For more than 20 years, Fordham’s IIHA has teamed with JRS to raise awareness about the plight of refugees through lectures, events, and on-the-ground training of students, teachers, and relief workers. Now, the new memorandum of understanding formalizes that relationship and outlines a scope of collaboration that will include project development, research initiatives, internship and professional opportunities for students, campus outreach for undergraduates and graduates, and a renewed emphasis on participants’ well-being while working in the world’s most troubled regions.

“We are sister and brother organizations—in this case, a Jesuit institution of higher education helping a Jesuit non-government organization—with the same pedagogy that informs both, same philosophy and values of helping those who are vulnerable and in need of advocacy,” said Brendan Cahill, executive director of IIHA.

Research Helps Identify Needs

The work began in earnest two years ago with fellowship funding provided to Nedezhna Castellano, Ph.D., by the Helen Hamlyn Trust. Castellano, who co-directed an IIHA course titled Education in Emergencies, generated a report identifying educational needs in three key regions of conflict: Chad, where there are more than 80,000 refugees; Lebanon, which continues to absorb refugees from the Syrian conflict; and Myanmar, formerly Burma, where ongoing political turmoil has claimed 500 lives since this past February’s military coup.

Cahill said that while he has long been in charge of connecting University talent to JRS needs, the report helped the institute home in on which Fordham schools could provide students for research, internships, and jobs. They include the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the Graduate School of Arts and Science.

A Focus on Teachers

He noted that when unrest occurs, teachers of young people are often diverted from their calling.

“The first person who is pinched in a conflict is the teacher, often to be a translator or guide to outsiders,” said Cahill, noting that teachers often get pulled into work for NGOs. “But then you’re creating a deficit, a deduction of talent. If they’re no longer teaching, who is going to teach?”

Fordham has already created courses with IIHA for JRS personnel that help create best practices for training the next generation of teachers needed to fill that gap, he said. In addition, as caring for the caregivers has been identified as an important component of this work, Cahill has been working with the Department of Psychology on how to assist in the psychosocial care of the teachers. Cahill said that he’s also been having conversations with Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of GSS, who is interested in placing students in internships and jobs. He added that any research generated will likely be published by The Refugee Press, a new journal published by IIHA.

“I’ve always been a point of contact with the Jesuit Refugee Services, the tip of the spear of a relatively small institute affiliated with this very large institution, so those relationships and introductions have to be managed, on our side, and that’s what this memorandum has formalized,” he said.

Online Learning Increases Participation

Cahill added that an upshot of the pandemic has been that the pivot to online learning means that more students can participate than ever before. He noted that costs of visas and transportation alone often limited IIHA’s reach.

“There are a lot of opportunities that will come out of this because most of it is online, and by creating academically rigorous programs online you bring those barriers down,” he said. “We can now provide opportunities that some people wouldn’t have had at any other time.”

Those who would like to support the IIHA in this work can make a gift here. 

Two days later, humanitarian aid workers, designers, and architects from around the world gathered at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus to talk about what can be done to help them.

Design for Humanity Summit II: Design in the Time of Displacement, a day-long summit sponsored by Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, is the second design summit of its kind, following an inaugural gathering last June. The conference explored how the intersection between design and humanitarian action can compel a more dignified, inclusive, and sustainable humanitarian response.

In a keynote address, Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, told attendees that the media can be the greatest force for peace on earth. It has the capacity to spotlight people affected by wars and climate change-driven weather events, she said, citing the work of activists such as those who protested the installation of an oil pipeline at Standing Rock, North Dakota.

“The way the media talks about pro-democracy movements is, it’s for other countries, because we’ve achieved democracy in the United States,” she said.

“But you never really achieve democracy. You have to fight for it every single day, and that’s what these human rights groups do. That’s why it’s critical we have a media that provides a platform for people like all of you, who are the experts in your areas, rather than pundits we get on all of the networks, who know so little about so much.”

Elevate Their Voices

Democracy Now! has covered many stories related to refugees recently, she said, including one about a lawyer representing the Department of Justice who argued before Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the administration was not required to provide detained children with soap, toothbrushes, and blankets. Less known, she said, are stories such as that of Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of four from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years but has been recently living in a church in Denver to avoid deportation.

“To be able to hear their voices, that’s what will change the world. To go to where the silence is. Working with refugees around the world, it’s not often silent where you are, but for the corporate media, it is. Those voices do not hit the media radar screen. And it’s our job to elevate them,” she said.

