Colin Powell School
U.S. Army Captain Don Gomez is a 2010 graduate of the Colin Powell School and currently a professor of Arabic at West Point. A soldier since 2001, Don left the Army for a period in 2006 to attend college. While at City College he was a Colin Powell Fellow and won a Truman Scholarship. Since earning a BA in International Studies from City College in 2010 and an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) in 2011, he has gone on to do extraordinary service as an Army officer.
Where are you from and what is your background?
My family is from New York City. I was born in Texas when my parents moved there for a couple of years. We moved back to New York when I was two years old. I was raised in New York and went to NYC public schools in Queens before I joined the Army in 2001.
What brought you to City College?
Three things brought me to City College: the International Studies program, the Colin Powell Center (as it was known then), and City’s reputation as a diverse school that welcomes everyone and punches above its weight academically. I came to City as a transfer student. I was transitioning out of the Army at the time and attending community college in North Carolina. I knew I wanted to come back to New York City to go to college, but I really didn’t know where I wanted to go. When I started doing my research, it became clear that City College was the only school that made sense for me. As I learned more about City College and its history, I became focused on going there – even though it would mean a two-hour commute from my parents’ house in Queens.
What was your concentration at City College, and what was your passion or purpose behind pursuing this concentration?
I majored in International Studies and took as many classes as I could on the Middle East and Arabic. I left the military with a desire to learn more about the Middle East as a direct result of my experience serving as an infantryman in Iraq. It was frustrating to be in a country where I didn’t understand the culture and couldn’t speak the language. City College also offered a great International Studies program that allowed me to develop a strong base while pursuing coursework that interested me. Through programs at City, I was able to study abroad in both Morocco and Egypt, greatly enhancing my understanding of the cultures and peoples of the Middle East.
How would you say City College has helped you to get to where you want to be professionally?
I owe my professional success to the faculty, staff, and students at City College. Of course, the academic instruction was terrific and prepared me for a career that continues to challenge me intellectually. However, the thing I remember most about City College is the mentorship I received from staff and faculty as I navigated my time there. I aggressively sought out mentors at City College as I was still adjusting to life as a student after recently returning from the Army. Across the college, I was encouraged to try new things, branch out, and generally “get out of my comfort zone”. The friends and diverse experiences I had at City College better prepared me for continued public service in the Army as an officer and leader, and especially now as a college instructor.
What can you tell us about your role at the U.S. Military Academy and about your time as a Colin Powell Fellow and Truman Scholarship awardee?
Currently, I am an Arabic instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. I teach the first year of Arabic to Cadets who will go on to become future officers in the United States Army. It is definitely strange to think back over ten years ago that I was sitting in a small classroom in the NAC, struggling to speak a little Arabic. Now I’m teaching it. I am incredibly proud to be a Colin Powell Fellow. It was the first challenging academic fellowship that I applied for and I felt incredibly nervous and undeserving – I was not a very good high school student and I never thought of myself as the type of person who would be involved in academic pursuits. But I’m glad I did, because my experience as a fellow helped shape the rest of my time at City College and beyond. It was through the Colin Powell Fellowship that I was introduced to the Truman Scholarship and the staff and faculty assisted me in putting together my application. I spent countless nights preparing my application and speaking with faculty about the process. I never considered graduate study until then. After I graduated from City College in 2010, I went to London to pursue an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
What advice would you give future and current students who are also looking to pursue these sorts of opportunities and experiences?
CCNY is a unique college with a special mission. I would encourage students at City to not simply show up for class to satisfy degree requirements. There is so much opportunity through actively seeking out mentors, projects, clubs, and friends that can have life-changing implications. If I remember correctly, Gen. Colin Powell himself started his military career by a chance encounter at City College – he happened to walk past the ROTC office and was curious! Those chance encounters coupled with hard work over time can light up a career.