Many fans arrived early to mix and mingle at a special pregame reception on the deck in center field, and all attendees received a Fordham maroon quarter-zip sweatshirt with the Fordham and Yankees logos. 

They’re coming off a 6-5 2023 season highlighted by a thrilling last-second victory against league-rival Lehigh at the annual Homecoming game. And although they dropped the Aug. 29 season opener against Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Bowling Green State University, they’re returning eight out of 11 starters on both offense and defense—and preseason polls indicate that the rising Rams are set to challenge defending-champion Lafayette for the Patriot League title.

The Rams’ first home game will be the Homecoming matchup against Stony Brook University on Saturday, September 14. 

Here are three things to watch this season. 

An Explosive, Dynamic Offense

Junior quarterback CJ Montes—a finalist for the 2023 Walter Payton Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)—had an outstanding first season with the Rams last year after transferring from the University of New Mexico. He led the Patriot League in passing yards and passing touchdowns.

And he has racked up many preseason honors, including being named to the 2024 Walter Payton Award watch list.

Montes will be joined once again by senior running back Julius Loughridge, who was third in the Patriot League in touchdowns and fourth in rushing yards per game last year.

Veteran Presence on Defense

Last year’s team MVP, lineman Matt Jaworski, kicks off this season with multiple preseason recognitions, including being named the 2024 Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Jaworski said he and fellow returning starters, including senior linebacker James Conway and grad student defensive back Nahil Perkins, will help the Rams have a balanced attack. 

“That’s been a big emphasis for us all summer—putting all pieces together with offense and defense grooving more together, rather than just having a good defensive game or a good offensive game,” Jaworski said. 

The defense also added a familiar face to its coaching staff: Ryan Greenhagen, GABELLI ’22, ’23, is now an assistant coach, working with the outside linebackers. Greenhagen, who played linebacker for the Rams, graduated as the team’s all-time leading tackler and was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award, nicknamed the “Academic Heisman.”

An Autumn Matchup Against the Defending Champs on Family Weekend

Last year’s Patriot League champion Lafayette is set to visit Rose Hill on Saturday, October 5, during Fordham’s annual Family Weekend celebration. The Leopards are heading into the season strong, ranked 17th and 18th in national polls for the FCS conference. Get your tickets now to see the Rams in action against one of the best teams in the league.

Brian Lyman, who has been immersed in Alabama state politics as a reporter for nearly two decades, was named a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his “brave, clear, and pointed columns that challenge ever-more-repressive state policies flouting democratic norms and targeting vulnerable populations.”

For Lyman, a 1999 Fordham graduate, it was the latest milestone in a journey that began at the University’s Rose Hill campus a quarter century ago, when he was the opinion editor of The Fordham Ram. 

He previously worked at the Montgomery Advertiser, the Press-Register, and the Anniston Star—and last year, he became the founding editor of the Alabama Reflector, a nonprofit outlet that’s part of States Newsroom, a group that aims to bolster state-level reporting across the country.

What was it like finding out you were a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize?

We have this huge story running, and I’ve been deep in editing it, so I was not actually listening to the Pulitzer announcements. A friend who’s working in Nashville texted me, “Congratulations on the Pulitzer!” And I texted her back, “Wait, what?” Then my colleagues ran in telling me, so I may have been the last person to find out.

In your commentary you focus a lot on major issues—crime, the death penalty, transgender youth. How do you pick the topics you want to dive into?

The transgender issue has been going on for almost three years now in Alabama, but the column [cited by the Pulitzer board] was [published in April], when the latest [transgender sports] ban was moving toward passage. It just felt like it was something we needed to let people know. “Oh, by the way, this extremely small, extremely vulnerable group is being targeted by your lawmakers, and we need to pay attention to this.” 

Some issues, like the column I did about prisons, legislators aren’t really talking about, because it’s not an issue that wins votes, and it’s something they would rather not deal with. But I’ve been inside those prisons. You don’t need to read the Department of Justice reports on the violence within those prisons to be horrified. So, it was just a way of trying to remind people there’s a huge humanitarian crisis that the state government is not dealing with. 

