Hostos Community College
Hostos Community College is an educational agent for change, transforming and improving the quality of life in the South Bronx and neighboring communities since 1968. Hostos serves as a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, and a point of departure for lifelong learning, success in professional careers, and transfer to advanced higher education programs. The College’s unique "student success coach" program, which partners students with individualized guidance, is emblematic of the premier emphasis on student support and services.
Co-Requisite Introduction to Probability
and Statistics
To assist students in successful completion of a gateway mathematics course, faculty have developed a co-requisite statistics course that integrates the algebraic skills necessary for successful completion of a college level introductory statistics course. Although this course began as a small pilot, it has now been fully implemented and is included in the list of transferable college level mathematics courses as of spring 2018.
Two faculty are also looking to link this course with a general psychology course to create a learning community and interdisciplinary connections across the two courses.
Co-Requisite Quantitative Reasoning for Early Childhood Education
To assist students in successful completion of a the mathematics requirement for Early Childhood Education majors, faculty have developed a co-requisite quantitative reasoning course that integrates the algebraic skills necessary for successful completion of a college level quantitative reasoning course. This course is also linked to an ECE course dedicated to the teaching of mathematics and science. Although this course is a small pilot at this time, the hope is that in future semesters it too will be included in the list of transferable college level mathematics courses.
Co-Requisite College Algebra with Elementary Algebra
To assist students in successful start to their STEM degrees, faculty have developed a co-requisite college algebra course that integrates all elementary algebraic skills with the first course in the STEM sequence, namely College Algebra and Trigonometry. Although this course is a small pilot at this time, the hope is that in future semesters it too will be included in the list of transferable college level mathematics courses and provide a shorter path for students pursuing STEM degrees.
Meet the Team
Provost
Christine Mangino
Dr. Mangino has worked at Hostos Community College since 2004. She began her tenure as an assistant professor for Early Childhood Education (ECE). She later served as Coordinator of the ECE unit, Director of the CUNY Teacher Academy at Hostos, Chair of the Education Department, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and she is now serving as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Prior to her start at Hostos, Professor Mangino worked as an early childhood and elementary school teacher with the New York City Department of Education as well as an adjunct professor at St. John's University where she taught graduate courses, with a focus on learning styles. Dr. Mangino has served on eight doctoral dissertation committees, chairing five of them.
Campus Director
Olen Dias
Dr. Olen Dias is a Professor of Mathematics at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. She had participated in two CUNY-wide developmental mathematic projects and teaches developmental mathematics through to calculus sequence. She was one of the co-founder of Supplemental Instruction at the college and also is a member of Teaching Research Team of the Bronx. Currently she is involved in creating co-req. model course, flipped classes and development of OER material for Pre-Calculus.
Natural Sciences
Van Chanh Phan
Professor Van Phan is an Assistant Professor in the Natural Sciences Department at Hostos Community College where he teaches chemistry. After receiving his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated from Yale with a Ph.D. with a concentration on physical chemistry. His research interests are in solid state NMR. Currently, he collaborates with colleagues at City College of New York to study the structure or amorphous plant materials using solid state NMR.
Mathematics
Edme Soho
Edme Soho is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Hostos CC. He's originally from Benin (West Africa) and did a part of his undergraduate work at Montclair State University in NJ, and his graduate work at the Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Generally, he is interested in the application of mathematics to solve real world problems arising in the life, social, and physical sciences. His mathematical research uses systems of differential (and sometimes integral) equations to model the spread of epidemics, dynamical systems in immune-epidemiology, dynamics of infectious diseases, population dynamics. Specifically, he has studied the dynamics within or between pathogen-host, and explored how the variability in immune system response within an endemic environment affects an individual vulnerability.
Mathematics
AJ Stachelek
AJ Stachelek is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Hostos Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), with particular responsibility for redesigning curricula to facilitate student success. Dr. Stachelek obtained his doctorate in Mathematics Education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2014. Immediately following graduation, he obtained a position at Hostos Community College, with an emphasis on teaching at the developmental course level. With his experience of over ten years of teaching across a variety of settings ranging from an advanced math and science public high school to community colleges, he has gained a deep understanding of the importance of connecting to students and encouraging their mathematical self-confidence regardless of level.
Social Sciences
Kate Wolfe
Kate Wolfe is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department at Hostos Community College, CUNY. Dr. Wolfe is a social psychologist with research interests in quantitative reasoning among urban community college students, common core standards as they impact college faculty, student perceptions of online learning, using iPads in teaching, and urban college student attitudes toward sexual minorities. She joined the planning committee for PRIME (Project for Relevant and Improved Mathematics Education), funded by the Teagle Foundation in 2015 and continues as a faculty representative from Hostos Community College. She is the Principal Investigator for the ongoing Hostos Online Learning Assessment project that begin in
Fall 2015.