Bloustein School Master of City and Regional Planning students Miranda Alperstein (MCRP ’25) and Saul Ruddick-Schulman (MCRP ’25) were recently selected as 2024-25 Morgan Stanley Community Development Graduate Fellows.
Now in its 13th year, each of this year’s nine graduate students will be paired with Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) member organizations for 10 months to work on an impactful community development project in New York City, offering emerging community development leaders key training and support while building the capacity of our organizations and the movement overall.
This year’s cohort will be working on a range of issues including: affordable housing preservation, sustainability, and development, cooperative housing, and small business organizing through NYC.
Miranda Alperstein MCRP ’25
Miranda is entering her second year as a Master’s in City and Regional Planning student. After several years working as an immigration paralegal at non-profit organization Lutheran Social Services of New York, she chose to pursue a graduate degree in planning to understand questions of social justice through a spatial lens. Through continued coursework, research, and work with the Cooper Square Committee, she hopes to understand and contribute to community development efforts that promote community control of resources and decision-making. Originally from Princeton, NJ, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a certificate in Latin American Studies from Princeton University.
For her fellowship, Miranda will be working with Cooper Square Committee. CSC is a nonprofit organization based in New York City that has been actively involved in advocating for affordable housing, tenant rights, and urban planning. It was formed in response to urban renewal projects that were threatening the Cooper Square area in Lower Manhattan during the mid-20th century.
Saul Ruddick-Schulman MCRP ’25
Saul is a second year Master of City and Regional Planning student with a focus on community development. Growing up in California, they witnessed firsthand the intensification of climate-related disasters, and their interests lie in the intersection of community planning and climate change. In California, they worked with a participatory research team focusing on environmental injustice in frontline communities, and since moving east they have done research for the Workplace Justice Lab@RU and interned with the New Jersey Office of Planning Advocacy.
Saul will be working with New Destiny Housing Corporation. It is a New York City nonprofit founded to provide housing and services to one of the City’s most vulnerable homeless populations – survivors of domestic violence and their children. They are committed to increasing permanent housing options for domestic violence survivors by building affordable housing and improving their access to existing housing resources.