Tell us a bit about your childhood.

I had a terrific—if somewhat sheltered—childhood. I grew up on East 38th Street between Avenues I and J. My parents were immigrants from Jamaica. We first lived in an apartment on Ocean Avenue. Then one Sunday after church, my parents showed us a house across from Amersfort Park between East 38th and East 39th off Avenue I. They told us that it would be our home. As a child, I played many baseball games and participated in countless foot races in that park. It’s about a mile from ������Ƶ.

How did you decide to study at ������Ƶ?

I was originally going to the School of Visual Arts (SVA). In high school, I was immersed in photography. It afforded me a certain proximity to my dad, who loved the craft. He left his own aspirations in the field when he departed from Jamaica, but he built a darkroom for me in our basement. Still, on some level, it didn’t feel practical for the son of immigrants to become a photographer instead of a doctor or lawyer or engineer. Unfortunately, I had already been admitted to SVA and was at a loss as to what to do next. ������Ƶ had rolling admission, so that summer I applied and enrolled that fall. The more aspirational reason I ended up at ������Ƶ is that it was highly regarded in my neighborhood. My aunt had taken some classes there, so there was something familiar and welcoming about it.

So, you made a sudden switch from art school to a liberal arts college. Did you know what you wanted to major in?

Once I decided on ������Ƶ and saw the language offerings, Ancient Greek was a no-brainer. Growing up in a religious household, I often heard our pastor reference the Greek New Testament. In our adolescent searches for meaning, we all still turn to the familiar, even when it extends a bit out of our comfort zone. I took Ancient Greek from my first semester. After taking Core 1, I ended up being a peer tutor for the class, which gave me an early taste of what it would be like to be a teacher.

Then you took Professor Gail T. Smith’s Core 1 class, Classical Origins of Western Civilization.

The arc of my professional career started with the late Professor Smith and Dean Kathleen Gover. Most of the professors in the Classics Department mentored me in some way or another. The late Howard Wolman, who taught my beginning Greek classes, had students over to his house frequently, and he invited us to the theater and other cultural events in the city. [Professor Emerita] Dee Clayman let me work on a major classics bibliography that she was digitizing at the time, the L’Année philologique. And [Professor Emeritus] Edward Harris was an eminent scholar of Greek law who was my mentor for an honor’s program thesis.

At the time I did not realize how unique it was to have not only an African-American classicist in Professor Smith as a teacher, but also Mervyn Keizer, who was also Afro-descended, also on the faculty, and someone I greatly admired. By the time I entered graduate school at Yale, I began to feel isolated—I was the only Black person in the classics program.

How did you overcome that isolation?

The late Greek historian Donald Kagan, also a ������Ƶ alumnus and director of graduate studies at Yale, helped by showing me what a classicist could be.

I also addressed the isolation by reading the works of other African Americans who drew from the classics. I had always wanted to read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in college. I finally delved into the novel early in my career, and it blew my mind. My first book, Ulysses in Black, explores how Ellison and other authors, like Toni Morrison, drew from classical myth and literature. Ulysses in Black set me on a path to seeing the classics as ubiquitous tools for understanding our world, even if these tools are hidden in plain sight.

Still, the classics carry a reputation of being an esoteric subject. How do you make them accessible and relevant to your students?

For many students, the classics are already relevant. A meme was going around recently on TikTok about how often men think about the Roman Empire. This was so much a part of popular culture that the actor Jason Momoa had a skit on Saturday Night Live drawing from the meme. The issue is that the classics do not feel relevant to certain students. Or, perhaps “we”— the majority culture, even some teachers—do not believe those students belong or will be drawn to the subject matter. Figures like Toni Morrison dispel the myth.

You are a Black classicist, but what is Black classicism?

“Black classicism” is a term that the scholar Michele Valerie Ronnick coined to characterize the indelible role that education in Greek and Latin has always played in the lives of Black Americans from the very foundation of the country. African Americans studying the European classics is odd only in our contemporary context, where few people, even from the broader population, know the history, literature, or mythology of Greece and Rome. In the time of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the African poet Phillis Wheatley learned Latin and subtly instructed her enslavers in individual and collective freedom. Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass read Greek and Roman rhetoric in translation, and they certainly influenced his legendary oratorical style. By the mid-to 20th century, not all readers would have expected African-American authors like Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison to be steeped in the classics. Still, these authors left many traces of their classical learning—whether self-taught or otherwise—on the page. I believe Professor Ronnick was drawing on wider studies in the field, like Meyer Reinhold’s Classica Americana, to name a subset (“black classicism”) of the longstanding affinity for the classics within the United States.

