About Us
The SEEK Mission
The Percy Ellis Sutton SEEK Department aspires to promote, maintain, and graduate individuals who strive to further their education and professional success within a social justice framework.
We are committed to elevating, cultivating and empowering such individuals by way of academic support, financial aid, counseling and teaching to produce life-long learners and advocates of positive social change.
SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation & Knowledge) is a New York State program at CUNY's senior and comprehensive colleges designed to assist students who are both academically and financially disadvantaged.
SEEK is a model premier opportunity program that helps mitigate the inequity of educational systems and is committed to access justice, academic success, inclusion and the development of life-long learners and future leaders. Unique to John Jay SEEK is the Education and Justice curriculum, part of Gen Ed. Moreover, SEEK’s integration of evidence-based best practices and targeted interventions produce retention rates for first and second-year students higher than non-SEEK students.
Eligibility
View the requirements to be eligible for SEEK.
How To Apply
To apply and be admitted, prospective students must complete the online CUNY Application, provide the required documents needed to determine economic eligibility and successfully complete the mandatory summer program.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) Program began as a pre-baccalaureate program at The City College of New York in 1965. It was signed into law by the New York State legislature in 1966 as the City University’s higher education opportunity program in the senior colleges. The legislation was a result of the efforts of social activists and progressive politicians whose vision was to provide access to CUNY for financially disadvantaged students, then largely African-American and Puerto Rican, who graduated from high schools that had not prepared them for the rigors of college.
In 2011, SEEK was renamed The Percy Ellis Sutton SEEK Program. Percy Ellis Sutton was a highly influential figure in American law, politics, and civil rights. Sutton strongly supported the program and used his influence to ensure that programs like SEEK were supported at the city and state levels. His advocacy helped to keep the SEEK program funded and growing. Sutton’s efforts helped ensure that CUNY remained a place where individuals from all walks of life could access a quality education, regardless of financial or academic barriers.
Today there are eleven SEEK Programs across the University: one program in each of the seven senior and four comprehensive colleges. In over forty years of existence at the City University, the SEEK and CD Programs have enrolled approximately 230,000 low-income students. Without University access through these Programs, many would not have been able earn a college degree which provided entry into the professions and the middle class. Program students have been recipients of the Gates Millennium Scholarship Award, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, the Mellon Minority Fellowship, and other national, State-wide, and local awards.
To learn more about the history of SEEK, please click on the links below:
The Percy Ellis Sutton SEEK Program: Opening Doors for 50 Years
The Five Demands
Second Chances
The Percy Ellis Sutton SEEK Department
524 West 59th Street
432 Haaren Hall, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Contact: 212-237-8169
Fax: 212-237-8904
Email: seek@jjay.cuny.edu