When the City Stopped (Cornell University Press, 2025) tells the story of the pandemic through the voices of New Yorkers who were unable to flee the city or work from home. 

Author Robert Snyder, Ph.D., the Manhattan borough historian, collected narratives, interviews, and poems from groups such as Queens Library’s Queens Memory Project and Fordham’s Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project. Fordham’s interviews were conducted in 2020 by researchers affiliated with the Bronx African American History Project.

“The most compelling narratives that I put in the book, including the Fordham narratives, are about people who saved themselves, but then they went out, and they helped others,” said Snyder, who is also a professor emeritus at Rutgers University.

Focusing on essential workers, Snyder sought out stories from healthcare workers, grocery clerks, community activists, and transit workers.

Tales from a City Under Siege

Of the roughly 20 interviews conducted for the Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project, Snyder chose four, including Maribel Gonzalez, the owner of the South of France restaurant, and Ralph Rolle, a drummer and owner of Soul Food Snacks Cafe.

Another Fordham interview subject, Patricia Hernandez, described the stress of commuting from her home in East Tremont to John Jay College of Criminal Justice and to her job as a sales clerk at a T-Mobile in Kips Bay, where employees were deemed essential workers.

“I really didn’t have a choice but to go to work and get paid,” said Hernandez, who lived with her mother and sisters and had to help pay the bills. 

On the subway, she said she was “pretty much in fear the whole time.” 

“You’re really in an environment where you feel like you are surrounded by COVID.” 

Nichole Matos, another Bronx resident interviewed, lost her job at a Riverdale gym 24 Hour Fitness and was forced to quarantine after she was potentially exposed to COVID-19.

“You get tired of eating the same thing, watching the same things, reading the same things for class, and meeting for these virtual classes,” she said.

The Resilience of the Bronx

Veronica Quiroga, a 2020 graduate who conducted the interviews with Hernandez and Matos, was majoring in African and African American studies when the pandemic hit; she quickly shifted from conducting interviews for the Bronx African American History Project to the COVID-19 project. 

She’s proud of the attention the project brought to struggling businesses. She’s also grateful to the people who shared their stories.

“Nobody knows more than the people themselves what they go through during these times,” she said.

“The fact that people are willing to get on a public platform and be so vulnerable demonstrates not only the resilience of the people of the Bronx but also the potential that lies within them.”

Highlighting Disparities  

Carlos Rico, a 2021 Fordham graduate who was the lead coordinator for the oral history project, said that interviewing Bronx residents prepared him to think more deeply about the income and racial disparities that left so many Bronx residents exposed to the pandemic in ways that others were not.

It’s a skill he uses daily as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, a job he landed shortly after earning a law degree from Fordham Law School last year.

“I’m proud of the way that we were able to communicate with neighbors of the University and make that space so they could feel heard,” he said.

What the Senate passed and President Trump signed on Saturday wasn’t your typical one-year budget bill but rather a continuing resolution that only keeps the federal government funded through the fall. 

Political science professor Jacob Smith, Ph.D., sat down with Fordham Now to explain what happened and how this threat of a government shutdown differed from others in the past. 

Q: How would you describe what just happened on Friday?

A: Under the law, Congress is supposed to create a budget every year. Part of why that doesn’t really happen anymore is because you need 60 votes to pass a budget, and that’s just very difficult to get. You have a system that was designed with the idea that there wouldn’t be the same sort of level of polarization and partisanship there is today.

Congress hasn’t gone entirely through that sort of process in decades as a result, so what ends up happening is they pass these continuing resolutions to keep the government running.

A continuing resolution says we’re doing the same thing as before for a certain period of time, plus or minus some particular changes. Continuing resolutions might be two months, weeks, or sometimes even just a few days to work on things, but the continuing resolution that was just passed on Friday goes for six months, until the end of September. (This is not to be confused with budget reconciliation, which is a separate funding process that Congress undertakes periodically.)

Q: How was this one different, besides the six-month length, which was set by Republican congressional leaders?

A: There have been changes in continuing resolutions in the past, but not on the scale of the one that was passed on Friday. In this one, there was an increase in defense spending and about $13 billion in cuts to non-defense programs. So it was not a “clean” continuing resolution. But some of what’s different is what’s going on with the executive branch and Elon Musk’s DOGE and cuts related to that. 

