Hofstra University

Four students from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business put their entrepreneurial skills to the test at the 2025 New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), competing against students from schools such as Farmingdale State College, Molloy University, and SUNY Old Westbury in the regional round. Representing Hofstra were international business student Aydan Smith from Locust Grove, GA (OurBloom), Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences economics student Prisha Srivastava from San Ramon, CA (CogniView), finance student Jack Fernandez from South Ozone Park, NY (Vacant), and entrepreneurship student Dhrruv Dhamani from Jaipur, India (One More Time).

Hofstra University students put their technical and teamwork skills to the test at the recent Pensar Hofstra Hackathon, a 24-hour innovation sprint hosted by Hofstra C.O.D.E. (Computing Opportunities, Development, and Exploration) and sponsored by Pensar AI - a cybersecurity startup founded by Hofstra alumni Kyle Bhiro '21 (Frank G. Zarb School of Business) and Kerem Proulx '21 (Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science). Held in Hofstra's Science & Innovation Center, the hackathon drew 40 participants over six teams, and awarded over $14,000 in cash and products, including a top prize of $7,800. Second and third place teams received $4,800 and $4,500, respectively.

Hofstra University's Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) made a strong impression at Hacking Health 2025, a 48-hour healthcare-focused hackathon hosted by Columbia University's BMES on February 8-9. Competing against over 20 elite teams from institutions including Columbia, Brown, MIT, Yale, and Penn, Hofstra's BMES secured first place in the Personalized Medicine and Genomics division for its novel thyroid monitor, THYROS, which is now patent pending.

The writing talents of two Hofstra students were recently honored with the Dana Brand Prize, an award named for a popular English professor who passed away in 2011. May 2022 graduate Zachary Parrish received the award for "The Consequences of Denialistic Responses to Atrocity," an essay of literary criticism. Katherine Choma '23 is the prize's first recipient for a work of creative nonfiction: "The Things They Will Tell You/The Things I Wish I Said."

The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication showcased a record 70 films at the 25th Hofstra University Student Film Festival last week. The annual year-end event, which spanned three days, included 26 thesis films as well as documentary, experimental, intermediate, and advanced films.

Two students from The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication won top honors in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's 2021-2022 Journalism Awards Program for stories they reported and produced for WRHU-Radio Hofstra University. Yaw Bonsu '24 and Rachel Luscher '23 placed in the Top-10 in the Audio News and Features competition, each submitting two pieces. Bonsu earned ninth place for his reporting on Joel Caston, the first incarcerated person to win an elected office in Washington, D.C., as well as a story on Nassau Haven, an emergency shelter for youth in Mineola. Luscher took tenth place for her report on the effect of increased screen time due to virtual learning on eye health, and as a feature story on Canine Companions, the service dog industry leader out of Medford.

Three student entrepreneurs won top honors in the 2019 Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge. The winning start-ups include a company that makes high-performance track spikes for female sprinters, the inventor of an organic eyebrow gel and a low-cost, accessible mobile platform to fight addiction. The contest, in its seventh year, awarded total prizes valued at $75,000 to help student entrepreneurs bankroll their start-ups. The Venture Challenge is sponsored by Digital Remedy, a digital marketing company, and run by Hofstra's Center for Entrepreneurship.

A team of Hofstra University chemistry students placed first at the 18th annual Chemistry Challenge on April 27 at Queensborough Community College (QCC).

Hofstra University Biology majors Amber Jordan '21 and Julianna Dolinski '21 swept the top awards for their poster presentations at the Northeast-1 (NE-1) Regional District Convention of the TriBeta National Biology Honor Society hosted by Elmira College. The poster session consisted of 20 posters from 13 higher education institutions.

A team of five Hofstra University computer science and engineering students won second place in the 2017 7x24 Exchange University Challenge hosted in Manhattan. Students from five regional colleges presented senior capstone and original project ideas demonstrating electrical or mechanical systems innovation designed to benefit data centers.

Kelsey Kresge, a senior from Auburn, NH, majoring in rhetoric, has won first place in an art contest sponsored by the organization All Our Energy, in association with the Sierra Club. Kelsey, who created her design in Photoshop, titled her piece "Time to refocus our energy." It features a wind turbine in a cup of coffee.