Hunter College Graduation

HUNTER COLLEGE TO HOLD WINTER COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY

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Formerly Homeless Students, a 71-Year-Old Granddad, Immigrant "Dreamers" Among Graduates

104-Year-Old Teacher Helen Posner Fried to Receive Alumni of the Year Award; Ford Foundation President Darren Walker to Deliver Commencement Address

More than 1500 students will received their degrees at the Hunter College Winter Commencement, led by President Jennifer J. Raab, in January.

Graduates include three class valedictorians. Among them, Deena Chanowitz, who left a large Hasidic household as a young teen and emerged from homelessness to become a restaurateur and chef, then pursued a secular education as a Hunter pre-med student. 

Other graduates in the limelight will be Ayesha Jones, who became homeless after a fire destroyed her family's apartment, and who will receive her degree in Nursing; Mariano Laboy, who put his family through college then got an education himself and at the age of 71 will graduate with a degree in Africana, Puerto Rican and Latin Studies; Trinidadian born Amrika Ballyram, a Silicon Valley-bound Economics major who also emerged from poverty and homelessness; and Grace Couch, a student from South Korea who is the first Dream US National Scholar to graduate from Hunter.

Ford Foundation President Darren Walker will deliver the commencement address and receive the President's Medal. Like so many Hunter College students, Walker came from humble beginnings and, with his intelligence and determination, overcame obstacles to achieve academic and professional success.

Special honoree at the Hunter Commencement: Helen Posner Fried, a 104-year-old Hunter College grad (Class of '31), who put her Education degree to use as an elementary school teacher in Harlem and Brooklyn for decades, will receive the Alumni of the Year Award.  

President Raab with Ford Foundation President Darren Walker