After the birth of her daughter in 2022, Chyna Bryant transferred to Hostos Community College in the Bronx, where she balanced the pressures of being a new mom with the demands of her schoolwork and the added commitment of playing on the school’s basketball team. With a big assist from the Hostos Children’s Center, which provided childcare to her daughter, she is graduating this month.
She isn’t alone.
At York College in Queens, Maryam Khan is completing her degree in nursing while raising five daughters, the eldest of whom is now a York student herself. And at Hunter College in Manhattan, Oliver Scarlett juggled his responsibilities as a single father and his job as a registered nurse while earning his master’s degree in nursing.
Chyna, Maryam and Oliver are three of an estimated 5,000 CUNY students who are graduating this spring after pursuing their degrees while raising children. And they are among the almost 50,000 members of the CUNY Class of 2025 on campuses across the city who persevered through everything life put in front of them – family and financial pressures, jobs and academic demands – to pursue their educational and career goals. They include over 3,500 education students and 1,800 aspiring nurses who are prepared to join their chosen field and help fill a pressing need. They include students who are already accomplished scholars and recipients of prestigious awards.
These stories and so many others exemplify the resilience and determination of CUNY graduates. Like generations of CUNY graduates before them, many are the first in their family to go to college. Some came from faraway places, overcame barriers and seized the opportunities CUNY offered. Their stories of success also reflect the many ways that CUNY is able to support its students’ journeys.
“This school has an amazing number of people who want you to succeed – whatever it is that’s keeping you from being your best, they work with you,” says Brodie Enoch, a City College graduate who received his law degree this month from the CUNY School of Law. Enoch, 66, founded an organization that advocates for visually impaired New Yorkers and is himself legally blind. He plans to practice human rights law and continue his advocacy. A father of four, he says the desire to make the world better for his children, “gave me the extra drive to push me across the finish line.”
For Brodie and other graduates, this milestone signals persistence through a period of unprecedented challenges. Many began their educational journeys during the pandemic and are finishing at a time of political turbulence and economic uncertainty. Collectively our graduates are the face of New York, the embodiment of CUNY’s aspirational history and the heart of our city’s future.
Matos Rodríguez is the chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban public university system in the United States.
