Yearwood’s appointment comes at a time of continued impact for the organization, which has long been a leader in connecting graduates with the college and with one another. Through reunions, regional gatherings, mentorship initiatives, and volunteer‑driven programs, the ������ƵAA works to strengthen relationships across generations of alumni.

“Alumni are vital to advancing ������Ƶ’s mission,” says ������Ƶ President Michelle J. Anderson. “Their achievements strengthen our reputation, their mentorship supports student success, and their service helps move our strategic goals forward. Leaders like Trina exemplify how alumni extend the College’s values and impact well beyond campus.”

Yearwood describes her vision for the ������ƵAA as both forward‑looking and deeply rooted in the association’s legacy. “My platform is ‘Brooklyn, Always.’ That means centering the ������ƵAA’s purpose with the college’s strategic priorities,” she says. She added that “Brooklyn, Always.” echoes the school’s watchword All In and the alumni community’s role in extending ������Ƶ’s values beyond graduation.

Anthony Castellanos ’85, chair of the ������Ƶ Foundation Board of Trustees, adds: “Trina Yearwood’s leadership reflects the very best of our alumni community. Throughout my career, I have seen how powerful alumni involvement can be in shaping the lives of our students. Her vision and dedication will help ensure that our graduates continue to lift one another up and expand what is possible for our community.”

A ������Ƶ graduate with bachelor’s degrees in English and Africana Studies, she earned an M.Ed. from Cambridge College, an Ed.D. in educational leadership and higher education administration from West Virginia University, and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. An educator and administrator, she has served as an adjunct assistant professor at ������Ƶ since 2011, directed the Teacher Opportunity Corps II, and held associate dean roles at Long Island University and Queens College. She is also the founder of TREAT—Teachers Ready to Educate, Advocate, and Transform—and has served as an advisory member for the Center for SDG Global Education (formerly the UNESCO Center for Global Education’s Advisory Support Council) since 2018.

As she looks ahead, Yearwood returns to the message that continues to guide her leadership.

“It’s the spirit of community, persistence, and discovery—the spirit of Brooklyn. The ������ƵAA is a continuum of that spirit. It’s how we carry those values into our workplaces, how we lead, how we show up for our communities, and ultimately how we show up for our students. ‘Brooklyn, Always.’ is a reminder of our stewardship and what we commit to as members of the ������ƵAA board.”

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As a teen, Daniel Scarpati worked in community theater and hosted a local children’s show. But that wasn’t enough—Scarpati was eager to work in film and television. Once he was accepted to Macaulay Honors College, he leapt at the chance to attend ������Ƶ because of its reputation for its stellar programs in television, radio, and emerging media and film. Scarpati graduated in 2015 and broke into the industry. He currently works as a senior studio technician supporting productions such as Amazon Live and directs documentaries. The recipient of several student awards, he has not forgotten his alma mater or its current students, having returned to campus to give talks about the industry and, significantly, to become a COVID-19 health and safety officer during the pandemic.

Can you tell us about your background?

I proudly come from a family of diverse New Yorkers: My dad is a retired dentist who owned a small family practice in Bensonhurst. My mom is a former Bronx Zoo staffer turned teacher’s assistant. My younger sister attended Queens College (CUNY) and now works upstate at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen. So when I started at ������Ƶ, I was pretty far removed from anything film/TV related. My only background had been performing in community theater productions, hosting an NYC Department of Education kids’ television show, and shooting home movies in my neighbor’s backyard—all of which helped prepare me for the college education I’d be receiving.

What made you choose ������Ƶ?

As soon as I heard the news that I’d been accepted to CUNY Macaulay Honors College, my mind was made up. I chose ������Ƶ as my home campus because of the advanced film and television production tracks. When I toured the campus with my parents while I was in high school, I thought about how the access to professional equipment and the instructors with backgrounds working professionally on set and in the field would accelerate my growth. As a bonus, living in South Queens meant a pretty short commute along the Belt Parkway—or at least that’s what I naïvely thought before experiencing the endless construction along it!

So you knew coming in that you wanted to work in the film and TV industry.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to work in the film/TV industry. I knew that’s where I’d end up before day one of undergraduate school. The exact job I’d be doing was a different story. I considered minoring in computer science as an option, to design software supporting the film/TV industry, but I was sure that wouldn’t be my path when I realized how little I enjoyed staring at lines of code. Instead, I focused on working behind the scenes, operating cameras, lighting, and sound equipment, and directing and managing crew and talent. The truth is, I’m still not sure there’s one title that describes what I do—nor would I want there to be. I enjoy wearing different hats and moving between roles, which has helped me during industry strikes and work slowdowns.

