As a high school student, Lewis Nunez was a Youth Leader at Bushwick School for Social Justice. He is currently completing a B. A. in physiological psychology and sociology at Hunter College, as well as working as a College Assistant at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He will be graduating in May of 2023 and will be attending a summer research experience at Brown University, and in the cycle of fall, Lewis will be applying for Ph.D. programs.
CARA staff member Pamela Vasquez – who was a College Coach at the Bushwick Campus when he was a Youth Leader – interviewed him about his experiences with college access and persistence over the past five years.
Can you tell us about what your personal experience was with post-secondary planning and at college?
I didn’t have the privilege of my parents being able to afford me living outside of home. If I needed to afford books, if I needed clothes, if I needed to eat outside, I still needed to have a job. Eventually I got a work study position at my school (BMCC), which made it easier for me to work. They arranged it around my schedule, but there was still a lot of work to do, in terms of school work. When I transfered to Hunter, I already had a position at BMCC as a College Assistant, not as a work study anymore, and that required for me to do a lot more work because I was promoted to being a team meet, and that required a lot of responsibilities while I was still doing a full time class schedule. The most difficult challenge for me has been trying to find the time for me to do work and to do school. Then the pandemic affected me a bit because I started to work from home, and I didn’t know how to separate space and time for me to do school work and homework, if I did everything on the same desk. Eventually post pandemic, I started to find this habit of okay, if I’m gonna work for BMCC from my desktop to find somewhere else to do my homework. I would go to Starbucks, come to campus, etc.
What do you think about postsecondary pathways becoming more progressive in terms of including non-college options?
I want to see that. I feel like there’s a lot that goes on in our homes, and there is that generational push of having to pursue being a doctor and a lot of people have that fixed mindset of “if I don’t go into the medicine field, I can’t do anything else.” And a big part of being a Youth Leader was pushing students, especially pushing the idea that there’s more for you to do than what you’re expected to do by your parents, and that you can still do a lot of things and make a broad impact. Because I was a Youth Leader is why I did a Sociology minor.
Why do you think more people should know about and support CARA?
Currently, I have little cousins who are in the process of applying to colleges, and sometimes it’s tough as first-generation students, especially since we’re the first ones to go to college. Being part of CARA helped me understand how this system worked and get comfortable with it, as I was also providing help to other people. I also prepared myself to know what it felt like being a college student and having so many responsibilities through me and CARA. And I realized I wanted to go into the mental health field. Something else is, I was also able to learn how to network with people. I remember through CARA talking to you [Pamela], to Stephanie, to Dana, and to everybody else in the S-Area (Student Success Center).Building those skills something I can still rely on. I can still email anybody. I can still text anybody and still get the guidance, which I found very important. And again, just being able to use the skills that I learned like applying to colleges, and knowing how to fill out financial aid so that I can provide that assistance to my community, especially my family, and those little cousins who are apparently in the process of applying to college.
Tell me about something you did as a Youth Leader that you think has helped an individual student in their college process.
One of the main things that I did was helping people with their financial aid… I’ve done multiple financial aid applications in addition to my own, and I’ve helped my own peers complete their financial aid on time. I’m always on track with the deadlines, because it’s usually the same, and I’m always triggered to remember October 1st. So, I just filled out my FAFSA and TAP, and was comfortable with completing the applications, because again, I did so many. I think it was 86 students that we had in the senior class back in BSSJ [The Brooklyn School for Social Justice] and it was me and Michelly working with the class. I had to get comfortable with filling out the applications as I was getting trained and helping people too.
Why do you think it is important for SSCs to continue getting funds?
I remember that it felt like I was doing something important, not just for myself to get the experience of having a job as a senior and getting to talk to so many people, getting to travel, go to campus stores with Stephanie. I felt like I was making an impact in my community at a larger scale, because I was pushing my people to get a higher education, even if sometimes you don’t need to go to college, which is something that we emphasize a lot in the S-Area. We just push people to do something else once they graduate, and unfortunately a lot of the people in my senior class didn’t feel like they could do something else after high school. A lot of the conversations they had is like” after I graduate, like I don’t know what else to do with my life”, and it was through conversations that they found something else to do. Whether that was a post- graduation program, whether it was a job, I think it is important to push the people in our communities, and make sure that they have the resources to see more than what they have.