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| Nancy and Ron Avis |
Edith Susskind |
Kimberlea Karper |
Jared Katz |
Samantha Zanatta |
STATEN ISLAND — On Tuesday evening, April 29, the Wagner College Chai Society presented its first Community Mitzvah Awards, recognizing individuals who have enhanced and promoted Jewish life and culture at the college. The program was held in the Faculty Dining Room in the Wagner Union building.
Community members honored Tuesday night were Ronald and Nancy Avis of Sunnyside and Edith Susskind of Silver Lake. Student honorees were Kimberlea Karper and Jared Katz.
The event was a fund-raiser for the newly established Chai Society Community Mitzvah Scholarship, which recognizes outstanding students who demonstrate a commitment to promoting and enhancing Jewish life and culture on the Wagner College campus. The inaugural recipient of the Mitzvah Scholarship was Samantha Zanatta of Annadale, a graduating senior at the Institute at Tottenville High School.
Ronald and Nancy Avis
Recipients of the Jewish Community Center’s Weissglass Distinguished Leadership Award, Dr. Ronald and Nancy Avis have shown a lifelong devotion to both the Staten Island Jewish and greater communities.
In 1962, Nancy Avis became president of the J.C.C.’s Women’s Division and was crucial in the formation of the J.C.C. nursery school. In addition, she was the first woman to serve as president of the J.C.C. Board of Directors; her tenure was marked by the addition of a $1 million gym and fitness center to the South Shore site in Greenridge. The Avis/South Shore J.C.C. building now bears their family name. She also is a recipient of the Staten Island Advance Woman of Achievement Award, and she has worked with the S.I. University Hospital, the American Cancer Society, United Cerebral Palsy, Community Chest and Staten Island Academy, among other organizations.
Though he devotes much of his time to a dental practice in Tompkinsville, Dr. Ronald Avis has also served the community in a number of volunteer roles. He was president of the J.C.C. from 1968 to 1970 during the time when the J.C.C. leased its Manor Road campsite from the city; the camp now serves some 900 children each summer. He also chaired two J.C.C. capital campaigns and was honored by the United Jewish Appeal for his outstanding achievement as chairman of the annual campaign on Staten Island.
Together, Ronald and Nancy share a passion for flying as they copilot their Piper Seneca 3. Nancy is a golf enthusiast who holds a record total of 16 women’s golf championships at Richmond County Country Club.
Edith Susskind
A former magazine editor, fashion consultant and interior decorator, Edith Susskind is celebrating her 51st anniversary as “Edith Susskind Gift Specialist,” and her second year at Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s gift shop.
She is a 1987 S.I. Advance “Woman of Achievement” and a Soroptimist International “Woman of Distinction.” She was the recipient of the Louis R. Miller Business Leadership Award, and two years ago was inducted into the Curtis High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Last year, she was named a “Woman of Valor” by the UJA Federation.
A community activist since she was 11 years old, Edith has used her business as a tool to help the community. She served on the executive boards of the Staten Island J.C.C’s Women’s Division, Soroptimist International, S.I. National Council of Jewish Women, Hadassah, the S.I. Scholarship Pageant of Miss America, and the N.Y. Business Editors’ Group. She is a graduate of P.S. 45 and New York University.
Edith has been a member of the Congregation B’nai Jeshurum since birth and a member of the State Island Jewish Community Center since its birth.
Kimberlea Karper
Kimberlea Dawn Karper is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in nursing at Wagner College. A graduate of Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, N.J., Kimberlea is a top student who has been named to the Wagner College Dean’s List and “Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges.” In 2007, she was selected as a Wagner College Kim A. Lehmann Scholar. This year, she received the college’s Martin Luther King Agent of Change Award. Kimberlea will spend the coming summer at Johns Hopkins Hospital for ten weeks as a clinical nurse extern.
An active member of the community, Kimberlea has been a teaching assistant at the Temple Emanuel religious school, where she worked in the kindergarten class. She was a member of the Girl Scouts of America, from which she received Silver and Gold awards, the organization’s highest honors.
In the Wagner community, Kimberlea has been an active member of Habitat for Humanity, the Student Nurses Association and Omicron Delta Kappa. She is president of the Wagner Hillel Foundation.
Kimberlea enjoys traveling, skiing, sailing and other sports.
Jared Benjamin Katz
Jared Katz is both a current Wagner graduate student, working toward an M.B.A. in management that he will receive May 16, and a 2007 graduate of the college, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Since his arrival at Wagner, Jared has been engaged in community activities. He served as president ex-officio and co-president of Wagner College Hillel, which he helped to found in order to create an increased Jewish presence at the college. Jared also volunteered for the Omicron Delta Kappa national honor society toy drive, and as a tutor for the Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Services Office.
Jared has served as an intern at D.B. Zwirn & Co., in Manhattan, where he worked in the human resources department of the multi-strategy global hedge fund as he assisted in the coordination of a firm-wide year-end review.
He also has interned at the Investment Technology Group in New York, where he enrolled employees in healthcare and 401K programs. He served as an orientation coordinator at Wagner College. He is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
