An American studies major and a member of the Rose Hill Honors Program, Dziura aims to raise awareness about the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized people, particularly those with disabilities.

Read more about Dziura in a Fordham News story published last month and watch Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow—a 1991 Truman Scholar herself—surprise Dziura with the good news in the video below.

An American studies major and a member of the Rose Hill Honors Program, Dziura aims to raise awareness about the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized peoples, particularly those with disabilities. 

Dziura, a native of suburban Connecticut who needed a car to travel to most places, said her first time riding the New York City subway was incredible. The problem is that not everyone can use it. 

“Only 27% of all subway stations are accessible, meaning ADA compliant, which doesn’t literally always mean accessible. That means that all elevators and escalators are working, that the station is open and has service,” said Dziura, but that often isn’t the case. 

Dealing with Her Own Disability

The oldest of four sisters, Dziura learned from an early age how to care for others. As a teenager, she volunteered in local youth programs, where she helped children with dyslexia learn how to read. She also worked as a summer camp counselor with children, some of whom had autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was there that she realized something she had suspected for a long time—that she was neurodivergent herself. 

“I felt an intrinsic connection to many of those kids. I saw myself in them,” said Dziura, who was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder last year. “But OCD doesn’t make me any less capable of doing anything that I want to do.” 

Finding Disability Studies at Fordham

She arrived at Fordham in 2020 and later decided to major in American Studies, a field that blended her interests in English, history, social sciences, and political science. Her academic concentration, Diversity and Difference, also allowed her to take courses related to her interests, including disability law policy and advocacy. 

Outside of class, she joined extracurriculars focused on building community. She volunteered at the Bronx Community Foundation, where she worked with community organizers and learned how to run a nonprofit. She helped to plan events with the LGBTQ+ History Month Committee in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, including the upcoming Lavender graduation ceremony for LGBTQ seniors. Most recently, she has been interning at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she helped to facilitate free events for people with disabilities and their families and developed strategies to make events more accessible to the public. 

A New Policy Proposal on Subway Inaccessibility 

Dziura said she discovered disability studies through her honors course Justice I: The American Experience. As part of the course, she developed a semester-long research project on improving accessibility in the NYC subway system.

She wanted to learn more about the system by experiencing it herself. Last year, Dziura and two friends spent seven hours traveling across the subway system in a single day. Although all three are able-bodied, they decided to only visit stations where they could access an elevator or escalator. In total, they were able to visit 12 stations, she said. 

“It’s almost impossible to navigate the city if you need accessible stations. All of the buses are now wheelchair accessible, and there is something called Access-A-Ride, a paratransit service, but it is infamously bad,” Dziura said. 

In her policy proposal for her Truman Scholarship application, Dziura focused on another aspect of inaccessibility: the importance of installing tactile strips on platform edges and designing stations with high-contrast colors, which can help guide people with visual impairments. 

“As of 2019, there are about 120 stations with platform edges painted yellow but no tactile guide strips because per the ADA, they’re only required for stations of significance like Times Square,” Dziura said. “The MTA has been installing them, but there was a case of a visually impaired man who fell on Brooklyn subway tracks that had yellow paint, but no tactile guide strips.” 

Most people are able-bodied, but at any moment, we are two steps away from being disabled, said Dziura. 

“Disability also includes temporary disability. If you broke your leg tomorrow, your commute would change. It’s also hard for parents with strollers to navigate the subway,” she said, citing the 2019 case of a mother who died while trying to take her 1-year-old daughter down the stairs in a stroller. “And once you reach a certain age, you will have certain disabilities. Poor sight, poor hearing—or both.” 

Dziura now lives on Bathgate Avenue with her Fordham friends. There is a man who often sits on the corner of Bathgate and 189th Street with a blue walker and smiles and waves at her, she said. When she takes out the trash, she also enjoys chatting with her next-door neighbors—longtime residents who have lived in the Bronx for decades. 

“One of the coolest parts of living in the Bronx is seeing how people interact with each other. There’s nothing wrong with Manhattan, but when you travel all the way downtown, there’s this air of detachment,” she said. “The Bronx is, and always will be, a community that looks out for each other. I’m grateful to be a part of it.” 

Creating A New World for the Next Generation

Last month, Dziura found out she was named a finalist for the highly competitive Truman Scholarship, a national program that recognizes college students dedicated to public service. 

Each year, about 800 students across the country are nominated for the scholarship. A quarter of those students are selected as finalists, and an even smaller number—between 55 and 65—are chosen as winners. Since the scholarship was established in 1975, Fordham has produced nearly a dozen winners. (Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, is also a 1991 Truman Scholar herself.) Dziura will find out in April if she is chosen as a winner.

Marisa Iglesias, Ph.D., assistant director of the Office of Prestigious Fellowships and Dziura’s advisor, said she expects big things from the student advocate.

