| |  | If you’re wondering whether we feel the effects of the actions of the new administration in Washington I can assure you the answer is yes. For example, I often use these pages to share stories of the accomplishments of LaGuardia’s immigrant students -- you know our role as destination for foreign-born students in search of the education and training that will help them succeed in this country. So, it’s not hard to imagine the fear and anxiety many of them feel because of the anti-immigrant rhetoric, highly publicized ICE arrests, and threats of mass-deportations. The president’s order to end Birthright Citizenship and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ January 17 ruling against the DACA program add to their stress. It’s enough to scare students from going to class, which is, sadly, what’s starting to happen. Of course, most LaGuardia students are not at risk of being deported, but many have friends and family with temporary immigration status that they fear may be revoked. Amid the uncertainty we are regularly sharing updates and resources with students to make sure they feel supported.
Then there was the move on January 27 to freeze about $3 trillion in federal grants and loans. That put us on edge, as we have a number of multi-year grants from federal agencies. That the administration rescinded the directive was a relief, though now we likely face lengthy reviews, agency by agency, of grants and contracts that support important college initiatives. The directives to root out DEI initiatives across the government and within organizations receiving federal funding augment our concerns. LaGuardia is gloriously diverse by virtue of our location in Queens; we’re a naturally occurring melting pot. According to the US Department of Education we are a Hispanic Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution. LaGuardia is a leader in CUNY for the LGBTQ+ community. We strive to be diverse, welcoming, and supportive. It’s in our institutional DNA. We are a trusted beacon of hope and opportunity for immigrants, and we do our best to uphold the values of a free and democratic society.
| |
LaGuardia and Lexington School for the Deaf Rebuild Partnership | |
On a rainy Thursday afternoon in late November a LaGuardia delegation set out for East Elmhurst to visit Lexington School for the Deaf. Dr. Alexis McLean, vice president of student affairs, Jhony Nelson, director of our Office of Accessibility, and Dr. Shannon Lund, admissions director, were on a mission to rebuild LaGuardia’s partnership with this iconic institution. Your author squeezed into the back seat of the college Taurus so he could join them. Lexington School for the Deaf was founded in 1864 by Hannah and Isaac Rosenfeld to educate their deaf daughter. They held classes in their Manhattan home before incorporating in 1869. Thirteen years later, after several relocations, they moved to a building on guess which avenue, where the school got its name and remained until 1968, when, to accommodate growing enrollment, it moved to Queens. Today, Lexington is the largest school for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in New York State, serving about 230 students from the city and beyond. It offers comprehensive programs from preschool to high school, including specialized services and even a dormitory. Given LaGuardia’s commitment since our founding to welcoming and supporting Deaf students, Alexis and her team decided it was time to strengthen our ties with Lexington. That she recently secured a $5.8 million grant from the NY State Department of Education to support students with disabilities made the visit all the more timely. This is a reciprocal partnership: we welcome Lexington graduates who want to pursue their associate degrees at LaGuardia, and LaGuardia students in our Deaf Studies major get internships and jobs at Lexington (eighteen of them at last count). | |
Members of the team overseeing the construction of the Cohen Career Collective recently chose The Switzer Group to lead the design and engineering of the new, state-of-the-art, 160,000 square-foot workforce training center in the college’s C-Building. The Cohen Career Collective is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, led by philanthropist and New York Mets owner Alex Cohen, which awarded a grant of $116.2 million to LaGuardia last March. This is the largest gift ever presented to a community college in the United States, and the largest donation awarded to a college in the City University of New York. The Switzer Group, a certified Minority Business Enterprise, is an award-winning global design firm with a rich 50-year legacy of excellence in interior architecture, design, planning, and strategy. Readers interested in learning more about the project should contact Kate Reggev, project manager, at kate.reggev00@lagcc.cuny.edu. | |
LaGuardia CARES Increases Support for Students Facing Housing, Food Insecurity | | |
|
LaGuardia CARES recently received an additional $50,000 from Airbnb to support students experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. The contribution brings Airbnb’s support of LaGuardia CARES to $200,000 over the past two years. Big thanks to our generous friends at Airbnb! Dr. Rhonda Mouton and her LaGuardia CARES team – relentless in their pursuit of resources for students in need – also received $31,000 from the NYC Department of Social Services for the food pantry, where supplies have been running low. Individual donors to the LaGuardia Foundation earmarked year-end gifts to LaGuardia CARES, giving Rhonda funds for emergency situations in which a small cash subsidy to help with back rent, a medical expense, or a warm coat can enable a LaGuardia student to stay in school. | |
