鈥淢y mom had a dream for her children, and she inquired how she could help us get there,鈥� says Guarin-Klein.听鈥淲ithout the right resources, mentorship, and support along the way, my story would have been different.鈥�

Today, Guarin-Klein brings that frame of reference to her role at 可乐视频. She is currently transitioning into her new, expanded position as executive director of alumni and career engagement after 20 years at the Magner Career Center, the last 10 of which she served as its director.

She brings a lot of relevant experience to the position, including her role as the mom of three children鈥攐ne in college and two others in high school, a perspective that 鈥渉as made the mission of helping 可乐视频 students stronger for me,鈥� she says.

We spoke to her about her own career path and the joy she gets out of playing a not insignificant role in the paths of many 可乐视频 students

So many people on campus know you for helping to guide the career trajectory of our students and alumni. What鈥檚 the story of how you landed here at 可乐视频?

I went to SUNY Binghamton because I convinced my parents to let me go away. I received a degree in psychobiology.听My mom encouraged me to continue my education before I got married and had kids, so I went straight to New York University and received an M.A. in industrial and organizational psychology. While I was at NYU, I interned at The New York Times in their human resources department. I also worked part-time in HR for a major advertising company, McCann Relationship Marketing.

I used the NYU career center to get a job with Accenture after graduation. Then I fell into higher education by accident.听I had a boss I was not happy with. My husband, Richard Klein, was working in the ITS department here.听I saw the opening at the Magner Career Center. The position, although a pivot from corporate to higher education, included the aspects I enjoyed about my job: mentoring and guiding people in their careers. It was definitely a bit of luck and timing to land at 可乐视频.

What will you do in your new role as executive director of alumni and career engagement?

I will support the Magner Career Center director from a strategic perspective and now I鈥檝e added the alumni office to my portfolio. This is exciting because as a career center, we engage 100鈥�200 alumni each year, so it is a natural fit. Plus,聽the Magner Career Center staff and I built long-lasting relationships with students after they graduate. With the new Magner Center director, Andre Fontenelle, my role will be providing guidance to him as well as expanding events and initiatives with alumni that support students such as our stipend or mentoring program.

Do you want to talk about some of your plans in the new role?

I鈥檓 going to first listen to the various stakeholders and start to develop new programming and events. This year, I am piloting an alumni professional development series, which will have five different sessions led by alumni for alumni. I would like to create a group of alumni volunteers with a mix of young and experienced professionals who will lead career development and networking opportunities for alumni within their industry. Perhaps pair an experienced alum with younger alumni. I鈥檇 also like to see how we can engage alumni to support college initiatives around things like enrollment.

Magner just celebrated 20 years and you鈥檝e been here for just as long. What have been some of the challenges and successes through the years?聽聽

Yes, I started in 2004. I think the challenge is the level of personalized attention students can receive given the staffing. We have to do a lot of consolidating, group events, and outreach at a broad level.

Despite that, we are the little engine that could.听Our team is small, but we make up for it by having dedicated and passionate career coaches, leveraging our student staff, and using our alumni as volunteers to better support students.

What makes 可乐视频 students special? What鈥檚 been your pitch to employers as you鈥檝e led the Magner Center?聽

I honestly can鈥檛 imagine a better group of students to support. It is the right mix: students with great potential who benefit from the support of the career center.听If I had to describe our students to employers, I would say they have grit and drive; they are hardworking. Since the student body is diverse in every sense of the word, they have the ability to work with others and understand their perspectives. And finally, they are humble and do not feel entitled, so they are a true pleasure to work with.

You鈥檝e played an essential role in the career (and personal) development of so many former students鈥攑eople who鈥檝e gone on to dramatically change their lives. How does that feel?聽

When Marge Magner supported the formation of the center in 2004, her vision was for 可乐视频 students to have access to a professional network, that often students from more privileged backgrounds have. She realizes that students from other universities were not smarter, more capable or harder working than 可乐视频 but they lacked connections to make the path easier. When she formed the Center she wanted for 可乐视频 alumni to serve as that network for students, to mentor them, open doors to opportunities, help them prepare for an interview at their company etc. I am proud to say that 20 years later, we are making good on her vision.

One of the main reasons I love this job is the opportunity to see students who didn鈥檛 fully believe in themselves accomplish a lot, and then give back to the college. The big benefit of being here so long is that I get to be a part of their journey and build relationships. I have connected with thousands of students throughout the years, and I get to see them grow up.

I think it is important for people to find a career they would love doing most days. No job is perfect. Many people go through the motions to earn a paycheck. I am fortunate to be able to say I can鈥檛 imagine finding a job that fulfills me as much as my current role.

