16 DE DICIEMBRE 2021 • 17
HIGHER ED TODAY
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One of the key roles I perform as CUNY’s
chancellor is to serve as a kind of ambassador
for the University. It is a role I truly enjoy. As the
leader of an institution of higher education so
vast and integral to its city, I’m passionate about
telling the story of our historic mission and how
we are fulfilling it for today’s New Yorkers.
But I have no doubt that the best CUNY ambassadors
are our students and graduates. All of
them, in their own way, embody our purpose of
expanding access and opportunity for all New
Yorkers, no matter their background, means, or
aspirations. Many of them achieve at a dazzling
level that burnishes our collective success. And
each year, countless CUNY graduates assume
leading roles in their fields in the city and the
nation. They tell our story best.
A few days before Thanksgiving, we were
thrilled by the news that one of our students,
Hunter College senior Devashish (Dave) Basnet,
had been selected as a 2022 Rhodes Scholar,
one of just 32 students in the country to earn the
stellar academic honor. Dave is a DACA recipient
who arrived in Queens from Nepal when he
was 8, and in so many ways, he — and the personal
journey that led him to this moment — are
emblematic of the perseverance of today’s CUNY
students.
Also in November, Juvanie Piquant completed
her one-year term as the student member
of CUNY’s Board of Trustees. She’s an honors
student at New York City College of Technology
who became the first Haitian American woman
to serve as chairperson of the University Student
Senate. She’s truly made a mark, giving
voice to the needs and concerns of the more than
260,000 degree-seeking CUNY students during
the tumultuous times of the pandemic.
In two weeks, meanwhile, CUNY alumnus
Eric Adams will become the city’s second Black
mayor. The mayor-elect attended Queensborough
Community College, and is a graduate of
both New York City College of Technology and
John Jay College of Criminal Justice. When he
takes office, he will make good on a promise he
made on another CUNY campus in 2015, when he
told the graduating class at Medgar Evers College
that he would one day become mayor.
Dave Basnet, Juvanie Piquant and Eric Adams
came from different places and have had
vastly different experiences, but they are all unofficial
CUNY ambassadors who are making us
proud every day.
Driven to Make a Difference
Dave came to this country as a child after
he and his family fled their country’s political
violence. He mastered his second language so
well that his parents relied on him to translate
their immigration documents. When he got to
Hunter and emerged as a student leader, Dave
found that immersing himself in the CUNY experience
helped him come to terms with his status
as a DREAMer. A political science major and
honors student, he garnered a slew of nationally
competitive scholarships and fellowships before
earning the Rhodes. (He’s also a musician and
an accomplished singer, by the way.)
But what’s perhaps most impressive to me
is Dave’s selfless drive to make his personal
goals serve a greater purpose. He’s worked as a
research intern at the Migration Policy Institute
in Washington and as a shelter intake specialist
for the International Rescue Committee. And as
a Jeanette K. Watson Fellow, he helped families
at the U.S.-Mexico border whose migration odysseys
were like his own. He plans to pursue a
master’s degree in refugee and forced migration
studies and wants people to “reimagine the idea
of human mobility and migration” to make the
immigration process less daunting.
Spurring Students to Act
As the head of CUNY student government
(and an aspiring lawyer), Juvanie Piquant has
been a tireless advocate for CUNY and public
higher education even beyond our university.
As a University trustee, she was keenly focused
on the most pressing needs of our students,
whether it was fighting to sustain the affordability
of their education, speaking out about racial
equity or pushing for expanded mental health
services when the pandemic was exacerbating
the academic and financial pressures that could
impede their path to graduation.
One of Juvanie’s special skills is activating
her fellow students — making them care,
encouraging them to get involved and challenging
them to use their individual strengths. I love
how she put it in an interview last year with the
Brooklyn College Vanguard student newspaper:
“How do we work cohesively and collectively to
become champions of our own goals? The fight
for a better CUNY is not just one person’s fight,
it is all of our fight.”
Juvanie Piquant and Dave Basnet are standouts
but virtually every CUNY student, every
graduate, has a story to tell that is testament not
only to their own talents, hard work and perseverance
but to the opportunities they found and
embraced at CUNY. Possibility defines our mission.
Fulfilling that promise is what drives our
status as the nation’s most potent engine of economic
and social mobility. That’s as true today
as it has been for every generation since 1847.
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