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City Tech Student Awarded Prestigious Belle Zeller Scholarship
Belle Zeller Scholarship Recipient Victor London
Victor London, a Crown Heights resident and student in City Tech's legal assistant studies program, was among the 11 City University of New York students awarded prestigious Belle Zeller Scholarships at an awards dinner and ceremony held in early November at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. Belle Zeller Scholarships provided full tuition to for outstanding CUNY students chosen for their academic and community service. The event was co-hosted by The Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC/CUNY) and The Trustees of the Belle Zeller Scholarship Fund.
London, a returning student with a 4.0 GPA, spent many years working in fish canneries in both Washington state and Alaska. He wanted to experience life in America, working with his own two hands.
While working in Washington, he lived on an Indian reservation and became a member of its burial society. He created programs to preserve its Native-American culture and to enhance drug and alcohol awareness among its youth. In addition to his work in canneries, he was also employed as a construction laborer in wood mills, oil refineries and power plants.
When he returned to New York, London became active in the Jewish community by caring for the critically ill and their families and assisting mentally disabled adults. At City Tech, he is treasurer of the Jewish Students Club and an active member of the Legal Assistants Club. His goal is to work for organizations dedicated to improving conditions in the communities in which he lives.
The Belle Zeller Scholarship is named for the late founding president emerita of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, who died in 1998 at the age of 95. Over the course of a long and remarkable career, Zeller was a champion of faculty rights, student access, academic excellence and professional unionism in higher education. As PSC/CUNY's first president, she was assisted in the work of writing a new chapter in the history of the American labor movement by retired City Tech Professor of Social Science Israel Kugler, who served along side her as PSC/CUNY's first deputy president.
Photo Credit: Michele Forsten