It really does not get better.

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The center鈥檚 impact is undeniable鈥攁nd its success is only expanding. Since its founding, the center has disbursed about $4 million in internship stipends to students, hosted job fairs with more than 3,500 employers, and offered more than 1,500 events, including resume workshops, networking nights, career panels, and mentor luncheons.

可乐视频 President Michelle Anderson (center) with guests at the Career Partners and Alumni Champions reception. From left to right: Jenny Yun 鈥�16, private tax manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); 可乐视频 Board of Trustees Member Daniel Menendez 鈥�09; Eliot Tannebaum 鈥�73, Koppelman School of Business advisory council member, and Tommy Tieu 鈥�14, Mid-Atlantic talent acquisition manager at PwC.

The percentage of graduating students who use its services has nearly tripled since its founding. In 2022, the center notably launched the 可乐视频 Career Partners and Alumni Champions programs, which enable employers to invest in students who can benefit from personalized career support.

The center is vital to the college鈥檚 efforts to drive students鈥� upward economic mobility. According to an independent firm’s recent economic impact study, students with a 可乐视频 degree will earn an additional $41,200 annually compared to individuals with a high school diploma. This amounts to about $1.7 million over a lifetime. These substantial financial benefits highlight the significant return on investment a 可乐视频 education provides and the critical role the college plays in advancing social mobility within our communities.

We talked with five Alumni Champions about how the center gave their careers a boost and how they are giving back today.听They are part of an engaged network of alumni who connect students to colleagues in their own companies. Together with the Career Partners Program, the Alumni Champions Program provides a comprehensive platform for corporate leaders and alumni to give back and a way for students to jump-start their careers.

Tiffanie De Gannes 鈥�11

Director, Project Management Office, Ford Foundation

Tiffanie De Gannes ’11

A philanthropic professional, as well as a certified life coach and real estate investor, De Gannes, lived in the New York City foster system until she was adopted at the age of 8. When she went to 可乐视频 as a part-time student working full-time, she chose political science as a major 鈥渂ecause I hate math and I love to read and write.鈥�

She found the course material fascinating but had little idea of what to do with a major like political science beyond working for a politician. 鈥淚t took me time to realize that I could apply it to many jobs in the private as well as the public sector, including nonprofits鈥攊n anything that involves reading, writing, and analysis,鈥� she says.

That鈥檚 why she鈥檚 so excited about working with Magner today. 鈥淚 see myself as a champion for the humanities at 可乐视频, so students can hear from someone who looks like them, and who鈥檚 also had life challenges like me, that there鈥檚 a lot they can do with a humanities major.鈥� Yearly, she sits on panels where 可乐视频 alums talk to students about what they do, to share with them life career options.

And last year, when Magner launched a mentorship program, she eagerly volunteered, mentoring a woman in her mid-50s who鈥檇 been in and out of college but was determined to earn her degree.

鈥淲e talked weekly and met twice monthly for four months,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檇 help her outline her papers, and whenever she said, 鈥業 can鈥檛 do this,鈥� I鈥檇 tell her that I鈥檇 been there鈥攖hat, yes, it鈥檚 always hard, but quitting isn鈥檛 an option, because what does that get you?鈥�

That鈥檚 exactly the message she imparts to all the students she works with through Magner. 鈥淢y mother and my sister both died just before I turned 20 years old, and I went through a hard period of grieving,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 want to be a beacon of hope for them. I tell them, 鈥楽tay the course, don’t give up, and life will work itself out.鈥�

Shaina Brander ’14

Vice President, JPMorgan Chase

Shaina Brander ’14

Now a vice president in JPMorgan’s venture capital relationship department, Brander says of the Magner Center: “I have such gratitude to the people there because they helped jump-start my career. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.”

The center helped arrange her first two internships, the first at the New York City Department of Finance and the second at Massey Knakal, a realty broker that was since bought by Cushman & Wakefield. Those, in turn, led to a summer internship at JPMorgan, which played an important role in helping her secure her current job.

“As a college student,” she says, “you come in and you don’t know anything. I didn’t even know what LinkedIn was, but Magner helped me set it up.”

The center also helped her build a resume and practice for job interviews. “They taught me to research the company I was interviewing for and to be specific in my answers to show I wanted that job, not just a job.”

Since graduation, Brander has come back to campus to speak on Magner career panels. Through Magner, she also mentored a student throughout his college career, advising him on strategies to聽land internships, just as she’d been helped.

