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. 

The highway, which was constructed in the 1950s and ’60s, has long been blamed for a host of poor health outcomes in the Bronx. In December 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of a study to reimagine the highway, including options such as rerouting it through a tunnel or building parks atop the sunken sections.

That study is being funded by a $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021.

Giving Voice to Community Members

The Center for Community Engaged Learning was one of 10 community partners chosen to assist the DOT in gathering input from residents who live near the expressway. The center will use the funds to organize listening sessions and collaborate with other community groups, including Gambian Youth Organization, Casa Yurumein, and Bronx Health Link. The groups will work together to organize events and canvas the neighborhoods surrounding the highway.

Aiming to Reunite Neighborhoods

Julie Gafney, director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning, said she hopes the efforts will help reunify neighborhoods that were destroyed when homes of approximately 40,000 residents were demolished to make room for the highway.

“One of the big issues with the Cross Bronx Expressway and other major roadways in the Bronx is it cut people off from access to services, to fresh fruits and vegetables, to public transportation,” she said.

“So we want to make sure that whatever solution we’re looking at is going to unite communities, provide resources to them, and doesn’t inadvertently replicate some of these errors from the past.”

Opportunities for Students

The Cross Bronx Expressway has been a major focus of the center’s recent efforts in the Bronx. Last month, 350 students who participated in Fordham’s annual Urban Plunge toured sections of the highway to learn about its impact. Gafney said members of the Fordham community are continuing to enroll in these “walkshops.” She envisions multiple opportunities for students to get involved in areas such as design, visual arts, architecture, and smart city planning.

“I would love to see as many members of the Fordham community working as possible with us to facilitate those conversations,” she said.

“We’ll be doing everything from canvassing and door-knocking to holding small conversations over coffee with groups of neighbors to hear about how the Cross Bronx is currently affecting them and their communities and what they would like to see. The best ideas, I’m sure, are going to come from the folks who are most impacted by the issue.”

Nearly 250 first-year students fanned out across the Bronx on Aug. 25 as part of Fordham’s Urban Plunge – an annual pre-orientation program that gives new students the chance to explore the city’s diverse neighborhoods through a lens of community, diversity, and engagement.

Students helped serve lunch to those in need at POTS—Part of the Solution, revitalized Poe Park, painted banners for one of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and did clean-up work at the community garden Drew Gardens.

A Back to School Festival that debuted last year at Fordham Plaza was also staffed by Urban Plunge students. In keeping with the philosophy that the weekend is also an opportunity for learning about their new home, students spent the morning before their service activities visiting other sites around the Bronx. In addition to tours of the Kingsbridge Armory, St. Barnabas Hospital, and the Bronx River Alliance, students visited areas along the Cross Bronx Expressway, where they learned about the highway’s impact on residents.

Urban Plunge at Fordham celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Julie Gaffney, director of Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, which runs the program, said it’s driven by the needs of the Bronx community. That’s why health and environmental justice issues are front and center, she said.

“We really want to introduce first-year students, along with their upper-class mentors, to what’s driving community work in the Bronx right now,” she said.

“It’s an ideal ground for fostering a four-year commitment to community solution building here in the Bronx.”

Urban Plunge continued Saturday with lectures such as “What Does Engagement Look Like at Fordham.”

A Landmark with Untapped Potential

Mehak Wadhwa, a native of Richmond Hill, Queens, who is starting her first year studying physics/engineering, was one of the students who toured the Kingsbridge Armory, a decommissioned site with 100-foot ceilings less than a mile from the Rose Hill campus. 

The tour was conducted by a representative from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is responsible for the site. Wadhwa found it interesting to learn about the multiple plans for the armory that have come and gone over the years and how the future of the site is still up in the air.

“I know Manhattan, Queens, and the other boroughs, but I’ve never really gone to the Bronx. I thought Urban Plunge was a nice way to get involved in the community,” she said.

She also got to ask the Economic Development Corporation rep how any plans for the armory’s redevelopment would affect the surrounding community.

“My mother is also a small business homeowner. I’ve been reading a lot about gentrification, and as a person of color, I know how it specifically impacts them,” she said.

A Park With Literary History

A block away, Christian Sibel, a first-year student from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, ferried wheelbarrows of fertilizer to tree pits around Poe Park, where poet Edgar Allen Poe lived in a cottage from 1846 to 1849.

