2023 was a year of expansion and excellence for Hostos Community College.
Our College community grew as we experienced an increase in enrollment and retention, our administration, students, faculty and staff flourished, and the College received national recognition and incredible support from our community and its leaders. Plus, Hostos pioneered our first fully
asynchronous online degrees in Fall 2023 under the Hostos Online initiative, thus expanding our capacity to serve our students!
Accolades and Honors
Among our top highlights was Hostos securing a place among the
Aspen Prize Top 150 U.S. Community Colleges for a noteworthy third time, and second consecutive time, once again putting us in the running for the prestigious $1 million prize awarded by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program; Hostos was previously selected as one of 10 finalists for the 2023 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The College also earned a place on the "Best Community Colleges in New York" list for 2024, compiled by Intelligent.com, ranking at #7 among the 31 colleges honored. Moreover, Hostos President Daisy Cocco De Filippis received the Woman of the Year award at the New York League of Puerto Rican Women (NYLPRW) Annual Anniversary Scholarship Gala in late August and she was also named among
City & State New York’s 2022 Power of Diversity: Latino 100 list.
Hostos also marked a new record in the College’s history! As of 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has six concurrent
active projects that advance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the South Bronx, with 12 Hostos educators involved in the success of each initiative as Principal or Co-principal Investigators (PI, Co-PI): The College is part of a $1.5 million grant for “Collaborative Research: HSI-Hubs: Intersectionality as Inquiry & Praxis: Race, Class, Gender & Ethnicity for Student Success in STEM”; has a $650,000 NSF grant for the Hostos Technical Education in Cybersecurity (H-TEC) Project; a five-year $2.3 million grant (2022-2026) for the Hostos Oasis for Parents’ Education (HOPE) program; a $1.5 S-STEM grant to increase access and success for students in these fields at Hispanic-Serving Institutions; a $1.1 million grant for S-STEM HEAT (Hostos Engineering Academic Talent), a five-year project that supports 30 scholars in their pursuit of associate's and bachelor's degrees in engineering; and a $225,000 NSF IUSE SPARC (Strengthening Physics Achievement via Research and Collaboration) grant to support undergraduate student outcomes in a calculus-based General Physics I (PHY 210) course.
We are also proud to share that Professors Dr. Eugena Griffin, Dr. Linda Ridley, Emmanuel A. Velayos Larrabure, and Víctor M. Torres-Vélez were awarded
Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI) Research Faculty Fellowships on behalf of the BRES Collaboration Hub at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Biology Professor Vyacheslav Dushenkov received a
Fulbright Specialist Program award to establish partnerships at the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia.
Initiatives and Grants
Energized by our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan, “
Hostos: Elevating Justice,” which was completed in Spring 2023 and implemented in the Fall, the College worked tirelessly to execute programming, secure funding, and produce opportunities that will support our mission of providing a just and equitable educational experience for our students.
In the spring, Hostos received a $2.86 million
Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve and expand student access, increase retention, and boost graduation rates. We also doubled down and built upon the momentum garnered by the successful implementation of the President’s Initiatives for Student Success, College Growth and Stakeholders’ Engagement, made possible thanks to the generous, record-breaking $15 million gift made by philanthropist, author, and activist Ms. MacKenzie Scott in 2021. Thirteen students received the
Ms. MacKenzie Scott Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) Scholarship, which will support them in their transition from a Continuing Education program to a degree program at the College. Plus, the inaugural cohort of the
NextGen Public Health Scholars 2+2+2 Program and congressional earmark scholars — the latter made possible thanks to a $1 million congressional earmark grant championed by Congressman Ritchie Torres and President Daisy Cocco De Filippis — graduated and successfully transferred to the Columbia University School of General Studies and Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
The exchange of knowledge and ideas expanded beyond our classrooms. The
Hostos Research Center opened its doors in March and has since hosted presentations, conferences, workshops, and showcases for and in collaboration with our faculty, students and staff. The HRC is also leading several initiatives to promote the development of new research projects and faculty-student mentorship, including the
ADELANTE (ADvancing Excellence in Liberal Arts, ScieNces, Technology and Engineering) and
IDEAS (Innovating, Developing, and Executing Actions with Success) projects.
In April, we held our inaugural
Hostos Student Symposium, during which students presented their research
findings and projects in various disciplines through panel and poster sessions in the company of their mentors. Our
Campus Climate Initiative hosted several workshop series, including “Silent Agreement: A New Framework for Enhanced Relationships” and Community-Building Circles, to help foster understanding, empathy, and unity at Hostos and beyond. In addition to becoming one of 14 community colleges in the Nation to participate in the
Cyber Skills for All initiative’s second cohort, which provides Hostos with technical assistance and support for its emerging cybersecurity program and a $20,000 grant, Hostos held an Industry Summit on
Cybersecurity in June and another on
Business Management in November, as part of a bi-annual series designed to provide real-world insight into specific industries, demonstrate how the College’s programs prepare students to compete successfully in those fields, and encourage discussion on ways to fine-tune processes and curricula.
Partners in Success
We were honored to open our doors to our extended Hostos community and local leaders, and deeply humbled to have received their continued support as we continue our work as a change agent in the South Bronx. We had the pleasure of welcoming Mayor Eric Adams, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost Wendy Hensel, and many others to our campus in 2023. Longtime supporter and ally of the College, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, reaffirmed her office’s partnership with Hostos with a
$1.5 million grant to renovate the cafeteria, part of a series of capital improvements at the school. In November, Congressman Ritchie Torres presented
$1 million in Community Project Funding — mentioned above — to Hostos for the “Building Transfer Pathways and Pipeline Initiative,” which will enable 16 exceptional students to transfer to high-quality baccalaureate and postgraduate programs in Public Health at Columbia University, Engineering at City College's Grove School, and Arts Administration at Queens College. And the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) graciously made a
$100,000 grant to the Hostos Community College Foundation in support of the new Hostos Reengagement Program, administered by the division of Student Development and Enrollment Management (SDEM) and which complements the College’s broader enrollment and retention
goals.
Student and Alumni Success
And finally, our students and alumni — the driving force and inspiration behind all that we do — exemplified excellence and expanded their minds, as well as their horizons. Four Hostos graduates who were part of the 16th cohort of the Kaplan Leadership Program (KLP) transferred to top universities in 2023! Fatimah Bah, Yassine Gaye, José González, and Andre Watson, have gone on to continue their studies at Cornell University,
Princeton University, Rice University, and Yale University, respectively. Plus, our Caimans won the
CUNYAC Women’s Basketball Championship for the sixth consecutive year and the Hostos Repertory Company returned to Edinburg’s Festival Fringe for the third time in a decade! In August 2023, ten Hostos Community College students jetted off to Edinburgh, Scotland to perform “What You Will,” a modern take on Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, “Twelfth Night,” at the Festival Fringe as part of the International Collegiate Theater Festival (ICTF). And Class of 2013 Hostos Community College alumna Kay Bell — an author of two poetry collections — was named the
2023-2025 Bronx Poet Laureate. In this role, she is charged with promoting the history of poetry in the Bronx and igniting a passion for poetry and creative expression throughout the borough.
Onward
In the year ahead, we remain steadfast in our work of creating additional opportunities for growth, advancement, and success for our institution, students, staff, faculty, alumni and surrounding community. We have a full calendar of Veladas/Culture Talks, community events, annual celebrations, and more in store. But perhaps, we look forward most of all to welcoming new and familiar faces to the College and celebrating our next class of graduating students as they prepare to embark on new adventures, armed with the knowledge, support, and skills that they gained during their time at Hostos.