What makes it tough to compare this to the past is that in the past it also was much more of an expectation that the executive branch would follow what was in the continuing resolution in terms of spending. If Congress said we are spending $10 million on this program, then the executive branch would spend $10 million on that program. It’s not clear that’s what will happen now.

Q: When you take stock of the events leading up to the vote and then the way that a shutdown was averted, what are the conclusions that you’ve come to?

A: I think there was more of an expectation that the Republican-backed spending bill wouldn’t pass the House, given the close margins there. But it did. So I think in the Senate, Chuck Schumer was caught flat-footed in not expecting that. 

On the Democratic side, there was a lot of internal debate about who would be blamed if there was a shutdown. There was a poll last week from Quinnipiac that suggested that either Trump or Republicans in Congress would probably be blamed, but that can always change over the course of a shutdown. 

There were questions raised by some Democratic senators about what DOGE would do if there was a government shutdown. More broadly, there was not a coordinated strategy on the Senate side. All the House Democrats but one voted no, so it was much more unified. On the Senate side, there was a lot of division.

Q: Now the bill expires in six months. Do you expect we’ll go through the same thing all over again in September?

A: My guess is that there’ll be a debate about it again in September and that it’ll be coming up right against the deadline. In 2013, when there was a shutdown, it was right after [the start of the fiscal year on]October 1, and in the first Trump administration, when there were shutdowns, there was a continuing resolution passed at the end of September that expired around Christmas time. So, I imagine we’ll go through this again.

She didn’t know that’s what she was signing up for when she enrolled in Fundamentals of Communications and Media Studies. But when she got the chance last month, something clicked.

“It was a little scary at first, but after you get the hang of it, it’s very fun to do,” said Andriessen, who came to Fordham from Bali and plans to major in communication and media studies. She said the experience made her feel more connected to her studies.

“You are getting something real. You are not just sitting behind a desk.”

Printing Support and Community Organizing

Andriessen’s plunge into the realm of printers and print media—sometimes viewed as archaic in today’s world—came courtesy of Women’s Press Collective, a volunteer organization in the Bronx that provides printing, design, and writer training for community-based organizations. 

The group was founded in 1982 to give farm workers and other low-paid women workers a voice through publications–something they were not getting from corporate media. Now, they provide publication support for community-based organizations throughout the city. 

Her class partnered with the group thanks to Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning center, which supports courses that give students and faculty a chance to take concepts they learn about in class and explore them in neighboring communities.

A Sense of Values

Ashar Foley, Ph.D., a senior lecturer of communications and media studies who teaches the class, said she was inspired to partner with the collective after one of her students shared with her misgivings about journalism last fall. 

“She said, ‘I want to major in it, but it seems like the mainstream media only reports on certain things and doesn’t tell the whole story if it contradicts certain official narratives,’” she said. 

Foley encouraged her to try volunteering with the collective, and the students’ experience was so positive they decided to stick with journalism.

Foley brought members of the collective in to speak to her class in January, and students have been volunteering at the collective’s Kingsbridge office on Saturdays this semester.

“They can get a sense of what community values are and look like. This is a well-organized space, but it’s not glossy. It’s a place that operates on shoestring budgets and not according to values promoted by corporate media,” Foley said.

Independent Media Is Key

The collective’s focus on physical media is not accidental.

According to organizers, printed materials encourage face-to-face distribution and interactions that are critical for building strong community organizations.

As part of the class visit, Gabriel Guy, a first-year student from Morton, Pennsylvania, who is planning to major in anthropology and communication, helped stuff envelopes with a newsletter that one of the collective’s partners was creating.

“I thought it was cool to have [the Women’s Press Collective]as a partner to our class because right before I visited, we were talking in class about media representation and the power of who gets to tell what stories,” he said. 

Cathi Steele, a volunteer for the collective who spoke to Foley’s class at Lincoln Center, said independent media is key to improving the lives of local communities. 

She noted that Fordham students helped with a zine for one of the collective’s partners. It will be given to tenants in a Bronx housing development that has been without heat or gas since last May. 