Sibel, who is planning to major in International Political Economy, said the opportunity to do service work influenced his decision to attend Fordham. 

“Fordham seems to be doing their best to work with the community in the Bronx, and I’m really just excited to be a part of that for the next four years. It’s exciting to explore a community different from my own,” he said. “Last night, I went out for a walk. The area is beautiful; the architecture of these buildings is incredible.”

Learning About Bronx Renewal and Advocacy 

Sophie Ritz, a first-year student at the Gabelli School of Business from Westwood, Massachusetts, was one of roughly 30 students who visited the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition on East 196 Street for several hours. There, she and her fellow “plungers” painted banners, did gardening and learned how the group, which was instrumental in the renewal of the borough during the 1970s, has now taken a lead in the push for the equitable development of the Kingsbridge Armory. 

“I didn’t know we’d learn quite as much as we did. I was surprised at how hard it was for the people to do what they wanted with the armory,” she said. 

“Maybe naively, I kind of figured that it’s in their community; they’d be able to do more of what they wanted with it.”

Back to School

The Back-to-School Festival brought next to 40 different community organizations to the Fordham Plaza, where a DJ spun tunes and students handed out school supplies and backpacks.

This year also featured tents across Fordham Road at Rose Hill Park. Sinhawe Haji, a native of Ethiopia who grew up in Washington D.C., was one of several students there giving away school supplies and helping children find things like trees with heart-shaped leaves as part of a scavenger hunt organized by the New York City Parks Department.

“It’s been so good,” she said. It’s sweet, seeing the smiles on their faces not only when they get the school supplies but also when they find whatever object in nature they’re looking for.”

— Photos by Rebecca Rosen, MacKenzie Brown, Emma Elsdon, Bridget Flanagan, Marai Rodriguez and Christina Ou.

Students in the Urban Plunge program will meet on Friday, Aug. 25, at the Rose Hill campus to discuss the Cross Bronx Expressway, a major highway that has been blamed for worsening air and noise quality and separating communities in the Bronx. In a conversation guided by Nilka Martell, founder and director of the community-based non-profit organization Loving the Bronx, students will learn about health issues associated with the expressway and Martell’s efforts to cap portions of the expressway and develop public green spaces around it. 

“As someone who was born and raised and still lives in the Bronx, I can definitely attest to the fact that the largest impact of these highways is our asthma rates,” Martell said in a 2021 interview with New York Public Radio. “If you visit the Bronx and you ask anyone whether they have asthma or they know of anyone that has asthma, 10 out of 10, they will tell you yes, largely due to the existing infrastructure and the open portions of highways and the overdevelopment around these highways.” 

In addition to Martell, the panel will feature three policy experts who will share their own perspective on health issues associated with the expressway, as well as how public involvement can shape policy-making: Dr. Salihah Dick, asthma program manager in New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Neighborhood Health Action Center in the Bronx; Paul Philps, director of the New York City Department of City Planning‘s office in the Bronx; and Victor Martínez, senior policy advisor for Ritchie Torres, the U.S. representative for New York’s 15th congressional district (that covers most of the South Bronx). Following the panel, students will participate in neighborhood walks along the Cross Bronx Expressway in partnership with local community-based organizations. 

“This collaboration with Nilka Martell, Dr. Salihah Dick, Paul Philps, and Víctor Martínez reinforces our institutional commitment to environmental justice, community engagement, and experiential learning,” said Julie Gafney, Ph.D., assistant vice president of strategic mission initiatives and executive director of Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning. “Together, we are forging a path towards a sustainable and equitable future, aligned with Fordham’s mission and in pursuit of the Laudato Si’ goals. Our united efforts aim to achieve real and lasting solutions to protect our common home.”

The panel discussion, which will take place from 9 to 9:45 a.m. on Edwards Parade, is open to the public. The rain location is the McShane Campus Center, Room 311.

The grant is part of a nationwide AARP Livable Communities initiative, which strives to help communities become great places to live for residents of all ages.

Kicking Off Another Season of Fresh Produce

Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), which oversees the market, kicked off a second season of the weekly market on July 12 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.

