Webbies Battle it Out in a Special Engineering Version of “Shark Tank”
Our host with the Sharks.
by Jack Becker ’21
On this week’s episode of Shark Tank, we replaced the usual entrepreneurs with budding engineers. The sharks were Jackson Juska ’21, Shannon Liu ’21, Renee Tremblay ’20, and Isa Hill ’20 who were accompanied by our host, Hank Rouland ’21. Our Sharks were on the hunt for ideas to allow young kids to find excitement in engineering related activities for our upcoming Engineering Day, scheduled for October 20th. The Sharks watched Webb students and Professor Bradley Golden ’99 present ideas that they thought would educate and entertain young students.
After sixteen exceptional presentations, the Sharks picked their top ideas for Engineering Day. Maggie Maguire ’21 won two of the four bids with her Sky-Floater experiment and with her Water Weight-Lifter. For Maggie’s Sky-Floater experiment, the students will play with balloons to learn about pressure. With the Weight-Lifter, they will use the principles of a turbine to lift a weight.
Along with Maggie’s success, Professor Golden ’99 and his daughter, Rhiannon, won with their Dowel Tower idea. In this fun-spirited competition, the students will have 20 minutes to build the largest tower possible out of wooden dowels and rubber bands. While building this tower, students will learn about statics as they build their structures.
Finally, Luke Herbermann ’21 and Sean Healy’s ’21 presented their idea about erosion. In this experiment, using sand and water, the student’s will look at real-life ideas to help prevent erosion in the future.
Through all these great ideas, the students on Engineering Day will get to see the world from a different point of view. These experiments will broaden their horizons as they see and play with solutions to everyday problems and possibly create future engineers!
About Engineering Day
Engineering Day is a free community event, with the goal to spark student interest and involvement in the sciences at a young age. All students in 4th-6th grades are welcome to attend. Guided by Webb alumni and students, participating students rotate through engineering challenges covering several disciplines including: civil engineering, naval architecture, aerospace engineering, and chemistry.
The Campaign for Webb – Our Work is Not Yet Done
We are in the final year of the Campaign for Webb! Every gift made to Webb through June 30, 2019 will be added to the $49 million raised in pledges and gifts to date. Our historic success has enabled Webb to break ground on the Couch Academic Center. The building is projected to be completed this fall, with classes transitioning to the new facility in the spring 2020 semester. Stevenson Taylor Hall is also benefiting from this Campaign with the refurbishment of dorm rooms, new restroom facilities and a sprinkler system, to name a few improvements.
We are forever grateful to the support of Webb family!
A permanent donor display will be mounted in the Couch Academic Center, memorializing individual members of the Webb family whose support during the Campaign has reached Dunderberg level ($10,000) or greater.
If you have not yet made a special gift to the Campaign, you can do so online, or call me at 516-759-2040 with questions.
Please see special Campaign messages from our Trustees!
-Anthony R. Zic, Director of Development
A Special Message from Joseph J. Cuneo ’57, Capital Campaign Chair
A Special Message from John Couch, Cornerstone Donor/Honorary Alumnus
Webb Announces New Hires
Webb welcomed two new staff members this spring semester. They are as follows:
Kyle Koleda – Assistant Director of Media Relations and Communications
Kyle assists with the developmnt and implementation of Webb’s marketing, advertising, and communications strategy.
Prior to joining our team at Webb, Kyle began his professional career as a Development Assistant at the Patchogue-Medford Library as well as becoming the Lead Event Photographer for the American Cancer Society Long Island. Kyle is also a board member on the Patchogue Young Professionals, an affiliate of the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, and works on community engagement and development while hosting monthly networking events.
Kyle obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing from the Harriman School of Business at Stony Brook University. While there, he was involved in the Business Club as well as joining the Leadership program which guides students in becoming successful leaders through case studies and mentorship.
Upon graduating Stony Brook, Kyle took a yearlong cross-country road trip where he explored the United States. Aside from sightseeing, he worked as a videographer and camera op for multiple clients along the way including Nike and The Linux Foundation.
While Kyle is not at work, he enjoys working on cars and motorcycles, spending time at the beach, and hiking a variety of trails throughout Long Island.
Talking Boats With Billy Joel
In November 2018, musician and boating enthusiast Billy Joel visited Webb Institute to speak about boating and the maritime industry. The lecture was hosted by journalist, author, historian, and adjunct Webb faculty member Bill Bleyer along with historian and author Robert MacKay. Bleyer and MacKay were co-instructors for the Long Island Maritime History course last fall.
Listen to the lecture below:
Learn more about Billy Joel’s trip to Webb by reading Professor Bill Bleyer’s article in the January 2019 edition of Soundings.
Billy Joel with the Class of 2019.
The Admissions Process at Webb
A Message from the President:
By now, you all have heard about the admissions bribery scandal affecting many other schools around the country, where celebrities and other high-wealth individuals paid millions of dollars to an organization that guaranteed admission of their children into elite colleges through illegal methods. These methods included cheating on college entrance exams and bribing of college coaches to facilitate backdoor acceptances as athletes. These actions led to headlines in the media such as: “The most prestigious schools enroll lots of privileged students” and “Is the idea of meritocracy shattered?” This type of rhetoric causes concern on every college campus. I can assure you that at Webb, we hold the admissions process to the highest ethical standards.