“We’re joining together writers, printers, designers, with organizers of low-income and marginalized communities who really need a media that provides truthful, relevant information from their perspective,” she said. 

“We like to say, ‘Don’t just criticize the media, organize it.’ We have to build a media that represents all of us.”

The grant was a renewal of previous grants—five in all—awarded by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for GSE’s Clinical Mental Health Services in the Bronx Community (CCMH) program. The CCMH program supports the mental health of students in the Bronx, ages 7 to 17, and their families through telehealth counseling sessions and workshops. The foundation also renewed a separate grant that funds free classes for non-native English speakers.

“Amidst the current uncertain and polarizing sociopolitical landscape in the U.S., I am grateful to remain grounded through this grant as the CCMH team continues to accompany our clients in need,” said Eric C. Chen, Ph.D., a GSE professor of counseling psychology who directs the program.

“It aligns with Fordham’s Jesuit priorities of transformative learning and driving purpose and reinforces our commitment to ensuring that our work matters to others.”

The project, which first launched in 2021, is staffed by GSE master’s and doctoral students who work with students from 122 Bronx schools. The Mother Cabrini Foundation has contributed $1.7 million in funding since CCMH’s founding.  

The new grant is notable because it allows Chen to expand the scope of the project. 

This coming fall, two interns selected from the mental health counseling program will join the CCMH program. Once they receive training, the interns will conduct intake assessments and individual counseling for youth and adults, and also conduct workshops. An intern who speaks Arabic has already been selected, expanding services to English, Spanish, and Arabic speakers, many of whom are newly arrived immigrants.

The program will also continue to work closely with the seven Bronx community organizations that it partners with, including immigrant and disability rights advocacy groups Masa, Coalición Mexicana, and Sinergia.

A Lifeline for the Unheard

Maria Sol Anyosa, a doctoral student in GSE’s school psychology program who has conducted telehealth sessions with CCMH, called it “a lifeline for a community that often goes unheard, unseen, and underserved.”

“Being part of CCMH has allowed me to connect with individuals and families who carry immense burdens in silence, from trauma and grief to systemic inequities,” she said, noting that many clients come from undocumented families. 

“These families live in constant fear, navigating unique and isolating challenges while doing everything in their power to create a better future for their children. Their resilience, courage, and strength have touched me deeply, reminding me why I chose this field and how vital it is to provide compassionate, accessible care.”

Jolene Trimm, Ph.D., GSE ’23, a post-doctoral fellow at Milestones Psychology who worked at CCMH as a GSE student, credited the program with helping her sharpen and gain skills and allowing her to grow from a clinical counselor to a supervisor. 

“I have worked with CCMH from its start, and it has been amazing to see such real-world, very impactful work grow rapidly in a short time,” she said. 

“Fordham prepared me to be both a researcher and clinician, with the hopes that I would use my knowledge to support the needs of diverse individuals in the community. CCMH  has allowed me to do just that.”

Students enrolled in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program did the same in an annual benefit dance concert on March 3.

“Ms. Jamison’s presence lives on through her strength and tenacity documented in every photograph lining our halls and through each person who has had a connection with Ailey,” said Layla Barber, a junior in the Ailey/Fordham program at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, at a pre-performance reception.

“She tirelessly continued Mr. Ailey’s vision that dance is for everyone.”

Barber is a recipient of the Denise Jefferson Memorial Scholarship, funded by proceeds from the annual benefit concert and presented to an Ailey/Fordham BFA junior and senior each year. She spoke to guests before the event’s dance program, where she performed the first dance of the evening. 

She marveled at the fact that in 2026, she’ll earn dual bachelor’s degrees in dance and environmental science.

“Because of this program, I’ve been able to perform at legendary venues inside and outside of New York City, all while being able to study methods to correct the environmental damage our Earth is facing,” she said.

Reuniting with the Best of the Best

The evening brought together several successful Ailey/Fordham alumni, including Jaryd Farcon, a 2020 graduate now dancing with the New Jack Cole Dancers. He said the evening was a must-atttend.

“The Ailey/Fordham program is one of the best in the world. There’s nothing like it,” said Farcon, whose sister, Jhailyn, is currently enrolled in the BFA program and dancing on Broadway.

