Prospective and current City College students gathered for Celebrate City at a community open house event Friday, April 14.
This is the first time an open house event has been held at the City College main campus, and it left much to be anticipated. Through social media, City College encouraged everyone to “Come for great food, music and entertainment, and experience what it means to be a Panther!”
According to the itinerary listed on the City College website, Friday’s open house was packed with activities for all attendees, including current and future students and their families. The list of events included live performances, chemistry lab demonstrations, an open rehearsal and an art exhibition.
Along with these scheduled events, the main campus hosted a variety of tables, each showcasing a different program, club and support center City College has to offer. There were almost 50 in total, including clubs for psychology and environmental sustainability, and programs like nursing and anthropology.
One standout booth was the RISE center, one of the many on-campus programs offering various types of support for students. According to Student Personal Assistant Dalila Perez, RISE (which stands for Respect, Integrity, Self-determination & Education) offers services such as academic counseling and tutoring, as well as resources such as a computer lab, library, and lounge; all of which are free to students.
Another popular area was the “Art Advice” table, which took inspiration from Lucy’s psychiatric advice booth where she shared her sarcastic wisdom in the Peanuts cartoon. The two practicing artists and City College professors Gioia Fonda and Ianna Frisby, set up the booth around eight years ago as a “nomadic community resource” to help artists with their craft, according to Fonda.
Throughout their career, they saw many misunderstood artists within their community, and looked for the most accessible ways to help those people navigate being an artist, or supporting artists.
“Some people have a lot of anxiety about art, or they feel like its not inclusive, or those spaces are snotty, or its only for rich people,” says Fonda, “And so this format is what I came up with as the most accessible way for people to let their guard down and really ask some questions, and that we can provide some real answers.”
An exhibit in City College’s Kondos Gallery titled “Book It!” showcased a wide array of student artwork. A large portion of the artwork were flipbooks, each unique and expressing themes like pop culture, significant historical moments, and deep and complex emotions.
Many of the buildings on the main campus were open for tours, such as the gymnasium and the lab classrooms in Lillard Hall. The new Makerspace was one building that garnered a lot of interest, as many people gathered to tour the workshop, where students and staff were sewing, 3D printing, crafting at the wood shop, and much more.
According to one of the overseers Heather Hogan, creativity options are endless in the Makerspace. She recalls that she’s only ever had to turn down one ambitious project pitch. She believes almost everything is possible to be made there, and all the resources are completely free to City College students.
This open house event gave students the opportunity to showcase their Panther pride around campus, and the community was also able to experience a wide array of entertainment, and learn more about what City College has to offer.
