1965
I began my college years at Skidmore College in Upstate New York, but never quite lost my love for being in the city, and decided to come back to it. Both my father and my uncle were professors at CCNY, so there was really nowhere else that I was going to go when I landed back in New York. I majored in French and minored in fine arts, psychology, and Italian, so I hung out with a group of Italians who were in school then. I already spoke French fluently, so I just continued my studies there. I have two lifelong relationships that continue to this day. I ended up with a long career in the nonprofit arena, as I spent ten years at Texas Medical Center. I married a surgeon who was also a CCNY graduate. I started the Patient Relations and International Patient Services for St. Luke's Health, Texas Children's Hospital, and the Texas Heart Institute. I eventually chaired the National Society of Patient Rep's Board of Directors, so my CCNY degree set me on an interesting trajectory in health care, patient rights, and patient advocacy. That was a direct relationship to CCNY and certainly my language training. I also started one of the first certifications for hospital interpreters in the country because a lot of that was just being done haphazardly, and that was dangerous. I stayed in the nonprofit arena and ran two nonprofits in Houston, one for about six years and one for about 20 years. I also still consult and do organizational development for nonprofits. I got a valuable education at CCNY.