Many HVCC and EOC faculty and staff members may remember Farkhondeh Tajik, who graduated from Hudson Valley in 2021. Farkhondeh was involved in Phi Theta Kappa and many other student activities while here at HVCC, which was, remarkably, the first official school she attended in her life.
When she was a young child, Farkhondeh’s family fled Afghanistan for Iran, but she was not eligible for school because she did not have the correct immigration papers. After arriving in the Capital Region, Farkhondeh started her journey at the Educational Opportunity Center, a division of the college, and completed both her ESL training and her GED while an EOC student. She graduated from Hudson Valley with an Individual Studies degree and was named to the Phi Theta Kappa All New York State Academic Team.
This past week as she graduated from Russell Sage College with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, her incredible story prompted several news articles.
Here is the news report from WRGB. An article also appeared in the Times Union.