New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani convened five students in a physics classroom at Bronx High School of Science on his 91st day in office to discuss his administration's early initiatives. The 34-year-old mayor graduated from the specialized public high school in 2010 and, in a podcast interview, described it as the place where his understanding of the city expanded beyond his parents' Ivy League milieu.

"One of my memories of being at Science was being surrounded by people smarter than myself, and that is something I continue to have the privilege of experiencing each and every day at City Hall." Mamdani said. In the podcast interview, he said the school introduced him to the breadth of life across New York City, that he made friends with students from similar immigrant backgrounds there, and that he became proud of his brownness at the school.

Mamdani also criticized the admissions test as a mechanism that perpetuates educational segregation. Admission to Bronx Science is determined by a single exam open to any city student, but the school's student population has a lower percentage of Black and Latino students than the city's public school system as a whole.

The five students expressed support for the mayor during the 2025–26 school year. Cooper, a junior, ranked the school as his first choice against his parents' wishes. "I really think there's very few places that have as much support for him as the Bronx Science student body. Everyone felt this pride toward him." Cooper said. "He's advocating for this progress that I feel like we haven't seen in politics."

Kyle, a senior who said he chose the school over Stuyvesant High School, described a shift in his worldview since Mamdani won the mayoral election. "Before him, I always felt like the world was unchangeable. Like, this is the way things are; we have to follow this structure." Kyle said.

The students also raised local concerns. One junior said he was impressed with Mamdani's 2-K and 3-K initiatives; his parents had been concerned about child care after immigrating from the Dominican Republic. Another junior, admitted through the Discovery program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds whose test scores fell just below the cutoff, said she liked that the mayor took the subway and described the 149th Street station — where she transfers from the 2 train to the 4 train on her daily commute — as a trouble spot because of prevalent drug use, adding that she hoped Mamdani would address conditions there.

A third junior said she did not take public transportation much because of her parents' safety concerns. Several bus stops were recently removed in East Elmhurst, disrupting her mother's commute to Times Square, and she said her mother emailed Mamdani about the issue. Mamdani himself did not get into Stuyvesant before attending Bronx Science.