On May 19, Bank Street Graduate School of Education celebrated its annual commencement ceremony at United Palace, honoring the accomplishments of the over 300 students who earned their master’s degrees.
Bank Street also awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa to two outstanding leaders: Frances Lajean Barclift, GSE ’02 a visionary educator who founded the Afrocentric preschool Little Sun People, and Dr. Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress, a renowned leader in library science, and a fierce advocate for equity.
Barclift dedicated over four decades to championing the belief that Black and Brown children thrive when they are seen, celebrated, and reflected in their classrooms. She opened a preschool, Little Sun People, in her Brooklyn brownstone in 1981 with just three students, including her daughter Aaliyah, who now serves as the executive director. Upon receiving her honorary degree, Mama Fela shared how she built an African-centered curriculum to instill pride and unshakable confidence in young learners.
She said, “You have chosen a field that is the best in the world. What you’re doing is what is meaningful in this world. So, I congratulate you and I thank you for your effort to learn and to bring who you are to the children who you will touch and who will touch you.”
Dr. Carla Hayden made history in 2016 when she became the first woman and the first African American to lead the Library of Congress, a role she held until 2025. Throughout her 50-year career, including 23 years leading Baltimore’s public library system, she consistently positioned libraries as a cornerstone of learning, free thought, and refuge during moments of community crisis. When she addressed the graduates, she emphasized that librarians have looked to Bank Street for decades as the gold standard for grounding their work in solid child development theory and practice.
From her remarks at the podium, Hayden highlighted her deep connection to the values of Bank Street by focusing on how critical it is for youth to see their own identities in literature. She emphasized that library workers open their doors daily with the conviction that children and youth need books that serve as “windows, mirrors, and sliding doors to the world” and reminded the graduates of the enduring power of literacy by echoing Frederick Douglass: “Once you learn to read, you’ll be forever free.”
Following the conferral of the honorary degrees, two student speakers, Sam Harris and Caryl Reed, reflected on their experiences at Bank Street.
Harris, who completed his master’s degree through the New York City Teaching Fellows program, teaches middle and high school science at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria. He spoke about the critical role public schools play as a social safety net.
“If you are scared about or for our city, for our communities, for the next generation, know that you are not alone, but you do not have to just watch it happen,” Harris said. “Become a teacher! Help us change the city. Help us inspire and light the fire of knowledge and kindness and joy in the minds of those who we will hand the keys to soon enough.”
Caryl Reed, a third-grade teacher at PS 76 in the Bronx, earned his second Bank Street master’s degree from the Leadership in Mathematics Education program. He shared his journey of stepping out of his comfort zone into educational leadership, a shift that initially brought uncertainty but ultimately strengthened his work in the community.
He said, “Growth doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens in community. We don’t just move through this program as individuals; we carry each other through it. Through shared inquiry with colleagues and students, we learn and grow together.”
The graduates also heard from Shael Polakow-Suransky, GSE ’00, President, Bank Street College of Education, who spoke about the perilous moment public education faces, citing current political pressures on libraries, books, and curriculum across the country, as well as a recently cancelled federal grant intended for high-need math educators that the Bank Street community successfully rallied to fund independently.
He said, “Barbara Biber, a pioneer of this institution, wrote, ‘Children bring strength into our classrooms. Our task is to listen to them. To listen to them very hard, to try and understand them.’ That listening is real work. It is how children come to feel that they belong. The needs of the American people are not defined by the president. They are defined by the children in front of you.”
Suzanne McCotter, Dean, Graduate School of Education, also shared a grounding perspective on how deeply a Bank Street education influences a teacher’s long-term practice.
Reflecting on her own childhood memories of her father’s classroom from when he was a teacher at the School for Children, she said, “I can tell you with confidence that Bank Street seeps into your bones and doesn’t leave for the rest of your careers. Bank Street will be part of who you are.”
Misha Paskar, GSE ’13, Representative-at Large, Bank Street College Alumni Association, welcomed the graduates into the broader alumni community.
Paskar said, “Stay connected to each other, to this institution, and to the values that brought you here. Reach out to a classmate months from now when something feels hard. Come back to an event when you need to feel re-grounded. Celebrate this moment. Take it in. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished. And then when you’re ready, step forward into what comes next, knowing that you are prepared, you are needed, and you are not alone.”
Click here to watch the video, see photos, and view the day’s program.