It is never too late to go back to school and follow your dreams. Take it from Chafane Robinson, a High School Equivalency (HSE) graduate and recipient of the Peter Jennings Scholarship Award.
On Tuesday, June 19, Robinson was one of 12 CUNY-bound students recognized at the Peter Jennings Scholarship Laurel Award in a ceremony held at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan.
The award is named in honor of the late journalist Peter Jennings, who after serving twenty years as anchor for ABC World News Tonight, died in 2005. Like the recipients, Jennings did not graduate from high school, but later acquired his high school equivalency diploma.
The award means a great deal to Robinson, who will be the first in her family to attend college despite initially being worried about how she would pay for her education. “It felt like things were finally falling into place for me and I was about to walk the path I’ve always set for myself as a goal,” she shared.
The Belize-born mother of three credits her loved ones and Darryl E. Rogers, Senior Director of Pre-College and Academic Programs at Hostos’ Division of Continuing Education and Workforce Development, with helping her get there. “He’s like a father to me,” she said. “Grateful couldn’t sum up how I feel.”
The road to college has been long and winding for Robinson, who at the age of 15 sacrificed her dreams to support her siblings in their pursuit of higher education. Her focus later shifted to her own children when she moved to the U.S., where she faced many obstacles as an undocumented immigrant. She persevered, however, and at the urging of her eldest daughter to do something for herself, enrolled in Hostos’ Adult Learning Center’s HSE program. While she faced multiple personal crises along the way, Robinson passed the HSE exam on her second try and received her diploma in August 2016. The determined pupil went on to complete the Division of Continuing Education and Workforce Development’s Clinical Medical Assistant (CMA) program and will enroll in Hostos’ Nursing Program this fall.
The scholarships have been administered by Jennings’s widow, Executive Vice President and Cofounder of the Documentary Group, Kayce Freed Jennings, since the journalist’s death. Mrs. Jennings introduced each of this year’s recipients, who she said represent “the very best of this country,” and assured Robinson she’s made her children proud—a sentiment not lost on the tenacious mother.
“My children are my everything,” she said. “I can only hope [they] will continue to see the good in anything they pursue and know that if they do the work, they too will see the [fruit of their labor], no matter how long it takes.”
About Hostos Community College
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College is an educational agent for change that has been transforming and improving the quality of life in the South Bronx and neighboring communities for a half-century. Since 1968, Hostos has been a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, as well as a point of departure for lifelong learning, success in professional careers, and transfer to advanced higher education programs.
Hostos offers 27 associate degree programs and two certificate programs that facilitate easy transfer to The City University of New York’s (CUNY) four-year colleges or baccalaureate studies at other institutions. The College has an award-winning Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development that offers professional development courses and certificate-bearing workforce training programs. Hostos is part of CUNY, the nation’s leading urban public university, which serves more than 500,000 students at 24 colleges.