Alpha Epsilon Lambda

The AEL program Campus Climate Corps has entered into cooperative agreements with overseas universities. These relationships will support AEL's participation in the annual UN climate conferences and the associated campus-based student conferences. Signing on behalf of AEL was Rock Aboujaoude, Jr. Signing on behalf of SamDAQU was Rector Dr. Chidem Turkyilmaz Organizer of the agreement were AEL Executive Director Dr. John Capece and SamDAQU Vice Rector Dr. Abror Gadaev who have cooperated on various research and education projects since 2003.

Nargis and I will miss our dear friend, Juan Vitali who passed away on February 19.

Juan and I met in 1986 as graduate students at University of Florida. A year or so later we ended up sharing a house. We spent so much time together working on campus projects and student politics that we figured that it just made sense to turn a house into the UF subversive HQ. In that place we organized a long list of incredibly interesting and consequential projects, many of which continue at UF to this day.

Juan did so much at UF that it is simply impossible to recount it all. To have so much intelligence and integrity in an assertive organizing powerhouse like Juan is incredibly rare. He inspired all those around him to do all they could, and then more. One year he earned our house the honor of hosting John Lombardi for the traditional UF President’s dinner with students. Juan cooked. As if the list of things Juan was good at wasn’t already long enough, Juan was a great Italian chef.

And then there was another story when Juan went on a trip to Rome, Italy. Unfortunately, the Gainesville airport sent his bags to Rome, Georgia. But while Juan was away, our undergraduate housemate, Ilya Solarev, newly arrived from the Soviet Union, tried to roll Juan’s car out of the carport to wash it. Since no good deed goes unpunished, Juan’s open door caught a bush and wrenched towards the front bumper. Upon his return, Juan took it in stride. But I will never forget Ilya’s misery at having had good intentions end badly.

After college Juan and I continued to be friends and teamed up to manage the national graduate student honor society. Juan’s career led him to the Pentagon and then the White House. But he remained the most sincere, caring person you ever met. Like my other DC friends, Juan and his wife Katie would always offer me a place to stay during trips to the area. It was always a pleasure spending time with them.

During a 2022 visit to DC at the peak of cherry blossom season, Juan and I shared breakfast with Richard Grosso at an outdoor place in DuPont Circle, after which we walked the neighborhood on that beautiful spring morning. I dropped Juan off for a White House meeting. When I picked him up a few hours later he had with him a bag of White House swag, including a shirt for my daughter, Amina. Nargis loves that shirt and the opportunity it gave her for some fun photos.

Nargis and I both cherish Juan’s memory. We extend our sincerest condolences to his wife Katie.

Katie was amazing at the memorial mass on March 15. It was a solemn event but followed by a joyous celebration of Juan's life at the church reception and the gathering at their home. Juan was such a fortunate man to have found Katie. He always knew it and openly expressed this love.

At the church reception, I was drawn to one table among the dozen or more, where two fellows were seated. Turned out that of the 60 or more people in the room, they were the only two others from Juan's UF student days, neither of whom I could have possibly recognized. Fate or guiding hand? Other special friends & colleagues of Juan's joined us for a most moving set of conversations of the past and of those things yet to come from Juan's life and endeavors.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:linkedInArticle:7190245860738281472/

Juan A. Vitali (1962-2024)

Alpha Epsilon Lambda honors the memory of Dr. Juan A. Vitali who passed away on February 19, 2024, at age 61 in Alexandria, VA with his wife Katie at his side. Dr. Vitali was a founding National Member of AEL in 1991 and served as the society’s national President from 2015 to 2017. More recently, Dr. Vitali actively encouraged the AEL Campus Climate Corps program's academic and research programs.

