Fordham Law’s annual Public Service Day, hosted by Fordham Law’s Public Interest Resource Center (PIRC), is a testament to the Law School’s motto, “In the service of others.” Every year, first-year Fordham Law students gather at the start of the fall semester to spend a day volunteering their time for community service projects. They are typically joined by returning students who lead student groups, organize the individual projects, and support and welcome the new 1Ls.
After adapting in 2020 as a virtual event, Public Service Day returned this year as an in-person event (with the exception of four remote projects). Nearly 205 incoming students contributed their free time to work on 10 different projects with 11 Fordham Law student groups.
This was the largest number of incoming students to engage in the annual day of service, surpassing last year’s record of 167 1Ls, according to Assistant Dean for Public Interest and Social Justice Initiatives Leah Horowitz ’06.
“It is inspiring to see that 204 incoming students chose to spend their Saturday doing important work that serves people in need and is part of our efforts to address racial and social injustice,” Horowitz said. “And we greatly appreciate the student leaders of 11 student groups who thoughtfully organized the individual projects.”
“We are always grateful for the innovation, energy, and leadership that our students bring to the work,” she added.
This year’s projects ranged from delivering meals to the elderly and cleaning up local parks to preparing backpacks full of supplies for children living in homeless and/or domestic violence shelters.
Fordham Law’s Environmental Law Advocates participated in a park cleanup.
Fostering Connection Among Seniors
Fordham Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) organized the “Sliced Fruit and Other Love Languages” project, which was co-sponsored by the Asian American Bar Association of New York and the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (KALAGNY).
About two dozen students met remotely wanting to connect with local senior citizens who have been isolated from loved ones during the pandemic. They learned how to say and write “hello” and “I love you” in at least five Asian languages, which served as a springboard to fight hate with love through handwritten letters. Those notes will be delivered with meals through Heart of Dinner.
Participants also heard from Congresswoman Grace Meng, Honorable E. Grace Park of the Manhattan Fourth Municipal Court District of the New York City Civil Court, and KALAGNY Vice President Christopher Bae. They each shared law school-related advice to the incoming 1Ls as well as stressed the importance of community.
Fordham Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association connected remotely with local senior citizens who have been isolated from loved ones during the pandemic.
The inspiration for this project, according to APALSA Co-Vice President Lauren Kim ’23, stemmed back to the mentorship she has received from the Asian/Pacific Islander community in the past year. “I couldn’t have come this far without the help of my community, and I believe it’s important to pay it forward,” Kim said. “Being in law school and studying to become a lawyer has all of us thinking, from day one, about the impact we can make in our own communities when helping out.”
APALSA Co-Vice President Sharon Yang ’23 said she felt emotionally invested in the project because she could relate to its purpose. “I can’t visit my grandparents very often,” Yang explained. “So, not only was this a way to show love and compassion, but we got to engage with the new students and have everyone meet one another virtually.”
“The project was very meaningful to me,” she added, “and it was all thanks to the Law School for giving us those 24 hours to do such meaningful things with other students and for our communities.”
Helping Unemployed Workers Apply for Relief
Fernando Ramos ’23 led the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA)’s Bushwick community support event, partnering with Bushwick Ayuda Mutua (a community organization Ramos helped found at the height of the pandemic) and Mayday Space in Brooklyn.
Ramos and 15 students provided technical support for online governmental and nonprofit assistance applications—including helping to register about 50 applicants who qualify for the Excluded Workers Fund. The Excluded Workers Fund provides funds to New Yorkers who were ineligible for unemployment benefits or COVID-19 relief in the past year and who lost at least 50 percent of their income because of the pandemic.
“I feel like the human interactions we had that day, while engaging with community members through conversations and hearing their stories for why this funding is so important to them, are really important,” Ramos said. “For the 1Ls, I think it also helped them identify what is important to them as they go through law school.”
Joe Gomez ’24 and Joan Rosello ’24 were two of the participating first-year students who volunteered alongside Ramos and other LALSA members. Both agreed that speaking with local residents in Spanish built a more intimate sense of community for them throughout the day, further confirming that the work they were doing was making an impact in people’s lives.
“I learned that Public Service Day is not just an event for students who are interested in becoming public defenders,” Gomez said. “I’m really thinking about getting involved with the Public Interest Resource Center, and I hope every student is open to it because it’s a great opportunity.”
Rosello added that seeing Fordham Law’s motto in action with like-minded students helped kick off her law school journey on the right foot. “It was great to see so many Fordham Law students from different backgrounds—not just 1Ls, but 2Ls and 3Ls as well—volunteering their Saturday to help others right before classes started,” Rosello said. “I think that speaks to Fordham Law’s ‘In the service of others,’ which was something that really drew me to this school.”
Fordham Law students helped deliver meals with Citymeals on Wheels.
