CCNY Class of 2026 Valedictorian Shabnam Pahrand [left] and Salutatorian Sayyid Yobhel Vasquez Rodriguez.
Shabnam Pahrand, the daughter of Afghan immigrants who is graduating summa cum laude from the Macaulay Honors College at CCNY with double majors in philosophy and political science, is The City College of New York’s Class of 2026 Valedictorian. Sayyid Yobhel Vasquez Rodriguez, a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy Reserve who completed his BS in biology also with summa cum laude honors, is the Salutatorian.
The City College will hold its 173rd Commencement Exercises, 10 a.m., Friday, May 29, on the South Campus Great Lawn, 135th St. and Convent Ave., Manhattan. The Class of 2026 comprises 3,542 graduates of which approximately 2,163 are receiving undergraduate degrees.
Following are brief bios of CCNY’s latest Valedictorian and Salutatorian:
Shabnam Pahrand
Born in New York, where her parents settled after emigrating from Afghanistan, CCNY’s valedictorian was inspired from childhood by her philomath father, who prioritized education in the family, and her mother, who was an educator herself. Motivated by Afghan women at home who were denied access to education, Pahrand was admitted to the Macaulay Honors College at CCNY, where she pursued a double major in philosophy in the Division of Humanities and the Arts and in political science in the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.
Pahrand is a Colin Powell School International Human Rights Fellow and was also a Stanford Summer Research Fellow. As a student who prioritizes research-based learning, she completed a year-long capstone project for the Macaulay Honors College examining the impact of poetry, and themes such as legacy and collective memory, within activist movements. She also conducted a second, semester-long project focused on enhancing civic engagement and participation at CUNY, which included proposing a grant to the Teagle Foundation and the Macaulay board. Renowned philosophy professor and author Nickolas Pappas ranks Pahrand among the top five students he has taught in more than 30 years at CCNY.
Pahrand is interning at the Afghan Support Network, where she mentors newly arrived Afghan refugee students through the U.S. college application process and serves as an editor for their quarterly newsletter. She has also interned in the legal department at Food Bank for NYC. She is a dedicated volunteer with Riverside Immigration Services, where she mentors newly arrived immigrants in reading and speaking English. All of this work is driven by her mission to advance basic human rights for all, both internationally and domestically.
After graduation, her plans include applying for a Global Peace Fellowship in Washington, D.C., and a Fulbright to conduct research abroad. Following this gap year, she will begin the law school application process to obtain her JD, with the goal of pursuing a career in human rights law and nonprofit organizational work.
Sayyid Yobhel Vasquez Rodriguez
New York-born Vasquez Rodriguez moved to Mexico City as an infant when his father, a Peruvian-born surgeon, and his mother, an orthodontist from Venezuela, relocated for work. This would later instill in him an early appreciation for service and medicine. He lived in the Mexican capital until he graduated from high school.
Admitted to CCNY, he deferred enrollment for a year while doing Navy basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois, He later specialized as a Corpsman [medic] at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and qualified to work as a field medic alongside Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Throughout his service, he graduated with honors and earned accelerated advancement for outstanding performance.
At CCNY, Vasquez Rodriguez embarked on a path to medical school by pursuing a BS in biology, graduating summa cum laude, in the Division of Science. He’s worked as a research assistant in the Computational Biophysics Laboratory, among other things conducting research on computational models of protein–membrane interactions and contributing to peer-reviewed publications. Remarkably for an undergraduate, he has co-authored three articles on his research findings, two of which have so far been published in the Biophysical Journal and the Journal of Physical Chemistry.
“I am sure that the College has many brilliant graduates. But how many have produced Three First-Author papers in their undergraduate studies? This is extremely rare, not only at CCNY but in the entire country!” said his mentor and co-author Professor Themis Lazaridis.
Vasquez Rodriguez, who’s volunteered as a medical scribe and Spanish interpreter at Sure Medical Clinic, a primary care clinic serving a large Latino patient population in Queens, since 2024, completed his course work last September. He is applying for MD-PhD programs with the goal of practicing medicine as an oncologist and conducting cancer research.
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 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 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. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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