Dr. Vitali worked in the Pentagon as Chief of the Army Nuclear Power Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he led the Small Modular Reactor development project. During the year before his passing, Juan served as the Assistant Director of Nuclear Energy Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

As a doctoral student in 1989, Juan received the University of Florida’s highest student award – admission to the UF Hall of Fame. This was in recognition of his high academic achievement and unparalleled student leadership. He was founder of the Hispanic Student Association, co-authored the UF Student Bill of Rights, and evolved campus graduate student governance, culminating in his establishment of the UF Graduate Student Council. In 1989 he was the organization’s founding Vice President, alongside its President, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Faculty Advisor, Lawton Chiles. His student leadership accomplishments are simply too numerous to recount them all.

Perhaps his greatest legacy to students, science, national defense, and solutions to the global climate crisis is yet to be realized. In Pentagon circles, Juan was affectionately referred to as the Army’s reigning Godfather of Nuclear Energy for his relentless advancement of innovative technologies. Juan saw the U.S. Department of Defense’s role in peaceful nuclear energy innovation as paving the way for the wider implementation of potential solutions to humanity’s greatest challenge.

https://youtu.be/zYS6tvK512w?t=703

https://www.jeffersonfuneralchapel.com/obituaries/Juan-Vitali/ #!/Obituary

AEL national member Rock Aboujaoude, Jr. serves as Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS). He and NAGPS President Thad Potter organized their Spring Legislative Action Days (April 2-5) which successfully concluded yesterday in Washington, DC. To kick off the event, Rock and AEL Executive Director Dr. John Capece arranged for a small group of graduate student leaders to attend the April 1 hearing of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, chaired by U.S. Representative Kathy Castor. The grad students accompanying Rock were:
Gwen Chodur
- Past President of NAGPS
- President at University of California Graduate & Professional Council (representing all UC campuses)
Francois Kaeppelin
- Legislative Director at University of California Graduate & Professional Council (all UC campuses)
Adam Cooper
- Legislative Liaison at University of California San Diego Graduate and Professional Student Association

Link to the Campus Climate Corps channel on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPrIeiEJmFRLPTC8ZhlNoiA

Watch the Campus Climate Corps Conference live on YouTube from 11am to 3pm on Sunday, October 31.

YouTube viewing is an easy alternative to registering in advance to join the Zoom meeting. Registration for the Zoom meeting is at www.CampusClimateCorps.org.

Campus Climate Corps program is jointly administered by Alpha Epsilon Lambda and Intelligentsia International.

What should really scare you this Halloween? Climate Change!

University students and community members are invited to participate in a virtual conference being held Sunday, October 31 at 11am-3pm on Zoom. UF graduate student Rock Aboujaoude will speak live from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. A wide range of other speakers will be featured. The half-day conference is followed by daily briefings at 7pm from the UN COP26.

The UF Agricultural Economics Club (Amanda Heinzmann, President) stepped up to join with Campus Climate Corps in hosting this event. You can register to be part of this Zoom event at www.CampusClimateCorps.org.

To learn more about the virtual conference and the UN conference in Scotland, check out the UF Florida Independent Alligator article at https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/10/uf-climate-conference

Sponsors of the virtual conference include Alpha Epsilon Lambda (the national graduate student honor society), UF-IFAS CALS Office of the Dean, Solar Impact (Gainesville solar energy company), and the Florida Climate Institute.

Campus Climate Corps Campus Climate Corps (CCC) is a joint effort of university student volunteers working with Florida-based non-profit organizations Intelligentsia International and Alpha Epsilon Lambda to help U.S. student organizations address the issue of climate change.

What should really scare you this Halloween? Climate Change!

University students and community members are invited to participate in a virtual conference being held Sunday, October 31 at 11am-3pm on Zoom. UF graduate student Rock Aboujaoude will speak live from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. A wide range of other speakers will be featured. The half-day conference is followed by daily briefings at 7pm from the UN COP26.

The UF Agricultural Economics Club (Amanda Heinzmann, President) stepped up to join with Campus Climate Corps in hosting this event that is open to university students and the general public statewide.

