2000
I was in the aerospace industry for 20 years. I came back to New York City and decided to go back to school. I wanted to improve my technical understanding and skills in mechanical engineering. That's how I wound up with five degrees. When I came back to the City College of New York, it was a great experience. Everything really clicked. The teaching staff was beyond great. After my first year at graduate school, some professors approached me and asked me if I wanted to be a teaching assistant. I said, 'Sure. It would help me with pocket money.' I wound up teaching undergraduates in the chemical engineering labs, like Statics, Dynamics, and Physics for the incoming freshmen class. The more I did that, the more the faculty liked what I was doing, so I ended up teaching graduate students Thermodynamics, Statics, and Dynamics. I took on a bigger role as a teaching assistant. I graduated and got an undergraduate and a master's in mechanical engineering from CCNY. With that, I was able to reenter the local workforce in construction. My first job was working for the New York City School Construction Authority as a construction manager for schools. I wound up in New Jersey with the same job. I came back, and I worked for Tishman Construction here in New York City. After several years there, I went to a couple of other small construction management firms. I finally retired, and I had a great time. CCNY does a great service to the community. It's wonderful that CCNY lets anybody in, but you have to prove yourself. I'm glad that the Office of Admissions acknowledges that there are people who have not been properly prepared for college but have a dream to try and improve their lives. CCNY is always open to giving those people a chance through remedial classes so they can be prepared for college work.