She’s the poster girl!
A recent Hunter graduate is starring in the multimedia ad campaign for CUNY Reconnect, a university program designed to engage New Yorkers who earned college credits but stopped short of getting a degree.
Karina Castro, a Psychology major, paused her education in 2020 after having a child soon after the COVID-19 lockdowns began. She returned in 2022 after receiving an email from a Reconnect adviser and earned her bachelor’s in January.
“If I had not received that email, I probably would still be struggling to find my way back to school,” said Castro, who is now pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial Psychology. “The adviser provided me with the solution to each and every ‘but’ I had. I communicated to him what schedule would work for me; he connected with Hunter, and we found the perfect schedule.”
CUNY Reconnect has helped the City University of New York re-enroll 16,319 students during the 2023-2024 academic year, bringing to 33,378 the number of students who have returned to college at CUNY since Reconnect was launched in 2022. More than 10% of them – 3,375 – have already completed a degree or are on track to do so this spring. Of those students, the majority attended part time.
CUNY Reconnect pairs prospective students with trained advisers who help them navigate the enrollment process, choose an academic program and create a class schedule that accommodates employment, caregiving and other obligations. Reconnect advisers also support students as they apply for financial aid — work that has been crucial with this year’s chaotic rollout of the revised FAFSA application. The Reconnect team will reinforce CUNY’s ongoing efforts to ensure that students are informed and able to take full advantage of their federal and state financial aid options.
Conceived and championed by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, CUNY Reconnect was set up with a $4.4 million investment from the city, which bumped program funding to $5.8 million in the current fiscal year.
CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez highlighted the effectiveness of CUNY Reconnect in testimony before the New York City Council this Wednesday about the University’s budget request for FY 2025. CUNY has asked the city to sustain its $5.8 million investment, along with $2.9 million more in funding proposed by the City Council to expand its impact, and to baseline the funding, meaning it will be included in each fiscal year moving forward.
“CUNY Reconnect is integral to the University’s mission to engage more New Yorkers and make it easier for them to access the many long-term benefits of higher education,” said Chancellor Matos Rodríguez. “We thank our partners in government for helping CUNY make good on its mission to lift New York, and we welcome the students who have taken this important step toward improving their future. We congratulate those who returned to college through CUNY Reconnect, completed a degree and moved forward, better equipped to pursue their dreams.”