Afro-futurism has come into its own as a field of study and as a literary genre. Do you see any connections between Afro-futurism and the classics?

There is absolutely a connection. I’m slowly making my way through John Szwed’s biography of Sun Ra (Herman Poole Blount), the jazz musician widely regarded as one of the founders of Afro-futurism. I have been struck by Sun Ra’s hearkening to the past, to ancient Egypt, in his futurism. Through the connection to Egypt and their Nubian predecessors, Sun Ra conceived of a once-and-soon-to-be great people. He moved Blackness from the real identity around him to a crafted one that drew from the past and was somehow out of time. I am extremely interested in this connection and the deeper and broader question of why people study the past in the first place. I am not a historian, but the past is also an imagined space where we rewrite the present.

We’ve seen classics scholars like you go on to work in fields outside of academia. What are some of the other practical applications of the field?

Classicists are everywhere. I spent over a decade and a half as a higher education administrator, and some of the most successful administrators I have met have been classicists. The field comprises many disciplines, including the study of languages, material culture in art and archaeology, and increasingly, scientific study that includes understanding of DNA and ancient DNA. As such, it teaches complexity, problem-solving, and focus, to name only a few skills. Classicists make good lawyers, doctors, and most importantly, good citizens. I wish more of our elected officials had a foundation in civics and the study of democracy.

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After you earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in industrial and organizational psychology—personnel and human resources, what happened next?

Let’s start with my academic career. I had the great opportunity to participate in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. That’s a fellowship that predominantly helps people get into Ph.D. programs. The program encourages you to leave your comfort zone. I was 100% certain I was going to stay with clinical psychology. I did research at Macalester College as to why people of Asian descent often do not seek mental health treatment. I liked it but did not see myself doing clinical psychology for the rest of my life.

I took a gap year after graduation and felt like I was back to square one. I’ve always been interested in business and working with people. I knew I had to find a discipline that included both interests, with a grounding in psychology. That’s how I ended up going for I/O psychology with a specialization in human resources. ������Ƶ has a wonderful program that brought all my interests together in one.

Can you tell us about your role at the Magner Career Center?

I was the assistant director of career and employment engagement and the liaison for the Koppelman School of Business to employers and career partners. Aon, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, and PWC were the top five partners I worked with.

I loved being part of the process of economic mobility. My greatest joy was seeing where the students started their journey and watching them grow in confidence, shaped not only by the center’s services but also by the employers and professionals they were matched with. It was satisfying to see students gain access to internships and jobs and be exposed to different fields of study and careers.

And it was exciting to see the companies we worked with understand and embrace the talent at ������Ƶ, for the career partners to say, “Okay, let’s work on getting curriculum in place, or tuition reimbursement for students so they can take winter courses.” And, of course, I loved working with my colleagues at Magner. We needed a lot of teamwork to get things accomplished. I was excited to get up and go to work in the morning.

Recently you took a new position at Deloitte.

I’m a campus recruiting specialist for the audit team at Deloitte; it’s been amazing. Deloitte is an incredible organization to work for—seeing how they value clients and employees, and how they move the needle for initiatives they want to support.

I work with stakeholders, professionals, potential candidates for employment ensuring they’re as comfortable as possible and giving them full support in their work. There are a lot of transferable skills I used at the Career Center that I have brought to my new job. I saw someone at Deloitte whom I coached when I was at Magner. We stopped in the hall, and he told my colleague, “You don’t understand. This is my coach, she’s why I’m here!”

What do you like to do outside of work?

I make jewelry, I like to paint, and I like to try new recipes. The pandemic had me making my own applesauce and peanut butter and jelly. I’m a huge gamer. I like to play video games. Most important for me is my spirituality and relationship with God. My priority has been to help people in whatever way I can. I am helping people envision and build their careers. That’s my ministry.

What is something that you liked to tell graduating students?

My advice was more of an answer to a question. Students would ask, “How can I thank you?” I would say come back to ������Ƶ and become a guest speaker or mentor. I am honoring my word and plan to return to campus as early as this fall to recruit for internships and full-time positions. There is a Mentor Day scheduled for November, and I fully intend to participate.