“When you just see a dancer walk into a space, maybe at another audition, you can just tell they’re an Ailey dancer because they’re so wonderful, they adapt to any type of dance, and they really stand out.”

Maya Addie, a 2021 graduate and leader of the BFA alumni affinity chapter who currently dances with the Rockettes, agreed.

“I remember myself as a freshman performing in this benefit concert, and it was really special. So to come back and be able to support the dancers when you know this is only the beginning for them is really cool,” she said.

Continuing a Tradition of Excellence

Fordham President Tania Tetlow connected the students’ dedication and passion to the legacy that Jamison created during five decades as a dancer and artistic director at the Ailey company.

She called the language of dance that Jamison passed on to students a “more powerful form of communicating than language itself.”

“That work has never been more critical than it is today for building empathy for the human experience,” she said. 

“Ailey teaches our students these skills, and an unbelievable level of discipline and endurance and a willingness to expect nothing less than excellence from themselves.”

Melanie Person, director of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, said all seven of the dances performed that evening were chosen because they were ones that celebrated Jamison’s legacy.

“It was a tremendous loss for us in the dance world when we learned of her passing in November, but her spirit looms large, and her presence is felt in this building,” Person said.

“She loved the students so much. She’d watch classes and offer a few words of advice to them. She’d participate in our orientation. So this is just the school’s way of celebrating her tonight and probably the rest of eternity.”

A sophomore at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Magazine spent last fall interning with Fordham’s Office of Sustainability. His work included collecting data that the University will use to establish a framework to measure its sustainability performance.

He said his work not only helped him learn how to encourage sustainable practices, it also gave him the chance to make Fordham more sustainable. 

“Part of being in a community of people that you come to know, and you come to care about, is also wanting to see it improve,” he said. 

“So a lot of my perspective going into this internship has been ‘What ways can I improve the Fordham of tomorrow?’”

This Is My Community

Magazine’s interest in sustainability and climate issues also circles back to another community: his hometown of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. He lives there with his family and commutes to the Lincoln Center campus. 

According to government statistics, the neighborhood’s lack of cooling infrastructure makes its citizens more vulnerable to climate-change-related heat waves than anywhere else in NYC, making the issue of sustainability very personal to him. 

Along with several siblings, he’s part of his family’s first generation to attend college. The ability to major in environmental studies is what drew him to Fordham.

“When the neighborhood has any sort of disaster that can be enhanced by climate change, we feel it very hard,” he said.

“I live here. These are my neighbors, this is my community. I don’t want to see East Flatbush turn to charcoal in 2030 or 2050.”

Peeking Under the Hood 

Magazine had participated in climate justice-related activities in high school, so when he learned about the Office of Sustainability’s internship program, he jumped at the chance to join the program along with 25 other undergraduate students.

Along with several other interns, he was asked to help the office gather data to fill out a framework known as STARS (Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System). It was developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and is colloquially known as AASHE STARS. Institutions can earn AASHE ratings based on everything from sustainability-related courses to water usage.

There are 372 colleges and universities with AASHE STARS ratings ranging from bronze to platinum. Fordham will soon submit the data necessary to gain a rating as well. 

For AASHE STARS, Magazine gathered data related to the University’s investments. Activists have long advocated that institutions that embrace climate change mitigation policies should reconsider supporting the fossil fuel industry through their endowments; at Fordham, President Tania Tetlow announced that Fordham’s Board of Trustees had created an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing, comprising students, faculty, administrators, and alumni, to discuss issues around ethical investments.

Magazine compared the experience to peeking under the hood of a car to see how the engine works. 

“This was my first instance of being able to work in policy from inside the house instead of outside of it,” he said, noting that it deepened his understanding of the ways a large institution functions.

Improving the Fordham of Tomorrow

Gathering data and synthesizing it into a form that can be submitted for AASHE STAR consideration was somewhat tedious, but Magazine said it was worth it.

His takeaway is that Fordham is moving in the right direction when it comes to sustainability. In addition to embracing renewable energy and working with local communities to help them deal with climate change, establishing benchmarks such as an AASHE STAR rating moves the University toward a greener future.

