What does it mean to walk with someone rather than serve them?

That question was at the heart of the recent student panel, Migration and Accompaniment at Fordham: Student Perspectives, hosted by Fordham’s Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity.

The panel featured reflections from three undergraduate students:​​ Aurelien Clavaud (FCLC ’25), Penny Joseph (FCLC ’25), and Elena Wright (FCLC ’27), who spent their summer interning at shelters on the U.S.–Mexico border through the Initiative’s partnership with the Kino Border Initiative and Casa de la Misericordia.

Penny and Elena spent eight weeks with the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a Jesuit-run migrant shelter and advocacy center that straddles Nogales, Sonora (Mexico) and Nogales, Arizona (U.S.). KBI’s work goes beyond food and clothing distribution—it includes legal services, education programs, and political advocacy.

During her time at Kino, Elena Wright helped lead educational immersion programs for visiting student groups. She reflected on the discomfort she felt giving tours to the majority-English speaking American students:

“It left me questioning if this was a form of volunteerism or if I was aiding in crafting a savior complex. It’s important to interrogate how we help vulnerable populations.”

But ultimately, she came to see these encounters as transformational, especially for the visitors. “Educational immersion,” she said, “allows those who need it most to see the real humanitarian crisis created by U.S. policy choices.”

This sort of questioning—of seeing migrants as community members and peers rather than victims that need saving—is the fundamental mission of Fordham’s Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity.

Another student, Penny Joseph, focused on KBI’s clothing distribution efforts and the day-to-day proximity that defined their experience. “It wasn’t that we were experiencing the same things,” they said, “but being in shared space mattered. It allowed for real connection.”

Penny’s positive experience of working side-by-side with the migrants demonstrates that accompaniment is as much about being with someone in ordinary moments, such as sharing meals or sorting clothes, as it is about activism.

Aurelien Clavaud spent his summer at La Casa de la Misericordia, a shelter in Nogales, Mexico where residents share daily responsibilities and support one another as they await U.S. asylum appointments. Run largely by migrants themselves, the shelter is a living, breathing model of community autonomy. Casa’s model of mutual care challenges traditional aid and embodies the spirit of accompaniment.

Aurelien offered a moving reflection on the duality of accompaniment: its practical utility and its symbolic power. “Sure, I helped people get groceries or install cameras,” he said. “But the most important thing I did was just be there; with them, in dorms, at meals, during storms.”

He recalled one staff member telling him: “It’s important they see that an American actually cares.”

Immersive and hands-on programs like Kino and Casa do more than provide aid to migrants. They give emotional support and ultimately, hope.

Hope may not seem as impactful as resources like food or water, but without hope, there is little strength left to continue fighting for migrants’ human rights to food, water, and shelter, and for a change in U.S migration policy. Hope is a quiet but radical form of resistance, and based on Penny’s, Elena’s, and Aurelien’s impactful experiences at Kino and Casa, immersive education and hope go hand-in-hand in inspiring the next generation of humanitarian leaders.

Want to hear more?

Watch the full student panel here.