Liberal Arts in Action: John McDonald ’03 (Economics)

John McDonald ’03 (Economics)

I am a staff attorney working in the housing unit at Legal Services NYC in the Bronx under the Homelessness Prevention Law Project grant. I represent low-income tenants facing eviction in New York City Housing Court who cannot afford an attorney.

While at SUNY New Paltz, my study of economics began my interest in economic and social justice issues. I later earned a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia where I studied, among other things, the environmental impact of planning decisions on poor communities. While in law school, I did a judicial clerkship at the High Court in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I worked on civil rights issues at the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. My studies made me realize that I wanted to devote my career to taking on human and civil rights issues created by unfair and unjust economic and political systems.

To me, a liberal arts education is about the study of things that cannot necessarily be quantified in economic terms, such as art, philosophy, preserving our environment, and discovering what it means to be human. For me that means a continuing search for truth, justice and interconnectedness with community.