Zohran Mamdani, Perpetual Student of the City

“I have to agree with Cooper,” said Kyle, the only senior in the group. “Before him, I always felt like the world was unchanging. That’s the way things are; we have to follow that structure.” Mamdani’s unexpected electoral triumph challenged these preconceived ideas.

Scattered on the classroom whiteboards were equations, a few disjointed scribbles, a storm cloud of cramped APUS history notes on the Spanish-American War (“Progressivism → I don’t know”), and, written in Japanese, “I like Stray Kids,” referring to a K-pop boy band. Shelves of small cacti under grow lights filled a window. Joan, a junior wearing thick black-rimmed glasses, said he was impressed by Mamdani’s efforts at 2-K and 3-K. Child care was something his parents worried about after arriving from the Republic Dominican. “I know a lot of family and friends who would have really benefited from a program like this,” he said.

Mariam, a junior, wore a lightly draped black scarf. She said she liked the degree to which Mamdani seemed immersed in daily New York life. “The fact that he took the subway,” she said. “Isn’t this guy supposed to be in a limo?” Her route involved taking the 2 train to the 4 train, with a change at 149th Street, a stop she called “a wake-up call for New Yorkers in transit” because “drug use is extremely prevalent” — a problem she hoped Mamdani could solve.

There were heard nods from the rest of the group regarding 149th Street. Namira, another junior, said she doesn’t take public transportation much, in part because of her parents’ concerns about safety.

Namira, whose black hair had streaks of burgundy, wore hoop earrings and a tangle of gold necklaces. “My parents are very supportive of Mamdani, as I come from similar religious and cultural backgrounds,” she said. “I am Bengali.” Namira lives in East Elmhurst, where several bus stops were recently removed, disrupting her mother’s commute to Times Square and prompting her to take action. “My mother has a habit of not trusting politicians in general,” Namira said. “But recently she took the liberty of emailing Mamdani.” Namira’s mother often asks her children to edit her emails. This time, Namira said, “We had him send the message as is, because we just thought it added to the factor of, like, Mamdani would understand.

The mayor was, in the group’s opinion, someone they could easily imagine as a science student from the Bronx. Judging by the current company, that meant ambitious and busy. Students had a dense list of extracurricular activities among them: student government; debate; Model UN; National Honor Society; newspaper; and groups that variously opposed bullying, promoted restorative justice, and provided exam preparation. Namira hoped to eventually study journalism and international relations. Cooper, a self-described “all-around student,” said he is interested in education policy; previously, he had worked for Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres.

As the students spoke about community, diversity and underfunded schools, they all seemed like they were running for something, even if it wasn’t yet defined. They spoke like people used to being evaluated and accepted it with good humor. The ordeal of admission was still fresh in the minds of the upperclassmen, as was the fact of Stuyvesant, Harvard Public High School at Yale in the Bronx Science. Mamdani, for his part, admitted that he didn’t get into Stuyvesant. (“Mamdani plans to transform Stuyvesant High School into a mixed-use government building,” Stuyvesant High School said. Spectator reported, in a humorous article.)

Cooper said he listed Bronx Science as his first choice, against his parents’ wishes. “They wanted me to go to Stuyvesant,” he said.

“Similar to Cooper, I chose Bronx Science over Stuyvesant,” Kyle noted.

Mariam explained that she was admitted to Bronx Science through a program called Discovery, aimed at students from disadvantaged backgrounds whose test scores were just below the school’s cutoff. “I got this email — I was like, wow, the school must really want me to come here,” she said. Her story reminds us that the promise of school and its limits are difficult to disentangle.