“Even though things move slowly, they’re going to keep moving. They’re not going to stop,” he said. 

“That it is something that we can work on, and we’ll reach the point where we get to that destination.”

The cafe will open in September at the Lincoln Center campus in 140 West, in the garden-level space currently occupied by Argo Tea.

Wanted: A Student CEO

Saxbys, which bills itself as “an education company disguised as a coffee company,” will recruit students to run the cafe, including a “Student CEO” who will be responsible for all operations for a six-month term. In exchange for salary and course credit, the CEO will oversee 15 team leads and roughly 34 team members.

The first Student CEO will be chosen from the Gabelli School of Business, while successive ones will be drawn from throughout Fordham’s student body. The other positions, including team leads, will be open to all Fordham students from the start.

When the cafe opens, Fordham will join roughly 30 other colleges, primarily in the Northeast, that operate cafes in partnership with Saxbys. Fordham will be the company’s first New York City partner.

“When people support a Saxbys, they’re not just getting a great product and a great hospitality environment. They’re supporting the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs,” said CEO Nick Bayer.

“These are really hard jobs with high expectations where young people are taking what they learned in the classroom, they’re getting a learning experience, and they’re coupling those two things together to go off and be great leaders.”

Saxbys arrival marks the second student-run coffee shop at Fordham, joining Rodrigues, located at the Rose Hill campus. 

Argo Employees to Stay at LC 

Since Saxbys is run exclusively by students, the current Argo employees will remain valued members of the Ram Hospitality team at Lincoln Center.

Saxbys Staples: Cold Brew and Grilled Cheese

The cafe will feature an expansive menu anchored by cold-brew coffee, grilled cheese sandwiches, and smoothies. Bayer said the expanded offerings will extend the appeal of the space beyond mornings when coffee and tea are in higher demand.

“We really want to continue to energize that space and make it one that people are excited to visit morning, noon, and night,” said Bayer. 

New Kind of Experiential Learning

Vincent DeCola, S.J., assistant dean at the Gabelli School, said the Saxbys partnership will dramatically expand opportunities for experiential learning–a priority for the business college. 

“They’ll be learning in real-time about supply chains, maintaining inventory, planning for the pricing, the placement of things, and promotions,” he said.

“It’s a terrific experience, especially in areas like marketing, entrepreneurship, and accounting.”

Because the Student CEO role will be a full-time position, DeCola said he expects those students’ course load to be adjusted accordingly. Credits will be applied from their time managing the cafe, and they’ll also be given the opportunity to take a night class.

He said he was encouraged by the fact that the arrangement has been successful at so many other colleges, including St. Joseph’s University, a Jesuit school in Philadelphia. He noted that one of the supports that Saxbys offers to student CEOs is access to a group of former Student CEOs who they can turn to for advice.

“We anticipate that we can do this in a way that’s meaningful, and we’ll find things to improve each semester as we move forward,” Father DeCola said.

The Fordham community is invited to a tasting event at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in the Garden Lounge, on the ground floor of 140 W. 62nd St.

Thanks to a recent visit from Joseph P. Kennedy III, they’ll have a better idea of what to expect as they explore the region and learn about its past.

“You expect politicians to put a veneer over everything, but he was very honest about the situation on the ground in Northern Ireland,” said Rylan Carroll, a sophomore at the Gabelli School of Business and one of the 11 students who will travel to the region for eight days in March.

To prepare students for the trip, Fordham hosted Kennedy, a former U.S. representative from Massachusetts and U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs from 2022 to 2024, at a Jan. 23 luncheon at the Lincoln Center campus.

Exploring a Troubled History

When the Global Outreach students visit Northern Ireland, they’ll  spend time in Belfast and Derry and learn about the sectarian strife between Catholics and Protestants that dominated the region for decades, long known as “the Troubles.” 

Active hostilities ceased in 1998, but tough questions remain about how a society heals from the trauma of a conflict that lasted nearly four decades and resulted in an estimated 3,500 dead and 47,500 injured. The conversation with Kennedy in January touched on many of those questions.

For instance, Carroll said, Kennedy recounted his conversations with a man whose father had been killed in the conflict. His father’s killer had been freed from prison as part of the peace process, and he still struggled with the notion that the man was walking the streets today.

