Hundreds of students, staff and friends of the College gathered at Main Campus for the unveiling of Community College of Philadelphia’s new brand on April 11, featuring guest speakers Rep. Jordan Harris, spoken word poets Dr. Michelle Myers and alum Eboni Ferguson, and alum Mutha Knows of Power 99, who served as emcee.

The crowd was entertained by DJ Diamond Kuts, Mad Beatz drumline, stiltwalkers and acrobats from the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and games, in addition to free food from several Philadelphia vendors that lined half of 17th Street, which was closed to traffic for the event. Local influencers attended to get the word out about the College’s new look. Attendees received giveaways with the new logo, including T-shirts, sunglasses, bandanas, a spoken word poetry book focused on what the College means to them, stickers and temporary tattoos.

Celebrations were held the following week at the Northeast Regional Center and the Career and Advanced Technology Center.

Our new logo, a bold “P,” stands for Philadelphia, where most of our students are from, and where most of our graduates stay. The “P” is created from three different shapes, including a bold number one, celebrating the individual and collective strength of one community, one college, and one city.

A light blue dot rises to the top of the “P” on the left side, signifying students’ ability to rise, relating to our new tagline: “Rise from within.” The message is a call to action, asking Philadelphians to recognize the power they have to improve themselves and the world around them—power that comes from lived experiences, talents, and aspirations.

The accent of light blue that accompanies our brand colors of yellow and black connects the institution to the city’s colors of blue and yellow.

View photos from the block party.

Overheard at CCP

We were curious to hear what members of our community thought about the new brand. Here are a few first impressions:

"The logo capitalizes on the school's atmosphere. It's Philly."  —Khalil M., student

"It's simple. P is for Philly - this is a community for us."  —Daisy N., student

“CCP is the only public, open admission institution in Philadelphia. I had to come and support because this is an amazing school. The rebrand is fire. The logo is fire.” 
—Christian C., 76ers arena host and influencer

“Our AMAZING colleagues in EMSC have worked tirelessly on Community College of Philadelphia’s new branding. Great work! Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!”—Abbey Ametrano, director, Human Resources, CCP

Earning a Behavioral Health/Human Services (BHHS) degree will allow Tracey Downing to help individuals as a support specialist, just like others have helped her throughout her life. The first graduate of the College’s I Am More initiative, which assists justice-involved individuals earn an education, Tracey invites others to learn from her story. With assistance and knowledge she received from others, as well as the BHHS program, she also has come to understand the challenges she has been confronted with in her life.

Tracey was in and out of rehab programs, and institutionalized at times. She  accumulated a record with retail theft associated with active addiction, leaving her mom to raise her six children. “People who were trying to help told me ‘We hope you’ll get tired of this. We see so much potential in you. We hope you make it. We see something in you that you can’t.’ In many county jails, prisons, and recovery programs, counselors and psychiatrists embraced me with unconditional love, education, and knowledge. It still took years to get sober.”

Tracey has been in recovery for 12 years, which started during her last incarceration. After transitioning to a recovery house, equipped with goals and a plan for the future, a son tragically passed away, but Tracey was able to remain sober. At PRO-ACT, which offers educational resources for those in recovery, she earned leadership and group support certificates, and noticed a CCP flyer for those who have experience in the justice system. She has been at the College since 2017, continuing her education through a near death experience and more heartbreak.

A diabetic coma and then a stroke left her on life support and unconscious for weeks; a month and a half in a physical rehabilitation facility followed. After the death of a daughter, BHHS faculty helped her through the funeral and the grief. Despite excruciating muscle pain from fibromyalgia, arthritis, myalgia, and neuropathy, Tracey traveled to campus for classes and frequent tutoring, which provided the extra help she needed due to a learning disability. She had COVID-19 and surgery for gall stone removal. With the support of friends, family, her College network, and her Narcotics Anonymous and Alcohol Anonymous sponsors, Tracey pushed through these hardships to continue with her education.

“I am at awe at the team of professors in BHHS. Their support enabled me to have more confidence and believe in my abilities. I’ve learned so, so much from the professors and staff at CCP. It has been an awesome, rewarding, fulfilling, life-changing, transformational gift of self-discovery,” she said.

Tracey now understands the circumstances that affected her, and knows her family did the best they could with what they knew and what they had.

“My mom was a nurse, and an awesome provider. She would give gifts but did not openly express her feelings because of her painful childhood and life experiences. My sisters and I didn’t want for anything, but there was not much nurturing,” she said.

Eventually, Tracey started looking elsewhere for affection; first, with a grandmother who struggled with alcohol abuse, and then to others in her neighborhood.

“I never felt I fit in or belonged, which was part peer pressure, and part verbal and emotional abuse. I started to feel a deep sadness. I became the neighborhood drifter, looking for love and acceptance.” Societal beauty standards that did not include girls who looked like her, and trauma from sexual abuse and rejection, contributed to her self-destructive behavior of drinking and skipping school. After an abusive relationship, Tracey gave birth to a daughter when she was 16. Eventually, Tracey was eventually able to secure an apartment for her and her child after getting a job in a nursing home. Shortly after, Tracey became addicted after freebasing, and continued drinking.

