 |  | Occasionally I run into colleagues who are concerned that I’m overly focused on job and career outcomes for our students. They fear that I want to turn LaGuardia into a trade school, or that I’ll make arc welding a graduation requirement. They needn’t worry. While I do think our society needs a few more plumbers, I have no plan to replace History with HVAC or Fine Arts with Phlebotomy. No, what’s important is that we devote ourselves to giving our students the education and training they seek, doing it really well, and ensuring that they get the results they for which they enrolled here in the first place. For most of them, that will be well-paying jobs in their fields of interest. As the central purpose of CUNY is economic mobility, the mission of LaGuardia must be career success. And career success for our students requires a balance of programs – Humanities, Social Sciences, STEM, Business, Health Sciences – to meet their needs and interests and prepare them for their Bachelor’s degrees (and maybe more) and/or the workplace. To get this balance right we have to remember the importance of the Liberal Arts in preparing community college students for career success, a topic I spoke about at a recent meeting of the American Council of Learned Societies. If you’re curious you can read my remarks here.
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LaGuardia Student Tells Her Story at City Hall Press Conference
In our view, Hate Beqa came perilously close to upstaging Mayor Eric Adams at his press conference on October 20. That’s not easy to do as he’s pretty comfortable at the podium. Hate, LaGuardia alumna and Registered Nurse, spoke at a City Hall presser hosted by the mayor about the City’s post-Covid job recovery. With the mayor at her side, Hate explained that she had emigrated from Albania. Upon arriving in New York, she sought work as a nurse since she’d been one for nine years back home. It didn’t take many rejection letters from local hospitals to learn that in the US foreign-trained and registered nurses must take the US national licensing exam, the NCLEX, to work as RNs. Thank goodness, she gushed to hizzoner, for the LaGuardia NYC Welcome Back Center, a free program that helped her improve her English and prepare for the NCLEX, which she took and passed. Shortly thereafter she got a job as an RN and a big raise. You can watch a video of the press conference here; fast-forward to the 20-minute mark to catch Hate’s remarks, including her repeated shout-outs to LaGuardia.
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Newtown Creek Alliance Celebrates LaGuardia Partnership
On the evening of October 18, I joined students, faculty, and alumni aboard the Royal Princess for a dinner cruise up Newtown Creek, one of the most contaminated industrial waterways in America and a federally designated Superfund Site since 2010. Not long ago a call to enjoy a meal anywhere near the creek – polluted for decades with oil and other petroleum distillates, sewage, murder victims, an elephant carcass, and all manner of industrial detritus – would have been met with crickets, assuming they could survive the stench. But thanks to the Newtown Creek Alliance this long-abused estuary is slowly getting cleaned up, and LaGuardia faculty and students have been important players in this work. Willis Elkins, executive director of the NCA, devoted the 2023 Tidal Toast to recognizing the partnership between LaGuardia and the Alliance. It was a lovely party. Good thing he didn’t serve fish. Maybe next year.
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New Grants Enable LaGuardia to Serve Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Students
LaGuardia Associate Professor of Criminal Justice John R. Chaney, J.D., recently secured a three-year, $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to provide education, training, and support services for residents of the Queensboro Correctional Facility, a minimum security level facility across the street from the college. Queensboro is a New York State reentry facility for male prisoners scheduled for release on parole within 120 days, and for others who are on work release. Through the Accelerated College Transition (ACT) project, LaGuardia will help these individuals pursue their educational goals through degree or workforce training programs, provide wraparound support for the duration of their college experiences, and help them achieve long-term community reintegration and career success.
Through a separate grant from the Ichigo Foundation, LaGuardia will establish the LaGuardia Correctional Education Partnership. The Partnership will provide education and training opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals referred to us by partners other than Queensboro Correctional, since that facility is the focus of the U.S. Department of Justice funding. We are pleased to welcome back alum Matthew Wilson ‘19 to serve as program coordinator and lead the work of the Correctional Education Partnership. Once both of these programs are fully staffed and operational our goal is to make LaGuardia a leader in the education, training, and support of justice-involved students.
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Everybody by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins Slated for Fall Production
For its fall show, LaGuardia’s Theater Program will perform Everybody, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a modern adaptation of a 15th-century morality play, Everyman. Jacobs-Jenkins’ play follows Everybody as they travel down a road toward life’s greatest mystery and confront the inevitable (yes, death). First performed Off-Broadway in 2017, Everybody was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “Everybody is an unpredictable, hilarious, and inventive inquiry into the ways individuals cope with mortality,” explains James Ryan (J.R.) Caldwell, LaGuardia theater lecturer and director of the production. Tickets are available for performances from November 15 through November 20, in the Black Box Theater.
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Noah Alayon Accepted to NASA Scholars Program
LaGuardia Computer Science major Noah Alayon was recently accepted into the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program. A highly competitive program, NCAS gives students the opportunity to interact and network with NASA engineers and scientists. “I heard about the NCAS program through a post Professor Lawrence Muller made on the LaGuardia Computer Science LinkedIn Group,” Noah explained. “I heard about NCAS being a crucial stepping stone, and I hope to learn as much as I can about NASA and the space industry. I also hope that, ultimately, with my unique experience, I will be able to land an internship at NASA.”
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LaGuardia Receives U.S. Dept. of Education Grant in Support of International Studies Program
LaGuardia was recently awarded an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) two-year grant. The UISFL program is part of the U.S. Department of Education, which provides funds to plan, develop, and carry out programs to strengthen undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages. The grant supports a project called, “The Community College Internationalization Initiative: Outreach, Pedagogy and Professional Development in International Studies.” Dr. Maria Savva, a professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition (ELA), is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the grant and is supported by co-PI Dr. Arthur Lau (ELA), as well as Dr. Tomonori Nagano (ELA), Dr. Olga Aksakalova (English), and Dr. Anita Baksh (ELA).
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LaGuardia Hosts 2nd Annual 5K Run – Big Crowd in Shorts Ignores Lousy Weather
Despite the forecast for yet another soggy Saturday in NYC nearly 200 runners and walkers showed up for the LaGuardia 5K Community Run on Saturday, October 14. The rain held off long enough for our last few runners to make it over the finish line without getting soaked. Our carefully measured, formally sanctioned course took participants from the college parking lot down to the East River waterfront and back. Activities included raffles, music, and tables hosted by 16 community organizations and businesses. (Lots of free stuff.) Our annual 5K Community Run is a fundraiser for LaGuardia CARES. This year’s main sponsor was Boyce Technologies, Inc. Big thanks to LaGuardia Foundation Board Chair Charles Boyce. Congratulations to Tomasz Wawrzyniak from Brooklyn and LaGuardia History professor Robin Kietlinski for their awesome first-place times (again). The complete list of finishers can be found here; you can peruse some fun photos here.
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