“We can go on talking about religious pluralism, but there are also …  real-world consequences to all of the movements that have happened there,” said Carroll, a global business major with a concentration in marketing.

Carroll signed up for the Global Outreach project because he’s interested in religious pluralism and because he sees parallels with marketing, which is fundamentally about understanding how people react to messages and make decisions.

“We talked a lot about how people came to decisions to end the Troubles,” he said. 

“Like, can you live with the people who have committed these acts against you and be at peace? Can you come from a perspective of wanting your children and their children, and so on and so forth, to be all right?”

John Gownley, director of Global Outreach, credited James Haddad, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, with proposing Northern Ireland as a destination. Once that was settled, Gownley said, the next step was finding a speaker to join the nine-week formation period during which students discuss race, religion, and other topics relevant to their destination.

Kennedy was an obvious choice, having spoken about Northern Ireland as the speaker at the University’s 179th commencement, where he also received an honorary degree. Gownley said Kennedy is the kind of speaker he hopes to recruit for future Global Outreach trips.

“We’re trying to find opportunities beyond the classroom for students to get real face time with people who work [in the region they’re visiting], whether it’s in government, politics, religion, or social justice movements,” he said.

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) received a two-year, $1.5 million grant from the State of New York this past fall to assume responsibility for the New York State Professional Development Resource Center.

GSE’s Center for Educational Partnerships is administering the statewide grant. It had previously overseen professional development for religious and independent schools only in New York City, with two other organizations covering the rest of the state. The new grant expanded Fordham’s responsibility to cover the whole state of New York.

Professional Development in Technology, Socio-Emotional Learning, and More

The grant enables the center to provide events free of charge and hire consultants to work with school staff. The center offers a minimum of 24 webinars, in-person sessions, and six mini-conferences annually to the schools’ staff members. Staff also visit schools around the state to provide in-person workshops and conferences and meet with school leaders to ascertain their needs.

Stefanie Reda, the resource center’s director, said professional development in areas such as executive functioning, technology, and differentiation is always in demand.  

In addition, “social-emotional learning is always at the forefront, as is supporting best practices for teachers,” she said.

Center staff works closely with Gerald Cattaro, Ed.D., and Fordham’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education to stay abreast of the issues and concerns that are unique to independent and religious schools.

One of its first responsibilities upon receiving the grant was to oversee the RISE conference, a two-day gathering of panel sessions and discussions that took place in Albany in November. The conference featured panels such as “Enhancing Communications between Home and School” and “Empowering Families to Support Student Growth.”

“We are excited to be offering administrators, teachers, and the entire school community of Religious and Independent schools access to the many benefits of the Professional Development Resource Center’s in-person and virtual professional development learning opportunities,” said Anita Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean and founder of the Center for Educational Partnerships.

Reda, who served as a teacher for 20 years, is also familiar with the issues personally, having worked with a small staff at a Catholic school in Westchester County.

“ I was the only science teacher in the building, so the only time I was able to collaborate and get different ideas and share what works and what doesn’t work was at these professional development sessions,” Reda said. 

“I know how important it is to have these sessions because that’s the time when collaboration and planning really happen. We look forward to implementing these much needed services to religious and independent schools statewide.”

The $670,000 grant from the Massachusetts-based Cummings Foundation will fund Fordham’s Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity, which was created as a pilot program in 2022 with a $200,000 grant from Cummings. 

The professors hope to cultivate a new generation of student leaders interested in working with migrants with the new grant, which was received this month and covers a period of three years. It will be used to fund opportunities for students, faculty, and staff in the practice of accompaniment with migrant communities—at the Mexico-U.S. border, in the New York metropolitan area, and at Fordham itself.

Students and staff will participate in immersive workshops on current immigration issues; trips to the U.S./Mexico border; and internships with organizations like the binational Catholic organization Kino Border Initiative, a Jesuit organization; the Harlem-based LSA (Little Sisters of the Assumption) Family Health Service, and the Center for Migration Studies.

Bringing Student Advocates Together 

Carey Kasten, Ph.D., a professor of Spanish who is one of the faculty members spearheading the initiative, said a big focus will be on making it easier for students with shared interests in immigration to work together.

