Victor Cueva, Liberal Arts Humanities and Social Science ’09, is eager to give new immigrants in the Hudson Valley the help his family did not receive when they came to Kingston from Lima, Peru more than a decade ago.
Cueva, who recently earned his juris doctorate degree from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, is fulfilling his dream of helping immigrants with legal services as a fellow in the Immigrant Justice Corps, an ambitious, still-developing fellowship program begun in New York City last year.
Cueva will work in Catholic Charities’ Poughkeepsie and Newburgh offices part of the week, and the other days in Manhattan at 26 Federal Plaza, New York’s immigration court, serving clients from the lower Hudson Valley region.
His achievements were recently included in a New York Times article on the Immigrant Justice Corps.
After graduating from SUNY Ulster, where he was a former Admissions Ambassador and played soccer for then-coach Hall of Famer George Vizvary, he graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Albany. He attended Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law as a select number of E. Nathaniel Gates scholars.
Cueva, 25, fondly remembers SUNY Ulster as a close-knit college community with professors who both challenged and supported him academically, and other international students and fellow soccer players who became his friends.
“Never give up. Perseverance is a great quality to have and SUNY Ulster helped me develop that quality,” he said.
For his success story, click here.
