Irina Shor is like the name of the rock band “Quiet Riot”: beneath her soft-spoken, elegant exterior is a lively, intelligent and amusing person. You need only talk to Irina for a few moments to see the twinkle in her eyes when she chats about her work or family.

Irina immigrated to the US from Moscow in 1992 and became a citizen in 2000. She left Russia to escape anti-Semitism and is a passionate patriot who truly appreciates the life America has afforded her. A big part of her heart belongs, in fact, to our very own BC. As she explains it, “BC gave me so much, I’m never going to leave this place. It gave me my husband, my education and my job.” Irina met her husband the very first day of her very first class at BC, and they now have two children.

An elementary school teacher in Moscow, Irina loves to teach and was determined to do so in the U.S., even though it meant going back to school for an American degree. She took English courses for a year and then enrolled at BC in 1993. Irina earned her degree and became a licensed teacher, but life took her down a different path: she became a part-time employee at BC. Her first child was born in 1997 and she opted to stay home for a while. Encouraged by friends to learn more about the computer, Irina found herself enchanted with the field of information technology. Whilestill at home, she took classes in Powerbuilder with Structured Query Language (SQL).

Irina showed her class project to Mark Gold; he was impressed enough to hire her to work as a part-time programmer with Alex Rotkop, ITS Information Systems Specialist. In Rotkop, Irina had a colleague from whom she could learn a great deal, and she dove right into her career. She became a full-time employee in July 2001 and has contributed to the programming of WebGrade, Attendance Online, the CUNY Honors application, the Scholarships and Admissions application, and other projects. She also manages the IFAS accounting system, overseeing the IFAS Help Desk and writing programs to improve the system. Fortuitously, Irina has found herself in a position to continue teaching. “I love the career change because I really enjoy programming, and I get to teach the new applications to faculty and staff,” she says. With that characteristic twinkle in her eye, Irina elaborates: “I love it when the professors become the students and I get to teach them!”

Currently, Irina is testing a program she created to upload data from the Bursar’s new, computerized cash registers to IFAS. When she’s not at work and in tech mode, she loves to spend time with her family, cook Russian food and go to the movies. She cooks a mean beef stroganoff, corned beef and potatoes, and both cabbage and vegetable soup. She just saw “A Beautiful Mind” and thought “It was a very good, movie, and emotionally draining.” Married for eight years (“He wooed me with flowers and original poetry”), Irina has a 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. She is a dedicated fan of Star Trek, to which her husband introduced her while they were dating. Irina is such a big fan, in fact, that her children are named for characters on the show. Son Dayton is named after the android crewmember “Data”, or “the smart one”, as Irina puts it. Daughter Ezri is named for a humanoid crewmember. The name also means “helper” in Hebrew, a lovely coincidence.

Irina also loves to travel and has driven many times with her family to Florida and Niagara Falls. Perhaps she dreams of traveling into Deep Space Nine, but we’re happy to have her right here on Earth.

Irina Shor, Business Systems Coordinator