Never-Ending Curiosity: Diego Mendoza’s Journey from DR to Washington Heights to Washington, DC
After experiencing firsthand the heartbreaking cutbacks to academic and extracurricular programs at his high school, Diego Mendoza developed an insatiable curiosity about the politics and policies that lead to these changes. Attracted by CCNY’s affordability, he joined the Colin Powell School determined to make his mother proud and to build a career in public service. He participated in the Semester in DC program and studied abroad for eight months in France. These experiences… Read More »
Discovering the Value in Untold Stories: Abigail Raghunath’s Commitment to Justice for Marginalized Communities
Abigail Raghunath’s studies were inspired by her experiences in foster care, her brother’s incarceration, and her family’s immigrant struggles. She chose to study at CCNY as she saw herself in the stories of alumni like Colin Powell and William H. Greene. She majored in Political Science and International Studies. She was awarded the 2021 CCNY Humanitarian Award for her community impact, which included coaching her Mock Trial team, mentoring for the… Read More »
Explore Who You Are and Talk to Everyone Says Salutatorian Teresa Mettela, Now a Reporter on Capitol Hill
Salutatorian Teresa Mettela was the first in her family to be born in the United States, after her parents emigrated from South India. Metella was raised in Flushing, Queens where she gained a deep-rooted sense of community and leadership. She developed her commitment to local activism through her work as a journalist for the Queens Daily Eagle and the Queens Courier. During her time as a freelance reporter, she covered pressing national issues such as the… Read More »
You Belong, Your Story Matters, and the World Needs You: Danielle Evans on Her Journey to Eradicate Educational Inequality
Danielle Evans, a native of the South Bronx, will graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology. Evans first visited the CCNY campus when her son performed in the Langston Hughes Choral Speaking Festival at Aaron Davis Hall in 2018. She was inspired by the campus and the diverse community of City College and knew it was the place to expand how she thought about the world. Evans is committed to combating educational inequality that results from… Read More »
Alyssa DeStefano: Combining Psychology and Biology to Build a Career in Neuroscience Research
Salutatorian Alyssa Destefano will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and a minor in biology. She began her studies as a pre-med major but changed her focus to research after realizing she felt deeply passionate about neuroscience, inspired in part by her brother, who was born with a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Over the past three years of interning at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR), DeStefano… Read More »
From Guyana to NYC to Tennessee: Lorianne Mitchell’s Journey to Becoming a College Professor
Whether she was helping friends resolve conflicts, being absorbed in reading her mother’s Psychology textbook, or people-watching in downtown Manhattan, Lorianne Mitchell knew from a young age that human relations fascinated her. This motivated her to join the Psychology Department at CCNY. As an immigrant from Guyana with two siblings also in college, Mitchell worked hard and took the most credits she could each semester. After graduating from CCNY, Mitchell earned her PhD in… Read More »
Relationships Are a Support System: Amagla Atoumou Journey to Becoming a Racial Justice Fellow and a Social Worker
Relationships Are a Support System: Amagla Atoumou Journey to Becoming a Racial Justice Fellow and a Social Worker
After immigrating from Côte d'Ivoire as a child, struggling to adapt to her new surroundings, and experiencing homelessness in high school, Amagla Atoumou was keenly aware of the importance of understanding social systems and how they affect the most marginalized communities. She declared a double major and double minor in the social sciences to get a broad, interdisciplinary understanding of the issues that had affected her life and the lives of so many… Read More »
“There is no limit to what you can achieve in your career and in life” — the Importance of Education to Rudy Rianom
Rudy Rianom originally came to NYC from Indonesia with his family, as his father had been assigned to the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations. Rianom’s father always emphasized the importance of working hard to earn a degree, so Rianom decided to come to CCNY for its robust and rigorous Economics program. While at CCNY, Rianom took courses in Economics and Finance, but he especially remembers a course on Entrepreneurial Economics. “Students… Read More »
Set Goals, Find Mentorship, and Work Hard: How Xhulio Myftari Became a Volleyball Star and Parlayed His Internship into a Job
Many in the CCNY community have heard of Xhulio Myftari, the volleyball star who led our team to its highest ranking in years. Few know that with the help of the Colin Powell School’s mentorship and internship programs, Myftari also succeeded in completing an internship at a leading global financial services firm and landing a full-time job offer upon graduation. Originally from Albania, Myftari will graduate this June with a degree in civil… Read More »
“It's Okay to Not Have Your Life Planned Out” — Former Colin Powell Graduate Fellow Christopher Rick on his Circuitous Path to Academia
CCNY was “the place that put big ideas into my head,” says Christopher Rick, a graduate of the MA Program in Economics who is now finishing a PhD at Syracuse and will soon begin a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard. A self-described “boring, suburban kid from Maryland,” Rick was drawn by the rush of city life and the beautiful architecture of CCNY and Harlem. In the Colin Powell School, he found his passion for learning to use… Read More »
Last Updated: 01/15/2020 15:46