Fresh produce supplied by two local farms and a community garden in the Bronx was available for purchase under the market’s large tent.

Jennifer Benitez, a 33-year-old Highbridge resident who lives a short walk from the market, which is located in the parking lot of a senior living facility in the South Bronx, came to shop for herself, her husband, and their 18-month-old child. She visited the market every week last year, and was there this Wednesday for watermelon, carrots, lettuce, and cilantro, the latter of which she was especially excited to get fresh.

A native of the Dominican Republic, she joked that she uses cilantro in “pretty much everything.”

“The food from this market is a lot fresher, it has better flavor, and for me, I find it to be better because it’s organic,” she said in Spanish.

“I found the whole market to be beautiful and interesting, especially because a lot of elderly folks in the area enjoy it.”

Expanding Beyond Produce

The market’s expanded footprint features a seating area, a reading nook, and an area for cooking demonstrations. The first cooking demonstration featured local chef Geneva Wilson, who showed visitors how to roast beets.

Cookbooks Made by Fordham Students

The grant also funded the printing of cookbooks that are distributed for free at the market. The book was created by Fordham students in The Anthropology of Food, an undergraduate class taught in the spring by Julie Kleinman, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology.

Students interviewed community members and sourced local recipes to create a cookbook with recipes that are both meaningful to the community and create awareness about the produce available at the market.

Supported by the Center for Community Engaged Learning, the course was a continuation of the market’s academic component. The idea for the market itself was partly conceived last year in the course Ecology and Economics of Food Systems.

Intergenerational Community Building

Surey I. Miranda, director of campus and community engagement at CCEL, said the goal of the market, which will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday until mid-November, is to create a neighborhood space that encourages intergenerational community building.

“We want to meet people where they’re at. We want to make sure that they’re not only getting their fresh produce, but they’re able to be connected with key services,” she said.

“So there are going to be different organizations connecting people to their places, so they don’t have to go out of their communities to receive essential services.”

The market’s community co-sponsors include Bestcare, Inc., Essen Health, BridgeBuilders, The Mary Mitchel Family and Youth Center, The Bronx is Reading, Highbridge Community Development Corporation, 1199SEIU, and Catholic Charities Community Services.

Less visibly, the event also showed the power of philanthropy. Hosting Ignatian Q is just one thing made possible by a fund that is creating new momentum around the University for initiatives that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning students, plus other sexual and gender minorities.

Founded last spring, the LGBTQ+ Student Wellbeing Fund is supporting everything from pastoral care to academic events and the development of classes reflecting LGBTQ+ themes—with the promise of more initiatives to come.

“I’m really encouraged and optimistic about the kind of response the fund has gotten, not only from LGBT members of the Fordham family but also straight members of our family who are deeply committed to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Joan Garry, FCRH ’79, a former executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD and nationally recognized activist who serves on the Fordham University President’s Council executive committee.

Garry and her wife kick-started the fund last year by leading a Fordham Giving Day campaign for it and providing a $50,000 matching gift.

The need is plain, Garry said: The number of students who identify as other than heterosexual or cisgender is growing “off the charts.” These students “have all kind of struggles every day,” from self-acceptance to harassment to bullying, and suffer disproportionately from anxiety and depression, she said.

The fund is also needed because of a political climate that has become “downright terrifying,” she said, pointing to the Human Rights Campaign’s June 6 declaration of a “state of emergency” for LGBTQ+ people due to laws being enacted around the country.

By helping to foster a more inclusive campus community, the fund dovetails with a key priority of the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student.

Impact of the Wellbeing Fund

In addition to providing critical support to the Ignatian Q conference, the Wellbeing Fund has supported Campus Ministry programs including Queer Spirit Community and the Prism Retreat, as well as the publication of a Queer Prayer at Fordham booklet distributed at Ignatian Q, said Joan Cavanagh, Ph.D., senior director for spirituality and solidarity at Fordham.

The fund has also supported Center for Community Engaged Learning initiatives including scholarships that helped LGBTQ+ students take part in Fordham’s Global Outreach and Urban Plunge programs, a panel discussion on LGBTQ+ history, and grants for faculty. Co-sponsored by the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, the grants support innovative classroom projects related to LGBTQ+ history and advocacy.

