RELATED: Photos from the York College Benefit

Arlington Aguebor’s polite manner and bright smile served him well at York College’s first annual scholarship benefit concert, which featured a performance of “Three Mo’ Tenors” at the college’s Performing Arts Center. But the job was for one night only.

“I want to be an airport manager,” Mr. Aguebor, a sophomore studying in the year-old City University of New York Aviation Institute at York College, said. The program includes internships at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is conveniently located five miles away from the Jamaica Center campus.

Mr. Aguebor and the other ushers at the benefit are recipients of York College merit scholarships, funded by the York College Foundation.

“Here at York we have some of the hardest-working students. A lot are single moms and have jobs. The scholarships and the education we provide are tremendous equalizers,” the president of the York College Foundation, George Aridas, said.

The scholarship benefit is just one example of York College’s renaissance. Under president Marcia Keizs, the CUNY school, which was almost shut down during the city’s fiscal crisis in the 1970s, has made improvements to the campus and increased enrollment, including a sharp increase in the number of students from local high schools.

The event raised $250,000 for the fund, an impressive total for a first effort, but indicative of the spirit and talent that has coalesced around the school, from its administrators, professors, foundation board members, and CUNY trustees. There’s even a group of local residents, led by Marian Webber and Doris Houston, who support the college through an annual quilt exhibit.

“We wanted to get in the deep end of the pool, and it looks like we can swim. This gives us a good gauge of our capacity,” the president, Ms. Keizs, said at a post-show dessert reception attended by the “Three Mo’ Tenors” themselves: Kenneth Alston, Phumzile Sojola, and Ramone Diggs.

Helping the college on this particular night were NY1 political correspondent Dominic Carter, who served as master of ceremonies, and the event’s underwriter, American Express. Many of the other colleges in the CUNY system also contributed.

The first deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, George Grasso, a 1980 graduate of York, has taken pride in the school since his student days, when he was part of the group that galvanized to save the college — planning marches and trips to Albany to make a case for the school — when it was almost shut down during New York’s fiscal crisis.

Now his son, Joseph, is a York College student, who recently had a part in a school production of “Antigone,” and has the same adviser as his dad.

agordon@nysun.com