The Manhattan view from Ayetuoma Owheruo’s 39th-floor office in the World Trade Center could not be more of a contrast from the lush landscape of his grandparents’ farm in Nigeria.
It’s been a long journey from that farm to his current position in the city’s Human Resources Administration, where he leads the One-Shot Deal (OSD) and Project Management Unit of the Supportive Housing and Specialized Services. And now, as he works toward a master’s degree in Urban Studies at SLU, he is looking down roads that will take him even further.
After 15 years working inside the New York City government, Ayetuoma enrolled at SLU because, he said, “I want to know how decisions made in government offices affect everyday lives.”
Another interest is in subway surfing, which he chose as a research topic for his upcoming Capstone project in the fall. He’s been fascinated for years by the youthful exuberance of urban activities like skateboarding. It inspired him to connect this urban stunt culture to the deadly phenomenon of subway surfing.
The policy web
“I see these kids who want to do something extraordinary. But I wonder if they understand the risk involved,” he said. “What motivates them? Are they driven by purpose or just experimenting?
“At school, you have the possibility to broaden your horizons. You can learn how different issues relate to one another,” he continued.
That led him to choose to take his studies in a new direction. “Different areas of public policy create a web. My work has been in social welfare, so being at SLU helps me synthesize a better understanding of the social, economic, and spatial aspects of New York City. Because subways help move people around, I’m also interested in transportation,” he said.
Benin City to the Bronx
Ayetuoma, 54, has always been an academic type. Some of his earliest memories are of going to school in Benin City, Nigeria, where he lived with his parents and nine siblings. He was the first in his family to attend university. He studied geography and regional planning at the University of Benin (also in Nigeria, not the country of Benin just to the west).
Soon after graduating, he took the civil service exam and landed a job at the Delta State Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Social Development in Nigeria. He loved the job and took pride in helping improve people’s lives.
In 2006 Ayetuoma literally won the lottery, however – the U.S. green card lottery – so he moved to America. Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, he came to New York with his wife. He has two teenage sons who are both in boarding school.
Job searching and finding
When Ayetuoma arrived, his network of Nigerian friends helped him find a job as a security guard, but he soon grew bored of the job. He enrolled in college to study nursing but withdrew after a few semesters when his son was born and the pressure to support his family became overwhelming.
The Nigerian community came to his rescue again and helped him navigate his job search. He knew he wanted to be back in government social services, but without passing the civil service exam, his opportunities were limited. His friends, however, assured him there were city jobs out there, regardless of whether they passed the exam.
He found work at the Human Resources Administration in the city’s Department of Social Services, where he moved through a variety of positions. Currently, his job requires less on-the-ground involvement with New Yorkers and more desk work. Focused on tracking placement of criminal justice involved, homeless and mentally ill people in supportive housing, he monitors the number and locations of vacant units across the five boroughs.
Back to school
Over Ayetuoma’s years at the Human Resources Administration, the inner workings of the dense, intricate system of New York City government services became a source of fascination. The day-to-day tasks were straightforward enough, but it’s what happens on a bigger, system-wide scale that intrigues him.
“When it comes to housing — it doesn’t just happen in a clear-cut way,” he said about the process of placing people in housing. “It’s spread across lots of different agencies. We have all these different parts and policies that deal with housing. The way the system is created, there’s no way to really have one answer when things don’t go right. I came to SLU because I want to know how decisions made in government offices affect everyday lives.”
He knows that understanding how various government agencies intersect and function will help him not only do his job better but move up in the ranks. But despite his lifelong love for education, going back to school as a working adult was no easy feat. It took him time to overcome the feeling out of place back in the classroom.
“When I started at SLU, the first few months I was just trying to figure out if I belong,” he remembers. “I was wondering if I could be comfortable because it’d been such a long time since I attended school.”
Belonging here
He credits the faculty for convincing him he was in the right place — both at school and in life. He calls out Associate Professor Sofya Aptekar’s class, Classic Approach to Urban Studies. Yes, he learned about methodologies and approaches to research, but a much more universally applicable lesson stands out.
“I was so nervous, but Professor Aptekar gave me the encouragement to express myself. She’s an immigrant like me, so I think she understands,” he says. “She created an open door, an opportunity that we could use to improve ourselves. It allowed me to adjust and learn the flow and be free and not punish myself if I make mistakes. She gave me a lot of confidence.”
He is constantly juggling work, family, and his responsibilities at his small Pentecostal church in his Bronx neighborhood. He works with his pastor to runs the church congregation’s foodbank. His drive to help people as a career has roots, he says, in his spiritual life.