And sometimes it’s both an issue in the news and something that happened in real life. My column about the libraries (“The most dangerous idea in a library? Empathy”) was provoked by my daughter just asking me about the value of reading.

Those issues are at the center of a lot of national conversations too. How do you see your role in covering them in Alabama as they go beyond your state? 

I said in the opening column when we launched the Reflector, Alabama is the place where America confronts itself. This is where we see the very best and the very worst of the American character. 

Let’s talk about the negative side: We still work under a state constitution passed in 1901 that was framed deliberately to disenfranchise Black Alabamians and poor white [people]. You have a government that’s habitually uninterested in really helping address issues of poverty, which are rampant in Alabama. It’s a government that constantly jumps at moral crises that really don’t have any impact on the day-to-day lives of people. 

On the positive side of things, almost every major Civil Rights event that took place between 1955 and 1968 came from Alabama. It’s not just Rosa Parks. It’s not just Martin Luther King. It’s school funding issues, it’s voting issues. New York Times versus Sullivan came out of Montgomery. There are brave men and women in this state who constantly demand better. When they demand more, they lead to these great decisions that have, sometimes slowly, pulled Alabama forward. I feel like our role is just to make sure that all these good people in Alabama know what their state government is doing so they can take the appropriate action to support it or, more often, oppose it.

Thinking back to your time at Fordham, do you have things you learned here that you still use today?

It’s been 25 years since I graduated from Fordham, but I feel like everything I do is basically what I did at The Ram, just more—short ledes, hitting deadlines, making as many phone calls as possible. We learned from our older colleagues, and then we passed it on to our younger colleagues. And we did some great things. One editorial sticks out. An LGBTQ group applied for club status and was denied for whatever reason—this is 1997, I think—and we wrote a very lengthy editorial blasting that decision. I was always very proud that we did that. 

Now, on the other hand, it’s obviously a student newspaper, so we had some mistakes. It was fall of 1998, and I think it was Daniel Berrigan who taught a class called Poems by Poets in Torment. It’s the end of the semester, and this ends up on our front page. And this story, I swear goes through six pairs of eyes, including my own, and none of us notice that we have named the class Poems by Pets in Torment. I did not hear the end of that for months.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15.

(Photos by Chris Taggart, Bruce Gilbert, and Taylor Ha)

For many parents and families, Fordham’s 2024 Commencement was a time to celebrate grads who didn’t have an in-person high school graduation ceremony. For others, it was a chance to recognize years of hard work and accomplishment. Fordham Magazine spoke with families at the Rose Hill campus on May 18 to get a sense of what the day meant to them.

Next Steps in NYC

Rich Schneider said he was grateful Fordham helped his son, Patrick, gain an “amazing” group of friends as well as the values, work ethic, and analytical skills needed to build a successful career.

“He came in as a shy, quiet boy, and he’s leaving as a smart, confident, outgoing man that’s just ready to take on his next steps in New York City,” he said, adding that Patrick, who graduated from the Gabelli School of Business, will be starting as a corporate banking analyst at Barclays in a few weeks. 

The day was “especially moving,” for Patrick’s mother, Donna, who is also a Fordham graduate.

“I graduated [from Fordham College at Rose Hill] 36 years ago, and my dad graduated in 1954,” she said. “So seeing my son graduate is especially wonderful.” 

Both parents said they appreciate how Fordham balances academic rigor with the support and resources students need to succeed. 

“It’s like a warm, comfy blanket,” Donna Schneider said with a laugh. “But what I like is they don’t hold your hand—they want you to go out and strike it on your own, but they’re for you if you fall.” 

A Heartfelt Goodbye

Commencement was bittersweet for Lisamarie and Maureen Gonzalez-Burris, parents of Jemma Burris, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill with a degree in communication and culture and a minor in music.

