That tradition has never been stronger. Today more than a third of CUNY students were born outside the mainland U.S. They count 200 countries of origin and speak more than 170 languages. They assimilate and excel. To cite just one example of many, among our graduates this year was Sana Batool, who came here to flee persecution in Pakistan when she was 15. She spoke little English and faced all the hardships and cultural barriers common to immigrants. Last year, she graduated from CUNY’s honors college and, this spring, won one of the nation’s most hard-earned academic honors, the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. This month she begins her studies at Harvard Medical School.