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

The need for such efforts is acute: “Well over half of the people at Rikers right now are suffering from some mental health issue that could be addressed,” said one speaker, Richard Alborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of NYC, referring to New York City’s Rikers Island prison.  

Of 6,700 inmates, an estimated 1,400 have severe mental illness, and 1,500 and 1,800 suffer from opioid and alcohol abuse, respectively, he said.

“Shame on us if we don’t address that,” he said.

Academics, experts in crime and healthcare, and elected officials—including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg—spoke at the Jan. 16 Mental Health & Crime event, sponsored by Fordham, Northwell Health, and the Citizens Crime Commission.

Speakers focused on one of today’s most vexing challenges: the inordinate number of crimes committed by people who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse.

“Not everyone who has a mental health issue or confronts a mental health challenge commits a crime, and not every single person who commits a crime has a mental health challenge,” Aborn said. “Our job, if we’re going to be true to the goal of prevention, is to identify those intersections.”

A Case Study

The program was arranged to highlight a typical case as it winds its way through the system, from the first 911 call to the prosecution and sentencing of the accused. 

Speakers included members of the New York Police Department, such as Monica Brooker, Ph.D., assistant commissioner of the department’s Behavioral Health Division, as well as members of the judiciary, such as Matthew D’Emic, FCRH ’74, presiding judge for the Brooklyn Mental Health Court.

In a fireside chat with Fordham Law School professor Deborah Denno, Bragg touted the proposal of a new law, known as the SUPPORT Act, which will mandate crisis intervention for mentally ill offenders who are accused of misdemeanor crimes but are deemed too unfit to stand trial. Currently, intervention is only mandated for those accused of felonies.

He praised New York Assemblyman Tony Simone and New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal for proposing the new law.

He also touted the success of programs designed to help stop the downward spiral of people suffering from mental illness. The Neighborhood Navigator program launched last year by the Manhattan D.A.’s Office and The Bridge employs outreach workers who approach people on the street who are in obvious distress and offer them everything from a cup of coffee to help with housing.

Bragg said Court Navigator, a similar program that connects criminal defendants with nonprofits such as the Fortune Society, is even more potentially transformative because of the way it helps address underlying causes of crime.

“My Spidey sense tells me this is going to be one that we’re going to want to double down on,” he said. “Just being in the courtroom, seeing workers interact with defendants, and seeing the results—this has real promise,” he said.

The Mental and the Physical 

Michael Dowling, GSS ’74, president and CEO of Northwell Health, lamented the traditional separation of mental and physical health. 

The lack of parity between the two raises financial issues, he said, and, more importantly, moral issues. Northwell and other providers are impacted monetarily because many insurers, including Medicaid, don’t cover mental health treatment in the same way they cover physical ailments, he said.

There’s also a moral imperative to take mental health issues more seriously, he said, noting that adolescents, in particular, have shown increases in depression and anxiety since 2012. 

Dowling said the shortage of psychiatrists is also a problem. He said Northwell has partnered with New York City to open a new high school dedicated to careers in mental health, radiation medicine, nursing, and physical health.

“There is no health without mental health. People need to talk about it differently,” he said. “It’s changing, but it needs to change much, much quicker.”

Jenn Lilly, Ph.D., and Rose M. Perez, Ph.D., both of the Graduate School of Social Service, have dedicated large parts of their careers to studying the emotional and psychological complexity of Latin American communities. Their findings inspired their respective film projects: one highlighting the unique grief of Cuban Americans who’ve left behind their homeland, and the other exploring the mental health challenges faced by many young Latinas. 

Longing for a Lost Homeland

Perez’s film, Cuba es Mí Patria: The Homeland I Keep Inside, explores the experiences of the Cuban diaspora through the framework of “ambiguous loss,” a theory she’s researched extensively. Unlike other forms of grief, ambiguous loss can lack closure and keep the “lost object” psychologically present indefinitely. 

