Alumni Spotlight: Dan’s Story

I am a proud graduate of Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day High School, one of Comprehensive Youth Development’s partner schools. Currently I am at a CUNY college where I major in Criminal Justice with a minor in Prelaw. I will be graduating in spring 2027 and hope to attend law school and ultimately become an attorney.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of the teachers with us tonight, and to the dedicated CYD staff for the tremendous work they do for students every day. Most importantly, to CYD’s generous donors, from the bottom of my heart, thank you: truly, none of this would be possible without your support.

I am thrilled, excited, and eager to share how CYD supported me throughout my high school journey, and how they continue to assist me in college. The best way to show you what CYD does is to simply tell you my story. My journey speaks for the tremendous help I have received from CYD, and my success is a direct result of the support they’ve provided.

In 2021, at fifteen years old, I moved to New York from Burkina Faso. Just like many, I arrived in this big city with little English, filled with excitement and lots of uncertainty. What was my future going to be like? What would home even mean, now that I had left the place and the people who watched me grow up? From the moment I was enrolled in high school, my top priority was learning English as fast as possible. And there was my first encounter with CYD. They stepped in when I needed tutoring, and quickly matched me with a tutor. I can proudly say that the CYD tutoring program was a major player in my current language abilities.

Mastering English was only the first hurdle. As graduation approached, I hit a completely new wall, and I found myself asking: what is the next step? My father did not have the chance for higher education so he had always wanted all of his kids to go to college, and I deeply wanted that for myself, too, so I can make him proud. But faced with the American educational system, one entirely different from what I knew back home, it was a challenge. I had never heard of admissions applications, financial aid, scholarships, or personal essays. To put it simply, I was completely lost. Once again, CYD stepped in, they guided me through the entire unknown process.

I remember not knowing what I wanted to study once in college or what career path I wanted for myself. Through one of CYD’s programs, where I spent a summer at the Cooper Union, I discovered that engineering was not for me. And that’s the beauty of it, they not only help in finding what you love but also help you eliminate what you don’t want. Far beyond walking me step by step through the entire application process, they helped me explore my career interests, they helped me discover what I wanted, why I wanted it and how to get there. Through this process, I realized that CYD goes way beyond getting students into a college classroom. It’s about giving them opportunities they didn’t know existed or available to them. It’s about helping them find themselves.

When I went to college, my story with CYD didn’t end there. I wanted to come back. The help I received, the dedication, the tireless work CYD put in for me, motivated me to return and give back to the people who are now standing where I once stood. I wanted to be part of the process. Today, I work as a tutor and interpreter for CYD, supporting students in the same position I was in five years ago. And I can honestly say that it is a blessing. I wake up every day more excited than the day before, looking forward to my tutoring sessions and the conversations with the unique and brave student population that CYD serves. I now understand what the staff saw in me back then, and it is my privilege to help bring that same potential out of the students I work with. From a student benefiting from CYD’s services to now assisting in providing those services, I realized that success isn’t a one-size-fits-all mold. It’s about finding your path, and CYD is here to guide you down it.

So if there’s one thing I hope you take away from my story, it’s this: Your support is real, and can be seen through me and many others like me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.