 | | Readers know I end up in Albany a lot. Governor Hochul mentions community colleges and I hit the Thruway. But recently I had the pleasure of heading up to the state capital with students. On Saturday, March 8, four LaGuardia students participated in the annual SUNY/CUNY Mock Senate. At issue was a (mock) bill creating a new state-wide affordable housing program. Sixty-three students from SUNY and CUNY colleges across the state occupied the burgundy leather chairs of actual Senate members (of which there are, yes, sixty-three) in the historic Senate Chamber, and formally debated the measure. (In case you’re wondering, the lower house of the NYS Legislature — the Assembly — has one hundred and fifty members.) Students were randomly assigned to a political party and did their best to present arguments for or against the bill that hewed to a Democratic or Republican angle on the proposal. When called on by the Temporary President of the Senate, each student rose to address the body for a couple of minutes to plead their case. This took a while. I can assure you that our LaGuardia Senators Anwarul Azim, Jonathan Machado, John Jara Morales, and Hsu Pan Thazin did very well, making their chaperone extremely proud. He will be even more pleased when he sees them elected to the NYS Legislature in the not-too-distant future.
| | In early March the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation named 467 community college students as semi-finalists for its highly competitive Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarships, and eight LaGuardia students are among them. These generous scholarships enable exceptional community college students with financial needs to transfer to top four-year institutions without having to take out student loans. The awards can provide up to $55,000 per year for two to three years to complete a bachelor’s degree at any accredited four-year undergraduate institution in the United States. Congratulations to our students, and big thanks to their advisors and mentors: | |
- Anwarul Azim, Cybersecurity
- Lyvia Hawks, Business Administration
- Jessica Gallegos, Music Recording Technology
- Toe Htin Lin Nyo, Business Administration
- Tabia Tarannum, Biology
- Leah El Paing Paing Htwe, Computer Science
- Haofeng Lin, Applied Math
- Miguel Posada Perez, Electrical Engineering
Fingers crossed that they all become finalists in May.
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| Twenty-six students recently completed our Healthcare Finance and Operations Training Program (formerly Medical Billing Specialist) in LaGuardia’s Adult and Continuing Education Division. The free, six-month course is funded by the New York City Department of Small Business Services. It began a decade ago when the Harvard Business School Club of New York’s Skills Gap Project connected LaGuardia to Weill Cornell Medicine to develop a certificate program to prepare low-income New Yorkers for entry-level jobs in healthcare. The Healthcare Finance and Operations Training Program is open to low-income New Yorkers with a high school diploma or equivalent who are interested in training for non-clinical positions in New York City’s top hospital systems. Program graduates earn starting salaries from $45,000 to $50,000, with opportunities for advancement. The program is one of many of our opportunities for students interested in healthcare finance and administration. | | |
Louis Muamba’s academic journey began at LaGuardia, where he earned an associate degree in Liberal Arts: International Studies in 2022. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Global Issues at City College. This fall, Louis starts work on a Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. Emigrating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Louis’s family sought refuge in Belgium, lived in Mexico City, and finally settled in New York in 2013. Having lived on three continents and navigated multiple cultural landscapes, Louis brings deep personal insights to the issues of global migration and displacement—challenges he plans to focus on in his future public service career. “LaGuardia taught me how to tailor my education to align with my goals and passions while acquiring the essential skills to make a meaningful impact in the world,” he explains. You can read more about Louis’s educational journey here.
| | From March 25 through May 23, Shenker Hall (M-Building) Lobby features an exhibit highlighting the vital role of open space for residents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Living in the Shade: NYCHA Open Space Past, Present, and Future features historic photos of NYCHA community spaces (think gardens, plazas, play areas, etc.) from the NYCHA Collection of the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, as well as contemporary photos taken by LaGuardia Photography students under the direction of Professor Maureen Drennan and Dr. Stephen Petrus, historian and director of Public History Programs for the Archives. The traveling exhibition is co-curated by Matthias Altwicker, Professor of Architecture at the New York Institute of Technology, and Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College. Living in the Shade assesses the successes and failures of NYCHA’s landscaping efforts, acknowledging that while many designs initially fell short, a renaissance in NYCHA open spaces is underway. A new generation of residents, administrators, and designers have rediscovered NYCHA open spaces as sites for comprehensive renovation, city parks, modern playgrounds, murals and public art, resilience strategies, farming, and more. | | |
Classes begin this month for our new GED Express program, which provides a faster track to passing the GED (General Educational Development exam, aka High School Equivalency) through targeted support and resources. GED Express focuses on the four subject areas of the exam: social studies, science, reading and language arts, and math. According to the National Center for Education Statistics twenty-five percent of GED test-takers fail at least one subject, often math or language arts. GED Express offers specialized modules and resources to ensure comprehensive coverage of each subject. Students receive targeted support based on specific areas of need. LaGuardia’s workforce training programs require a high school diploma or equivalency — for many the GED. This program will help more students satisfy that essential prerequisite.
| | The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives recently announced that the recipient of the 2025 Fiorello LaGuardia Book Prize is Columbia University historian Kim Phillips-Fein for her book Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics. The LaGuardia Book Prize, now in its second year, recognizes an exceptional work of scholarship based on materials from the sixteen collections of the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Fear City illuminates the origins of New York’s 1975 fiscal crisis and the response of politicians and bankers. Phillips-Fein argues that the crisis changed the way the city is governed and transformed CUNY. The Archives will welcome Phillips-Fein to campus for a talk about Fear City later this spring. | | | On March 21, I had the pleasure of welcoming NYC Councilmember Julie Won to co-host our annual Women’s History Month Community Breakfast. This year’s celebration of Women of Queens featured five honorees: Carmen Griffin, Technical Director and Operations Manager for the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC); Nicole Maguire, Professor and Director of LaGuardia’s Business Administration Program; Dr. Rosamond Gianutsos, First Vice Chair of Queens Community Board 2 and member of Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives; Christina Chaise, 2nd Vice President of the Ravenswood Houses Residents’ Association and Advocacy Coordinator for the Equitable Neighborhoods practice at TakeRoot Justice; and Whitney Thomas Toussaint, Co-President of the Community Education Council of District 30. This event was started 15 years ago by our former NYS Assemblymember, Cathy Nolan. We are pleased to carry on the tradition with Councilmember Won, who is a tireless advocate for LaGuardia. | | | | |