According to Perez, the experiences of the film’s interviewees who left Cuba after the 1959 revolution exemplify this phenomenon. Like a ghosted lover or the parents of a missing child, many Cuban Americans live with unanswered questions that can make letting go impossible, like: Will I ever see my relatives again? Will Cuba’s political and economic situation ever improve? And, will I ever be able to return? 

The conversations were often emotional, especially the interview Perez’s colleague conducted with her father. Perez and her family left Cuba in 1971. “He was so teary throughout the interview that it was really hard to edit his piece,” she said. 

The film appeared in several national and international festivals and won the Best Original Story award at the Touchstone Independent Film Festival in July. Locally, the next screening will be at the AMT Film Festival in Hell’s Kitchen Nov. 8-10. 

Perez says Cuba es Mí Patria is an excellent tool for educators, and will be relatable to anyone from an immigrant background. She hopes viewers will walk away with a “greater appreciation for the hidden trauma people don’t know we carry.”

Speaking Up about Latina Mental Health

In the short film Nuestro Apoyo (Our Support), which Lilly wrote with a group of young Latina collaborators, the drama on screen reflects a culture of silence around mental health issues in many Latin American families. With insights taken from Lilly’s academic research on Latina mental health, the short film depicts a young, first-generation woman’s struggle to bridge a generational and cultural divide with her parents and discuss her thoughts and feelings. 

To create the script, Lilly brought together a group of five young Latina writing partners — all Fordham students or alumni — and drew inspiration from their personal experiences. 

“One of my biggest takeaways was that this new generation is very aware of mental health and interested in preventive behaviors, but they’re encountering some difficulty in reconciling that with their families or their cultural views, which are often about keeping things within the family and not discussing things that could bring stigma,” said Lilly. 

Post-production work on the film wrapped in late September. Lilly plans to submit Nuestro Apoyo to some film festivals and then seek a distributor. Whatever happens next, she already experienced a moment of victory watching the film over Zoom with the five young writers. 

“It was really fun to see their reactions, especially when their names appear in the credits,” she said. “We all felt very emotional by the end. It was maybe the highlight of my career.”

“It harms the wellbeing of everyone,” said Laura Wernick, one of the study’s lead authors and an associate professor of social service at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, located in Manhattan, New York.

The study found that youths exposed to higher levels of such language were less likely to reap the benefits of youth sports environments, particularly self-esteem. The decrease in self-esteem was significantly greater among straight white cisgender boys than any other subgroup, Wernick said.

“The irony of policing masculinity,” they said, “… is that it’s actually having the opposite effect. It’s bringing these kids down.”

It’s not that LGBTQ youth aren’t harmed by such language in youth sports environments. But the effects on those and other marginalized youth are less pronounced, the researchers say, because previous life experience has equipped them with coping mechanisms.

“They may be more adept at dealing with stressors, because they’ve had that experience,” said Derek Tice-Brown, an assistant professor of social service at Fordham and the study’s co-lead author. “It gives them skills to address those issues as they come up. Whereas cisgender straight boys may not have had that experience to develop those skills.”

Such use of anti-LGBTQ language doesn’t hurt just queer and trans youth, Wernick said. “It hurts our community. It hurts all of us.”

The annual Block Party reunion, held June 7, kicked off with a late afternoon guided campus tour and a jazz performance by a group of student and faculty musicians. Alumni from five schools—Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Gabelli School of Business, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the School of Professional and Continuing Studies—gathered for receptions throughout campus that honored distinguished alumni and celebrated retiring faculty. After the school-specific receptions, alumni and guests gathered on the Plaza, where they spent the night enjoying refreshments and a DJ. 

Take a look at the full set of photos from the evening!

Save the date for next year’s Block Party: Friday, June 20!

Our fates are united, Joseph Patrick Kennedy III told the Fordham Class of 2024, and peace is possible when we recognize that “our pathway forward is together.”