“Overall the experience has been absolutely incredible for our daughter—and for us,” Lisamarie said. “I’m sad for her, but I’m also sad for us because we’re saying goodbye to the campus.” 

Jemma was drawn to Jesuit schools when she was applying to college and really wanted to live and learn in a big city. That’s why she chose Fordham, Maureen said, even though they couldn’t set foot on campus until Jemma’s move-in day, in August 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From the get-go, from drop-off, just how much we were embraced—it just felt like parents were being taken care of too, and we just totally trusted the whole experience and have felt so connected to Fordham, even though we live in Los Angeles,” Maureen said. 

Proud Beyond Words

David Collins said he was the “proudest great-uncle” on campus, watching Kalind Gipson graduate from Fordham College at Rose Hill with a degree in political science and a minor in African and African American studies.

“I’m so proud—I raised her mother mostly, and now to see my great-niece, you can’t even believe it,” Collins said. 

Gipson’s mother, Fashawn Cohen, said they “weren’t going to miss this for the world,” after her daughter’s high school graduation was held online.  

“It’s amazing, it’s been a lot of hard work—she’s been working hard since way back,” Cohen said, holding her hand just a few feet from the ground, remembering when her daughter was younger.  

For Kathleen Condon, seeing her daughter, Janice Puder, earn a Ph.D. in school psychology from the Graduate School of Education brought tears of joy to her eyes. 

“It’s an honor, and I’m so proud of her and her accomplishments and achievements,” Condon said. “Her hard work, dedication to everything that she’s going to do in life is just amazing.”

Shania Lauando, who graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, said that she was so happy to have her parents and brothers there to celebrate her graduation, as she’s among the first in her family to earn a college degree.

“It’s a really big accomplishment for me being [a] first-generation [college graduate,] and so I’m really happy to be here and have the support of my family,” she said. 

Her older brother, Donnie, said his family was grateful to be a part of her big day.

“We’re very happy to see the youngest in the family finally graduate and accomplish this big chapter in her life—we’re just overjoyed and very proud,” he said.

“The first time I knew about the Climate Museum, I was just walking in SoHo; I saw the window and I went in and loved it,” said Salume, who recently graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. “I thought, ‘Wow, it would be great to work at an organization like this, that combines art and climate action.’ It was right up my alley with my environmental studies and humanitarian studies majors.”

John van Buren, Salume’s major advisor and director of the environmental studies program, sent an email a few weeks later with internship opportunities that included one at the museum.

Salume said she “applied immediately.” She started in January as a development intern, working with companies to secure donations.

“Majo [her nickname]has been an incredible force,” said Saskia Randle, a design and curatorial associate at the museum—the first of its kind in the U.S. “As the Climate Museum looks to expand our impact, her research and organizational skills have been essential. Her sincere and enthusiastic work with visitors, particularly younger students, has reinforced our mission to offer opportunities for climate awareness and action to all.” 

Salume said that she became interested in sustainability at a summer camp when she was younger. At Fordham, courses, such as Art Design and Politics, have helped her connect art with environmental action. She also explored those two themes through another internship with the Chelsea Music Festival, which had an environmentally-focused theme last year.

Through working at the museum, Salume said that she saw how art helps younger people connect with complicated topics like climate change. 

“We have this mural, and I think it’s so visually appealing,” she said. “It has so much color, and it does a great job at envisioning a sustainable future. There is a section where it represents where we are now, which is a lot of protests …. And at the end of the mural, you can see a very green, very colorful, very lively world—the kids really resonate with that more than just plain facts.”

Salume was surprised to find she liked the fundraising aspect of her internships. 

“In my past two internships, I’ve been the development intern, which became an unexpected interest of mine,” she said. “But I’m doing my thesis on fast fashion, and the environmental and humanitarian impacts of that, and that has really pushed me to that sector as well.”

A graduating senior and valedictorian at Fordham College at Rose Hill, Tejiram was accepted to three medical schools. She’s planning to attend the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan next year. 