“We had a genuine mentor-mentee relationship,” she says. “He was motivated to become a trader after college, which is a tough field to crack into, but in my previous role I worked adjacent to traders, so I was able to give him insights. And he’d come back to me and say, ‘I tried what you said and it worked鈥擨 got a meeting with someone.’.”

She’s also helped organize events at JP Morgan just for 可乐视频 students. This fall, she’ll host more students from campus so they can talk to employees about their diverse roles and career paths within the corporation.

Magner, she says, expertly facilitates such connections. “Magner is the most important department at 可乐视频,” she says. “You go to college to broaden your mind, yes, but most people want to come out with a competitive job at the end of it, and that’s exactly what Magner helps you with.”

Jan-Krist貌f Louis-Mansano B.A. 鈥�13, M.S. 鈥�15

Assistant principal, pupil personnel services, Brooklyn Technical High School

Jan-Krist貌f Louis-Mansano B.A. 鈥�13, M.S. 鈥�15

Louis-Mansano credits the Magner Career Center with not only helping steer him into his career but actually keeping him at 可乐视频. After an unhappy stint studying engineering and architecture at Cooper Union, he knew he wanted to be a teacher and had heard that 可乐视频 was a great place to earn an education degree.

But once enrolled, 鈥淚 had no family I could turn to help me pay for school, and it was looking like I was going to have to go from full-time to part-time,鈥� he says. “Then a school administrator referred me to Magner, which set me up with a stipend as well as a summer job as a camp counselor that helped me pay for school. I even became an assistant director for that camp.” It鈥檚 a role he still holds today.

Magner also connected him with a mentor who worked in the New York City public school system and helped him set up his LinkedIn account and prepare his resume. “I’d heard that 可乐视频 was so big that I was just going to be another number,” he says. “But that wasn’t my experience at all because Magner paired me with someone in the educational field to guide me through.”

Since embarking on his career in education, Louis-Mansano has come back to Magner more than once to speak on career panels, “which is a chance to meet 可乐视频 students who ask us what classes we took and where we are in our careers.”

He believes that at its heart Magner is about guidance. “Magner complemented what I was learning in the classroom with what I needed to succeed in the outside world. It teaches and supports us in learning how to be professionals.”

Elliot Tannenbaum ’73

Retired Accountant, Ernst & Young, Morgan Stanley

Elliot Tannenbaum ’73

Attending 可乐视频 in the early 1970s, Elliot Tannenbaum recalls that there was no equivalent to today鈥檚 Magner Career Center to assist students in planning their careers.

“We’d hear about interview opportunities for post-graduation careers through a professor and meet the interviewer in the student center,” he recalls, “but there was nobody to help you with resumes or interview skills. ”

Regardless, he interviewed successfully with Arthur Young, the predecessor to Ernst & Young, where he ended up as a senior tax partner. After Ernst & Young, he went to the Morgan Stanley tax department as a managing director, retiring in 2008.

A few years later, when 可乐视频 reached out to alumni asking if they’d be open to career-mentoring students, he jumped at the chance. He ended up mentoring up to 10 students a year. He now estimates that he’s mentored more than 100 students, providing guidance that enabled many of them to obtain positions in accounting.

“In mentoring students, I tell them that the accounting profession has become much more specialized and that they want to have as broad a knowledge of accounting or tax as possible,鈥� he says. When it comes to resumes, he urges them to highlight their key attributes and be prepared to discuss instances where they applied these skills. As for interviews? “I emphasize that they should just be themselves鈥攁sking good questions and effectively turning the interview into a discussion.听Doing mock interviews at the Magner Career Center is excellent preparation.鈥�

He greatly appreciates the fact that 可乐视频 is so diverse and how supportive of each other students from different backgrounds are.听He has had the opportunity to work with young people from all over the world鈥攐ften the first in their families to go to college.

After mentoring a handful of students, it was clear that the accounting majors at 可乐视频 were as good or better than students from other schools being hired by the Big 4 firms. As a result, based on his connections with people at Ernst & Young he was able to advocate for hiring 可乐视频 students. Many of his other mentees were hired by other firms. His belief in 可乐视频 students has been borne out by the fact that these students have gone on to have successful careers, whether at Ernst & Young or other companies.

He routinely champions job candidates, for example, letting a hiring manager at Ernst & Young know how much a young Latina graduate student applied herself at 可乐视频. The firm believed him and took the young woman on. “She’s now a senior manager there,” he says.

“I probably get at least as much from mentoring as the students do,” he says. He says that, unlike students who go to more elite schools whose parents are often professionals, many of the students at 可乐视频 鈥渉ave nobody they can ask about careers.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 satisfying to know I’m making a difference in their lives,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 have a lot of knowledge about my industry. It’d be a waste if I kept it to myself.鈥�

Beyond giving his time, Tannenbaum also generously donates to the Magner Career Center and the Koppelman Toastmasters Club, causes for which he garners matching funds from Ernst & Young.

