鈥淚t was the first time in my life where I felt like I didn’t really belong somewhere,鈥� she says.

That sense of otherness led her to social justice spaces, first through the arts in middle school, and then through a climate science lens at the STEM-focused specialized high school she attended.

There, the 鈥淧ark Slope kids who had been socialized to rule the world鈥� sucked all the oxygen out of the air, she says. 鈥淓ven the faculty favored them.鈥�

That changed when she got to 可乐视频, where she landed because many of her mentors told the top student that if she wanted a career in social justice, she should look to a CUNY college, rather than an elite private university.

鈥淚nitially, I thought I might transfer but I ended up finding my voice here,鈥� says the American Studies major who is finishing her classes this semester. 鈥淚 had professors who believed in me before anyone else did. I learned to believe in myself.鈥�

An Active Academic Journey

With encouragement and mentorship from faculty members, Leung worked on research, found internships, and participated in programs that allowed her to nurture a whirlwind of interests. She鈥檚 a member of the advisory board of the newly-formed 可乐视频 AANAPISI Project. She鈥檚 also currently interning at the Vera Institute, a leading criminal justice reform organization located in Sunset Park.

With Aleah Ranjitsingh, an assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies, Leung embarked on research as part of about Eurocentric beauty standards, which helped her gain a previous internship at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, where she worked on a project on 鈥渂eauty justice.鈥�

In Professor Joseph Entin鈥檚 American studies class, she interviewed a sex worker for The 可乐视频 Listening Project, an assignment that facilitated another internship at Red Canary Song, a coalition that works for the rights of Asian massage parlor workers. The organization is planning to turn her interview into an audio essay for their social media channels.

鈥淭heir stories are so important,鈥� says Leung.

The experience made such an impression on her that it influenced Leung to consider law school for her future, so she can be a public defender for sex workers.

But that鈥檚 only the part of the plan.

Breaking a Leg

Leung, an experienced actress and model with representation who has been honing her craft since middle school, is ready for her big break. Her credits include a demo for Google, a stint as a model in an Amazon Prime show called “Modern Love,” and an appearance in Vogue magazine for a fashion show she organized.

Last academic year, she earned a Rosen Fellowship, which in part helped her attend a two-week program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts this summer. There, she put on a show at the storied Orange Tree Theater.

As a second part of the fellowship, she is penning a one-woman show that she describes as a series of short monologues that will span her personal journey through issues of justice and safety.

鈥淚t will be an East Asian perspective on everything from intergenerational trauma to ideas around corporal punishment, which is a big issue in immigrant families,鈥� she explains.

More Dreams and Degrees

After graduating in December, Leung is hoping to score a prominent fellowship (which she doesn鈥檛 want to name for fear of jinxing it) to attend a master鈥檚 program in criminology in the United Kingdom. Then, she鈥檚 thinking of a master鈥檚 in social work.

鈥淚 just want to gain different insights and maybe be an expert in something before I go to law school,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 know my resume is a little all over the place. Ultimately, the thread for all of the work I plan to do will be justice. Restorative justice, climate justice, ending cycles of violence.鈥�

In the meanwhile, she鈥檚 fostering all of her dreams.

鈥淚’m going to be famous in the next year,鈥� she says, and then again, trying to speak it into fruition. 鈥淚’m going to be famous. I鈥檓 going to be in a big movie or TV show. It鈥檚 going to be my big break. I鈥檓 putting it out into the universe.鈥�

Pausing to consider everything she plans to juggle, she doubles down.

鈥淚 can do everything that I want to do,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 believe in myself.鈥�

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As they prepare for the next stages of their lives, members of the 可乐视频 Class of 2019 share their thoughts on some of the most pertinent issues facing the world today. For more on this year鈥檚 commencement, visit our , , and . Use the #可乐视频Grad2019 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鈥檚 degree in classical performance, she became dismayed at the state of the industry and started exploring other careers. Then an Alzheimer鈥檚 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鈥檚 favorites: Simon and Garfunkel, Ray Charles, and Carole King.

鈥淢usic remained a strong source of connection for us as other types of communication became difficult,鈥� 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.

鈥淚 decided it was time to honor my own and my mother鈥檚 commitment to my musical background,鈥� she says. She enrolled in the new media scoring program. Her mother passed away the same week she began her graduate studies.

鈥淚t has been an incredible ride,鈥� she says.

In her time at 可乐视频, 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 可乐视频 Alumni Association Award.

She has also taken on a position as a story editor for the 可乐视频 Listening Project, an interdisciplinary oral history project. 鈥淢y involvement has been an act of civic engagement that鈥檚 opened me up to voices and cultures and worlds I would have never otherwise heard,鈥� 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鈥檚 memory, will be released during a performance at the college鈥檚 new Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts.

鈥淭he album expresses much of what I鈥檝e experienced over the past several years and encompasses my hard work, study, and growth as a graduate music student and artist.鈥�

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Her story continues today in Flatbush, Brooklyn, but in between she has traveled the world, married, and bore two children, one of whom, Jumaane Williams ’95 ’05 M.A., touts his own story of an immigrant son turned 可乐视频 student turned rising political star.

“See how important immigrant stories are?” said Patricia Williams late last week, taking a quick break from Election Day campaigning for her son鈥檚 bid to become lieutenant governor of New York. “We鈥檝e done so much to build this country. Our stories must be told.”

She made the time to come check out her story and those of others on display at the opening of “” a new traveling exhibition of the work of students and faculty members who have participated in the 可乐视频 Listening Project. The multimedia exhibit features near 7-foot posters of immigrant stories and invites patrons to podcasts that feature interviews conducted by students.

