News & Events
‘Stories of Service’ Film Festival at City Tech Salutes Heroes of World War II
From left, John Tsihlis, Omari Rose, Portia Donaldosn and Ariel J. Luna
In November 2007, the veterans community at New York City College of Technology hosted a community film festival in partnership with Stories of Service, a national non-profit program that mobilizes service-minded youth to use technology to preserve the stories of men and women who have served our nation in wartime. Participants created short videos that captured the personal stories of former service personnel and their experiences during World War II. Each story was told in the veterans’ own voice and illustrated with photos and other images from the era.
Brooklyn Tabernacle Men’s Chorus and director Paul Schwartz
City Tech Student Veterans Club President Josh Tsihlis and Vice President Omari Rose were among the filmmakers, whose taped interviews with veterans of World War II were shown. Mr. Tsihlis is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran and Omari Rose is a young Marine reservist employed as a work-study student in the College’s Veteran Services Office. Ariel J. Luna, another veteran of the Iraqi war and coordinator of veteran services at City Tech, and his assistant, Portia Donaldson, who served in the U.S. Navy, also produced films.
City Tech Veterans Services Coordinator Ariel J. Luna
Inspirational arrangements of “The Star-Spangled Banner, ” the U.S. national anthem written as a poem by Francis Scott Key in 1814 and later set to the tune of a popular British song composed by John Stafford Smith, and “Battle Hymn the Republic,” written by Julia W. Howe at the start of the American Civil War, were performed by the 50-member Brooklyn Tabernacle Men's Chorus, under the direction of Paul Schwartz, a City Tech counselor and Student Veterans Club faculty advisor. The chorus is part of the world-acclaimed choral tradition born at the Brooklyn Tabernacle more than a quarter of a century ago. The Grammy Award-winning 275-voice Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir has performed widely and its videos, albums and DVDs are enjoyed by audiences the world over.
City Tech Student Veterans Club Faculty Advisor Paul Schwartz
The City Tech event was part of a Stories of Service collaboration with The City University of New York that also included the showing of the taped interviews at Hunter College in Manhattan and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. In recent years, CUNY has greatly expanded its efforts to provide comprehensive services to both former and active military personnel pursuing higher education. In a message to all who helped plan the three-campus event, Assistant University Dean of Student Affairs Carl Kirschner commended the group for efforts that are “appreciated and valued by the veteran and general communities” on all CUNY campuses. To view the films produced by City Tech and other CUNY student veterans and others filmmakers, visit http://digiclub.org
For further information about Stories of Service, visit www.stories-of-service.org
12/19/07