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“By the time I realized I wanted to study African history and African-American history,” says Cummings, “I was already a senior at FIT [Fashion Institute of Technology], and I just couldn’t take school anymore.” She graduated with a fashion degree but promised herself she would come back to the study of history. And so more than two decades later, when Cummings felt “burnt out” from a career in the fashion industry, she enrolled at ������Ƶ.

“������Ƶ was the only CUNY school that had an department at the time. Every other school had only programs. I wanted to be embedded in a department.”

“Sherri took my undergraduate African history survey class,” recalls Professor Lynda Day, “and after the first day, maybe the second, I said, ‘Oh my goodness. This student is brilliant!’”

When Day challenged her students to consider becoming professional scholars, the idea immediately resonated with Cummings, for whom a future in academia started to seem possible. “Since then,” says Cummings, “Lynda Day’s guidance and mentorship have been instrumental to my growth as a scholar.”

A crucial part of this guidance came in the context of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF), an upper-division honors program for which Day became Cummings’ thesis adviser, guiding her research on “Palm Trees and Cement Dreams: The Migration of Caribbean Women From the British West Indies to New York City, 1900–1950.”

“History Professor K.C. Johnson taught the honors thesis course, guided my research and accompanied me to NCUR (National Council of Undergraduate Research Conference) at the University of Kentucky where I presented my thesis,” says Cummings.

The MMUF was created to attract highly qualified minority students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in specific fields.

“What the Mellon Mays program does is not just give students the opportunity to academically succeed, but also shows them what a career in academia can look like,” says Dean Rosamond S. King, who was the director of the program while Cummings was in it. King, an early fellow herself, credits the mentoring she received through the program when she was an undergraduate at Cornell University as why she pursued a doctorate.

“Professor King always exposed us to other scholars who were in graduate school and talked to us about the graduate school process as well as everyday life,” says Cummings.

Cummings primarily studies the Atlantic World—the term scholars use to describe the complex system of cultural contacts and economic connections linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries—and the intertwined concept of the Black Atlantic, “which means I centralize Africa and then go outwards,” she says. When she earned her history Ph.D. from Brown University in 2022, with a dissertation titled “In Search of Equiano’s Sister: Girlhood and Slavery in the Early Modern British Atlantic,” Cummings was co-recipient of the department’s Distinguished Dissertation Prize.

After completing her Ph.D., Cummings accepted a joint position as professor of history and Africana studies at Rhode Island College, in Providence, and historian and director of community engagement for the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. In this dual capacity, Cummings spends part of her time teaching and part working with the society’s archive, which she says has been under wraps for more than 20 years.

Cummings is excited to be working with the society’s trove of archival documents, always with the idea that the story they tell belongs to the people. “I love when I am challenged with bringing students or the broader, the wider community in to see what we have and to tell them, ‘Hey, this is your history. We should not keep it behind closed doors.’”

Applications for qualified students for the fellowship are being accepted on a rolling basis, with interviews conducted in March and April. Contact Professor Lynda Day, coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, or the MMUF for more information.

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“Thanks to the generosity of The Tow Foundation, the college will be able to provide students with life-changing mentors who will expand their sense of what is possible to achieve,” ������Ƶ President Michelle J. Anderson said. “Faculty mentors and mentors-in-residence will connect deeply with students, providing them with academic opportunities, opening doors, and enriching their lives. We want to build a commitment to mentorship into the college’s DNA so that excellent mentorship defines the ������Ƶ experience.”

Leonard Tow ’50, founder and chairman of The Tow Foundation, himself knows first-hand how mentorship can transform lives. Tow, who also serves on the Board of Trustees of the ������Ƶ Foundation, recently spoke of his experiences as a student at the College’s 2022 Commencement, where he received the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Pointing to the “gifts” he received at his alma mater, Tow recalled a powerful relationship he developed with his economics professor, Martha Steffy Browne.

“Steffy Browne, an immigrant herself, took me under her wing and introduced me to a life I never knew existed and pushed me to pursue my dreams,” Tow said. “It set me off through graduate school where she was guiding me every step of the way. Giving back does not have to always involve material things,” Tow added. “There are a lot of ways to change lives, including offering your time, guidance, and mentorship.”