Now, she has tools she needs to guide her journey.

“I have the spiritual gifts of kindness, compassion, self-determination, courage, resilience and helping the community. My everyday skills are yoga, eating healthy, mindfulness meditation, prayer and faith in Jesus Christ,” she said.

Tracey relates her experiences to the agility of a boxer, dodging punches, getting knocked down and getting back up.

“That’s the story of my life: pivot,” she said.

The path to graduation is flooded with twists and turns. Students change majors, life events cause disruptions, and many students find they are no longer the same individual they were coming into college. Sonniyrah Marie D'Huguenoir said her journey was a roller coaster.

Sonniyrah was born in Harlem, New York shortly after her mother moved to the U.S. from Haiti for a better life. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but then moved to Philadelphia right before starting high school. Sonniyrah graduated from Olney Charter High School and began classes at Community College of Philadelphia in 2012, having decided against making a big move to attend Morehouse College, an all-male HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia. This was before Sonniyrah, who identifies as a woman of trans experience, began transitioning.

Community College’s Center for Male Engagement (CME) mailed her information about enrollment, inviting her to become a life-long member. She accepted and began to participate in regular workshops on topics like time management and skill building on a collegiate level.

After becoming a member, Sonniyrah cultivated relationships that will live on beyond the collegiate experience with other students as well as College staff. Two important relationships that she cultivated were with CME’s director, Dr. Derrick Perkins, and Hope Thomas, administrative assistant, who became loving guardians or parental figures to her. “When I came to the realization that I was a woman, I informed my father that I can no longer be a part of this organization because of my identity,” Sonniyrah said. “He was like, ‘no you’re my daughter, you’ll always be a part of this.” Sonniyrah would then go on to be a peer coach for CME, handling tasks pertaining to mentoring other students, helping classmates navigate the FAFSA, setting up workshops, planning academic trips and more.

Even with support from CME, Single Stop and KEYS, life for Sonniyrah was full of twists and turns. Sometimes, the struggle to pay bills outweighed the need to focus on studies. Sonniyrah was in and out of school. She also hopped around majors as she worked to figure it all out. 

“I went from a pre-law major or paralegal studies to art, and now I found my true purpose in the arts and sciences in psychology,” Sonniyrah said.

For all her hard work, she graduated on Saturday, May 4, with a Liberal Arts degree and with a commitment to earn her doctorate degree in Psychiatry. She said the last decade has been one of self-discovery, something that was essential to her success in the classroom and in life. “Before, I prioritized everybody else except for me,” Sonniyrah said. “Now this time around, I’m focusing on, what do I want to be 10 years from now?”

After graduation, she plans to get a bachelor’s degree—her eyes are set on Howard University. “I’m proud that I finally gained a sense of healthy independence as a dark- skinned Haitian woman of trans experience,” Sonniyrah said. “I’m in my own space, on my own. I’m graduating. I’m proud that I have come to a place of peace in my identity and my life all thanks to God and CME.”

Students know they’re picking a more affordable option when they choose to enroll at a community college rather than a four-year school. For Annette Ramirez, the cost of tuition paired with the flexibility of classes at Community College of Philadelphia stood out when she was researching colleges after high school.

“It was the least expensive option,” Annette said. “It was more flexible with hours, like having afternoon classes was great for me because I had a kid at home. So that was really amazing.”

The Octavius Catto Scholarship made the decision to enroll even easier. 

“And then I found the Catto Scholarship, which was honestly the reason,” she said, “because they paid for everything for me and I never had to worry about the money.”

While the Catto Scholarship covered tuition and offered a monthly stipend, the costs of living and raising a child were still a factor. Annette worked at a restaurant in South Philadelphia while attending classes.

“[The Catto Scholarship] definitely alleviates the financial aspect of going to college,” she said. “With the stipend, it was amazing because I used that for my transportation needs. I was less pressured to have that job while studying. I could focus more on my studies."

Annette, who started in fall of 2021, is graduating in May from the College’s Medical Laboratory Technician program. When she does, she will be the first in her family to graduate college.

She had taken a year off from school after graduating high school from the Career and Academic Development Institute in Philadelphia before enrolling. She had just had a child and wasn’t sure if she’d end up going back to school. Annette talked with her husband about applying to colleges, and he gave her the encouragement she was looking for.

“He was like, ‘No, go to college. That’s what you’ve always wanted to do. You can still do it,’” she said. “And he helped me research a lot. He was like, ‘You know we can’t really afford for you to go to a four-year college or a four-year university right now, but CCP sounds great.’”

And now that she’s graduating, she’s in a position to land a higher paying job plus she’s planning to achieve a four-year degree, possibly at Thomas Jefferson University or University of Cincinnati. During her time here, Annette said she received a lot of support from the College’s Career Connections department, which provides interview prep and résumé building services as well as a database that directly connects students to employers—support she’s still receiving.

“As someone who didn’t think she was going to go to college, I was like, ‘This is amazing,’” Annette said. “I can get a job. I’m the first in my family to graduate with a degree at all. … To me, it is the proudest moment.”