Arlette Alena Ford (Hecht)

CCNY was one of the premier universities in New York City when I was a young person in the 1960s, and one was able to receive a very competitive and excellent education, while the tuition was free. The academic program was rigorous at that time, and it was not easy to enter the school as a minimum high school grade point average was required for admission. Students had to study in-depth for all of the courses, which required long study hours. Many hours were spent in the library reading books, and reviewing first and secondary sources, periodicals, magazines, and reports. We're not talking about fashion magazines, but those magazines that had extreme in-depth reporting compared to now. We often reviewed old newspapers going back 100 or 200 years for research purposes. Students would go to the library and start looking through back copies of books and periodicals, as well as scroll through reels of microfiche, which is now outdated. Many of my high school friends wanted to attend CCNY, or were already students there, because of the school's reputation, so when I arrived on campus I already had a group of friends. While at CCNY I became a staff member of the student publication Tech News or The Paper. Some of my colleagues at The Paper have remained life-long friends. In a personal matter I reconnected with one of my former 'Paper' colleagues, Joudon Ford, in 2007. Joudon retired to the desert here in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we married in 2008. Professionally I spent over 30 years as a pension administrator and consultant, which was a career quite different from my CCNY major. One of the main benefits of college is that it teaches one how to learn. A person is likely to change careers three or four times during their working years, so being able to learn something new quickly is vital in today's economy. I am now a self-employed licensed health insurance agent and Medicare consultant in Nevada.