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.”

“All of the things that we teach and talk about at Fordham—the city as our campus, research with justice and solidarity, attention to those on the margins—those are all at the center of this project,” said Brenna Moore, Ph.D., project co-leader and Fordham theology professor.

The organization, LSA Family Health Service, was founded by the Little Sisters of the Assumption in 1958. It’s a community-based organization that provides free services to disadvantaged families in East Harlem, with the goal of strengthening and empowering them to uplift the entire community. Last year, LSA enlisted two Fordham professors—Moore, a theology professor who serves on LSA’s board of directors, and Carey Kasten, Ph.D., an associate professor of Spanish—to help them tell their story. The resulting research project, “Mutuality in El Barrio: Stories of LSA Family Health Services in East Harlem,” will be the first academic study of LSA’s 63-year history and its long-term impact in the community, said Moore. 

In February 2020, Moore and Kasten launched their project, thanks to funding from CCEL’s Faculty-Led Initiatives program, which supports interdisciplinary projects that serve the local community and advance social justice. 

“We thought it was a great fit for CCEL and Fordham,” said Julie Gafney, Ph.D., executive director of CCEL. “This entire project, from conception to implementation, is about practicing mutuality.”

Mutuality is the guiding spiritual principle of LSA, which was originally founded by Catholic nuns, said Moore.

“They are now run by a more secular staff, but they’re still grounded in this principle of mutuality that distinguishes them from other organizations. They have a two-way relationship where both parties cultivate their strengths and learn from each other,” said Moore. 

In spring 2020, Moore and Kasten hired seven Spanish-speaking student researchers from Fordham—three undergraduates and four students from the Graduate School of Social Service—to help them interview immigrant families who have used LSA’s services. In fall 2020, the team interviewed 19 mothers in their native language about what brought them to the U.S. and how the skills they learned through LSA have empowered them and their families.

The women’s stories were emotional and poignant, said Moore. 

“There were several people in one household who had COVID, along with a little sister who had leukemia. There was so much trauma and struggle in these interviews. But it was also remarkable to hear about the resilience and the creativity these women possessed, as well as their desire to give back to their community through volunteering and helping their neighbors,” said Moore.  

The hour-and-a-half long conversations were emotional for the interviewers, too, said Kasten. 

“Those women are trusting you with so much at that moment—their story of coming to the U.S., with both trauma and reflection,” said Kasten, a fluent Spanish speaker who spearheaded the interview process. “The students were also moved by the interviews and drawn into the project because many of them are members of Spanish-speaking households whose parents have stories similar to the women that they interviewed.” 

This past spring, Moore and Kasten’s team transcribed their interviews and researched LSA’s history, spirituality, and ministry. In November, they were awarded the $15,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Religion and Theology Program to take their project to the finish line. From now until January 2023, the team will complete their book, present their research at a conference, and host a public event where all project participants can celebrate their work. Their project is now under advance book contract with Fordham Press’s Empire State Editions. 

“It means everything for us to have our stories told,” said Trish Gough, director of volunteer services at LSA. “We’ve lived within this community for 63 years. Our history is so rich, and capturing it in a book filled with research means so much to us and our community.”

“Much as we loved Alex as the award-winning television host of Jeopardy!, I believe he came to mean more to Fordham—and to the public—as an educator and a spokesperson for the power of education,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He gave knowledge and expertise a cachet among a broad audience in a time when those qualities seemed under assault in popular entertainment. Today we, and the world, grieve with his wife, Jean, and his children, Emily, Matthew, and Nicky, over the loss of this exceptional and compassionate man.”

From the moment Trebek arrived at the Rose Hill campus in 2009 with his son Matt Trebek, FCRH ’13, a prospective student at the time, to more than seven years after Matt graduated, Trebek and his wife Jean have been model University parents. Both gave generously, not just to the Alex Trebek Endowed Scholarship Fund they created, but of their time as well.

In 2011, the same year the University bestowed an honorary degree upon him, Trebek set time aside time from his busy schedule to host a Q&A with students from Rose Hill. He was celebrating 50 years in the industry at the time.

“There is a line that I heard not too long ago that goes, ‘Find something you’re good at, and if you really like doing it, you will never have to work a day in your life,” Trebek told the students. “That’s the way it’s been for me and broadcasting.”

His generosity of time continued through his illness, as was noted by Jeopardy! contestant Ed Condon, FCRH ’84. Cordon was a two-day champion on episodes that aired in October 2019.

“Alex Trebek is incredible because he’s doing all this stuff he doesn’t have to do,” Condon said at the time, noting that despite his illness Trebek spent hours with contestants and the studio audience, talking to them and answering their questions.

