Ciro Scala (BA/MA ’20), whose return to college in his 70s was featured in The New York Times in 2022 as a powerful story of lifelong learning, has launched Gens-Chat with Ciro, a podcast exploring conversations across generations.
Scala earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from City College after being forced to leave college decades earlier for financial reasons. His journey back to education—and his dedication to mentoring first-generation students—served as the impetus for the creation of the Powell School’s First-Generation Empowerment Program, a series of workshops designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate their college experience while helping them build relationships with peers and develop professional networks.
Now Scala brings that same spirit of connection and mentorship to his podcast. Drawing from his experience growing up in an Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn and his career as a high school teacher, Scala describes Gens-Chat with Ciro as “a chat space for the exchange of conversations across all generations. A bridge, so to speak.”
The podcast, available on Spotify, explores how people from different generations can speak about issues that matter to them—bridging gaps in understanding and fostering meaningful dialogue across age, experience, and perspective.
From returning to finish his degree in his 70s to inspiring a program that supports first-generation students, to now creating space for intergenerational conversation, Scala continues to demonstrate the power of lifelong learning and the importance of building bridges between people.
Listen to Gens-Chat with Ciro on Spotify →
