Akieia Glover MSW ’25 has pushed through a great deal of adversity to get where she is today.
Her father died just days after her high school graduation in 2014. She enrolled at John Jay College of Criminal Justice that August, but the loss took a toll, and she became depressed. She concluded that college wasn’t for her and soon stopped attending.
Determined to turn things around, she began working to pay off student debt and return to school. Eventually, she restarted her college journey at Kingsborough Community College in 2016 and later returned to John Jay through the CUNY Justice Academy. In 2020, she earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. But she didn’t stop there.
Now in her final semester of the master’s in social work program at Hunter College, Glover says that her career objective is to help other students dealing with mental-health issues and other challenges overcome their struggles and achieve their dreams.
“I want to work with youth because when we nurture and support young people, we’re helping create a better future for everyone,” she said. “I also want to open a nonprofit performing arts studio for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities to give them a space where they can explore the arts, express themselves and feel empowered to be creative in their own unique ways.”
