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The best community colleges deliver on two missions: an educational mission and a community service mission. They excel at teaching and learning, and they serve as anchor institutions in their communities. Those that are ambitious – reflecting the striving nature of their students – constantly seek to do better on both fronts. They want greater academic success for their students and a thriving, healthy community for everyone. At LaGuardia, to emphasize the importance of our community service mission I often remind colleagues that we need to double-down on the second word in our name. Sometimes they toss that back at me and I end up in interesting places. See below.
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Kingsborough Has a Beach; We Have a Creek | |
 |  | Given the order to cast off by Capt. Willis Elkins I released the painter and slithered down the crooked aluminum ladder into his hand-made, wooden skiff. The tide was low, exposing damp muck and suspicious-looking mollusks clutching the old stone bulkhead off 520 Kingsland Avenue, on the south bank (Brooklyn side) of Newtown Creek. Elkins coaxed the sensitive throttle of his Torqeedo to a brisk five knots and we headed out into the estuary, a light chop lapping against the starboard side of the skiff thanks to a cool breeze from the east. The leader of the Newtown Creek Alliance for ten years, and captain of countless voyages up and down this storied three-and-a-half-mile post-industrial waterway (one uses the term water advisedly when referring to an EPA Superfund site), Elkins needs no navigational aids. He set a true course toward the mouth of Dutch Kills, the silted up, horribly polluted extension of Newtown Creek that terminates a few hundred yards from the LaGuardia Campus or adjacent to a concrete plant, depending on one’s point of view.
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The purpose of this maritime expedition? To help your author better appreciate the important work done over many years by Professor Sarah Durand, her colleagues in Natural Sciences, and their students to reclaim this historic waterway, once edged by lush tidal marshes and home to abundant avian and marine life. On this cool, April afternoon, blue skies overhead, we drifted quietly in Dutch Kills -- Torqeedos are electric – while Mother Nature reminded us of her awesome resilience: Geese, goslings, egrets, and herons wandered along the shore, LaGuardia’s C Building in the background. “So, what do you think?” asked Elkins? “Look,” I said, “Kingsborough Community College is on Manhattan Beach; we have Dutch Kills and Newtown Creek – fantastic outdoor classrooms for LaGuardia students learning to save the planet.” | |
Don’t try to tell LaGuardia English professor Gordon Tapper that English majors don’t land good jobs. He won’t have it. In fact, to make his point that English majors enjoy employment rates and peak salaries similar to college graduates of all majors, Dr. Tapper co-authored a report released in March by the Modern Language Association’s Association of Departments of English. His “Report on English Majors’ Career Preparation and Outcomes” concludes that English majors indeed find jobs and earn good salaries. As he posted on X, “My work on the MLA report has shown me that it is crucial...to become much more explicit in our courses about how doing things like analyzing a short story will...prepare students for personally fulfilling and financially rewarding careers”. | | |
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Two LaGuardia students, Allen Chien and Amena Shamia, have been awarded Barry Goldwater Scholarships, one of the oldest and most esteemed national scholarships for STEM majors in the U.S. The 2024 Goldwater Scholars were selected from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants, and only a handful of winners come from community colleges. Allen, who is from Taiwan, graduated from LaGuardia in December 2023 with an associate degree in Computer Science, and is now pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His mentors at LaGuardia include Dr. Praveenkumar Khethavath, Professor and Computer Science Program Director; Dr. Midas Tsai, Chemistry Professor; and Dr. Maria Entezari, Natural Sciences Professor. Amena, a Biology major from Bangladesh, plans to earn a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and become a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her mentors include Dr. Claudette Davis, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of LaGuardia’s Biology Program; Dr. Tonya Hendrix, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences at LaGuardia; and Dr. Xueling Wu, Principal Investigator at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where Amena worked as a research assistant. | |
On April 16, LaGuardia hosted our ninth Black Lives Matter Summit, “Black Creative Expression, Politics, and Social Change.” This year’s event explored the power of Black expression, Black creativity, and Black politics while celebrating “50 Years of Hip Hop.” The Summit featured keynote speaker Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, a Trinidadian-born poet, teacher, and performer who was raised in Queens and attended LaGuardia, the University of Southern Maine, and Fordham University. Boyce-Taylor is the author of seven poetry collections, including her most recent, The Limitless Heart: New and Selected Poems (1997-2022). | |
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LaGuardia Students Advocate for Increased US Foreign Aid to Address Women’s Needs | | |
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On March 14th, two students from the LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative, Abir Apon, a Business and Technology major, and Nang Kham Hsi Liang, a Biotechnology major, represented LaGuardia on Capitol Hill through a partnership with CARE. During their two days in Washington, D.C., Abir and Nang met with global leaders and CARE experts to discuss how advocacy impacts US investment in foreign assistance for women and girls. Part of our new Office of Global and Experiential Learning, the LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative (LHI) focuses on issues included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Ninety-six LaGuardia courses have incorporated LHI in their curricula since its inception. The initiative, led by Professors Tuli Chatterji and Liz Jardin, has been acknowledged by the United Nations Academic Impact program, Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, and Nobel Laureate and Vice President Al Gore. | |
Everybody Wins National Awards from Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival | |
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Bravo to our Theater Program, which won four national awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) for its production of Everybody, directed by James Ryan (J.R.) Caldwell. The awards are Special Achievement in Production of a Play, Distinguished Achievement in Performance and Production Ensemble, Distinguished Achievement in Sound Design, and Special Achievement in Media Design. Everybody was one of just five invited productions at KCACTF Region 1, held earlier this year at Central Connecticut State University. “This is an incredible achievement,” said Theater Program Director Christopher Weston. “We are so proud of everyone involved, especially our students!”
