LIU Brooklyn valedictorian first in family to graduate from college
He’s the comeback kid from Staten Island.
An only child, with parents who had never attended college, LIU Brooklyn valedictorian William Curran of Tottenville, S.I., dropped out of Tottenville High School because he didn’t find school engaging. After a short-lived period of home-schooling, Curran taught himself, following his own interests. At 18, he enrolled in a GED program and received his GED in the same month he would have graduated high school.
Curran credits his father, also named William Curran, chief operating engineer at LIU Brooklyn, with encouraging him to go to college: “Just go to college. What else are you going to do?” He recalls his father saying.