“The Paralympics and the Olympics celebrate the joy found in effort,” said Block, a 2017 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

A soccer player for 15 years, Block sees sports as a global language and bridge builder. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship last summer to work with the Para START (Sports Training and Research Team) Swim Training Program for 10 months in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia.

“To be eligible for para sport, para athletes must have a physical, intellectual, or visual impairment that adversely affects sports performance,” she said. “Classification plays a huge part in promoting fairness in sports because there is such a large spectrum of moderate to severe impairments.”

The Para START program is led by Sean Tweedy, Ph.D., Emma Beckman, Ph.D., Mark Connick, Ph.D., and Leanne Johnston, Ph.D., of the University of Queensland. It focuses on athletes with high support needs. One of its aims is to evaluate the formation of athletic identity in this population. Specifically, four teenagers with cerebral palsy and no prior experience with organized sports will undertake a swimming training program which aims to help them swim as fast as they are physically able to, Block said.

For the past two months, Block has been conducting semi-structured interviews with participants with the aim to capture key moments during the program that influence a person’s constructions of themselves as an athlete. This narrative inquiry portion of the research is supervised by Eimear Enright, Ph.D., of the University of Queensland.

“A number of the participants in our swim training program describe it as the first context in which they have truly felt a sense of personal empowerment due to physical challenge” she said.

An Elite Level of Athleticism

The participants aspire to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and, in order to do this, they must be able to swim a minimum of 50 meters, according to Tweedy, an international classifier in Paralympic sport. (The 2018 Paralympics are currently underway in PyeongChang through March 18)

“In addition to documenting the formation of athletic identity in our participants, we are looking at the therapeutic benefit of sport participation, so the term ‘performance-focused’ is the key,” Tweedy said in a February interview with the University of Queensland.

“We already know that aquatic therapy works. Treating people in water reduces the effects of gravity, making movement easier and allowing people to do exercises that will improve strength and range of motion. The unique aspect of our project is that it does not have specific therapeutic goals – we are simply aiming to help our participants to swim fast. They do the hard work and we will monitor how they change over time.”

Block provides insight as to why these athletes favor swimming compared to other competitive sports.

“Their love of swimming has a lot to do with the feelings of freedom and independence this sport provides,” she said. “On land, they are restricted to using a wheelchair, but the water acts as a safe space to explore movement that would otherwise not be possible.”

‘Subtle Displays of Exclusion’

 Having a deeper understanding of the influences that shape how individuals with disabilities recognize their athletic talent can provide further understanding of identity development.

“This construct has previously been explored in retrospective studies on already successful Paralympians with mild to moderate impairments, but little is known about athletic identity formation in novice athletes who have high support needs,” said Block. “The study will have potential implications for disability sports’ inclusion policies and for rehabilitation frameworks and practices.”

An advocate for accessible athletic programs in education and local communities, Block said programs like Para START challenge our concept of who can be an elite athlete.

“Inclusive sports are so important because, rather than defining disability by what one cannot do, they can provide the opportunity to focus on what one can do.”

As of May 15, Fordham students earned 76 awards, including Fulbright scholarships, German Academic Exchange Service grants (aka the DAAD), and Boren scholarships.

“Fordham students have won international and national recognition, including a number of firsts: from a Newman’s Own Fellowship to a Schwarzman Scholarship in Beijing, China,” said John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Campion Institute. “Those who have worked with the institute have a lot to celebrate.”

Psychology major and Fordham soccer player Turner Block’s interest in athletes and physical impairment has earned her a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Under the direction of Sean Tweedy, a senior lecturer of physical activity at the university and principal investigator of its International Paralympic Committee Classification Research Partnership, an accredited classifier in Paralympics Athletics, Block will explore mental barriers and facilitators that influence athletic identity in Paralympic swimmers who have moderate to severe cerebral palsy. The research will have “ramifications for rehab,” she said.

“I’ve seen how being injured can really impact your mentality. This research will give athletic identity the weight that it deserves.”