Speaking at Fordham’s 179th Commencement on May 18, the U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs recalled that region’s painful history—and eventual peace—to illustrate that even amid longstanding war and division, there is reason for hope. 

“While we may come from different backgrounds and perspectives, the lesson Northern Ireland teaches is that our future is shared,” he said from Keating Terrace on the Rose Hill campus, just after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University.

“It is as true in Belfast as in Boston. It is true across our United States. It is true in Israel and Gaza, where terror and heartbreak, violence, and suffering must give way to a shared future. And it is true in every other corner and cranny of our planet.”

A Bostonian who told graduates he loves New York (even if he can’t quite get behind the Yankees), Kennedy is a grandson of the former New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He represented the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts for four terms before assuming his diplomatic role in 2022.

Northern Ireland’s journey from the strife known as the Troubles, which ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, is proof that change is possible, he told graduates.

“It’s not perfect. Like everything human, it is really messy and really hard. But 26 years later, the region is still at peace,” he said.

As the sun shone through clouds on the crowd of more than 20,000 people, Kennedy shared anecdotes about meeting people in Derry and Belfast who once were enemies but now are working together. 

“There is a difference between being guided by the past and being held hostage by it,” he said. 

“If we are bold and brave enough, we can learn to make space for each other, even when we disagree on really big things—if not for our benefit, then for those whose futures are yet to be written.”

He told graduates that the world they inherit needs them.

“It is a world that needs your vision and your grace. Your empathy and ambition. Your courage to choose to leave the world a little better than you found it,” he said. 

“And please hurry. Your world awaits, and it needs your help.”

A Time to Celebrate

In her second Fordham commencement address, President Tania Tetlow acknowledged that this year’s ceremonies hold special resonance for many students whose high school graduations were disrupted by the COVID pandemic. 

“Today is the day to glory in what you have achieved,” she said, noting that even the Empire State Building will be shining in the graduates’ honor tonight.

In graduating, students joined the ranks of millions of Jesuit-educated people around the world who can bond with each other simply by referencing the phrase cura personalis, or care for the whole person, she said. 

“But this isn’t the kind of secret handshake that gets you insider entitlement. Instead, it’s an enormous responsibility that you carry with you forever,” she said.  

“You came to Fordham with blazing talent, each of you blessed by abundant gifts from God. But—and this may be a rare thing to say at commencement—those gifts do not make you better than anyone else,” she said.

“What makes you special is how you use your gifts to matter to the world.”

The University officially conferred roughly 3,300 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the ceremony. Including those who graduated in August 2023 and February 2024 and those who are expected to graduate in August 2024, the University will confer nearly 5,700 academic degrees in all.

In addition to Kennedy, Fordham conferred honorary doctorates upon two other notable figures: Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and a leading global activist against capital punishment, and the University’s former board chairman Robert D. Daleo.

—Photos by Chris Taggart, Bruce Gilbert, Hector Martinez, and Taylor Ha

Watch the full ceremony here.

Their focus is women and children who came to New York City from Mexico and found their way to the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service in East Harlem. There, they received holistic support that not only met their immediate needs but also empowered them to improve their circumstances, help others, and be leaders.

The agency “has been doing really effective work with diverse communities in a very complicated city and … developing power in a community that is typically disempowered,” said Fordham theology professor Brenna Moore, Ph.D. She and Carey Kasten, Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish at Fordham, are co-authors of Mutuality in El Barrio: Stories of the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, out this month from Fordham University Press. A book launch takes place May 20.

Creating Pathways Out of Poverty

The Little Sisters of the Assumption, a Catholic order, founded its East Harlem agency in 1958 to create opportunities for families to escape poverty. The first executive director was Sister Margaret Leonard, GSS ’67, who codified the agency’s idea of mutuality.

It called for forming mutually enriching relationships with clients, “eschewing a binary framework of helper and helped in an effort to cocreate new realities in East Harlem that benefit all parties,” the book says.

