He was captain of the soccer team during his junior and senior year, served as a resident advisor his senior year and was active in student protest efforts regarding the role of private and selective eating clubs in college life and university investments in firms operating in a South Africa ruled by apartheid.

Sharry next moved to the ACNS main office in New York to direct a special nationwide resettlement program for Cuban Refugees.

In 1986, Sharry left ACNS and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he became the executive director of Centro Presente, a local organization that worked with Central Americans who had fled civil war and human rights violations in their countries of origin in order to seek safe haven in the greater Boston area.

[2][3] Sharry has also been featured in the documentary film series, How Democracy Works Now, by filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini.

[4] Sharry is featured in the documentary film entitled Last Best Chance [1], Story Twelve of the series How Democracy Work Now, from filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini.