But one Fordham student has beaten the odds.

Callan O’Shea, a graduating Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, studied in Paris for six months last spring. For O’Shea, an integrative neuroscience student on the pre-med track, the trip was not only a “transformational experience to get a bigger scope of the world,” but also a unique step in his path toward becoming a neurosurgeon.

The Value of Human Relationships

Before O’Shea became a college student, he knew he wanted to become a doctor. Outside of his schoolwork during his first two years at Fordham, he volunteered at Mount Sinai West Hospital (formerly known as Roosevelt Hospital), located just a block away from the Lincoln Center campus. In the rehabilitation unit, he worked with elderly patients who had physical injuries, people recovering from stroke and spinal cord injuries, and patients with Parkinson’s disease. In the emergency room, he recorded patient needs and relayed their requests to medical staff.

It was there, he said, that he learned about the importance of connecting with patients—not just as clients, but as people.

“Speaking with patients in these often vulnerable conditions … they place a lot of trust in you, and it really touched me,” O’Shea said. “Then moving to emergency medicine, seeing the pace of that, and having the ability to do so much good so quickly—having that responsibility reinforced that.”

Nurturing a Passion for Neuroscience Abroad

Through online research, O’Shea began to look for research topics that connected his hospital volunteer service with his surgical interests. That’s when he learned about neural engraftment in Parkinson’s patients: taking skin cells from patients, turning them into new neurons, and implanting them into the same patients to rehabilitate motor skills.

“Being able to grow healthy neurons and insert them surgically into patients to restore function is something that really sparked my interest,” O’Shea said.

At the beginning of 2018, he studied abroad in Paris, where he conducted hands-on neuroscience research. At the Université Paris Descartes Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, he examined social memory in the brains of mice. He also traveled a few days a week to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, where he analyzed how information is recorded and communicated within a hospital unit.

In those six months, O’Shea also got to take in Parisian culture. He lived with a host family, improved his fluency in French, and took a tap and jazz dance class at the Paris Marais Dance School.

It was his first time traveling abroad, thanks to the Center for University Programs Abroad—an independent organization introduced to him by Fordham’s study abroad office. This month, O’Shea returned to France for the annual Cannes Film Festival.

“[Studying abroad] was really important for me, as someone who didn’t really travel at all growing up and as a science student who doesn’t usually have the opportunity to incorporate language classes and things like that,” O’Shea said.  

When he returned from France, he wanted to extend that same potential to his classmates in the integrative neuroscience department, many of whom haven’t yet studied abroad.

“He set up a meeting with me and the chair of his department so the three of us could talk through how we could make [studying abroad]easier for his classmates,” said Joseph Rienti, Ph.D., the director of international and study abroad programs at Fordham. “One of the most remarkable things about Callan is that he does things not just for himself—there’s a real altruistic and broader vision that he has.”

Combining Neuroscience and Medicine

When he returned to New York, he began working as a research volunteer at the Icahn Medical Institute at Mount Sinai. O’Shea’s experiments spanned different strains of science: genetics, genomics, and neuroscience. In one research study, he and his colleagues took skin cells from schizophrenia patients and converted them into stem cells, then analyzed their potential.

“We essentially had cultures of patient neurons in a dish that we could test for certain drugs and analyze for genetic effects,” O’Shea explained.

After he graduates from Fordham this May, he will return to the Icahn Medical Institute at Mount Sinai; this time, though, he’ll be working as a full-time research technician. Once he gains enough out-of-classroom experience, he plans on applying to dual M.D./Ph.D. programs in neuroscience and neurosurgery next year.

But for O’Shea, the most rewarding part of being in the medical field is more than translating research into real-life applications. It’s the relationships—the intimacy of patient-doctor interactions and the special camaraderie shared among doctors, nurses, and technicians in difficult situations.

“The relationships that the medical field builds are really, really special,” O’Shea said.