“These are the voices that will save all our humanity.”

In addition to workshops, Friday’s summit, a partnership between the IIHA and the International Organization for Migration, also featured talks by Argentina Szabados, regional director, IOM in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and Richard Blewitt, head of delegation and permanent observer of the Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to the United Nations.

Settlement Camps No Longer Temporary

Szabados said there is cause for both optimism and pessimism in the field. On the plus side, the tools for collecting and analyzing data collection have never been more easily obtained. On the other hand, she noted, no one believes anymore there is anything temporary about settlements for displaced individuals. One camp on the India/Bangladesh border, she noted, has been open for 70 years. Therefore, it is important to consider what it means for such places to be not just shelters, but “homes.”

“The dwelling places we provide ought not be ‘just good enough’ to keep people alive in a miserable twilight of half-existence. They must also give people an opportunity to develop, to be healthy, to learn,” she said.

Blewitt said one of the lessons that has become abundantly clear when it comes to providing shelter to vulnerable populations is that aid groups should be focused on the process that leads to shelter construction, not just the finished product.  People who have been displaced should be offered a chance to help rebuild their own community.

“When we’re looking at shelter, non-specialists often think we should build something by ourselves. And this is understandable, but it might hamper a future resilience agenda,” he said.

“We want to work very much with populations that are affected, and enable them to look at incremental expansion and improvement of their shelter options, and [let them know]that they are in the driving seat, not us.”

This has the effect of bringing down costs, he said, and also allows countries to take pride in being able to care for its citizens, even if what’s built is not perfect.

“Sometimes humanitarians kind of believe they’re fixing everything, but actually that’s not the reality, he said, noting that globally, the amount of money sent to countries via remittances dwarfs official development aid.

“People are finding ways.”

Video of the morning’s session can be viewed here.
Video of the afternoon’s session can be viewed here.

The summit, a partnership between the IIHA and the International Organization for Migration, explored how the intersection between design and humanitarian action can compel a more dignified, inclusive, and sustainable humanitarian response.

More than 40 presenters from the design, humanitarian, and academic communities, as well as the private sector, presented at panels or breakout sessions. An estimated 300 participants, from as far away as Europe and Asia, took part in the conference.

A Key Research Area

“Design for humanity is one of five key research areas for the Institute, and we believe it will have an impact on current thinking and practices of the humanitarian sector,” said IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill in his opening remarks.

“We seek to galvanize the diverse expertise of those working at this intersection through a multi-year Design for Humanity Initiative and Lab, which will include future events, research, publications, and collaborative projects.”

In his keynote session, Randy Fiser, CEO of the American Society of Interior Designers, kicked off the morning with a call to explore potential partnerships and identity gaps. To give a sense of how such partnerships between design, community, and government can work, he pointed to Regent Park, a 69-acre neighborhood in Toronto that is currently being redeveloped.

“As we know, when redevelopment takes place in neighborhoods, there is an opportunity to push out communities that were there to begin with and to displace them,” he said.

“Regent Park took a very critical look at how they could not only empower and improve the lives of the people there and add value, but also incorporate 25,000 Syrian refugees into the community,” he said.

Sustainability, health, and wellness, and resiliency should always be key dimensions of any design, he said. There are also opportunities to learn from failures, such as the Superdome, which became a shelter in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“We knew New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes. We knew that people would shelter in the Superdome at some point. And yet it wasn’t designed in a way to handle the volume of people that were there. We didn’t prepare, and so what happened was another cataclysmic event,” he said.

“People deserve better from us.”

The Role of Architects

His sentiment was echoed in the day’s first panel, “From Public Interest Design to Humanitarian Design: How Design Compels an Inclusive Humanitarian Response.” Sean Anderson, associate curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, began by sharing pictures of squalid living facilities for refugees that Australia had established on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and in the nation of Nauru in Micronesia, and ended with images of tents in Southern Texas that currently house refugees who have crossed over from Mexico.

“This is not architecture, and this is not design, yet it is, and there are people who are responsible for building, maintaining and preserving these systems that are happening right now on our southern border,” he said, imploring everyone to oppose them.

Another panelist, Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, Ph.D., made an impassioned plea for architects to resist the temptation to work with those who put up tent cities for migrants. It benefits no one, it creates ghettos, and it perpetuates “ unacceptable policies,” she said.

Arroyo, who is director and master of international cooperation sustainable emergency architecture at the Universrstat Internacional de Catalunya School of Architecture, suggested instead efforts to resettle refugees and migrants in cities. In response to the influx of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is attempting to do rehabilitate abandoned buildings to house them.

