By Steve Seepersaud
May 10, 2018
If you've watched ABC's The View anytime in the recent past, you've seen Sunny Hostin on the set, giving her takes on fashion, movies or whatever the group is talking about. Did you know that she's one of our own?
Hostin enrolled at Binghamton as an Educational Opportunity Program student at the age of 16 and earned her bachelor's degree in English and rhetoric in 1990 before attending law school at the University of Notre Dame.
In fact, she'll be in Binghamton later this month to attend another Commencement. This time around, she'll be giving a speech and receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Since 2016, Hostin has co-hosted The View and she's the senior legal correspondent and analyst for ABC News. She has also been a legal analyst for CNN, appearing on several of its shows.
Before transitioning her career to television, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, specializing in child sex crimes, and was also a managing director of Business Intelligence and Investigations at Kroll, the world's leading risk-consulting company. In 2008, she was named to Crain's 40 Under 40 New York's Rising Stars list and she is the recipient of the Alvin McKenna Alumnus of the Year Award from Notre Dame Law School.
Hostin serves on the Harpur Advisory Council and has been the featured speaker for the Alumni Association Special Recognition Awards Ceremony, a panelist at the 2015 Metro Career Night and a speaker for the 2015 student-organized TEDxBinghamtonUniversity conference.
She lives with her husband, orthopedic surgeon, Emmanuel Hostin, and her son and daughter, in Westchester County, N.Y. She and her husband are part owners of Alvin & Friends Restaurant in New Rochelle, which serves contemporary cuisine with Southern and Caribbean flavors.
Commencement ceremonies will be held May 18-20 (see schedule) at the Binghamton University Events Center. A Tekes Siyum Commencement ceremony has also been scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday, May 18, for students who would not otherwise be able to attend their ceremony due to the Jewish holiday Shavout. You can view the live stream of all Events Center ceremonies through the Commencement website. Aaron Mair '84 and Ali Çarkoğlu, PhD '94, will also receive honorary degrees.
In May 2015, Mair was elected the 57th president of the national Sierra Club, one of the largest and most effective environmental organizations in the world, by its more than 1.3 million members. He is the first African-American to hold the position. Mair made an inspiring visit to campus in October 2016, explaining he wanted students to understand that Binghamton University is where he learned the critical thinking, arguing and communication skills that positioned him for his role as an environmental justice pioneer. Read about him in BingUNews.
Çarkoğlu is among the most prominent and accomplished political scientists in Turkey. His work has led to a more comprehensive understanding of Turkey's political evolution over the past 30 years, and has examined critical elements of Turkey's development as a nation. He has been a key faculty liaison in the implementation of Binghamton's dual-diploma program in Global and International Affairs with Boğaziçi University.