“After speaking with her, you’ll probably see the New York transit system differently,” said Iglesias, who helped Dziura apply for the Truman Fellowship. “I can envision the type of change that Abby will make in 10 years, and it’s going to be a pleasure to watch her not just be a part of the city, but a real, tangible part of it.”

Dziura’s long-term career goal is to lead the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, acting as a liaison between the disability community and the city. 

“One of the hardest parts of advocacy work is knowing that you don’t always get to see the end result. Sometimes you’re setting things up for future generations because something can’t be completed for another 20 years. It can be difficult when it feels like you’re working toward an intangible goal,” Dziura said. “But someday, I’d love to see a fully accessible New York subway system.”

As of May 17, 125 undergraduate and graduate students have won 143 national and international award competitions. Moreover, for the second year in a row, a Fordham junior has won a Truman Scholarship, the most prestigious American award given to undergraduates for graduate study.

Abraham Mercado, an international political economy major, is Fordham’s eighth Truman Scholar and its second from Puerto Rico. He began working with the St. Edmund Campion Institute for Prestigious Fellowships in his sophomore year to prepare his application. The $30,000 federal scholarship is awarded annually to between 60 and 65 college juniors who have demonstrated leadership and a commitment to public service.

“Fordham is blessed with students like Abraham Mercado,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “Yes, he is the beneficiary of a Fordham education. Yes, he had terrific support from the Office of Prestigious Fellowships. Nonetheless, he would be exceptional in any group of students.”

Mercado’s career plans include securing a position of economic leadership within the United States government—first within the treasury department and later as a political and economic policy leader in Puerto Rico.

Siblings Joseph and Cristina Vignone have accomplished significant prestigious scholarship firsts at Fordham.

Joseph, who is graduating from Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) with a double major in theology and history, won the University’s first Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, last summer. He will formally receive the award at the White House in the coming weeks.

This month, he received Fordham’s first Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship, which covers tuition, room, board and income taxes for graduate work done in the United States, and includes a stipend of $18,000 annually. Joseph will be attending the Harvard University School of Divinity this fall.

Cristina, a rising FCLC senior, recently won Fordham’s first Beinecke Scholarship for graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences, a $34,000 award she plans to use after she graduates in 2012 with a double major in history and anthropology.

Their scholarship and fellowship successes have earned siblings Cristina and Joseph Vignone the unofficial title “Fordham’s First Family in Fellowships.” Photo by Janet Sassi

Their accomplishments have earned the Vignone siblings the well-deserved sobriquet “Fordham’s First Family in Fellowships.”

The commuter students said their complementary academic interests have made for some “interesting conversations from different perspectives” over the years.

Both Vignones, along with a third sibling, Vittoria (FCLC ’09), participated in the honors program.

The University, said the Vignones, has been an incredibly supportive academic community, as well as a great place to learn outside of the classroom.

Fordham’s success in winning science-based prizes this year was particularly noteworthy, according to John Ryle Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Campion Institute. Science awards won by members of the University community include the following:

• Four undergraduate sophomores (rather than the usual two) have been awarded full scholarships from the Clare Boothe Luce Award Program for Women in the Sciences.

• Four graduate students received Luce fellowships in the biological sciences.

• Two juniors in Fordham College at Rose Hill won special Luce scholarships to conduct research.

• Three undergraduates have been awarded eight Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) from the National Science Foundation.

• In addition to the REU, Fordham students received five additional science awards to conduct research at prestigious national universities.

• Four undergraduates were selected by the DAAD RISE award program to conduct science research this summer at German universities.

A recipient of the European Commission’s SMART Fellowship, Matthew Cashman won a DAAD RISE in 2008 and a Morris K. Udall Scholarship in 2009. Photo by Bill Denison

Finally, Matthew Cashman (FCRH ’10), who will graduate in May with a master of science from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, received the European Commission’s SMART (Science for Management of Rivers and Their Tidal Systems) Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Program Fellowship in its first year.

Cashman’s doctoral studies will be centered at the Queen Mary University of London, with his secondary work at the Freie Universität in Berlin. He worked with the Campion Institute to win a DAAD RISE in 2008 and a Morris K. Udall Scholarship in 2009.

Other highlights of the prestigious scholarship roster include the following:

• Nine students won Fulbrights with an additional student named as an alternate.

• Six students received Boren NSEP Awards to study in Europe, Africa and Asia.

• Six students won Gilman Scholarships to study abroad.

• Four students in each competition received U.S. Presidential Management Fellowships, U.S. Department of State internships and Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowships.

• Two undergraduates won a Merage Foundation for the American Dream and a New York City
Urban Fellowship.

As Kezel remarked, “This year, together with Maria Noonan, Mary Shelley and Elizabeth Brown, we have done our very best to follow the goal set by our patron, the English Jesuit martyr St. Edmund Campion, who wrote to one of his students, ‘Meritissima virtutis praemia consectare (Attain the prizes your worth deserves).’”

Senior Staff Writer Janet Sassi contributed to this report.

– Joseph McLaughlin