Mission to serve: Dual-degree student pursues passion to destigmatize migration

On a spring afternoon in March 2023, Nancy Patterson walked through a playground to enter a migrant shelter in the heart of a Las Cruces neighborhood. Inside, she wound her way past families congregated in a cafeteria under a kaleidoscope of flags, enjoying a moment’s peace from their travels to the United States. She headed into an on-site health clinic and readied herself to assist with medical screenings for incoming migrants. 

It was the start of Patterson’s Sunday shift at Border Servant Corps, which operates the shelter.

Since 2022, she devoted two days a month to helping the organization fulfill its mission to provide hospitality to refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. while pursuing dual master’s degrees in social work and public health at NMSU through the College of HEST.

On this day, dozens of refugees of all ages passed through the shelter, with many needing medical attention. Fluent in Spanish, Patterson spent much of her shift in the clinic translating conversations between migrants and a volunteer medical provider. When she wasn’t translating, she helped the shelter’s guests complete their intake forms, organized medical files and restocked the clinic with supplies. Through it all, Patterson drew on her public health and social work knowledge, honed over the past two years, to create a safe space for the migrants to share their stories, voice their hardships, and find comfort, however fleeting.

“In social work and public health, there’s something called holding a therapeutic space,” she explains. “You don’t necessarily have to know what to say – sometimes the women who stay here speak Portuguese or Turkish, and I only speak Spanish and English – but you’re there and listening to them, even if you can’t understand their language. I hold that space and try to stay strong for them.” 

Patterson developed an interest in working with immigrants at a young age while growing up in Arizona. Led by parents Paul and Louisa, she and her family spent many years volunteering at an orphanage for migrant children and resettling refugees and asylum seekers through their church. They also served as sponsors for immigrant families coming into the U.S.

“As a kid, I remember we picked up families from the airport and checked in on them, and we helped one family from Congo get into an apartment,” she recalls. “I realized later that I might be interested in social work because of our work with immigrants. I’m grateful my parents had that passion and passed it down to me.”

After Patterson earned a bachelor’s degree in social work in North Carolina, she returned to Arizona to work as a case manager at a shelter housing unaccompanied migrant youth. She then joined Peace Corps in 2018 and taught English for a year in Colombia. The COVID-19 pandemic derailed her plans to relocate and work in Mexico on a Fulbright scholarship in 2020. She instead saw an opportunity to further her education.

“While I was in Colombia, I saw a lot of overlap between social work and public health and decided I wanted to find a master’s program that combined these areas,” she says.

Patterson found that program at NMSU – and quickly applied. The program allows students to complete two master’s degrees in social work and public health with a total of 90 credit hours.

Patterson says the program incorporated many real-world experiences into the coursework and allowed her to explore a long-held interest in behavioral health. Over two years, she completed three internships – and still found the time to volunteer at Border Servant Corps and other organizations in her free time.

“Nancy may not be a native of New Mexico, but the way she has immersed herself in our communities and served them so well in such a short period of time is remarkable,” says her academic adviser, Jagdish Khubchandani, professor of public health at NMSU. “She is a truly global citizen, given her work in various parts of the world.” 

Patterson, who graduated in May, plans to return to Arizona to join the youth migrant shelter she previously worked at – but this time as a mental health clinician.

“I’m very passionate about immigration work – it’s something I want to do my whole life,” she says. “Anytime that I get an opportunity to work with people coming from all over the world, I think it’s fascinating and miraculous. Migration is a very natural process that gets stigmatized, and I want to do everything I can to destigmatize it.”