42 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 30, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens senator wants to limit school
suspensions to help keep kids out of jail
Queens College Hillel awarded $200K grant to expand student life programs
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
Queens College Hillel received
a $200,000 Signature Grant
Award from The Covenant
Foundation, which will be used
to expand Sephardi and Mizrahi
student life programs at fi ve
main CUNY Hillel campuses.
Th e grant is part of $1.7 million
in awards recently announced by
the Covenant Foundation, which
honors outstanding Jewish educators
and supporting creative
approaches to programming.
Th e CUNY Hillels estimate
that there are 14,000 Jewish students
at the fi ve campuses —
Queens College Hillel, Baruch
Hillel, Brooklyn Hillel, Hunter
Hillel and College of Staten
Island Hillel — making the City
University of New York the largest
Jewish student population in
the nation. Of the 14,000 total
Jewish students, CUNY Hillel
estimates that 4,500 (32 percent)
of them are Sephardi or Mizrahi.
Th e funds will be disbursed
over a three-year period and
used to support Community
Building Projects designed in
partnership with Jewish student
groups like the Bukharian,
Persian and Moroccan Clubs.
It will help to expand
Mizrahi LEAD (Leadership,
Entrepreneurship and
Development), an eight-week
course that enables students
from Mizrahi and Sephardi
backgrounds to explore their
heritage and develop their
career prospects. Furthermore,
prepare a shareable guidebook
that includes community building
project ideas, the Mizrahi
LEAD curriculum, and Jewish
text-based conversation guides
for professionals and lay leaders.
Th e project will be led by QC
Hillel’s director of community
engagement and development,
Manashe Khaimov, in coordination
with the executive directors
of the CUNY Hillels.
Courtesy of Queens College Hillel
“We believe we can help build
more inclusive communities,
representative of the actual diversity
of Jewish life in America,”
said Jenna Citron Schwab, executive
director of QC Hillel.
Members of the Queens College Hillel at the Bukharian Cultural Club QC Hillel Plov Cookout.
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Queens state Senator Jessica
Ramos joined advocates in
Albany on Monday to urge passage
of a bill that would restrict
how schools uses suspensions
as part of an eff ort to end the
school-to-prison pipeline.
Th e bill, called the Judith
Kaye Schools Solutions not
Suspension Act, was introduced
last year by Brooklyn
state Senator Velmanette
Montgomery, and calls placing
a cap on 20-day-long school suspensions.
If passed, the legislation would
also prohibit schools from suspending
kindergarten through
third-grade students; require
schools to use suspension as a
last resort; implement systemwide
restorative practices; and
prohibit student suspensions
over “acts of willful disobedience.”
“It is not fair that we continuously
penalize students for perhaps
learning in diff erent ways,
for having a diff erent understanding
and a diff erent experience
of the world,” Ramos said
during the rally inside the capitol.
“What we need really is to
make sure that we are nurturing
our kids … and keeping them
away from the prison industrial
complex. “
About 90 percent of out-ofschool
suspensions were issued
to black or Hispanic students in
2018, according to report from
the city’s Independent Budget
Offi ce, and black students are
more likely to receive harsher
punishments and longer suspensions
than another other
race.
Courtesy of Make the Road NY
State Senator Jessica Ramos speaks in favor of suspension reform at the state capitol in Albany New York.
kids & education
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