THE CITY companions with Open Campus on protection of the Metropolis College of New York.
Simíra Smith got here to New York Metropolis throughout the peak of the pandemic, lived in a shelter for greater than a yr, survived a hearth and struggled with impostor syndrome.
Now, she’s a budding scientist as considered one of 465 Macaulay Honors Faculty college students to earn a diploma this yr from the CUNY honors program.
“Even though I know what I’m capable of, I always underestimate myself,” she instructed THE CITY.
As establishments throughout the nation face federal programming cuts, Smith, 21, is one graduate who has already overcome her personal set of challenges.
Initially from Jamaica, Smith graduates at this time from CUNY’s extremely selective Macaulay, the place promising metropolis college students obtain monetary and educational help in hopes of graduating freed from debt. The honors program exists at eight CUNY faculties, together with Lehman Faculty in The Bronx, which held its personal graduation ceremony final week.
In the course of the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Smith and her mom moved to The Bronx in pursuit of higher financial alternatives. That was after she had bounced round a number of excessive faculties in Atlanta.
They initially lived in a room in a shared Airbnb house amongst Baychester’s sizable Jamaican inhabitants for about two weeks. They then lived in a homeless shelter in Throggs Neck, whereas Smith completed up at Truman Excessive Faculty in Baychester earlier than beginning at Lehman.
“It was a family shelter, but it was still kind of scary,” she stated, recalling how she misplaced weight from consuming frozen meals. “I think I felt like I was never going to leave the shelter.”
Her winding each day commute to Lehman from the shelter in Throggs Neck took almost 90 minutes and required a protracted stroll, a bus trip, a swap to the subway at a hundred and twenty fifth Road in East Harlem, then a trip again to The Bronx after one other switch.
Roughly 39% of CUNY college students battle with housing instability and three% skilled homelessness, based on a 2022 survey by Wholesome CUNY. Others stated they have been unable to pay for housing and moved in with others over monetary or security issues.
Amid that uncertainty, Ferry Level Park provided a protected haven for Smith, considered one of greater than 2,300 Lehman college students who earned a bachelor’s diploma this yr.
“I would just go to the park, especially when it was getting close to sunset, and just sit and watch the sunset in the park, and it was so beautiful,” Smith stated of the open area adjoining the East River. “I would just go all the way down where the sand is, and sometimes take my shoes off and just feel the sand in between my toes.
“And it kind of reminded me of being in Jamaica and going to the beach.”
Smith, who says she leaned on her Christian religion and her mom to get by the yr within the shelter, was coming into the faculty software course of as a Truman senior.
Although she was initially intimidated by Macaulay, a steerage counselor there inspired her to use. After submitting an software minutes earlier than the deadline and interviewing with Lehman staffers, she obtained an acceptance letter in March 2021.
“I remember I cried, but it was like happy tears, and it was really one of the best days of my life,” Smith recalled, dubbing Macaulay “the Ivy League of New York” and noting how she most well-liked Lehman for its science-research courses and the chance to remain in The Bronx.
‘I Did That’
Whereas nonetheless dwelling within the shelter, Smith started her first semester at Lehman in fall 2021 and instantly sought to faucet into the CUNY group, restarting a French membership on the Northwest Bronx establishment and starting to see a therapist on the Macaulay’s wellness heart.
“I was going through a lot,” she stated.
That remedy helped Smith survive and excel in her courses and that spring, in her second semester, she and her mom moved out of the shelter and right into a room in the identical Airbnb house that they lived in once they first arrived in New York.
She recalled crying earlier than her sophomore yr in school, riddled with self-doubt.
“I really just had to try to encourage myself to keep going, and that’s the only reason why I finished,” she stated.
Simply days earlier than her Lehman ceremony final Thursday, Smith stated she discovered herself gazing her Macaulay acceptance letter to remind herself of how she overcame insecurity.
“I got here. I’m here for a reason,” she stated. “I did that even though I thought that I couldn’t do it.”
Science graduate Simíra Smith works in a lab at Lehman Faculty in The Bronx, Might 23, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Nonetheless within the Airbnb in Baychester, Smith spent that sophomore yr profiting from campus alternatives. She labored for Faculty & Profession Bridge For All, a CUNY-wide program that pays college students to see mentor incoming freshmen. She additionally launched a volunteer group that cleaned up the Van Cortlandt Park Enslaved African Burial Floor.
Whereas coming into her junior yr in 2023, Smith and her mom moved into their very own one-bedroom house in Laconia. Smith was getting back from a science-research convention in Portland, Oregon when she first entered the brand new place.
“I came back at like 12 a.m. on a Sunday morning in October,” stated Smith. “And when I walked in, the first thing I said to my mom — she waited up for me — I was like, ‘Life is good.’”
‘I Was Just Happy To Be Alive’
Simply eight months later, that jubilation evaporated after a near-fatal hearth within the basement of the constructing. Smith stated she couldn’t open her house door on the third flooring as a result of heavy smoke within the hallways.
“I remember praying to God, and I was like, ‘God, please don’t take me,’” she recalled “And at the same time, I saw the smoke stop at the fridge.”
A short time later, within the commotion, Smith heard glass breaking in a bed room window.
“The fireman had came in, and he was like, ‘Hello, is anybody here?’” Smith stated. “And he came to take me out.”
In her night time garments, Smith ran straight to her mother.
“I was just happy to be alive.”
The scare left Smith questioning whether or not she would be capable of end college, with ideas of “Why can’t I get a break?”
Inside days, Smith and her mother have been again dwelling and now, she is celebrating her difficult path to commencement.
“She kept reminding me how proud she is of me and just to stay focused,” Smith stated. “And I had to keep reminding myself that everything else is temporary, but my degree is going to be forever.”
She is now within the midst of making use of to graduate faculties in hopes of ultimately finishing a doctorate in molecular biology and being a most cancers researcher.
“I want to be a scientist, a Ph.D., who really helps people when they have diseases because, honestly, curing diseases starts at the bench,” Smith stated. “Treatments start at the bench before it goes to the bedside.”
Smith stated she typically nonetheless can’t grasp that she’s a CUNY graduate.
“I maintain speaking to my mother, and I’m like, ‘Damn, can you believe that you have a college graduate?’ she stated.
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