The Wellbeing Fund has “ignited an understanding that there is so much to do,” Garry said. “I am excited about the forward motion the fund is creating to educate, drive awareness, and galvanize support.”

Learn more about the uses of the LGBTQ+ Student Wellbeing Fund and make a gift.

Learn about Queer Spirit Community, the Prism Retreat, and other Campus Ministry resources for LGBTQ+ students.

See related story: Pope Francis Sends Warm Letter of Support for LGBTQ+ Conference at Fordham

“I think my own experiences with counseling were really transformative,” Syper said, adding that she enjoys being able to “be part of people’s lives and help them through really difficult experiences.”

Now, studying at Fordham, Syper found that the support from peers and professors combined with the well-rounded curriculum and hands-on practicums have set her up to do just that. 

“When I interviewed at Fordham, I felt connected to the people. I felt like I could build a community with professors and with the other students,” Syper said. 

Using Dance Therapy in Body Image Work

Syper plans to combine her counseling work with another form of therapy that’s been meaningful in her own life—dance. Discovering dance as a teenager taught Syper to connect with and appreciate her body. And in college at the University of North Texas, she studied modern dance and double-majored in psychology and dance. 

In addition to her studies at Fordham, Syper’s working to become a dance/movement therapist through a program at the 92nd Street Y, where she’s learning how to help people connect with their bodies in meaningful ways that assist their healing processes. Syper works with teens and young adults with body image issues and eating disorders and finds it’s often beneficial to incorporate elements of dance therapy into her talk therapy sessions.

With clients, Syper helps them assess: “How do I know if I’m anxious? How do I know if I’m upset? What are the cues my body’s giving me? And how can I connect with my body? … How do I use that information to identify what’s going to make me feel better moving forward?”

‘A Gifted Therapist’

Currently, Syper’s wrapping up a year-long internship at University of Colorado Boulder’s  Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) as part of her Fordham Ph.D. program. Similar to a med student’s residency, the position gives her hands-on clinical experience wherein Syper conducts individual therapy sessions, co-leads graduate student process groups, and serves as an eating concerns case manager.

“She’s a very talented, gifted therapist who, at an early stage of her career already has very defined interests and expertise,” said Elizabeth Parsons, Syper’s clinical supervisor in Boulder. In particular, Syper is highly organized and adept at building a strong rapport with clients quickly, Parsons said.

“[Syper is] very effective in helping clients understand their own patterns in a way that they can shift them … she really meets people where they’re at,” Parsons said. “She’s very aware as well of social justice issues and able to connect with people across a lot of identity variables.”

A Holistic Approach, Mirrored at Fordham

At Fordham, Syper found the same support and holistic approach to her as a student that she fosters in her professional work. 

“Fordham really provided the opportunity for us to acknowledge what comes up for us as therapists when we’re holding the weight of all the things our clients are sharing, and we’re going through these really difficult experiences alongside them—like when a global pandemic happens, we’re also experiencing that,” Syper said. “[Or if] they’re experiencing body image concerns, and I have had body image concerns, how do I work through that so I can take care of myself and I can be the best support for my clients.”

Recently, Syper successfully defended her dissertation, “Mind-Body Connection, Self-Esteem, and Social Support as Predictors of Recovery from Anorexia Nervosa,” and also published a study about the mind-body connection in the American Journal of Dance Therapy, titled “Dance/Movement Therapy for Individuals with Eating Disorders: A Phenomenological Approach.”

After graduation, Syper will complete her 92nd Street Y program and plans to work in a clinic or treatment center that serves young adults with eating disorders and body image concerns as she continues to find ways to incorporate dance therapy into her work.

—Meredith Lawrence

“I’m a city girl at heart, and I really love the Lincoln Center area. You have Central Park, a variety of restaurants and theaters, and a lot of diversity here,” she said.

Med-School Bound

She also knew that she wanted to go into medicine. She had lost her father, Mohammad, during her senior year in high school to complications from a stroke, and the experience inspired her to pursue a career where she could help prevent similar tragedies.

At Fordham, she joined the pre-health track and chose natural sciences as her major, where she took classes such as animal physiology, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology. She is applying for medical school in the spring, and looking for research assistant positions in the meantime.

The kindness of medical staff that she encountered while her father was undergoing treatment is part of what inspires her.