That meant listening to migrants’ stories, offering mental and spiritual support, and unlocking their strengths over the long term. Sometimes it meant bringing them together so they could address common problems, like mold in their public housing. Former clients often return as volunteers and staffers or serve other New York City organizations in leadership roles.

What mutuality is not, Kasten said, is “looking for immediate effects.”

“It’s willing to be in conversation with someone for years and understanding that sometimes it does take that long,” she said. “The things that people are asked to do when they come to this country don’t take just a week.”

Success Stories of Migrants

Eight Fordham students worked on the book project, gaining research experience by helping Moore and Kasten with interviewing migrants the agency served over the past few decades. The students included theology, Spanish, and communications majors, as well as students in the Graduate School of Social Service. Most migrants quoted in the book used pseudonyms.

The interviewees included Sonia, a onetime teenage mother whom the agency helped navigate prenatal care, develop parenting skills, and enroll in a pre-nursing degree program. The nuns also called upon her to provide nursing care to another Little Sisters client in her building.

And they stuck with her through crises—like being jailed on a false accusation from her child’s father, who had beaten her. The sisters prayed and sang hymns outside the jail overnight, giving her hope until charges were dropped the next day. She later moved to Florida, married, raised three children, and became head nurse in a hospital’s radiology department—at one point, overseeing the care of an ailing relative of Sister Margaret, who Sonia said is “like family.”

Another young mother, Yolanda, gained parenting skills through the agency and later joined its staff after earning her bachelor’s degree. “They began supporting me, motivating me,” she says in the book. In the words of another client: “They make you see what you don’t see in yourself.”

Through a partnership with Fordham’s London campus, GSS students can study abroad, learning about the differences between social work in the U.S. and the U.K. and visiting historic sites. This past summer, about 30 students participated in the two-week program, but two of them stayed behind for three more months to complete inaugural field internships abroad. 

“I felt like this program was made for me,” said Melanie Hills, 24, a master’s student from Glastonbury, Connecticut, who interned at a London community center and served predominantly immigrant populations. “It’s a multi-service, multigenerational approach—and it’s exactly what social work, in my mind, stands for.” 

A Moving Encounter with an Asylum Seeker

Hills worked at Coin Street, a community center that serves Waterloo and North Southwark residents, where she assessed the needs of local families and connected them with services. She recalled a pregnant woman who had experienced human trafficking in her native country and was seeking asylum in London with her two young daughters. Hills said she was able to connect the mother with a local school for her children, a children’s center that could teach her daughters how to communicate in English, and a midwife who could alleviate her stomach pain, despite some initial language barriers. 

“We couldn’t understand each other because our translator phone wasn’t working, so we just stood there, trying to communicate with each other. Finally, I used Google Translate,” Hills said. “She gave me this big hug afterwards, and I was like, ‘OK, this is why [we]do this.” 

As someone who isn’t native to the area, said Hills, it wasn’t easy to connect Londoners with certain services and understand what rights and entitlements they qualified for. But by the end of her internship, she described herself as “self-sufficient.” 

“I had support from Fordham the whole way through and from Coin Street, but I really worked hard, and I’m proud of myself,” said Hills, who regularly checked in with GSS faculty, deans, and her supervisor while abroad. 

This spring, Hills will graduate with her master’s degree in social work, and plans to work in hospital administration. 

“Being in London taught me how competent and powerful I can be,” she said.  

‘Helping People to Be Their Best Selves’ 

Master’s student Vaughn Rush interned at Oxford House, one of the first settlement houses in the United Kingdom that has evolved into a modern-day community center. Rush said he helped to facilitate multiple events, including a Somali culture festival and a “Black history bike ride.” 

“It felt [like]social work in a community-based sense because … they embedded the community in getting things that the community needed and working with them to help themselves,” he said. 

