Originally posted on the CUNY Peer Leaders website.

On Friday, July 31, the Fall 2026 CUNY Peer Leaders gathered in the Segal Theater at the CUNY Graduate Center for a day of orientation, reflection, and connection. From the start the room felt welcoming and unusually cohesive for a group that was meeting for the first time. Budget limitations made this cohort smaller than those of previous semesters, but the size also gives the group an opportunity to get to know one another well, form strong bonds, and work closely across campuses. By the end of the kickoff, those possibilities already felt present.

CPL Director Lauren Melendez opened the orientation and helped the new CPLs begin imagining what their Fall semester could become. Futures Initiative Executive Director, Dr. Adashima Oyo, also shared words of encouragement with the cohort, highlighting the value of the CPL Program and the significance of the opportunity. Futures Initiative Budget Manager Celi LeBron, and program consultant Rod Hurley were present throughout the kickoff, taking care of logistics and making sure the students got all the tools and info they would need going forward. Dr. Kashema Hutchinson, a former CPL Co-Director and Futures Initiative doctoral fellow, also came to welcome the new cohort and offer support.

For introductions, everyone formed a circle and shared their names, pronouns, academic major or professional role, and a power pose that said something about how they move through the world. There were superhero stances and runway walks, hugs and kisses, heart hands, and hands clasped in prayer. This activity let personality, confidence, humor, tenderness, and intention enter the circle almost immediately.

Lauren, Adashima, Celi, Kashema, and Rod participated alongside the Peer Leaders rather than standing outside the activities. That shared participation gave the day the non-hierarchical quality CPL leadership is intended to carry, with everyone contributing, listening, and remaining open to learning. A theme of self-care ran through the day as part of that leadership practice, since caring for a community requires attention to our own well-being.

The cohort learned with and from one another throughout the day.

What We Carry Into CUNY

The afternoon workshop, “What We Carry Into CUNY,” was facilitated by Rod Hurley and invited the group to recognize the knowledge, relationships, practices, responsibilities, and forms of care that travel with them into college. The workshop grew out of Rod’s dissertation work on Cultural Gifts, success, and belonging among Black men at CUNY, and the idea that our students do not arrive at college empty-handed. They bring ways of knowing, navigating, caring, creating, persisting, and building community that academic measures alone cannot hold.

Rod’s CUNYverse map showed that a student’s journey from home to campus often included community interactions, family care, work, and sometimes another CUNY college. As he animated it, the Graduate Center joined the map because being selected for CPL now connected everyone in the room to the GC as well. Several Peer Leaders had already moved from one CUNY college to another. The map helped them see those movements and themselves as part of a much larger urban university environment. Their home campus remained theirs, but it was no longer the edge of the story.

The idea that college requires more than academic ability resonated throughout the room. Peer Leaders spoke eagerly about what they carry – lessons shaped by family struggle, the discipline of working while studying, the responsibility of sending money home, the desire to set an example for younger siblings, the practice of advocating for people they love, and the courage required to begin initiatives and create community in unfamiliar spaces.

Those stories widened the room’s understanding of leadership. Leadership appeared in public projects and organized advocacy, but it also lived in the less visible work of care, responsibility, translation, survival, encouragement, and example. The workshop provided a way to recognize these gifts without placing them into a hierarchy, and to imagine CPL itself as a cross-campus network through which those gifts can be shared, strengthened, and carried forward. Rod will continue supporting the cohort as CPL facilitator during the Fall semester.

The program team took part in the same reflective work as the Peer Leaders.

The Fall 2026 cohort brings together students from Hunter College, Hostos Community College, Lehman College, Baruch College, York College, New York City College of Technology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Queensborough Community College, The City College of New York, Brooklyn College, Queens College, and Macaulay Honors College.

The student representation across those campuses is a beautiful bouquet of personalities, histories, talents, and hopes that is diverse in the many ways that CUNY itself is diverse. The kickoff gave each person room to feel seen while also raising awareness of the larger community they had just entered.

The day ended in beautiful weather with the cohort gathered outside for a group photo. The new Peer Leaders seemed very proud to be there and excited about the semester ahead. Over the coming months, they will continue developing leadership and mentorship skills, learning across campuses, supporting one another, and creating public and creative work grounded in wellness, the humanities, and social justice.

Fall 2026 CPL Cohort

Mary Avella – Hunter College
Ana Blanchard Paulino – Hostos Community College
Maliha Binta Jolil – Hostos Community College
Yuzhen Chen – New York City College of Technology
Renee Clarke – York College
Duban Correa – Brooklyn College
Emile Gutierrez – Baruch College
Nedelyn Helena-Diaz – Lehman College
Jesus Lebron – The City College of New York
Luna Luna Martínez – Lehman College
Sarra Mikhaylov – Queens College
David Murch – Lehman College
Sana Naseri – John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Proma Rozario – Queensborough Community College
Sienna Marie Saballegue – Macaulay Honors College
Phone Pyae Sone Tun – Baruch College
Samantha Tyrell-Woods – Hunter College