Kassandra Khalil

Kassandra Khalil studied immigration and the descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean to the United States. While she was a full-time student, Khalil was also the program coordinator for Haiti Cultural Exchange, a nonprofit organization established to develop, present and promote the cultural expression of the Haitian people. She found Kathy Engel’s course,  "Language, Imagination, Community & Activism," especially inspiring, calling it “an incredible community learning class.” Through Marie Cruz Soto’s "Great World Texts" tutorial, she was a mentor at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx. “It was a case study and a self study,” she says. “Both classes made me really analyze why I chose to learn the way I do, how I am in some ways a product of my environment and in what ways this environment might be changed for the better.” Another faculty member she admires: Stacy Pies: “She’s just my ray of poetry sunshine. Taking her class made me love the word twice as hard.”