The ������ƵAA Young Alumnus award is not your first award; you received accolades as a student.

As I completed my undergraduate studies, I received a ������ƵAA Student Award, the Senator Martin J. Golden Award for Leadership from the Center for Italian American Studies, and the Outstanding Achievement in Location Sound Recording award at the 2015 ������Ƶ Film Festival. Macaulay Honors College also gave me a Class of 2015 Legacy Award for my efforts to help create new paths for future students to gain experience in the film/TV industry. The nonfiction book I self-published, , became a finalist in a few book contests.

How did you break into your field?

Breaking into film/TV without any connections was not, and still isn’t, easy. Even when someone opens a door for you, it only gets you so far. They may open the door to an opportunity where you have to open yet another door for yourself. I started out cold-calling production companies and working as a PA on all sorts of projects—indie films, episodic shows like The Blacklist�����Ի���Manifest, sitcoms like Kevin Can Wait, and more. I’d always try to work on personal projects in my spare time to keep my creative skills sharp. Lee Quinby, the former ������Ƶ Carol L. Zicklin Honors Academy chair and I have collaborated on many films together. In 2024, we completed our latest feature documentary . Our longtime creative partnership would have never happened had it not been for our time at CUNY together.

What are you working on today?

In addition to my work a senior studio technician on broadcast productions and livestreams, I also work as a freelance video control operator and robotic camera operator. I’m also the director of photography on a few documentary films through my company, Passing Planes Productions LLC.

Have you been back to campus?

One of my new favorite memories is returning to campus to share my book with current students. I wrote Gofers to share the lessons I’d learned on set as a production assistant, aka a “gofer.” Not only have I returned to campus to speak with current students about breaking into the film/TV industry, but I worked in the Film Department as a COVID health and safety officer for three semesters during the pandemic. I was directed by Chair Annette Danto and teamed up with Director of Academic Affairs and Operations Judith Kenny, Distribution Manager Michael Irgang, and fellow graduates to manage safety guidelines and create PPE kits for thesis film students to use on their sets. I was very impressed by the students and their ability to turn a very trying situation into a learning opportunity. It’s not easy to manage safety standards as an undergrad student on your first major production, but they did so with patience, caution, and respect.

What advice would you give to today’s students?

Communication is key! This applies to every industry, every job, every path. If you don’t say what you want, it’s unlikely it will ever happen. If you don’t introduce yourself, you may never make a connection with the person who could open a door for you. And remember that stories take time to unfold—don’t beat yourself up if you’re not where you think you should be. Patience is rewarded when you least expect it.

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A child of a family of Dominican poets, writers, and educators, Luisa Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso ’79 enrolled in ������Ƶ and immediately began connecting with the community of Latino and Black Caribbean students. After graduating with a Sociology and Latin American History Studies degree, Vicioso earned a master’s degree in educational program design from Columbia University and did post-graduate studies in cultural administration at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil. She has worked for over 20 years at the United Nations specializing in women’s issues and education. A promoter of Dominican women poets, Vicioso has supported their work throughout her career. She was appointed as the ambassador for women’s, children’s, and youth affairs for the Foreign Relations Ministry in her native country. In 2012, she was the vice presidential candidate for the Alianza País party. The author of numerous publications, including plays, volumes of poetry, essays, short stories and novels, today, Vicioso is working on a English publication of her novel Sireno (2020) and has begun her next, titled Nuyol, about the first Dominican immigrants to arrive in 1896 New York.

Can you tell us about your background?

I was born into a family of artists. My grandfather was a journalist and poet in charge of the social chronicles of the leading newspaper on the island: The Listin Diario. My father, Tony Vicioso, revolutionized poetry and music on the island. He and my mother Maria Luisa Sanchez led a cultural group that questioned the rigid cannons we had inherited from Spain. My father was also a musician. He played seven instruments, and after he traveled to the U.S. on a scholarship for winning a painting prize, he traveled to the South. He revolutionized Spanish boleros with blues and other southern rhythms.

What decided you on ������Ƶ?

In 1965, President [Lyndon B.] Johnson enacted a law requiring all universities that received federal funding to enroll minorities. ������Ƶ reached out to the Hispanic community, and eight other Dominicans and I were enrolled, with the generous help of Puerto Rican students. We subsequently met with Black students and students from other parts of the Caribbean, which provided us with new knowledge about the region since we thought the Caribbean was only “The Greater Antilles,” which includes Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. We formed the Third World Peoples Alliance, and that is also how I learned about the great thinkers of Jamaica, like Marcus Garvey, Martinique’s Frantz Fanon, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, and leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, among many others. My Caribbean vision expanded.