“Medicine is so much more than just the [coursework]—there’s a heart to medicine,” she said. “It involves bonds of compassion; you’re there for somebody, and not only just to be there to feel with them, but to do something about it.”

Ahead of graduation, Tejiram, who is on the pre-health track, shared some advice for students interested in medical school. 

Explore unique research opportunities—when you’re ready.

Tejiram didn’t start working in a lab until her sophomore year, which she said allowed her to adjust to college and better understand the science behind the research.

Since then, she’s worked on two different research projects. She studied diseases such as age-related blindness in the vision lab of Silvia Finnemann, Ph.D., where she worked on a project that tests treatments for mice with vision defects. 

She also worked with Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., on a clinical research project at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens—her hometown. The project aimed to engage at-risk patients and reduce medicine avoidance.  

“For some patients, I’ve been able to see them from the beginning to the end of the study, which has been really great,” she said. “I’m really excited to see the impact.”

Look for lessons that translate. 

In both research projects, Tejiram said she was looking for lessons that “can be easily translated” for medical school.

“For example, I do live tissue imaging,” she said. “It’s taught me how to balance precision and also time efficiency because you have a short window of time to work with the tissue. I think that’s going to be really important going into the fast-paced environment of medicine.”

Through her work at Elmhurst Hospital, Tejiram said she’s gained strong patient skills. 

“Being able to sit with them and talk with them and hear their stories—I think I’m going to need that … so they can trust me as their physician,” she said. 

Make a plan for applying to med school.

Tejiram said that the application process lasted about a year, so planning things like coursework and when to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was essential. Fordham advisors helped her navigate the process.

“I started applying in junior year—I had to take the MCAT, and then I had to do the primary application,” she said, noting that schools also send a secondary application. 

She spent last summer writing essays and submitting secondary applications before interview season started in the fall. She got her decisions starting in February. 

Expand your studies beyond your major courses. 

Tejiram minored in bioethics, an area she discovered after taking a philosophical ethics course through Fordham’s core curriculum. 

“I realized how many ethical dilemmas come up in daily life, but especially in a field where you’re dealing with patients and human lives,” she said. 

Find supportive mentors and ask them for guidance.

When she was deciding if she wanted to go straight into medical school or take a gap year, Tejiram said she relied heavily on the advice of her Fordham mentors. 

“Those mentors, those support networks I found have been so instrumental throughout my whole journey, and I think it’s really important to remember that you don’t have to do it alone,” she said.

Remember, on the evening of May 18, New York’s Empire State Building will be illuminated in Fordham maroon for our graduates.

Here’s a look at four Fordham College at Lincoln Center graduates, three faculty members, and one former Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre who are among the nominees for Broadway’s highest honor. 

This year’s awards ceremony will take place at the David H. Koch Theater—across the street from Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus—on Sunday, June 16.

Marjuan Canady, FCLC ’08
Hell’s Kitchen

Canady, a Fordham Theatre graduate, is a co-producer of Hell’s Kitchen as part of Score 3 Partners. The musical, from Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys, is a coming-of-age story based on her experiences growing up in New York City. The production received 13 total nominations. 

John Johnson, FCLC ’02
Stereophonic

Johnson, who returned to his alma mater this spring to teach a new course called Creative Producing, is an eight-time Tony Award-winning producer. He’ll be looking to earn his ninth for Stereophonic, which was nominated for Best New Play. It follows a fictional 1970s rock band on the cusp of superstardom and dealing with pressures that could “spark their breakup or their breakthrough.” The production received 13 total nominations. 

Tom Pecinka, FCLC ’10
Stereophonic

Pecinka, a Fordham Theatre grad who is making his Broadway debut, was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Peter in Stereophonic. The New York Times called his performance “riveting.”

