Excerpt from CUNY blog, originally published on May 26, 2017 by Robert Jones Jr.

Teanu Reid technically received her B.A. in history from Brooklyn College in 2016, but her journey to the next phase of her academic career begins with the Class of 2017. Rather than attend graduate school immediately, Reid decided utilize a gap year to work at the college and to ensure the highest-quality responses on her graduate school applications. As a result, Reid was accepted to Ph.D. programs in history at Yale University, Brown University, Columbia University, New York University, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and the University of Virginia. She chose Yale not only because of its academic reputation, but also because of its sizeable community of Brooklyn College alumni, particularly those from the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which she said helped make the campus feel like a second home.

I have had an amazing experience in my journey from college student to college graduate at Brooklyn College. The college has pushed me to be successful academically and encouraged me to be socially responsible by providing numerous opportunities for civic engagement and community service through its clubs and events. The college has even given me the opportunity to travel through study abroad programs.

I did all of this while also combatting stereotypical expectations of young black women. From this entire experience I learned that I am a very strong-minded and strong-willed person, and with careful planning and pockets of support, I can achieve goals that I have set for myself. I’ve learned to have patience, to trust myself and believe in my ability to get things done, and to reorient myself as needed when things don’t go as expected.