Rush, a 36 year old from Jamaica, Queens, has worn many hats. He is a veteran who served as a behavioral health specialist and medic in the U.S. Army for seven years and a male drag queen, among other things. After graduating this spring with his master’s degree in social work, he plans to earn his master’s degree in applied theater. He wants to combine his social work and theater skills “to make some mental health magic” in a non-traditional way, ideally for the U.S. Army or the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said. 

What he will take from his London internship experience is his growth in empathy, he said. 

“Listening to the differences in people’s lives and their values … showed the differences between us, but also the things we have in common,” Rush said, “and that helps with us being one big world … and helping people to be their best selves.” 

Watch the video below and learn more about the GSS program abroad. 

A Presidential Management Fellow takes a broad view of social work

What does a social worker’s job look like? Those outside the field might picture someone who meets one-on-one with clients, or works at a hospital, school, or nonprofit. Hannah Babiss is proof that there is no one answer to that question.

Now in the midst of a prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship, a two-year training and leadership development program administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that places advanced degree holders in U.S. government agencies, Babiss is using her studies in macro social work to impact federal policy.

“I felt like I wanted to have a greater impact to help support individuals and communities that might be experiencing challenges or barriers,” says Babiss, who earned an M.S.W. at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) in 2021. She had already gained experience in direct social work service before arriving at GSS. And although she considered master’s programs in public policy and international affairs, she was drawn to the field placements available through social work programs—and specifically to the small class sizes and electives at Fordham.

Policymaking to Make Lives Easier

During her time at Fordham, Babiss became involved in the GSS Student Congress, which she says not only helped her land the fellowship but also gave her experience in organizational structuring and leadership—skills she also developed as a research assistant for Professor Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., director of Her Migrant Hub, a website that helps women gain access to health care services and other resources in New York City.

Babiss began the fellowship in August 2022 as a budget analyst in the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she assessed the distribution of money for federal transportation projects and wrote budget justifications to clarify why line items were included as funds. She says the work has helped her understand how money ties into specific policies.

“My first year was a lot of training because I don’t have a background in finance or budgeting in particular,” Babiss says. “It was a lot of learning the ropes, but I learned a lot about the congressional budgeting process.”

When the fellowship ends next August, she plans to apply for jobs across various federal agencies. And while she has a particular passion for immigration, education, and mental health policy, she’s open to working in any area in which she can make a positive impact.

“I would love to see more efficient policymaking that helps make people’s lives easier,” she says. “I think that’s really what it boils down to—how can you improve the quality of people’s lives, while also making a policy that’s realistic and efficient and a good use of taxpayer dollars?”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

“Now we are enabling students to come to campus and have the same opportunity to complete the program within a quick time frame as an online student would have,” said Melba Remice, assistant dean for admissions at GSS. “This is for students who really want the ability to complete the program quickly, while gaining experience, skill sets, and knowledge in an in-person setting.” 

What Are Advanced Standing Students? 

Advanced-standing Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) students already have a bachelor’s degree in social work and are now pursuing graduate school. What separates them from traditional students in the same program is the amount of coursework they are required to complete. In Fordham’s Master of Social Work program, full-time traditional students usually take up to two years to complete their graduate degree. But advanced-standing students who have already completed coursework and fieldwork in social work as undergraduates can apply their experience to their graduate programs and complete their master’s degree in less than a year. They save time—and money, said Remice. 

Saving Time and Money, While Studying in Person 

For years, Fordham allowed its full-time advanced-standing students to begin coursework only during the fall semester, not in spring, due to the nature of their coursework and fieldwork. (Only part-time advanced-standing students could begin school during the spring semester.) Starting in spring 2024, those students will be able to start their master’s program in the spring semester in either an online setting or in person, completing their degrees by the end of August. 

“The advanced-standing program provides graduate students more flexibility, a quicker timeline, and on-campus networking opportunities to advance their careers,” Remice said. 

The application deadline for Spring 2024 is Dec. 1. Learn more about the on-campus M.S.W. program.  

