18 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 24, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queen College hosts career fair for young men
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
Elected offi cials urge DOT to install protected bike lanes along Cross Bay Blvd.
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Aft er yet another cyclist was killed in a
collision with a motor vehicle, elected offi -
cials are calling on the city’s Department
of Transportation to install protected bike
lanes on Cross Bay Boulevard between
Broad Channel and Howard Beach, as
well as a stoplight near the vicinity of the
tragedy.
Bogdan Darmetko, 65, of Corona, was
struck and killed by an SUV driver in the
aft ernoon of Oct. 13, becoming the 25th
city cyclist to die this year, up from 10
deaths in all of 2018.
In a letter to DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg, the representatives of Broad
Channel wrote that their community had
been requesting safety improvements
along the dangerous roadway for years.
Since January 2016, there have been 273
crashes injuring eight cyclists, four pedestrians
and 82 motorists — this year alone,
there have been 68 crashes, injuring three
cyclists and 22 motorists, they wrote.
“Th is roadway is well known to the
community as a hotspot for speeding
and is notoriously dangerous. DOT
must evaluate these hazards immediately,”
Councilman Eric Ulrich said. “My
thoughts and prayers go out to Darmetko’s
family and friends during this diffi cult
time. While we can never give back what
was taken from you, we vow to do everything
in our power to ensure Bogdan did
not die in vain.”
In December 2018, 74-year-old
Waiching Chen was killed by a driver of
a Ford Escape, while she was in a crosswalk
at 159th Avenue and Cross Bay
Boulevard.
“Far too oft en, the city reacts to an injury
— or worse, a fatality — before installing a
safety measure to protect pedestrians from
avoidable incidents. I prefer a more proactive
approach in order to prevent such
scenarios,” state Senator Joseph Addabbo
said. “I, along with my colleagues in government,
urge the NYC DOT to take safety
measures along this known dangerous
stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard.”
A spokeswoman for the DOT said the
agency is considering fast tracking better
bicycle infrastructure in the area and
is exploring other safety improvements
as well. Currently, the northbound section
of the street is in the process of being
repaved, a situation that may have contributed
to the cyclist’s death, according
to the NYPD, which is still investigating
the fatal crash.
“Cross Bay Boulevard has been a dangerous
road for a long time, even with the
streets marked clearly and signage visible.
During construction over the past
month, these issues were only exacerbated,”
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheff er
Amato said. “DOT must take immediate
action in protecting motorists, pedestrians
and cyclists while conducting largescale
improvements on our roads. Th is
is an absolute tragedy and we must work
to ensure public safety. My thoughts and
prayers go out to Bogdan Darmetko and
his family during this time.”
Th e DOT is currently paving the
Howard Beach section of Cross Bay
Boulevard, and they expect to be repaving
the Broad Channel section in about
two weeks.
More than 3,000 students from Th e
Eagle Academy Foundation and several
other New York City high schools fi lled
up the Fitzgerald Gym at Queens College
for the fi ft h annual College and Career
Fair for Young Men on Friday.
But this year’s college fair was special.
Eagle Academy’s President and CEO
David Banks explained that in previous
years, the college fair was only geared
toward their own students, but this year
they collaborated with the Department of
Education (DOE) to invite public schools
from across New York City to participate.
“Th ere are lots of college fairs, but today
is very unique because this one is the
only all-male college fair in the country.
Nobody else is doing this,” Banks told
QNS.
In the end, about 2,400 students from
general DOE high schools and 600 students
from Eagle Academies attended
the event.
Representatives from more than 80 colleges
and programs — including colleges
in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia and
Florida — invited the high school juniors,
seniors and even sophomores to ask any
and all questions they might have about
pursuing a degree.
Th e Eagle Academy is an all-male, nonprofi
t with a network of sixth- through
12th-grade college preparatory schools in
each of New York City’s fi ve boroughs and
Newark, N.J.
Temitope Ajirotutu has attended Eagle
Academy’s southeast Queens school for
almost seven years and the 17-year-old
said that the fair was a “representation of
students living the dream and going to
college to strive to be greater than some
parents who weren’t able to go.”
“In my wonderful future, I want to get
to the NFL, but of course I have a backup
plan — I want to be a social worker and
just help people,” Ajirotutu added.
Isaiah Ware, another senior from Eagle’s
southeast Queens school, said that as
a resident of South Jamaica, he “oft en
feels as though the system is set against”
him and has watched relatives and close
neighbors “constantly deal with systemic
oppression.”
But as a longtime member of the Eagle
Academy, Ware said he realized that it is
“possible to rise above your circumstances,”
and credits the academy’s educators
for pushing them beyond their comfort
zones to reach new limits.
Photo credit: Andy Poon, staff photographer
at Offi ce of Communications and
Marketing at Queens College
“Since the college experience and life
aft er are all about networking, Eagle has
unintentionally taught me one of the
major keys to success,” Ware said. “At the
college fair, I was reminded of the importance
of setting high goals, regardless of
whether it may seem attainable or not.
One of the college consultants emphasized
that I shouldn’t rule out Ivy League
schools, whether or not I knew anyone
who’d previously attended one.”
Although the 17-year-old plans on fi nding
a career path while in college, the one
thing he’s certain about is that he wants
“to be living proof that you don’t have to
be a product of your environment.”
According to a 2019 report from the
American Council on Education, black
male students pursuing bachelor’s degrees
were the most likely among any demographic
group to drop out aft er their
freshman year.
Banks, a Brooklyn and Queens native,
said that part of Eagle Academy’s mission
is to encourage their students, who are
mainly young men of color, to see college
as a real possibility.
“Th is is a demographic that every college
campus across the nation is saying,
‘We want more young men of color, we
just don’t know where to fi nd them.’ Well,
they can fi nd them when they come to a
place like this,” he said.
Founded in 2004, the Eagle Academy
was created in response to a Columbia
University study that found that 75 percent
of New York state’s prison population
was coming from seven neighborhoods in
New York City, according to Banks.
Today, the academy has an 84 percent
high school graduation rate with 98 percent
of their students getting accepted to
college.
“Far too many young men don’t even
apply to college because they don’t even
think it’s a possibility,” Banks said. “Th e
reality is far too many of them know people
who’ve gone to prison and don’t know
enough people who’ve gone to college.
Th at’s what we’re trying to change: that
narrative. Th at’s the reason why we do the
work that we do every day.”
Photo credit: Andy Poon, staff photographer at Offi ce of Communications and Marketing at Queens College
The Eagle Academy hosted their fi fth annual College and Career Fair for Young Men at the Queens
College on Oct. 18.
Photo by Todd Maisel
Elected offi cials urge the Department of Transportation to take immediate action on Cross Bay
Boulevard where Corona cyclist Bogdan Darmetko was struck and killed in a collision.
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