“I want to be that kind of positive light for families that are going through it,” she said.

Fellowships in Science and Humanities

Last summer, she participated in a University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry Undergraduate Research Fellowship, where she conducted research on mortality rates for patients undergoing pancreatic cancer surgery.

Though she majored in the sciences, Asha also enjoyed her humanities classes at Fordham. As part of a Teagle fellowship in 2021, Asha did a project tying the themes in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and W.E.B. Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk to contemporary issues of racial injustice that were exacerbated during the COVID pandemic.

Her favorite course at Fordham was Faith and Critical Reasoning, which she took with Leo Guardado, Ph.D. It helped her see how theology can apply to scientific concepts such as artificial intelligence, she said.

“I also come from a Muslim background, so even though Fordham is a Catholic institution, I appreciate the fact that he took the time to go through the sacred text of each religion, and just made it all really easy to understand,” she said.

Prioritizing Mental Health

Just as important was the help she got when the road to graduation got a little bumpy. Her return to in-person classes after the pandemic was accompanied by notoriously hard classes such as organic chemistry, genetics, and anatomy.

Last year, Asha found herself battling anxiety and insomnia. She decided to prioritize her mental and physical health by going to University Health Services, working with a psychiatrist, and asking for accommodations for testing and assignments from Fordham. She still made the Dean’s list three years in a row.

“Looking back, I’m very grateful because things are just gonna get harder going forward. There are always going to be things that pile up. It was just really a learning experience, and because of last year, I’m in a much better mindset this year,” she said.

Hope to Spare

Deborah Luckett, Ph.D., a senior lecturer of biology, had Asha in her Concepts in Biology course as a first-year student and again this year in Science, Technology, and Society’s Values. She has no doubt that Asha will thrive.

“She’s going be my doctor whether she realizes it or not,” she said laughing.

In addition to drive and good grades, Luckett said Asha possesses a keen ability to pay attention to others.

“If you don’t really know Afsana and you’re talking to her, you may think she’s not listening, but she can say word for word just about anything you just said,” she said.

“She’s very dedicated, she loves what she does, and she loves being around people. If she’s caring for a person who is very ill, they will never feel neglected and will never feel like there is no hope. Because she will have hope for both of them.”

Fordham marked the launch of a seven-year transformative climate change plan with an April 19 event at the Rose Hill campus that brought students, activists, government officials, and neighborhood leaders together on the Rose Hill campus.

The University also welcomed back to campus Elizabeth Yeampierre, FCRH ‘80, who laid out the challenges of achieving climate justice in a keynote address

“In the climate justice movement where I come from, we say that transition is inevitable, but justice is not,” she said.

Yeampierre, an attorney who co-chairs the national Climate Justice Alliance and is the executive director of the Brooklyn-based Latino community organization UPROSE, challenged institutions such as Fordham to shake off conventional thinking.

“Climate change is not conventional. It is unpredictable, it is violent, and it is here,” she said.

“We really need people who are thinking in a way that is unconventional and honors Mother Earth, and are building just relationships and are engaged in self-transformation, so that we are able to hold this work, which is literally the human rights of our day.”

In a wide-ranging conversation with Julie Gafney, Ph.D., director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), on the terrace of the Walsh Family Library, Yeampierre laid out a case for a bottom-up strategy for dealing with climate change.

“We need to be able to listen to the people on the ground. The educated person knows how to take the formal education that they have, break it down, and make it accessible so that people on the ground can run with it,” she said.

As an example, she pointed to an app that UPROSE created for the 90 auto salvage yards in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to use to access best practices for becoming climate adaptable. It includes information on chemicals that are vulnerable to extreme heat, which is expected to become a bigger problem in the future.

“Environmentalists would like to shut them down, but these are working-class people in our community, and we don’t throw away our people,” she said.

Ryan Chen, a junior environmental science major at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and a student advocacy fellow, was one of a dozen members of the audience who engaged with Yeampierre in a Q&A session. He plans to apply the lessons from her talk to his work with Sunrise Movement NYC.

“Sunrise NYC is developing local campaigns to fight for a new green deal that also addresses the needs of people in New York City,” he said.

