Henry Gomez ’24 balances earning his online Master of Social Work with family life, community activism and his job serving students in New York City’s public schools.
“Something in me was always attracted to service,” Henry Gomez ’24, a South Bronx native said. His first calling was to the church, as a teen boarding at Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary, an experience that “really taught us how to serve through so many community service activities”—and that morphed into a passion for helping those in underserved communities in the Bronx.
According to Gomez, after high school, married to his wife Sorangel and with a young family, he needed to find regular work before eventually continuing his education at Boricua College. “This whole time, I was actively working in the community through the 40th Precinct Community Council,” he recalled.
Knowing he wanted to pursue social work, Gomez enrolled at Adelphi’s New York City-Brooklyn Center campus at age 39. The father of four sons said, “Social work found me and I found Adelphi was the place to make it happen. It’s a vocation, and not something you do to become a multimillionaire. There’s something in you that calls you to it.” Even while pursuing his bachelor’s degree, he worked as a Department of Education (DOE) crisis paraprofessional and para-manager during the COVID-19 pandemic, making home visits to deliver devices, teach parents how to log on, and drop off groceries.
Helping Local Students Succeed
Today, Gomez works for the New York City Department of Education in a social work role as a family leadership coordinator for District 7, which serves 29 schools in neighborhoods such as the South Bronx, Merrill and Mott Haven. In this role, he said, he “connects all of our families with the resources they need to be able to support their children’s success in school.”
These resources include programs like the NYC Reads initiative and the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program that helps families by contributing money to education bank accounts, beginning in kindergarten. Gomez leads a team that provides information, including social media posts, about these and other resources to the schools and their individual parent coordinators.
A Voice for His Community
For Gomez, community activism is foundational to his commitment to service. “I’ve been a very involved grassroots member of the 40th Precinct Community Council, as well as a member appointed by the Bronx borough president of Community Board 1, which serves the same area as School District 7,” he explained.
His advocacy for the much-needed renovation of Pontiac Park, where he took his now 20-year-old son to play as a child, is just one instance of his impassioned community advocacy. “I used social media and my council involvement to rally families to get the attention of the city’s Parks Department,” he said.
Recalling that Pontiac Park had gotten lost despite former mayor Bill DeBlasio’s initiative to renovate city parks, Gomez reported that his activism got the attention that was needed in short order. “The Parks Department was embarrassed that the park renovation hadn’t happened and they took action very quickly,” he recalled.
Balancing Work, Advocacy, Family and School
Gomez has succeeded not only in balancing raising a family of four boys with his wife, Sorangel—a social worker and first-generation college graduate—and his DOE job, but also his community advocacy, and full-time pursuit of his online Master of Social Work from Adelphi.
The Adelphi graduate program is all about flexibility, he said, adding, “I like that as someone who has a family and a job and all these other things—even though there is some anxiety with regard to deadlines and trying to find time to spend with the family.”
Gomez believes his MSW will further advance his career as a school social worker. “It’s also a bridge for the family to generational success and wealth. Our investment in education is our ticket out, and it’s been an amazing investment.”