Rucha Desai, FCLC ’10, is one of eight winners of “Bharat Yatra VIII – a Journey to India,” an essay competition sponsored by the New York Life Insurance Company. Desai was one of thousands of entrants from across the country, ages ranging from 18 to 24, who were asked to submit a 500-word essay on the topic, “What role can I play to eradicate hunger in India.”

In her essay, Desai proposed an initiative to sustain local art and occupations, starting small in her hometown of Ahmedabad, India, and then expanding across the country.

“The project would be simple: purchase mass quantities of handicrafts from local marketplaces and then sell these goods to the international market. However, unlike products exported abroad and made in India solely for the purpose of cheap operational costs, all profits from this venture would sponsor long-term hunger relief for the same villagers,” Desai said. “Since I would start at the grassroots level, I would begin my undertaking in Law Garden, in Ahmedabad, a marketplace that houses all types of home goods, clothing and accessories. I would make purchases every two months, consuming mass amounts of every type of good sold, in order to gain a variety of sellable commodities. The local population would thus receive immediate hunger relief from purchases.”

Desai’s plan doesn’t end there. After acquiring a substantial and varied collection of handicrafts, she would resell these goods to countries all over the world through an online market, like eBay.

“I would be able to reinsert this money into the local economy, by investing in a well or free lunch program,” she said. “As this program gains ground, it would be possible to expand it to integrate villages and towns all across India.”

Desai said her Fordham education came in handy when writing the essay.

“’World Poverty’ class, with Dr. [Associate Professor of Economics] Janis Barry, was a major source of inspiration, as well as my ‘International Economics’ course with Dr. [Assistant Professor Economics] Clive Daniel,” she said. “Each course helped to enlighten the nuances of local economies, as well as informing me further about international trade and its vast implications.”

The New York Life Insurance Company cosponsored the contest with Tathaastu magazine, in an effort to serve the Asian-Indian community in the United States. Finalists will visit Rajasthan, India, and gain hands-on experience in working closely with the local community by working at a medical camp.

“I feel blessed to have experiences from another country, culture and flavor of the world,” said Desai, who often traveled to India as a little girl. “I have been lucky enough to start traveling at such a young age, and I am even luckier that I have family and friends all over the world who make me feel welcome all the way across the ocean.”

Desai, who earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Studies in just three year from Fordham, is currently serving as Constituent Liaison for Social Service at Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) New York City office.

–Gina Vergel

“This is an amazing opportunity for me; I’ve taught women’s studies students with no background in economics, and I’ve taught economics students with no background in women’s studies or gender issues,” said Barry, who helped found the Women’s Studies Program at Fordham, and was its co-director for four years. “Abo Akademi wanted someone who could teach women’s studies students economics as it applies to gender issues, and economics from a feminist economics point of view. You couldn’t ask for a better fit.”

Barry, who has taught at Fordham for 23 years, specializes in labor and health economics, industrial organization, and economics as it relates to women’s studies and gender issues. She has published widely in academic journals and books, and has received a number of grants and awards, including a Ford Foundation grant; participation in National Diversity and Public Problem Solving Summer School at Harvard University, and a National Science Foundation faculty development workshop; and multiple Fordham Faculty Fellowship awards.

The U.S. Department of State calls the Fulbright program the “flagship international educational program sponsored by the United States Government… designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” The program provides teaching and research grants for graduate students, scholars and professionals, and teachers and administrators from the U.S. and other countries.

“Much of what I’ll be doing is cross-country comparisons: women in the workplace, in the family, in agriculture,” Barry said. “Finland has the highest rate of female participation in the labor force in the world, so I’m going to a country where women work—and the reason why they do is that they have a national infrastructure of high-quality child care. In comparison there is no real program addressing daycare or child care needs in the U.S. I’ll be showing young women in Finland how advanced, how unusual their system is.”