Brooklyn College News

Brooklyn College will open a new art gallery on Nov. 7 on the lower level of Boylan Hall with a special exhibit to celebrate the space that will serve as a vibrant hub for artists, students, faculty, and the community. Spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and new media, The Art Gallery at Brooklyn College’s inaugural exhibition, “Urban Contours,” showcases the college’s Art Department faculty, exploring how these dynamic Brooklyn-rooted artists engage space, place, and objects.

Brooklyn College students will enjoy fast-track status and expedited entry into the St. George’s University (SGU) School of Medicine, thanks to a new admissions partnership with the private medical school and international university in Grenada, West Indies. “We are excited to expand our offerings to students interested in studying medicine to the St. George’s University School of Medicine,” said April Bedford, Brooklyn College’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Cynthia Leung grew up in an enclave of the Gravesend neighborhood that has one of the largest Chinese American populations in New York City. The daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong didn’t encounter many White people until she got to middle school, where they were suddenly a majority of her peers. “It was the first time in my life where I felt like I didn’t really belong somewhere,” she says.

For close to 100 years, Brooklyn College has grown into an engine of socioeconomic mobility for immigrants and first-generation college students who hail from 136 countries and speak 91 different languages. But what are the societal benefits of investing in immigrant and diverse populations? A recent economic impact study suggests quite a lot.

Brooklyn College has been recognized for lifting its incredibly diverse students up the socioeconomic ladder and for its overall quality and value by U.S. News & World Report for 2025. Now in its 40th year, the rankings evaluate nearly 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities on up to 17 measures of academic quality and place an emphasis on social mobility and outcomes for graduating students.

Brooklyn College is thrilled to announce that Anthony R. Castellanos ’85 will serve as the Murray Koppelman School of Business Executive-in-Residence for fall 2024. A special kickoff event is scheduled for September 30. In addition to being the chair of the Brooklyn College Foundation Board of Trustees, Castellanos is a respected business leader who has shared his talents with Brooklyn College students, staff, and faculty for years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the news and is rapidly becoming a part of the lives of many college students. Rivka Levitan ’09 is an associate professor of computer and information science and is an expert in spoken language processing, discourse, and human computer interaction. Her research in the area of entrainment—the phenomenon by which conversational partners start to talk more like each other—earner her an NSF Career Award.

Study abroad was some years away for Barbara Canlon ’80 when she arrived at Brooklyn College. Her dream was to teach children with special needs, particularly those with developmental disabilities, especially those with hearing impairments. She graduated with a B.S. in audiology and speech pathology and went on to earn a Master of Science in physiological acoustics at the University of Michigan.

Brandon Abram, a senior, transfer student, and Africana studies major says that his classwork has provided a thoughtful lens through which he can dissect his youthful brush with the justice system and the way that it affected how he was perceived afterward. Abram—a poet, bookworm, and fervent skateboarder—is planning for a career in which he can address the justice system’s treatment of vulnerable populations.

Since taking over as its director, Marie Lily Cerat has leaned on a democratic leadership style, her education, and an unwavering commitment to her homeland to accomplish the important work that CUNY’s Haitian Studies Institute (HSI) at Brooklyn College does locally and beyond. In addition to being the co-founder of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees in 1992, Cerat holds a Ph.D. in urban education and a certificate in Africana studies from the CUNY Graduate Center.