Joseph Gerner

What actually drew me to CCNY was, at the time, it was free. My brother had gone there years earlier, and I could study engineering there. When I was there I was surprised it had a very pleasant atmosphere. It was a mixture of all different types of people from New York, which means all people from around the world. I felt very comfortable here on campus. I went to school with very good memories. I actually went through one semester where I was depressed and I ended up failing all my courses and I left for nine months to go to work. I was working as an electrical technician, and I came back and they allowed me to come back there. When I asked the Dean, he said, 'I don't know what you mean. We don't kick people out. Of course you can come back.' I found out that I could retake those courses and now I have no problems with them anymore. I found out that I could come back to it and do things over again. Things that were really impossible for me in the past somehow become very possible and sometimes even easy. That was the memory that helped me throughout my life afterwards.