Sergio Palleroni, professor and director of the Center for Public Interest Design at Portland State University, showed off the Partners On Dwelling (POD) initiative that the city of Portland, Oregon has undertaken to tackle homelessness. Micro houses measuring just 225 square feet have been assembled for $2,600 each and clustered together in groups of a dozen or so on formerly abandoned land. The three clusters, or “villages,” that they have created have been invaluable tools for helping people escape homelessness.

Palleroni noted that in the past, he has sent his students to study abroad to get a better sense of the world outside the United States’ borders. But extreme poverty and hopelessness is here as well.

“To me, the most difficult thing that I see [globally]is a kind of sense that people are losing faith in institutions and political processes that we have,” he said.

“The money is there to make the changes, we just need a consensus and an ability to come together to support them.”

Working backward from No. 10, are our most popular posts of the year.

10. Actor Robert De Niro Tells IDHA Graduates: You Are My Heroes
(June 30) The Hollywood legend offered the commencement address to the 50th graduating class of Fordham’s International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA).

9. Fordham Designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education
(April 3) The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated Fordham as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE).

8. Oscar-Nominated Moonlight Illuminates Miami Film’s Co-Producer
(February 24) Alumnus Andrew Hevia co-produced the film which took home Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

7. Rainbow Rams Represent Fordham in NYC’s Gay Pride March
(June 26) The university was represented for the first time in the annual Pride Parade by the Fordham University Alumni chapter of the Rainbow Rams.

6. Fordham Signs Pledge to Support Paris Climate Change Goals
(June 6) Fordham has joined 180 colleges and universities in signing a pledge, “We Are Still In,” to support the goals laid out by the Paris Climate Agreement.

Class of 2017 Urged to Face Unsettling Times With a Merciful Heart

5. Class of 2017: Face Unsettling Times with a Merciful Heart
(May 20) As thousands on Edwards Parade listened to commencement speaker Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, our news team posted videos of both before and after the ceremony.

4. Haunted Fordham Video
(October 30) Fordham’s Rose Hill campus is widely considered to be one of the most haunted campuses in the Northeast, if not the entire U.S. And we had the spooky stories to prove it.

3. Father McShane Announces University Support for Immigrants and Refugees
(January 29) Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, issued the following statement with regard to President Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration.

2. Fordham featured prominently on the New York City skyline last night.
(March 28) The Empire State Building was lit in maroon to commemorate Fordham’s 175th anniversary, and the dramatic photo helped boost our 175 Things to Know About Fordham series.

1. Jeopardy! 175th Anniversary Greeting for Fordham
(January 2017) Alex Trebek asking a Final Jeopardy! question on 19-letter words, a shout-out to Fordham’s (What is a) Dodransbicentennial. The post was seen by more than 108,000 viewers.

In the fall of 2018, students who want to do just that will be able to gain all the skills they’ll need to work in the field of humanitarian aid.

Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) is offering a Master’s of Science in Humanitarian Studies, a 30-credit interdisciplinary program built on social justice values and humanitarian principles.

The degree, which will be the first U.S.-based master’s degree dedicated exclusively to international humanitarian response, will be offered through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

The IIHA already offers a Master of Arts in Humanitarian Action through the GSAS that is an executive-style program for those already working in the sector. It has an average student age of 40.

IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill said the M.S. in Humanitarian Studies will appeal to students in their 20’s who want to learn skills that non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) are looking for. Fordham undergraduates from any degree program will also be able to apply in their junior year to an accelerated track, allowing them to complete a BA/BS and MS in Humanitarian Studies in five years.

In addition to students affiliated with schools affiliated with the Network on Humanitarian Actions, Cahill said he expects the degree will appeal to undergraduates attending other Jesuit universities.

“It’s a natural graduate degree for those students who are already inculcated in Ignatian pedagogy,” he said.

The degree will feature three distinct tracks: Human Rights, Communities and Capacity Building, and Livelihoods and Institutions. Cahill said that in the past, a person might have gotten a degree in food security, logistics, or accounting, and then learned on the job as they rose through the ranks of an NGO. With this degree, they will graduate with a suite of skills at their fingertips, from financial accounting and communication skills to data analysis and development.

“By combining these disparate elements, you become a more well-rounded aid professional,” he said.

“It helps to know how to do these skills; they complement the passion and compassion that naturally leads one into the humanitarian sector.”