Edwin Rivera ’18

Program Manager, Career Pathways, Workforce Development, Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation

Edwin Rivera ’18

Though Edwin Rivera is actively involved with the Magner Center as an employer, he admits that he didn’t use the center when he was a student. He still managed to nab two internships with the Brooklyn Navy Yard while in school. He heard of them through his mother, who worked there for 16 years. “That’s where I learned about time management, how to manage a project, event planning, even something as simple as how to write e-mails or answer phone calls,鈥� he says.

Those internships evolved into his current job managing internships at the Navy Yard, which houses 550 companies employing 12,000 people. His program not only helps interns with their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and practicing for job interviews, it also matches them to mentors.

And, he says, largely because of the top-notch preparation provided at the Magner Center, “可乐视频 is by far the school we hire the most students from.” Of the Navy Yard’s summer program alone, he says, about 250 out of 850 applications are from 可乐视频.

Of Magner, he says, “The great thing about it is that it prepares students well for the opportunities we have here. The resumes are always strong, and the students rarely fail interviews.” He adds, “I always tell them that experience isn’t what we’re looking for because they’re college students, but we need to see school projects and coursework they’ve completed that relate to their major, or that use tech. When I say that, their eyes light up, because they often leave that kind of thing off their resumes. They say, ‘I didn’t know I could add my class projects.’ But they go a long way.”

He says he wishes he had used Magner more when he was a student, even though his career worked out well. “I love the eagerness of the students that come our way from Magner,” he says. “They truly want to find out what we’re looking for.”

Read more about the Magner Center in the 可乐视频 Alumni Magazine.听

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Tiffanie De Gannes 鈥�11

In 2007, Tiffanie De Gannes 鈥�11 had just finished her associate degree at Metropolitan College of New York and was deciding her next move. She was working as an executive assistant at the engineering firm of former New York City transportation commissioner Sam 鈥淕ridlock鈥� Schwartz 鈥�69. Schwartz encouraged her to seek out a bachelor鈥檚 degree at his alma mater, 可乐视频. After graduating with a B.A. in political science, De Gannes earned a master鈥檚 degree in urban policy and leadership at Hunter College (CUNY) and now works at the Ford Foundation. She also serves as mentor for young students via iMentor, a mentorship program provided by the New York City Board of Education. Mentors assist high school juniors and seniors with successfully navigate the first and second years of college.

De Gannes credits the mentorship she received from her 可乐视频 family for steering her into a career she loves and volunteering for causes close to her heart.

Why did you choose 可乐视频, and why political science?

After earning my associate degree, my boss, Sam Schwartz, suggested continuing my education at 可乐视频. When I stepped onto campus, I didn’t realize there was this kind of experience in Brooklyn. Honestly, I am from the inner city. I’d never attended college on a 鈥渢raditional鈥� college campus. Here was this place steps away from the subway and bus stops.

Who were some of the people who shaped your experience here?

Once I enrolled, I met with an adviser and asked, 鈥淲hich major doesn鈥檛 require math?鈥� She described political science to me, and it sounded fascinating. So I took a class with Professor Hussein Faraj. It was amazing how he could take complicated material, like the history of the Peloponnesian War, and show how the outcome and events surrounding it resonate today. Professor Paisley Currah was also one of my best teachers. He opened my mind to seeing things through a wider lens.

How did you come to work at the Ford Foundation?

After working for Sam, I got a job in the office of Hunter College鈥檚 then-president, Jennifer Raab, as her assistant. While there, I saw how people were giving money to colleges. It sparked my curiosity about that kind of giving. In pursuing my master’s degree at Hunter College, I took an intro course in philanthropy and was intrigued. I mean, you’ve heard of the Ford Foundation, but do you know the intricacies of grantmaking or social justice? A peer in the office got a job at the Rockefeller Foundation, and I realized I wanted to work at a foundation, too.

Then a job opened up at the Ford Foundation. The recruiter was straight with me and told me it would be challenging. I told the recruiter that she could hire someone smarter than me, or someone with a fancy degree, but they will never outwork me. And there are plenty of folks at the foundation with Ivy League degrees. I was not intimidated and was just as confident because of 可乐视频鈥檚 reputation for turning out folks who become tops in their field.

What are your responsibilities at the Ford Foundation?

