and Costa Rica first, second and third prize respectively.
     

There were also various multinational dance performances, like Indian Bollywood dance by Hofstra Zeenat, African dance by Hofstra African Student Association and Ballet dance by Hofstra Ballroom. Not only this, but students also enjoyed delicacies of Asian and Hispanic cuisines offered for the dinner.

To sum up, it was a night of frolic fun and vibrant colors all around as Hofstra students really enjoyed the food, music and the cultural display of different nations all under one roof and at one place.

Guest Blogger:
Kavneet Baweja
Graduate Student - MBA Business Analytics
Graduate Student Coordinator, Multicultural and International Student Programs Office (MISPO)