Although he is a sergeant in the New York State Police Department, John Sharp has for the past several years been “on loan” to New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development, where he is executive director of Citizenship NYC, an agency whose goal is to help immigrants to the city succeed in their quest for U.S. citizenship. Sharp manages over 150 employees at five sites citywide. His mission: the entire agenda of the citizenship process, from finding and filling out the appropriate federal government forms, to English language acquisition, to civics education. “A lot of the services that we provide free,” says Sharp, “are the same things that recent immigrants pay fees for to rip-off artists who work in immigrant neighborhoods.” Citizenship NYC even sponsors a hotline that answers questions in 23 languages.
In 1998, anticipating the possibility of retirement from the NYSPD, Sharp decided to look into graduate programs that offered degrees consistent with his first career and with a post-retirement second career. In his research, he found in Baruch’s School of Public Affairs “a natural fit: It has a great faculty and a convenient class schedule, and it’s close to work.”
After Sharp enrolled at SPA, his wife entered the Executive MPA program at Columbia. According to Sharp, this allows them to trade textbooks and also leads to “a lot of fiery discussions at home,“ which is in Chelsea.
Of SPA’s program, Sharp observes: “Because it focuses so much on New York City government, it’s incredibly practical. Things I learned in class I could take to work the next day to help improve the process—immediately. With no lag time at all, I was able to reduce costs, expand operations, and manage the process better. The management team at my office couldn’t believe it.”

—TG