Students and faculty in Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service are supporting women asylum seekers, one of the most vulnerable populations in New York City, by working with them to increase access to health care and mental health services and advocate for the protection of migrants’ rights.

On Nov. 10, they convened with activists who work in academia, city government, the law—and women asylum seekers themselves—to talk about future work and solutions. 

‘The Solutions Will Come From People’s Voices’ 

Over the past year and a half, more than 130,600 migrants arrived in New York City from countries like Venezuela and Senegal, seeking asylum from violence, persecution, and other traumas in their homelands. The city provides temporary shelter and helps migrants to apply for legal status, work authorization, and permanent housing, but it’s not easy to address every single need. In fact, the city just announced that it is limiting shelter stays for migrant families with children to 60 days in its housing system. 

“The city is doing the best that they can. But the solutions to what’s happening right now are not going to be coming from the city,” said Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, New York City deputy mayor for health and human services, at the symposium, which was held at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. “The solutions will come from people’s voices who have experienced this and who are sharing their stories with us, and hoping that academia and government and others will listen.” 

Her Migrant Hub

Those in academia are listening. Through Her Migrant Hub, a website created by Fordham faculty, students, and women asylum seekers, migrants in New York City are able to better understand their rights in the U.S. and easily access services with a direct impact on women’s well-being, such as health care, housing, and mental health. Perhaps most uniquely, they are taught how to tell their own stories and to advocate for themselves and their loved ones. 

Her Migrant Hub has greatly expanded since its inception in 2021. The community-driven program, which primarily receives funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and is supported by additional funding from organizations like World Education Services Mariam Assefa Fund, is revamping its web platform based on suggestions from women migrants, students, scholars, and service providers. The website was updated this November with several new additions, including direct mental health support via phone, text, or video on the platform itself. 

In addition, Her Migrant Hub now has an advisory board that includes eight women asylum seekers who have become activists. Six of them are from the initial core Her Migrant Hub group; one is a representative for newly arrived women asylum seekers, and another is a representative of the community of indigenous Garifuna women asylum seekers. The board also includes two service providers who are able to listen to the women and develop solutions based on their feedback. They now meet in a dedicated space at the Lincoln Center campus that the activists and GSS students will decorate to reflect the different cultures and shared stories of the community. 

The Her Migrant Hub team, led by GSS professors Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., and Dana Alonzo, Ph.D., is also planning a series of trainings on trauma-informed care, migration-related trauma, and vicarious trauma for service providers who work with this population in New York City. Women asylum seekers will also receive training on how to educate migrant communities, employers, and service providers about forced migration and the challenges faced by their community.

Students Engaging with Migrants in Crisis 

GSS students are engaged in all of these efforts. Two sit on the advisory board alongside the asylum seekers. Eight are interning at organizations such as the New York City Mayor’s Office’s new Asylum Application Support Center and Emma’s Torch. Others are participating in Forced Migration and Social Work Policy and Practice, a new course co-developed by GSS professors and Her Migrant Hub’s women activists. This course is part of a project funded by New York Community Trust, which aims to develop best practices for social workers who work with migrant populations and engage students in specialized internships. 

Most recently, in October, clinical social work students under the supervision of Alonzo began providing one-on-one mental health support to migrants through the Her Migrant Hub website. 

Among the students involved in this collective work is Luisa Fernanda Sandoval Cortes, a Ph.D. student who serves as a case manager coordinator for a program for asylum seekers at Catholic Charities of New York. For Her Migrant Hub, she is a project coordinator, facilitating a mental health group for new women asylum seekers. She shared some key takeaways from her experiences at the Nov. 10 symposium.

“Social workers and professionals should be trained in assisting asylum seekers from an intersectionality perspective to be able to understand gender, race, language, and cultural differences among this population,” said Cortes, who also emphasized the importance of providing fast and extended work permits to migrants. “And I would add empathy.” 

Read more about the symposium.