Receiving the Fordham Founder’s Award

His steadfast dependability was on display on Jan. 7 when the Trebeks were honored with the Fordham Founder’s Award at a special award ceremony held in Los Angeles. Trebek arrived straight from the studio, still in makeup after recording five episodes of Jeopardy!. It was the first time the statuette of Fordham founder Archbishop John Hughes was presented outside of New York City.

The award citation noted that in his more than three decades of hosting Jeopardy! Trebek received numerous accolades, including six Daytime Emmys (now seven) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Television Academy. In 2011, the show received a Peabody Award for “encouraging, celebrating, and rewarding knowledge” while maintaining “a model of integrity and decorum.”

On bestowing the Founder’s award, Father McShane underscored what Trebek has meant to millions of viewers.

“He’s a brilliant man who is the nation’s schoolteacher, let’s admit that. As the host of Jeopardy!, he is our schoolteacher and we look forward to going to school every evening,” he said.

Trebek was visibly moved during his acceptance speech at the event. He spoke of how his Catholic upbringing helped him amidst the cancer treatments.

“If there’s one thing I have discovered in the past year it is that power of prayer,” he said, holding back tears. “I learned it from the Jesuits when I was a kid, l learned it from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate when I was in boarding school,” he said.

A Canadian-American Success Story

A native of Sudbury, Ontario, Trebek attended Jesuit grade schools that laid a foundation for the two degrees in philosophy he eventually earned at the University of Ottawa. In a 2008 interview with CBC, Trebek was asked why he studied philosophy. He provided a rather Jesuitical response.

“I got into philosophy to figure out what on earth I was doing on earth,” he said.

He said in the interview that he had “drifted into broadcasting” and found it to be a good fit. Yet, even as his chosen profession took him toward gameshows, he said he favored competitions that required contestants “to win the old-fashioned way, earning it.”

“They have to be bright; they have to know something,” he said.

Trebek was first noticed by American viewers in 1973 when he hosted the NBC game show Wizard of Odds.  After several other hosting roles, he was chosen to host Jeopardy! He was a hit with viewers and soon became a pop culture icon, setting the world record for hosting the most episodes of a game show.

Lance Strate, Ph.D., professor of communication and media studies, said that for many Americans, having Trebek in their homes night after night gave them a sense that they knew him.

“We knew him parasocially, which is to say we knew him, but he didn’t know us,” said Strate. “Alex Trebek is the teacher we all wanted to have growing up.”

Strate said that the game show host also evoked an earlier time when radio was the primary medium and quiz shows celebrated the spoken word.

“Jeopardy! has been a throwback in contrast to recent game show formats that have morphed into reality TV and are more visual and action-oriented,” he said. “With the focus on text and words, that put much more emphasis on the host. He became a much more powerful presence because of that, and that’s also why his loss is felt so profoundly.”

He added that Trebek also represented the idea that one could get ahead by the strength of one’s mind rather than by luck.

“In a sense, he symbolized the idea of college itself—that education is important, and it is something that continues,” he said.

Family Life

Throughout his career, Trebek led a rich family life. Over the years, he remained a devoted father to Nicky Trebek, whom he adopted during his first marriage to her mother, Elaine Callei Trebek. The couple separated in the early ’80s.

He met Long Island native Jean Currivan—a businesswoman, author, and spiritual counselor—at a party in New York in 1988. They married two years later and had two children together: Emily and Matthew. The siblings both chose Jesuit schools for college. Emily graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 2015 and went on to a career in real estate. Matthew graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2013 and, like his father, earned a degree in philosophy.

Matthew now lives in Harlem and owns and runs three restaurants there: Oso, a Mexican restaurant at 140th and Amsterdam Avenue; Pizza by Lucille’s; and Lucille’s Coffee & Cocktails. The last two are named for his grandmother and located at 150th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. His chosen university and neighborhood have become part of his parents’ lives as well.

“I have seen the benefits of a Fordham education close up,” Trebek told Fordham News in 2015. “My son’s career at the University not only sharpened his intellect but helped him develop as a leader and a well-rounded person.”

In a 2016 interview with Fordham Magazine, Matthew said that while his father doesn’t necessarily share in devotion to food—“He would be fine eating chicken, white rice, and broccoli for the rest of his life”— he shared an appreciation of his son’s adoptive home.

Giving Back

In 2015, the Trebeks established the Alex Trebek Endowed Scholarship Fund with a gift of $1 million.  Four years later they made an additional gift of $1 million to the fund, which supports students from North Harlem and East Harlem.

“We have a soft spot for Harlem,” Jean Trebek told Fordham News last year.

At the ceremony, Jean said that she and her husband find the very idea of how a scholarship can change a life “awe-inspiring.”

One of the Trebek scholarship recipients, Joel Gomez FCRH ’19, said that even though he knew Trebek was ill, the news of his passing still came as a surprise.

