CCNY's 2026 New York City Urban Fellows, Abram Morris and Victoria Lu
Two City College of New York students have been awarded New York City Urban Fellowships by the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
The students, Victoria Lu and Abram Morris, will join a cohort of 25 Fellows who will be assigned to various mayoral offices and New York City agencies for a nine-month period starting in September 2026, engaging in policy and operational work. They will also participate in learning seminars and be exposed to public sector leaders.
A Macaulay Honors student and a triple major (international studies, sociology, and political science) at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, Lu also earned an Advanced Certificate in Labor Relations from the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. A former City College Fellow, Colin Powell School Research Fellow, Moynihan Public Service Fellow, and Jeannette K. Watson Fellow, she will spend the summer months in Malaysia with Whose Knowledge?, a nonprofit organization concerned with sharing marginalized communities’ knowledge online. She will be working on two initiatives, “Decolonizing the Internet,” and “Liberatory Archives and Memory!”
Lu sees the Urban Fellows program as a way to get “a foot in the door” as she starts her career in public service by gaining experience in city government, specifically in labor issues.
Morris is a graduate student in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture’s “5+1” B Arch – MUP Urban Design Accelerated Master’s Degree program. As a Colin Powell Fellow in Leadership and Public Service, he interned at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Construction & Development division, and the New York City Public Advocate’s Infrastructure and Environmental Justice Unit. Working under Deputy Public Advocate Kashif Hussain, he learned about “people and neighborhoods who are not thoughtfully included in the process of deciding the destiny of their neighborhood.” That, he said, was the main driver for his applying to be an Urban Fellow.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 2.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.7 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. By May 2026, more than $500 million had been raised. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Syd Steinhardt
212-650-7875
ssteinhardt@ccny.cuny.edu