Press from the Guttman Prez - Summer Edition 2022

Dear Guttman Family & Supporters:

We have arrived to the close of a remarkable academic year!

Stella & Charles Guttman Community College remains a beacon of hope and inspiration for a diverse student demographic in New York City. Over the last year, faculty and staff remained resolute in identifying high impact practices that would provide students meaningful learning experiences and impactful co-curricular programming. With a gradual return to in-person learning, campus leaders collaborated to ready the campus to be safe and conducive to learning.

As the campus increased in-person learning and greater campus density, we did so with a key theme in mind: “Building A Stronger Guttman.” It is this focus that foregrounded the Guiding Principles below:

A commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging;
An intentional focus on practices to improve enrollment, retention, and graduation;
Continuous assessment of student learning outcomes;
A focus on employee satisfaction and organizational vitality; and
A review and assessment of current systems and practices that pose barriers to day-to-day operations and future growth and expansion.

It is the above tenets that informed a year-long campus and external engagement around the next strategic plan (2022-2027). Dialogue also centered on a review of our mission and vision statements and values--in response to the most recent Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaffirmation visit.

We ended the year with the end in mind--commencement! On June 17 more than 139 students were celebrated for completing their academic journey with Guttman. George Suttles (Executive Director of Commonfund Institute) and several distinguished guests including, Dr. Marcus Allen (History Faculty), Cortez Vasquez (CUNY Trustee), were in attendance and provided inspiring words and nuggets of wisdom to the graduating class.

I anticipate a promising Academic Year 2022-23 and look forward to sharing future updates and stories.

The Best Is Still Yet to Come,

Dr. Larry Johnson, Jr. ("Dr. J")

President

Congratulations Class of 2022

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Two Students, Two G.P.A.'s

This year, two students with the highest grade point average of 4.0 merited the valedictorian medal.

Kareem Ahmed, born and raised in Cairo, is a self-described “entreprenerd” whose enduring passion for business began at an early age playing Monopoly, then starting a small business at age 16. “I study business, I do business, my dream goal is about business,” he says. Kareem applied to schools in Egypt before deciding he wanted to study in the U.S., a process which took him almost three years of planning and saving.

Upon arriving in JFK “knowing nobody and figuring out where to go,” he landed in Queens, washing dishes and driving for Uber while learning English from YouTube and ESL classes. His next step toward college was to get his Egyptian high school credentials accepted. Helping him navigate equivalencies for CUNY enrollment, Admissions Advisor Shomari Townsend was Kareem’s first introduction to Guttman. As he progressed from Summer Bridge through Spring 1, he points to Associate Professor of Business Naveen Seth, and Nancy Dessables, his Academic Internship supervisor, for their “amazing encouragement and support.”

“I think a big part of the reason I did well in my classes was because I found most of them very engaging and even fun,” says Luciana Vivanco Puccio. “In classes like Urban Community Health, we studied social issues or in Nineteenth Century Media and Identity, I learned subjects I never knew before.”

Luciana identified her biggest obstacle since moving from Peru four years ago to be language. Although she studied English in Lima, she was scared to speak it in her first year classes at Guttman. Frustrated with herself and determined to get out of her comfort zone, Luciana dove into improving her writing--so much so that she was hired as a Writing Peer Mentor. She enjoys helping non-native English speakers like herself, noting “I'm still improving, so it's great to be able to do that while working and helping other students.”

At Guttman, she found “many talented and kind-hearted mentors” such as her Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society advisors Krystal Liriano-Gonzales, Associate Director of Student Support and Academic Achievement, and Grace Pai, Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

End of the Year Cruise

“Our Student Government Association had a lot of goals they wanted to accomplish during their first year back on campus since March 2020...and one was to help revive Guttman’s student life,” declares Andrew Bennett, Director of Student Life. One of those is the perennial fan-favorite “End of Year Cruise” around Manhattan after sunset, which took place on June 13 from Pier 40 on City Cruises’ Hornblower.

This year’s event afforded students who had only met one another virtually during COVID to party in person. “Beautiful Grizzlies!” exclaimed SGA President Bashir Juwara. “Celebrating our time at Guttman, completing a strong academic year, overall excellence and GCC pride!”