A number of programs already constitute a rich mentoring ecosystem at ������Ƶ, including the Mellon Undergraduate Transfer Student Program (MTSRP), which supports transfer students in the humanities; the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, an honors program for minority students pursuing Ph.D.s in specific fields; as well as other mentoring programs in the Office of Academic Affairs, the Immigrant Student Success Office, and the Magner Career Center, among others. The Tow Mentoring Initiative will deeply enrich the existing ecosystem, giving students across disciplines more opportunities to thrive and grow.

Key components of the new Mentoring Initiative include Tow Mentors-in-Residence, the Tow Mentoring and Research Program, the Tow Mentoring Prize, and five Tow Senior Faculty Mentors. The goals are to enhance student opportunities for high-impact academic engagement and faculty-student collaboration; increase the number of students winning prestigious grants and awards; increase the number of students going to graduate school; and enhance junior faculty research, scholarship, and creative endeavors, such as grants, awards, and publishing.

The college is thrilled to have “Gridlock Sam” as its first Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Sam Schwartz is a celebrated transportation engineer and former New York City Traffic Commissioner who will engage with students and faculty over the course of the semester by offering guest lectures and providing formal and informal academic and professional guidance to students. Schwartz helped to launch the Tow Mentoring Initiative with his visit to campus for a special keynote presentation and reception on October 19.

Students will also benefit from the Tow Mentoring and Research Program, which consists of 25 student/faculty collaborative research teams. Students will receive mentoring in research, plus additional workshops on applying for graduate school and awards, coaching on professional presentations, small group meetings on goal setting and time management, and other personalized trainings.

The Tow Mentoring Initiative also supports the mentoring of faculty themselves. The Tow Senior Faculty program supports five senior faculty members from each of the five schools. They work with chairs, deans, and faculty in their schools to mentor junior faculty members to achieve tenure and promotion through excellence in research, scholarship and creative work, teaching, and service.

Professor of Sociology and former Associate Provost Tammy Lewis leads the Tow Mentoring Initiative. She is excited to see how this effort will benefit both students and faculty. “This new initiative provides ������Ƶ with the opportunity to intentionally engage in the process of institutionalizing mentorship on campus for both students and faculty,” Lewis said. “Through the Tow Research and Mentoring Program, we are creating structures to guide students to become agents of their futures and to realize that they have the capacity to shape their own lives and the world around them. Through the Tow Senior Faculty Mentors and the Tow Mentoring Prize, we are providing structured mentorship and recognition for faculty mentors, which deepens a culture of mentorship at the college.”

Fact Box: The Tow Mentoring Initiative

The Tow Mentoring and Research Program includes 25 student/faculty collaborative research teams. Students receive mentoring in research plus additional workshops on applying for graduate school and awards, coaching on professional presentations, and other personalized training.

Tow Summer Intensive, which starts in summer of 2023, will host a program for students, led by a faculty member, to assist them with applying for awards, grants, graduate school, and other opportunities that will help them transform their lives.

The Tow Mentor-in-Residence Program will recruit high-profile, senior scholars and practitioners for structured engagement with students and faculty over the course of a semester. Mentors-in-Residence are outstanding leaders across various fields. They will engage in guest lecturing in select classes, giving talks to students and faculty, and providing formal and informal academic and professional guidance to groups of students.

Tow Senior Faculty Mentors will lead the effort at the five schools at college: Education, Visual, Media and Performing Arts; Natural and Behavioral Sciences; Koppelman School of Business; and Humanities and Social Sciences. This part of the program connects senior faculty with junior faculty in an in-depth peer mentoring experience.

The Tow Mentoring Prize will be awarded annually to a faculty member for excellence in mentoring.

About ������Ƶ

Widely known for its offer of an excellent education at an affordable tuition and recognized nationally for its diverse student body, ������Ƶ has been an anchor institution within the Borough of Brooklyn and greater New York City for more than 90 years. With approximately 16,000 students in more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the arts, humanities, sciences, education, and business, the college is renowned for its rigorous academics, award-winning faculty, distinguished alumni, and community impact. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), ������Ƶ offers a vibrant and supportive student experience on a beautifully landscaped 35-acre campus in the borough’s Midwood neighborhood.

About The Tow Foundation

The Tow Foundation, established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow, supports visionary leaders and nonprofit organizations that serve historically marginalized populations, help individuals contribute to their communities, and champion advancements and experiences that make it possible for all people to live healthy and joyous lives. It invests in innovative programs and reform in culture, higher education, journalism, justice and community wellness, and medicine. For more information, visit or follow The Tow Foundation on , , and .