Did you enter college knowing what career you wanted? 

When I enrolled, I ignored what career to choose. Six months enrolled and I was ready to abandon college for what I felt was the lack of intellectual challenges and debates. At the time, everyone seemed in a hurry to finish their career and get a job. I was bored. But then I met several professors essential for my intellectual development and human values. Of those, Prof. Hobart Spalding taught me to always look for the other side of the story and history. Everything I learned about my own history as a Dominican and Latino woman I owe to him. I consider Professor Huebner the best philosopher I have ever met. He taught me to love the discipline and is only surpassed by Herbert Marcuse and Eric Fromm, whom I met through him. To this day, Eros and Civilization and One Dimensional Man are books that I always recommend. I owe my professors and the university my intellectual development and sense of identity.

There was a time when women’s voices were less prominent in Dominican literature. Could you speak about that?

When I returned to the Dominican Republic all the female poets complained about not being taken seriously and not being able to publish, so I created The Circle for Women Poets so we could promote our own work and that of previous poets ignored or dismissed by the literary establishment. We also highlighted the work of peasant women who had a very particular way of expressing themselves poetically. I wrote the first book of feminist literary criticism influenced by the work of Elaine Showalter called Algo que decir, Something to Declare. The kind of aggression against us from the patriarchy that we received was enormous. So I introduced what I call “Cultural Guerilla Warfare,” which means that when they closed the door to us as poets, we wrote essays; when they closed that door, we wrote theater. I earned the National Prize in Theater Cristobal de Llerena for my first play Wish-ky Sour. It was the first time it was awarded to a woman in the Dominican Republic; that only won me more backlash. But I also learned resilience in the United States, so no small island was going to defeat me or any of the Dominican women poets and writers.

You have been involved in non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations and ran for vice president in the Dominican Republic in 2012.

I worked 22 years at the United Nations and UN.-related NGOs on women issues and education. I also ran for the vice presidency with presidential candidate Guillermo Moreno of the Alianza Pais Party, while working for the Ministry of Foreign Relations as an ambassador for women, children, and adolescent issues. It was quite an experience.

What are you are doing/working on today?

I am working now on launching my novel Sireno and its translation into Portuguese in Brazil. I already launched it in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Jose Saramago Foundation. Hopefully, in July, I will start writing my next novel, Nuyol, about 1896 New York, when the first Dominican immigrants arrived in the U.S.

What advice would you give to today’s students?

I would advise students to be curious, read, and research. Do not take any knowledge or viewpoint for granted. University education will then be exciting and challenging. Not doing so can only contribute to your homogenization and that is a waste of your uniqueness and intelligence.

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“The sacrifices these graduates made and the commitment they showed to complete their degrees were extraordinary,” said ������Ƶ President Michelle J. Anderson. “We are thrilled to be able to hold this commencement for the Classes of 2020 and 2021 on our beautiful campus to share their joy as they continue with this next chapter in their lives.”

The event had a distinct theme—recovery, remaining, and resilience—and several special guests were on hand to deliver that message.

The stars of Commencement were the resilient and dedicated Roby Daniel, the valedictorian for the Class of 2020, and Asma Awad, the valedictorian for the Class of 2021.

Awad, who is working as a software engineer at JPMorgan Chase & Co., offered advice based on her experiences doing something she loves: coding.

“None of us are immune to making mistakes. It’s one thing to be perfect and another to be your best, and I think that the latter says more about someone than the former,” Award said. “Problems come our way on a daily basis, and we probably share more of them than we think. It doesn’t take a code review to open up to different perspectives on a single problem…. I can only hope that when so many of you are undoubtedly in positions to recruit, to promote, or to simply make an impact, that you recognize the importance of representation and what it means for the future.”

Daniel, who is currently studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said while he was proud to deliver his speech online to his fellow graduates in 2020, the in-person event was extra special.

“Class of 2020, I want to remind you that adversity was not new to us, even if it may have taken on a different shape and form,” Daniel said. “We made it through our undergraduate journey and two years of our postgraduate career, all while following ������Ƶ’s motto: nil sine magno labore—nothing without great effort. As we celebrate today, we can proudly say all the hard work has paid off. Our struggle has forged us into the leaders of tomorrow as we have learned a new way to learn, a new way to teach, and, most importantly, a new way to succeed.”

