Lillian Hertel, FCRH ’27, turned a middle school passion for activism into becoming the first Fordham University student to be awarded a lifechanging scholarship that’s for young and emerging leaders in public service.
This past summer, Hertel, who is double majoring in political science as well as environmental studies, was awarded the highly competitive Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service.
Awarded to 100 students, this scholarship is a two-year and two-part leadership experience program dedicated to advancing the careers of young leaders in public service through both an academic scholarship for college or a travel stipend for 10 years.
Created by former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama and co-founder and current CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, the program says it aims to help young people interested in public policy become global citizens and discover more about the areas of public policy they are interested in and further aid them in launching their careers in public service, according to Hertel.
For Hertel, this scholarship is both “helpful” and also “valuable,” as she plans to utilize this money to help fund the rest of her Fordham education and her travel plans to kick off her future in public policy.
“I think the most valuable thing is going to be getting to travel,” Hertel said. “I’m really excited about being able to develop as a person through travel as much as I am excited about being able to use this as a career opportunity.”
The Minneapolis native, who is spending the semester studying abroad in Paris, began her journey in public service in middle school, where she developed an early passion for activism.
“I’ve been involved with activism for like six years or so,” Hertel said. “I started in middle school with the March for Lives Walkout, and then, [while in highschool], I started an organization to make it easier for other people to get involved in activism in high school as well, because when I was initially trying to start out, it was really hard.”
For Hertel, it was her early activism and advocacy work that led her to apply for the “competitive” scholarship.
“It had kind of been on my radar for a while,” Hertel said. “I didn’t always think that I would apply just because I don’t know how many people apply exactly, but in high school, I think when I had been researching scholarships to apply for, it had come up with some of the searches. I was like, okay, I can apply for them when I’m a sophomore in college.”
When Hertel reached her sophomore year of college last academic school year, she decided to apply for the program, which she submitted her application for in late March of 2025. However, Hertel did not find out that she had been awarded this scholarship until July. Hertel described the moment she found out she had received the scholarship.
“I ran … out and I told my mom, and she got super excited and started jumping around and hugging me. So it was fun. It was a good day,” said Hertel.
Hertel said that she is most interested in the legal side of public policy, specifically environmental and climate laws.
“The legal sphere is definitely my root,” Hertel said. “I like that I have access also to learn about how academia and all these things could be used to help public service, to, kind of narrow down what in law that I want to do.”
According to Hertel, one of the main components of the two-year program is the summer voyage, where recipients are given a travel segment to be used for travel payments, that way they do not have to “bother” non-profit organizations. Recipients are also awarded a separate stipend from Airbnb for housing, as long as each student makes the argument for why they should be allowed to visit the different organizations and people they want to visit over the summer.
“People go to a bunch of different places,” Hertel said. “I think they have people in all seven continents, and then in a lot of states across America. So it’s very individualized … It’s very much about getting a couple different experiences and to get a broader perspective.”
Hertel says that for her summer voyage, she plans on traveling to Norway to learn more about environmental law, but also more about her personal Norwegian heritage.
“[I want] to go to Norway and either work with the government or nonprofit in the sphere of environmental law,” Hertel said. “People hit a couple different locations to kind of compare different approaches to their public service issue. So I’m still trying to figure out if I want to go somewhere else, and if so, where else I would go.”
While Hertel currently does not know if she wants to travel to multiple destinations, she is considering a couple of different places.
“I think it would be nice to use my French, just because I’m doing an internship and taking classes in French now,” said Hertel. “I’ve been looking at Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire as well, and their agricultural practices, but I haven’t, like, firmly decided on anywhere other than Norway.”
