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When I spent my summer after junior year in New Orleans, I had to revisit all my plans for graduation. Up until that point, I thought I was going to be an urban planner. That summer, the city was still recovering after hurricane Katrina, and there was a lot of people debating how the city would rebuild.

I was a New Yorker and development always meant gentrification to me. So, during those conversations, I'd voice my concerns to no avail. They were concerned about building, not gentrification. I realized I couldn't do this kind of work: go into a city and recommend reforms to then leave without having to live out the results of my recommendations. Who was I to tell them right from wrong?

The summer put me in a whirlwind and I entered senior year without any back up plan. I slipped into education unexpectedly, and I fell in love with the industry. I learned sometimes, moments of despair are just that: moments. You may not expect it, but sometimes things just fall into place.

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The IC CAE Summer Program in Washington DC was one of the most exciting and eye opening experiences I’ve ever had. felt like stepping into a whole new world, working on real intelligence problems and getting to learn directly from professionals at the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Every day was an adventure whether it was analyzing data, debating strategies, or collaborating with people who were as passionate as me.

The best part wasn’t just about academics. It was about solving real world problems, and realizing I had the potential to contribute to something bigger. The energy and difficulty of this experience made me more confident, focused, and excited about the future. I walked away from it not just with new skills, but with a sense of purpose and the drive to keep pushing myself.

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At the beginning of my education experience I kept it simple, school them home. On a random day I stumbled across a club meeting. The members were welcoming and I participated. This open a world of possibilities in extracurriculars. From there I applied to almost every activity or events with the available time. Learned leadership and collaboration skills. This contributed in getting my name out and more opportunities came about from just simply being involved. Opportunities such as tutoring part time, out of state trips and research invites.

Over all the main lesson was being involved as much as possible.

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Morgan Stanley MyPath Mentorship Program - Shaheim

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Morgan Stanley MyPath Mentorship Program - Shaheim

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I recently completed this 10-week experience, and it helped to demystify a part of the finance profession (Internal Audit Division). Upon participating in a mock audit, I realized that I knew a lot more than I was giving myself credit for. I felt like I knew who I was in that moment.

I have come to realized that I am capable, competent, and need to give myself some grace in the spaces I enter sometimes. I was chosen for a reason, and I constantly remind myself of that to limit the amount of pressure I put on myself. This experience showed me another phase in my life that I can nurture as I enter a brand-new professional pursuit. I am a work in progress, but I strive for progress. That's a win for me.

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When I had first decided to go back to college after graduating high school four years prior, I was very nervous and lacked self-confidence. I cried every single day for three weeks before the Spring 2023 semester began. I would tell myself that “C’s get degrees,” as a way to eliminate the pressure I have felt towards my academic performance prior. Once I felt myself gaining confidence in my abilities through my performances, I decided to change my mindset on school. I felt that I was well equipped to face the many challenges that higher education was presenting me and found methods to create a seamless road to success while at Kingsborough.

As a Liberal Arts major I am provided with much flexibility to explore or disengage from topics as I feel necessary. I found that it would be the most strategic to take the intro courses for each required area of study to complete a Liberal Arts degree, and diving further into topics I would find more interesting after completing the intro courses. It was through this method that I discovered my burning love and passion for both social sciences and media and film.

Another key component to my success at Kingsborough was the connections I had formed with my professors. I have never received concerning marks throughout college and I still prioritize engaging with the professor during office hours at least two times a semester. It is through these connections that my professor has a more holistic picture of who I am and what my passions are as an individual. This has made all the difference in finding references for the competitive programs I have been applying for.

I feel through my built self-confidence, being a liberal arts student, and building strong connections with my professors that I have gained a stronger sense of myself and have excelled in coming back to college.

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I ended up doing all the job that was not mine as a VP for evening students in SGA. I was giving reminders, making flyers, looking for food on websites, orders stuff, finalizing time for the event alone, stressing out, trying to communicate and the look over everything at the event itself, refiling, making sure food is here, taking polaroid pictures and then cleaning at the end of event with some help.

While Programming VP was supposed to take the lead and I was there to assist or divide tasks. When I tried to communicate he just said that he has his own life, has his stuff and I am just blaming him. This kept happening until the start of this month when I decide to bring this matter up to our supervisors and clearly talk.

After, I learnt to set boundaries, say no and do what is my responsibilty to do. Let other people see the consequences as it cannot go on like this. So I stooped his part and now I am much better with my stress.

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Witching Hour is an annual arts Festival held in Iowa City, and I met it's former organizer at a friend's wedding (I didn't know that's what he did). We were talking about my work in the coffee industry, and he invited me to participate in the festival, thinking that I could host a panel or something similar about specialty coffee and our work with coffee producers. I thought long and hard about it, and realized that there wasn't anything coffee-related that I wanted to do, and instead pitched him creating a work around my personal decolonization. I'd never created anything like that before, and did not have anything done, but he told me it sounded interesting, and gave me free reign to do what I wanted.

It ended up turning into a series of personal essays that I performed (also had never done that before lol) and it turned out to be a really moving piece of work. I learned that it was important to trust myself, and to not try and force myself to fit the role that other people have imagined for me. I could have tried to create something that felt inauthentic to me in that moment, but instead I took a risk, and it turned out really well.

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This semester, I participated in the Honors Program and the experience was informative, enlightening, and transformative, which helped me change and grow in unexpected ways. It was my first time working on a comprehensive research project that incorporated my personal narrative, challenging me to reflect deeply on my own experiences while connecting them to broader societal issues. Through this process, I took a deep dive into the foster care system, exploring its origins and uncovering nuances within my own story that I had never considered before.

In addition, I gained a clearer understanding of the difference between undergraduate and graduate-level writing, which served as valuable preparation for the rigor of senior college work. This project not only strengthened my analytical thinking, research skills, and academic writing but also deepened my appreciation for how personal narratives can enhance academic research and inspire meaningful dialogue.

Marco Alvarez

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Last winter I had the chance to participate in the Q-STEM Research Program, which was very interesting to me. I was never thinking of getting into the research field, but I have no idea why I applied for that program. I just always have the curiosity to try and learn different stuff, which triggered me to participate into that program. I didn't do any research during my time there, but I learnt how to do research, what is the importance about it, and different research skills, etc. During that time, I did a background research on protein synthesis, DNA, RNA, genes and gene editing programs like CRISPR-Cas9 etc. That was my first exploration to the Bio field so in-depth, and also the research field. Through the Q-Stem Program, I learned that there is something called the Md-PhD program. Q-STEM program is the reason why I have chose my career path of doing the Md-PhD program and get into the research field along with medicine.