Nursing Program Maintains Perfect 100% Pass Rate in 2024 | |
LaGuardia’s Nursing Program continues to be Number One among all four-year and community college programs in New York State. Big shout-out to professor and program director Faith Armstrong and her amazing faculty. Their eighty-four graduates maintained perfect pass rates (100%!) on the NCLEX-RN licensure exam in 2024. Remember – when you see a nurse at your local health care provider, make sure they’re a LaGuardia Nurse! | |
Jay Golan, Executive Director of the LaGuardia Community College Foundation, stopped by the other day to give us an update on Named Scholarships -- gifts both annual and endowed that are awarded to students for associate degree programs and named per terms of the donor (often for the donor or for someone the donor wishes to honor). Most of these scholarships require students to apply and interview. They feature eligibility requirements agreed upon by Jay and the donors. In the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, Jay and his team have awarded more than half a million dollars in Named Scholarships thanks to generous donors and partners, including Rise Light & Power, the Amazin’ Mets Foundation, Con Edison, and many others. Awards, which range from $1,000 to $2,000, help students pay for tuition, textbooks, and other non-tuition costs of college. | |
Professors Bijoyeta Das and Noam Scheindlin Receive NEH Cultural and Community Resilience Grant | |
On January 14, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced $22.6 million in grants for 219 humanities projects across the country. Here in Long Island City the NEH awarded a $150,000 Cultural and Community Resilience grant to Bijoyeta Das, Associate Professor and Director of the Journalism Program, and Dr. Noam Scheindlin, Professor, Director of the Creative Writing major, and Honors Program Co-Director. Their project is called, “Transmission Regained: Recalling Traditional Lifeways through Intergenerational Oral History in the ‘World’s Borough,’ Queens.” It will include an intergenerational oral history collection of forty-two interviews exploring alienation from nature and traditional practices in the face of climate change in Queens. | |
|
Petrie Foundation Provides Generous Support for ESOL and Career Services | |
LaGuardia was recently awarded a $210,000 renewal grant from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation to enhance our English Express program, designed to help asylum seekers and others learn English. The program, managed by the Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET) in LaGuardia’s Continuing Education Division, launched in November 2023 with an initial $210,000 grant from the Petrie Foundation. LaGuardia is the largest provider of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) instruction in New York City. English Express offers orientation and assessment, English language workshops contextualized for the challenges of daily city living, and referrals to educational and training programs at LaGuardia and partner organizations. The Petrie Foundation also gave the college an $85,000 grant to support the consolidation and strengthening of our multiple career services offices so that we can better assist students with internships, jobs, career planning, and preparation. | |
Professor Ann Matsuuchi Publishes Reference Guide on Life and Works of Samuel R. Delany | | |
|
In early January, Ann Matsuuchi, Professor and Instructional Technology Librarian, published Samuel R. Delany: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works with Rowman & Littlefield. Co-authored with Beth Mannion (Baruch College), Lavelle Porter (Macaulay Honors College), and Kenny Roggenkamp (Binghamton University), Professor Matsuuchi’s new book highlights Delany’s broad influence in literary criticism, science fiction, Afrofuturism, and queer theory. Delany has received numerous accolades, including the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2013 and the Kessler Award from the Center for LGBTQ Studies in 1997 for his lifetime contributions to LGBTQ studies. Professor Matsuuchi, who regards Delany as a mentor, friend, and teacher, emphasizes his contributions to pedagogical practices. | |
Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Provides $1.4 Million in Grants to LaGuardia | |
|
In their 2024 year-end round of grantmaking, the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation announced more than 530 awards totaling $208 million, and, thankfully, two of those grants were made to LaGuardia.
The Center for Immigrant Education and Training's NYC Welcome Back Center was awarded $1.2 million to support healthcare professionals trained overseas who are seeking to work here. The project will assist immigrant healthcare professionals in restarting their careers while building a pipeline of qualified workers to meet the needs of local providers.
The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation also allocated a $200,000 award to support our Community Health Worker training program. The initiative trains unemployed and underemployed immigrants with limited English proficiency to work as community health workers.
| | | | |
