 |  | This summer, a LaGuardia student signed up for an internship 160 miles from Long Island City, well beyond the range of his MetroCard. Kendall Claggett was our first student to intern at GlobalFoundries, a $7 billion semiconductor manufacturer in Malta, NY. (Readers who play the horses know Malta is about fifteen minutes from Saratoga.) Kendall, an electrical engineering major, is on to something. Upstate New York is becoming a global powerhouse when it comes to making computer chips. Remember the Biden administration’s 2022 CHIPS and Science Act? GlobalFoundries got a slug of $1.5 billion from the program to enhance Kendall’s workplace, Fab 8, while Micron was awarded $5 billion to build a new chip fab (semiconductor manufacturing facility) in Clay, just north of Syracuse. As the third-largest producer of STEM graduates in CUNY, including 469 engineering majors in 2023, LaGuardia hopes to connect more students like Kendall to rewarding careers in our state’s growing chip manufacturing sector. For a window into Kendall’s unique experience this summer check out his letter to me here.
| |
Workforce Training for Jobs in Film Production | |
|
Ever see the credits roll after a movie and scratch your head over what a grip does? Well, fourteen LaGuardia students are ready to set you straight. On July 25, we held a graduation ceremony for the first cohort of students to complete our new workforce training program in Film Production, offered by our Division of Adult and Continuing Education. The four-month, 90-hour course included hands-on training, career readiness workshops, and meetings with film and television employers, such as our neighbors at Silvercup Studios.
We developed the program in cooperation with Motion Picture Studio Mechanics Local 52 IATSE, the union that represents production workers on feature length motion pictures and episodic television series filmed in NYC. (Local 52 dates to 1922, when workers were concerned about conditions on a D.W. Griffith set.) Local 52 represents seven “crafts”: Property, Grip, Electric, Shop Craft, Sound, Video, and Allied/Medic. This summer there was a need for grips so there you go. In the fall we may turn to Electric (think Gaffer, Lamp Operator…), or Property (Prop Master, Set Dresser…). The choice of training is based on the needs of production companies and labor availability in the different union crafts. Thanks to generous funding from NYS Governor Kathy Hochul and NYS Empire State Development, the training is free.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, grips are responsible for setting up and maintaining camera equipment, assisting with lighting, and helping ensure on-set safety for the production crew. If the camera moves, you can thank a grip. Got it?
| |
Online Archives Exhibit Chronicles 15-Year Struggle for NYC Gay Rights Bill | |
On June 20, the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives launched on online exhibition documenting the 15-year battle to get New York City’s Gay Rights Bill enacted into law. The legislation — controversial at the time — prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations. “The Battle for Intro. 2: The New York City Gay Rights Bill, 1971 to 1986” explores why, despite being one of the first cities in the nation to introduce a Gay Rights Bill, New York was one of the last to turn its proposal into law. Curated by Dr. Stephen Petrus, historian and director of Public History Programs of the Archives, the exhibit features pieces by LaGuardia students, who conducted interviews with activists involved in the fight for the legislation. Dr. Petrus reflects on his two-year project to assemble this exhibit in a recent article for Gay City News. | | |
|
Friends of the college know how much our students depend on LaGuardia CARES for emergency assistance – housing, food, medical bills, and the like. Indeed, thanks to many generous donors (including you, dear reader?) LaGuardia CARES receives increasing support from the LaGuardia Foundation. Less well known is the woman who runs the program, Dr. Rhonda Mouton. Rhonda tends to keep the spotlight on the students she serves, thus we were surprised to discover some personal info about her in a recent issue of Women in Higher Education. Turns out that Rhonda was once in need of emergency assistance herself. The New Orleans native was forced to flee the Crescent City after Hurricane Katrina. In a profile published this month, Rhonda explains how living through Katrina informs her work with LaGuardia students, especially during crises. And she describes how the master’s and Ed.D. degrees she has earned while working at LaGuardia have made her a more effective advocate for policies, funding, and other resources to assist community college students in need. Read Rhonda’s interview here. | |
Help Wanted: Internships for LaGuardia Students | |
It’s no secret — we need to find a meaningful internship for every LaGuardia student that wants one. It should be in the student’s field of interest, of sufficient length, with a good supervisor, and, of course, it should be paid. A good internship helps a student augment classroom learning with on-the-job experience and drives a virtuous cycle in which work-based learning increases academic confidence, curiosity, and motivation. You can’t dream what you’ve never seen. Internships enable community college students to see their futures (at least those related to their majors) and make better choices regarding their education and career pathways. Shameless plug: if you have any suggestions for internships for LaGuardia students during the upcoming academic year please send me a note. Thank you. | |
Three LaGuardia Faculty Awarded CUNY Research Grants | |
The Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies (BRES) Collaboration Hub recently announced the recipients of the BRES Research Seed Grant Awards, which recognize faculty members’ research and its potential to make important contributions in the field of Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies. Among the recipients were three LaGuardia professors: Associate Professor of English Jesse Schwartz, for the project, “America’s Russia: The Bolshevik Revolution, Racial Socialism, and the Concept of Eurasia in the US Print Culture, 1882-1929”; Professor of English Christopher Schmidt, for the project, “Black Geographies and Human-Plant Entanglements in Maria Thereza Alves’s Seeds of Change”; and, Associate Professor of English Paul Fess for his project, “The Antislavery Songbook.” Congratulations to our colleagues on receiving these important awards. | |
College Rankings: LaGuardia Nursing Program #1 in New York State (Again) | |
LaGuardia Community College has the best nursing program in New York State according to Beckers Hospital Review. The rankings, published on July 16, are based on pass rates on the National Council Licensure Examination-RN (NCLEX-RN). They cover 101 colleges that award associates, bachelor’s, and direct-entry master’s degrees in nursing, which is basically every program with a pulse. The Beckers Hospital Review list is based on rankings from RegisteredNursing.com, initially reported in December 2023 and updated in June 2024. In both studies, LaGuardia earned the top spot in New York State with 98.51 out of a maximum of 100 points. Program Director Dr. Faith Armstrong promises to improve our ranking next year. | |
New 29th Street Greenway: Festive Site for Safe Summer '24 Event | |
In late July, LaGuardia and Community Capacity Development came together for Safe Summer 2024, a community-based initiative to reduce gun violence. The event, which took place on the LaGuardia Community Greenway, promoted safety and security, and raised awareness of the problem of violent crime in NYC. Community Capacity Development began the Safe Summer initiative in 2016 in response to the uptick in violent crime during the summer months. Since then, the initiative has expanded to more than two dozen cities across the US. We were pleased to join Councilmember Julie Won and lend a hand. | |
Pres and Cabinet Serve Up Summer BBQ for Public Safety, Facilities Personnel | |
On August 16, my colleagues and I served a BBQ lunch to LaGuardia’s Public Safety Officers, Custodians, and Buildings and Grounds personnel – our way of saying thank you for all the great work they do year-round. Smoke from the grill wafted into the Poolside Café, making SVP Shahir Erfan nervous about an inadvertent triggering of the fire suppression system, while the rest of us hung out under the warm August sun in the Cobblestone Courtyard. Someone’s Spotify playlist was amplified by the portable sound system. Second helpings of Executive Legal Counsel Maria Cook’s delicious banana pudding disappeared before Shahir returned. | | | | |