Serving as keynote speaker was actor, producer, writer, and prolific podcaster ’01, who serves on the board of directors of the ������Ƶ Alumni Association and was also a former adjunct lecturer. Now the executive producer and host of the 2021 Webby Award–nominated podcast Latinos Out Loud, she is one of seven selected writers for the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s 2021 LatinX Stream Showcase, where her short film The Swimmers premiered. It was also featured in the 2021 Official Latino Film Festival. Her one-woman show, Ink, was a featured selection in the 2021 ONE Festival.

Strauss-Muniz brought energy and humor to the event, expressing her deep love for both Brooklyn and ������Ƶ. Comparing the pivots she has made during her eclectic career—particularly during the pandemic—that spanned working in media, marketing, and entertainment, she lauded the more than 9,000 total ������Ƶ graduates of the two classes who also had to pivot to earn their degrees.

“You had a choice to plummet or pivot and you did it. You all rose to the occasion. We all made the decision to shift, adapt, and overcome,” Muniz said. “That ability to shift and still operate will serve you sell as you pursue your ambitions.” Commencement also featured CEO and President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce ’96 as another special guest speaker. From 2002 to 2006, Peers served as vice president of economic development at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce under former President Kenneth Adams, developing a portfolio of projects, including the Good Help program and Real Estate Development industry initiative, as well as developing the concept for the Business Solutions Center.

Peers told the graduates that, as a Brooklyn native who had to work and take classes, he related and respected the difficult journey the classes of 2020 and 2021 had made.

Comparing his work on the city-wide program he helped create to assist 3,000 businesses citywide and 11,000 businesses in Brooklyn over the past difficult few years that leaned on being adaptive and creative, he also marveled at the work that was done by both graduating classes.

“Nothing I experienced at ������Ƶ matches what you went through during your two years navigating the pandemic,” Peers said. “No matter how you were impacted or how you pivoted, here you are.… You should be congratulated for your own resiliency.… Never forget the life lessons this challenge has taught you.”

The commencement was led by President Anderson, Vice President for Student Affairs Ronald C. Jackson, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Anne Lopes, and other college faculty and staff. The CUNY extended family was also in attendance, including Denise B. Maybank ’78, CUNY Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

Jackson congratulated the graduates of both classes, emphasizing that they earned a combined 6,793 bachelor’s and 2,231 master’s degrees, along with 137 students who received advance certificates.

New York State Senator Kevin S. Parker was also in attendance, and a video greeting from Jumaane Williams ’01, ’05 M.A. was shared.

Williams called ������Ƶ a “special place,” telling the classes of 2020 and 2021: “Your success comes after your hard work, your sacrifice, and your ability to overcome challenges of the two years and throughout your education… You’re not the leaders of tomorrow, you are the leaders of today, and we are going to need you.”

Stating the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education she earned from ������Ƶ has drawn as much attention and has held as much weight as a degree earned Ivy League institutions, Vice Chancellor Maybank said: “I got an education for a lifetime from the School of Education at ������Ƶ… Know that you are the difference the world needs as such a time as this.”

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Civil rights activist Tarana Burke gave the keynote address and accepted an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, presented by ������Ƶ President Michelle J. Anderson at the 2019 Commencement Ceremony, held at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn May 30. The founder of the #MeToo movement emphasized the need for people to create movements based on working collectively.

“There is an expectation that you will leverage the privilege that the degrees you received today afford you toward the edification and empowerment of your folks,” said Burke. “You should not only be using it for your individual success but it should be used toward the liberation of folks who look like you and live like you and love you. Movements aren’t built by just trained activists and professional organizers. They are built by everyday people with made up minds that they can change and will affect change. We need to build our communities collectively and make the challenges our own. We all have a role to play. Everyone won’t be on the front line, but we all can help not just hold the line, but move it forward.”

A 2017 Time magazine Person of the Year, Burke is also the founder of the nonprofit organization Just Be, Inc. and has been dedicated to helping vulnerable communities put an end to socioeconomic injustice and sexual violence for decades. In 2006, Burke began using the phrase “me too” to draw attention to the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in a society that often ignores or penalizes survivors of such crimes, and to assure these survivors that they were not alone and could find healing in safer spaces in the community. In 2014, Burke was a consultant for Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay’s 2014 hit Hollywood film, Selma, based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis.

“Be bold, be visible, be brave, be authentic, be you,” Burke said in conclusion. “Every version of you is important and needed for us to win.”

