Breast Cancer Does Not Stop C.W. Post Grad

Brookville, NY – Commencement weekend at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University is special for all graduates and their families. It’s a time for beginnings and endings. A time for reflection and a time for looking ahead.

For Westbury resident Siela Bynoe, commencement is an extra-special milestone. She’ll graduate with an M.P.A. in Public Administration from C.W. Post’s School of Public Service. But it will also mark the two-year-anniversary of her last chemotherapy treatment.

In November, 2003, Bynoe was diagnosed with breast cancer. When she heard the doctor’s prognosis – surgery, chemotherapy, radiation – time seemed to stand still.

Bynoe, 38, lives a busy life. As the Assistant Director of the North Hempstead Housing Authority, she helps the executive director with the day-to-day management of the busy bureau, managing staff and the facilities.

“I never thought to stop, though,” she said. “In order to go through all my emotional and medical issues, in order to get through my life, I needed everything else to stay status quo.”

According to Bynoe, health care and public administration professor Linda Wenze, who taught Research and Methods to Bynoe, offered her student as much assistance and support as she could. “She took such an interest in me,” Bynoe said. “She was concerned how the breast cancer was affecting me as a student, but also as an employee, as a daughter and as a woman.”

But in December, when the rest of the class was taking the final exam, Bynoe underwent surgery. She ended up taking an incomplete in the class and chemotherapy started soon after, but Bynoe was not ready to give up on school. After a couple of weeks off, she headed back to the books for the Spring 2004 semester.

She attended classes on weekends and continued to work. In March 2004, she was hospitalized due to complications from her treatment. Her doctors wanted her to stop working and to take a leave of absence from school but Bynoe wouldn’t do it. “I felt like I was sacrificing so much,” Bynoe said. “I felt like if I gave up on school I would be giving into the disease,” “So I kept pushing,” she said. “It wasn’t easy.”

This past December, Bynoe’s own mother was diagnosed with the same disease as her daughter. “It’s ten times harder to handle my mother’s diagnosis then my own,” she says. Luckily, Bynoe says that the doctors are optimistic about her mother’s prognosis.

“My education at Post taught me how to be a researcher,” Bynoe said. It was a skill she put to good use. Fueled by a need to find out as much as she could about her disease, Bynoe put her newly acquired research skills to the test. “I found out that African American females experience higher death rates from breast cancer than any other racial or ethnic group. For me, this is personal. I feel so strongly that all African-American women should start their cancer-screening process early.”

More than 2,300 students will graduate on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2006 at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University’s 48th commencement exercises. The Campus has awarded more than 92,000 degrees in its 51-year history, through a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs. The Class of 2006 includes 949 baccalaureate degree candidates, 1,376 master's degree candidates, 16 graduates receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology and three receiving the Ph.D. in information studies. This year, C.W. Post’s commencement ceremonies also include graduates from Southampton College and the Southampton Graduate Campus of Long Island University.

Posted: May 5, 2006