“What Elizabeth told me is, it’s more important to support the work of other organizations that are already doing. That’s something that I really want to bring to the conversation, to make sure that we don’t co-opt other people’s work.”

The theme of grassroots organization suffused the day’s event, which was organized by CCEL. Tents arrayed on the lawn in front of the library featured representatives from groups such as the Bronx River Alliance, Cafeteria Culture, and Friends of Pelham Bay Park, and speakers included representatives from Loving the Bronx and the New York City Parks.

A panel discussion, “Global Migration, Climate Displacement, and Racial Justice,” featured Annetta Seecharran, GSAS ’94, executive director of Chhaya CDC, an advocacy group that serves South Asian and Indo-Carribbean communities, and Andrew Rasmussen, Ph.D., professor of psychology and head of the Culture, Migration, and Community Research Group at Fordham.

Seecharran, a graduate of Fordham’s International Political and Economic Development (IPED) program, noted that her organization’s clients don’t often bring up climate change as a concern, but they do bring up health and housing problems that are exacerbated by it.

Hurricane Ida, which caused extensive flooding in New York City in 2021, and killed 11 people trapped in basement apartments, was a wake-up call that housing and weather issues can collide, even inland.

“My organization is known for working on tenant and homeowner issues. We’re not known as an environmental organization, but we can’t think of our work as separate from the environmental,” she said.

Rasmussen said community organizations need to organize and document environmental issues that are displacing them, and demand help from local officials.

“Those of you who know your Frederick Douglass remember that power concedes nothing without demand. It never has, it never will. Community organizations are the key to making those demands.”

Carolyn Donovan, GSS ’16, works at P.S. 86 in the Bronx, where she provides both individual and small-group counseling and is part of the school’s crisis team. At Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, she specialized in trauma and did her field placement at a foster care placement office while also working at the Good Shepherd Services’ family foster care program in the Bronx.

Every day at P.S. 86 is different, as Donovan helps connect families to the resources they need, whether they’re struggling with housing, food, or an immigration matter.

“Social work is a unique field,” she said. “It’s multidimensional and you get to make a difference and advocate for the well-being of the people you’re working with.”

Preparing ‘Agents of Change’ to Meet a Growing Need

Demand for social workers in the New York City area and across the country is skyrocketing, fueled by the mental health crisis during the pandemic as well as the aging of the Baby Boom generation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment for social workers will grow faster than the average for all occupations, increasing by 9% by 2031 with about 74,900 openings predicted for each year.

Debra M. McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, said the work of professional social workers is critical during these complex times.

Steeped in the Jesuit tradition of cura personalis—care for the whole person—Fordham runs the largest school of social work in New York state, graduating 1,000 students each year who go on to work in a range of settings, including public agencies, nonprofits, hospitals, and schools. Because of Fordham’s long, rich history in social work, students benefit from a supportive alumni network and from courses taught by faculty members with deep expertise in the field.

A Connection with NYC Schools

Roger Ball, GSS ’02, is a GSS adjunct faculty member and supervisor of school social workers for the New York City Department of Education. He said that Donovan’s holistic approach at P.S. 86 is a hallmark of Fordham graduates. A social worker from Fordham will take the initiative to seek partnerships with community-based organizations, he said, and find resources for the families at their schools.

“They aren’t just going in to provide clinical intervention,” Ball said. “GSS students at Fordham are learning about human rights, social justice, environmental justice, and economic justice, and they’re going in with that lens.”

Ball noted that GSS also works with NYC DOE schools on professional development for social workers, guidance counselors, assistant principals, and principals.

“That part gives the opportunity to go deep and build capacity,” Ball said. “These are resources that a lot of schools can’t afford. It allows kids to get the social-emotional and learning support and allows our emerging clinicians to get a rich body of experience.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYC DOE hired more than 400 social workers—“the largest amount at any point that I can remember in public education,” Ball said—and the schools still need more.

Leadership in Caregiving

Ellen Travers, GSS ’22, never planned to become a social worker. A former media planner and a mother of four, Travers’ path took a turn when two separate health crises rocked her family.

First, she served as the primary caregiver for her elderly father until he passed in 2006. That experience led her to volunteer at the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center at Northern Westchester Hospital, which provides resources and support to caregivers. Then her husband, Paul, received a devastating diagnosis of metastatic renal cancer. She cared for him until he died in 2018.

