The Southpole Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the SOUTHPOLE® hip-hop apparel brand, has awarded $20,000 in scholarships to LaGuardia students for the 2025–26 academic year. Since 2005, the Southpole Foundation has donated $288,000 to LaGuardia, supporting 138 student scholarship recipients and becoming one of the college’s longest-standing corporate partners. An article in QNS notes that SOUTHPOLE’s immigrant roots—its founders emigrated from South Korea—resonate strongly with scholar recipients. Two of the 2025-26 scholars include Mustapha Kenna, a Programming and Software Development major from Morocco, and Khine Zin (Valentina) Thaw, an Electrical Engineering major from Myanmar.

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Students at LaGuardia are taking an active role in learning about agricultural policy at a national level. Recently, two students, JoJo Adeyemi and Diana Diaz, and Environmental Science Program Coordinator Omar Salas Lopez attended the Model USDA Congress in Tempe, Arizona, for a first-of-its-kind, hands-on experience in agricultural policy, career exploration, and understanding the role of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “This was a significant professional and academic opportunity,” said Dr. Preethi Radhakrishnan, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Environmental Science program. “We were one of the few community colleges presented with the opportunity.” Model USDA is a multi-day simulation for college students in the USDA NextGen program. Launched in 2025 by Arizona State University’s Swette Center, this conference gives students a unique opportunity to step into the shoes of federal food policy decision-makers and stakeholders. Inspired by Model United Nations and Model Congress, Model USDA is designed to engage, educate, and empower the next generation of leaders in food and agriculture policy. 

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LaGuardia has been awarded a grant from technology company Wacom to provide students with access to professional‑grade digital drawing tools used by artists and designers worldwide. LaGuardia is the inaugural recipient of the Wacom Lab Grant, created to support educators who are expanding access to industry-standard tools and preparing students for future careers in art, design, and other creative fields. Through the grant, LaGuardia will receive 15 Wacom Cintiq 16 pen displays for use by students in the Fine Arts, Design Studies, and New Media Technology programs. The devices will be integrated into coursework across illustration, graphic design, comics and graphic narrative, animation, web design, and computer art, supporting more than 530 students across the three academic programs. The project is led by Ari Richter, Professor of Fine Arts, and Dr. Jessica Boehman, Interim Humanities Department Chair and Professor of the Art and Illustration History.

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Dahlia Elsayed, professor and director of LaGuardia's Fine Arts program, was awarded the inaugural State of the Art Prize by Creative Capital, the nonprofit organization dedicated to championing artistic freedom of expression by supporting individual artists across the United States. On January 9, Creative Capital announced the presentation of $2.9 million in grants to 109 artists residing in all 50 U.S. states and territories. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has provided $55 million in grants and services to 1,119 artists across the country. Professor Elsayed is among the 53 artists who were awarded a $10,000 unrestricted grant for the first time in Creative Capital’s 25-year history. “I’m thrilled to have my work recognized by Creative Capital, an organization with an incredible history of supporting artists, visionary projects and freedom of expression,” said Professor Elsayed.

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Steven Garcia, an Environmental Science major, attended the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) 2026 Annual Meeting, January 3–7, in Portland, Oregon, alongside Dr. Allie Brashears, Professor of Biology. At SICB, Garcia and Dr. Brashears presented their collaborative study, “Regional Variation in Diamondback Terrapin Diets and Its Implications for Conservation,” which examines how the diets of diamondback terrapins—a turtle species native to the eastern and southern United States—vary across geographic regions. Their research highlighted why dietary differences are important for understanding the species’ ecology and for informing effective conservation strategies. Their attendance at SICB was supported by LaGuardia’s USDA NextGen grant.