The Class of 2019 was one of the largest in the borough, with more than 4,300 graduates—3,097 baccalaureate, 1,183 master’s, and 61 Advanced Certificate students. The very diverse body of scholars comes from more than 125 countries and speak more than 80 languages. Approximately 98 members of the class identify as disabled, and 53 students are veterans or currently enlisted in the U.S. military. President Anderson highlighted the college’s diversity as its great strength, enhancing the academic experience for everyone.

“Our graduating students here today are prepared to go out into the world and assume challenging positions of leadership,” said Anderson, “not only because they are the beneficiaries of a great education but also the tutelage of excellent professors and they have benefited from the diversity of our student body, which makes them interculturally competent and conversant across difference.”

This year’s recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actor and activist Jimmy Smits ’80, spoke of today’s challenging times requiring fresh new ideas. “The country is entrusting you with a giant ball of issues to help unravel. It is your turn, not just to turn the tassels. As college graduates, you are an essential part of the change that is already taking place in the vanguard of our future. Your presence here today erases apathy and ignorance with leadership and knowledge for the betterment of our community, our nation and our world,” said Smits.

With a stellar career that spans more than three decades, Smits has starred in some of the most popular films, plays, and television shows in history, including films in the Star Wars franchise, Anna in the Tropics, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, and Sons of Anarchy. At ������Ƶ, he performed in a number of plays, including Of Mice and Men, Othello, and Everyman. Smits’ first big network television role was in 1984 on the hit N������Ƶ series Miami Vice. His big-screen debut came two years later in the Gregory Hines/Billy Crystal film Running Scared. Soon after, Smits landed a starring role on the hit N������Ƶ show L.A. Law, for which he received seven Emmy Award nominations, winning in 1990 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

“If I were given the ability today to instill one thing in you, it would be perseverance—fall down, feel the fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and you try again,” said Smits. “You give everything your best shot, and once you have, you live with the results. The thing that I hope the most for all of you is something easily achieved: Be good people. Be decent and helpful, and think of others before you think of yourself because the rewards that will come back to you will be limitless.”

The valedictorian of the Class of 2019, Salvatore Casto, spoke of a solution to a better tomorrow: “A study from the Pew Research Center finds that this current generation promises to be the most diverse in history along with having higher percentages of college graduates than ever before. The political pressures placed upon this graduating class are immense. The power and diversity we share must be used to systematically change how we perceive and accept differences. And we do so by engaging. Witnessing. Creating. Deconstructing. Listening. And, instead of ignoring, embracing.”

Other distinguished guests included Senator Chuck Schumer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, members of the ������Ƶ 50th Anniversary Class of 1969, the ������Ƶ Foundation Board of Trustees, and the ������Ƶ Alumni Association.

For more on ������Ƶ’s 2019 Commencement Ceremony, follow the hashtag #������ƵGrad2019 on , , and .

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As they prepare for the next stages of their lives, members of the ������Ƶ Class of 2019 share their thoughts on some of the most pertinent issues facing the world today. For more on this year’s commencement, visit our , , and . Use the #������ƵGrad2019 hashtag to join the conversation.

Leah Shaw came to the M.F.A.in media scoring program at the Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema after almost walking away from her musicianship altogether. She says that in 2007 after she received her bachelor’s degree in classical performance, she became dismayed at the state of the industry and started exploring other careers. Then an Alzheimer’s diagnosis for her mother pushed Shaw to move back home to North Carolina to take care of her. She picked up her guitar and started singing her mother’s favorites: Simon and Garfunkel, Ray Charles, and Carole King.

“Music remained a strong source of connection for us as other types of communication became difficult,” says Shaw.

It was at this time that she began writing her own music as a way of processing her emotions, but was frustrated with her lack of familiarity with the technology of music production.

“I decided it was time to honor my own and my mother’s commitment to my musical background,” she says. She enrolled in the new media scoring program. Her mother passed away the same week she began her graduate studies.

“It has been an incredible ride,” she says.

In her time at ������Ƶ, Shaw has been an ASCAP Columbia Composers Spotlight Participant, has won the Made in New York Scholarship, the Hildegard Award for Excellence in Composition, the Bernard Hermann Award for Excellence in Film Scoring, and a ������Ƶ Alumni Association Award.

She has also taken on a position as a story editor for the ������Ƶ Listening Project, an interdisciplinary oral history project. “My involvement has been an act of civic engagement that’s opened me up to voices and cultures and worlds I would have never otherwise heard,” she says.

