Schools

New Rochelle Family Matriarch Working Toward Family's Sixth Monroe Degree

Monroe awards Master, Bachelor and Associate Degrees to 2,630 Graduates.

This article was written by Rob Seitz. It was posted by Michael Woyton.

New Rochelle resident Makeda Sabree, 51, graduated from Monroe College June 8, alongside her daughter-in-law, Rolanda Sabree. This is Makeeda’s second Monroe degree—a Bachelor in Business Management—but she’s not stopping there. If all goes as planned, she’ll be graduating again, next June 2014, with a Master in Business Administration.

Ditto for her son, Mwalimu, who’s on course for finishing up a Bachelor in Business Management, next June. Makeeda’s oldest grandchild, Ayana Hogg, is also expected to complete the requirements for an Associate degree in Culinary Arts, next June, making it a three-generation graduation. Rolanda was awarded an Associate degree in information technology and is currently studying for a Bachelor degree. And let’s not forget Makeeda’s oldest child, also a graduate of Monroe.

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Confused yet? What confuses Makeeda is that she feels her younger classmates “don’t make themselves accessible to all that the college has to offer, whether it’s a counselor, or the library, or the Office of Career Advancement. I have become like a little source of information for them. I am easy to talk to, like a mother. They can’t tell me anything that I haven’t seen or heard, if not from my children then from my grandchildren.”

“Makeeda was an excellent mentor to her younger classmates,” says Chris Hughes, a counselor in Monroe’s Office of Career Advancement. 

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When Makeda was a junior at New Rochelle High School, she was enrolled in a “pre-pre-med” program offered by Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Her goal was to become a doctor. But instead, she pursued one of the noblest professions of them all, motherhood. Six children, 20 grandchildren and 32 years of marriage later, Sabree finally had the time to start the college education that was put on hold  30 years prior. “I was helping my son with his college homework and said to myself, ‘I can do that.’ And she most certainly did, graduating Summa Cum Laude at the Javits Center.

Makeda and daughter-in-law Rolanda were not the only family pairing to graduate. There were also several siblings, including two sets of twins, parents and children, and a husband and wife who were among the 2,630 graduates awarded 180 Master, 750 Bachelor and 1,700 Associate degrees between Monroe’s three campuses in New Rochelle, the Bronx and St. Lucia.

In addition to celebrating its graduates, Monroe is celebrating its 80th Anniversary. President Stephen J. Jerome remarked on the College’s growth from just seven students when it was founded in 1933 to approximately 7,000 students, today. He also announced that Monroe is expecting to receive New York State Dept. of Education approval “any day” to offer a Bachelor degree in Nursing. In August, Monroe’s School of Hospitality Management will begin offering a Master degree in Executive Management, followed in September by a new Master degree in Public Health through the college’s School of Allied Health.


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