Public Employee Press

Union students fulfill college dreams

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Juggling hectic schedules of full-time jobs and family obligations did not discourage 103 District Council 37 members from fulfilling their college dreams May 21 as they stood among 1,200 proud graduates of the College of New Rochelle at Radio City Music Hall and received their bachelor’s degrees.

The graduating students were first honored May 11 at the union with a special hooding ceremony. CNR President Stephen J. Sweeny, whose parents were DC 37 members, encouraged them to continue learning for the rest of their lives and explained the medieval origins of the hooding ceremony. “This means you have joined the procession of scholars,” he said. The different hood colors represented the areas of study mastered by the students.

CNR’s DC 37 Campus — the only college at a union — was founded in the early 1970s as the fruit of Executive Director Lillian Roberts’s dream of expanding members’ educational opportunities.

The new college graduates were joined at the ceremony by their proud spouses, children and other family members, along with friends and faculty, who packed the union hall to help them celebrate their educational milestone.

“We are so very proud of what you have achieved,” said DC 37 Campus Director Patrice Gouveia-Marks, after the benediction by Local 372 member Adrainer Coleman. Speaking on behalf of the student body was Joyclyn Richards, a member of Board of Education Employees Local 372. “It's important to never give up and keep on trying,” said Richards. “Education is really liberation.”

Elza Dinwiddie-Boyd, the dean of CNR’s School of New Resources, also addressed the new graduates. “The pot of gold is the BA degree, which will take you far in life,” she said.

After an interlude of poetry by graduate and Local 371 member Sahodra Jagdharry and Local 1549 member Lorraine Currelley, DC 37 Education Fund Administrator Barbara Kairson addressed the grads. “I’ve never felt as connected to a graduating class as I’ve felt to this one, because I, too, reached an educational milestone this year,” she said. “Your achievement should be celebrated, but it is not your achievement alone; you share it with your ancestors.”