{"id":761,"date":"2025-01-02T18:19:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T18:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=761"},"modified":"2025-01-02T18:19:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T18:19:25","slug":"from-financial-despair-to-hope-an-under-the-table-dogwalking-job-helps-an-international-student-stay-afloat-at-columbia-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2025\/01\/from-financial-despair-to-hope-an-under-the-table-dogwalking-job-helps-an-international-student-stay-afloat-at-columbia-university\/","title":{"rendered":"From Financial Despair to Hope: An Under-The-Table Dogwalking Job Helps an International Student Stay Afloat at Columbia University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alexandre\u2019s story of navigating financial hardship during his studies highlights how one of the world\u2019s elite institutions is unprepared to support underprivileged students. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre\u2019s first day walking dogs in the summer of 2024, taken by the friend that referred him to the dog owners<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By<\/em> Felipe Ferreira Lopes<\/em><\/strong>, a Graduate Student at Columbia University, completing a Master Degree in Public Administration <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Alexandre won a postgraduate scholarship to study at Columbia University, he felt he had entered the elite. However, the reality of international student finances shocked him: he spent his first year struggling with delinquent rent, borrowing money, and desperately searching for a legal work-study job but unable to find one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe processes are designed to exclude people with no money, and nobody seems to care,\u201d he said. Columbia recruits students from all over the world, including those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds like Alexandre. However, reality often falls far short of what is promised when they arrive in New York City. \u201cI encountered the same educational system designed for the children of the American and global aristocracies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre\u2019s two years as an international master\u2019s student at Columbia University have been marked by financial struggles, highlighting systemic barriers for underprivileged students in an institution made for the global elite, despite people from all around the world being attracted and admitted into the programs,\u201d he said. Hailing from Northeast Brazil, Alexandre represents a small group of underprivileged students at Columbia\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). I met him during his first week of classes through Columbia\u2019s network of Brazilian students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since arriving in New York City, Alexandre felt he was battling Columbia\u2019s system. \u201cI felt more supported in the university I attended in Brazil, even though Columbia has way more resources\u201d, he said. Alexandre studied at UFPE, a public university in Pernambuco, his home state in Brazil, and left the country for the first time to move to New York City in the summer of 2023, counting on the opportunity to migrate post-graduation to repay his student loan. SIPA\u2019s website boasts graduate median salaries between $73,000 -103,000 – a fortune in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Alexandre\u2019s journey was complicated from the start. SIPA required him to take a one-month English course for students with \u201cminimum but not desired\u201d proficiency scores. \u201cSIPA increased my costs by $8,000 without ever considering how this would affect me. It completely messed up my school experience\u201d, he said. 95% of his tuition was covered by a scholarship from a Brazilian foundation and he took a loan Columbia offered for living expenses, capped at SIPA\u2019s estimates of its program living expenses – around $62,000 for four terms. Alexandre wasn\u2019t able to increase his loan to accommodate the extra $8,000 and began school already in deficit. \u201cI didn\u2019t have an option and bet I would be able to get a campus job to compensate for what I had lost,\u201d he said. As an international student, he was only authorized to work on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Columbia\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs building,\u00a0taken by Richard Anderson and edited by Felipe Lopes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As classes started, Alexandre discovered most on-campus jobs were taken by second-year students who had earlier access to opportunities. No financial-need criteria are formally analyzed to select students for the jobs. Some do it to earn extra money to go out partying; others need it to afford groceries and rent. Alexandre completed his first term without being able to find an income source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKnowing I hadn\u2019t figured out how to get money disrupted my education. I was anxious and wasn\u2019t able to focus on my studies. It affected my grades,\u201d he said. He felt the $8,000 gap keenly in the second term, when he couldn\u2019t make rent for months. \u201cI was lucky to be in student housing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is harder to be evicted.\u201d The institution does not guarantee housing for international students, nor does it consider the financial needs of the student in the selection process. In reality, the process works against the underprivileged, as incoming students that are able to pay a $2,000 tuition advancement earlier benefit from higher chances of getting housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compounding his challenges, Alexandre\u2019s laptop broke, and he couldn\u2019t afford a new one for weeks during the end of the term. Columbia\u2019s administration had closed campus due to student protests, so he had limited access to school facilities. By the end of spring, Alexandre wasn\u2019t able to find a paid summer internship like some of his colleagues. He felt hopeless. \u201cEmployers seem to prefer people with previous US or international work experience, which was not my case,\u201d he said. SIPA does not include summer living expenses in its cost estimates. Apparently, students are expected to return to their home countries as an alternative to the internship, which would imply an extra transportation cost not accounted for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of spring, some financial breathing space suddenly came from an unexpected source. A friend that was moving back to Brazil referred him to two wealthy women who needed a new dog walker, a job the friend had been doing for the past three years. \u201cIt felt like an angel\u2019s hand reaching out to help me,\u201d Alexandre said. \u201cI mean, it still wasn\u2019t enough to cover my rent, but it was already something\u201d. The friend, also from an underprivileged background, had received the referral by chance from a graduating student in his first week of school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre started to earn around $35 per hour walking dogs, totaling about $300 per week. Dog-sitting paid him better, $50 to $100 per night. He excitedly recounted the time he babysat two dogs for 10 days and earned $1,000. He has been spending lunch time walking dogs ever since. Each day he takes the subway to Columbus Circle, goes up into a luxurious apartment facing Central Park, prepares the dogs, walks them for an hour, takes them back and returns to his school commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entering his second year, Alexandre faced more financial surprises from Columbia. Tuition for the 2024-2025 academic year increased, leaving him with a $3,000 shortfall his scholarship wouldn\u2019t cover. Columbia housing rent also rose, and once again, the university denied his loan request for additional support. Eventually, Alexandre secured an administrative job at SIPA, paying $30 per hour for up to 15 hours a week. Combined with his dog-walking income, it seemed enough to stabilize his finances, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on his experience, Alexandre believes the school is not yet prepared to receive underprivileged international students. \u201cThis is a school for the global elites. The diversity SIPA heavily promotes on its website is far from the reality I see. A significant portion of Latin Americans were living in the US before or came from the most privileged families in their home countries,\u201d he said. \u201cMost admitted Latin Americans are white, for instance. The administration should be able to notice that. Or even worse, they do notice and do nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre and other underprivileged Brazilans got the chance to study at Columbia through a scholarship from the Lemann Foundation, Brazil\u2019s largest education foundation. Until recently, the foundation covered only 30% of tuition, indirectly favoring wealthier students who could fund the remainder. Alexandre believes his cohort is among the first to include truly underprivileged Brazilians, as the foundation now covers 95% of tuition for most recipients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre doesn\u2019t regret his choices. \u201cI love New York and want to stay longer. This experience has taught me a lot, and I hope the Columbia stamp on my CV pays off,\u201d he said. For international students, even if a company sponsors a visa, it\u2019s subject to a lottery with no guarantees. Still, Alexandre feels he\u2019s lagging behind his peers in securing a job after graduation. \u201cIt\u2019s like climbing a big wall without safety equipment while others pass me by, roped and confident\u201d, he said.\u201cIf I don\u2019t get a U.S. job, I\u2019ll default on my loan. It\u2019s impossible to pay it back with a Brazilian salary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexandre\u2019s story of navigating financial hardship during his studies highlights how one of the world\u2019s elite institutions is unprepared to support underprivileged students.  Alexandre\u2019s first day walking dogs in the summer of 2024, taken by the friend that referred him…<\/p>\n

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