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The award recognizes students for integrating academic excellence with other parts of their lives, for example, campus involvement, community service, leadership, arts, athletics and/or career achievement.
Solange Hybel, Pinchas Kreizel and Zuzu Tadeushuk, the 2019 recipients of the award, are enrolled in RCC’s Sam Draper Honors Program. They have all earned memberships in the international honor society for two-year college students known as Phi Theta Kappa, and each of them will graduate in May with their associate’s degree.
Hybel, a Nyack High school alum, is president of “Impulse”, RCC’s literary and art magazine. She was selected as an art education intern at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in Manhattan during the summer of 2018.
Hybel also authored a research paper focusing on the lack of sustainability of factory farming. The paper was presented on the Environmental Science panel at the 2018 Beacon Conference for Student Scholars at Two-Year Colleges.
Upon graduation, Hybel plans on majoring in art history at a four-year college.
“As an advocate of women's and poor people's rights, and mental health awareness, and as a passionate artist and art historian, I hope to develop a career that intertwines all of my ambitions,” Hybel said.
Kreizel completed Talmudic studies at age 20 and entered the workforce as a catering company prep cook. After rising to head chef, he chose to pursue a college degree, though he had no secular education past the eighth grade.
Kreizel earned a high school diploma from Rockland BOCES and is now on track to pursue a bachelor’s in agricultural science. He hopes to use his skills to help solve global scale food issues.
“Once I began to study at RCC, my mind opened up in unexpected ways. I was exposed to many ideas about global issues, such as environmental problems and economic injustices, and I learned how to write and think about them in analytical ways,” said Kreizel. “Most importantly, however, I learned that through my studies I can make a difference in this world.”
Tadeushuk worked as an international fashion model for more than four years before enrolling at RCC. During her studies, she conducted an independent study on body image issues, which ultimately led to her leaving the modeling industry.
Tadeushuk received the Maxwell Anderson Award from the RCC Foundation for a paper titled, “Sexual Harassment in Arthurian Legend: Assaulting Men, Slandering Women.” She also presented a paper at the 2017 Beacon Conference examining the political and financial crisis in East Ramapo, her home school district.
In the future, Tadeushuk intends to expand the essays from her independent study and continue her research.
“I hope to continue this research and writing, for I believe that destigmatizing body difference is an important step toward ensuring the empowerment of all people,” she said.
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