Michael Kail Oral History

In this interview, Michael Kail talks about spending the first twenty-five years of his life in a square mile in the vicinity of Queens College. He narrates that he was born in the Bronx but his family moved to Queens at an early age, first to Jackson Heights, then shortly after to the newly-opened Pomonok Housing Project, and then to Aguilar Gardens on Parsons Boulevard. Queens College, along with City College and Brooklyn College, were the city colleges that had the most prestigious reputations when he was growing up. He entered Queens College as a chemistry major, and he feels that he was able to finish a difficult science major partly because of the fulfilling social life he had as a member of the Kingston House house plan. He says that studying at Queens College as a house plan member was, for him and his best friend, "one of the best experiences of their lives."