Three Dyson students have been selected for the prestigious Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship, a three-year cohort experience that connects students from 12 New York City partner institutions to funded internship opportunities across the country and abroad.
Three Dyson students—Yara Ammar ’26, Film and Screen Studies, Mariana Rojas ’26, Sociology/Anthropology and Environmental Studies, and Ellis Clay ’25, Political Science and Peace and Justice Studies—have been selected for the prestigious Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship, a three-year cohort experience that connects students from 12 New York City partner institutions to funded internship opportunities across the country and abroad.
“I've always been passionate about learning about different cultures, and after getting the opportunity to study abroad last semester through the First-year Experience in London program, I wanted more,” said Rojas.
Professor of History Bill Offutt, PhD, who serves as Pace’s faculty advisor for the Fellowship, noted that this is the first year Pace has had three students selected in his tenure. The highly competitive program takes four applications from all 12 participating schools for 48 total applicants, from which the final 15 fellows are selected.
“Professor Offutt was very helpful throughout the entire process,” said Ammar. “In addition to offering many information sessions and always being available to answer questions, as the process went on, he helped me narrow down my strengths and prepare me for my in-person interview.”
Students in the Fellowship are connected to three funded summer internships over the course of the program at leading nonprofit, for-profit, and government organizations in the United States and abroad, encouraging them to explore different career paths and fields of interest.
I’ll be in the spaces that will help me reach my academic and career goals by interning with different organizations and working with Watson mentors.
“It’s an opportunity to challenge myself differently than in my past academic and internship experience,” said Clay. “I’ll be in the spaces that will help me reach my academic and career goals by interning with different organizations and working with Watson mentors.”
In addition to engaging in internship opportunities, Watson Fellows attend cultural events and skill-building seminars, receive $2,000 in a “discovery fund” for conferences and entrepreneurial endeavors, keep a journal for an ongoing dialogue chronicling their experience, forge lifelong bonds with their cohort, and are connected to a Watson mentor.
Rojas added: “As Watson encourages self-discovery and opening yourself up to new opportunities, I hope my varied experiences during my internships help me figure it what exactly it is I want to do in my career.”
Professor of History Nancy Reagin, PhD, and Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies Seong Jae Min, PhD, have earned the prestigious title of Fulbright Scholar to research and teach during the 2023–2024 academic year. Associate Professor of Economics Anna Shostya, PhD, will serve as a Fulbright Specialist for a three-week program in Spring 2023.
Students in Pace University's First-year Experience in London program study British literature from the heart of London, explore world-renowned theaters and museums, and form lifelong bonds to each other and to Pace.
Last winter, Pace University received a Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) grant from the New York State Education Department, aimed at providing resources—including scholarships, faculty-student research opportunities, and professional development workshops—to students from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Four Dyson students describe the impact the program has had on their undergraduate experience and their lofty plans for the future.
Terryl Brown, an attorney with extensive legal, leadership, and management experience in city and state government, has been named vice president and general counsel for Pace University.
Terryl Brown, an attorney with extensive legal, leadership, and management experience in city and state government, has been named vice president and general counsel for Pace University.
Brown, a Pace graduate, most recently served as deputy commissioner of legal affairs and administration for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), where she oversaw operations and legal matters for a department comprised of 17,000 employees.
Over the course of her impressive legal career, Brown has also been chief ethics officer and counsel with the New York State Attorney General’s Office, acting counsel to Governor David Paterson, first assistant counsel to Governor Eliot Spitzer, a commissioner of the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, executive vice president and general counsel at the New York Power Authority, and a partner Harris Beach PLLC.
In making the announcement, Pace President Marvin Krislov cited Brown’s extensive background working on an array of legal matters and administrative oversight involving large and complex agencies; her experience in city and state government; and her understanding of the university’s mission of Opportunitas or creating opportunities for students.
“Terryl Brown’s accomplished career in law and government exemplifies what it means to make an impact on the world through her hard work and excellence,” said President Krislov. “She embodies our mission and philosophy of creating opportunities for our diverse student body, and we are pleased we’ll be able to benefit from her insight and expertise.”
In her role, Brown will be a key member of the president’s leadership team and as leader of the Office of University Counsel will manage all legal matters for the University and its campuses in New York City, Pleasantville, and White Plains. She begins May 1, 2023.
“I am committed to Pace University’s mission and believe in the transformative power of education,” said Brown. “Pace's values are consistent with my own, and I'm looking forward to helping Pace continue its important and transformative work.”
A native New Yorker, Brown graduated from Pace University with a bachelor’s degree in political science; earned a master’s from Villanova University; and a JD and MBA from University of Pittsburgh. She completed an advanced finance program at the University of Pennsylvania.
She is a member of the state bar of New York and holds court admissions with U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Since 1906, Pace University has been transforming the lives of its diverse students—academically, professionally, and socioeconomically. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, Pace offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs to 13,600 students in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.
"To me, it's straightforward criminal law," said Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former prosecutor. "You've got the act, you've got the consequences and you've got the culpable mental state. I don't know how he could say he didn't intend to do it."
"They are going to try to throw as much smoke and mirrors and red herrings into the case as they can. With Trump, every single microscopic issue is going to be litigated," said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University.
For students in Sarah Blackwood’s How to Read Moby-Dick class at Pace University, learning about Herman Melville’s work isn’t confined to lectures, essays or classroom discussions. Blackwood’s syllabus includes a tour of Lower Manhattan locations featured in the author’s novels and stories: the Wall Street law offices where Bartleby, the titular scrivener of one of Melville’s best-known stories, worked, as well as the streets that Ishmael walked in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick.
"They're doomed, I think. Who would want to do business with this organization or with Trump?" said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University and a former prosecutor in the New York State Anti-Corruption Office. Trump Organization companies rely on financing to build resorts, hotels, golf clubs and residences. In Gershman's view, the Trump Organization's criminal conviction last year made the company "toxic" for many potential lenders and business partners. While the indictment of its former CEO may not directly add to those legal woes, it may further tarnish the company's reputation.
Dr. Darrin Porcher, a retired NYPD lieutenant and professor of criminal justice at Pace University, breaks down the logistics behind Trump's court appearance and travel throughout New York City.
At the English department I chair, our major has grown by more than 40 percent in the last two years. We are being driven to the edge of extinction anyway. I write to you with news about the state of the English major at one nonelite, midsize, regional comprehensive private university in New York City. At Pace University, where I am currently chair of the English department, the major has grown by more than 40 percent in the last two years, to around 150 students. Every year we teach some 1,600 students—majors and non-majors—in seminars and workshops on literature, creative writing, and linguistics, in addition to the five thousand we teach in composition. That’s, give or take, $30 million of credit hour revenue per year.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains recently honored Veronica Dragalin, chief of the Anticorruption Prosecution Office for the Republic of Moldova, with its 2023 Robert S. Tucker Prize for Prosecutorial Excellence at a ceremony in New York City attended by fellow prosecutors and other members of the legal community. Dragalin, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, was recognized for her outstanding contributions to the field of criminal prosecution and excellence in prosecutorial practice and praised for her commitment and courage in leading the fight against corruption in her native country of Moldova.
See the interview with Pace University Law Professor Ben Gershman regarding former President Donald Trump criminal charges.