The Signal Flame: A Novel

In his first novel, The Sojourn (a finalist for the National Book Award in 2011), Andrew Krivák told the story of Jozef Vinich, a sharpshooter in the Austro-Hungarian Army who survives World War I and immigrates to America with $50 in his pocket. He settles in northeastern Pennsylvania, rises from yard worker to co-owner of a roughing mill, and acquires 2,000 acres of land on which he builds a large home for his wife and children. But he and his descendants are a “war-haunted family in a war-torn century.” The Signal Flame, set in 1972, begins with Vinich’s death. As his daughter Hannah and grandson Bo mourn, they grapple with the news that Bo’s younger brother, Sam, who joined the Marines, has been reported as missing in action in Vietnam. They also grapple with the legacy of Sam and Bo’s father, who came home from World War II a silent, damaged man and was later killed in a hunting accident. “What they shared were the wars,” Krivák writes in a lyrical prologue to a lyrical, moving novel on the meaning of love, loss, and loyalty.

The Streets of Paris: A Guide to the City of Light Following in the Footsteps of Famous Parisians Throughout History by Susan Cahill, GSAS ’95 (St. Martin’s Press)

Susan Cahill first visited the City of Light during the 1960s, on her honeymoon with her husband, the writer Thomas Cahill, FCRH ’64. It’s a place, she writes, where “the streets are stories.” She takes readers through them in this travel guide, following the lives of 22 famous Parisians from the 12th century to the present. She writes about “The Scandalous Love of Héloise and Abelard,” “The Lonely Passion of Marie Curie,” and “Raising Hell in Pigalle,” where the “scruffy streets of the ninth were François Truffaut’s muse and mother.” Each chapter includes a lively cultural history, plus information about nearby attractions. The result is an engaging guide for travelers drawn to stories that, Cahill writes, “do not show up on historical plaques or in the voice-overs of flag-waving tour guides.”

Pause: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break by Rachael O’Meara, GABELLI ’04, (Tarcher Perigee)

Six years ago, Rachael O’Meara was a customer support manager at Google. The job made her “the envy of all my friends,” she writes, but she was burning out fast, feeling overwhelmed, unfulfilled, and unable to find the off switch. Her work and well-being suffered. Eventually, with support from her boss, she took a 90-day unpaid leave and returned to the company in a new role, with a healthier outlook. In this book, she shares her story and stories of others who have discovered that a pause, even a “forced pause” like getting laid off, can lead to a more fulfilling life. She offers tips for creating a daily “pause plan.” It can be as simple as a five-minute walk or a day unplugged from digital devices, she writes, but the benefits are priceless: greater “mental clarity” and “a chance to remember what ‘lights you up.’”

When a young American woman moves to Paris, there’s often a man involved. So was there a guy in your case?

Actually, yes. I was tiring of New York and thinking maybe L.A. Then I met a Parisian in New York on vacation. I wouldn’t have followed a man to the ends of the earth, but Paris! I had arranged a six-month au pair job with a young French couple who wanted their daughters to learn English. The relationship fell apart within three weeks, but I had the job with a place to live for a while. So I stayed.

Growing up, did you have a thing for France?

France wasn’t on my radar. I took Spanish, not French. I don’t think I’d ever been to a French restaurant even, although in middle school I did have photos of Josephine Baker on my wall. I didn’t do study abroad at Fordham, but my family and I traveled a lot, and I always wanted to experience another culture. Once I decided to make the move, I got Rosetta Stone and watched a lot of French movies.

You’re part of a long line of African-American writers, painters, and musicians who’ve found a home in Paris, at least for a time. Do you find yourself living their experiences?

In America, I’m seen as black first; in Paris, the most important thing about me is that I’m an American, which is why those artists were comfortable here. When I lead tourists on African-American heritage walking tours, I love talking about the role of black Americans in the story of Paris, walking the streets they walked, pointing out the spots that meant something to them: Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Sidney Bechet, Bud Powell …

Your first album, with the Florian Pellissier Quintet, is billed as a blend of jazz and reggae. How did that musical mix come about, and how’s the album doing?

