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QCC students seize future at graduation in Bayside

By Kathianne Boniello

Maureen Mitchell had both feet on the ground Friday morning, but before the Queens Village resident joined her 1,300 classmates for Queensborough Community College’s 41st graduation ceremonies, the former horse trainer said she was flying high.

“I feel like I’m still up in the clouds,” said Mitchell, 46, a single mother who returned to the Bayside campus after dropping out 28 years ago. “I just seized every opportunity this college afforded me. It revitalized me.”

Mitchell was one of the many students celebrating their successes last week at Queensborough, where the school’s annual commencement ceremonies were held under a tent on the college’s main quad.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) joined City Councilmen David Weprin (D-Hollis), John Liu (D-Flushing) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Jackson Heights) at the graduation.

Presiding over his second graduation ceremony as president of the school and the 20th of his career, Dr. Eduardo Marti praised the students for achieving their associate’s degrees.

“Open admissions does not guarantee graduation,” Marti said. “Hard work and perseverance does, so be proud of your degree. You sweated, you sacrificed — you made it.”

Like so many others in Queensborough’s diverse student population, Mitchell had first enrolled at the Bayside school in 1973 but left school without completing her studies. She has spent the intervening years raising her family and working as a horse trainer at both Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park and Belmont Racetrack in Elmont.

Queensborough is a school that attracts a wide variety of students, from older adults like Mitchell seeking to return to school to recent immigrants and local Queens students. Queensborough Community College is located just off the intersection of 56th Avenue and Springfield Boulevard in Bayside.

Marilyn Zapata, 49, and Fred Metzger, 63, came to QCC through the school’s Verizon Next Step program, a partnership between Queensborough and the telecommunications company designed to help them continue their education.

For Woodhaven resident Zapata and Metzger, from Forest Hills, the program worked: both won awards for having perfect 4.0 grade point averages.

Zapata, who plans to go onto Queens College, praised Queensborough.

“You feel like you’re not just doing something for yourself,” she said. “You’re doing it for the community.”

Metzger said “coming back to school after many years, it’s great. After four years, you’re kind of happy and sad.”

Mervin Fontenelle is only 26 but has his own story to tell. The South Richmond Hill resident, a native of St. Lucia, came to Queensborough after discovering the academic credits he earned in his native country were not accepted by CUNY’s City College.

“I had to start over,” Fontenelle said. “I’m happy I started here.”

The engineering science major, who plans to go onto City College and eventually earn his master’s degree, did more than study at QCC: he was awarded the school’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for promoting racial harmony on campus.

Danny Lu, 23, of Bayside, went to Queensborough out of high school and plans to study English at St. John’s University.

“It’s very bittersweet,” the student government president said of graduating. “You spend two years trying to achieve something and now is the time. It’s sweet in that you have a whole new future, a whole new path in front of you.”

Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at [email protected] or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.