Assembly Member and Bronx Party chair Carl Heastie took nine years to complete his MBA from Baruch College at CUNY.
The program takes two years to complete for full-time students, but during most of his time in school Heastie was also serving in the Assembly. He is one of several New York politicians who have juggled their public service with academics by heading back to school for a graduate degree.
Heastie began the degree in 1998 while working in the New York City comptroller’s office. He estimates he was 20 percent finished when he was elected to the Assembly in 2000. After taking a break to acclimate to the new job, he decided to go back to school.
“I wanted to hone a skill—one that I thought could help me as a legislator too, and when I decide to leave politics, I’ll have a marketable skill,” he said.
Heastie already had a background in finance, having worked previously on the budget in the comptroller’s office, so he found the MBA most useful for the management and behavioral courses that helped him learn to deal with people more effectively.
“One of the things is I don’t ever want to get stale being in the same office,” said Heastie. “At some point I think it’ll be in my best interests and the community’s best interests to have a new Assembly person.”
Not every politician can balance a job and part-time school. Gifford Miller, who now runs the strategic consulting firm Miller Strategies, started to attend night classes at Fordham Law while on the Council but had to withdraw as his political career gained speed.
“I thought that learning more about the law would be a useful experience,” he said.
Miller did not finish his law degree because he could no longer fit night classes into his schedule once he was elected Council speaker.
Miller had finished two years of the three-year program before stopping, but says he sees no merit in completing the degree.
“I felt I’d gotten what I wanted to get out of the education aspect and was uninterested in actually practicing,” Miller said, noting he had not realized this would be the case when he first enrolled.
But he is glad he spent two years in law school, despite the fact he never made it to the bar.
“I think that learning the basics of contracts and tort and constitutional law is a useful course of study,” he said. “I’m glad I went.”
Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo wins the award for going back and obtaining the most degrees. Arroyo dropped out of high school at age 16 to work, and did not start college until she was 28.
While working as a clerk at a diagnostic and treatment center, Arroyo decided she needed to further her education in order to be taken seriously in her career. She proceeded to get an associate’s degree at Hostos Community College in 1989, a bachelor’s degree at Lehman College in 1991, and finally got a master’s from New York University’s Robert Wagner School of Public Service in 1994.
As a legislator, she believes she has benefited from higher education.
“I think the graduate work or college or university environment helps you learn how to learn in a structured way,” Arroyo said, “so that today I know that I don’t know everything about everything I need to deal with as a legislator, but I know how to figure out how to get the information to get the knowledge that I need to be able to make informed decisions.”
In fact, she has only good things to say about her belated education.
“The best is that you learn how to learn,” she said, adding that she does not regret the time she spent in the classroom at all.
“Not one minute of it,” she said.
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ABOVE: Assembly Member Carl Heastie not only talks through the inner workings of the Legislature with students, but also teaches business at Monroe
College.
The program takes two years to complete for full-time students, but during most of his time in school Heastie was also serving in the Assembly. He is one of several New York politicians who have juggled their public service with academics by heading back to school for a graduate degree.
Heastie began the degree in 1998 while working in the New York City comptroller’s office. He estimates he was 20 percent finished when he was elected to the Assembly in 2000. After taking a break to acclimate to the new job, he decided to go back to school.
“I wanted to hone a skill—one that I thought could help me as a legislator too, and when I decide to leave politics, I’ll have a marketable skill,” he said.
Heastie already had a background in finance, having worked previously on the budget in the comptroller’s office, so he found the MBA most useful for the management and behavioral courses that helped him learn to deal with people more effectively.
“One of the things is I don’t ever want to get stale being in the same office,” said Heastie. “At some point I think it’ll be in my best interests and the community’s best interests to have a new Assembly person.”
Not every politician can balance a job and part-time school. Gifford Miller, who now runs the strategic consulting firm Miller Strategies, started to attend night classes at Fordham Law while on the Council but had to withdraw as his political career gained speed.
“I thought that learning more about the law would be a useful experience,” he said.
Miller did not finish his law degree because he could no longer fit night classes into his schedule once he was elected Council speaker.
Miller had finished two years of the three-year program before stopping, but says he sees no merit in completing the degree.
“I felt I’d gotten what I wanted to get out of the education aspect and was uninterested in actually practicing,” Miller said, noting he had not realized this would be the case when he first enrolled.
But he is glad he spent two years in law school, despite the fact he never made it to the bar.
“I think that learning the basics of contracts and tort and constitutional law is a useful course of study,” he said. “I’m glad I went.”
Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo wins the award for going back and obtaining the most degrees. Arroyo dropped out of high school at age 16 to work, and did not start college until she was 28.
While working as a clerk at a diagnostic and treatment center, Arroyo decided she needed to further her education in order to be taken seriously in her career. She proceeded to get an associate’s degree at Hostos Community College in 1989, a bachelor’s degree at Lehman College in 1991, and finally got a master’s from New York University’s Robert Wagner School of Public Service in 1994.
As a legislator, she believes she has benefited from higher education.
“I think the graduate work or college or university environment helps you learn how to learn in a structured way,” Arroyo said, “so that today I know that I don’t know everything about everything I need to deal with as a legislator, but I know how to figure out how to get the information to get the knowledge that I need to be able to make informed decisions.”
In fact, she has only good things to say about her belated education.
“The best is that you learn how to learn,” she said, adding that she does not regret the time she spent in the classroom at all.
“Not one minute of it,” she said.
--
ABOVE: Assembly Member Carl Heastie not only talks through the inner workings of the Legislature with students, but also teaches business at Monroe
College.