“We want to create a mechanism that will bring these students together in dialogue to share what they’ve learned, gain more knowledge, and figure out what they want to do in the advocacy space with their ideas.”

As President Donald Trump takes steps to deport undocumented migrants, Kasten said the need for this work remains critical. Migrant communities will still need services such as know-your-rights workshops and help securing shelter, food, and medicine— services that the initiative’s partner organizations provide.

Immigrants also bring talents and skills, not just needs, said political science professor Sarah Lockhart, one of the faculty members involved in the project. “So the initiative emphasizes the importance of Fordham community members walking with them through challenges and triumphs and learning from each other,” she said, noting that this involves building sustainable relationships with immigrant communities that will last for years to come.

“We all know that this work isn’t going to go away. The issues aren’t going to go away; it’s just the demands that shift and change,” Kasten said.

Faculty from Many Disciplines 

One reflection of the group’s ambitions is the expansion of its leadership. When the group first formed in 2022, Kasten was joined by theology professors Leo Guardado and Jim McCartin. The group now includes professors from the fields of communications (Gregory Donovan), political science (Annika Hinze and Lockart), and natural science (Alma Rodenas-Ruano).

The interdisciplinary nature of the initiative is what drew Rodenas-Ruano to join.

“Everyone has a unique perspective that adds to and enriches accompaniment,” she said. “The idea is to have students who have different majors and different experiences contribute in a way that is more holistic.”

The organizers are hopeful that the initiative will serve as a model in migration accompaniment for Jesuit institutions across the United States. The group currently collaborates with the Ignatian Solidarity Network and Jesuit Refugee Service. 

“Standing in solidarity with people is a deep part of the Jesuit mission,” Kasten said.

When it comes to opportunities to help the world’s most vulnerable populations, the field of humanitarian action is full of possibilities. Workers in the field can make a tangible difference in areas ranging from disaster relief and refugee assistance to long-term development projects.

What is a Humanitarian?

During and in the aftermath of man-made crises and disasters, humanitarian workers step in to ensure that the basic needs of the people affected are met and their human dignity is maintained. Humanitarians also undertake work to prevent, prepare for, and mitigate the impact of disasters.

The field is marked by a dedication to four principles embraced by the United Nations. Humanity, which says that humanitarians are motivated by a desire to save lives and alleviate suffering while upholding people’s dignity; impartiality, which stipulates that action should be based solely on need, regardless of race, nationality, gender, religious belief, political opinion, or class; neutrality, which forbids the taking of sides in wars and other conflicts; and independence, which requires workers to be autonomous, and free from control or influence by non-humanitarian objectives.

Humanitarian Careers

Humanitarian careers cover a range of positions, with some professionals responding to man-made catastrophes and complex emergencies such as conflicts, environmental disasters, and economic instability, and others addressing natural disasters such as floods, famines, and droughts, all of which have been exacerbated by climate change. 

These professionals can work for multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, non-governmental organizations such as the Jesuit Relief Services or Amnesty International, and international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

At Fordham, several degree programs prepare students for humanitarian careers. The Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) offers both undergraduate and graduate-level degrees, including a certificate specially tailored for mid-career professionals. The Department of International Political Economy and Development (IPED) offers degrees that explore global economic relations and international development from multiple perspectives. And the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) prepares students to promote social justice and improve the lives of marginalized populations at home and abroad. 

The following are examples of some of the positions available to humanitarian professionals, matched with some Fordham graduates working in the field.

Business Development

Humanitarian careers in business development include positions in program planning and conception, as well as fundraising for aid organizations.

Humanitarian Assistance Officer

Conducts rapid assessments to identify the most critical needs of populations in crisis, including food, water, shelter, health care, and security; coordinates between stakeholders; and advocates for the needs of affected populations.

Making an Impact: Many graduates of Fordham’s IPED and IIHA programs have held this position, including Hannah Fort, IPED ’20, at USAID.

Grants Specialist

Helps individuals, groups, and organizations identify and secure funding for projects, typically through grants distributed by foundations and government agencies.