As she prepares for graduation, she says she is proud of all her accomplishments here, not the least of which comes later this month: Her first full-length album, which is dedicated to her mother’s memory, will be released during a performance at the college’s new Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts.

“The album expresses much of what I’ve experienced over the past several years and encompasses my hard work, study, and growth as a graduate music student and artist.”

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From the time she attended grammar school in Brooklyn, Bernice Sandler ’48 knew there was something patently unfair about how boys and girls were treated in the classroom.

“We got a slide projector, which was the height of technical advances in schools using equipment,” she said in a 2016 interview for the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. “Only boys got to run it. Only boys could use this long pole to open the windows. There was no word for sexism and sex discrimination. Boys could be crossing guards and I could not be a crossing guard because I was female. For a while I was a runner and I went to the store to buy something, and I saw the orange sash that the crossing guards wore and I bought one for myself so I could be more visible, but really it was to make up for not being allowed to be a crossing guard.”

It was this refusal to accept the idea that the way things were would be the way they’d always be that spurred Sandler—who passed away in January at the age of 90—to become the “Godmother of Title IX,” the 1972 law that banned sex discrimination in any federally funded educational institution. “It was the most important piece of legislation since women got the right to vote in 1920,” Sandler would later say of the law.

Born on March 3, 1928, Bernice Resnick and her older sister Rhoda were raised in Brooklyn, where they also attended school. Her parents Abraham Hyman Resnick and Ida (née Ernst) Resnick owned a women’s clothing store in New Jersey.

Sidebar: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

— Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972

It was at the all-girls summer camp that young Bernice—nicknamed Bunny—got her first real taste of leadership, serving for many years on the camp council. But she didn’t see herself as a leader, “until I started doing things and people identified me as a leader,” she said in a 2006 interview for Minnesota State University. “Sometimes your self-image is behind what you are actually doing and it sort of follows you like a shadow, and it takes a while until it catches up with you.”

After graduating from Erasmus High School, Bernice Resnick attended ������Ƶ, earning a bachelor of science in psychology in 1948, and a masters in the same field from The City College of New York, CUNY. In 1952 she married Jerrold Sandler. The couple had two children, Deborah and Emily. The marriage later ended in divorce.

Sandler completed a doctorate in counseling at the University of Maryland in 1969 with every expectation of becoming a tenure-track faculty member there. Her plans were shattered when she was not considered for any of the seven available positions in her department. In a moment of candor, a male friend and fellow student her told that she would never be hired because she was “too strong for a woman.”

To find out what legal rights she and other women in education had, Sandler began to research civil rights laws in the United States. What she found, to her great surprise, was that sex discrimination—a term that only officially entered the language in the mid-1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—was legal in educational institutions. While researching, Sandler read a report on the enforcement of civil rights legislation and saw a footnote that would change everything. It stated that an executive order by President Lyndon Johnson banning federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin, had been amended to include sex discrimination.

Sidebar: On Overcoming Stereotypes

When I’m looking at issues or thinking about ideas I very often say, “how will this affect other people who are not like me? How would it affect immigrant women, how would it affect people of color, how would it affect people who are disabled in some form?” I try to think about this, but I have to tell you it’s very easy to develop stereotypes. You have to think about one’s own stereotypes and what they mean and then [ask] how do you get rid of them.

— Bernice Sandler ’48

“I was alone at home and it was a genuine ‘Eureka’ moment,” Sandler wrote in a 2007 article for the Cleveland State Law Review. “I actually shrieked aloud for I immediately realized that many universities and colleges had federal contracts, were therefore subject to the sex discrimination provisions of the Executive Order, and that the Order could be used to fight sex discrimination on American campuses.”

Sandler joined the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) in 1969, and as the only member of the league’s Federal Action Contract Compliance Committee, filed 250 administrative charges of sex discrimination against educational institutions under Johnson’s executive order.

“The biggest risk I took was when I started filing charges of discrimination against colleges and universities,” she said in the St. Francis interview. “I knew that by filing I would never get to teach. I also knew that I wasn’t getting anywhere because of discrimination.”

A letter writing campaign by victims of sex discrimination caused so much mail to pour into Washington D.C., that extra staff had to be hired to handle it. As a result of Sandler’s work with Democratic Party legislators Rep. Edith Green of Oregon, Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii (the first woman of color to serve in Congress), and Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana, who organized congressional hearings and got the bill passed, Title IX of the Education Amendments was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on June 23, 1972.

