From CCNY to Business Owner: Alumna Alice Mills Mai's Pursuit of Mental Health Counseling
Where are you from and what is your background story? Please share your details from the period before you arrived at CCNY.
I am human first before any titles or roles. I am Alice Mills Mai (she/her), a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (New York and Ohio) and a National Certified Counselor (NCC). I am an immigrant and a proud daughter of Ghanaian immigrants and I consider the Bronx to be my home. Through a family tragedy, I discovered the profession of counseling which… Read More »
Alanis Omar’s Academic Journey
YMCA of Greater New York Honors Heroes of New York at 46th Annual Dodge Dinner
Please share a little about your background — what is your story?
I am a first-generation college student with immigrant parents from the island of Trinidad and Tobago. Growing up, education was not seen as a necessity but rather a luxury for many of our parents, including mine. As a minority student at City College, I share the experiences and challenges faced by many of my peers. However, I have come to deeply… Read More »
Graduating to Success and Paying it Forward: Vanessa O’Neil’s Journey at CCNY and Beyond
Where are you from and what is your background story?
My family moved to Crown Heights from Trinidad when I was 4 years old, in search of better opportunities for my sisters and me. My mother dreamed of becoming a nurse but worked in local retail to supplement our household, while my father worked as a policeman. Back then the Crown Heights area was deeply impoverished, and the rampant crime made it a much more dangerous place than it is today. My parents… Read More »
Where are you from and what is your background story? Please share your details from the period before you arrived at CCNY.
I'm a proud alum of the New York City public school system. My parents immigrated from Bangladesh to Queens in the 1990s and managed to find a way to create a living for my brothers and myself. Though we grew up in a small, crowded apartment in Jackson Heights, and did not have much to spare, my parents were generous with others and shielded us from the daily financial pressures they faced. I only have the opportunities that I do… Read More »
“Your Professional Career is More a Marathon than a Sprint.” Steven Rodriguez (‘14) and his Journey to Career Success
Where are you from and what is your background story? Please share your details from the period before you arrived at CCNY.
I am a first-generation Latino with parents from Colombia. I was going through the motions of education because that was the norm. The idea I grew up with was that to succeed in a career, we had to graduate from college at the very least. Without much guidance from family, I quickly stumbled and lost track of why… Read More »
A First-Generation American Passionate About Public Service: The Story of Olakunle Atanda (‘14)
Olakunle is a first-generation American of Nigerian descent. He was born in Brooklyn but spent most of his formative years in Lagos, Africa’s most populous city. Growing up in a developing economy, he witnessed searing poverty, inequality, and political instability. This experience not only revealed to him the indispensable role of public policy in creating measures of support and opportunity for people but also seeded his passion for public service. After… Read More »
Where are you from and what is your background story? Please share your details from the period before you arrived at CCNY.
I am originally from Tallahassee, Florida. When my parents were married they moved to Florida from New York (my dad by way of Nigeria, my mom by way of a Caribbean-American family rooted in Crown Heights). I am the youngest of three, but to some, I give off only-child energy because of the age difference between my brother, sister, and me (6 and 12 years each, respectively). My parents divorced when I was in 6th grade and I ended… Read More »
“Pursue your passions and goals, shoot your shot and don't count yourself out”: The Journey of former D.C. Fellow Jason Santiago ‘20 and his path to self-discovery
Jason Santiago is a second-generation Bronxite and a proud product of the Caribbean Diaspora from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. A passion for giving back to his community along with first-hand experience with struggles of food insecurity, housing instability, and environmental and economic racism motivated Jason to pursue his education at Bronx Community College. There, his… Read More »
The Lewis Mandell Memorial Fund for Students of Economics
The Lewis Mandell Memorial Fund for Students of Economics was established in tribute to Lewis Mandell (1943-2019), a 1964 graduate of City College of New York who credited CCNY, and specifically the Economics Department, with giving him the strong foundation from which he launched an extraordinary academic career that spanned more than four decades.
Throughout his life, Lew helped countless students to achieve academic success and a chance to pursue their dreams. In gratitude to CCNY and the… Read More »
How Nini Puello Araujo, CPS Student and U.S. Military Veteran, Is Combining Dentistry and Humanitarianism
Since her family migrated to the US from Venezuela when she was a child, Nini J. Puello Araujo has built a career in service to society both as a U.S. Army veteran and as a rising humanitarian and public health professional. After completing her associate’s degree at Borough of Manhattan Community College, she joined the Army and served overseas for more than five years. One of her final missions was to set up a dental services clinic in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, an experience… Read More »
Last Updated: 08/26/2020 16:36