| |  | At the risk of sounding like a broken record, during the spring semester I am constantly asking students who will be graduating in June what they’re going to do after LaGuardia. (Okay, most of them don’t get the “broken record” reference.) I want to hear about their transfer plans. Where will they pursue their bachelor’s degrees? I remind them that the goal of LaGuardia is to get them half way to their BAs or BSs. That an associate degree in Accounting is much more valuable as half of a bachelor’s degree in Accounting than as a stand-alone associate degree. (Few employers are looking for people with associate degrees in Accounting.) Except for some of our healthcare majors (Nursing, Radiologic Technology, Paramedic…), most of our graduates transfer to four-year colleges to earn BAs or BSs to prepare themselves for rewarding careers. In fact, about seventy percent of LaGuardia graduates enter baccalaureate programs within two years of commencement, often within CUNY. But that transfer rate should be higher, so I keep on nudging. Since we’re in the season I give you three stories below related to community college transfer.
| | From LaGuardia to UNC to NYU | |
| | | The 7 train taking me from 33rd Street/Rawson (LaGuardia) to Grand Central (CUNY HQ) was crowded. I was leaning against the door reading something on my phone when a young man approached me and asked if I was the president of LaGuardia. (This happens more than you might think.) It was Eric Xu, Class of 2019, Computer Science major. I asked him what happened after LaGuardia. He told me that after graduating he transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He is now pursuing a master’s in Computer Science at NYU. Eric explained that LaGuardia was a turning point for him, laying the foundation for everything he’s accomplished since… that the education, mentoring, and support he received at LaGuardia got him to where he is today. Eric fondly recalled Dr. Praveen Khethavath, who taught his first-year seminar course, encouraged him to participate in the CUNY Summer Undergraduate Research Program, deepening his interest in research, and more recently advised him about graduate school. In a follow-up call, Eric mentioned Professors Hendrick Delcham and Maria Entezari, Elyse Newman, who led the President’s Society before her retirement, Sandy Mao, from student financial services, and Foundation volunteer Robin Barksy. “They and others helped me see my potential and encouraged me to take on opportunities I would never have imagined for myself. LaGuardia gave me more than just an education—it gave me confidence, a sense of community, and a clear direction forward.”
| | Last month, two LaGuardia students were invited to participate in the Exploring Transfer Summer Program at Vassar College. Nabila Akther and Sophie Roka Magar will have the chance to spend five weeks this summer at Vassar’s beautiful Poughkeepsie campus. For more than thirty years, Vassar has offered the Exploring Transfer Program to students who are curious about what it’s like to attend a residential liberal arts college away from home. Notably, Exploring Transfer participants are under no obligation to go to Vassar; those who attend transfer to a wide range of four-year institutions. They’re typically among the first generation in their family to attend college, and are highly motivated academically, with GPAs of 3.0 or higher. Through a five-week residential program and immersion in the liberal arts, Exploring Transfer enables community college students to imagine a broader range of academic opportunities than they might otherwise. Each accepted student receives a scholarship that completely covers their tuition, room, meals, and books. Big thanks to Dr. Julianne Salazar, Dr. Misun Dokko, and Josie Bergin-Ko, here at LaGuardia for managing this important partnership. Who wouldn’t want to spend July in the Hudson Valley? | | Sometimes, even within the CUNY system, the transfer pathway from a community college to a four-year school can be riddled with potholes. For example, the senior college may not accept all the courses on the transferring student’s transcript, forcing them to re-take classes. In principle, a transferring community college student enters a senior college as a junior needing sixty additional credits to earn their bachelor’s degree, but it doesn’t always work this way. One solution is to create “academies” that link community and senior colleges via agreed-upon transfer pathways based on popular majors. We have a Business Academy with Baruch College, for example, and a Criminal Justice Academy with John Jay. Both work well, facilitating smooth and successful transfers for LaGuardia graduates to those institutions. On April 2, we signed an agreement with Queens College formalizing the Queens STEM Academy, a partnership that streamlines transfer to Queens College for LaGuardia students in Biology, Computer Science, Environmental Science, and Liberal Arts: Math & Science. Thanks to the Queens STEM Academy, students can participate in learning communities, academic boot camps, and paid research and internship opportunities. They get help from tutors, advisors, and peer mentors on both campuses. We're filling the potholes in this popular transfer pathway. | | |
We were pleased to be notified by Renae Weathers of the National Security Agency (NSA) down in Ft. Meade, MD that LaGuardia Community College has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense through 2030 because of the quality of our Cybersecurity AAS Degree Program, led by Dr. Doyel Pal, Professor of Computer Science. The NSA awards CAE designations to institutions that commit to producing cybersecurity professionals that will reduce vulnerabilities in our national infrastructure. Dr. Pal says the Center of Academic Excellence designation signifies that the college’s cybersecurity program meets the rigorous standards set by the National Security Agency (NSA), ensuring a top-tier education aligned with national security needs.
