News from LaGuardia Community College
Perhaps you have heard already, but it bears repeating: we reached our $10 million goal for the Tomorrow Campaign, which secured the $5 million pledge from the anonymous donor who inspired this historic fundraising effort for LaGuardia. In June the Board of Directors of the LaGuardia Foundation will meet to discuss the allocation of the $15 million in campaign proceeds. Funds will be targeted to scholarships for both degree-seeking and workforce training students, emergency grants (food, back rent, medical expenses) stipends for internships, as well as mini-grants for books, laptops, and supplies. Unlike other institutions, we are not parking the proceeds in an endowment; no, we must respond to the moment, and deliver support to LaGuardia students in need as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you were one of the 611 donors to the campaign thank you very much for your support. 
Kennedy Center Gives Gold Medallion Award to Professor Stefanie Sertich 
LaGuardia Theater Program Director Stefanie Sertich recently received one of the highest honors in theater education. She was selected for the Gold Medallion Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), the premiere theater festival for the more than 700 theater programs at two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States. The award honors individuals and organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to the teaching and production of theater, and who have significantly dedicated their time, artistry, and enthusiasm to the development of the KCACTF. "As a filmmaker, actor, and aspiring casting director, I credit LaGuardia's Theater Program for teaching me both the fundamentals of acting and how to devise a project from start to finish," said Tramaine "Tray" Bembury, who earned his associate degree in Theater from LaGuardia and his BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University. "It's where I became a theater artist and found a mentor in Professor Sertich." 

LaGuardia Secures National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for New Healthcare Program 
LaGuardia has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a new program -- Liberal Arts: Health Humanities Option. As reported in The New York Times, the Health Humanities option will give students a foundation in the social, cultural, and historical contexts of medical ethics, health, and medicine. Featuring an interdisciplinary curriculum, the program will prepare students for careers in clinical health, social work, public health, health education, counseling, and other fields. This new LaGuardia associate degree will be the ninth track of our Liberal Arts program. Current options include Applied Math, Deaf Studies, History, International Studies, Japanese, Journalism, Latin American Studies, and Math and Science. Kudos to Dr. Christine Marks, associate professor of English, and Dr. Justin T. Brown, associate professor of Health Sciences, for leading this exciting initiative. 

coronavirus
The Challenge of Covid Melt 
One of my biggest obsessions these days is the crisis of NYC high school graduates whose educations were disrupted by the pandemic. Think about it: from June of 2020 through June of 2022 there will be approximately 180,000 NYC DOE high school graduates who will have had anywhere from one to three semesters of online high school. It is hard to imagine that coping with Covid did not affect these students’ high school learning and college-readiness. While some well prepared, middle class students with sufficient bandwidth and reliable Wi-Fi at home may have survived online high school, my fear is that many students from low-income households did not. Imagine if the number of students affected is, for example, 50% of the 180,000 graduate cohort cited above—you do the math. Now add this: big enrollment declines all across CUNY (a problem no longer limited to the community colleges) suggest that these recent “Covid Grads” are not enrolling in college. So, where are they? Some are probably working, or looking for work. Others are victims of Covid classroom burn-out; they are fed up with school. It is safe to assume that the pandemic derailed many thousands of NYC high school students from their educational pathways. College plans canceled, dreams deferred. What can LaGuardia do? See the next story… 
Career Start 2.0 
Last year, VP of Adult Education and Workforce Development, Sunil Gupta, launched Career Start, a 10-week summer program that provides intensive math instruction and career exploration to LaGuardia-bound high school graduates, with a focus on first-gen students who don’t have family members with college experience to guide them. A key goal of Career Start is to give students information and know-how so that they choose their majors thoughtfully, ideally with career goals in mind. (Financial aid regulations require low-income students to declare their majors upon enrollment in CUNY.) Career Start students take intensive math classes Monday through Thursday to prepare them for college-level math. On Fridays, LaGuardia faculty give guest lectures on their disciplines, and describe the jobs and careers that correspond to the majors in their departments. There is also plenty of pizza. Thanks to increased funding from the CUNY Central Office, Sunil will be doubling the enrollment this summer to 50 students. As a LaGuardia student who completed Career Start last summer told us, “I’d been struggling to decide my major, and after learning about different careers through Career Start, I was able to make my decision and start planning my future.” We are onto something with Career Start. Now we just have to figure out how to bring it to scale.
Professor Michele Mills Honored for Contributions to Occupational Therapy Field 
Congratulations to Michele Mills, MA, OTR/L, on being honored by her alma mater, the New York University Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy, for her significant contributions to the field of Occupational Therapy throughout her 37-year career as a practitioner and professor. As an associate professor in our Occupational Therapy Assistant program, Professor Mills provides mentoring that gives students confidence and practical know-how based on her hands-on experience with patients. LaGuardia’s OTA program has a 97 percent graduation rate and a more than 90 percent pass rate on the national certification exam. 
America’s Community Colleges as Drivers of Upward Mobility 
This month’s Harvard Magazine has an excellent article that makes a timely and compelling case for community colleges. Harvard’s new Project on Workforce asks what’s required to “move more lower- and middle-class Americans into good livelihoods”. Their solution: community colleges. The five-person team behind the Project on Workforce includes Bob Schwartz and Joe Fuller, experts in higher education and workforce development with whom I had the good fortune to collaborate for a report produced by Opportunity America in 2020. Trust me, they know what they are talking about. Bottom line: America’s community colleges are critical for increasing economic mobility, ensuring an equitable post-Covid recovery, and producing a higher-skilled, more competitive workforce. 

Questions? Comments? Contact me at PresidentAdams@lagcc.cuny.edu.