When Frejoel Munoz heads to SUNY Purchase this fall he will be the first person in his family to go to college.

While college is a big adjustment for anyone, first-generation students have to  navigate this academic, social and financial transition without the guidance of a parent or sibling who has experienced it.

 But Munoz, a senior at Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy, isn’t focused on that right now.

 He is worried about being exposed to the coronavirus and how he will build relationships with his professors and classmates if he is sitting at home in his family’s apartment in the Bronx.

 Luckily Munoz has BUILD, a high school entrepreneurship program that teaches college and career readiness skills by having students start their own businesses.

 Now, the same organization that helped Munoz get into college is guiding him through the challenges of starting college during a pandemic.

 And it’s a milestone year for BUILD, too. The California-based nonprofit launched its New York City site four years ago and Munoz is part of its first graduating class headed to college.

 But with coronavirus bringing the world to a standstill, this otherwise momentous occasion is dampened by uncertainty.

 “Students are excited about getting into college and remain excited about their future. I just think the framing of that is a little scary,” said Chymeka Olfonse, BUILD-NYC regional executive director. “If you hear it's all going to be virtual, what does that look like?”

 BUILD is working to support its 30 seniors in this difficult transition. Through personal outreach and weekly webinars on topics like mental health and financial literacy and virtual community building, BUILD is helping students develop college skills they never knew they would need.

 For first-generation students like Munoz, who attends a school where 88% of its nearly 400 students qualify for free and reduced priced meals and only 10% graduate with the skills needed for college, this extra support can mean the difference between succeeding in college or not.

***

The first thing everyone notices about Munoz is his hair. It’s a source of pride. If it’s not twisted into a thick braid, he ties it into a bun and wears it atop his head like a crown.

 He lives in the Bronx with his mom, dad, grandparents and 8-year-old sister. The family moved from the Dominican Republic when Munoz was 4.

 He is charismatic and friendly, always aiming to impress. His dream is to become an actor and his role model is Will Smith. But he has not always been this sure of himself.

 “When I first came to high school, I was just completely lost,” said Munoz. “I didn't know what I wanted to be. I didn't know what I wanted to do.”

 His counselor thought BUILD would be a good fit for him, but Munoz wasn’t sold on it.

 “I was confused as to what BUILD was,” said Munoz. “I didn’t know what to do or why I was there.” When he first saw BUILD on his schedule he thought it was a class about architecture.

 In the daily class, students participate in team-based challenges designed to teach them how to think creatively. They work in teams of three to five to come up with an idea for a product that solves a problem. Once a week they stay after school to meet with mentors from the business community who offer feedback and guidance on their ideas.

 Unimpressed at first, Munoz skipped the mentoring sessions to go to track practice until his teacher, Tanjia Chowdhury, started showing up at his practices to talk with his coach.

 “Basically we forced him to attend class,” said Chowdhury. “Once Frejoel started coming and presenting, he loved all the appreciation he was receiving.”

***

BUILD was started in 1999, when founder Suzanne McKechnie-Klahr was working at a law clinic providing legal advice to low-income entrepreneurs in East Palo Alto, CA. A group of teenagers came in asking for her help starting a business.

At the time, East Palo Alto was known as the nation’s “murder capital,” struggling with gang violence and police corruption and choked off from the wealth of a burgeoning Silicon Valley just across Highway 101 by blockbusting policies.

McKechnie-Klahr offered to help the teens on one condition:  that they graduate from high school. When they agreed, McKechnie-Klahr realized she might be on to something. 

She brought the idea to local high schools and started teaching entrepreneurship to engage students and help them build college and career skills. Since then, the program has expanded to serve thousands of students from under-resourced communities in Oakland, CA, Washington, D.C., Boston and New York City. BUILD-NYC works with six public schools, serving over 400 students across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.

BUILD students start with an introductory entrepreneurship course at their school taught by one of their ninth grade teachers. They work in teams to develop an idea for a product that solves a problem. With the help of mentors, students build prototypes, pitch to investors, compete in showcases and eventually launch their businesses. 

Munoz’s team of three focused on the number of bike accidents at night and developed XO-Light—a vest with colorful, blinking LED lights to make cyclists and runners more visible on dark streets.

The idea was a hit and propelled the team to the finals of BUILD’s 2017 citywide Youth Business Plan Competition. On stage, a confident Munoz beamed as he demonstrated the XO-Light on guest judge and former Knicks player John Starks. 