So-called elite colleges are targeted in these schemes because they are the colleges that have more qualified applicants than openings available. They typically have some of the highest overall standards for entry. However, some of these colleges show favoritism to significant donors, well-heeled alumni, and famous people. At Webb, our admissions process is need-blind. An applicant’s ability to pay for room and board or other costs is not a factor in the admission decision. Furthermore, the members of the Admissions Committee are not given information related to the wealth of the applicants, and our Development Office provides no input into the process.
The Webb admissions process has undergone significant changes during the five years that I have been president. Webb’s Admissions Committee now consists of the President, the Dean, the Director of Admissions, the Assistant Director of Student Affairs, the Math Professor, the Humanities Professor, and two Engineering Professors. Whereas, the prior assessment was based heavily on entrance exams (SAT, ACT and Subject Tests), we now use these scores as only one of many factors to determine whether we will interview a student. Once selected for an interview, all prospective freshmen must spend a night at Webb, attend classes and spend time with our students. Their time at Webb also gives prospective freshmen an opportunity to learn about the many unique aspects of a Webb student and academic life, and ascertain whether the college is a good fit for them.
The Admissions Committee: President Keith Michel ’73, Adrian Onas, Richard Harris, Benjamin Scott, Elena Goloubeva, and Michael Malinowski.
Not pictured: Dean Matthew Werner ’95, PG’97, and Lauren Carballo
When on campus, each prospective freshman is asked to take a math quiz and write an essay. There are a number of reasons why we introduced this requirement several years ago. First, we have found that there is very little correlation between how well students do on the college entrance exams and how well they do at Webb. This is not surprising – the skills required to excel at engineering and design have little to do with a person’s ability to train for and take a multiple-choice test. Although our math quiz is relatively straightforward with just ten questions, the prospective freshmen are required to show their work. We find this quiz is a better indicator of a student’s understanding of math than the SAT/ACT tests. By having the students take the math quiz and write an essay while at Webb, we know it is their work. This experience introduces the candidates to our Honor Code. As one of our students hands them the assignment, they explain the Honor Code, and then leaves the room.
As President, I interview every prospective freshman. This has been the tradition since the founding of Webb and, I believe, an important part of the process. For the last four years, each candidate has also been interviewed by one of the faculty members from the Admissions Committee, as well as the Director of Admissions.
Two years ago, we hired Lauren Carballo as Director of Admissions. She is data-driven and has done an outstanding job of evaluating current data and past performance. The data have been very helpful to the Admissions Committee in their deliberations. The Committee takes into consideration all available information on a candidate: SAT and ACT score but in particular, the GPA and transcript, teacher recommendations, extra-curricular activities with an emphasis on leadership, three interviews noted above, input from our student body, and results of our math quiz and essay. Each candidate is extensively discussed by the Admissions Committee before a decision is made on whether to make an offer.
Being a highly selective college, Webb has a high bar for admissions. Even though we have reduced our emphasis on college entrance exams, the average SAT scores have increased over the past five years, exceeding 700 for verbal and 750 for math. The large majority of students rank in the top 15% of their high school class. We believe the changes in our approach to evaluating incoming freshmen are having positive effects on the student body. We now seek 26 to 28 highly qualified members in each class. We have enjoyed extraordinary retention over the last four years. Next year, we expect the student body to exceed 106 students, by far a record for Webb.
As discussed above, every student who is accepted to Webb must be highly qualified. We have learned that less qualified and prepared students will not last the freshman year. It breaks my heart to have to call an alumnus to tell them their son or daughter did not make it into Webb, but I trust that they appreciate the importance of maintaining the integrity of our admissions process. Once we have established that a student meets our standards, we do take into consideration the makeup of the student body. For example, over the last five years, we have increased the percentage of women at Webb from 15% to 25%. We have been slowly increasing the percentage of minorities at Webb. We have found that the best way to expand these underrepresented groups is to enlarge the overall pool of qualified applicants. Lauren Carballo has introduced new approaches to recruitment that are beginning to show results. This year, we have 144 applicants, the largest pool since 1978 when we began recording applicant data. Our ambitious five-year goal is to double the pool of qualified applicants.
Another aspect of the scandal related to the treatment of sports, with college coaches making inappropriate recommendations for student admission. It probably goes without saying that Webb does not do this. We do take into consideration a student’s extracurricular activities in high school, when such activities demonstrate commitment, time management, and leadership skills. Many of our students held the position of president, team captain, 1st Chair or other leadership positions at their high school.
We are doing our very best to maintain a level playing field for all applicants. With that said, I have no doubt there will be more changes in future years, as we continue to develop and improve the process for recruiting and selecting our students. Should you have any questions or comments on our admission process, or ideas on how we can improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me.
R. Keith Michel
President, Webb Institute