Queens College in Flushing is celebrating Black History Month with a new exhibition focusing on a long-established student support program.
The exhibition focuses on what’s known as the SEEK program, a program that assists students from low-income backgrounds by covering college fees, while also providing them with personal tutors, a staff counselor and mental wellness workshops.
The exhibition, titled “‘Struggle to Learn, Learn to Struggle’: The Impact and History of the SEEK Program at Queens College, 1966–Today,” consists of photos, news articles and reports that showcase the history of the program. The exhibit, which opened Feb. 1, also features a display that uses oral conversations recorded with SEEK faculty, staff, and alumni about the origins of the program.
Curated by Annie Tummino, the head of Special Collections and Archives at Queens College, the exhibit can be viewed at the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library on the campus college. The exhibit also explains the resilience of the program through changing times, and the impact of it at Queens College.
The program, which was established in 1966, was originally intended for African American and Puerto Rican students with an aim to make college education more accessible to underserved communities. The program today is for anyone who is from a low-income background.
The exhibition will be open from Feb. 1 until May 2, with an opening reception taking place on Feb. 8 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