After ninth grade, the program gradually shifts its focus to college access and career readiness. The idea is that the skills students learned as entrepreneurs—things like collaboration, communication, problem solving and grit—will translate to other areas of their lives. Students network with local businesses to develop career skills and start to research postsecondary options. By 12th grade they are applying to colleges and preparing for the socioemotional transition to college life.

But with coronavirus and the possibility of a virtual fall semester, that transition looks a lot different.

 ***

As a school-based program, BUILD staff have faced the same challenges as all remote teachers, but their emphasis on innovative thinking might give them an edge.

“As an organization that is entrepreneurial in focus, we have had to use that entrepreneurial spirit to pivot a little bit and pause and think through, what is it that we can do for our students?” said Kenya George, BUILD-NYC program director.

The first thing BUILD did was send out a survey to students to find out how they were doing and what support they needed. Like most schools in under-resourced communities, technology access was one of the first hurdles. BUILD worked with a corporate donor to get financial assistance to 22 families and laptops to 28 students and counting.

Within a few weeks of schools closing, BUILD staff had moved all of their programming online, using Zoom and Google Meet to connect with 300 students across the city.

While Munoz and his peers used to meet their mentors and college counselors every Wednesday afternoon at school, now they tune in to a virtual meeting. These weekly college workshops provide networking opportunities with industry professionals and cover topics like time management and financial literacy.

“A part of the work has also been leveraging what we know about our communities—the communities that we serve—and aligning those unique differences and incorporating it into our workshops,” said George.

In response to COVID, BUILD staff have added new workshops to address mental health and virtual community building. They have also worked to ensure that financial aid workshops are relevant for undocumented students who don’t have access to federal aid.

“When you equip and empower students with information, it eases the anxiety,” said George.

Perhaps most importantly, students are learning how to engage in virtual classes, which could be a critical skill this fall. While staff are still coaxing students to get comfortable having their cameras on, attendance has been around 80%.

“It’s a good distraction,” said Mohamed Diallo, another BUILD senior from Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy who will start at the University at Albany this fall and plans to study business administration.

For Diallo, the weekly sessions have been a chance to gain useful information for the fall and to stay connected to BUILD staff and students.

“Whether it's virtual or not, we still create community,” said Olfonse. “We still create points of engagement for young people to connect with each other, as well as professionals.”

***

In some ways, this has been an opportunity for BUILD to learn, as well.

Like everyone, they have been forced to leverage more technology. Student business teams are building websites and videos to showcase their products and even the competitions have gone virtual.

“We are taking it up to the next level, which we've always wanted to do, but this demands that we do it faster,” said Olfonse. 

But all of this adjustment has not been easy on staff. In addition to connecting individually with each student, staff are running workshops, scheduling presenters and training them how to engage students virtually while still delivering meaningful content.

They’re exhausted. And they’re also caring for their own families.

Like many New Yorkers, BUILD students and staff are also dealing with the trauma of the pandemic. One student lost a father to COVID19 and a BUILD teacher lost a significant other. Seniors are mourning the loss milestones like prom, graduation and class trips. 

“That’s the worst part. You spend four years in school and create these great friendships and you’re looking forward to graduation together,” said Diallo. “Coronavirus took that from us.”

But despite these losses, both students have remained relatively positive.

Munoz delivers canned goods and bottled water to neighbors. He shares a laptop with his little sister, so every day he helps her with her homework before starting his own. He is even doing a 30-day push-up challenge and motivating his family to exercise with him.

“He's excited about life still,” said Olfonse. “He's more like that kid that says, crap happened. Alright, gotta’ keep moving.”

And he shares that enthusiasm with Diallo, who has used his time in quarantine to start writing music.

It helps that they’re friends.

The two students met in BUILD. They didn’t get along at first, but they bonded when they realized they both had plans for the future that were bigger than the Bronx. Now they talk on the phone almost every day, encouraging each other and planning for the future.

“We’re always pushing each other,”  said Diallo. “Where I come from not everybody is like that.”

Maybe it was already in them, or maybe it was their time as BUILD entrepreneurs that taught them grit. But not every student is as resilient.

***

60% of the 50,000 students who graduate from New York City’s public schools each year go to a CUNY school. But in a typical year, 28% of CUNY’s admitted students end up not enrolling in fall.

This “summer melt” trend ranges from 10-40% nationally, with low-income and first generation students disproportionately impacted. And experts predict these numbers may be even higher as a result of COVID, especially among the student population that BUILD serves.

“Students should take this transition into adulthood very seriously. Just as they would pre-COVID,” said Rose Cherubin, BUILD-NYC college counselor.

In addition to the weekly webinars, she has been meeting with each senior individually to review their options and make sure they have a plan in place for the fall—someone to reach out to for help.