I heard all different kinds of music as a child. I was in choir. I loved musical theater. My mother is from Jamaica, so there was reggae. My father listened to jazz and soul. In college, I took Dr. [Sevin] Yaraman’s world music history course. I’m still exploring, and the album is part of that. Having a first album released is terrifying. What if it’s met with silence? Fortunately, that isn’t what happened. An important French cultural magazine put us on a list of 10 “must-hear” jazz albums and said my voice is “like honey.” That’s exciting!

How does a performing artist learn the business side of things?

I had a lot of college internships for course credit at record companies and at MTV. I was studying music but I also was determined to learn what went on behind the scenes. You hear a lot of stories about artists being ripped off by managers. For the past couple of years, I’ve been hired for cultural exchange visits to Africa through a U.S. State Department program, going to Botswana, Mauritius, and Burkina Faso. I take musicians along, and we do concerts and workshops. One seminar I run for African musicians is on how to be your own manager.

Your website says you also do voice-over work. How did that start?

I auditioned for a commercial at age 8 and got the job; my voice was on the radio for a year. Ever since, I’ve had a voice-over agent. I do my natural voice and also kids’ voices, dubbing commercials and other projects. I’ve even worked on the English-language Peanuts animated TV series; I was Franklin and Pig-Pen. Those weren’t aired in the States, although a voice-over project I’m working on right now will be. Sorry, but I can’t say what it is.

Do you keep in contact with your former life in the States?

My goal is to be bicontinental. I try to go back for a visit every year. In college I had the same five roommates for two years. Now we live all over—Toronto, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, Jersey City—but we’re all still very much in touch. I see lots of old friends who visit Paris. Everyone comes through Paris.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Dan Carlinsky.

The Paris you visit at 20 years old is an entirely different city than when you visit her again at 45. She changes like the light: constantly shifting depending on where you stand. So this is not a must-see list, but a string of marvelous things; hopefully, one or two will appeal to you.

1. I loathe crowds, so here are two museums that are often overlooked. Begin at the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the city of Paris. It’s a jumble of separate rooms complete with furniture that was bought outright and stuck into a big building. Don’t exhaust yourself: just take a look at the rooms devoted to the reigns of Kings Louis XV and XVI.

2. Now make your way to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, next to the Musée du Louvre. The museum is not about great paintings and sculpture, but about the way people have “decorated” their nests. My favorite galleries are the 17th- and 18th-century rooms (rooms 10 through 18 on the third level, where the tour begins, and rooms 19 through 30 on the fourth level).

3. The tourist shops on rue de Rivoli, outside the Louvre, sell Eiffel Towers made in China. For something truly French, find Deminique Denaive’s store at No. 7, rue du 29 Juillet, directly off rue de Rivoli. Denaive makes amazing, unique jewelry pieces from resin; they are (in the parlance of Top Model) “statement pieces.” If you can, buy something for yourself and a friend. They’re worth the splurge, and they come in darling velvet drawstring bags.

4. But there’s no need to break the bank in Paris. The Monoprix chain of stores is rather like Target. The clothes can be really terrific and are sold at rock bottom prices. Don’t overlook the cosmetics: I’ve found cucumber-scented lotion that smells better than the La Mer collections.

5. Another suggestion: go to the department store BHV (52, rue de Rivoli): it’s the Macy’s of Paris, and well worth exploring. Plus, they have a utilitarian but very reasonably priced cafeteria where retired people happily eat their lunches.

6. If you’d like a French handbag, but don’t want to pay Yves Saint Laurent prices, head to rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, home to the most fabulous fashion houses of Paris. While most stores are outrageously expensive (though great for window shopping), at No. 334 you’ll find Maroquinerie Saint-Honoré/B. Biberon & Fils, which offers bags in every shape and color, very reasonably priced.

7. But if you have money to burn…walk past Saint Laurent. Americans think that French style is epitomized by the trademark YSL, but the true Parisian lady finds Yves Saint Laurent’s bags too common. Go to Goyard, 233 rue Saint Honore. Goyard bags and luggage are the ultimate in chic, each one hand-painted with their symbol.

