Reshuffling the Deck and Playing her Hand with Confidence

For Ava Kamdem ‘25GS, her acceptance to Columbia GS didn’t just feel like a ticket out—it was, definitively, the ticket out.

Out of Texas, where she was living at the time. Out of the looming shadows of her recent past. And out of the systemic barriers she found herself facing as a formerly incarcerated survivor of human trafficking.

The day she received her acceptance letter remains vivid in her mind; a moment that not-so-quietly marked a new beginning.

“Okay, that is a story,” Kamdem said with a smile and soft laugh.

Her boss at the time—Dr. Vanessa Bouché ‘01CC, who was instrumental in guiding Kamdem through the application process—wanted Kamdem to sit in on an important Zoom call. Seated near her boss, laptop open to take notes, Kamdem was still, but anxious; she knew admission decisions would be released that day, and GS was the only school she applied to. The call started and Kamdem zeroed in on the tasks at hand: listen, observe, stay quiet.

All of a sudden, there it was: an email from the GS Office of Admissions appeared in her inbox. Typing quietly, she logged into the admissions portal.

Kamdem started screaming.

Staring back at her, underneath a cascade of onscreen confetti, was her GS acceptance letter. 

Quickly realizing what was happening, her boss told the group on Zoom that she’d have to call them back. She slammed her laptop shut and embraced her young employee. Overcome with emotion, the two fell to the floor, tears streaming down their faces. They weren’t tears of sadness, or even joy. This was something deeper—the release that comes when hope, long buried under fear and doubt, finally breaks through.

“It was like ‘Okay, you have this opportunity that is going to change your life.’” Kamdem recalled, her eyes brimming with tears. “There are so many things that you feel limit you, and you feel like you can't do because of this.” 

There’s an unspoken heaviness to “this” as Kamdem said it. The barriers she faced as a formerly incarcerated survivor of human trafficking were not uncommon among others whose stories mirrored her own. Finding a job, a place to live, even a phone plan proved immensely challenging. But she didn’t let that deter her. She used her lived experiences to propel her toward understanding why those barriers exist in the first place, and what she could do to help dismantle them.

After deciding to enroll at GS, Kamdem felt ready for Columbia; fueled by deep curiosity, a thirst to learn—and one life-changing surprise. She and her partner discovered they were expecting a baby. Torn between her dreams of furthering her education and the responsibilities that come with parenthood, she wrestled with uncertainty, wondering what the future now held for them.

“You go to Columbia,” her partner said. “And I'll support you the whole way.”

They packed up a U-Haul truck and drove from Texas to New York so Kamdem could begin her studies. Adjusting to life as a new mom, and new student in a new city, left Kamdem feeling a bit disconnected from the campus community that first year. The turning point was the Social Impact Fellowship with Columbia World Projects.

Through the fellowship, she met Jarrel Daniels ‘22GS, also formerly incarcerated, and for the first time saw herself reflected in someone else at Columbia. Daniels introduced her to the Center for Justice, and the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) program he helped develop, which Kamdem also participated in. The sense of belonging and burgeoning connections she found at the Center were incredibly transformative. Her involvement with Project Restore Bed-Stuy allowed her to view research through the lens of lived experience—specifically, her own—which ultimately became the foundation of her research journey. She learned to shape her innate curiosity into meaningful, structured inquiry, gaining not only the tools to conduct research, but a powerful sense of purpose along with it. 

“There are so many unanswered questions and so much to learn and understand. And if a researcher is not necessarily asking the right questions, then it can cause there to be less progress where progress is desperately needed,” she said. “My role in advocacy is to be a researcher and to ask really difficult questions, figure out rigorous methods in which to answer those questions, and then disseminate that information to the people who need it the most.”

Much of her research centers around social capital and how it can influence hireability, particularly among those who are formerly incarcerated, survivors of human trafficking, or both.

“If somebody is coming from a marginalized background, a lot of the time the systems that are in place do not allow for traversing into sustainable economic opportunities. I genuinely believe that one of the most advantageous mechanisms is social capital.”

A supportive social network, alongside social capital, played a vital role in helping Kamdem rebuild her life. Now, she’s transforming her own experiences into purpose-driven action to help others who have not been given the same privilege of freedom.

“Being at Columbia really solidified the fact that advocacy does not look one way. It really helped me and affirmed that I can be as much of an advocate as I feel my purpose is with doing what I'm gifted in,” said Kamdem.

After Daniels graduated, Kamdem felt the absence of the community he had helped her build. Recognizing the pivotal role that a supportive network played in her own journey—“I wouldn’t be where I am today without it,” she said—Kamdem founded the System-Impacted Scholars, a group dedicated to advocacy, community, and amplifying the voices of system-impacted students at GS.

Her passion for driving change and deepening her research interests opened many new doors, sometimes leading her to unexpected opportunities, such as joining the inaugural cohort of Bancroft Research Scholars at GS; being named Researcher of the Month by Columbia Research; and working as a Research Assistant at the Columbia Social Relations Lab and the Columbia Business School.

In reflecting on her Columbia journey, Kamdem thought of the allies she found at GS who truly saw her as a person—and not just her past. One of them was Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch.

“I would have never imagined having a Dean of my school support me, and see me, while knowing that I'm a survivor of human trafficking, knowing that I'm formerly incarcerated, and that not at all shape her perception of me,” Kamdem said. “She is massively supportive, and understands restorative justice.”

Being seen and supported by leadership around Columbia set the tone for Kamdem’s academic journey—and it was in the classroom where that support continued to take shape in powerful ways. One class in particular stands out: Narrative and Human Rights, taught by Joseph R. Slaughter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Kamdem took Professor Slaughter’s class in her first semester while she was pregnant—and also flying back-and-forth from New York to Texas to testify against her trafficker.

“Professor Slaughter is one of the most absolutely brilliant humans I have ever met,” Kamdem said. “He consistently blew my mind, like every single class. I would come to his class and I would leave and call my partner and be like, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy,’ because it was just such amazing information.”

Eye-opening classes like Professor Slaughter’s provided Kamdem with more than just moments of inspiration—they were part of a larger transformation, one that made her think about her place in the world and the social capital she, herself, was now building at Columbia. While her journey has seen its share of challenges, Kamdem continues to play her hand with budding confidence.

“You know how you're given a deck of cards, right? Some are given a hand of jokers at birth, but when you get to an institution like Columbia, they get reshuffled. And all of a sudden in your hands, you're like, ‘oh, I have a king and an ace.’ You know what I mean? And so it's like, ‘What do I do? How do I play this?’”

As Kamdem continued building connections and immersing herself in research, she began to understand how to play the cards she’d been dealt. And one thing became abundantly clear: education is the most powerful card she holds, reshaping not just her future, but how she understood everything that came before.

“Education has been the largest element of freedom. Education not only is something that no one can ever take away from me, but it's also something that has completely helped shape my perception of the world, my perception of my past, my perception of my trafficker, my perception of my future. Not only does it help you intellectually, it also helps you emotionally and spiritually,” she said. “My education has been the hardest thing to achieve, but has been the absolute most beneficial.”