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LaGuardia and Lehman College were recently awarded a three-year grant of $500,000 to support a new program called “Queens-Bronx Express (QBE): English for Work”. The effort is led by John Hunt, Assistant Dean for Pre-College Academic Programs in our Division of Adult and Continuing Education. He explains, “Through contextualized language training and applied learning, students in the QBE program will develop in-demand skills to prepare for quality jobs in the food service and healthcare sectors, which are top employers in both boroughs.” With LaGuardia as the lead for the Food Service track, and Lehman College leading the Healthcare track, students from both campuses can move seamlessly between programs. LaGuardia is a national leader in adapting Washington State’s “I-BEST” model to integrate basic English language skills and workforce training. This increases opportunities for students at lower English language levels who are often excluded from traditional job training programs.
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College Foundation Welcomes Charles Simon to Board of Directors | | |
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The Board of Directors of the LaGuardia Community College Foundation, led by Chairman Charles Boyce, of Boyce Technologies, recently elected Charles Simon as a new member. Charles is the President and co-founder of MoveIndigo, a political organization. Prior to MoveIndigo, Charles served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Ethics with UNAIDS in Geneva, Switzerland. Before that he was General Counsel and Director of Policy of Case Commons, a non-profit that creates software for human services. Charles has also served as Senior Vice President for Clear, Deputy Director of New York State Division of Criminal Justice, Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Federal Department of Justice. | |
LaGuardia on Stage at Ford Foundation Forum | |
Never wanting to miss a chance to wave the LaGuardia flag, your author participated in a panel discussion about the NYC labor market and workforce training needs at the Ford Foundation on April 18. Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future moderated our lively session as part of the 2024 CORO New York Executive Leadership Summit. Co-panelists battling me for airtime included Henry Garrido, Executive Director of DC 37; Chauncey Nartey, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Adult Learning Leaders; and Rafia Zahir-Uddin, Vice President for Global Philanthropy at JP Morgan Chase. | |
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The New York State Department of State recently selected Long Island City as a recipient of a Downtown Revitalization Initiative award. The designation comes with $10 million to invest in economic development projects throughout the neighborhood. The award will be managed our local community development and business assistance organization, the Long Island City Partnership, which is led by the indefatigable Laura Rothrock. We can’t think of a more deserving community for such generous support from Governor Hochul. | |
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LaGuardia in the News
EPICENTER NYC: LaGuardia Community College is helping to meet demand for English language classes in New York City.
TOWN & COUNTRY/ MSN: Profile of Alex Cohen, who recently donated $116 million to LaGuardia Community College, the school’s largest donation to date.
QUEENS LEDGER: The Job and Interview Fair hosted at LaGuardia Community College at the start of the Spring semester was a jam-packed event with endless opportunities for every type of LaGuardia student: from current students to recent graduates, and alumni.
STABROEK NEWS: Review and analysis of Ian Harnarine’s film “Doubles” (2023), a story about migration and family, written by Dr. Anita Baksh, Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. Her teaching and research focus on Caribbean literature, gender studies, and composition.
NY1: Hard Work Finally Pays Off for LaGuardia Community College Basketball Player.
DIVERSE: ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: LaGuardia has been recognized by the Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP) for its student centered, data-driven approaches that are helping their students succeed in the classroom and beyond, offering considerable returns on their educational investment.
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