CQA was founded by a team of educators, parents and youth advocates in partnership with APEX, a youth development organization with almost 20 years of experience working with Asian immigrant youth in NYC, many of whom are ELLs. APEX’s history inspired CQA’s model of combining strong academics with youth development principles of leadership, self-confidence and critical thinking.
School Leadership
Suyin So, Founding Executive Director
Suyin So is the Founding Executive Director of Central Queens Academy Charter School (CQA). Ms. So began her career as a broadcast journalist with NBC News before pursuing a legal career as a civil litigator with the law firm of Pryor Cashman LLP. Prior to launching CQA, she worked at the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, providing communications support to two of the Fund’s grantees, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) and Teach For America. She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
As the daughter of Indonesian-Chinese immigrants, Ms. So’s interest in community development and advocacy was nurtured as a student activist at Brown University. During law school, she interned at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, working in voting rights and immigrant rights. She is the immediate past President and Chair of the Board of Directors for APEX, the 20-year-old youth development agency serving Manhattan’s Chinatown. From 1998 to 2001 she was part of the founding team of Project By Project, the national social entrepreneurship program connecting young professionals to Asian American community-based organizations. She and her husband, Jeff Hao, live in Brooklyn with their son Oskar and cat Earl.
Jesse Tang, Founding Principal / Academic Director
CQA Founding Principal Jesse Y. Tang joins CQA from his vice-principalship of John B. Murphy Elementary School, a 600 student PreK-8 Chicago public school located in the nation’s third largest school district. He began his teaching career as a corps member of Teach For America, the national service corps modeled on the Peace Corps that places outstanding recent college graduates in underserved public schools.
Principal Tang graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and received his Master’s in Teaching from Dominican University. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Urban Education Leadership program at University of Illinois-Chicago. He plays the piano, violin and guitar and uses music as an outlet for self-expression.
The son of immigrants from Hong Kong and Thailand, Principal Tang knows firsthand that education is the key to improving the lives of newcomers to the United States. His goal is to serve the families of his students with an understanding that a student comes to school carrying the expectations and hopes of an entire family.
School Staff
- Karishma Desai, Educational Consultant
- Irma Encarnacion, Start-up Coordinator
- Shakima Jones, Office Coordinator
- Therese Paskoff, Business Manager
Outreach Team
- Carolyn Chen Lu
- Roman Katz
- Keshia Riquelme
- Tenying Yangsel