9 minute read
Dr. Victor G Alicea
Q. Tell everyone who you are and what your role and responsibilities are at Boricua College?
A. My name is Victor Alicea, and I was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in El Barrio in East Harlem. And I’ve been President of Boricua College for about 48 years now. And what I do is I basically move from one campus to the other, we have three campuses. One in Brooklyn, where we began the college, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a second one in the South Bronx, and the third one in upper Manhattan in Washington Heights. And my job is to manage both the executive and operational parts of the institution as well as the academic part of the institution. Boricua College is a unique institution, the only one of its kind, and we give individualized instruction, meaning a course of one student in a class and the largest classes are 10 to 12 students. The other classes are currently online. And one of the interesting things about this is that we have decided that the important thing about an adult education system is that we look to train the students minds. We think that that is the critical part of any academic enterprise. You have to train people how to think, otherwise, people then have a tendency to absorb what somebody else thinks, and other people’s opinions. But if you have the capacity to think then you can actually create knowledge yourself, not just absorb other people’s version of knowledge. So, that’s a very unique way of looking at education, especially higher education. Boricua College has been accredited now for the past, almost, as I said, 50 years by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Universities and has been a member of the New York State Council and independent colleges and universities. So, we’re a fully accredited institution. And we are also pleased that we are a very powerful economic engine in the communities we serve. For example, every year Boricua College contributes over $15 million in economic impact to the communities that it serves in Brooklyn, Williamsburg, South Bronx, and Upper Manhattan. So, Boricua is not just an educational engine, it is also an economic engine. So, we provide intellectual competency to New York City but we also provide a
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Q. Let’s talk about your journey and how you got to where you are today.
A. Well, as I said, I was born in Puerto Rico, I came to New York City when I was seven years old. I went to public school 57 in East Harlem, and to Cooper Junior High School in Harlem, and then to High School in New York. And then from there I graduated from high school and went into engineering school at City College for about three and a half years then I got a scholarship to go to Columbia University where I completed a degree in experimental psychology, another degree in social work, and a master’s in philosophy, in addition to finally achieving my doctorate at Columbia University, where I taught in the Department of Urban Planning for about three years before being invited by a group of Puerto Ricans who were interested in having a college created that would initially at least cater to the problems of the Puerto Rican student. And so, I took on that task in 1973 and came to participate with a group of innovators who had no idea about how higher education should take place. And so, we created Boricua College and we’ve been doing this work, as I said earlier for about 50 years. We have about 15,000 graduates that we have produced, and some great scholars and scholarships. And we’ve made a major contribution to higher education, not only in New York and not only for Puerto Ricans but to anyone who is interested in developing their mental capacity.
Q. Can you tell us about the programs that Boricua College offers to its students?
A. Boricua College has a foundational program for the first two years, which is based on liberal arts. You spend two years getting a liberal arts foundation that ends with an Associate of Arts degree, at which point then you’re allowed to enter our upper-division of baccalaureate programs in human services, education, and business administration. And then students who complete the bachelor’s program can also continue on to a master’s degree in education and a master’s degree in Human Services.
Q. What are some of the hardships you went through in your career and how did you overcome those obstacles?
A. Well, the first experience that I had, as I said, I was born in Puerto Rico, and I came here when I was seven years old. I used to hear when I was a kid that in New York City there were buildings as high as mountains. And that they were trains, a train that went through the air and another one that went underground. And I used to think, oh my goodness, what must that look like to a kid from Puerto Rico from a rural community. And I used to try to imagine what that must be like. And, of course, when we arrived here, one of the things that happened is my father, and my uncle took me to the Third Avenue elevated train, and I knew that there was one on top of it when they took me to a subway, and they showed me that there was another one underground. You see what happens to the mind of a child at seven years old, who has an image of a train going in the air over high, and then another one was going underground. Do you see how it shocks the mind? Well, I’ll tell you how my mind was further shocked. When we came to New York City, we arrived at the Grand Central Station. My uncle and my father picked me up. And as we were driving through Central Park, I noticed that all the trees were bare. They were empty. And I told my father, why don’t they just chop down all those trees they’re dead and my father began to laugh.
And I said, why are you laughing? He said, no, it’s because it’s winter. So, there are no leaves on the trees. So, I want you to know what it must be like for a kid like me that comes from an island that’s always green. I had never thought about a tree not having leaves. So, then I said, well, do you mean that the tree is not dead? How come there are no leaves? He says, well, you have to wait till it gets warm the leaves will come out. So, I waited in my mind where the leaves are going to come from. So, I had to wait and wait until it got to be June and July and then the leaves came out again. So, you see how weird it is to be a kid coming from Puerto Rico. Do you want to know what it was like?
And what kind of obstacles, what that does to the mind. I’ll tell you what else happened. I went to the first classes at PS 57, and I didn’t know any English. And then there were a bunch of other kids who when they told this, they spoke their last names. Their last name sounded familiar to me, like Torres, Morales, Irizarry, and yet they only spoke English and I only spoke Spanish and it was so weird for me. So, I went back and told my mother. Mom, how come those kids have the same last names as us and they speak English, and I don’t speak English. My mother told me that the English was inside of me and that at some point the English would come out. And so, I would walk around blowing waiting to see if the English would come out. And finally, one day it did, and I ended up at Columbia University with a doctorate degree.
Q. Thank you. That was phenomenal. Our next question, could you tell us one of your most memorable achievements or accomplishments?
A. That I had an opportunity in 1973 to meet a woman named Maria Morales and a man who was a Jesuit priest named Hector Montes. And together we began this journey that’s called Boricua College that’s always evolving. And I’ve seen hundreds of different kinds of people who pass through as teachers, and as colleagues, and I wouldn’t change my life for anything in the world from this experience, where I’ve learned everything about life.
Q. Who are some people that influenced you in your career?
A. My father and mother, first of all. Also, my two grandmothers, who were completely opposite from each other. And they were also tall so that’s how I got my height from my grandmothers. And then I met a lot of people along the way, who have always given me a little nudge here and there. I think, ultimately, I believe that who I am is a synthesis of all the people that I’ve met along the way, who showed me one thing or another about life.
What is the most surprising fact you’ve learned about yourself this year?
A. This year, I’ve learned resiliency, patience, and fortitude. Because I grew up as a child during the atomic age, where they used to show us to hide under a desk because one day there would be this atomic bomb that might come and blow everybody up. So, I’ve always imagined that my world would be destroyed by a big bomb coming from the outside. I never expected my world to be destroyed by a little gnat called COVID-19. This virus is doing more damage, and certainly as much damage as that atomic bomb that we kept imagining as kids would someday come to hurt us.
Q. Can you tell us some goals you plan on achieving for the remainder of 2022?
A. To live to 112.
Q. What’s next for Boricua College?
A. We’re going to get past COVID-19, and we’re going to regain our enrollment and continue to provide this wonderful service through this incredibly creative educational model that we have developed here at Boricua College with some great facilitators who are capable of helping people not only to learn how to think but to learn how to feel.
Q. Where can our readers keep up with Boricua College?
A. Just come to our website and to our Twitter and you will see every day something new coming out of Boricua College.
