It’s a sentiment that Nina Heyden, FCRH ’17, holds dear. Currently on a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, she’s pursuing a Master of Science in Applied Economics and Data Analysis. She’s taking complex information, often big data, and boiling it down into digestible graphics, charts, and other discernible ways that visually convey what the numbers mean.

At Fordham, Heyden studied math and economics, where she got a foundation in econometrics and data analysis for work that she is continuing to do at Essex. Throughout her schooling, she said, she has set out to demystify complex economic concepts through visualization. As an undergraduate, she created interactive graphics to showcase the data behind the plight of the world’s migrant population.

“I am interested in social science research because it can influence policy and can affect the lives of a great number of people,” she said. “A visualization component is very important to explain trends to the general public and to policymakers in a clear and concise way. That’s why I find data visualization so compelling.”

Heyden said she learned about merging social justice with her academic strengths through Fordham’s Urban Plunge and the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice programs. She was also influenced aesthetically by her father, an architect, and her grandmother, a tapestry weaver.

“It concerns me to hear the statements that people make misinterpreting data on immigration, or not understanding the facts,” she said. “One thing that comes to mind is that there’s a lot of data that show that immigration can benefit a nation’s economy.”

Heyden began her examination of refugee and migrant populations by using data from the United Nations. At the University of Essex, she has access to the UK Data Archive, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of social and economic data. The longitudinal data, in particular, enables her to analyze trends using the same variables across time, “and often over several decades,” she said.

In the United Kingdom, as in the United States, anti-immigrant sentiment contributed to the nation’s election outcome of 2016. A study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology found that anti-immigrant prejudice played a major role in support for Brexit. To provide evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee, Heyden will be joining several economists in London to investigate how immigration impacts the U.K. economy, she said. The data will help inform policy within the context of Brexit.

Among the questions the group will be asking are: How does immigration impact productivity? And, does an increase in low-skilled workers encourage native workers to seek training and move into less physical, more communication- or cognitive-intensive occupations?

“Consensus from economic literature is that immigration is a net benefit to developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States,” she said. “In short, immigrants increase labor supply in addition to labor demand, and the U.K. labor market is flexible, adjusting quickly to shocks. Beyond integrating into the labor market, immigrants help to reduce the U.K. budget deficit by contributing more in taxes than they use in welfare and benefits.”

She reiterates that the truth is in the numbers.

“I’m interested in statistics because it can provide concrete answers to these problems that seem overwhelming,” she said. “And that brings me back to data visualization, because you can see the data clearly for yourself.”

An Iraq War veteran helps prepare fellow military vets for civilian leadership

Soon after graduating from Fordham with a degree in Latin American studies and sociology, Iraq War veteran Jayson Browder traveled to Turkey as a Fulbright Scholar.

Now he’s in Washington, D.C., heading up Veterans in Global Leadership, a nonprofit he founded in 2015 that, among other things, prepares student veterans to compete for prestigious scholarships and fellowships, and offers networking events and one-on-one mentoring.

“We want to reframe the idea of what a vet-in-transition is,” Browder once said of returning veterans. “There’s this idea out there that vets are broke, need to be fixed—that they need, need, need. Vets don’t feel that’s the case. We think we’re a natural resource to be tapped into.”

In 2017, Veterans for Global Leadership alumni garnered two Fulbrights, a Truman, and two Boren Fellowships for study in Jordan, among other awards.

Raised by his grandparents, Browder grew up in rural South Carolina and earned an associate’s degree while enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He transferred to Fordham in 2011, and his postgraduate pursuits have included an appointment as a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow at the White House.

He believes the world needs what veterans have to offer.

“We find ourselves in a leadership crisis moment,” Browder says, “with a lot of big-time problems that Americans need to solve—from climate change to a host of national security issues. I believe that veterans are people who have courage, who have shown a sense of service, and who are risk-takers. Veterans like to solve problems.”

—David McKay Wilson

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

“My first exposure to the Middle East was through seeing war-torn images in the newspapers,” says Sikorski, FCRH ‘16. “These images have stuck with me.”

The images, in fact, inspired her to explore the language and culture herself rather than “being swayed by stereotypes.”

Sikorski, who majored in Middle East studies is spending the year abroad on a Fulbright research grant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she is interviewing Emirati artists, working to preserve local artistic traditions, and fostering a greater understanding of local art histories within the community.

“Emiratis make up about only 10 percent of the nation’s population,” says Sikorski. “So it is important for us to consider their culture, and the UAE’s history, as it relates to the exponential growth of the country.“

To those ends, Sikorski is hoping to revitalize Emirati art in an area that is becoming more and more influenced by Western culture. She says that much of the history of Emirati art is readily available in museums and art schools; it is the lack of mentorship that is the bigger issue.

“I want to give the younger artists reassurance that there is a community of older local artists who are waiting to tell their stories and offer their guidance,” she says.

She has been traveling the country interviewing older and younger Emirati artists, and publishing her interviews on her personal website, mideastart.com and in international and local art journals. She is co-curating an annual exhibition for the Emirates Fine Art Society, the first art society established in the UAE in 1980, which served as one of the only centers for creatives to learn about art and exhibit during that time.

“Just a few months ago, I was writing my senior thesis on these older Emirati artists,” says Sikorski. “Now I have the time to interview them. It’s inspiring to record these artists’ stories.”

Sikorski hopes her work “gives the art a voice to express the Middle Eastern perspective through personal stories,” especially for her family and friends. The Polish-Italian-American daughter of two Fordham graduates (Leonard Sikorski, FCRH ’80 and Bonnie Bilotti-Sikorski, FCRH ’82), Sikorski says her family has been very supportive of her research.

“The most important moments are when my parents share my photos and interviews, as they connect with people back home who are eager to learn more about the region.”

While a Fordham student, Sikorski studied abroad in the American University of Sharjah in the UAE and then in Paris. Through those opportunities she met a wide range of artists, gallery owners, and collectors.

She hopes her interviews nurture the UAE’s art industry and help Emiratis make sense of their own historical narratives. “An awareness of local culture is important for young artists who may be influenced by the internationalization of Dubai. The [artists]need to cherish their identity,” she says.

When her Fulbright is completed, Sikorski hopes to continue interviewing artists and to investigate the rising young talent in the region. Ultimately, she hopes to curate UAE-based and international art exhibitions, so that collectors, students, and other artists realize that “the artwork isn’t only a canvas with a price tag, but also reflects an expression of the people in the community.”

“It’s something I’m truly passionate about—opening doors for Emiratis who are starting to voice their stories to a public eager to learn about them. “

Sikorski is recording her artistic adventures on her Instagram page @mideastart.

—Mary Awad