“Just seeing the news, it comes as a shock. He’s Alex Trebek, he’s been hosting Jeopardy! for as long as I’ve been around,” said Gomez. “The first thing I thought about was the scholarship that I was gifted through him. I tweeted out thank you.”

Gomez attended a high school in the South Bronx where the student body was “about 98 percent men of color.” He stressed that the gift’s geographic emphasis was good for him and the University as a whole.

“It’s important to see that the University caters to different students,” he said. “Giving help to students like me lets me absorb different cultures and that experience is really important.”

Gomez took note of Trebek’s Canadian background and appreciated how the gift crossed boundaries and cultures.

“I think it’s exciting, he grew up in a completely different culture and to give back later to a whole different community—it’s pretty dope,” he said.

In their philanthropy, the Trebeks have supported World Vision, an international anti-poverty organization, as well as many other humanitarian and educational organizations. They also established a forum on public policy issues and an innovation/challenge fund at the University of Ottawa.

“You think Alex Trebek is a good man; you don’t know the half of it,” Father McShane said at the Founder’s ceremony in L.A. “He teaches us about how to live each day with purpose, with focus, with determination, with love, and without being obsessed with oneself. All that he does is outwardly directed.”

‘Everything Is Possible’

At the L.A. event, Father McShane said that by publicly sharing his journey with cancer, Trebek had actually evolved his role to that of minister. He then asked the crowd to say the Lord’s Prayer for Trebek and his “ministry.”

The gesture threw Trebek slightly off-balance before he regained composure by holding his wife’s hand and entering a state of prayer.

In his acceptance speech, he reflected on what gives meaning to one’s life.

“If you have compassion in your heart, everything is possible, peace everywhere is possible,” Trebek said. “If we are able to affect society in a positive way then our lives will not be for naught.”

Trebek is survived by his wife and children. His final episodes of Jeopardy! will air through Dec. 25.

The iconic game-show host, who is living with stage four pancreatic cancer, arrived at the event straight from the studio still in makeup from recording five episodes of Jeopardy!. He told the crowd that he was there to provide comic relief from the formalities. Pointing to the statue, he noted that at 20 pounds it was the heaviest award he has ever received.

“That’s about a case of beer for those of you who keep track of statistics,” he mused.

On a more serious note, he acknowledged that his consistent appearance on the game show, despite his illness, has been an encouragement to others who are suffering.

“It’s humbling and it’s gratifying; because of the program that I have hosted for 36 years I have managed to touch the lives of so many people,” he said.

Fordham Trustee Fellow Armando Nuñez, GABELLI ’82, Trustee Brian MacLean, FCRH ’75, Alex Trebek and Jean Trebek, PAR, and Father McShane

He recalled a recent Lakers game that he attended where the sports announcer Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, leaned in to remind him that there were “a lot of people praying” for him.

“And if there’s one thing I have discovered in the past year it is that power of prayer; I learned it from the Jesuits when I was a kid, l learned it from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate when I was in boarding school,” he said with tears in his eyes.

The Trebeks would go on to send their two children to Jesuit schools. Their daughter, Emily, graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 2015 and their son, Matthew, graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill with a degree in philosophy in 2013. Today Matthew is a restaurateur in Harlem, an area of the city that the couple has grown very fond of. They established the Alex Trebek Endowed Scholarship, making gifts of $2 million to aid Fordham students from North Harlem and East Harlem.

“You think Alex Trebek is a good man; you don’t know the half of it, he’s better than you think,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He’s a brilliant man who is the nation’s school teacher, let’s admit that. As the host of Jeopardy!, he is our school teacher and we look forward to going to school every evening.”

Father McShane called Trebek a man of “quiet generosity” who, even in tough times, continues to teach.

“He teaches us about how to live each day with purpose, with focus, with determination, with love, and without being obsessed with oneself,” he said. “All that he does is outwardly directed. And he would freely say that the inspiration for all of this is his muse, Jean.”

In accepting the award, Jean Trebek drove home Fordham values that align with those of her and her husband.

“We understand how education, and probably more importantly, higher education, is one of the linchpins of society,” she said. “The many issues that we currently face are intertwined and affected by the leveling of educational availability.”

She said that she and her husband find the very idea of how a scholarship can change a life “awe-inspiring.”

“Once we are allowed to have the support that leads to an educated mind, that mind has the opportunity to be open and curious which allows for a fuller understanding and appreciation of our humanity both individually and collectively,” she said, noting that she has seen it occur in her own family.

“On a personal note, thank you, Father McShane and Fordham, for helping to develop our son Matthew’s personhood, both intellectually and emotionally, so that he can move through his life, which he does, with great confidence, responsibility, and creativity,” she said.

