Meet the team
The College & Career Lab (CCL) was founded at New York University in 2018 by Charlton McIlwain, NYU’s Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Pathways & Public Interest Technology, and Raghu Sundaram, Dean at NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Recognizing the college-and-career disconnect and equity gap that low-income students face, CCL was designed to let them “try on” academic majors and careers while gaining the access and tools needed to be post-secondary ready.
Charlton McIlwain
Vice Provost, Faculty Development, Pathways & Public Interest Technology
Charlton McIlwain (he/him) founded the College & Career Lab in 2018. In his Vice Provost role, McIlwain advances NYU’s academic excellence by supporting faculty recruitment, retention, and career advancement. McIlwain leads NYU’s Center for Faculty Advancement (CFA), which provides programming, resources, and special recognitions and awards that promote research, teaching, mentorship, community engagement, and academic leadership development for NYU faculty as well as for those faculty with whom we collaborate through our Faculty Resource Network. As part of the CFA’s recruitment work, McIlwain oversees signature programs at the University that develop critical pathways for diverse individuals to prepare for and succeed in both academic careers and careers beyond academia.
Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng
Research Director
Dr. Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng (he/him) is an Associate Professor of International Education and a sociologist whose scholarly and community-based work focuses on the social lives of marginalized youth. His interests include comparative perspectives on race/ethnicity (with a focus on China and the US), immigrant adaptation, and social capital within the school and educational context. His research examines the social relationships in the lives of minority and immigrant adolescents in the US, gender and ethnic differences in education in China, and cultural and social capital transfers between adolescents in the US. His scholarship has appeared in journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Social Forces, and Social Science Research.
Autumn Bush
Program Director
Autumn Bush (she/her) supports strategic planning, development, and execution of academic enrichment program initiatives through the College & Career Lab. With over 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, she brings a wealth of expertise in program management, team leadership, and stakeholder engagement. Her tenure in education includes work with first-generation low-income students, improving student outcomes and college access from high school to college. Her commitment to excellence and innovation has consistently driven program success and contributed to the overall growth and impact of the organizations she has served. Autumn earned an MSW degree from NYU Silver School of Social Work and a BA degree in psychology and women’s studies from Skidmore College. She is also a licensed psychotherapist in New York State.
DeeSoul Carson
Program Administrator
DeeSoul Carson (he/they) currently serves as the Program Administrator of the College & Career Lab. He graduated from Stanford University in 2021 with a BA in Social/Cultural Psychology and brings with him several years of clerical, administrative, and educational experience. Additionally, DeeSoul is currently a graduate student in the NYU Creative Writing MFA Program, honing and developing his skills as both a poet and an educator. You can find more about him and his work at deesoulpoetry.com.
Danielle Wendricks
High School Application / Post-Secondary Counselor
Danielle Wendricks (she/her) is a High School Application and Post-Secondary Counselor for the College & Career Lab. Through her experiences advising and teaching at NYCDOE high schools, New York nonprofits, and the University of Wisconsin, she has worked with all types of students ranging in age from 5 to 75. She is passionate about education as a means to social change. Dani has a BS in Community and Nonprofit Leadership and History from the University of Wisconsin, and is working on her MSW at NYU Silver School of Social Work.
Current CCL students can schedule office hours with Danielle on Calendly or via email.
Advisory Board
Additional board member announcement forthcoming.
Rufus E. Jones Jr.
President, James Weldon Johnson Foundation
Rufus Jones (he/him) is co-founder and President of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation, where he established the James Weldon Johnson Literary Foundation Legacy Award for performing arts, fine arts and historic preservation. Like Johnson in his proficiency in a range of fields, Rufus has held roles as an educator, entrepreneur, musician, songwriter, and Wall Street trader. Rufus has over 20 years of experience on Wall Street as a Senior Equity Trader at Watermill Institutional Trading. Prior to his transition to Wall Street, Rufus worked as an educator and administrator at the Latin School of Chicago and the Dalton School of New York, where he was a dean of students, history teacher, coach, coordinator of corporate and foundation giving, and manager of grants and special projects.