For decades, Fordham has had a close relationship with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC), an organization that matches young volunteers with communities in need for a year or more of service. Tara Clerkin, GSAS ’13, is one Fordham alumna who participated in JVC and has since built an impactful career in the international space.
Clerkin serves as the director of climate resilience research and innovation at the International Rescue Committee, an organization that delivers humanitarian aid to people in acute political and economic crises across the globe. Her experiences with JVC, and later with Fordham’s Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED), helped solidify her interest in humanitarian work, and ultimately her passion for supporting agricultural communities grappling with the effects of climate change.
A Finance Major Turned Jesuit Volunteer
Clerkin graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2010—a couple of years into the Great Recession—with a degree in finance. Rather than entering the dismal job market, she chose to join JVC. She served as a caseworker at a homeless shelter in Hartford, Connecticut, helping people apply for food stamps and housing. It was a “wet shelter,” meaning they didn’t turn away people with criminal histories or active addictions.
Though she realized direct service work wasn’t for her, the experience was transformative for Clerkin. “It was a big year of growth for me. I learned a lot of lessons in radical compassion and empathy for populations that often get dismissed and ignored,” she said.
Fordham’s IPED Program: A Natural Next Step
Next, Clerkin entered the IPED program at Fordham, a natural choice considering her father, grandfather, and uncle all attended the University.
In keeping with the Jesuit tradition of being “men and women for others,” Fordham has a close connection with JVC: 304 Fordham undergraduates have volunteered with JVC since 1977, and at least one Fordham alum has volunteered every year since, including four who are currently volunteering, the group said. Another 15 students who earned their undergraduate degrees at other universities also joined JVC after earning a graduate degree from Fordham’s IPED program.
A Clinton Foundation Internship
While in IPED, Clerkin was most interested in clean energy programs. But during her first job after graduate school with the Clinton Foundation, she worked on an agricultural project with a small team in Rwanda, Malawi, and Tanzania and “fell in love” with agriculture.
Even then, Clerkin was hearing from local farmers about shifting weather patterns and changes in crops. “Farmers, especially in countries that are bearing a higher burden of the climate crisis, are the canaries in the mine shaft,” she said. “ The bad part about that analogy is that the canary dies.”
Building Global Climate Resilience
Clerkin has since turned that experience into a calling. As director of climate resilience at the International Rescue Committee, she helps farmers find strategies to adapt to climate change. One of her current projects in Syria helps farmers test and develop wheat seed varieties that are more drought and heat resistant, which could help mitigate the region’s ongoing famines.
“ Climate resilience is integral to food systems, especially in rural communities where agriculture is the backbone of the economy,” she said. “We’re committed to building resilience in these protracted crisis settings that are also bearing the highest burden of the climate crisis.”