Phi Theta Kappa (Beta Phi Gamma Chapter)

On June 15, Guttman students acknowledged for their academic excellence were inducted into the Beta Phi Gamma chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society. PTK, established in 1918 with chapters in over 1300 community colleges and 11 nations, recognizes and encourages scholarship among high-achieving associate degree students.

Students must have completed at least 12 hours of coursework with a 3.5 cumulative average to be invited for membership. Each chapter offers training for members to develop leadership and service. “For me, the most exciting part is how PTK provides great resources and opportunities for its members, but also expects members to give back, and that’s pretty cool,” says Eva Fernandez, Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

NEW EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

She is PHinishED!

If it takes one to know one, then Cristina Ortiz-Harvey knows a lot of Guttman students. Not only does she meet with dozens of students daily but this Latina first-generation college graduate earned her latest degree while working full time. Director of Financial Aid, Cristina attained her Bachelor of Arts at Hunter and her Master of Science from Baruch. This October, she receives her Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Dr. Ortiz-Harvey studies Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), the Federal regulation requiring students who receive financial aid to meet criteria of successful credit completion in order to maintain eligibility to continue their education. “Based on my experience working with students in navigating the SAP process, I listened closely to the emotional impact the SAP communication (or the lack thereof) had on my study participants. Many of them expressed feeling "like a failure" or "not good enough" when they found out they lost financial aid eligibility and they completely shut down. They lost hope, felt like they no longer had options, and the complicated appeal process did not help! Many chose to stop out of college and go to work until they could figure out how to return,” Cristina reports. “Many insights came from my research, and I’m glad that my findings have informed how Guttman’s Office of Financial Aid has implemented better practices.”

GUTTMAN NEWS

Metropolitan College of New York Articulation Agreement Signing

While students are busy with their coursework towards earning their Guttman diploma, college staff, administrators and faculty Program Coordinators work assiduously in the background to forge alliances with other NYC higher education institutions to make transfer of credits possible. On May 31, Guttman signed an articulation for a pathway for Information Technology AAS graduates to the Bachelor of Business Administration–Information Technology Management of the Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY). With campuses located in lower Manhattan and the South Bronx, MCNY offers an outstanding opportunity for Guttman’s Information Technology students to engage and enlarge their IT expertise in a variety of business contexts.

“Meeting with the leadership of MCNY, we found that they share many core values with us, including a core commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and a belief in the power of experiential education to promote transformational learning. We’re delighted to partner with MCNY’s School of Business and look forward to creating a rich connection between our institutions” says Niesha Ziehmke, Guttman’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Picture #1 Larry Johnson, Jr., President Guttman Community College, Joanne Passaro, President, Metropolitan Community College of New York.

Picture #2, L to R: Niesha Ziehmke, David Hahn, MCNY Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Radhika Jha, MCNY Associate Dean and Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs at the School for Business, Humphrey Crookendale, MCNY Vice President for Academic Affairs, Joanne Passaro, MCNY President, and Eva Fernandez, Interim Provost & Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

K-12 PARTNERSHIPS & ENGAGEMENT

Tour of NYC High Schools

From Monday, May 23 to Friday, May 27, Guttman President Larry Johnson, Jr. cleared his schedule for much-anticipated visits to five area high schools. There, he met with students and school leaders to strengthen existing and new partnerships. Dr. J. asked, “How can Guttman reach older high school alumni who, during the pandemic, could not enroll in higher ed as they planned?”

At each stop, beginning with Central Park East HS in Manhattan, the high school students’ questions steered the discussions to a variety of topics. At KIPP NYC College Prep HS in the South Bronx, conversation centered on how to overcome barriers to college and career dreams. Dialog at The Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters HS focused on ways colleges can help students feel like they belong, especially when they first start out. Talk “got real” at the Eagle Academy for Young Men II at Ocean Hill, Brooklyn when Dr. J. shared “The Guttman Promise,” pledging to work with its partners to create innovative pathways for young men of color and help ensure that students make a successful transition to college, careers and life beyond. College-credit and college-prep courses and activities, experiential summer programs, and access to campus facilities and cultural offerings were the highlights of the exchange at Queens’ Information Technology High School.