Making an Impact: Brittany Hilyer, IIHA ’18, at the Center for International Environmental Law

Development Officer

Researches, prospects, cultivates and manages relationships with donors and raises funds for non-governmental organizations. Responsible for ensuring the organization has the funding necessary to carry out its mission.

Making an Impact: Paul Michael, IPED ’20, at Partners in Health

Communications Officer

Conveys an organization’s message and mission through newsletters, email campaigns, interviews, and social media campaigns. 

Making an Impact: Joseph Lowry, IIHA ’04, at the International Organization for Migration

Volunteer Coordinator 

Recruits and places prospective volunteers in both meaningful single-day opportunities and longer-term ones where volunteers share their professional or language skills. Works with community stakeholders to support the betterment spaces through recruitment, panels, fairs, campaigns, workgroups, and networking events. 

Making an Impact: Michela Fahy, IIHA ’23, at Catholic Charities

Operations

People in these positions are responsible for implementing programs in countries affected by humanitarian crises.

Diplomat

An appointed government official who works to restore peace while also dealing with issues of trade, economics, human rights, and more.

Making an Impact: Martine van der Does, IIHA ’08, ’17, the IIHA’s Helen Hamlyn Humanitarian Fellow & Global Program Director. Previously, she served as a diplomat in Afghanistan and Jordan for the Netherlands Foreign Service. 

Foreign Aid Worker

Provides general aid to an afflicted community or area. A catch-all title used to describe disaster response workers working outside of their home countries, they are similar to humanitarian assistance officers. Duties can also include conducting surveys and research to identify critical needs in a community, such as access to healthcare, education, clean water, and food.

Making an Impact: Naomi Gikonyo, IIHA ’09 ’17, an emergency officer at the United Nations World Food Programme

Epidemiologist

Deploys to areas to conduct a rapid assessment of current or potential disease outbreaks. These professionals determine the cause of the disease, who is at risk, and how to stop or limit the spread of infection. 

Making an Impact: Emily Faherty, IPED ’12, at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Social Worker

Provides assistance and support to victims, especially those who are at risk or most vulnerable. This can include emotional support and coping mechanisms for people experiencing trauma or distress, as well as advocating for policies that support the recovery process.

Making an Impact: Erica Vargas, GSS ’23, working with asylum seekers at Goddard Riverside Community Center

Doula

Delivers babies, helps pregnant women, and provides support after childbirth, often acting as a frontline provider in communities with limited access to healthcare facilities. May also educate and train others on best midwife practices.

Making an Impact: Synclaire Warren, current IIHA student, a certified doula, and human rights writer who is currently at the American Business Immigration Coalition.

Security Technical Advisor

Manages country-wide safety and security of humanitarian programs. Often tasked with assessing how to access vulnerable communities as well as risk management of emergency humanitarian employees. 

Making an Impact: Samantha Slattery, IIHA ’20, working in Yemen as an access and security coordinator for Solidarites International. 

Technical Advisers

Some aspects of humanitarian relief require knowledge in specialized areas.

Climate Resilience Global Practice Lead

Leads a team supporting technical advisors and country programs in designing and implementing climate resilience programming in humanitarian contexts, integrating climate and environment standards into programming, and conducting research and developing innovative solutions to increase climate resilience in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Making an Impact: Tara Clerkin, IPED ’13, at the International Rescue Committee

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Officer

Responsible for the design, implementation, and technical quality of all monitoring and evaluation activities across an organization’s projects.

Making an Impact: Aya Kurdi, IIHA ’24, at the UN World Food Programme

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program Manager 

Involved in programs, coordination of disaster response efforts, and pre-planning efforts in areas involving water, sanitation, and hygiene. 

Making an Impact: Owen Fitzgerald, IPED ’18, at Catholic Relief Services

Gender Integration Technical Advisor

Provides technical support for gender equality and social inclusion via short-term contracts to government agencies, non-profit organizations, and other public/private institutions.

Making an Impact: Laura Groggel, IPED ’14, at USAID

Additional Resources

Interested in learning more? Check out these guides:

Human Rights Careers: How to Become an International Aid Worker

United Nations: Humanitarian Agencies that Operate in the Field

UNICEF: Working in Humanitarian Emergencies