HIGHER ED TODAY
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In the world of higher ed, May 1 is
National College Decision Day – the traditional
deadline for high school seniors
to commit to a school for the fall. Nowadays
many colleges have flexible calendars
that make it more of a symbolic
date. Still, for students and their families
this is a time of year that signals
propitious decisions and great expectations,
along with high hopes and the
inevitable degree of apprehension. The
moment in which we find ourselves this
year only heightens those emotions.
Throughout my career as a college
professor and president and now as
CUNY’s chancellor, I’ve always appreciated
the energy and sense of anticipation
that drives students’ transitions.
From the acceptance letter to the welcome
to-campus orientation to the first
day of classes, the journey holds great
promise, but it can also be fraught with
hesitation, especially for students who
will be the first in their families to attend
college. At CUNY, those first-generation
students make up nearly half
our students.
Having worked with many of these
incoming students and their parents
over the years, I’ve been inspired by
their commitment to get to college and
by their aspirations for completing their
education and pursuing their dreams.
But I’ve also been cognizant of how
daunting it all can be, and the reality
that so many factors can pose obstacles,
impede the progress and even prevent
many of those students from making it
to the first day.
That’s why we don’t take the time between
May and September for granted.
Over the past few years, CUNY has paid
increasingly closer attention to helping
admitted students navigate the transition
and to providing a range of support
so they’re ready, willing and able to begin
classes in September.
This year, as we consider the stillopen
questions of when, how and to
what extent we can safely return to our
campuses, incoming students will have
corresponding questions and concerns.
Will remote or hybrid classes in college,
for instance, be the same as they have
been in high school? So the initiatives
we’ve developed to connect with admitted
students will be more important
than ever.
Caribbean L 16 ife, APR. 30-MAY 6, 2021
Last summer, we expanded our innovative
College Bridge for All program
to offer every graduating senior in New
York City public high schools support in
their transition to college. The program,
a collaboration with the Department of
Education and supported by grants from
Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Carroll
and Milton Petrie Foundation, trained and
paid about 200 CUNY students to be “nearpeer”
coaches for graduating seniors. The
CUNY coaches offered help with all kinds
of things: Academic planning, FAFSA
filing, adapting to online classes, accessing
programs like CUNY Start and much
more. We found that the program had a
positive impact on enrollment in a year
when enrollment was down. The expansion
couldn’t have been better timed, and
we’re gearing up for another successful
summer for College Bridge.
This year we’re also launching the
CUNY Recovery Corps, a special summer
youth employment program in partnership
with the city that will hire thousands
of CUNY students, including 2,000
who will be part of what we’re calling the
CUNY Welcome Corps. They’ll lead orientation
activities and social events, some
virtual and some in person, for new students
on every CUNY campus.
It’s all part of our determination to
support this year’s incoming students
and welcome them with an even bigger
embrace.
Even in times of uncertainty, I try to
remember that higher education has the
power and potential to transform lives.
Perhaps that is truer now than ever, as we
emerge from this tumultuous year and a
half as a community, a city and a country.
And that’s why National College Decision
Day this year has even greater significance.
In fact, I see this time as an inflection
point in CUNY’s historical commitment
to advancing access and opportunity
for all New Yorkers. The high school seniors
who are making their decisions this
month, and anticipating their arrival on
CUNY campuses come August, have a lot
to look forward to.
To every student out there making
their decision and every parent and
grandparent, hermana and tía who helped
them get to this point and proudly share
in the excitement of seeing them take the
first steps to a brighter future, congratulations.
This, too, is your accomplishment.
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Education
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Commercial tenants at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard will now have access to more
manufacturing training.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development
Corporation teamed with Lincoln
Educational Services Corporation to
provide job training in computerized
manufacturing to employees of the tenant
companies at the Yard. The training
and workforce development program
will mark the fi rst joint effort in
the partnership between the Brooklyn
Navy Yard and Lincoln Tech schools.
“This partnership with Lincoln
Tech provides employees of all types
across the Yard’s manufacturing ecosystem
with an opportunity to enhance
their skills while also ensuring that our
tenants have the best trained staff using
the most up-to-date equipment available,”
said David Ehrenberg, President
and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“We look forward to continuing our
work with Lincoln Tech as we cement
the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s place as the
premier center for urban manufacturing
in the United States.”
“We look forward to providing advanced
manufacturing skills training
to the employees of the Brooklyn Navy
Yard,” said Scott Shaw, Lincoln Tech’s
President and CEO. “These skills are vital
for operating the machinery driving
many of today’s manufacturing sites. In
turn, these machines are generating not
only American-made products, but also
American job opportunities.”
The 80-hour program offi cially
started in January 2021. Instructors
from Lincoln Tech gave hands-on lessons
to seven Brooklyn Navy Yard tenant
employees two non-employee trainees
– one who is a recent high school
and the other a recent college graduate
— who will be continuing their employment
with Brooklyn Navy Yard
companies within manufacturing and
fabrication.
The program’s curriculum includes
several topics, such as Introduction to
Machining, Calculating Speeds and
Feeds, Measuring and Quality Control,
and Tolerance. Trainees can also complete
the program that qualifi es them
to pursue National Institute for Metalworking
Skills (NIMS) certifi cations in
Measurements, Materials and Safety as
well as Job Planning, Benchwork and
Layout.
“The Yard’s decision to offer on-site
training has been very convenient for
our team,” said Joanny DeVargas, HR
Generalist at Duggal Visual Solutions,
Inc. “We are excited that some of our
entry-level staff has access to trainings
like CNC that will help them grow on
our teams and in their career.”
Though the workforce training program
recently completed its fi rst round
of training, Lincoln Tech and the Brooklyn
Navy Yard may one day also collaborate
on further training for employees
of Yard companies, neighborhood residents
looking to acquire new skills, and
students from the Brooklyn Navy Yardbased
Brooklyn STEAM Center.
The partnership with Lincoln Tech is
another piece to the Yard’s development
efforts, including Employment Center,
which has connected a record-breaking
589 people to jobs in Fiscal Year 2019.
This marked a 28 percent increase from
Fiscal Year 2018 and the highest number
of new recruits to join the Yard in a single
year since the Employment Center’s
founding in 1999.
The Education Center has been providing
hiring and support staff services
at no cost to BNYDC tenants. Of
all of the hires in the fi scal year 2019,
90 percent were Brooklyn residents, 36
percent lived in public housing, and 18
percent experienced long-term unemployment
and/or were previously incarcerated
or convicted.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard
Navy Yard, Lincoln Tech
partner for manufacturing
training to tenant employees