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“Honestly, it was the only other school I knew about,” he says, explaining that a professor at Kingsborough Community College, where he received his associate degree, suggested he try out the Midwood campus. “It’s not the nicest narrative but it would be disingenuous to say something else. It’s the same for many students at CUNY schools but that’s the beauty of it; I ended up creating this space and community.”

It was in this space that his story took a Cinderella-like turn, from that of a kid who was never really encouraged academically and who, he says, knew that teachers never expected much of him, to one where for the first time in his life, professors met him where he was, saw great potential in him, and encouraged him. The story ends with him well on his way to becoming a scholar.

Next fall, LaSasso heads to Brown University, a private Ivy League institution in Providence, Rhode Island, with full funding for five years to complete a Ph.D. program.

“In high school I wasn’t a good student,” he says. “I ended up working in a deli and I had no idea where I was going next. I was thinking about culinary school.”

But after enrolling at ������Ƶ and deciding to major in English because he liked reading, a professor suggested a research project. It was his first semester. LaSasso had been reading Shakespeare and was interested in doing a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s history plays. He ended up applying for and being accepted to the Mellon Undergraduate Transfer Student Research Program, which gives transfer students $700, a faculty mentor, and training to conduct serious independent research.

It was one of the first times in LaSasso’s academic career that he produced something he was really proud of.

“Mellon really prepared me as a researcher,” he says. “If it didn’t open the door for me, it gave me the confidence to break through the door for myself.”

LaSasso went on to become a peer mentor for the program and to participate in both the CUNY Pipeline Program and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, both programs that aim to diversify the ranks of academe by attracting students of color who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. Mellon Mays Fellows also get a faculty mentor in addition to partial scholarships and assistance preparing for the Graduate Record Exam.

“I found an intellectual community that I felt a part of,” says LaSasso, the youngest of six children born to parents who never attended high school. “I was meeting other students who were going on to graduate school and exploring research, and the personal and political intersected. It was very stimulating for me.”

Professor Joseph Entin of the English department calls LaSasso “one of the brightest, most passionate, and committed students” he’s known.

LaSasso starts at Brown—”the school I never thought I’d get into,” he says—in the fall.

He hopes to become an English professor and he wants to teach at CUNY in order to “normalize” the kind of investment he only found from professors once he enrolled here.

“A lot of faculty took a chance with me,” he says. “I know that’s a weird way of phrasing it but it had never been my experience to have so many teachers invested in me. It’s why I want to come back.”

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Nicole Solis-Ramirez is a member of the Class of 2018 graduating with a bachelor of arts in English and a bachelor of arts in history, with a minor in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies. Solis-Ramirez, who hails from York, Pennsylvania, is of European and Japanese descent.  She made the Dean’s List every semester she attended ������Ƶ. She was also accepted into the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, where she conducted research on a series of Roman coins from 100 B.C. The data she assembled during the semester will add to Department of Classics Associate Professor Liv Yarrow‘s ongoing research in that area. She also made the Department of English’s Chairperson’s List of Outstanding Scholars in 2017, and works part time in the ������Ƶ Learning Center as an English tutor.

Solis-Ramirez’s husband is Mexican American, and she is the mother of four children, ages seven to one, two of whom are currently enrolled in the ������Ƶ Early Childhood Center. She says she works to ensure that her children are educated about their heritage so that they are instilled with a sense of pride. She is a full-time student, a mentor in the Peer Mentoring Program, and an elected member of the Community Education Council for her home district in Brooklyn. She credits the Magner Career Center for helping her to prepare for the job market by providing resources such as cover letter and resume review and career advisement. She was accepted into ������Ƶ’s Master of Arts English Program and hopes to one day become a college professor.

Solis-Ramirez shared her thoughts on how identity, history, and literature intersect, and what impact all three have had on her and her family.

“There are layers to rebuilding a system that does not erase or ignore the works of marginalized perspectives in literature. The Internet and social media have given people a platform that is special in the way that it crosses age, race, and gender barriers. Yet, living in this unique moment that offers us an opportunity to celebrate marginalized voices is not enough. Changes need to be made at a larger institutional level and we, as the people who are the foundation and support of these institutions, have a responsibility to hold them accountable.

