From the Desk of Executive Director Dolores Swirin-Yao
Happy New Year! This is my first blog post of 2025. I hope that your year is off to a good start!
I was moved to attend the joyful celebration of life of our late wonderful board member, Helen Williams, at the Sheen Center for Arts and Culture in Manhattan, hosted by her daughter, Vanessa, and son, Chris.

Many of us at WCC volunteer at welcome tables to help students get oriented as they begin the new semester. I enjoyed my shift in front of the Art Gallery with Steven Garcia, a mechanical engineering student who is also a student worker in the Student Support Services department. Steven is graduating in May and plans to continue his education at one of the SUNY four-year campuses.

In early January, I attended a meeting in Albany of my colleagues from SUNY community colleges throughout the state. I was delighted to introduce speaker David Belsky of our communications firm Good Rebellion, here with Nisha Atre, the Executive Director of the SUNY Impact Foundation.


We are excited about our Transforming Futures Together Gala coming up on Wednesday, April 30, at Tappan Hill, chaired by Susan Yubas and co-chaired by Beth Zadek. The event honors Turner Construction Company, Corporate Citizenship Award; Westchester County Federation of Women’s Clubs, Community Leadership Award; and former board member Ellie Urstadt, Philanthropy and Leadership Award. Last year’s event was sold out, so please make your reservation at this link!
We have two upcoming Native Plant Center Events:
- Spring Landscape Conference “People—Plants—Place” on Monday, March 17, in Gateway Building on our Valhalla Campus, 8:30 am-1 pm. Registration link and further information is at this link. https:/www.sunywcc.edu/about/npc/spring-landscape-conference/
- Native Plant Sale at SUNY WCC’s Valhalla campus, 75 Grasslands Road, on Saturday, April 26, 10 am-1 pm (open to members at 9 am). Come early, last year many plants sold out in the first hour!
An upcoming Alumni event of note: the “I Am Cyber” event for Cybersecurity alumni on Friday, February 7. The Office of Alumni Engagement organizes events for alumni of many different fields of study along with events of general interest for alumni. To connect with our alumni program, please visit the Alumni site.