With the start of the fall semester, we’re launching a new resource for LaGuardia students—Casa de Las Americas. Led by professors Dr. Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez and Dr. Ryan Mann-Hamilton, and guided by an advisory committee of faculty, staff, and students, “La Casa” is the newest academic center in CUNY, and the only such facility at a community college. The center will celebrate the people, histories, traditions, and cultures of Latin America and serve as a hub to connect LaGuardia to communities and organizations across Queens. Forty-seven percent of our students identify as Hispanic, making LaGuardia the second largest HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) in New York State. La Casa will expand resources and services to help students succeed academically and professionally, including opportunities for research, scholarships, internships, and networking—to narrow the achievement gap between Hispanic students and other groups. When the CUNY Board of Trustees approved our proposal for La Casa in late June, you could almost hear them say, “¡Felicitaciones!"

Good news over in the ACE Division: Enrollment in The English Language Center (TELC) is climbing back to pre-pandemic levels. Nearly 2,900 students enrolled during TELC’s 2021—2022 academic year—almost two and one-half times the prior year enrollment. This is a notable recovery, given that TELC enrollment fell by 83% at the onset of the pandemic. What’s behind it? Word of mouth and our strong reputation—more than 275,000 students have been served by TELC since it opened in 1971. (LaGuardia is the largest provider of ESL instruction in NYC.) A big driver of our surging enrollment is our new policy of providing Foundation Scholarships to ESL students. The Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) Scholarship Fund offers low-income immigrants seeking to learn English scholarships that cover up to 80% of their tuition. This is especially helpful for students who lost jobs and income during the pandemic lockdowns. LaGuardia is one of the few community colleges nationwide that provide scholarships to non-degree students for ESL, GED, and workforce training programs. Since non-degree students are not eligible for government student financial aid the ACE scholarships are a lifeline.

On July 27 four teams of LaGuardia students stood nervously before a group of Mastercard cybersecurity experts in the Flatiron District to pitch their ideas for innovations to protect the security of small businesses. Ray Rozon, Dominik Sierra Lino, Stanley Mondesir, and Juan Paredes won the Innovative Cyber Solution Student Challenge with their concept to enable small businesses to send and receive money safely and easily. The winning Queens quartet are among twelve students selected for paid apprenticeships at Mastercard this fall. They will be assigned to Mastercard teams in corporate security, cyber intelligence, and product engineering. As you might guess, our friends are majoring in Network Administration & Information Security. They completed the LAGCC-Mastercard Cybersecurity Training Program boot camp earlier this summer. Big shout-out to Dr. Dionne Miller, Associate Provost, who set up and manages this unique partnership with Mastercard.

Manuel “Manny” L. Romero, Ed.D., joined LaGuardia on August 29 as our new Vice President of Communications and External Affairs, a position in which he will oversee marketing, communications, government affairs, and community relations. Dr. Romero comes to us from Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), the largest college in the CUNY system. As BMCC’s executive director of public affairs, he strengthened BMCC’s brand and advanced the college’s local and national presence in the media and higher education arenas. He previously served as director of public relations at Baruch College, director of communications and marketing at Marymount Manhattan College, and held a variety of professional roles at Arizona State University’s Media Relations Office including director of Hispanic media. A first-generation college student, Dr. Romero earned an associate degree from Mesa Community College, a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism from Northern Arizona University, and a master’s in mass communication from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He earned his doctorate in administrative and instructional leadership from St. John’s University.  

On July 29, Kayla Greene (’22, New Media Technology: Digital Journalism) and Bibi-Sakeena Khemraj (Biology) joined six students from around the world for an exclusive Q&A with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. (A Pakistani activist for the education of women, Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 when she was only 17, making her the world's youngest Nobel Prize recipient.) The LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative (LHI), founded and led by Professor Tuli Chatterji, arranged the encounter via Zoom. Last year, LHI partnered with Malala’s charity, the Malala Fund, to raise money for girls’ education in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania and Turkey. Our LaGuardia students surpassed the Malala Fund’s fundraising goals. Meanwhile Kayla wrote an article that was accepted by Malala’s Assembly, a coveted platform through which students advocate for social justice.  

LaGuardia journalism major Vildana Khamidullina was one of 53 students from colleges nationwide selected as 2022 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellows. Fellows receive support from the Pulitzer Center to pursue independent reporting projects, many of them overseas. Vildana, who emigrated from Russia to the US in 2015, spent her summer back in Russia reporting on the country’s lack of sexual education. She credits English professors Dr. Belkis Gonzáles, Bijoyeta Das, and Dr. Meghan C. Fox for sparking her interest in journalism. Her course with Professor Das included an internship at Schneps Media, in which Vildana wrote 55 stories for amNY (that’s some internship!). She’ll be back on campus this fall. Expect Manny Romero (see above) to recruit Vildana to help me with this newsletter.  

August brings the close of Career Start, a 10-week summer bridge program to help LaGuardia-bound high school graduates get ready for college-level math, choose their majors, and start planning their careers. The program is geared towards first-gen students who don’t have family members with college experience to guide them, or who are navigating career changes as adults and are eager to earn their college degrees. Each Career Start student is paired with an advisor—like Damien Harley pictured here with advisor Matthew Bird—and attends workshops with LaGuardia faculty who review salaries and career options in their disciplines. LaGuardia professors Dr. Robin Kietlinski, Dr. Lilla Tőke, and Dr. Jason Hendrickson led a workshop this summer about the value and flexibility of a Liberal Arts degree. Feedback from students like Carrie L. reflects the benefits of such discussions. “I was surprised that people like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama have degrees in Liberal Arts. Before Career Start, I never knew there were different pathways to a career,” she said.

My colleagues joke that I’ll go anywhere to promote LaGuardia and I’ll tell our story to anyone with a pulse. Both true. On August 19 Diana and I drove up to the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont so I could give the Commencement Address to the master’s and DML graduates of the Middlebury Language Schools. (Founded in 1915 with the School of German, the Middlebury Language Schools today have about 1,500 students studying 13 languages in Vermont and at other campuses around the world.) Middlebury President, Laurie Patton, gave me an honorary Ed.D. degree—not to be confused with the real thing—and saluted LaGuardia repeatedly during the festivities. If you’re curious, my talk was about foreign language learning as a way to rebuild student academic confidence post-Covid. You can check it out here, or watch here.

Questions? Comments? Contact me at [email protected].