Dr. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez has spent the last two decades as a scholar, social scientist, educator and administrator in higher education. This fall, he is entering his next journey as president of Queens College of The City University of New York (CUNY).
Growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rodríguez’s middle-class family placed a high emphasis on education.
“This is a family that put all the eggs in education, with education being the avenue for social mobility, prosperity and advancement,” says Rodríguez.
His parents were the first in their families to attend college. His father became an engineer; his mother was trained to be a high school Spanish teacher but stayed home to raise Rodríguez and his two brothers.
“Most of the money my dad made went to pay for very good parochial schools, hoping that we would go to a good university,” he says.
And that he did.
Rodríguez attended Yale University for Latin American studies. The interdisciplinary major allowed him to become knowledgeable in a range of subjects from literature to economics to sociology, in an effort to obtain a broad liberal arts education. Further, he wanted to ensure that, wherever he went in life, his roots followed.
