Accomplishments In 2019 - CCNY

This year is a phenomenal year for me personally and as a group as members of the Friends of CCNY Fencing, and as a board member of the CCNY Asian Alumni group.

We have achieved much success and some of which is on-going. It is good to summarize what has been done and celebrate our successes. I am very proud of our teams and the good works. This is what community service and giving back looks like.

- June 2019

• Asian Alumni Lunar New Year Dinner
• Alumni Newsletter
• Jeff Bukantz talk on campus
• Archives photo digitization project
• Alumni House
• Attending the Hall of Fame Gala event
• Plaque honoring Don Jordan
• Alumni contact listing
• Document archive project
• 3rd Annual Fencing Reunion
• Chinatown reunion dinner
• Davis Media
• Roque Gerald
• 100 year Anniversary of Engineering school

1. The annual Asian Alumni Lunar New Year dinner in Chinatown NY.

This year, there were 120 people attending with awards given and two scholarship winners. A plaque to honor Don Jordan for his 31 years of service to the Alumni organization was presented to Don, accepted by David Covington, the new Executive VP. Don was unable to attend due to illness.

2. A new newsletter was created with the help of Annika Ludke of the development office. It will be sent out to all fencer alumni and friends.

3. Jeff Bukantz, son of Dan Bukantz, was invited on campus to give a talk about his olympian father and their love of the sport of Fencing. He wrote a book “Closing the Distance” which he gave copies to all present.

4.We are helping the CCNY archives catalog and digitize some of the old sports team photos. Some of these photos go back 70 years.

5. The Alumni House was an iconic building that sits abandoned. We are bringing attention to this by writing to the governor and mayor. You can read more in the link provided below.

6. The Athletes Hall of Fame Gala was held at the National Arts Club. 9 people were inducted this year from various sports. I was fortunate enough to sit at the head table with an Olympian Swimmer Jane Katz.

7. Plaque honoring Don Jordan mounted in the NAC building. It was given to Don by the Asian Alumni Group.

8. A list of contacts were sent to David Covington to assist with the dissemination of the new newsletter. It contains the names of our members and some friends...

9. Two of our members are meeting with the Alumni Director and helping with a records management project. They have quite a bit of documents accumulated over the years and taking up space. They would like to create a records management system going forward.

10. We are having our 3rd annual fencing reunion to be held at Infinity Fencing Alliance on 7/20 this year. Hope everyone can come and join us.

11. We are also holding a reunion dinner in Chinatown NY. We hope to get some of our old Alumni back and perhaps even take a tour of the campus at CCNY before the dinner.

12. We welcome a new member joining our group. His name is Davis Medina, a foilist who is now a grandfather of 2 boys. They are all taking up epee fencing.

13. We also welcome a new member by the name of Roque Gerald. He was on our team and also a foilist who is now a retired psychologist.

14. This year happens to be the 100 year anniversary of the Grove Engineering school at CCNY. As part of the celebration, a kickoff event was held at the Great Hall in the iconic Shepard building. I was there talking to one of the professor in the EE robotics class. He introduced me to the department chair and we started a conversation on ideas to improve the engineering curriculum.

it has only been 6 months and we have already achieved more than the past years. This is a wonderful sign of good news to come. Reconnecting with old friends, helping our alma mater and getting back to fencing are all positive.

The accomplishments are the result of personal commitments. It is a wonder of how a handful of people with ideas and commitment can do so much in such a small amount of time. The future is bright and our school and its alumni and teammates are the benefactors.