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.”

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.”

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.  

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.”

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.”

Dirk Spencer, HPHS Senior

Dirk Spencer has a lot of plans: “I’m probably going to major in biology in college. Then, I’m planning on doing an MD-PhD program and then I’ll specialize in surgery so I can work with Doctors Without Borders.” Dirk is a Senior at the High School for Health Professions and Human Services. His medical aspirations were formed at the early age of eight after reading a graphic novel whose main character was a doctor. “I thought, OK, maybe medicine is interesting. So I decided to focus on science, and I liked it.” At thirteen, already knowing medicine was in his future, he enrolled at HPHS. “The teachers here are really amazing. And I was lucky enough to have an internship at Cornell,” he says. Dirk and his siblings are the first in his family to go to college. “It’s uncharted waters,” says Dirk about applying to college. “That’s why I’m glad for CDI’s college office. It’s a really awesome program and I hope it stays with our school.  It can really help because there’s a lot of talent here.”

“CDI and Manhattan Comprehensive are delighted to announce that we’ve launched a partnership with  the High School for Health Professions and Human Services (HPHS) to serve their students,” says CDI Executive Director, John J. Mancuso, Jr. “Our successful 20-year old model, integrating academic and intensive student support, has been so effective that CDI’s Board of Directors and staff determined that we wanted to serve a larger pool of students.” To launch the partnership, MC-CDI opened a College Office at HPHS in September staffed by three full time college counselors.

HPHS is located on 15th Street, around the corner from MC-CDI. While Manhattan Comprehensive is a transfer school that serves 1,100 older students, aged 17-21, HPHS is a traditional high school with 1,800 students aged 14-18. At both schools, more than 80% of students live below the poverty line.

“HPHS used to be able to offer a wide array of tutoring and internships, but with budget cuts in recent years we’re down to only the most basic services,” says Principal Robert Gentile. “Now, working together with CDI and MC, we can give our students new opportunities that will make a significant difference in their lives.”

“The partnership will bring new opportunities to students at both schools,” says Michael Toise, MC’s Principal. The schools will share expertise and some resources-offering additional classes for college credit, shared College and Career Fairs, and expanded internship placements at hospitals and other health care facilities where HPHS already has existing partnerships.

The HPHS partnership is the first in a planned network of local high schools with MC-CDI as its hub. The Strategic Initiatives Committee of CDI’s Board is looking at bringing in the third network school within the next 18 months.

Victor C., MC Senior

More than half of the students at MC-CDI are recent immigrants, who often arrive in New York with big dreams and few connections. Victor C. came to New York from Peru just six months ago, and now he’s starting his senior year at MC. Victor has jumped into his new life enthusiastically. He studies hard, has a part-time job at CDI, and works with his CDI tutor on his English skills. Victor also has a long held passion for robots. “I’ve always wanted to create robots to help people who can’t walk, people who are sick…robots can do amazing things” He says. “I love it. So I want to study electrical engineering in college.” He got his first taste this summer when he took part in Cooper Union’s Engineering internship where he and other MC-CDI students created a Rube Goldberg machine out of recycled materials. Most MC students take anywhere from two to three years to get their diploma; Victor plans to do it in just a year and a half.  While living in New York has been “awesome,” there are three things he misses most about his life back in Peru: his grandparents, his friends, and ceviche.

Watch the result of students’ internship go up in flames, literally.