The CUNY Baccalaureate Blog

B.S., January 2006, Volunteerism and National Service in International Perspective/Music, Business

• Magna Cum Laude
• Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship
• Dean’s List

The oldest of eight children, April Deller she moved to New York City from Texas to study Music Business at New York University. At the time of her application to the CUNY BA/BS Program, she was recording an album at Divine Inspiration Records, but she had also just completed a year of volunteering in Americorps Vista, where she discovered a passion for the concept of volunteerism and national service. She came to the CUNY Baccalaureate Program to “blend two unlikely passions,” two sides of herself: the musical and the political

Deller takes an activist approach to her education: among many things she participated in she wrote for The Envoy, the Hunter College newspaper and later become its News Editor; she did an internship at the Forest Hills Community House in Jackson Heights, Queens where she was immersed in working with immigrants and later researched what protections they had against discrimination and where they could go for assistance; she interned at the New York City Office of the Comptroller where she learned about “green” buildings and environmentally friendly initiatives; and she completed an independent study about national service in nine different countries, which included interviews with the directors of several service organizations.

At the same time as attending college, she continued to apply her strong music, writing and teaching skills, giving music lessons as well as tutoring in the NYC public school system. She writes for various art and music projects, and has served as an assistant editor for the literary magazine “The Reading Room.” A singer, songwriter and composer, she has performed for children and adults at venues including the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the United Nations. And in 2004, Deller represented the USA in a Service and Beauty Pageant called Mr. and Miss University International, held in Seoul, Korea.

Deller completed two areas of concentration, and was mentored by Professor Kenneth Sherrill, Political Science, Hunter College, and Prof. Stephen Jablonsky, Music, City College. One of her goals now that she has her degree is to promote national and international volunteer service to high school and college students. “I love the CUNY BA Program!” she says. “It gave me the freedom to design an academic program suited to my own interests and dreams, as opposed to forcing my interests to fit into a pre-set academic major.”