You can register to be part of this Zoom event at www.CampusClimateCorps.org

To learn more about the virtual conference and the UN conference in Scotland, check out the Florida Independent Alligator article at https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/10/uf-climate-conference

Sponsors of the UF virtual conference include Alpha Epsilon Lambda (the national graduate student honor society), UF-IFAS CALS Office of the Dean, Solar Impact (Gainesville solar energy company), and the Florida Climate Institute.

Campus Climate Corps Campus Climate Corps (CCC) is a joint effort of university student volunteers working with Florida-based non-profit organizations Intelligentsia International and Alpha Epsilon Lambda to help U.S. student organizations address the issue of climate change.

What should really scare you this Halloween? Climate Change!

UF Students and community members are invited to participate in a virtual conference being held Sunday, October 31 at 11am-3pm on Zoom. UF graduate student Rock Aboujaoude will speak live from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. A wide range of other speakers will be featured. The half-day conference is followed by daily briefings at 7pm from the UN COP26.

The UF Agricultural Economics Club (Amanda Heinzmann, President) stepped up to join with Campus Climate Corps in hosting this event. You can register do to be part of this Zoom event at www.CampusClimateCorps.org.

The conference program is posted athttps://campusclimatecorps.org/docs/CCCC_Program.pdf

To learn more about the UF virtual conference and the UN conference in Scotland, check out the Alligator article at https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/10/uf-climate-conference

Sponsors of the UF virtual conference include Alpha Epsilon Lambda (the national graduate student honor society), UF-IFAS CALS Office of the Dean, Solar Impact (Gainesville solar energy company), and the Florida Climate Institute.

What are you doing about the CLIMATE CRISIS?

Students and the general public are invited to participate in the free Campus Climate Corps Conference coming to you live from the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, and with experts and activists from the University of Florida in Gainesville. The Zoom/Facebook and YouTube events begin on Sunday, October 31 at 11am Eastern. You can register at www.CampusClimateCorps.org to receive the Zoom access links or you can simply tune in to our YouTube channel and page to watch and comment on Sunday.

Sunday’s half-day conference ends at 3pm but is followed at 7pm by the first of 13, one-hour-long, daily briefings and discussions live from Glasgow hosted by UF graduate student Rock Aboujaoude, Jr. These daily events summaries and conversations will cover a wide range of events at the annual UN conference.

The Zoom meeting and Facebook/YouTube streams are free and open to the public.

Featured in Sunday’s conference are
- UF graduate student Rock Aboujaoude, Jr. live in Glasgow
- The Florida Climate Institute Student Fellows
- Expert faculty from the University of Florida
- Extinction Rebellion’s Nicholas Vazquez & Donald Zepeda

The Glasgow daily briefings will include interviews with a range of experts and leaders attending the UN climate conference, COP26.

Campus Climate Corps Campus Climate Corps (CCC) is a joint effort of university student volunteers working with Florida-based non-profit organizations Intelligentsia International and Alpha Epsilon Lambda to help U.S. student organizations address the issue of climate change.

Campus Climate Corps is an educational service project created by Dr. John Capece as a joint program between Alpha Epsilon Lamba and Intelligentsia International. Michal Fidler and Rock Aboujaoude, Jr. have represented Campus Climate Corps at the last five UN climate change conferences (COY & COP). This year we are planning to send two new people to broadcast content back from Glasgow, Scotland to our US campus conferences. Danika Fornear specializes in print journalism while Dr. Jeffery Van Treese specializes in science policy interviews. Jeff will be credentialed by Free Speech TV as their only correspondent covering the UN climate conference. FSTV is accessible via cable stations in 40 million US households.

Students! Register soon to participate in the RFK Jr climate crisis Q&A scheduled for Thursday at 5:30pm. We at AEL and Campus Climate Corps are dutifully doing our homework to prepare some of the questions. We want for you to also have the opportunity to ask your question, so sign up at https://forms.gle/8hBCu14Zf3LPjhqC8