Gabelli School of Business alumna Ran Niu is one in a select group of students who were awarded a Schwarzman Scholarship, which trains future leaders about China’s expanding role in global trends. Niu, who graduated last year with a master’s degree in global finance, said working in international affairs has long been her goal, having interned in United Nations’ Regional Commissions New York Office. She is Fordham’s first Schwarzman scholar.

“I was attracted by its vision of ‘global leadership for the 21st century.’ As an international student who has studied and worked in New York City, I feel connected to this global vision,” she said.

In August, she will enroll at Schwarzman College, a new institution that is part of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, with the goal of earning a master’s degree in global affairs.

As China’s foreign policy evolves, Critical Language Scholarship winner Robyn Emory said acquiring an understanding of both the language and culture could have real-world applications, especially in government. As an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas, Emory visited China while studying abroad. She has been studying Mandarin Chinese for about eight years. Through an eight-week intensive program in Xi’an, China at Shaanxi Normal University, the International Political Economy and Development (IPED) graduate student hopes to develop proficiency in the language.

“I’m trying to use my economic and political knowledge to see where conflict can come in and where it can be avoided,” said the former Peace Corps volunteer. “It’s going to take studying Chinese to understand the full side of things.”

As Critical Language scholars are paired with Chinese roommates, she is excited to engage with native speakers on a personal level.

“Having done Peace Corps and lived overseas before, I know that the cultural aspect is just as important as the language,” she said.

This summer, Aaron Kristopik, an international political economy major in Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, will be working in the economics department of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine as part of a distinguished internship with the U.S. Department of State.

Prior to coming to Fordham, Kristopik served in the Marine Corps for close to eight years. During that time, he worked as a guard for multiple U.S. embassies, including the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania. While in Africa, the New Britain, Connecticut native provided security during the 2010 Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in Egypt, he said.

As “fake news” and right-wing populism rises in Europe, Kristopik said he is hoping to learn how these changes will impact U.S. relations with Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

“There’s a lot going on in Central and Eastern Europe and it sparked my interest,” he said. “If you can understand their mindset, culture, language, and the norms of their country, it makes it more beneficial for building relationships.”

In addition to earning a Department of State internship, Kristopik has also been offered a Boren Scholarship in Czech Republic.

Kezel said the institute is investigating new fellowship opportunities all the time, and that he’d like to “see more alumni take advantage of all that our office has to offer.”

As of May 15, other prestigious scholarships won this year include:

Six additional Fulbright Fellowships: James von Albade, FCRH ’17, to France; Nina Heyden, FCRH ’17, to the United Kingdom; Gabrielle McGovern, FCRH ’17, to Costa Rica; William Stern, GSE ’20, to India; Priscilla Cintron, FCLC ’15, to the Dominican Republic; and Michael Perrin, GSAS ’14, to Spain.

Five Gates Millennium Scholarships: Kevin Berlanga, FCLC ’19; Dylan Hollingsworth, FCRH ’17; Amarachi Korie, FCLC ’18; Yota Oue, FCRH ’18; and Anisha Pednekar, GABELLI ’19.

Nine Clare Boothe Luce Scholarships: GSAS students Elle Barnes and Elizabeth Carlen; Lauren Beglin, FCRH ’19; Elizabeth Chesnut, PCS ’19; Victoria Cirrillo, FCRH ’19; Amy Feng, FCRH ’19 (2); Carolyn Ogden, FCLC ’19; and Marissa Vaccarelli, FCRH ’18.

Two Additional Critical Language Scholarships: Cody Harder, FCRH ’18 (Swahili); and Halina Shatravka, FCLC ’17 (Russian).

Three DAAD Fellowships: Sara Hurley, FCRH ’18, to the RISE Germany Program; FCRH graduate student Matthew J. Kasper; and GSAS doctoral student Michael Begun.

Four National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships:
Yoliem Miranda Alarcon, FCRH ’15; Samantha Walker, FCRH ’16; William Beatrez, FCRH ’19; and Nadine Moukdad, FCLC ’17.

One additional Boren Scholarship: Sean McKay, FCRH ’17, to Brazil.

One Newman’s Own Fellowship:
Shannon Kelsh, FCRH ’17, to work with the Women’s Business Development Center in Chicago.