“We especially appreciated your "human touch" approach. President Johnson is a trendsetter being the first CUNY president to visit our school. This is something that we will never forget and truly conveyed the heart of a ‘servant leader.’" These words came in the form of a thank-you note from The Information Technology High School Team in Queens, the final stop of Dr. J’s week-long Tour of NYC High Schools, arranged by Guttman’s Director of Admissions, Sophea Sainsurin. “My team and I wanted to introduce Dr. J and to understand the effect of changes already in motion in order to achieve some of Guttman’s student-centered goals effectively,” explained Sainsurin.

UNDER SECRETARY JAMES KAVAAL VISITS GUTTMAN

A Review of Transformation and Successful Outcomes

How does a small New York City community college, just 10 years in existence, retain and graduate students at nearly twice the national average rate—and continue to do so during a global pandemic in a city which the CDC identified as “the early epicenter of COVID in the United States?”

That’s the main question that prompted U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal to send an email to President Larry Johnson, Jr. and CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodriguez asking to visit Guttman. As U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary, Kvaal coordinates policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, career-technical education, adult education, federal student aid, and the White House initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

During the course of his May 25 day-long campus visit, Kvaal met with members of the College’s leadership team, faculty and staff to learn about Guttman’s unique high-impact educational model, designed and refined specifically to close equity gaps in student access and achievement. At his request, Kvaal moderated a roundtable discussion with Guttman students, including Peer Mentors, wanting to hear directly from them about the challenge of navigating mental health while trying to manage college coursework.

Present for the discussion, Interim Provost Eva Fernandez noted, “I really appreciated the candor and engagement from our students as they spoke to Under Secretary Kvaal about mental health needs and how this global health crisis has both made them stronger but also made them realize that they have to seek out support when they need it.”

Kvall inquired of Courtney Stevenson, Director of Student Counseling and Wellness Services, what impact federal stimulus-funded support services may have had assisting students in persevering in their studies through the pandemic. “In addition to federal emergency-funded extra and expanded services CUNY provided, we were able to use the funds for TimelyCare, a comprehensive telehealth platform, and to hire a case manager and more counselors,” Stevenson stated. “Unequivocally, though, going forward, federal funding would make it possible for higher eds to increase staff so more students are able to be seen, which allows us to expand programming, trainings, and overall support.”

INAUGURAL LAVENDER CELEBRATION

Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

Picture #1 Chris Roth (L), Assistant Director of Academic Technology, and Yolelda Ira (R), Administrative Coordinator

Picture #2 Jaclyn Helms, Executive Officer for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, Nicola Blake, Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs

Picture #3 Sylvester Allen, Disability Accommodations Specialist

Chris Roth, Assistant Director of Academic Technology and Yolelda Ira, Administrative Coordinator, in concert with the CUNY LGBTQI+ Council, hosted Guttman's inaugural Lavender Celebration, a powerful kick - off for the numerous activities offered during the college’s June 2022 Month of Pride.

The June 7 campus event‘s keynote speaker was Dr. Ronni Sanlo, Director Emeritus of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center at University of California, Los Angeles. Ronni held the first Lavender Celebration in 1995 at the University of Michigan with three graduates. She created the event for two reasons: First, she wasn’t invited to her children’s graduation because of her sexual orientation. Second, she wanted LGBTQ+ students to have a positive and affirming last impression of their college experience.

In keeping with CUNY’s LGBTQI+ Council’s mission of “ensuring the visibility and inclusion of the entire spectrum of LGBTQI+ students, faculty and staff,” President Larry Johnson, Jr. and Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs Nicola Blake addressed the participants. Following an informative presentation of important historical events in LGBTQI+ history from Disability Accommodations Specialist II Sylvester Allen, graduating students were gifted with rainbow tassels. “The most important reason for the Lavender Celebration was to honor our LGBTQ+ and Ally students' achievements and contributions to the college,” explained Chris Roth. “We’re hoping to make this an annual tradition.”