BY JASON COHEN
South Bronx resident
Tyreece Santana knows all
too well the struggles of growing
up surrounding by violence
and raised without a dad. But
he didn’t let those things stand
in his way and now dedicates
his career to helping inner-city
kids in the borough chase their
dreams of one day attending
college.
Santana’s good fortune was
aided as the recipient of the
Inner-City Scholarship Fund
and its Be a Student’s Friend
program, which enabled him
to attend and succeed in his
Catholic high school, Cardinal
Hayes.
“If it wasn’t for Inner-City
Scholarship Fund, I wouldn’t
be starting my master’s,” he
said. “My goal is to start an
engineering consulting fi rm
someday and sponsor a student
in-need through Inner-City, so
that they can have a brighter
future.”
The Inner-City Scholarship
Fund, which provides tuition
assistance to 11,000 students
in catholic schools within the
Archdiocese of New York, recently
helped the College Advising
Corps expand to serve
students at Cardinal Hayes.
Santana gives back to his
alma mater working as a college
advisor for the College Advising
Corps at NYU, helping
juniors and seniors attending
Cardinal Hayes.
Santana, 25, and his two
brothers, Taquan and Trezon,
were raised in Castle Hill by a
single mom, Sande. She did the
best she could, but Santana always
felt a part of his life was
missing. He didn’t meet his dad
until he was in high school.
“I never understood why
my father wasn’t there,” he
said. “Until I knew more, I sort
of hated him for it.”
Santana told the Bronx
Times how while growing up in
Castle Hill he was surrounded
by gang activity, yet he always
stayed focused on school. At age
12 his family moved to Kingsbridge,
which he described as
a much rougher neighborhood
than Castle Hill. He credits his
older brother, Taquan, 29, for
keeping him on the right track.
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,28 AUG. 13-19, 2021 BTR
“I owe him a lot for how I
navigated through that violence,”
he said.
As he got older, Santana
learned that although his mom
worked a lot to provide for her
kids, she also struggled with
a drug addiction. He even recalled
a time where his mother
disappeared for hours, leaving
him and his brothers wondering
about her whereabouts.
Santana always dreamed of
getting out of the Bronx and got
his fi rst taste of life outside of
the borough when he attended
the Fresh Air Fund summer
camp in Massachusetts from
ages 7-17.
He learned how to swim,
ride a bike, kayak and much
more. This exposed him to
many different things he never
seen experienced in the Bronx.
Things really changed for
him when earned the Inner-
City Scholarship, which took a
fi nancial burden off his mom’s
shoulders and allowed him to
attend Cardinal Hayes. “They
basically helped my mom pay
tuition,” he said.
He not only received a good
education, but felt prepared to
be the fi rst in his family to go
to college.
Santana applied to the College
Advising Corps, and with
their guidance ventured to the
West Coast where he attended
USC as a Gates Millennium
Scholar with a full-ride scholarship
awarded to 1,000 students
every year.
College Advising Corps
works to increase the number
of low-income, fi rst-generation
college and underrepresented
high school students who enter
and complete higher education.
“It USC was amazing,” he
said. “I grew up a USC fan. It
defi nitely was mind blowing.”
He graduated in 2017 with
Bachelor of Arts in communications.
At fi rst, he planned to
stay in California but soon realized
he wanted to make a difference
in his hometown. Upon
returning to the Bronx, he
saw that the College Advising
Corps had a NYU chapter and
thought it was a perfect fi t for
him. After receiving a job offer,
Santana requested placement
at Cardinal Hayes to support
the community that he credits
with his success. Today, he
helps students fi ll out college
and FAFSA applications, prepares
them for college interviews
and organizes trips to
local universities for student
tours.
Giving back and helping
people of color realize that
they can go to college, get out
of the Bronx, and have a career
means a lot him. “I want
to make a lasting impact on
this world, and this would be
a great place to start,” he said.
“It’s been such a blessing to
give back to these guys.”
Santana will be heading to
Columbia University in the fall
to begin a master’s program in
mechanical engineering.
South Bronx native Tyreece Santana
gives back to his alma mater
Cardinal Hayes by helping junior
and seniors in their path toward
college.
Photo courtesy Tyreece Santana
South Bronx native helps
students chase dreams