When Title IX passed, no one, not even the creators of the law, could completely envision the law’s far-reaching effects, including the dramatic change to women’s sports in schools .

Sandler went on to become the first chair of the now defunct National Advisory Council on Women’s Educational Programs, appointed by both presidents Ford and Carter. She wrote several books and numerous articles on the topics of sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and rape at educational institutions, and was a senior scholar at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as an adjunct associate professor at Drexel University College of Medicine.

In 2011, Sandler was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters at ������Ƶ’s commencement ceremony. In 2013, she received a Post 50th Lifetime Achievement Award from the ������Ƶ Alumni Association. That same year, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame “as a tireless advocate of educational equality for women and girls.”

Of that decades-long advocacy, Sandler said it began with that first rejection when she was told she came on too strong for a woman. “I went home and I cried,” she said in a 2012 interview for the Montgomery County Maryland Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted that year. “It took me a while to realize [sex discrimination] was what it was, and then I got mad. . . . And then I became inspired.”

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The Class of 2018 was one of the largest in the borough, with more than 4,100 graduates–3,035 baccalaureate, 1,029 master’s, and 67 Advanced Certificate students. The very diverse body of scholars come from more than 125 countries and speak over 85 languages. Approximately 88 members of the class identify as disabled, and 37 students are veterans or currently enlisted in the U.S. military.

Introduced as a hero and a legend by CUNY Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Christopher Rosa, disability right activist Judith E. Heumann gave the keynote address and accepted an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, presented by President Anderson. Known as the “mother of the independent living disability rights movement,” Heumann’s work has had a significant impact on the implementation of legislation and policies that benefit and protect people with disabilities.

“Without ever planning to, my parents, who had come from Germany and had lost so many family members in the Holocaust, taught me the value of advocacy,” Heumann shared. “They taught me that if a situation feels wrong, it probably is wrong. They taught me about the need to join with allies to speak up and, especially, to speak up for equality and rights in the face of discrimination and injustice. Eventually, the time came when I needed to become my own advocate. Some of you would say, ‘stand up on your own.’ I would say, ‘sit up in my own wheelchair.'”

Born in 1947, Heumann grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were German Jewish refugees who came to the United States in the 1930s. In 1949, Heumann contracted polio, resulting in her being a quadriplegic and using a wheelchair for mobility. The New York City Board of Education deemed it sufficient to provide Heumann with only 2.5 hours a week of home education until the fourth grade, at which time she was allowed to go to P.S. 219 special education classes. Heumann’s mother and other mothers banded together to force New York City’s Department of Education to make some of their high schools accessible.

Commencement Webcast

In 1970, Heumann became the first public school teacher in the New York City system to use a wheelchair. During the Clinton presidency, Heumann served as assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the Department of Education. She then served as the World Bank’s first adviser on disability and development, and was also the director for the Department on Disability Services for the District of Columbia. In the Obama administration, she was appointed as the very first special advisor for International Disability Rights in the U.S. State Department from 2010¬2017. She continues to advocate on behalf of disabled people globally, participating in protests and giving lectures, including a popular TED Talk titled “Our Fight for Disability Rights and Why We’re Not Done Yet.” Recently, she was the featured subject of Comedy Central’s very popular web series, Drunk History.

“Here’s this immigrant from the West Indies, who has lived his dream of working in the NBA for 24 years, and talking to these stars, all these stars, the future leaders of this country. This is what makes America great,” said NY Knicks Head Athletic Trainer Roger Hinds ’77, this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Quoting Norman Vincent Peale, he continued, “‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.’ I’m in the midst of stars. Chase your dreams, graduates.”

Hinds been an athletic trainer for some of the most well-known athletes in basketball. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Hinds moved to Brooklyn with his parents and five siblings at age eight. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physical education from ������Ƶ in 1977.

Hinds was the strength-and-conditioning coach for the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic Team at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He is the contributing author of two books: Condition the NBA Way (Cadell & Davies 1994) and Total Fitness the NBA Way (Perennial Currents 2000). Currently in his 24th NBA season, Hinds spent four seasons as assistant athletic trainer and strength-and-conditioning coach, for the Atlanta Hawks; eight years as the head athletic trainer for the Dallas Mavericks; and also served as host athletic trainer for the East squad at the 2015 NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden. He is entering his 14th season as head athletic trainer for the Knicks. Hinds is just the sixth head trainer in the franchise’s 70-year history, joining Jim Nevins, Don Friederichs, Bill Norris, Danny Whelan, and Mike Saunders.

