Gabelli Launch gave the MBA candidates, who hail from India, China, Haiti, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Peru, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States, not only a chance to get to know each other before classes started but also an opportunity to be stretched in important ways. Week One focused on helping the students discover their own leadership style. Week Three focused on specific dimensions of the job search, and long-term career development. And Week Four threw them into the world of data and analytics, asking the students to tackle an industry that they knew nothing about—3-D printing.

But it was Week Two that took the entire cohort to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they engaged with a unique service learning consultancy challenge, putting their marketing, negotiation, financial, cross-cultural communication, time-management, and problem-solving skills into action before the MBA program even began.

“Coming to the States for an MBA can be challenging [because of] different cultures, language, and social barriers,” said MBA student Ramon Barbosa, a managing consultant from Brazil, who credits the weeklong trip for helping to break those barriers. “I know that my MBA experience is going to be enhanced in ways that it wouldn’t—if not for the trip.”

From Aug. 5 to 12, the students worked as advisers to nonprofits that included Energizar Foundation, an organization that promotes renewable energy in Argentina and Latin America; Fundación Emanuel, a pioneering foster care program in La Plata; and FC Bola, a new soccer ball business helping children living in impoverished communities. Some of the NGOs sought guidance in drafting a branding and marketing plan. Others were struggling to develop a corporate strategy, and a few required recommendations on how to diversify their fundraising models to achieve greater impact.

“The students were on teams that were constructed to be cross-cultural in nature, dealing with clients who were not native speakers of English,” said Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D., director of the Full-time Cohort MBA and Professional MBA programs, who accompanied the students on the trip.

“Given that they were only going to have five days on the ground, they needed to be as effective and efficient as possible. The students had to use their wit and knowledge, and the technology that the school provided to set up virtual meetings and collect data about the organizations before they even set foot in Argentina. At Gabelli, we focus on ‘business with impact,’ and these projects helped set expectations very high.”

No spectators, only participants

When MBA candidate Linda Werner, a manufacturing financial controller from Germany, arrived in Argentina with her teammates, they spent two days brainstorming with leaders of the anti-child-abuse organization Red Por La Infancia.

The organization, which recently began collaborating with the U.N. human rights education initiative THINK EQUAL, wanted to shift its focus from merely being a refuge for victims to manufacturing products and services that educate children and parents about abuse.

“When we got to the school, there were lots of teachers and a couple of people who were part of the board, but there were only two students,” said Swain, whose team was also tasked with helping the organization to clarify its brand message, update its website, and unify its name across all online platforms.

“When we got to the school, there were lots of teachers and a couple of people who were part of the board, but there were only two students,” said Swain, whose team was also tasked with helping the organization to clarify its brand message, update its website, and unify its name across all online platforms.

After learning that many participants ride horses to school, and often miss days, weeks, and months of classes because of bad weather and muddy roads, the MBA students proposed using technology to combat low attendance.

“I think a lot of nonprofits do amazing work and they need to stay around, but we can’t just think that doing good is a responsibility of nonprofits alone.”

“I was amazed to learn that sometimes we think that making an impact is just a matter of being more effective and efficient,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t realize that there are so many cultural barriers that we might have to overcome before trying to make an impact.”

Cole said that was just one of many lessons Gabelli Launch intended to impart.

About midway through delivering Fordham’s fall Gannon Lecture in the United Nations Delegates Dining Room on Nov. 15, author and humanitarian Hugh Locke paused to collect himself.

Overcome with emotion, Locke, whose non-governmental organization (NGO) is on the ground in Haiti, was overcome with emotion expressing his “personal feelings on the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s responsibility for introducing cholera” in an already ravaged Haiti.  

“The only people who don’t believe that it was inadvertently introduced to Haiti by U.N. peacekeeping forces are the lawyers in this building,” he said. “They are doing a terrible disservice, because how can you occupy the moral high ground when you [don’t] take your own principles to guide your actions?”
In an otherwise soft-spoken and even delivery, Locke also made clear his affection for the organization, noting that the first time he was ever in the Delegates Dining Room was as a teenager—when he won a trip to the U.N. for an essay he wrote.

Locke’s lecture, “Haiti: Post-Disaster Reconstruction, Sustainability, and Development,” was geared toward a potential future for Haiti, and for those NGOs and U.N. agencies doing humanitarian work. He said that many NGOs’ manners of operating have contributed to problems in Haiti and other developing countries because they foster a culture of dependency rather than working alongside the poor.

