HUNTER COLLEGE EXPOSED
About︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎
This is a personal video essay on the highs and lows of being a college student at the City University of New York. In these videos I am happy, angry, nervous, shy, hopeful, sarcastic, worried, surprised, and annoyed. A complicated range of emotion is on display, with the intention of creating an honest portrait of my experiences.
In 2012, I moved to New York City from a small city in Florida. I was eager to explore my life as a new adult, having just turned eighteen. My family didn’t have the resources to send me to college, so I felt honored to be awarded a full-ride scholarship to CUNY, where I study at Hunter College.
Seven years later, I am close to finishing my degree. In this time, I’ve had an incredible journey defined by both hardship and joy. The greatest challenge was giving up my scholarship, dropping out of college, and returning to Florida after my father died in 2014. The highlights include traveling across America by myself on a train, as a passionate activist and explorer in pursuit of social justice all over the country.
Despite all my adventures and sorrows, the goal of graduating from college never diminished. For a long time I prayed for the courage to go back to Hunter. With God’s strength, I re-enrolled for the Fall 2018 semester, and planned my return. I felt optimistic, excited, and eager to learn new things.
I never expected to return to an academic environment that made me so sad. I’ve comforted students crying in bathrooms, not sure how they will buy food, because the financial aid department delayed their disbursement of funds. I’ve noticed students struggling to stay awake between classes. Students worried about tuition hikes. Programs losing funding for research, or for the arts. Professors that are overworked and underpaid. Overcrowded classrooms. Ethnic studies classes quietly removed from the curriculum. Increasingly hostile campus security officers. Buildings that are falling apart...
In 2012, I moved to New York City from a small city in Florida. I was eager to explore my life as a new adult, having just turned eighteen. My family didn’t have the resources to send me to college, so I felt honored to be awarded a full-ride scholarship to CUNY, where I study at Hunter College.
Seven years later, I am close to finishing my degree. In this time, I’ve had an incredible journey defined by both hardship and joy. The greatest challenge was giving up my scholarship, dropping out of college, and returning to Florida after my father died in 2014. The highlights include traveling across America by myself on a train, as a passionate activist and explorer in pursuit of social justice all over the country.
Despite all my adventures and sorrows, the goal of graduating from college never diminished. For a long time I prayed for the courage to go back to Hunter. With God’s strength, I re-enrolled for the Fall 2018 semester, and planned my return. I felt optimistic, excited, and eager to learn new things.
I never expected to return to an academic environment that made me so sad. I’ve comforted students crying in bathrooms, not sure how they will buy food, because the financial aid department delayed their disbursement of funds. I’ve noticed students struggling to stay awake between classes. Students worried about tuition hikes. Programs losing funding for research, or for the arts. Professors that are overworked and underpaid. Overcrowded classrooms. Ethnic studies classes quietly removed from the curriculum. Increasingly hostile campus security officers. Buildings that are falling apart...
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︎Index
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︎Press
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NYC High School and College Students Demand “Cops Out!” of Schools
by Hakim Bishara and Valentina Di Liscia in Hyperallergic on January 31st, 2020 ︎https://hyperallergic.com/540230/nyc-high-school-and-college-students-demand-cops-out-of-schools
Students Demand Starbucks Town Hall, Dean Responds
by Melissa Lent in The Envoy: A Student-Run News Site for Hunter College on November 27th, 2019
︎https://thehunterenvoy.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/students-demand-starbucks-town-hall-dean-responds/
︎ For more press coverage click here.