Hinds is also an active ������Ƶ alumnus. Since 2016, through an alliance with the Magner Career Center, he has taken time to guide current ������Ƶ students as well as high-school seniors in the ������Ƶ Academy, and provide them with the benefit of his industry expertise through class visits, panel discussions, and career mentorship.

The valedictorian of the Class of 2018, William E. Macaulay Honors College Scholar and English education major Margaret Iuni, inspired the audience by sharing a hopeful philosophy and challenging to audience to reach for the highest of common goals.

“We are more likely to believe that our individual success is determined by our own hard work than citizens of nearly any other country in the world,” she said. “The narrative of individual achievement without the assistance of others is a fiction that persists in American culture. We cannot and will not succeed without one another.”

She continued: “Together we can be fearless, we can be confident, and we can learn. We can create communities that foster individual growth without forfeiting our need for human connection. We can take the meaningful relationships we have forged over the years we have spent at ������Ƶ and help redesign our world to be a more unified and filial one. Remember the words of the American poet, author, and teacher Gwendolyn Brooks: ‘We are each other’s harvest; we are each others’ business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.'”

The theme of inclusiveness and triumph continued throughout the day.

“My first bit of activism on the ������Ƶ campus was a small organization called S.O.F.E.D.U.P., having Tourette’s syndrome that meant a lot to me. So thank you for your work,” said New York City Council Member Jumaane D. Williams ’01, ’05 M.A. “Some of my proudest achievements are my ������Ƶ degrees. This is the best education I could have gotten. The education I got inside and outside the classroom was simply amazing.”

Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams shared: “They told me I could not be a captain in the police department; I became a captain. They told me I couldn’t be a state senator; I became a state senator. They told me I couldn’t be the first person of color borough president; I became borough president. In three years they say I can’t be the mayor; I will be the mayor. There are only two types of Americans: those who live in Brooklyn and those who wish they could.”

During the conferral of degrees, ������Ƶ Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs William A. Tramontano called for a moment of silence to honor Jean Rovenel Joseph. Joseph, who majored in kinesiology and was anticipating graduating with his fellow students in the Class of 2018, passed away suddenly last week, stunning and saddening the entire campus community. His bachelor’s degree will be awarded posthumously.

Other distinguished guests and speakers included outgoing CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, and members of the ������Ƶ 50th Anniversary Class of 1968, ������Ƶ Foundation Board of Trustees, and ������Ƶ Alumni Association.

Additionally, 106-year-old Ethel Lagarenne Hagquist ’32, the sole surviving member of ������Ƶ’s very first graduating class, for the newest members of the ������Ƶ alumni family, providing keen advice and well wishes for the future.

For more on ������Ƶ’s 2018 Commencement Ceremony, follow the hashtag #������ƵGrad2018 on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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“The ������Ƶ community is saddened to learn of the passing of Gloria Naylor,” said President Michelle J. Anderson. “Naylor was a critically acclaimed author whose work illustrated many dimensions of the African American experience through compelling and relevant characters. Naylor’s exceptional work enriched the American literary canon.”

Naylor was a standout student during her time at ������Ƶ. She earned the Presidential Scholarship, served as treasurer of the student government, and graduated summa cum laude. She penned her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place (Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series, 1982), while still an undergraduate English major.

Former English professor Rick Pearse helped advise Naylor, who wrote the book during an independent studies class.

“The untimely passing of Naylor was a shock to all of us who knew her,” said Pearse. “As one who worked with her on The Women of Brewster Place, I came to have great respect for her talent and dedication, and to value her as a person. Our loss of her is a sad event.”

Brewster Place would go on to critical acclaim, winning both the American Book Award and the National Book Award for First Novel in 1983. It was later turned into a mini series by Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions in 1989. Her career was notable for a number of other acclaimed novels, including Mama Day (Vintage, 1989) and Bailey’s Cafe (Vintage, 1993). She also wrote non-fiction for magazines and journals.

She earned a master’s degree in Afro-American studies at Yale University and received prestigious fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Naylor taught at a number of universities in the United States and abroad, including George Washington, New York, Boston and Princeton universities, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Kent in England.

In 1989, she established the McAlpin-Naylor Book Fund to support the in strengthening its collections in Africana studies and Caribbean studies.

������Ƶ awarded Naylor the Presidential Medal at its 1993 commencement ceremony in recognition of her literary excellence, her commitment to education, and her support for the college. She also received a 2002 Distinguished Achievement Award from the ������Ƶ Alumni Association.

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