8. If you prefer to adorn your house rather than your closet, there’s a lovely ceramics store, Astier de Villatte, tucked in at No. 173. Everything they make is dusky white. I bought a plate that’s just slightly lopsided, with lacy edges.

9. When the hour approachesto l’heure bleue, the sliver of time between afternoon and evening, when the sky is periwinkle, make your way to the longest series of covered passages in Paris, the one that includes Passage des Panoramas. You’ll see that there are actually two passages in a row—one on either side of boulevard Montmartre—crammed full of fascinating shops. You could eat a reasonably priced meal or buy a tiny demi tasse with coffee for someone with a dollhouse.

10. And finally, this is hokey, but worth it: take a night cruise of the Seine. The boats leave Pont de l’Alma every thirty minutes, from 7 to 11 p.m., April to September.

By Mary Bly, Ph.D. (Eloisa James)

1. I loathe crowds, so here are two museums that are often overlooked. Begin at the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the city of Paris. It’s a jumble of separate rooms complete with furniture that was bought outright and stuck into a big building. Don’t exhaust yourself: just take a look at the rooms devoted to the reigns of Kings Louis XV and XVI.

2. Now make your way to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, next to the Musée du Louvre. The museum is not about great paintings and sculpture, but about the way people have “decorated” their nests. My favorite galleries are the 17th- and 18th-century rooms (rooms 10 through 18 on the third level, where the tour begins, and rooms 19 through 30 on the fourth level).

3. The tourist shops on rue de Rivoli, outside the Louvre, sell Eiffel Towers made in China. For something truly French, find Deminique Denaive’s store at No. 7, rue du 29 Juillet, directly off rue de Rivoli. Denaive makes amazing, unique jewelry pieces from resin; they are (in the parlance of Top Model) “statement pieces.” If you can, buy something for yourself and a friend. They’re worth the splurge, and they come in darling velvet drawstring bags.

4. But there’s no need to break the bank in Paris. The Monoprix chain of stores is rather like Target. The clothes can be really terrific and are sold at rock bottom prices. Don’t overlook the cosmetics: I’ve found cucumber-scented lotion that smells better than the La Mer collections.

5. Another suggestion: go to the department store BHV (52, rue de Rivoli): it’s the Macy’s of Paris, and well worth exploring. Plus, they have a utilitarian but very reasonably priced cafeteria where retired people happily eat their lunches.

6. If you’d like a French handbag, but don’t want to pay Yves Saint Laurent prices, head to rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, home to the most fabulous fashion houses of Paris. While most stores are outrageously expensive (though great for window shopping), at No. 334 you’ll find Maroquinerie Saint-Honoré/B. Biberon & Fils, which offers bags in every shape and color, very reasonably priced.

7. But if you have money to burn…walk past Saint Laurent. Americans think that French style is epitomized by the trademark YSL, but the true Parisian lady finds Yves Saint Laurent’s bags too common. Go to Goyard, 233 rue Saint Honore. Goyard bags and luggage are the ultimate in chic, each one hand-painted with their symbol.

8. If you prefer to adorn your house rather than your closet, there’s a lovely ceramics store, Astier de Villatte, tucked in at No. 173. Everything they make is dusky white. I bought a plate that’s just slightly lopsided, with lacy edges.

9. When the hour approachesto l’heure bleue, the sliver of time between afternoon and evening, when the sky is periwinkle, make your way to the longest series of covered passages in Paris, the one that includes Passage des Panoramas. You’ll see that there are actually two passages in a row—one on either side of boulevard Montmartre—crammed full of fascinating shops. You could eat a reasonably priced meal or buy a tiny demi tasse with coffee for someone with a dollhouse.

10. And finally, this is hokey, but worth it: take a night cruise of the Seine. The boats leave Pont de l’Alma every thirty minutes, from 7 to 11 p.m., April to September.