“Collectively we feel like we are anointed by the Divine to transfer money to the rich and give it to the poor,” he said of NGOs.

Locke’s own NGO launch was begun with a grant from Timberland footware and apparel company. At the insistence of Timberland’s chief Jeff Schwartz, funding was contingent upon the support program becoming self-reliant. It had to function on its own after Locke was no longer involved. The result was the Haitian-based Smallholder Farmers Alliance, which assisted in motivating small farmers to plant trees.

Locke said that part of the cycle of devastation that Haiti experiences nearly every year comes through deforestation. Once known as the “Pearl of the Antilles,” Haiti went from 60 percent tree coverage in 1915 to 2 percent today. The reason is because Haiti’s primary fuel source is charcoal and wood; nearly 30 million trees are consumed a year. Without vegetation, mountainsides act like funnels, sending the rain into the valleys and causing soil erosion and crop loss.

To address the problem, Locke said, the United States sent nearly 400 million trees that were essentially dropped at Haitian farmers’ doorsteps with the request that they volunteer to plant them. But without a real economic incentive, there was little likelihood that the farmers would do so.

He also detailed a 50-year history that encouraged the dissolution of small-scale farming in Haiti in favor of importing food from U.S. industrial farms. Today Haiti is the fourth largest importer of U.S. rice, even though half of the country’s work force makes a living farming.

In the hope of attracting volunteer tree planters, Locke and his partners began to offer agriculture services in exchange for tree planting. What started with 200 volunteer farmers has grown to 2,000 farmers who have planted nearly 3 million trees over a 40-square-mile area.

Initially, the exchange included seeds for the farmers, but once again Locke had to step back and let the farmers take control. Now the farmers have to buy the seed, negotiate the price, and come back to the community to get approval for the purchase.

“Once you take the first layer of oppression off of a community, you then create the circumstances for that community to begin to function for the better,” he said.

“You have to plan your exit strategy from day one,” he said.

In its newfound role, Fordham will maintain an association with the UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI) to promote the work of the United Nations through publications and campus activities, and keep the UNDPI’s nongovernmental organization relations section informed of any relevant activities it undertakes.

In exchange, the association brings a wealth of programming opportunities and special access for Fordham faculty and students, including attending weekly UNDPI-NGO briefings at the United Nations. It also provides students special access to NGOs associated with the United Nations that could result in internships and other UN-related experiences, said Kelly Roberts, assistant director and university Student and Exchange Visitor program coordinator in the Office for International Services.

“Fordham the first institution in New York City to receive the UNDPI association university-wide,” she said. “We’ve already had global leaders on our campus and enjoyed a positive relationship with the UN, so formal association is the next step. It ties together all the programs Fordham has been doing over the years.”

In the past, the University has worked in tandem with the United Nations to host various heads of state—including President Evo Morales of Bolivia and Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. Last year the University presented an honorary degree to the leader of the 66th United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser.

As an associated NGO, a designated representative of Fordham to the United Nations will be granted grounds passes to enter the UN headquarters in New York City for a variety of purposes, including:

• attendance at any open meetings of UN bodies;
• participation in weekly NGO briefings organized by the NGO relations section;
• participation in orientation programs provided for new NGOs;
• invitation to an annual UNDPI/NGO conference, and;
• access to the associated NGO databases.

Two other American universities that hold NGO association status include Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Since the United Nations links security, development, and human rights together in its efforts toward building world peace, its mission fits nicely with Fordham’s social justice mission, said Roberts.

Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) student Anjanae Wilson has already benefited from the UN-Fordham relationship. Since last October, Wilson has been the designated UN youth representative for the Belgium-based NGO, Close the Gap, whose mission is to provide information and communication technology to developing countries.

In her role as the NGO’s New York-based advocate, Wilson makes weekly trips to the UN to help facilitate business for the NGO, which refurbishes donated computers and machinery from businesses and organizations and distributes them to worthwhile NGO-sponsored projects around the globe. Recently, Wilson helped narrow the “digital divide” between developed and newly developing countries by putting the founder of a Latin American technology school for girls in touch with her NGO’s reps, who will help fill the school’s computer needs.

“Working at the UN gives me a chance to learn international social development from the inside out,” said Wilson, whose area of focus is global social work.

“Before I started this relationship with Close The Gap, I didn’t think of technology in terms of social work or social justice. But I see how important it is to empower individuals in these developing communities.

“We have access [at the UN]to so many meetings, events, and offices that it is broadening my horizons as a global social worker. It’s a great opportunity.”