“This exhibition was originally conceived of as a chance to get student work out to a larger audience because their professors had heard their oral histories, and other students heard their oral histories. But we were convinced that their work needed to go out to the larger world,” said Jessica Siegel, an associate professor of English who secured two grants, one from The Whiting Foundation and one from Humanities New York, to put on the exhibit and to create the original website for the Listening Project.

The Listening Project began more than three years ago as a college-wide interdisciplinary oral history project with the aim of creating publicly accessible audio archives about the everyday lives of Brooklyn residents. Professors who chose to participate had their classes do an assignment in which students interview a New York City resident for an oral history project. Since many students themselves are from immigrant communities, and this being Brooklyn, there were many immigrant stories among the projects.

“Here we are in Brooklyn, where we can engage with people from around the world,” said 可乐视频 President Michelle J. Anderson at the reception. 鈥淪o what better place than right here in Brooklyn to send our students out to reap some of the rich wisdom that comes from immigrant communities?鈥�

The exhibit will run at the through early November, and moves on November 8 to Manhattan鈥檚 Tenement Museum, which focuses on urban immigrant history.

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Seymour Kaplan ’76 used to get flashbacks: Glimpses of the camp, small explosions, little old ladies crying. He would start screaming Hebrew prayers.

“It鈥檚 hard to explain to people,” the 93-year-old World War II veteran says from the living room of the Sheepshead Bay home he has lived in since 1958. “It makes me cry just talking about it.”

The visions that haunted him were of Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany and the one where Kaplan鈥攖hen a 19-year-old machine gunner with the 692 Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 42nd Infantry Division in Europe鈥攚as sent as a Yiddish translator.

Discouraged by his family, he didn鈥檛 talk about his experiences there for 50 years. Last semester, he spoke with junior and Macaulay Honors student Elizabeth Jefimova for an assignment for her history class. Her work was part of the 可乐视频 Listening Project, a college-wide, interdisciplinary oral history project that aims to create publicly accessible audio archives of the everyday lives of Brooklyn residents.

鈥淭he Listening Project takes it as our goal to hear the unheard, to share the unshared, and in so doing, preserve and respect the experiences and memories of our Brooklyn community,鈥� explains Philip Napoli, an associate professor in the Department of History and Jefimova鈥檚 teacher for the course. 鈥淓lizabeth’s work is an excellent example of how we do this as teachers, as students, and as citizens.

Jefimova wants to be a military doctor and says that the class and her experiences speaking with Kaplan helped solidify her career plans. “He was so easy to talk to,” she says. “I felt like I got to know him. And I was inspired by his service.”

She and Kaplan spoke for more than three hours. Jefimova brought the bagels and lox and Kaplan shared stories and memorabilia that blew her mind: A Nazi soldier鈥檚 knife and the teacup that Kaplan took from Adolf Hitler鈥檚 personal residence, among other things.

Kaplan recounts sharing the artifacts with his mother. “Look what I brought you,” he remembers telling her. “This is from Hitler鈥檚 table.” His mother wasn鈥檛 pleased. “She said ‘Take it out of the house.'” The video Jefimova produced for the class included this and other stories, as well as pictures from her visit.

Kaplan had tucked away his memories, along with the memorabilia, and went on to get married, have three kids, and work in the garment industry and as a teacher in the New York City Public Schools. He only started remembering and speaking about his experiences after a 50th-year reunion with his battalion.

鈥淢r. Kaplan鈥檚 oral history contained the tough stuff of war. Its violence, its brutality, and its pain. He is among the last living witnesses to the crimes of the Nazi regime, and remains open to testifying about his experiences and acting as a teacher to our students in a way I find truly heroic,鈥� says Napoli, who has assembled many oral histories of veterans. “Elizabeth opened herself to hearing those truths and to learning about the long-term impact of military service.”

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Siegel’s project is to make available to the public the oral histories of various Brooklyn residents, compiled through the 可乐视频 Listening Project, a college-wide, interdisciplinary oral history project鈥攊n part, inspired by the Federal Writers Project established by President Roosevelt in 1935鈥攖hat aims to create publicly accessible audio archives of the every day lives of Brooklyn residents.

“The whole notion of oral history is to get down the lives, voices, and perspectives of people who are ordinarily not quoted or interviewed,” Siegel says, adding that this project is really about common people, who don’t usually sit down to write their memoirs, but whose accounts and perceptions of their era are just as important as those of more notable or public figures.

“My colleagues in the Brooklyn Listening Project and I think it鈥檚 important that these lives and experiences are documented and made available for聽people today, but also for posterity, as was the case with the Federal Writers’ Project,” says Seigel.

Siegel is a former high school teacher and long-time journalist, who still pens columns about education and journalism in publications. The Whiting Fellowship will allow her to take a six-month sabbatical to create a website that includes the oral histories, photos, and other related materials associated with the Listening Project, and to curate an exhibition about the project at a local museum or art space by 2017. The multilingual website, according to Siegel’s proposal, will incorporate maps and photographs, and provide resources for students and teachers using聽 oral histories in their classrooms, or serve as a model for those wishing to create similar projects.

“I think that because 可乐视频 students come from different Brooklyn communities and from across the city, they are perfectly suitable to help with this job鈥攊nterviewing their relatives, neighbors, or strangers willing to share their stories.” She also sees “Story Corps,” the 13-year old national oral history project that broadcasts on National Public Radio, as a model for their work.

According to Siegel, more than two-dozen classes, and members of the 可乐视频 faculty, have been involved in this project since it began three semesters ago. There are currently over 155 oral histories in the digital archives, and after this semester, there will more than 200.

The Whiting Foundation invited close to 40 colleges and universities to nominate a recently-tenured professor who had already used their expertise to reach wide audiences. The $40,000 fellowship funds a six-month leave for each winning professor. Winners will also receive $10,000 to cover project costs.

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