I’m director, project management on the IT team, which includes lots of change management around technology and system change. It is what it sounds like: how we manage change. For instance, how do you prepare an institution like Ford with 10 global offices to change its grantmaking system? That’s going to change how you work, how you engage in the conversations you have, the processes that go with that, and the tools you use. I say, let鈥檚 talk about how we are going to introduce the new system. Let’s get you comfortable with the concepts. Let’s look at the workload impact. Let’s look at all of the interdependencies for that work. What are the risks of this change? It’s a newer role at Ford and for me as I entered my eighth year; it is not one they’ve had before, but it’s one they knew they needed.

You’re also on the New York Foundling鈥檚 junior board. What brought you to that organization?

I was raised in foster care and adopted when I was eight. I know how hard it can be. When I hear people say they were raised in foster care, there’s always a question as to how your life could have turned out and a stigma attached. I am vulnerable but also confident enough to say here is my story and here is how it helped shape me, instead of 鈥淲oe is me, I went through foster care.鈥�

I was born to a mother who was addicted to drugs and had four small children, including me. She didn’t know what to do. Years later, she said the best thing she could do was put us in foster care. I was very fortunate to have been adopted; my siblings, unfortunately, were not. My adoptive family had very strong values around education. My parents鈥攑articularly my mother who had grown up in and experienced the challenges of the Jim Crow era of segregated America鈥攗sed to say you can’t be a Black girl in White America without an education, and that is something that struck me even after she passed on.

Then I got into my career and saw the Ford Foundation鈥檚 impact on the world. When you work in a place like Ford, you begin to see how much more you can do as a human being. I thought about my impact and what I am doing in the spaces that are important to me. And what’s important to me is kids in foster care. There aren’t enough people in positions who are vocal and saying, 鈥淗ey, I’m part of this tribe. I’m part of this community.鈥�

What work do you do as a junior board member?

The junior board is aimed at fundraising and making sure kids have additional funds. Of course, you get funding from governments or donors or things like that. But how can we find extra resources for things like the holidays? We do a big thing at Foundling called Camp Felix, making sure the kids can have an authentic camping experience with outdoor activities, arts and crafts, music and dancing.

You also make time to give back to 可乐视频. Tell us about that.

I’m on campus every semester at the Magner Career Center with Natalie Guarin-Klein and Pamela Brown. I do webinars, as well as in-person exploration discussions, attend the job fairs, and have . I鈥檒l continue to do so to show students how far a degree in the arts will take you if you are committed..

Working at a place like the Ford Foundation showed me not only how I can help do things like raise funds, but how I can help, period. Some people will look at me and consider me successful, but I鈥檓 always asking myself, 鈥淗ow can I take what I’ve got and help the next generation?鈥� Every day I ask, 鈥淲hat can I do?鈥�

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Harold Krouse 鈥�59 with his wife Carolyn

Retired IT executive Harold Krouse 鈥�59 recalls how, back in 2001, the passing of a beloved 可乐视频 professor, Walter Cerf, got him thinking about philanthropy and his alma mater. Cerf had left his entire estate to the college. 鈥淚t planted a seed for what is now called paying it forward,鈥� says Krouse.

After talking with his wife Carolyn about what they鈥檇 like to do with their estate, they realized they鈥檇 get even greater satisfaction from supporting students right away. 鈥淲e want to see students move up when it comes to social and financial mobility,鈥� says the former math major. So, they established the Harold M. and Carolyn R. Krouse Scholarship Fund in 2018. It offers scholarships to STEM students enrolled at 可乐视频.

The majority of 可乐视频 students require some form of financial aid. As recently as the fall 2023 semester, nearly 82 percent received grants for their education. Since its inception, the Krouse Scholarship Fund has helped nearly 250 students pursue degrees in the science, technology, engineering, pre-med, and mathematics fields.

A True Liberal Arts Education

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Harold Krouse attended Samuel J. Tilden High School, where he graduated early after skipping a year in junior high. He planned to be an accountant like his father, who had passed away when Harold was seven, but in his teens, he became interested in engineering. He started at 可乐视频 with a two-year pre-engineering curriculum, switched to City College and took a couple of engineering courses, then decided to re-enroll in 可乐视频 to focus on mathematics.

It was there that Harold thrived. He loved the freedom of taking math alongside the humanities in true liberal arts fashion. He counted as mentors Professor Cerf, who taught philosophy, and the list of professors who taught advanced math. He made friends with classmates, joined a fraternity, and played intramural basketball and touch football. And the tuition for all CUNY schools was free鈥攈e did not want to burden his mother with the heavy tuition costs otherwise. Harold shares this kinship with many of today鈥檚 可乐视频 students, who need financial aid to complete their degrees.