All students will take five courses have been created exclusively for the degree: Fundamentals of Humanitarian Action, Contemporary Issues in Humanitarian Action, Information Management, Humanitarian Resource Management & Administration, and Monitoring & Evaluation in Humanitarian Response.

Another draw of the degree is the vast network of partnerships that students will be able to tap into for classes and for a mandatory semester-long internship. If a student is interested in a subject that is not being offered at Fordham, he will be able to take it elsewhere. A class on food security issues might be offered through the University College, Dublin, for instance, and a course on education in emergencies might be offered by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

“We can teach students a lot by being in the capital of the world. The U.N. headquarters are based here, and there are so many humanitarian NGOs based in New York. But how else are you going to learn other than by getting experience in the field?” said Cahill.

“We’ve been running training programs for 20 years.  We have 3,000 alumni in middle to senior levels at organizations around the world. There’s a growing number of undergraduates who view their liberal arts education through the prism of humanitarian studies, but for those who want to go into the field, there has to be a mentorship. There has to be a hand that’s put out for them to pull them in. That’s what this program is designed to do.”

Frazier’s visit was cut short, as was her work with Timap for Justice, the country’s largest paralegal network. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, Frazier had been helping develop organizational assessment tools and training materials, and observing paralegal activities in Timap’s various offices around the country.

For a year, Frazier worked remotely for Timap as best as she could from the United States. She graduated a year later with a master’s degree in economics and international political and economic development (IPED), and worked as an adjunct professor with Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs.

In October of 2016, she came back on a yearlong Fulbright scholarship to continue her work with Timap.

“When I was here last time [during the Ebola outbreak], it struck me how much of the epidemic’s consequences weren’t just going to be health-related. There were going to be many more systematic problems related to socioeconomic recovery and access to civil justice issues,” she said.

Her fellowship involves exploring new ways that the legal system can handle civil justice cases, particularly those of a commercial nature. When the Ebola epidemic was in full swing, a great deal of economic activity arose from responding to it. Now that it’s ended, Frazier said the time is right to explore avenues for these cases to be resolved.

“Do we look for cases that involve debt, breach of contract, or land tenure?  Or is it about the total amount of money involved in the claim? What does it look like to handle commercial cases in a way that could alleviate pressure from the legal system through alternative routes? That’s what we’re in the process of looking at,” she said.

Frazier splits her time between Timap’s offices in Freetown, where she writes proposals and reports, and in towns three to six hours away from the capital, where she visits local Timap paralegals and judicial officials to measure the demand for commercial alternative resolution services. Although she is learning Krio, the official language of the country, she still relies on an interpreter who can help her reach speakers of Mende, Temne, or any of the other 17 tongues spoken in the provinces.

Sierra Leone has a formal legal system based on the British Colonial common law that features courts, correctional centers, and police stations. It’s a dualist system though, so local chiefdoms also have a say in some matters, she said.

“As you can imagine, navigating that can get complicated for an ordinary Sierra Leone resident,” said Frazier.

“On top of that, the formal legal system is much more limited in terms physical facilities. The customary legal system has a far wider reach, but it has a slightly different scope. A lot of times, legal aid and access to justice services like Timap are a bridge between those two.”

The work is challenging, and Frazier admits she occasionally feels overwhelmed. But she’s inspired by the camaraderie and resolve that was borne of the efforts of those who worked together to stop the epidemic, as well as her colleagues at Timap.

“It’s very much a transition stage here right now, which I always find to be a fascinating time in a country,” she said. “But it’s very difficult for a lot of people.”

In a ceremony at the Lincoln Center campus on Sept. 27, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, director general for the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Joseph M. McShane, S.J. president of Fordham, signed a memorandum of understanding linking the two institutions together.

The formal partnership with the IOM, the leading nongovernmental organization for migration, follows a similar partnering between Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Swing said the IOM, which has 10,000 members stationed in 480 spots around the globe, was eager to partner with an academic institution to work on projects involving data and statistics, joint publications, and lectures. The organization has worked informally with the IIHA for the past 19 years, and sent numerous members to its workshops, making the partnership a natural fit.

“In one of the worlds’ great migration cities, Fordham University has very much become a center for the study of migration and humanitarian work in general, which we’re very grateful for,” Swing said.

“I think the possibility for expansion is very large.”

IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill said he was thrilled to work closely with IOM because the group is run in a very cost effective way, and delivers aid effectively, ethically, and humanly.

