Jenni Jenkins spent her early childhood in Sandy, Utah, a city located at the base of Lone Peak, in the Wasatch Mountain Range. Her family later moved to Long Island, NY. She says “Although we didn’t actually move to the city, the change in the environment was still shocking. The absence of the mountains made [...]

Jackie Mariano is a Filipino-American woman born and raised in Elmhurst, Queens; she lives in the most diverse borough of New York City and goes to one of the most diverse colleges in the United States. Matters of race and identity are deeply important to her.

“Graduating from CUNY BA/BS was a great accomplishment for me. As a mother of two and the first of my family to graduate college, it was an immense accomplishment and an example to my younger brother and children, who I will strongly encourage to be part of this amazing learning adventure. I have truly learned, grown, and been inspired through CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies.”

Diane Gibson started—and stopped—college in 1965; she returned in 1991. Taking one course every semester, she graduated in June 2009. Her goal: to work as a case worker with young felons, ex-offenders incarcerated in the mental health system and/or the developmentally disabled.

Maureen Durkin’s interest in working in the disability field began one summer when she worked at Camp Hope/Camp Joy in upstate New York. Although she was just 13, she knew right away that working in the service of children with disabilities would be her calling.

Rachel Klapper, a student in both CUNY Baccalaureate and Macaulay Honors College, says she has been “deeply affected by CUNY BA/BS’s interdisciplinary academic mission.” In fact, she will next attend the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) at Herzliya in Israel to study Government and Counter-Terrorism.

After 14 years as a fundraiser for public health programs, Frank Jefferson wanted to be a public health leader. Saying he owes his success to CUNY Baccalaureate, his degree included research into the public health challenges in sexual minority communities. He will continue his work at Columbia’s School of Public Health.

Marina Chernyak has broad interests and aspirations in the fields of international development, public policy and social change. Recognizing that “the field of public policy and international development is inherently multidisciplinary, requiring immersion in Anthropology, Political Science, History, Sociology, Economics and Philosophy,” she chose CUNY Baccalaureate to pursue her studies.

Already involved in economic development, Murray hopes to make an even greater impact by running for City Council in the 31st Council District in the 2009 election.

Julia Susana Gomez, originally from Ecuador, is pictured here with her faculty mentor, Prof. Roslyn Bernstein, English, Baruch College. Gomez is a newly-minted graduate, now headed to the University of Oregon’s prestigious Comparative Literature program, with a major scholarship.