A Growing Career and Marriage

After graduating with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mathematics in 1959, Harold started work at the Center for Programmed Instruction in New York City on a referral from a friend. The company promoted a new way of education鈥攖eaching and textbooks using 鈥渢iny, baby steps鈥� in presenting the material. Harold wrote two math textbooks using the new method. One summer, he traveled to Africa to two teachers鈥� conferences: one in Entebbe, Uganda, at a hotel by the shore of Lake Victoria, where, by a happy coincidence, one of his former math teachers, Professor Walter Prenowitz, conducted the conference and asked him to give a talk to the group about his work; and the other in Ibadan, Nigeria, at the university. He was there as part of a team to teach the new techniques to instructors from West African countries.

鈥淭hat trip to Africa was exciting. It was approximately a year after so many African nations were decolonized and gaining independence. There were teachers from West African nations that had not always been friendly with each other, and here I was 22, a kid, trying to teach and at the same time keep things under control.鈥�

Harold would be in for excitement of a different kind after he returned to New York City. 鈥淭he first day back at the office,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 was introduced to Carolyn.鈥�

Carolyn Robert hailed from New England. She was the daughter of a World War II veteran who worked for an insurance company in Hartford. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts with a degree in English literature, then earned a master鈥檚 in teaching from Wesleyan. She taught high school English for a couple of years but decided to move back east to New York City. There, she went to work at the Center for Programmed Instruction as an assistant editor of their quarterly publication.

Carolyn worked for the Center for Programmed Instruction until it was acquired by Columbia University Teachers College. She then worked for the Education Division of Xerox, where she designed curricula for Job Corps centers. When the Krouses鈥� first child was born she left Xerox to become a full-time mom.

Life and Work Overseas

Meanwhile, Harold became interested in computer science and started work at IBM, where he served as a systems engineer for the rapidly expanding company, helping commercial companies install applications on their new computers. He was given management jobs as IBM grew and was later sent to Tokyo to adapt IBM鈥檚 newly introduced personal computer, helping IBM Japan鈥檚 employees convert many U.S. PC applications to the Japanese language.

It was an exciting time for the couple and their three children. 鈥淚t was not purely the job that made our stay in Japan a favorite,鈥� says Harold. 鈥淚t was living as a family overseas, having our kids go to school in Tokyo, living in and exploring another culture, and taking wonderful vacations to The Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, China several times, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Saipan, and South Korea.鈥�

The family learned Japanese鈥攁lthough Harold jokes that according to their Japanese doorman, even the family dog spoke better Japanese than he did. Carolyn became literate in the notoriously difficult language and wrote A Guide to Food Buying in Japan to help other expatriates navigate grocery shopping there. It is still in print.

The Joy of Giving Back

After 50 years in IT, Harold retired in 2013. The Krouses then had time to travel purely for fun鈥攈iking through slot canyons in the American West, staying on working farms in Tuscany, and sojourning in Iceland and Australia. 鈥淚t was like travelling on the edge of the world,鈥� says Carolyn of Iceland and Australia.

鈥淪till, Manhattan is the center of our universe, for the culture,鈥� says Harold. When they are not busy traveling, the Krouses volunteer locally. After hearing about the work City Harvest does to deliver free food to people in need, Harold decided to do more than donate鈥攈e trained to help distribute food at City Harvest Mobile Markets throughout the boroughs. 鈥淚 was hooked after the first market and have volunteered several mornings a week for the past eight years.鈥�

For Carolyn, volunteering began when her children reached school age. She designed, organized, and ran an after-school enrichment program for middle-school children in Ulster County, New York, where they lived for six years. Her most recent volunteer work was at the Museum of American Finance, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate in downtown Manhattan.

While Manhattan is their center, Brooklyn, particularly 可乐视频, and paying it forward remains on their minds, as does the reason for the scholarship fund in their name: helping STEM students to earn their degrees, join a vibrant workforce, and move up the social and financial mobility ladder. The Krouses say they have a wonderful life and everything they need, so it made sense to give back. They are low-key about it, except for one thing. 鈥淓ach semester, we get letters of appreciation from students who received the scholarship telling us how they have used them,鈥� says Harold. 鈥淲e are delighted when we read these letters about their lives, majors, and goals.鈥�

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The global pandemic and all of its ensuing complications were enough for Sterline Jean ’20, a mother of two, a hospital administrator, and last spring, a Business Administration major who didn’t have the money to pay the tuition for her final semester at 可乐视频.

