20 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 4, 2013 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com SPOTLIGHT ON JUSTICE: JUDGE JOSEPH J. ESPOSITO SUPERVISING JUDGE OF THE CIVIL COURT IN QUEENS COUNTY BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] Judge Joseph J. Esposito combined his interest in political science together and his law school education into a lifelong career that has been fi lled with enjoyment. “My life has been a lot of fi nding myself in the right place at the right time,” he said. “Circumstances being such, I went where God took me.” The lifelong Queens resident studied political science at St. John’s University as an undergraduate looking to one day teach. He continued his education at The New School for Social Research, where he received a master’s degree in political science in 1974. But he put aside his intentions to get a Ph.D. because of poor job prospects at the time. Esposito changed his career’s direction and went to law school. With no previous knowledge of law, he applied to many schools, but was not accepted to any. Not letting the rejection deter him, he applied once again and got into Fordham Law School. During that time, Esposito worked for Paul O’Dwyer, who was president of the City Council. “It was really a big thrill for me to work in City Hall,” he said. “This was like a practical application of my studies. I was very happy and I became enthusiastic about government.” In 1981, Esposito began working as a court attorney in the civil court of the City of New York. He then made his way to work as a law secretary for Supreme Court Justice Vincent F. Naro in the Criminal Term in Queens County. During 18 years on the job, until Naro retired, Esposito worked on some of the most violent crimes committed in the borough. “I was looking at the end of a career with someone that was like a father to me,” he said. “He encouraged me to become a judge, which I wasn’t really completely looking to do.” Esposito’s career continued as he worked four more years in the Criminal Term of the Supreme Court. In 2005, he was elected as a judge in the Civil Court of the City of New York in Queens County. In January he was also appointed as a supervising Judge in the same court. By next year, his term as a civil court judge will come to an end and he hopes to get re-elected. “At the end of this year, who knows where God will take me?” he said. “It’s a rewarding experience being a judge. It really gives me an opportunity to serve my country and my city. When this job stops being fun, that’s when I’m going to stop. ” Two of Esposito’s three sons have decided to follow in their father’s footsteps. One has graduated from St. John’s Law School and another is planning to attend the same school this fall. When he is not in the courtroom, Esposito enjoys spending time with his wife and three sons. Photo Courtesy of Judge Joseph Esposito BEAUTIFUL BABY Fotini and George Vasilarakis are proud parents of Nicholas George, born on March 26. Fotini is media and events manager for Investors Bank. ‘GIRLS’ COMES TO BELL PHOTO BY ROSA KIM & COURTESY GREGG SULLIVAN The hit HBO series “Girls” fi lmed on Bell Boulevard on Tuesday, July 2. Cast members, including Lena Dunham, were on hand at Bayside locations including CJ Sullivan’s. “I took off work to see her and I’ve been waiting since 10 a.m. just to see her come out and take a picture with her Dunham,” said “Girls” fan Kelly Goff. “She’s awesome. I feel like I totally relate to the show--post grad, everybody’s trying to get a job, going out partying the same way.” “It’s really cool; we don’t really have a lot actual big shows being fi lmed here, it’s usually small ones that you never really hear of, so to have a show that I actually watch here is really awesome,” echoed Jessie Naftaly. TEENS & TECH Competition for solutions to city problems BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aa [email protected] Young programmers came together for a weekend fi lled with innovative solutions to real city problems during a unique competition in Astoria. On June 29 and 30, Young Rewired State (YRS) — a United Kingdom-based organization dedicated to helping teens learn to code or program — held a free weekend-long workshop at the Museum of the Moving Image. Partnering with the museum and Mozilla’s Hive Learning Network NYC, YRS hosted its fi rst event in the U.S. Fifty teens, ages 14-18, were able to work with each other and 20 mentors to create digital products and prototypes using data to address concerns and problems specifi c to New York City. “It’s all about community and curating young developers, bringing them out of the bedroom and familiarizing them with the world around them,” said Thom Brooks of YRS. The teens got together to form groups and choose the open data they would be using for their projects. The rest of the fi rst day was spent developing and building the products. Some of the projects that took home prizes after presenting at a show-and-tell the next day included an app to fi nd nearby restaurants using Wi-Fi and a Citi Bike Range Finder to help riders determine if they could reach one Citi Bike station from another within 45 minutes. The winners of the event received a fl ight to attend the Young Rewired States Festival of Code in the U.K., an annual event during the fi rst week of August. YRS hopes to come back to the U.S. next year and hold events in all fi ve boroughs.
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