For Associate Professor Ngoc Cindy Pham, helping students succeed is not just part of the job. It is a calling shaped by her experience as a global educator and mentor. Her work centers on a timely question: How can public universities prepare first-generation, immigrant, and working students to thrive in a job market transformed by artificial intelligence?
Pham first saw the urgency of this challenge in her Brooklyn College classrooms, where even some of her most capable students struggled with career planning. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, she recognized its potential as a tool students could learn to use thoughtfully, ethically, and strategically.
Supported by The Tow Foundation, her research explores how AI can strengthen career readiness, professional growth, and access to opportunity. What began as a campus-based initiative has expanded into a broader ecosystem of research, programming, and partnerships focused on AI literacy and workforce development.
Pham’s efforts have grown through the CUNY AI Literacy and Professional Readiness initiative, which brings together students, faculty, and industry leaders to explore the practical and ethical use of AI while helping students develop career-ready skills. The initiative emphasizes hands-on learning, professional communication, and industry engagement, creating stronger connections between classroom learning and workforce needs.
A key outcome of this work is the BRIDGE Framework, a research-based model examining how students can develop both AI competencies and the human-centered skills needed to succeed in a rapidly changing economy. Pham is also developing the BRIDGE AI Lab, which extends this research by connecting AI literacy more closely with workforce and industry needs. The lab serves as a hub for exploring how higher education can create scalable, equitable models that prepare students for an AI-enabled future.
What continues to distinguish Pham’s work is its collaborative spirit. Students are not assistants working behind the scenes. They serve as co-researchers, helping design studies, conduct interviews, analyze data, and present findings. Many have shared their work at conferences, contributed to publications, and engaged with industry professionals.
Student researcher and business major Jason Lin considers the opportunity to work with Pham an honor. “I feel like I used up all my good luck in college just by being in her class. This AI research project not only supports her important work on the future of technology but also challenged me to strengthen my writing and time-management skills as I prepare for graduation.”
For Pham, the future of higher education depends not on technology itself, but on ensuring every student has the knowledge and confidence to use it responsibly and effectively.