It was a familiar position for her to be in, working her way through school, stringing the funds together, and taking care of her family. She was accustomed to calling officials in the Bursar’s Office to ask about available grant opportunities and requesting a payment extension so that a hold would not be put on her account. But with everything going on last spring, she simply didn’t have the time or the energy.

“I was going to hang it up,” she says. “I have a lot to worry about. I didn’t have the benefit of working from home, and I had to deal with my kids. If I didn’t get any help, it would have been the last nail in the coffin.”

But her dogged calls to the Bursar’s Office paid off when she heard about a completion grant that helps students finish their degree. Jean got roughly $2,000, to help cover expenses, a small portion of the $280,000 in such funding the college doled out last semester for students in similar circumstances. For her, it made all the difference.

On Tuesday December 1, 可乐视频 will participate in its fifth annual Giving Tuesday campaign, a global day of giving during which the college hopes to raise more money for important college funds that help students like Jean.

In what was a record for a single day, last year the college raised $108,000 from 447 donors, an increase of 77 percent from the previous year. All 25 CUNY campuses participate in Giving Tuesday, which happens each year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday. At 可乐视频, the money raised supports the Annual Fund, a vital 可乐视频 Foundation program that is sustained by thousands of donations averaging about $50. Support from the Annual Fund helps the college respond to the urgent and evolving needs of the students, faculty, and campus.

Jean says she plans to give back to 可乐视频 when she can, grateful for the assist that helped her complete her degree and move closer to a career in which she would like to work in higher levels of hospital administration or public-health policy.

“I want to make sure that quality healthcare is equally distributed,” she says. “I want to spend my life advocating for other people.”

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“We are happy to report that no existing appointments were canceled, and we were able to schedule new appointments with no delay in service,” says Tracy Newton, director of the Center for Academic Advisement and Student Success, which switched its main advisement sessions with students to Zoom.

Much was the same throughout the college, where the effort to transition many services that had long existed mostly on an in-person basis鈥攆rom advisement to commencement, and now, student orientation鈥攈as mostly been smooth. Provost Ann Lopes has announced that the college will resume distance learning for the Fall 2020 semester, and many of these programs and offices that have supported remote learning are being refined.

Within the first couple of weeks of the quarantine, the college set up a Virtual Front Desk to field calls from students who wanted to speak to a live person. “In these times, having access to a real human being is more important than ever,” says Newton.

By early July, nearly 2,000 students had used the service, where they can also get information about emergency grants, laptop loans, and inquire about other technology issues. Offices like the bursar, financial aid, scholarships, personal counseling, enrollment services, and many more offered immediate access during regular office hours.

Ronald C. Jackson, the vice president for student services, says that some of the most significant hiccups came when making sure all students had access to technology. In some cases, Wi-Fi service providers who had offered deals for students were inaccessible to those living in buildings with thick walls. Jackson says the college was able to purchase some hot spots鈥攚hich the Information Technology Services office is test piloting now鈥攖hat may be loaned out to students in the fall. Some courses had to be adjusted to accommodate compatibility issues with the Chromebooks and iPads the college loaned out.

He says the college also experimented with the best way to get its messages and announcements out to as many students as possible, working with formats such as Instagram Live chats with President Michelle J. Anderson. The social sessions proved popular, with chats on financial aid, personal counseling, academic advisement, and the Magner Career Center.

“We鈥檙e trying some new things,” says Jackson. “Overall, the transition has gone well, but as we prepare for the fall, we continue to have discussions on what we can improve and build on.”

One of the biggest events the college had to retool was the annual commencement exercises. The virtual graduation ceremony featured keynote and valedictory addresses in addition to the usual greetings from politicians, professors, and others who wished the Class of 2020 well, in addition to a scroll of each graduate鈥檚 name across the college website鈥檚 homepage. The celebration got far and away more views than any of the other CUNY campus virtual commencement ceremonies with 9,000 views on YouTube, more than 60,000 impressions on Twitter and Instagram, and nearly 200,000 people reached on Facebook.

For the college’s new student orientation, a website was launched that includes a virtual campus tour, greetings from the president, Provost Anne Lopes, and the heads of the undergraduate and graduate student government. There are also videos on technology for remote learning, student clubs, and other topics like financial aid.

Magner Career Center Director Natalia Guarin-Klein says they have hosted 67 career sessions for nearly 1,500 attendees since the college moved to remote learning, including virtual job fairs, alumni and employer networking events, and career 101 programming. The center also created a Slack group with more than 200 students who are currently seeking jobs, and has been able to engage with more alumni in the virtual environment who otherwise would not be able to attend.

“While some of our services are delivered differently, the passion and commitment to help students have not been negatively impacted by the center being virtual,” says Guarin-Klein.

