This fall, I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship Awards Ceremony for the CUNY Baccalaureate Program. I was honored to celebrate the new batch of Smith Fellows, a creative, tenacious, and inspiring bunch of students who epitomize the promise of CUNY. It was also a unique opportunity to say thank you to Mr. Thomas W. Smith, the benefactor of the fellowship, who attends the ceremony every year. At 97 years old, there are many remarkable things to say about Mr. Smith. But I think it’s important to highlight that since 1994, he has helped nearly 1,200 students complete their bachelor’s degree at CUNY. The impact of that kind of generosity and support cannot be measured.
With many thanks to Tracy Mejia Urena (Scholarship & Events Specialist, CUNY BA) for the invitation. And gratitude to Joshua Brumberg (President, The Graduate Center, CUNY), Brian A. Peterson (Interim Senior Vice President and Dean, The Graduate Center) and Jody Clark Vaisman (Academic Director, CUNY BA) for the warm welcome. Returning to the Graduate Center and CUNY always feels like coming home.
Below are my remarks from that evening, edited slightly for ease of reading. I want to emphasize that my story is not unique. It is a very typical CUNY story. This one just happens to be mine.
October 14, 2025, Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship Awards Ceremony for the CUNY Baccalaureate Program.
In the fall of 2001, I went back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree. I had a lot of credits, but no degree. I remember being unsure about committing two years to finishing my bachelor’s. I remember my mother telling me that the two years would pass anyway, but if I went back to school then at the end of the two years, I’d have my degree. It was very solid mom advice. I was drawn to the CUNY BA program because I wanted to design my own degree, to take full advantage of my previous college coursework, and to have more control over my education. My areas of concentration were dramatic literature, theatre, and playwrighting. I thought I’d finish my bachelor’s and do an MFA in Acting. Spoiler Alert: That didn’t happen.
At the time, I was working full-time at night and on the weekends so that I could go to school full-time during the day. It was hard. I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Looking back, I have no idea how I did it. I remember walking home from the subway at 8:30am after an overnight shift and everyone else would be headed to work. I remember how exhausted I felt: that bone-tired feeling. More than once, I found myself crying on that walk thinking about the hour nap I might be able to fit in before going to class. It was hard living in New York, working, paying my tuition as I went. But it was worth it, too. When I heard about the Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship, I was excited. Not just because of the honor—and it is an honor—but because the funding would make a huge difference in my life. It did make a huge difference. Because I knew if I got sick or had to take a day off to finish a paper, it would be ok. The Smith Fellowship gave me room to breathe and that was no small thing.
I don’t talk a lot about how hard that time was for me because in retrospect, I’m really proud of it and the hard was worth it. I have a bachelors, a masters, an MPhil, a PhD—yes, way too many degrees—but I’ve always been the most proud of finishing my bachelor’s degree. It wasn’t easy. I was nervous about going back to school after years away. I wasn’t sure I’d be good at it. I was always worried about balancing work and school, but I needed work to pay for school. I was worried that the time and the stress and the money wouldn’t be worth it. But it was. And the Smith Fellowship offered support at a time when I really needed it. For that I’m grateful. I’m guessing many of you here today can relate.
It’s not often that we get the chance to thank someone twenty-plus years after the fact. To share a bit about how their generosity has impacted our lives. To say thank you in person. I’m thrilled to be here today to do just that. Thank you, Mr. Smith for believing not just in me, but in all of the CUNY BA students who have been awarded the Thomas W. Smith Academic Fellowship over the years. I think about the impact the fellowship had on my life and then I multiply that by all of the lives here today and those who have come before us. Multiply that by our families and friends and communities that have benefited and will benefit from our growth and education. The impact that Mr. Smith has had and continues to have is awe inspiring. So, thank you, Mr. Smith, for the ripples of inspiration and support that you have sent out into the world through this fellowship so that we may continue to impact others.
I’m supposed to tell you what I’ve been up to since I graduated way back in 2003. I think a lot of it is covered in my bio. The short version is: I got a bunch of degrees in things I thought I wanted to do. But it turns out that sometimes as you go along, if you listen closely and think about the kinds of work you like to do, if you are open to the different possibilities that pop-up, if instead of focusing on what your degree says and more about how you like to solve problems, or listen, or bring people together, you sometimes end up somewhere totally unexpected and wonderful. And that’s ok.
I think one of the things I learned as a CUNY BA student—beyond creativity and problem solving and tenacity in the face of navigating the complex and often frustrating system that is CUNY—is that there are connections and knowledge in the spaces in between and that they can tell us a lot about where we want to go. That is the heart of interdisciplinary study: that new knowledge at the intersections. That is what makes this program so unique.
After I completed my masters degree, I was accepted to the PhD program in English here at the Graduate Center. Much like in undergrad, I worked throughout my PhD in investment banking, in publishing, in higher ed. The last few years of the program, I was an Instructional Technology Fellow at Macaulay Honors College. There I worked with faculty across disciplines to incorporate digital projects in the classroom. I loved helping the faculty and students learn technology. It was at Macaulay that I discovered I liked working with others to solve problems, that I enjoyed bringing people together from different disciplines and backgrounds to tackle big ideas.
So rather than becoming an actor—my plan when I started the CUNY BA program—or a literature professor—my plan when I started my PhD—I started working in libraries, where I spent a decade helping students and faculty enhance their education and research through technology. I started as a postdoc, then became an assistant director, then a director of a department, where I also got to open a hub for augmented and virtual reality.
Along the way, I had a lot of support and people who believed in me, even when my background and path didn’t look like everyone thought it should. What has kept me moving forward is always staying curious about the next thing. Whether that was the next new technology or helping my colleagues grow in their careers.
This past year I started a new position as University Librarian at Rochester Institute of Technology. That basically means I run the library. It’s a big job. I’m responsible for almost 50 people, which often makes me nervous. In those moments, I try to remember the opportunities I have been given. The mentorship I’ve had throughout my academic and professional career. The people who have advocated for me and believed in me. It brings me joy and a bit of hope to be able to offer the same support to others.
Working at RIT feels like a full circle moment. When I started the CUNY BA program, I worked doing computer things at an investment bank to put myself through school so I could study theater and literature. Technology and the arts. Now I run a library at a tech school that is known for celebrating the intersections of technology and the arts. I couldn’t have imagined this job or this school when I was where you are now, but it is exactly where I want to be, where I should be.
All of this is to say, pay attention to what you love, what type of work you’re drawn to, what challenges you enjoy, what problems keep you up at night, even when things are hard, maybe especially when they’re hard. Because it is those things that often help us find a way forward. The destination may not be what we expect, but it might be better. Thank you.