If you’ve visited a college classroom lately, then you know the majority of college students are so obsessed with their phones that it can be a challenge to get them to fully concentrate on the lesson at hand. With that in mind, Professor Baruch November of Touro’s New York School of Career and Applied Sciences (NYSCAS), who has taught poetry, composition and Shakespeare for nearly fourteen years, takes a different approach to teaching.

Newly-enrolled NYSCAS students attended the school’s orientation sessions—either the one in the morning, or the one in the evening—at the 31^st Street campus in Manhattan on January 23^rd.

On January 17, Touro’s New York School of Applied and Career Studies (NYSCAS) held two orientation sessions for new students on the Manhattan campus. This group of bachelor’s degree and associate degree candidates is the first to be welcomed by faculty, staff, and continuing students at Touro’s newest location on 31st Street.

“I love it here,” Vadim Reznikov said of Proskauer, the law firm where he now works as the associate director of technology support. “Every day is a project.”

“Touro professors are eager to help you if you reach out,” Richard Martinez said. “Everybody is willing to help everybody.”

“Touro is not just a college,” NYSCAS alumnus Artyom Kordyk pointed out. “It’s a community of people who want to help you.”

1. Much of your research shows how we can combat viruses by drinking white tea. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re currently studying?

Previously, my research focused on the powers of white and green tea killing bacteria that is hard to treat with antibiotics, and we are continuing to study that area as it’s very interesting. We already know white tea comes from a plant like any other regular tea, but it grows only in March and contains a compound polyphenol that is found in many food products. The chemicals are so powerful that they can actually destroy viruses. Clinically, no one knows if it will work and it would take a few months to see a difference. Yet, in a laboratory, we have seen incredible results and the tea should work great to help people.

On August 16, 2018, we welcomed the classes of 2020 and 2022 at two orientations on the Manhattan campus. We know our students are ambitious and hardworking, so we asked them, “Aside from earning your degree, what’s one goal you hope to accomplish during and after your time at Touro?”

Pesvebi means “roots” in Georgian.

One graduate skipped across the stage to receive her diploma and another tossed her cap into the audience after shaking the deans’ hands, when the Manhattan branch of the New York School of Career & Applied Studies held its 44^th commencement exercises on June 13, 2018 in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. Three hundred and thirteen baccalaureate degrees and 186 associate degrees were presented.