City College Salutes First MPA Graduates

Rangel Center at CCNY Helped Prepare Students for Public Service

Fourteen students, some already in public service, are the first recipients of The City College of New York’s (CCNY) new Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA), designed to inspire and prepare City College students for leadership positions in public service. 
 
All Rangel Scholars, the graduates completed the two-year program in CCNY’s Public Service Management Program (PSM) with support from The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service.

Based at CCNY, the Rangel Center provides scholarships and paid internships, in addition to sponsoring career building activities, a speaker’s series, a public-policy writing workshop, and a statistics support program.
 
Dr. Robert E. Paaswell, Interim President of The City College, hailed the graduates. “The College is proud of what you’ve accomplished and your strong desire to serve the public,” he said. “CCNY also is indebted to the Rangel Center and the enormous commitment it has made to further public service.”

U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, whose congressional district includes City College, said: “It gives me great pleasure to congratulate these CCNY Public Service Fellows not only as alumni of this unique program, but as fellow New Yorkers passionate about service and dedicated to the public good. They each have compelling stories as to how they got this point in their lives, with many of them the first in their family to get a master's degree.

“For our country to move forward in the 21st century, we must have a diverse corps of the best and brightest leaders whose range of perspectives and experiences mirrors that of our larger society. I have no doubt that this will be the first of many strong classes that will strengthen our nation for generations.”

The Class of 2010 includes two graduates, Juan Rosa and Joseph Alston, who are already in public service, both employed by the City Council. Mr. Rosa was recently appointed Community Liaison for Councilman Robert Jackson, after having spent last summer in Washington, D.C. interning in U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office. 

Mr. Alston, a Brooklyn resident, did his Rangel Center sponsored internship in South Africa last year studying the refugee crisis there. He is now the new legislative director for New York City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy.

Bronx resident Cruzmarina Esquilin served her Rangel internship in Washington, D.C. last summer. She worked for the Associate Director in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
 
Ms. Esquilin specialized in international relations during her period of study in the graduate program. She also served as the graduate program’s student organization president.

Inspiration to pursue the MPA and a career in public service came from different sources for the graduates. For Ann Bascom from Manhattan, it was her uncle’s service in the Iraq War that sparked her interest in veterans’ affairs. 

About The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at CCNY

Named for U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the Center’s mission is to become a national center for the promotion of greater diversity in public service. It prepares undergraduate and graduate students for a career in public service, including elective office and careers in government and the non-profit sector, at the policy-making level. The Center provides support for CCNY’s graduate program in Public Service Management. This includes paid internships, scholarships, policy forums, mentoring, career counseling, and workshops in policy writing and statistics. In the future, the Rangel Center facility will feature state-of-the-art conference space, as well as offices for visiting scholars. The Center will also house the C.V. Starr Library, which will serve as an important research tool for the CCNY community as well as an archive of important documents pertaining to the public service careers of members of groups underrepresented in public service, beginning with the papers of Congressman Rangel.