After her graduation from Fordham College at Rose Hill on May 17, Alyssa Campbell will work in a health care job that matches her longstanding interest in helping and supporting others. As a patient care coordinator in the radiology department at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, she’ll help people dealing with injury and sickness—answering their questions, explaining processes, helping with administrative tasks, and generally taking the edge off the experience.
The patient coordinator is “the person that’s going to be there to make you feel a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more at ease,” said Campbell, a psychology major and marketing minor. “It’s so universal—we all have to see the doctor. And that was just very appealing to me, that I could be an emotional support to so many different types of people.”
She found this role after several steps at Fordham that honed and clarified her interests—sometimes with the help of people who went out of their way to help her find her path.
Internships Helping Children with ADHD and Autism
During her summers between sophomore and junior years, she found an opportunity to explore her interest in ADHD and autism.
At the suggestion of her academic advisor, she interned as a counselor with the Judge Baker Center for Families and Children in Boston, working alongside other college students from around the country, helping children with ADHD to develop social skills.
The following summer she worked with Double Care, a New York agency, providing the same kind of help to children with autism.
“I learned that I liked to be with patients, and I like to see the change and the progression,” she said.
Engaging Bronx Youth in Research
This year, she got her first taste of research through a year-long class, Youth Participatory Action Research, a community-engaged learning course. Working with students at the Academy of Mount St. Ursula in the Bronx, students in the class surveyed New York City parents about their attitudes toward LGBTQ youth. “We did end up having a lot of participants that were parents at LGBTQ youth. They had very interesting stories,” she said.
A Fortuitous Visit by an Employer
This year, as a student worker in the Career Center at Rose Hill, she got guidance from her supervisor, Kathlene Mullaney, and mentoring from Career Center worker Brittany Perez that made all the difference. “They talked to me every single day; they asked questions about me and what I wanted,” she said. “And so they really understand who I am and what I want out of a job.”
That meant that Mullaney knew Campbell should check out the opportunities being presented at a Weill Cornell information session—even though she was initially reluctant to go. After speaking with the recruiter about the patient care coordinator position, Campbell said, she realized “this is exactly what I want to do.”
Looking ahead, she’s interested in eventually going into therapy or another mental health-related profession.
Looking back, she wishes her undergraduate career at Fordham could have been longer.
“I love Fordham so much—it’s given me so much community, so much academic support, professional support, social support,” she said. “Before I went to college, everyone [said], ‘This is going to be the best four years of your life.’ And then it really was.”
