You look through the digital bulletin that CUNY sent out with the invitation to this event, and scan the alumni section for familiar names and faces. A couple of profiles catch your eye:

Khadija DeLoache:

“When I left City College, I traveled quite a bit. And I never set out to be a teacher, that was my goal. I set out to be – I’m an artistic person so when interior design fell through for me, I was still acting and performing and doing a lot of theater, okay. And then as a mother – and back then, to be successful in theater, you had to go on tour. So I couldn’t go on tour, so as a mother I never really could make it in theater. But I did make it in film production; I studied film production, I went to Third World Cinema; I went to the New School and all like that – all like that, and did a lot of things with film and so forth. Started my own company for a while.”

Milga Morales Nadal:

“I did my counseling work at Brooklyn College, and that’s how I started, as a professional at the college, I continued to work with students, so that they would create organizations, we had the Puerto Rican Alliance. I went and got a degree at another university, I got my doctorate in developmental psychology, I came back and taught in the School of Education, in the bilingual program in the School of Education. Becoming a Dean in the college also gave me an opportunity to do things that maybe I couldn’t do as a professor. And I would be able to sponsor conferences, where we brought in people from Puerto Rico, but also from other places, you know, in the United States and beyond and talked about what are the themes that we think are important. And finally becoming Vice President at the college for Student Affairs, that gave me a more global picture of what’s going on with students in the campus. And again, facing many challenges, but learning a lot. So my learning has not stopped, from the very beginning as we talked about earlier, as I talked about earlier, till now, I am still learning. And I guess, I will continue to learn.”

Francee Covington

Francee Covington graduated from City College with degrees in political science and history, went on to earn a masters in anthropology from the University of Ghana, launched a career in television and video production as a director, producer, and writer, and founded her own video production company for more than twenty years. 

Ajaz Ahmad

Finally, you also notice another profile, but in the obituaries section. It’s about Aijaz Ahmad, whom you remember as that long-haired, bearded, turtle-neck wearing professor excitedly talking with students about pieces they had submitted for the SEEK Matters journal. You remember reading some of those pieces of writing and feeling moved by them.