“Their focus is on migration, but that can come in many different forms, from protection to resettlement to negotiations, and they do it by having 97 percent of their employees in field positions and only three percent in the office,” he said.

“We want someone who has a real boots on the ground approach. Whether we work on publications, research, training, or analysis, we bring not only the strengths of the institute, but also the wealth of the knowledge that exists in the faculty at Fordham, together with the IOM and their focus on migration.”

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson offered a mix of the sobering and inspirational in a keynote address he presented on June 16 to the annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System.

“Our job is to prove that in today’s world, the international formula is in the national interest of nation states, said Eliasson. “If you look at challenges like climate change or migration, it’s almost impossible to think of a national solution.”

The speech kicked off a three-day-long conference titled “Meeting the Challenges of Development and Dignity,” which acknowledged that the challenges facing the world today are steep, and filled with more uncertainty than ever. War is making a comeback, in much more complex forms, he said.

“I have mediated six conflicts in my life, and I would say the mediation task is hugely more complicated than it was earlier,” he said. He noted that there’s also been an erosion of the respect for basic human rights, exemplified by attacks on hospitals, schools, and other civilian centers.

Migration is a challenge too, but Eliasson pushed back forcefully against those who’d cast it in a negative light.

“Having been to the border of Syria just a month ago, and knowing how people are running away from Syria, it’s absurd to hear that refugees are connected to terror,” he said.

In fact, the International Monetary Fund has found that without migration, Europe and the United States would be experiencing negative population growth. Remittances sent to developing countries from 240 million migrants worldwide is two and a half times the total development assistance, making the migrants a key resource for worldwide development, he said.

Eliasson said the time has finally arrived for the full empowerment of women, and to tap the energy, charisma, and “tremendous potential” of young people. He suggested that leaders should stop wondering what they can do for them, and start asking what they can do with them.

“This young generation is the first one in history that has to think about whether we can live on this planet in 50 to 100 years. Therefore, it’s really time for us to mobilize the young people,” he said.

To tackle failing states, Eliasson suggested that the international community start paying attention to a conflict’s earliest warning signals, such as human rights violations. It costs the U.N. $28.5 billion a year to deal with the symptoms of an escalated conflict, he said, where people are dying in great numbers. But the international community does virtually nothing to reward prevention or recovery after a conflict.

“Why should we wait for mass atrocities, when in fact we could start acting on the human rights violations?” he said. “That’s the stage where we need to get going, so that we don’t end up with those horrors that we see around us in the world right now.”

“Some people may think this interferes with [a nation’s]internal affairs, but … the price for waiting is very heavy.”

The conference, one of two hosted by Fordham last week, was co-sponsored by Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Fordham’s Office of the Provost.

The ensemble work is now featured in an exhibition that runs through Sept. 30 at the Ildiko Butler Gallery on the Lincoln Center campus, titled What This Journey Breeds. The project was not connected to any class, though students met in seminar with artist Amie Cunat, FCLC ’08, Fordham artist-in-residence Carleen Sheenan, and photographer Anibal Pella-Woo, lecturer in the visual arts program.

The students collaborated with the Refugee and Immigrant Fund (RIF) on the project. With concentrations in graphic design, painting and drawing, photography, architecture, and film and video, the artists put a human face to an abstract subject in this unnerving, yet hopeful, exhibition.

David Quateman, FCLC ’16, and rising junior Eamon Redpath interviewed several refugees in a short video—including Julian, a gay man from Malaysia who describes having a gun pointed at his face by the Malaysian police.

Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) sponsored several events. Students met with a lawyer from Catholic Charities, civil servants, fellow students working with refugees, and other artists that make socially conscious artwork.

Students took field trips to Brooklyn Grange, where RIF brings refugees to rooftop gardens as a respite from the stressful process of seeking asylum in the United States. Once there, James McCracken Jr., PCS ’16, shot stark black and white portraits of the asylum seekers.

A video diptych by rising senior Anabelle Declement juxtaposes two scenes: one that’s a mashup of testimonials used in the documentary, and another that presents the natural serenity of Brooklyn Grange.

The grange inspired a range of other works, including plant sculptures by rising senior Emma Kilroy and a fruit- and vegetable-stained textile created by rising senior Francesca Aton. The grange also inspired a second garden on the Lincoln Center campus designed and built by Danielle Serigano, FCLC ’16. All fruits and vegetables harvested at summer’s end will be donated to RIF. Serigano also maps a metaphorical journey through the campus garden, presented on post cards at the gallery. Student and faculty volunteers will maintain the garden through the summer.