“Even if we don't know what school will look like as they transition in college, at least there's a mechanism for them to be successful,” said Olfonse.

While May 1 is traditionally National College Decision Day—the day most seniors commit to a college—some schools have opted to push that date back to June 1st. BUILD is helping students weigh new factors like family caregiving responsibilities and job prospects in a recession. And like the virus itself, its fallout is disproportionately impacting communities of color.

In a national study of high school seniors, 33 percent of minority students said their top choice college has changed because of COVID, compared to 15 percent of white students.

“Wherever you decide to go, I hope that we are equipping you psychologically, mentally, physically, emotionally with what you're going to need to make the decision that's right for you,” said Cindy Pineda, BUILD-NYC senior program manager. “Not for us, not for teachers or parents, but that's right for you, for your long-term investment.”

Purchase College has been Munoz’s top choice all along, ever since his cousin—who is graduating from Purchase this month—told him about the school’s strong performing arts program.

But when Munoz imagined his freshman year of college, he pictured himself strolling through campus in a sea of peers, not sitting at home in the Bronx. He’s already had two months of that. 

“It's not the same when you’re doing homework by yourself at home, instead of being with the teacher in class, asking for help anytime you need it,” said Munoz.

And for Diallo, going to college was all about going away.

“I was looking forward to getting out of the Bronx,” said Diallo. “That’s not going to happen now.” At least not right away.

But BUILD is hoping this extended time at home and practice with virtual workshops will serve as a bridge to college life.

Diallo started writing deadlines, countdowns and motivational quotes on a small whiteboard he hung in his room.

Munoz said the remote learning experience has taught him how to manage his time and stay on top of his work, which is one of the biggest learning curves for incoming college freshmen who are away from home for the first time.

And both students know they can always reach out to BUILD for support.

When the long days stuck at home in the same routine started to wear on Diallo, he reached out to Pineda, someone he has known and leaned on since ninth grade.

“I know I can call or text her about anything,” said Diallo.

In fact, Pineda was one of the first people he called when he got his acceptance to Albany. She passed along the good news and soon Diallo’s phone was blowing up with congratulations from other BUILD staff.

“It just felt amazing,” said Diallo. “They’re like family to me.”

***

The havoc COVID has wreaked on the education system is revealing why organizations like BUILD are so essential.

“COVID has forced us to pause and have a real conversation around, what is equity in this city?” said George.

Without access to adequate technology for remote learning, low-income students will likely fall even further behind their more affluent peers. And with state budget cuts disproportionately impacting the most under-resourced schools, things may only get worse in the fall.

“That's where community organizations like us come in,” said Cherubin. “We want to partner with schools just to see where we can fill in gaps.”

Whether in a high school of 400 students or a college of 10,000, BUILD provides the extra support students need to succeed. Pineda says it’s the relationships students have with BUILD mentors and staff that make the program so effective.

And for Munoz BUILD has made a big difference

“A shy kid who hasn’t been anywhere out of the Bronx was meeting people from all over the world,” said Chowdhury. “Through this program he learned to believe in himself.”

“It's crazy how they changed a lost kid into a ready and set student,” said Munoz. 

***

Much like the seniors they are sending off to college, BUILD’s future is a little uncertain.

A significant portion of their budget comes from the city’s College Access for All programming, which is part of a Department of Education line item that just took a $49 million cut in the mayor’s executive budget.

After four years of partnering together, BUILD feels confident that schools see the value they bring to students, but ultimately it’s up to principals to decide how to balance their injured budgets this fall.

“My hope is that we'll figure out a way to ensure that we are able to serve young people in the fall, despite whatever it is that's happening financially,” said George.

The reality is that COVID is deepening existing inequities within education while simultaneously weakening the supports, like BUILD, that have provided bridges for students like Munoz and Diallo.

“I don't mind if we get a graduation or not, you know? I just care about having my diploma and graduating in general,” said Munoz. “I just want to provide my family with a better life.”

***

On a Friday night in June, BUILD-NYC’s first cohort of seniors will get dressed up and gather with their families, not in an auditorium or on a grassy athletic field, but in a Zoom room. Staff and students will give speeches, replaying favorite memories, expressing gratitude and offering advice for an uncertain future. A DJ will spin tunes at an after-party as tearful families hug their kids before gradually retreating from the computer screen to celebrate at their own dinner tables.

There will not be gowns, diplomas, or a cap toss, but the class of 2020 will carry themselves with a self-assuredness that only comes from weathering adversity, marching toward their futures without ever leaving home.