First stop for night students: room 202

Mercedes Brazier-Thurman, Internship Coordinator, with a student at the Student Services Office

For MC’s night students, the path to getting the services they need to graduate starts in the office of Student Support Services, known as Room 202. The room is always a buzz of voices and activity. “We’re the first stop for night students,” says Director Bobbie Hernandez. MC offers classes during the day and night. Night students are primarily local New York City youth, while day students are typically new immigrants. “The four of us ask lots of questions, we get to know each student and their needs and we make a plan. We coordinate with the school guidance counselors and teachers and help students navigate CDI’s legal, tutoring and internship services.” Students are assigned a “primary person,” a CDI staff member who guides them through their initial school experience.

“We also run the Leadership Class for these students. For four afternoons a week for 20 weeks, they are introduced to our services, expectations, culture of respect and demanding work ethic. It’s a new beginning for students who come here from a variety of schools that may have been tough, dangerous or discouraging,” says Hernandez. “The class also gives students a chance to connect with one another. For students who come from so many different cultures and backgrounds having that peer support network is particularly important.”

Hernandez and her team must be prepared to deal with almost anything. “On any given day a student can walk in with a medical or financial crisis or a difficult family situation,” says Hernandez. “You might be very bright but if you have to wonder when your next meal will be, it’s hard. So we reach out and let them know that this is the place they can come to for help.”

1003 students and counting!

Marina Royo, College Advisor, with a student at CDI's College Office at HPHS

Since September, CDI’s HPHS College Team has held individual meetings, family workshops and classroom visits to help more than a thousand students and their parents with advisement, applications, financial aid, and scholarships. “Between February and March is the financial aid or FAFSA deadline (Free Application for Federal Student Aid),” says Lena Eberhart, Site Director of CDI’s college office. “It’s a very complicated application. For the first time we are holding “FAFSA nights” when parents can come to the school and get help filling out the financial aid forms.” This spring the office will concentrate on meeting with freshmen and sophomore classes and starting to get them excited about the college process. “It’s terrific to start the college process earlier,” says HPHS Principal Robert Gentile. “It’s a way for us to get parents involved and build a college-going culture from the beginning.”

One piece of a giant jigsaw puzzle

Lois Lowenstein with her student, Aicha

It was an unassuming handwritten cardboard sign in the window of Manhattan Comprehensive that caught Lois Lownstein’s attention: Volunteer tutors needed. “That’s when it all started,” says Lownstein. “I fell in love with the students. They have so much desire and perseverance to do what they have set out to do.” Lowenstein, a retired social worker, tutors students in ELL. “My students come from all over the world. We work together on English conversation, writing, and preparing for the Regents exams. Those are difficult even for native speakers!”     

One of Lowenstein’s students was a young man from Guinea who had a night job with long, grueling hours. “He was so tired, by the time he got to school that he would often fall asleep during our tutoring session,” says Lowenstein. “I alerted a CDI counselor and she spoke with the student’s employer and had his hours changed. Just that small thing made all the difference. He’s now in his first year of college. We each play a role is these students’ lives. CDI is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and tutoring is just one piece of many that helps each student reach his or her goals,” she says.    

As Lowenstein got to know her students, she realized that they often struggled to afford basic necessities. So, she helped establish “The Eyeglass Fund,” an emergency fund that CDI uses to help students pay for essentials. “It’s for students with emergency expenses such as a new winter coat, bus fare to visit a sick relative and, of course, eyeglasses. Just a month ago a student’s glasses fell out of her bag and cracked. The fund helped her replace them,” she says. Lowenstein sees herself tutoring at CDI for many years to come. “It’s so rewarding to see students strive and go forth.”     

Hear more tutors tell their stories here.  

15 college applications in the mail!

Danmai Lin

“I’m applying to 5 private colleges, 4 SUNY schools and 6 CUNY’s. I want to study science, maybe pre-med, but I haven’t decided yet,” says Danmai Lin, a 21-year-old student at MC. Since coming to the school last year, Danmai has participated in 4 internships, and now she’s added student government to her growing list of activities. It’s a demanding workload for any student, but for Danmai, all these activities hold particular significance. “When I came to MC last year from China, I didn’t speak any English. I was very shy and I didn’t feel comfortable speaking to people at all. But my college advisor, Beth Novick, suggested I intern at the New York Aquarium. I spoke to visitors about the sea otters and answered their questions. It forced me to communicate with strangers and to practice English. That, and my other internships, gave me a lot of confidence.” Through a summer program at Weil Cornell Medical College, Danmai’s interest in medicine was solidified. But the decision to pursue science in college is also a personal one. “Many people around me in China and in America have suffered from health problems, both in my family and in my community. I want to do something to fight disease. If I study, maybe one day I can use my knowledge to help them.”

Introducing CDI’s new college office at HPHS

Lena Eberhart, Site Director of HPHS' College Office

Lena Eberhart is the Site Director of CDI’s new College Office at HPHS. She and College Advisors Alexis Gnall and Marina Royo have already met with more than 500 students, mostly seniors, since the beginning of the school year. “My team wants to make sure that every student has access to truly individualized and thoughtful college advisement and future planning in general,” says Eberhart. “We’re also reaching out to parents with a series of parent nights to explain our services and answer questions. Most of our students come from families that don’t have any college experience, so they don’t have clear ideas about who might be eligible for financial aid or the range of college choices that are out there.”

Eberhart knows personally how important having good college advisement can be. “My school had just one overwhelmed college counselor. It was my trigonometry teacher who expanded my view, and talked to me about colleges I’d never heard of. I ended up going to Reed College, 3,000 miles from home, and it was the right move for me.” Eberhart says her own experience helps inform the team’s approach to working with students. “We want to open up students’ definitions of what this time in their lives could be…it’s about us knowing each student as a unique person and finding the perfect college or other option that will be just right.”