Justin Sanchez: Fordham Conversations

"Fordham Conversations" is a series that spotlights voices from Fordham University and the work of students, professional staff, and alumni. 

Justin Sanchez is a City Council Member representing District 17 in the South Bronx, who is also pursuing his law degree at Fordham University. For "Fordham Conversations," he spoke with me about balancing those demands and his path to public service.

How did you get your start in politics? What made you decide you wanted to be a city council member?

I didn't know I wanted to be a city council member, and I still don't know if I want to be a city council member. It's more about giving back to the community. My journey in public service started as a little kid, and I didn't even know it was about public service; it was just being my grandmother's sidekick. We used to go to all of the senior centers and food pantries. I was an altar boy, and for a very long time we'd go to all of the church gatherings. Through all of those, it was all about giving back to the community.

My grandmother was very sick; she had lupus all of my life. We had to do dialysis treatments for her at 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.. But seeing her deal with her journey of health issues, I also saw her fighting so hard to give back to the community. One of the things I would always ask is, ‘You're the sick one. Why are you out here?’ And she's like, ‘Well, I can still walk. I can still talk. I can still breathe. And as long as I'm doing that, I'm going to be helping.’ 

In January of 2016, I lost my grandmother, and it was just [right] to give back. Seeing that my grandmother was no longer in the community, who would step in and help all the people she had spent all this time helping? I had my first internship as a sophomore at Bronx Science, interning on the local state senator's campaign. I didn't know up from down, left from right, but that is how I got my start. 

How do you deal with that balance between schoolwork and working with the council? You're a council member by day and a Fordham student by night. How do you make it work?

The one thing the Bronx teaches you is how to hustle and make time to get the things you need to get done. There is a lot of time management and balancing. What folks don't understand is I don't do this work alone. While my name is on the door, I don't do every job by myself. 

I have an amazing team behind me. When you're speaking to my team, you are speaking to me. I refuse to believe that micromanagement gets you anywhere, and when I'm sitting with my team and my staff, I want to be the dumbest best person in the room. If I am the smartest person in that room, I picked the wrong staff. I want my staff to wow me. If you don't have that team around you to help you actually push through, you're gonna drop the ball somewhere. 

What has been the most valuable thing that you've learned in school or in council that you've seen translate to the other? 

There are so many things that I have learned. The thing I learned most is to rely on your classmates and cherish the time you have with one another. I think that is an undersold part of our Fordham community: we are a community. Every time I'm out at community events, one of the first things that people ask me is ‘How's law school going?’ And it truly feels like you have an entire community rooting for you. I walk into class every day not only as a student myself but also knowing that I have a community rooting for me. 

How have you taken the Fordham values, whether that be the Jesuit values or the University’s values as a whole, and applied that to your work at council? 

As you all know, the Fordham motto is ‘In service to others.’ I truly take that with me wherever I go because that is how I view the work and the opportunity before me as a council member. I didn't know I was going to be a council member, or even that I wanted to be one. All I knew was that my community needed help, and I had years of experience in government work and service, and I knew how to deliver on day one.

I thought that would be useful in helping my community achieve what they want to see: cleaner streets, fresher air, clean water, and a community that feels like it cares about them. That all stems from being in service to others. I think I take that at the very core of any decision that I make. Any problem that is in front of me: ‘How are we acting and operating in service to others?’ I think a lot of the time, it’s very easy, especially in politics, to get caught up in the celebrity of it all. But I want us all to remember that it's not about the celebrity, it's not about the name, it's not about any one person. It's about the ideas and the issues that we're putting forth and what we're fighting for. 

People get elected, but getting elected is not the job. The job is the actual job. It's being in service to others. Vote for people, get excited about elections, do all of the great things, research, but also hold people accountable, even the ones that you like. Where are the dollars? Where are the resources? What's actually being delivered to your community?

I personally think that, as an elected official, the Fordham motto has been the perfect fit because it's everything I try to do: just be in service to others.

What has your favorite thing about working on city council been?  

My favorite thing has been the people, and the opportunity to actually do the little things that should have always been done. I ran for city council on four simple words: clean the damn streets. When I ran on those words, I thought I was crazy. Using a curse word, even though it's just the word 'damn.’ I thought my grandmother was going to come out of the grave and come get me. How dare I? 

But the reality is that it just encapsulated the frustration folks had with how dirty the streets are. Not even about how dirty the streets are, but about city services in general just not working for them, and there is a frustration behind it. I used a little word like damn to encapsulate all of that frustration. It makes it a little better that people actually realize someone else feels it with them, because we're all in this together. 

One of my favorite things I have done while on city council is getting trash cans and seeing how happy people are with them. Together we have built a 40-50 member youth-led South Bronx Youth Council. Every last Saturday of the month, I have 40-50 young people from all over the community come hang out and talk about ideas and what they want to see. Together, they have helped our office create a 70-plus summer event calendar. I have a five-week basketball tournament, volleyball tournaments, family days, barbecues, and open streets, all organized by the community. 

That has been the most exciting part about being on the city council. It’s about being able to actually get folks who are from our communities, made by our communities, to do things in our communities. There is a huge world out there in New York City, and I want people born and raised in our city to see that we are here for them. 

This story premiered on the What's What Podcast on July 21, 2026.  It been edited for brevity and clarity.