“On an individual level, we need to hold ourselves responsible for unlearning Eurocentric and colonial ideologies. In my own experience, I was never exposed to literature or literary characters that represented me. I never questioned why some books were considered ‘classics,’ and what it meant to have characters of color being depicted by white authors. My educational experience at ������Ƶ made me more aware of how unaware I was. Just because someone is a woman does not mean that she cannot contribute to the patriarchy. Just because someone is other than European does not mean that they cannot contribute to Eurocentrism. The acceptance of the Eurocentrism of literature is compliance— we need to hold ourselves and our institutions accountable for the silencing of marginalized perspectives.

“As a woman who is multiracial but white passing, my struggle has not necessarily been the same as other marginalized groups. Growing up in a small, predominately white town, I think that my siblings and I were very aware that we would never be accepted as white or Japanese. From a very young age, I loved reading; literature was my great escape. However, I never found authors who vocalized feelings through their characters that were similar to my own.

“Partially because of how those that have preceded me have been silenced and because those with similar experiences were not present in the literature that was introduced to me, understanding my own identity has been a continuous process with no starting point. Yet, another layer of my struggle lies in the fact that my grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from Japan, was silenced. My grandfather did not permit my grandmother to teach her children her native language. There was no sense of pride instilled in my family lineage. Perhaps I silenced my own voice because of my feelings of inadequacy.

When I think about marginalized voices being heard in spaces where they have been silenced, I think of my children. I want them to hear voices similar to their own, and I want them to be able to speak. My partner was born and raised in Mexico, and because of the many political discussions that are currently present in the United States, we have worked very hard to instill a sense of pride in every cultural identity that exists within our children. Because these voices have been historically silenced, the most important lesson I can teach them is that their voice is significant because of who they are.”

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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 ������Ƶ. The college has pushed me to be successful academically and encouraged me to be socially responsible by providing numerous opportunities for civic engagement and community service through its clubs and events. The college 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’t qualify for financial aid because of my parents “high income,” their income on paper wasn’t 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’ve 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’t go as expected.

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“It feels like a dream I never realized was possible,” said ��DZ�ó��-��ó����, who was born in Camuy, Puerto Rico, and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. “It has been humbling to know how many people are excited for me.” She is the first person in her immediate family to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

��DZ�ó��-��ó���� had planned to become an educator, but her political consciousness was awakened during the time she spent as director of a youth program in Harlem, and was further expanded when she began coursework at ������Ƶ. “My courses helped me to understand academically and socially how local, national, and international policies affect the lives of urban youth and urban communities,” said ��DZ�ó��-��ó����.

Her work with youths and her studies led ��DZ�ó��-��ó���� to participate in two City University of New York (CUNY) programs: the Model New York State Senate Session, designed to develop students’ leadership skills in a legislative setting, and the , which develops leadership values and skills through experiential civic engagement, advocacy activities, and leadership competency training. In 2014, she interned for New York State Assembly member Robert J. Rodriguez of the 68th district in East Harlem/El Barrio section of Manhattan. During her internship, ��DZ�ó��-��ó����, who is fluent in Spanish, worked directly with constituents who needed her language translation skills or required assistance with housing and medical care. She also met with other local officials, and networked with community activists and leaders like Iris Morales, whom ��DZ�ó��-��ó���� says served as an inspiration and role model.

“Participating in these programs also made me keenly aware of the direct impact elected officials and their staff have on the communities they represent,” ��DZ�ó��-��ó���� said. “The satisfaction expressed by constituents, when you’ve assisted them with something that was overwhelming them, is a feeling that never leaves you. It motivates your scholarship and desire to be directly, politically involved.”

Earlier this semester, ��DZ�ó��-��ó���� represented CUNY and ������Ƶ at two major caucuses in Albany, N.Y. She was there to help constituents rallying for affordable housing and fair housing laws.

“They had the opportunity to meet face to face with the elected officials who had the influence to provide them with solutions to their needs as contributing members of the community,” she said. “It was powerful to witness them interacting with law and policy makers.”

��DZ�ó��-��ó����—who has a cumulative 4.00 GPA and who participated in “,” the college’s social media campaign celebrating the experiences of its 2015 graduates using the hash tag —is planning to obtain a Ph.D. and pursue a career in politics and education. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Mellon Mays Fellowship and the ‘s College Award for academic excellence and service to the community. She’s not only elated that she will leave with the college with the salutatorian honor, but also grateful for the experiences she takes with her.

