Staff Profile Norka Blackman-Richards

Committed to ensuring the academic success of students from challenging backgrounds who may sometimes feel “We don’t belong in college.” Teaching English in her garage in Costa Rica so that locals could get jobs in that nation’s tourism industry. Establishing a nonprofit that has trained thousands of women in Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Lucia, Costa Rica, Panama, Canada, and the United States to be advocates and leaders for other women, helping them see the possibilities within themselves.

These are just some of the ways that Norka Blackman-Richards has dedicated herself to empowering others.

Director of the Percy Ellis Sutton SEEK program at QC, Blackman-Richards was born in Panama to parents who were Seventh Day Adventist missionaries. “We were taught service early on,” says Blackman-Richards, who attended primary and middle school under the British educational system in Belize and high school in Dutch Antilles.

Growing up speaking Spanish and English, Blackman-Richards traveled with her parents, acquiring proficiency in Dutch, Portuguese, and Papiamentu, a Creole language spoken in the Dutch West Indies. “When you learn a language, you also learn a culture,” she observes. “It helps you step out of your box, accept different mind-sets and better understand people.”

The word “empower” can be a cliché, but every phase of Blackman-Richards’ life has demonstrated her belief that the greatest satisfaction is helping others reach their full potential despite the difficulties they may face. In her own life, she was unable to find employment even with a BA in Business Administration (“The banks told me they would only hire men”), but she recognized an opportunity: the need to teach English to Costa Ricans, a language required for work in the country’s new hotels. And so, from home, she did exactly that. Her entrepreneurial success led to an offer to teach through a partnership of the U.S. Embassy and the Costa Rican government which, in turn, led to a position administering the program.

When her husband, a minister, was invited to lead a congregation in Corona in 1999, Blackman-Richards immigrated with him to the U.S., where she taught English as an adjunct at the College of New Rochelle and, within CUNY, at BMCC, York College, and QC. “Teaching is a passion I can’t give up,” says Blackman-Richards, who teaches a literature course through the English department while directing the SEEK program with its 1200 students.

Launched by the New York State Legislature in 1966, SEEK provides extra academic support, counseling, and resources for qualified high school graduates who might not attend college otherwise.

“Some students begin at a low level of performance,” she says. “We work with them to build their skills. The transformation is amazing.” The students apply for SEEK in high school, and if accepted, spend four to six weeks before freshman year attending classes at QC from 9 am to 4 pm. “It’s summer boot camp,” says Blackman-Richards. “Skills we can teach. But the summer determines who has the will and drive to succeed.

“Some SEEK students have lived in homeless shelters,” she continues. “There are no computers at home and sometimes, empty refrigerators. Many have to work to help support their families,” she says, describing a student who struggled to stay awake in class because he drove a cab at night and had a second job in a bodega. I tell them, ‘There is no shame in struggle, only in giving up.’”

Ninety-five percent of SEEK students pay no college tuition because they qualify for New York State TAP and federal Pell grants. Participants take at least three courses together in “learning communities.” For the first three semesters, they are taught in small groups by QC faculty who are dedicated to the SEEK program, and throughout their time at QC advised by counselors attuned not only to the students’ academic needs but also to other factors that can affect academic performance. The first-year retention rate of 89.7 percent for SEEK students at QC proves that the extra help has made a huge difference.

Nothing pleases Blackman-Richards more than “cheering our graduates as they walk across the Quad at commencement,” she says. A few years ago, she initiated Alumni Night; the most recent speaker was Dr. Yvon Joseph, a QC SEEK grad from Haiti who is now a professor of foreign languages at Suffolk Community College.

Blackman-Richards has also empowered others as the founder in 2007 of the nonprofit 4 Real Women International Inc. “When disasters occur, physical needs are filled but women are left with the emotional pain of poverty and domestic violence,” she says, explaining why she launched the organization. “Every year we travel to a different Latin American or Caribbean country for a conference organized by volunteers there whom we’ve trained. The message is, ‘You can grieve over what’s happened to you, but it can’t define you. You have dreams to fulfill.’”

Local governments have taken notice of the standing-room-only audiences and are now inviting the organization back to continue its work.

Elected officials in the United States have taken notice of Blackman-Richards too, honoring her with many awards and citations. In 2011, she received the Outstanding Service Award: 100th Anniversary Women’s Day by the Women’s International Network. But one of the most meaningful, she says, is the Jewel of Queens College Award for Managerial Excellence, received in 2014 when Blackman-Richard was assistant director of SEEK.