Having navigated the complex medical, legal, financial, and emotional terrain of being a caregiver twice, Travers realized that social work was her true calling. In 2019, she enrolled in the Graduate School of Social Service. After finishing the MSW program and passing the licensing exam last year, she returned to the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center—this time as the program manager.

“I needed to do something with all this caregiving in my life,” Travers said. “Getting a master’s degree in social work tied together my life circumstances with meaningful work. If you’ve been on the caregiving side, you understand the need. It’s impactful, it’s very simple, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Focusing on hospital social work, Travers was particularly interested in evidence-based interventions for the geriatric population. “I received an incredible education because of some exceptional professors who are professionals in the social work field,” she said. “I was fortunate to have access to the Henry C. Ravazzin Center on Aging and Intergenerational Studies and have Professor Janna Heyman as a mentor.”

A Flexible Program with a Variety of Specializations

A GSS education is designed to be flexible, both in terms of scheduling and curriculum, said Melba Remice, the assistant dean of admissions. Students can enroll full-time or part-time, taking evening and weekend classes at either the Lincoln Center or the Westchester campuses. GSS also offers hybrid and online options.

Students have the freedom to tailor their studies to their area of interest. In the first half of the program, all students receive the same foundational courses. In the second phase, they pursue their own course of study, which can include trauma, palliative care, and global policy through a unique collaboration with the United Nations. Most students are required to participate in two field placements.

Scholarships and Fellowships

One challenge to increasing the pipeline of social workers is the cost of a master’s degree. Almost half of new social workers are the first generation in their families to graduate from college, and affording graduate school can be difficult.

Fordham offers a number of scholarships and fellowships to help MSW students, including the Palliative Care Fellowship and the PIPELINE for Youth Health Fellowship program.

For Jessica Castillo, earning her MSW has been made possible by the Centennial Scholarship Award from Fordham GSS and Catholic Charities, which was established in 2018 and provides full tuition.

A first-generation Mexican-American who was once a mentee at Bigs & Littles, she returned to the organization to work as their receptionist after completing her undergraduate degree at St. John’s University in 2016. The Bigs & Littles staff encouraged her to go into social work and apply to Fordham.

Castillo now works full-time as the communications and development officer at Bigs & Littles NYC Mentoring and takes classes in the evening. She can already connect what she’s learning in her classes with the interactions she observes between social workers and clients at work.

“Bigs & Littles helped me so much and I want to give back,” Castillo said. “I had been thinking about going into social work, but I didn’t have the funds. Getting this scholarship felt like winning the lottery.”

‘The Force for Hope and Light’

For Donovan, Fordham’s ingrained commitment to social justice and the education she received prepared her for the realities and challenges of social work.

“In the field, you are going to come up against things where you need to be the force for hope and light,” she said. “Because I had a strong foundation from my classes and my professors, I was able to translate that into actual practice.”

FORDHAM GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMISSION INFORMATION

Apply: Visit GSS for more information on prerequisites and the application process. 

Information Sessions: Register for an information session or email [email protected] to schedule an appointment. 

Upcoming Open Houses: Fordham GSS will hold open houses for its Westchester (4/15) and Lincoln Center (4/17) campuses. Learn more and register here.

—Mariko Beck

The symposium, titled “Leading for Change: How to Create Sustainable Impact in Children and Family Services,” brought together agency leaders, government officials, service providers, and more to learn about how partnerships can improve care and how the system can work to confront challenges.

Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, New York City deputy mayor for health and human services, helped organize the symposium to provide a place for professionals to learn with and from each other. While Williams-Isom was unable to attend, she said that the idea for the forum came from the legacy of James Dumpson, the late activist and leading social crusader who served as the city’s first black welfare commissioner and as GSS dean from 1967 to 1974.

“So much of Dr. Dumpson’s work was about the intersection of policy, practice, and research—he wanted to ensure that NYC children, families, individuals, and communities were supported with dignity,” said Williams-Isom, who served in leadership positions in the city’s child welfare system for many years before going on to lead the Harlem Children’s Zone, an education and anti-poverty nonprofit.

John Mattingly, a former head of New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), encouraged those in attendance to value the importance of public service.