“������Ƶ prepared me to be a lifelong learner and critical thinker. I was able to learn a part of history that had never been presented to me, empowering me to continue to explore,” she said. “If it weren’t for the tremendous support I have received from the college and the numerous professors and staff members who have taken time to provide me with mentorship and guidance, I would have never realized the infinite number of doors that are available to me as I finish this phase of my academic career and begin a new one.”

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At a time when college graduation rates of black and Latino males lag behind those of white males and all female undergraduates nationally, the gift, one of several the Kurz Family Foundation has given to the initiative, is viewed as especially vital.

Not only do fewer black and Latino males pursue higher education, many who do start college never finish. A 2010 report by the American Council on Education found that six years after matriculation, the college graduation rate for black men was 35 percent, compared to 46 percent for Hispanic men and 59 percent for white men. Those figures are especially relevant at ������Ƶ, where the number of black and Latino male students is considerably higher than at other senior campuses of the City University of New York system.

“We could not maintain our commitment to diversity in any kind of meaningful way without this program and the generous donation by the Kurz family,” St. Clair explains.

That longstanding commitment has yielded some impressive outcomes. For the past several years, more black students have graduated annually from ������Ƶ than from any other college in the state of New York. And ������Ƶ is one of the top 40 schools in the United States from which Latinos earn bachelor’s degrees in education.

In many ways, the BLMI, which began at the college in 2006, has contributed to those success rates. The initiative’s goal has always been to increase the number of black and Latino males who enroll in and graduate from the college. To achieve that goal, it addresses just about every aspect of the students’ lives. In the strictly academic realm, it provides peer mentoring, tutoring and access to an all-purpose writing tutor. In the more personal realm, it offers seminars that encourage self-awareness and self-esteem. “Am I Smart Enough to Get an A?” was the subject of one recent BLMI seminar; “What Positive Contributions Have Black/Latino Men Historically Made to This Society?” was another.

One part of BLMI’s objective is simply to coax students to use the available resources. “Many black and Latino males are used to doing things on their own,” St. Clair says. “The initiative lets them know it’s all right to ask for help.”

Another part is to inform them of programs of which they might not be aware, such as internships or opportunities to study abroad, and to underscore the importance of utilizing those programs. If finances are a problem, a BLMI adviser can steer a student to a likely source of aid, and streamline the process of obtaining it.

“Recently, we had a seminar about studying abroad, and about the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship — how to get financial assistance for graduate school,” says Jeffrey Saint Gilles, 24, a transfer student from Florida who first heard about the initiative from a cousin. “Normally, students would have to seek out that kind of information on their own — assuming they even knew it existed. Fortunately, we have people who bring that information to us.”

When Saint Gilles initially applied for his current work-study job, which makes it possible for him to remain in college, he was turned down. “I missed the deadline because I didn’t know there was one,” he says. With the help of St. Clair and Lawrence Patterson, BLMI’s workshop and mentor coordinator, he resubmitted his application and was hired. Saint Gilles now works in a neighborhood child center, which dovetails nicely with his psychology major. “No matter what school you are at, there’s always red tape; we’re able to cut through that,” St. Clair states.

Perhaps more important than skills and information is the sense of community BLMI imparts, enabling members to feel both distinct from, and a part of, the larger college community. That sense of belonging can combat the anomie that causes so many students to disengage. “On any campus, anywhere, in fact, it’s always a struggle to find people with whom you can connect — it doesn’t just happen strolling along campus,” says Shadiq Williams, 19, a sophomore studying computer science. Thanks to the initiative, however, students need only step into 3309A James Hall, newly christened the BLMI Commons, and let the connections happen. “Even if I’m not there on official business, I always stop in to say hi,” Williams says.

Students are also likely to find role models at BLMI. Periodically, its popular Mouth of the Phoenix Lecture Series features black and Latino faculty members and administrators who describe their youthful experiences and explain how they got where they are today. Their stories show that success is possible. “When students see that, they start to believe it might be possible for themselves,” St. Clair says.

A key name behind the Kurz Family Foundation gift is that of its director, Herbert Kurz ’41, founder of the highly successful Presidential Life Insurance Company. Having attended the college during the Great Depression, Kurz is no stranger to the struggles to obtain an education. During his college days, he walked to campus from home rather than ride a bus or trolley, which cost seven cents (a substantial sum for him).

The significance of his family’s recent donation is not lost on the students who benefit from it. “What BLMI is doing, with the help of the foundation, is vital,” Saint Gilles says. “It’s not something we take for granted.”

Credit: ������Ƶ Foundation

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