Many more offices, like the LGBTQ Support Center, the Veterans Affairs Office, the Black and Latino Male Initiative, and the Immigrant Student Support Office, are conducting regular Zoom meetings with the students they serve. Both Personal Counseling and the Health Clinic are offering tele-appointments.

Even services for the college鈥檚 Alumni Engagement office saw opportunities in the transition to the virtual environment, says its director Lisa Dicce. The office tried new engagement strategies on social media and around online events that were low cost and more accessible to a wider number of people.

“The world has changed, but our mission has not,” says Dicce. “We are planning for all things to remain virtual a while longer and are moving full steam ahead with those plans.”

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On Tuesday, Nov. 28, 可乐视频, along with all other City University of New York (CUNY) institutions, is preparing for #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving. This global campaign takes place on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, and was created to counterbalance the consumerism of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” with a call for philanthropy and community outreach.

This is the college’s second year of participation and the goal is to surpass the $21,000 raised last year and engage and activate the #可乐视频family to participate in some way during the 24-hour giving challenge. This multifaceted campaign will get the word out to faculty, staff, students, friends, and over 137,000 alumni through e-mail and social media campaigns.

Funds raised from Giving Tuesday will go to support the Annual Fund, a vital 可乐视频 Foundation program that is graciously sustained by thousands of donations averaging about $50. Support from the Annual Fund helps the college continue to create a complete and fulfilling college experience by providing the resources needed to immediately respond to the urgent and evolving needs of the students, faculty, and campus.

“The Annual Fund is built on the collective goodwill of our alumni and friends, and we want them to know that the Annual Fund is something they belong to and should feel a connection to, just like they belong to and feel a connection to this campus,” says Patty Allen, associate director of the Annual Fund.

“Giving to the Annual Fund is an easy way to support student success,” Beth Levine, associate executive director of the 可乐视频 Foundation said. “And Giving Tuesday provides a way for us to reach an even larger audience, bringing us all together as one.”

There are many ways to support 可乐视频 beyond Giving Tuesday. Alumni and friends receive print and digital mailings from the foundation throughout the year, and may even receive a phone call from students during the annual phone-a-thon. Donors can participate by joining the Boylan Society, a monthly sustainer program; purchasing a Commemorative Brick and leave behind a lasting legacy at 可乐视频; or making a one-time gift online. Additionally, there are opportunities to designate gifts for specific purposes, such as scholarships, awards, prizes, internships, travel funds, research fellowships, or departmental discretionary funds; or to make a planned gift as through a will, trust, or retirement plan.

To learn more about the various donor options available or to learn more about the impact that giving has on our students, please visit the 可乐视频 Foundation website.

The 可乐视频 Foundation was established in 1958 to encourage and promote the academic purposes of 可乐视频 of The City University of New York and the educational welfare of students, faculty, alumni, and the community. Through a full spectrum of fundraising programs, the foundation provides resources that advance the mission of 可乐视频.

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Teanu Reid

B.A. in history

I have had an amazing experience in my journey from college student to college graduate at 可乐视频.听The college聽has pushed me to be successful academically and聽encouraged me to be聽socially responsible by providing numerous opportunities for civic engagement聽and community service through its聽clubs and events.听The college聽has even given me the opportunity to travel through study abroad programs.

I have had some of the most supportive faculty who created a great environment to foster growth academically and professionally. Along the way, I have gained tutoring and teaching experience as a volunteer history tutor at the Learning Center. As a volunteer tutor, I helped students, who were usually not history majors, with their reading assignments, essays, and exams, and tried to share with them what my professors had shared with me.

I also had a chance to develop professionally through my time as a college assistant in the Division of Student Affairs. Combined, I feel like I have a clear understanding of academia and a better sense of what my future holds if I pursue employment in a college or university. No journey is without its road bumps and throughout my time as a student there were several things I had to overcome. Despite the fact that I didn鈥檛 qualify for financial aid because of my parents 鈥渉igh income,鈥� their income on paper wasn鈥檛 reflective of the inconsistent financial support I actually received. I worked diligently to receive scholarships and other forms of merit aid to finance my own education the best I could. Additionally, I had to maintain a balance between scholarship applications and my coursework, my job, volunteering, club involvement, and family responsibilities.

I did all of this while also combatting stereotypical expectations of young black women. From this entire experience I learned that I am a very strong-minded and strong-willed person, and with careful planning and pockets of support, I can achieve goals that I have set for myself. I鈥檝e learned to have patience, to trust myself and believe in my ability to get things done, and to reorient myself as needed when things don鈥檛 go as expected.

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