In my four years of working for Fordham University Emergency Medical Services (FUEMS) I have never been able to deliver a straight answer when someone asks me why I do it. There have been variations containing glimpses of the truth — that I value public service, that I find medicine interesting and engaging, that I want to be a part of something bigger than myself on campus — but these are my own platitudes that fall short of conveying the whole story.

Like the rest of my class, my arrival at Fordham coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic in a true ode to the meaning of a transition period. I had seen the only world I knew be upended not only in terms of sheer loss of life but in the revelation that the institutions I had previously thought of as immutable could fragment like a shattered hip under pressure. Hospitals weren’t havens, some lives couldn’t be saved and too many times, the right people cared about the wrong things. I will always be grateful that my life wasn’t impacted in the way I knew others were. But the lurking haunt of apathy followed me into college and left me feeling stranded, unsure and disinvested in life without any real passion for activities or pursuits that I now felt were only transient. I started college as uncertain about my purpose as I had been four years earlier. I’m sure other people handled it differently, better even. I’ve never handled change well. But I can only personally attest to what was on my own mind when I first joined FUEMS.

FUEMS is a student-run, volunteer ambulance agency that has been servicing the Fordham community since 1977. I started out with no clinical experience or pre-medical intent, becoming a licensed New York State Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in June 2022, and worked my way up to becoming a Field Supervisor, Training Coordinator, then Lieutenant and eventually the Chief of Medical Operations. In my tenure as Chief, I was privileged to oversee an organization comprised of the best people Fordham has to offer. Which was vital considering that, too often, I saw others at their worst. FUEMS responds to everything from broken bones to high fevers, panic attacks and overdoses. I’ve given medications, splinted limbs, raced through the darkened streets of Belmont in the early recesses of dawn and held the hands of people I knew who had suffered more than I could ever understand. It was never easy, but it was never hard, either.

The very first lesson you will learn in EMT school is on the importance of body substance isolation precautions and scene safety. If you really want to talk about platitudes, the all-too-familiar “you can’t save anyone if you become a patient” lecture is sure to occupy a loving spot in any first responder’s playbook. But they tell you this first for a reason. As an EMT, you have a purpose to help people. Becoming sick or injured interferes with your ability to carry out this purpose. So the most important lesson you’ll learn is not how to save someone else’s life — or even how to parallel park — but how to save your own.

FUEMS became a “North Star” for me during my time at Fordham. It was pivotal in shaping the trajectory of my career in public health and helped me forge relationships with people I am lucky enough to call friends today — people that I might not have met otherwise. I won’t over-sentimentalize and say that it taught me how to be an empathetic listener or how to be a leader. Working for FUEMS simply gave me back a sense of purpose. In a world where I was struggling to feel passionate about anything during a difficult transition to college, my decision to throw myself into something new was my decision to leave behind the apathy and self-pity I had entertained for far too long throughout high school. I needed something to build on. Something that helped me realize what really mattered and a community that showed me the furthest corners of human kindness in return. To simply say my life would have been different without it is to do a profound disservice to the way FUEMS has fundamentally shaped the lives of myself and so many others.

Of course, purpose is only half the equation. I have always been endlessly supported by the people closest to me. All of it would have felt pointless without them.

With my time in FUEMS rapidly coming to a close, all I can ever say to everyone is thank you. Being in FUEMS is one of the greatest opportunities I have ever been afforded because I found purpose in getting to protect and serve those who made my college experience worth it. The work is often thankless and raw. However, it has been an enduringly human way to spend the past four years giving back to the place in which I have been privileged enough to spend my time as an undergraduate.

So — in hopes of illuminating my final call to action — I implore you to trust us. To call us for help. To have faith in our unwavering loyalty to the health and dignity of our fellow Rams. Because this commitment is built on the stories of people like me who owe everything to their time here at Fordham. Because Fordham would be nothing without the people who make it what it is today, it will always be enough.

Colleen Sherry, FCRH ’25, is an international political economy and global public health double major from Great Falls, Virginia.