In its newfound role, Fordham will maintain an association with the UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI) to promote the work of the United Nations through publications and campus activities, and keep the UNDPI’s nongovernmental organization relations section informed of any relevant activities it undertakes.

In exchange, the association brings a wealth of programming opportunities and special access for Fordham faculty and students, including attending weekly UNDPI-NGO briefings at the United Nations. It also provides students special access to NGOs associated with the United Nations that could result in internships and other UN-related experiences, said Kelly Roberts, assistant director and university Student and Exchange Visitor program coordinator in the Office for International Services.

“Fordham the first institution in New York City to receive the UNDPI association university-wide,” she said. “We’ve already had global leaders on our campus and enjoyed a positive relationship with the UN, so formal association is the next step. It ties together all the programs Fordham has been doing over the years.”

In the past, the University has worked in tandem with the United Nations to host various heads of state—including President Evo Morales of Bolivia and Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. Last year the University presented an honorary degree to the leader of the 66th United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser.

As an associated NGO, a designated representative of Fordham to the United Nations will be granted grounds passes to enter the UN headquarters in New York City for a variety of purposes, including:

• attendance at any open meetings of UN bodies;
• participation in weekly NGO briefings organized by the NGO relations section;
• participation in orientation programs provided for new NGOs;
• invitation to an annual UNDPI/NGO conference, and;
• access to the associated NGO databases.

Two other American universities that hold NGO association status include Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
 Since the United Nations links security, development, and human rights together in its efforts toward building world peace, its mission fits nicely with Fordham’s social justice mission, said Roberts.
 
Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) student Anjanae Wilson has already benefited from the UN-Fordham relationship. Since last October, Wilson has been the designated UN youth representative for the Belgium-based NGO, Close the Gap, whose mission is to provide information and communication technology to developing countries.

 In her role as the NGO’s New York-based advocate, Wilson makes weekly trips to the UN to help facilitate business for the NGO, which refurbishes donated computers and machinery from businesses and organizations and distributes them to worthwhile NGO-sponsored projects around the globe. Recently, Wilson helped narrow the “digital divide” between developed and newly developing countries by putting the founder of a Latin American technology school for girls in touch with her NGO’s reps, who will help fill the school’s computer needs.

 “Working at the UN gives me a chance to learn international social development from the inside out,” said Wilson, whose area of focus is global social work.

“Before I started this relationship with Close The Gap, I didn’t think of technology in terms of social work or social justice. But I see how important it is to empower individuals in these developing communities.

 “We have access [at the UN]to so many meetings, events, and offices that it is broadening my horizons as a global social worker. It’s a great opportunity.”

In the face of many disparate initiatives, ultimately it falls upon the central government to develop policy and monitor the activities of NGOs, said Sophie Mitra, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Economics and Fordham’s Center for International Policy Studies.

“The earthquake led to injuries and trauma, leading to more physical and mental disabilities,” said Mitra.

In an attempt to address the needs of the disabled, Gerald Oriol, Jr. was appointed Haiti’s secretary of state for the integration of persons with disabilities in 2011. Oriol, who has a disability, promptly set about redefining perceptions and collecting new data on disability via the country’s official census, set to take place later this year.

The secretary has tapped Mitra, a specialist in the economics of disability, to help hone the census questionnaire and advise on policy.

Mitra has advised that language thus far drafted in the census, which before framed disabilities as “impairments,” to be recast as “limitations on functionings.”

She has been involved in the drafting of new questions based on research from the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. A question like “Do you have difficulty seeing, even if wearing glasses?” could be answered with, “No – no difficulty,” “Yes – some difficulty,” “Yes – a lot of difficulty,” or “Cannot do at all.” The more nuanced a survey is, she said, the greater assurance that more than just the extreme cases make it into the record.

Mitra said that disability biases are not limited to Haiti.

“Whether in high- or low-income countries, negative attitudes with respect to what people with disabilities can do are still common. But in high income countries, progress has been made on the physical aspects of integration,” she said.

While cities like New York have highly visible accommodations for persons with disabilities, developing countries have more limited resources to adapt their infrastructure.

“There are the physical aspects of integration and accessibility, but then there are the social attitudes that act as barriers,” said Mitra. “Fighting the biases will affect people’s likelihood of being successful. It needs to be about physical access and social access.”

Mitra’s Haiti experiences will find their way back into Fordham’s classrooms.

“My work so far has been primarily in producing research and this is a good way to show students how research can practically influence policy,” said Mitra.