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PARAMUS, N.J. – Four Bergen Community College honors students placed first in their categories at the 34th annual Beacon Conference, an interdisciplinary showcase for community college student research. Sixteen Bergen students presented their research at this year’s conference hosted virtually by the State University of New York’s Westchester Community College in June. Faculty mentors, such as Judith K. Winn School of Honors Director Seamus Gibbons, assist the students.
“It is always such a competitive conference,” Gibbons said. “If a student gets their paper accepted into the panel presentation at an annual Beacon Conference, that alone means that this is a scholarly-level paper.”
Bergen students placing first in their categories were:
- Afazur Rahman, “The Existential Dangers in AI: We Need to Act Now.” Mentor – Professor Kelly Keane
- Ryhan McHugh, “Epic Women: Who’s to Blame.” Mentor – Professor Daniel Salerno
- TianaMarie Allen, “The Psychological Burdens in International Adoption.” Mentor – Professor Seamus Gibbons
- Cristian Tenempaguay, “Understanding the Special Education Teacher Shortage: Causes, Challenges, and Policy Responses in the United States.” Mentor – Professor Melissa Krieger.
The Beacon Conference began under a grant from the American Association of Community Colleges and the Kellogg Foundation in 1993 with a consortium of institutions joining together each year to host and sponsor the event. Bergen has hosted the conference four times since its inception (1998, 2008, 2016 and 2025).
For more information, visit beaconconference.org.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 24,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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