18 SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDUCATION
Woodside resident Nicholas “Nico” Figueroa.
Courtesy of LaGuardia Community College
Woodside resident fi nds path to
debt-free degree at LaGuardia
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Financial insecurity will follow
many of the more than 2,500 new students,
both freshmen and transfers,
joining LaGuardia Community College
for the fall 2021 semester. Many could
benefi t by taking a page or two from
Nicholas “Nico” Figueroa playbook on
how to fi nish college debt-free.
Woodside resident Figueroa has a
goal of fi nishing his bachelor’s degree
without any student loan debt.
“I’ve seen fi rst-hand how personal
debt from credit cards and other
loans negatively impacts people’s
lives,” Figueroa said. “Taking out
student loans for college sounds easy
but there’s always a catch. And I don’t
want to take money that doesn’t belong
to me.”
Students who take out loans to
attend private colleges are often
shocked when they realize that they
end up owing much more than the
amount they originally borrowed,
because of interest charges and other
fees. So, when Figueroa learned that
he wouldn’t be receiving any fi nancial
aid from the four-year college he’d
planned to attend aft er graduating
from Long Island City’s Bryant High
School, he said it was a “big reality
check.”
Figueroa was told that his parents
made too much for him to qualify for
grants — funds that don’t need to be
repaid — so he decided to attend La-
Guardia Community College, where
he could get started on his college
education without taking on debt.
“With many diff erent programs to
help New Yorkers struggling fi nancially
because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
to get started on their college degree
or pick up where they left off , it has
become even more aff ordable to earn
a degree at LaGuardia Community College,”
LaGuardia President Kenneth
Adams said. “In addition to helping
pay for tuition, fees and textbooks,
we have new scholarships and support
programs to assist students in paying
their rent and household expenses.”
More than 33,000 New Yorkers
choose LaGuardia Community College
every year. Full-time tuition for a New
York City resident is $4,800 per year.
In comparison, some New York City
colleges charge upwards of $60,000
per year.
At LaGuardia, Figueroa joined the
college’s ASAP program, which helped
him pay for tuition, provided money
for textbooks and free MetroCards,
and connected him with an adviser to
help guide him along his path. Aft er a
few semesters, Figueroa was accepted
into the President’s Society Environment,
LaGuardia’s leadership program
for high-achieving students interested
in the environment, where he earned
a stipend. He was also able to keep the
part-time job he’s held since age 16,
working as a game technician at Chuck
E. Cheese.
In June, Figueroa graduated debtfree
from LaGuardia with his associate
degree in communications. Due to
LaGuardia’s low tuition and many programs
to help students off set tuition
costs and expenses, 95% of LaGuardia
graduates have no student loan debt.
Figueroa is currently determined
where he will transfer to complete
work on his bachelor’s degree, once
he fi nishes sorting out fi nancial aid
packages. Ultimately he plans to get
into the media or broadcast industry.
To learn more about scholarships
and fi nancial aid off ered at Laguardia
Community College, visit laguardia.
edu.
Fall ‘21 classes started on Sept. 9,
but because of LaGuardia’s fl exible
schedule, students can start college
whenever they are ready. Students
who want to attend in-person classes
will have to be fully vaccinated, per
CUNY policy.
HIGHER ED TODAY
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FAiyana Braswell was a college student
in Houston when COVID-19 reached
the U.S. in the spring of 2020. Aiyana, who
is Black, began working as an EMT, saying
she wanted to work on the front lines and
“advocate for people who look like me.”
“It was clear that the virus was hitting
certain communities, such as my own,
harder than some other communities,” Aiyana
says. “And I wanted to get involved.”
Fast forward 18 months later: Aiyana is
now a student at CUNY’s Graduate School
of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY
SPH) pursuing an Advanced Certificate
in Public Health. She plans to eventually
complete a graduate degree in epidemiology.
“That’s why I wanted to pursue public
health,” she says, “because there’s a difference
in how you are treated based on your
economic status.”
It doesn’t surprise me that Aiyana’s
strong desire to make a difference brought
her to CUNY SPH, one of CUNY’s seven
graduate, professional and honors schools.
As the pandemic has reshaped our world,
the school has been particularly well positioned
to meet the fast-evolving challenges
of these times.
Health Equity Approach
Since its founding in 2016, CUNY SPH
has blossomed into an invaluable resource
for scholarly research and community engagement
at a time when New York — and
the world — has needed it most. Under the
leadership of Dean Ayman El-Mohandes,
a pediatrician with a deep commitment to
public service, the school has grown into
a formidable institution of advocacy for
the eradication of inequities in the public
health care system.
In just five years, the school has doubled
the size of its student body to a record
949 students registered this semester while
tripling its research funding to more than
$17 million for the current academic year.
This year, CUNY SPH and the NYC Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene
received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from
the National Institute of Mental Health to
help people living with HIV achieve viral
suppression. The school also received a
$500,000 grant to launch the Campaign for a
Food Secure CUNY, a new initiative to help
CUNY students combat food insecurity, a
problem that was growing in scope well before
it was exacerbated by the pandemic.
No doubt this is part of the reason why
CUNY SPH was recently ranked 16th of 123
graduate schools of public health across
the nation, as well as the top-ranked public
school of public health in the New York tristate
area, by U.S. News & World Report.
Local Focus, Global Reach
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
in March 2020, the school became
a valuable source for expert perspectives
with its world-class faculty and staff routinely
quoted in the national and global
media. The school’s regular surveys of New
Yorkers’ opinions on all things COVID-related
were an important source of information
for health officials and policymakers.
The school’s Institute for Implementation
Science in Population Health (ISPH) monitored
the pandemic response and tracked
antibody test results among nearly 7,000 individuals
nationally, which helped schools
better prepare for remote or in-person
learning during the pandemic.
CUNY SPH’s research is created locally,
but its reach is global. The school published
an international study in Nature Medicine
gauging potential acceptance of a COVID
vaccine, which was one of the first to address
vaccine hesitancy. And through their
CONVINCE USA initiative, CUNY SPH has
promoted vaccine literacy and boost confidence
in life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.
Public Service Bent
This dedication to public service is reflected
in the articulated ambitions of the
students it attracts. Students such as Kevin
Chin, who, after working for nearly two
decades as an information technology consultant
in the health care industry, decided
to take a break from his high-pressure job.
He returned to New York in early 2020, just
as the pandemic hit, and the extra time off
gave him an opportunity to reflect.
After much soul-searching, Kevin enrolled
in CUNY SPH to pursue an MPH in
Health Policy and Management. “After I
complete my degree, I want to look for jobs
where I can help enact better health care
policies that improve everyone’s lives,” he
says. “Not just the lives of a few.”
It fills me with pride, hearing how these
students have been motivated by the important
role that CUNY SPH has played these
past 18 months. This pandemic is far from
over. But with each month, we grow more
optimistic as we look to build a more equitable
post-pandemic future, and New Yorkers
know that CUNY and its students are helping
to make that future a reality.
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