This Holiday, Bronx Resident is Thankful for Her NYC College

This holiday season, Bronx-resident Sabiha Farheen, age 26, is thankful for the help and support she received during the past year from LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens where she’s pursing her computer science degree.

At LaGuardia, she found vital resources that helped sustain her and her family when her parents lost their hospitality jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and where she found a meaningful professional experience that shaped her career plans in tech, one of the fastest-growing job sectors in NYC.

As a member of President’s Society, LaGuardia’s student leadership and professional development program, Sabiha learned about a paid internship opportunity at CNBC. She applied and was thrilled to be selected alongside students from mostly four-year colleges. With her background in computer programming, Sabiha worked with CNBC’s digital product and design team and participated in a group project to design a new tech offering with interns from departments throughout NBC. She also wrote an article for “College Voices,” a series written by CNBC interns from universities across the country.

She found herself drawn to the role of a product manager—providing structure to the design process for a new web feature or another tech asset from start to finish, including testing, incorporating user feedback, and marketing. As a result, she plans to pursue a career in project management for a tech company.

Internship earnings enabled Sabiha to help her family pay rent and other expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she needed help meeting college expenses, Sabiha applied for and received a scholarship from the LaGuardia Community College Foundation. And through LaGuardia CARES, she received gift cards for groceries and help signing up for EBT benefits—enabling her to put food on the table for herself and her parents.

“Coming to LaGuardia has been a life-changing experience for me in the best way possible,” said Sabiha, who expects to graduate from LaGuardia in June 2022 and then transfer to a four-year college to earn her bachelor’s. “Without the help I found at LaGuardia, I probably would have had to leave school. Not only was I able to stay in school, but I gained incredible experiences for my career.”

LaGuardia is working hard to raise additional funds to support more students like Sabiha who lost their jobs or faced other hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because LaGuardia serves a population that’s largely low-income and disadvantaged, it has many programs and services to help students address financial issues or other hardships so they can keep focused on their studies and get to graduation.

Through Tomorrow—The Campaign to Help Our Students and City Rise and Recover, the college is aiming to raise $15 million that will be given to students in scholarships, direct student support and more. Please consider making a donation today.

For anyone interested in studying tech at LaGuardia, a virtual tour and dates of upcoming information sessions are available at www.LaGuardia.edu/Visit. Applications are being accepted for the Spring semester, which starts in March 2022. For more information, visit www.LaGuardia.edu/Spring.