Meet Our Honors Program Mentors
Professor Peter Arvanites
[email protected]
845-574-4767
Technology Center, Room 8301
Peter Arvanites has been teaching mathematics at RCC for more than thirty years. He has been a member of the Faculty Senate since 1989, serving as Vice President/Secretary from 1995 to 1997, Acting Vice President/Secretary from 2004 to 2005, and then President from 2005 to 2009. In 1994, he became the Honors Mentor for students pursuing math, computer science, and engineering majors. Since then, he continues to enjoy working with the Honors students and helping them transfer to prestigious schools such as MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and NYU. Since 1996, Peter has been a Co-Advisor of the Chess Club, becoming Advisor in 2020. Throughout the years, he has served on many committees such as the Curriculum Committee, College RTP Committee, Sabbatical Leave Committee, and Community Involvement Committee. Peter is a member of the Academic Standards Committee and the Professor Emeritus Nominating Committee. In addition, he is a member of the Curriculum and Transfer Pathways Working Group of the SUNY Transfer Task Force.
Professor Elyse Fuller
[email protected]
845-574-4262
Technology Center, Room 8205
Elyse Fuller has worked at RCC since 2004, teaching and working with students. Over the years, she has taught various courses, mainly focusing on General Biology I & II. Elyse has also been an active member of several committees and working groups at RCC. Some of her most cherished experiences have been serving as the advisor for the Alpha Phi Sigma Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society for many years, as well as Co-Advisor for Environmental Club and Co-Advisor for Biology Club. Since 2018, she has been an Honors Mentor for students interested in biology, health sciences, pre-med, environmental science, and related fields. Furthermore, she started teaching General Biology I & II Honors.
Apart from her work at RCC, Elyse has volunteered for various organizations for over 30 years. She started as a candy striper at the hospital in her hometown and is now volunteering as her daughter’s Girl Scout troop leader. Elyse’s daughter, husband, her loveable but wacky black Lab, and her parents keep her busy, and she enjoys reading, listening to audiobooks, cooking, baking, and being outdoors.
Professor Andrew T. Jacobs
[email protected]
845-574-4543
Academic II, Room 2237
Andrew T. Jacobs is a communication studies professor who also teaches Gender & Sexuality Studies courses (GST prefix). He is the Director of Forensics – the coach of the RCC Speech & Debate Team. We compete in the Impromptu Debate League (IDL) he founded.
Recent honors classes have included:
- GST 20200 Gender, Sex, & Power
- GST 24000 Sex, Power, & Social Change
- SPE 22310 Diversity in American Speech & Language
Andrew has co-authored Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Oxford University Press, currently in its 3rd edition) and has written academic and popular press pieces on the rhetoric of identity, freedom of speech, debate, politics, and other topics.
Professor Kristen Kolka
[email protected]
845-574-4344
Technology Center, Room 8308
Kristen Kolka has been teaching mathematics at RCC since 2010 and previously worked as a high school mathematics teacher for three years. She teaches a variety of math courses both in-person and asynchronously. In addition to being an Honors mentor, she is involved in many committees on campus and currently serves as the Faculty Senate Vice President and RCCFT Treasurer.
Professor Matt Matcovich
[email protected]
845-574-4797
Technology Center, Room 8302
Matt Matcovich is an alumnus of the Honors Program at Rockland Community College and was mentored by Professor Peter Arvanites during his time there. Since being hired as a full-time faculty member in 2013, he has been an assistant baseball coach, worked in the advisement and tutoring centers, directed the summer camps, and chaired several committees. Some of his proudest work at the college is seeing his mentees in the Honors Program grow and watching them excel in their future endeavors.
Dr. Meghan P. Nolan
[email protected]
845-574-4426
Honors Office, Room 1226
Meghan P. Nolan, MFA, MA, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Sam Draper Honors program at RCC. She is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Nolan is a multigenre writer, who focuses on (Neo-)Victorian and Modern literature/ crime writing and fragmented perceptions of self-hood through published academic works, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Her most recent book, The Crossroads of Crime Writing: Unseen Structures and Uncertain Spaces was published by Anthem Press in 2024. Her other academic/ non-fiction works have appeared in Approaches to Teaching the Works of Fernando Pessoa (MLA 2024), Transnational Crime Fiction: Mobility, Borders, and Detection (2020), Exquisite Corpse: Studio Art-Based Writing in the Academy (2019), Persona Studies (2021 and 2015), Thread (2017), and The 100 Greatest Detectives (2018). She is the author of the poetry collection, Stratification (2008) and her poems have been in many literary journals over the years.