Through architectural renderings created by Nicholas Eliades, FCRH ’16, one can imagine future meeting spaces for RIF clients. Rising senior Margaret McCauley’s collages include text, culled from the interviews, expressing why such a safe space is needed.

“Mommy thank God,” reads one. “If you didn’t leave for America, now you would be dead.”

The first conference, “Human Rights in an Age of Ambiguity,” will take place June 13-15. Fordham is co-sponsoring the event with the International Studies Association and three other groups. The conference will address recent trends in the global human rights landscape, such as the emerging trend of pushbacks against human rights, the global refugee crisis, and transnational threats to human rights.

Following that, “Meeting the Challenges of Development and Dignity” will take place June 16-18. The conference serves as the annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System and is co-sponsored by Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. It will focus on the role of education as an engine of development, how to best achieve gender equity to ensure development and dignity, and the role of faith in development and dignity.

Melissa Labonte, PhD, associate dean for strategic initiatives and associate professor of political science in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said the topics were ideal to address so closely together.

“Development and dignity are two sides of the same coin in creating a stable, more peaceful world where people can realize their own human potential and do it within frameworks that are responsive to their needs,” she said.

“Those frameworks can be governmental, global, or they can be community-based.”

Among the highlights of the week will be talks by Jan Eliasson, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, who will deliver the keynote address on Thursday, June 16, and Ibrahim Gambari, Co-Chair, Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance; former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the U.N. and  former Foreign Minister of Nigeria, who will speak on Friday, June 17.

Gambari was a member of the U.N. Security Council in 1994, when the Rwandan genocide was unfolding. Labonte said he “almost singlehandedly” persuaded other council members to reinstate a lapsed peacekeeping mission to Africa—a move that saved many lives during the rampant killing.

“Had he not been there, it probably would have been worse,” Labonte said.

“Those speakers are the two anchor events for that program, and we’re thrilled that we have both of them with us.”

For more information on the conferences, visit http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/HR-NYC-2016 and http://acuns.org/am2016/

At the time, Lyngaas envisioned a Fordham education as a means to an end: a comfortable medical career. Instead, the Illinois native has spent her undergraduate years grappling with thorny and complicated issues of international poverty and justice. She is spending her senior year working with refugees and writing a thesis on the treatment of children in the immigration court system.

“I think Fordham completely changed my vision of the world,” she says. “My eyes were opened to all the things happening in the world. It bothered me.”

A class on Latin American history introduced her to imperialism, global poverty, and the need for social change. She wanted to do something. Moral and political questions raised in that course led her to Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA), where she interned for several semesters, eventually taking on humanitarian affairs as one of her majors (the other is political science).

“She’s smart, dedicated, really everything you want in a Fordham student,” says IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill. “She has intense passion for the world but also compassion for those not as fortunate. It has been wonderful to see her grow at Fordham.”

Lyngaas credits IIHA with exposing her to humanitarian workers from across the globe. At one time, she thought she would become an international aid worker or human rights advocate herself. She interned at Human Rights Watch last summer. But as Lyngaas studied the complexity of mounting a response to crises in foreign countries, particularly those where there is a history of racism and colonialism, she became convinced that she can help best by staying home. “I feel like my voice is best put to use in a culture I do understand. I still have this interaction,” she says, “but in a context more relevant to my experience.”

That’s what led her to Catholic Charities’ Refugee Resettlement program, where she has been part of the response to the primary humanitarian crisis of our day—the mass migration of refugees out of inhabitable and dangerous nations. Lyngaas helps Central American families file paperwork to legally bring to the United States the children they left behind in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

In December, the first children arrived. “Seeing the look of relief on their faces, you feel like you are really helping these people,” Lyngaas says.

The Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior also volunteers through Catholic Charities to help recent refugees from all corners of the world construct their resumes—often translating informal work in another country into something that can help people land a job in this one. And she helps the newcomers adjust to life in the United States. There are lessons on cultural norms from the simple to the profound: shaking hands, making eye contact, filing taxes, and the fact that same-sex marriage is legal and polygamy is not.

The education Lyngaas pursued in and out of the classroom has left her unsettled. She’s not exactly sure what she’ll do after graduation, but she knows it will be with people striving for a safe landing, a secure life.

“People are the same wherever they are from,” she says. “They want to be a part of a community. They want to thrive. And they want to better their lives.”

—Eileen Markey, FCRH ’98