Morgan Steward, FCLC ’19
Suffs

Steward is an associate producer and co-producer of Suffs, which was nominated for Best New Musical after opening on Broadway last month. She graduated from Fordham only five years ago, earning a degree in new media and digital design and communications while interning at the NY1 show On Stage. On April 10, she addressed a group of Fordham alumni and guests at a private reception before they attended a preview of the show. Suffs tells the story of the American women’s suffrage movement in the first decades of the 20th century. The production received six total nominations. 

Dede Ayite
Adjunct Professor, Fordham Theatre
Appropriate, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Hell’s Kitchen

Ayite, who teaches Costume Design at Fordham, was nominated for two Tony Awards for her work on three productions—Best Costume Design of a Play, for both Appropriate and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; and Best Costume Design of a Musical, Hell’s Kitchen.

Santiago Orjuela-Laverde
Adjunct Professor, Fordham Theatre 
Appropriate, An Enemy of the People

Orjuela-Laverde, who teaches Design and Production at Fordham, was nominated for two Tony Awards for his work with dots, a design collective that specializes in creating “environments for narratives, experiences, and performances.” He and his colleagues Andrew Moerdyk and Kimie Nishikawa, are up for Best Scenic Design of a Play for their work on Appropriate and Best Scenic Design of a Play for their work on An Enemy of the People.

Steven Skybell
Adjunct Professor, Fordham Theatre
Cabaret

Skybell, who currently teaches an Acting Shakespeare course, was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Herr Schultz in Cabaret. Variety said the romance between his character and Bebe Neuwirth’s “elegant and maternal” Fraulein Schneider “spins a sweet and aching emotional thread” in the latest revival of the 1966 musical. Skybell has starred on Broadway in productions including Fiddler on the Roof, Pal Joey, and Wicked, and his numerous Shakespeare credits include the title role in Hamlet. 

Kenny Leon 
Former Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre
Purlie Victorious

Leon served as the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham in fall 2014, the same year he earned a Tony Award for his direction of A Raisin in the Sun. This year, he’s been nominated for his work as director of Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, which is up for Best Direction of a Play and five other Tonys. The three-act play tells the story of a Black preacher’s efforts to reclaim his inheritance and win back his church.

Lorna Ronald, Ph.D., director of the Office of Prestigious Fellowships, said the students’ early start in the lab, as well as their close collaboration with faculty, were significant factors in receiving the award, which is granted to sophomores and juniors.

“The Goldwater Foundation is looking for students who will become our nation’s leaders in STEM research, so they’re interested in students who have already made an impact, sharing their findings at conferences and in publications,” Ronald said. “Our two Goldwater scholars started undergraduate early and have great mentors. Both Dr. Ipsita Banerjee and Dr. Nicholas Sawyer have worked closely with these students to enable them to produce national quality research as undergraduates.”

Researching Natural ‘Chemo-Targeting Devices’

Biggs’s research explores how proteins (and peptides) can be designed from natural products—or molecules that are produced by living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, fish, mollusks and plants—can be used as “tumor-targeting devices.”

“The goal is to be able to specifically target therapeutics to the tumors, so that it avoids damage to non-cancer cells, and mitigate the side effects that chemotherapy is known for,” said Biggs, a junior majoring in biochemistry.

Biggs and Banerjee grew replica multi-cellular miniature tumors as models in the lab to test their newly designed molecules and examine mechanisms of drug delivery into the tumors. This summer, she’s going to continue her work, this time with ovarian tumors and “other naturally derived cancer targeting molecules.”

“It’s just been wild to be an undergraduate and to have access to these kinds of research opportunities,” she said.

Biggs joined Banerjee’s lab her first year, after going to talk with her about declaring her major.

“She is fantastic,” Banerjee said. “She was always interested in natural product work and the applications of biochemistry and chemistry. She’s a quick learner and one thing I look for in my students is ambition and passion for research. She has the ambition, the motivation, perseverance and she’s very detail oriented.”

The Role of Shapes in Chemistry

Victorio, who will earn one bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fordham University and a second bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in chemical engineering as a part of Fordham’s 3-2 cooperative program in engineering, was nominated for the Goldwater award through Columbia.