Her husband echoed her sentiments.

“If you have compassion in your heart, everything is possible, peace everywhere is possible,” he said. “If we are able to affect society in a positive way then our lives will not be for naught.”

Father McShane said he could not agree more with the couple, particularly as it related to the power of prayer. He then asked the crowd to join him to pray for Alex and “for his ministry.”

“That’s the one thing that has become clearer and clearer in the last few months, the school teacher has now become the minister,” said Father McShane, before reciting the Our Father and blessing Alex.

Earlier, eyeing the Archbishop Hughes statue during his acceptance speech, Trebek noted, “I have a thing about men with capes.

“People ask me at the studio quite often ‘If you weren’t hosting Jeopardy what would have you wanted to be in your life?’ And my response for years has been consistent, ‘Pope!’”

On leaving the stage, he assured the crowd that he had already tried to lift the 20-pound statue and that he didn’t want it sent back to his home. He was taking it home himself.

“I want it,” he said.

The event was hosted by Madeline McFadden-Nuñez and Fordham Trustee Fellow Armando Nuñez, GABELLI ’82, chairman of ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group and chief content licensing officer at ViacomCBS. In attendance were alumni, students, and newly-accepted Rams who will start at Fordham in the fall.

“It is hard to overstate the impact of Alex and Jean’s generosity,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Their gifts ensure a student body that is more diverse in every way, better prepared to excel as students at Fordham and as leaders upon their graduation. The University—and its students—owe a debt of gratitude to the Trebeks.”

Reached by phone at the couple’s home in Los Angeles, Jean Trebek said that there were several things that motivated the couple to continue supporting students from a neighborhood on the other side of the country, not least of which was the concept of paying it forward.

“If we can help them, they will help others, and there’s that beautiful rippling effect,” she said.

‘A Soft Spot for Harlem’ 

The Trebeks have two children: Emily, Loyola Marymount University Class of 2015, and Matthew, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill with a degree in philosophy in 2013.

When Alex first established the scholarship fund with Jean in 2015, he said the benefits of Matthew’s Fordham education were clear.

“My son’s career at the University not only sharpened his intellect but helped him develop as a leader and a well-rounded person,” said the Jeopardy! host. “My hope for this scholarship is that it helps many other deserving students have that same transformational experience.”

Thanks to their son, the Trebeks are no strangers to Harlem. Matthew has gone on to own two restaurants in the neighborhood: Oso, a Mexican restaurant at 140th and Amsterdam Avenue, and the soon-to-be-unveiled Lucille, named for his grandmother, at 152nd Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

“We have a soft spot for Harlem,” said Jean.

Experiencing Different Cultures

Fordham’s first Trebek scholar, Estefania Cruz, commuted to campus from her home in Harlem. She graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2017 with plans for a career in social work. The current scholar, Joel Gomez, is on track to graduate from Fordham College at Rose Hill next year with a degree in international political economy. Gomez said he first received the scholarship in his junior year, which helped him clear that year’s loans. He has received the funds again for this year.

When he first came to Fordham, Gomez said he wasn’t entirely aware that the campus would be so different from All Hallows High School, his alma mater in the South Bronx, where the student body was “about 98 percent men of color.”

“It’s important to see that the University caters to different students,” he said. “Giving help to students like me lets me absorb different cultures and that experience is really important.”

He said at first, he was a little stunned that the scholarship came from the famous game show host. He later took note of Trebek’s Canadian background and appreciated how the gift crossed boundaries and cultures.

“I think it’s exciting, he grew up in a completely different culture and to give back later to a whole different community—it’s pretty dope,” he said.

Jean said that after meeting one scholarship recipient’s parents, she felt a maternal kinship.

“I think anytime we help our children, you don’t feel alone, you feel a sense of oneness, a sense of engagement, and a connectedness,” she said.

Meeting a Need

Just as Harlem is often called the cultural capital of black America, home to the Apollo Theater and Schomberg Center, East Harlem is often referred to as El Barrio and is a cultural hub of Latino New York, home to Museo del Barrio and several other Latino cultural institutions and nonprofits. It is also home to a significant population of students in need of scholarships.

With this expansion, the number of prospective applicants for consideration for the Trebek Scholarship will nearly double, thereby increasing the likelihood that more students from Harlem and East Harlem will ultimately enroll at the University. Last fall, there were 116 applicants from Harlem, with 252 from both Harlem and East Harlem.

Jean said that the couple decided to expand the scholarship’s neighborhood parameters after conversations with Father McShane.

“Once it was proposed, we had no reason not to expand, because [Fordham’s] philosophy is that education is at the root of living a life of compassion,” she said. “You need the mind and the heart and that’s a beautiful thing that Fordham does.”