CCNY graduate film student and U.S. national karate team member Tomás Greer in action.
Greer
While his classmates in The City College of New York’s MFA in filmmaking program wrap up another semester of exciting projects, Tomás Greer is bracing for an action-packed December in Asia with a martial arts setting.
A first degree black belt, Greer, 23, is representing the United States and USA Karate at the World Karate Federation’s Shanghai Open in China. The competition runs through December 9.
It’s the Jamaica, Queens, native’s eighth outing with the U.S. national team, and a continuation of his bid to make the Olympic squad. Karate will make its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2020 summer games in Tokyo.
Greer, who’s been practicing karate since age 5 – he started off and still trains at the Harakinko Juku dojo in Jamaica, is a four-time U.S. national champion. He also holds two bronze medals from the Junior Pan American Championships.
At City College, Greer is in the first semester of the Division of Humanities and the Arts’ two-year MFA program led by award-winning filmmakers. He earned a BA in communications at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
“The program is excellent and I have a good relationship with the professors,” he says of the CCNY program. “They are all experienced and work in industry, which is important because they are able to share their experience.”
On his career goals, Greer adds: “to be a filmmaker, videographer and in karate, I hope to own a dojo and create competitors and people that want to do karate.”
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 role at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by The Chronicle of Higher Education 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. In addition, the Center for world University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.