“Public service creates public value,” he told those in attendance. “The work that we highlight tonight is one example of public service going back into the mid 1990s. And still going on here in New York City as we speak.”

A Look Back

Mattingly, who served as the welcome speaker, set the stage for the first panel, which featured a look back at the history of ACS. The panel included Linda Gibbs, who served as deputy mayor for health and human services for New York City; Gerard McCaffery, the former president and CEO of MercyFirst, a nonprofit human and social service agency; Sister Paulette LoMonaco, formerly of Good Shepherd Services; and Fred Wulcyzn, the director of the Center for State Child Welfare Data, Chapin Hall, at the University of Chicago.

Shirley Gatenio Gabel, the Mary Ann Quaranta Endowed Chair at GSS, who served as the moderator, highlighted the strides that many of the panelists had made during their time working with or for the city.

“There’s one statistic that keeps on coming to mind—in 1996, when ACS was founded, there were 50,000 children in care, and today, there’s 6,800,” she said. “So I think we can all agree that’s 6,800 too many children in care, but what an accomplishment. And a lot of that accomplishment is due to the hard work of people on this panel and people in this room, and many others working together to create a new system for children.”

The Importance of Data

Wulcyzn said he’s seen how data and story collection from those in the system can help to make improvements. He has about 4.5 million records of children in foster care since the late 1970s, when they first started tracking children’s experiences—at the time on index cards, compared to today’s more modern, efficient system.

“In the last 45 years or so, we have completely changed [the system], and our ability to know something that was happening to children is extraordinary,” he said. “And at the time with Linda and Nick [Scoppetta, the first head of ACS] and all the people who worked at ACS at that time, it was the first time we really had a chance to demonstrate what could be done to take those stories seriously and use them to make a better system.”

Addressing Current Issues

While panelists acknowledged that progress had been made in serving children and families, the second panel of the evening highlighted some of the challenges that still need to be addressed. The panel featured Jess Dannhauser, the current ACS commissioner; Julia Jean-Francois, the co-executive director at the Center for Family Life; Benita Miller, the executive director of Powerful Families, Powerful Communities; Raysa Rodriquez, chief program and policy officer at Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; and Willie Tolliver, professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.

Jennifer Jones Austin, LAW ’93, the CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, an anti-poverty, policy, and advocacy organization, served as the moderator. She said that as she listened to the speakers from the first panel, she kept thinking of the word sankofa, which is an African word from a tribe in Ghana.

“The literal translation of the word sankofa is ‘it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind,’” she said. “What it means is taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present to make progress in the future.”

Jones Austin said that she saw this as the goal of the evening—to look back on the history of ACS and to engage in “constructively critical analysis” of child welfare.

Miller said one of the things the agencies should keep in mind as they continue this work is the need to keep the community and the voices of children at the center of it..

“For me, it was very, very important to bring in folks who were impacted by the system to the conversations that were happening around their lives,” she said.

Inequities and Underlying Causes

Jones Austin emphasized that the system is set up to “treat the symptom.”

“To solve the problem, we have to get at the underlying cause that created the problem in the first place,” she said, citing examples of structural inequities such as poverty, mass incarceration, economic deprivation, social and emotional well-being, and a lack of clinical resources in communities. “We’re not going to solve these problems by just pouring more money into systems that are in place, at best, to treat the system.”

Dannhauser also highlighted the disparities that he and his team are working to address.

“There’s disproportionality throughout the entire system—the most disparate point is at the point of the call,” he said. “It’s 6.6 times more likely that a Black family be called [into ACS]than a white family in New York City. That means, according to one study, that we are investigating almost half of Black families in New York City—44%. And that’s something we’re working really hard on to fix.”

One way is through providing families with resources upfront, he said.

“We have a lot of work to do around how we engage families. We are very open in this administration that it may not be right for ACS to be building all of the solutions, but that there should be other areas that are created, and we have a long way to go.”

Williams-Isom said the goal of the forum was to focus on “how to create sustained reforms over many years in children and family services.”

“The panelists demonstrated the power of diverse teams to bring about systemic change and large-scale reform,” she said in an email following the event. “This needs to happen throughout the entire human services system so that we can reimagine what is possible so that people can truly thrive. I am so proud that Fordham GSS is at the center of this very important work.”