Sawyer said that he and the students in his lab work on developing peptides—short chains of amino acids—that act as treatments and gain access to the cell’s interior.

“What Clara set out to do is help us, as a scientific community, develop a fundamental understanding of how shape plays a role in how peptides enter cells,” he said.

Victorio’s work included an accidental discovery: She set out to take a peptide that had one shape and turn it into a second type of shape, but her work showed that it can actually make a third shape as well.

“It’s really rewarding when a reaction works as expected, because it doesn’t always do that,” she said with a smile. “But, some of the results of the reactions were surprising, and they spun into these whole new avenues.”

Sawyer said that Victorio’s work is at the center of a collaboration with colleagues from the University of Missouri, where they’re continuing to study “where this third shape comes from, and what the factors are that contributed to making that happen.”

The annual competition featured eight companies—four “general track” businesses and four social impact organizations. The Fordham-connected teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and more than 200 members of the Fordham community during the event, where $25,000 was distributed among the winners to provide seed funding and support for early-stage businesses.

Al Bartosic, director of the Fordham Foundry, said that this was “the largest field ever—we started off with 186 teams.” Through the mentoring process, the field was narrowed down to the eight finalists that made an official public pitch.

General Track Winner

Mila Mend Inc., a women’s health company that provides community and “comprehensive solutions for women seeking to balance their hormones.” The company also features multiple social media platforms with more than 600,000 members.

Founders: Lucas Labelle, GABELLI ’20 and Camila Magnan

Labelle said that one of the key strengths of the company is the accessibility of its products.

“We provide access to reliable information, we bring science-proven solutions to market and we also innovate,” he said, adding that they work with two medical advisors to create effective products.

Magnan said the idea for the company came from her own experiences trying to treat PCOS and other health issues caused by hormonal imbalances.

“My voice was not being listened to by doctors and this is where my boyfriend came to my appointments—and having a male present, I finally got listened to,” she said. “Something that he says is, ‘This affects 50% of the population but also the other 50% that live with that person—this is as much our problem as it is a woman’s [problem].’”

“It’s incredible that a male committee of judges believed in a woman-focused product, and it just shows how the space is evolving,” Magnan said.

General Track Finalists

Second Place: Spike Cover, a magnetic product that covers the bottom of track and field spikes, founded by Anya Alfonsetti-Terry, a junior in the Gabelli School of Business

Third Place: Credentialed, a vendor that offers streamlined media credentialing services, founded by David Skinner, a sophomore in the Gabelli School of Business

Fourth Place: Libri di Lucciola, a dark romance publishing house, founded by Isabella Frassetti, FCLC ’20

Social Impact Winner

Alliza, a recruiting service that brings people with autism into the workforce and provides them with ongoing training and resources

Founder: Shoval Liel, who will be graduating from the Gabelli School’s MBA program in May

“[The recognition] means a lot; it means that we can help more people. And I believe that what we are doing is really changing lives for autistic individuals, which is something that not many companies are doing. We’re providing help and employment opportunities …. Think about how important and critical it is to have a job.”

Social Impact Finalists

Her Migrant Grounds, a coffee cafe and community-building space that enhances the work of Fordham’s Her Migrant Hub—a resource by and for women asylum seekers that provides them with access to health care resources. Her Migrant Grounds was born from the current group involved with Her Migrant Hub, due to the leadership of women activists Sara Tekle, Marthe Kiemde, Christiane Keumo, and Nneka Ugwu; and Graduate School of Social Work students Catilin Kreutz and Jake Schefer.

Kids Building Wealth, a Bronx-based nonprofit that provides financial education to underserved children. Founded by Olga Baez, MC ’05, GSE ’16

Tap Thread Count, a digital platform that connects designers, seamstresses, tailors, and dressmakers to clients looking for diverse clothing offerings. Founded by Babalwa Nogwanya, GSAS ’24

People’s Choice Winner

Credentialed, a vendor that offers streamlined media credentialing services,

Founder: David Skinner, a sophomore in the Gabelli School of Business

“The Foundry’s an incredible resource that has been there through every aspect of my entrepreneurial journey,” he said, adding that the process of participating in the Pitch Challenge was “exciting, fulfilling, and unbelievably beneficial.”