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Everyone knows the story — New York City rents climb to historic highs and affordable apartments are nowhere in sight. The problem is acute for many LaGuardia students, some of whom sleep on friends’ floors, or in cars, or in homeless shelters. When they run out of options, they go see Dr. Rhonda Mouton at LaGuardia CARES in the C-Building. She then turns to our partners at Airbnb, who have been providing subsidized rooms in Queens homes for LaGuardia students facing homelessness since 2023. Fortunately (and thankfully), Airbnb is contributing an additional $100,000 this academic year to help more students get vouchers for semester-long Airbnb stays with Queens hosts. So far, Rhonda and Airbnb have provided direct housing support to twenty-seven LaGuardia students.
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LaGuardia’s Central Service Technician program, run by the Division of Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) was featured in The Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago. In her article “They Are Hot, Upwardly Mobile Jobs. Here’s Why They Are So Hard to Fill.,” reporter Lauren Weber examines career paths to the middle class that fall between traditional blue- and white- collar jobs. She cites our Central Service Technician course, which trains students in medical equipment sterilization and prepares them for the CST certification exam and a lengthy, required internship. One of our most successful non-degree healthcare training programs, CST boasts strong employment outcomes and high wages, in part because of hospitals’ increased demand for these techs, the result of post-covid retirements that reduced the supply of trained workers.
| | LaGuardia Hosts Ecuadorian Elections |
| | | When I came to campus on a recent Sunday afternoon to catch up on some paper work I was surprised to discover that the gym had been turned into a polling place and more than seven thousand Ecuadorians were coming by to vote in their country’s 2025 elections. Once past the food and souvenir vendors on Van Dam Street, I explored the set-up, in which men and women were directed down different paths toward the gym, where they cast their ballots at gender-specific voting stations. It was all very efficient, serious but friendly, with many LaGuardia Public Safety Officers clocking serious overtime (reimbursed, of course, by the Ecuadorian government). The Consul of Ecuador in Queens, Vinicio Kar Atamaint, and Coronel Galo Álvarez attended the opening of the election, which began with the playing of the National Anthem of Ecuador. There are more than 100,000 Ecuadorians in Queens – the greatest about of any county in the US, so it’s no wonder that we get a Consulate. Political Science majors will recall that this election was a run-off between two candidates in a close race for the presidency. Incumbent President Daniel Noboa was re-elected for a full term, defeating Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution Movement. Mindful of the second word in our name, we were pleased to open our doors to the Ecuadorian community and support democracy in action.
| LHI Student Visits Capitol Hill |
| | | In early March, Carlo John Domingo, an Engineering major, represented the LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative (LHI) on Capitol Hill. Through LHI’s global partner, CARE International, Carlo advocated for international humanitarian assistance with members of Congress and their staffs. Now in its third year, LHI gives student representatives opportunities to build their leadership and communication skills and advocate for global issues. As a "Designated Advocate" for CARE International, Carlo shared his story of growing up in the Philippines and how U.S. international aid helped his family overcome poverty and migrate to the U.S. In meetings with staff members of Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Carlo advocated to protect U.S. funds for international programs and shared his research on the impact of humanitarian decisions on global stability and U.S. security. The LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative’s focus on global learning helps students connect classroom knowledge, community needs, and career goals to propose solutions for local and global issues.
| President’s Society Members Visit Bloomberg | |
On April 11, members of LaGuardia’s President’s Society visited the offices of Bloomberg L.P. for a tour led by two alums who work there. Dani Vivar (Business Administration ‘19) and Wellington Wohlfarth (Business Administration ‘18) first visited Bloomberg as President’s Society members themselves. They liked it. After graduating from LaGuardia, both attended Baruch College (two more transfer stories!) and found careers at Bloomberg. Dani is an enterprise account manager, and Wellington is an account manager. They are loyal LaGuardia alumni and awesome tour guides. Thank you, Dani and Wellington.
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