CUNY Series - President Adams of LaGuardia Community College

In this episode, LaGuardia Community College President Kenneth Adams discusses the many successes at LaGuardia with rebounding enrollment in their teacher preparation programs. Chief among these successes is the linguistic and cultural diversity of the students in the programs that is reflective of the borough of Queens, New York. With roughly 125 different countries and 50 heritage languages in the community, LaGuardia's enrollment spans them all and includes an education associate bilingual child degree program.

President Adams also discusses the many critical resources that LaGuardia Community College has to assist students in overcoming any health care, food needs, and financial barriers to being both enrolled in and successful in their degree programs. Among these resources is the TEACH NY program that is a statewide collection of resources as well as a newly introduced program from New York Governor Hochul that allows for free tuition to any student aged 25-55 pursuing a degree in a high needs program, including the education field called the New York State Opportunity Program.

President Adams also shared how AI could help broaden the reach and engagement with students and families as they navigate the admissions process in higher education. He mentioned in their advisement area, LaGuardia is exploring the use of AI devices that can translate English into ten other languages to make students and their families more comfortable without needing to wait for a human translator to assist.