Fordham can’t wait for the Class of 2028! 

On March 15, the admission team shared decisions with applicants, officially inviting future Rams to be part of the Fordham family.

Accepted students were drawn from the nearly 44,000 candidates who applied for Fordham’s full-time undergraduate programs in the 2023-2024 application cycle. With applicants hailing from across the country and around the world, Fordham has one of the largest applicant pools in the nation for private colleges and universities, ranking as high as 15th for the number of applications received in recent years.

“Fordham attracts talented students with a diversity of interests and experiences. Our applicants are leaders, athletes, writers, researchers, advocates, performers, and artists,” said Patricia Peek, dean of undergraduate admission. “They come from a variety of backgrounds and locations. We have a very qualified pool of applicants who would be successful at Fordham.”

A Nationwide Draw

Fordham received applications from students in all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico, and has continued to expand its presence beyond the Northeast. While New York still comprised the highest number—more than 13,000 applications this year, including 1,800+ from the Bronx and 2,200+ from Manhattan—many applicants hail from New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas. Peek said Fordham has seen increased growth in Puerto Rico, Illinois, and Louisiana over the past few cycles. 

Students applied from a diverse group of more than 9,000 high schools, including public, private, and Jesuit, to be a part of this year’s class, Peek said.

Global Growth

With students applying from more than 150 countries, the University has seen an 8% increase in its number of international applicants. India, Vietnam, Brazil, Ghana, and Venezuela are a few of the countries where interest in Fordham continues to grow.

Attracting students from around the world who can enrich and be enriched by the Fordham community has been a priority for the University, Peek said. 

“The diverse mix of international and domestic students creates a rich, vibrant campus environment for everyone. Not only are Fordham scholars living and learning in the greatest city in the world—they’re also benefitting from a wealth of perspectives and experiences.”

Talented Applicant Pool

Fordham received applications for nearly every one of its 70+ majors, ranging from biological sciences to journalism, from finance to theatre. About 3,500 students applied as undecided, which allows them to explore their varied interests and develop new skills. 

On average, applicants have a high school grade point average of 3.57, (90+ or A/A-). Peek said that many students have taken challenging courses, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and honors classes, which the admission team considers as part of its holistic application review. Fordham is test-optional, meaning that students are considered for admission, scholarships, and honors programs whether or not they submit scores. Peek said that academic performance and preparation in high school are always reviewed in the context of the student’s experience and are a core element of the application review.

Greater Interest in Business

While Fordham College at Rose Hill received the most applications overall, with more than 22,000 this year, the Gabelli School of Business programs at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center continued to see an increase in applications, as did Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

Supporting Students Amidst FAFSA Delays 

While this year’s financial aid application process has been complicated by the delayed FAFSA, Brian Ghanoo, associate vice president for student financial services, said the University is committed to helping students and their families through the process. 

Because the University uses another financial aid form called the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA, Ghanoo said that they’ve been able to provide families with a preliminary financial aid offer. 

“Fordham is committed to upholding the financial aid offer that you’ve received,” he shared with families. “It may go up, but it should not go down, as long as all of the data on the FAFSA is consistent with the information you provided on the [CSS] Profile.”

Ghanoo noted that the financial aid offer that students receive for the first year is renewable for the remaining three years, as long as students meet the renewal criteria and complete the FAFSA. 

Peek said that both the undergraduate admission and financial aid offices “believe in care of the whole person and work with families and their circumstances individually.” The offices often work together to host joint virtual sessions to help students throughout each stage of the process—from application to admission to enrollment. 

“Both offices interact with students on campus and virtually, and want to help make what is often a stressful process as easy as possible,” she said.

Class of 2028 and Beyond: Looking Ahead to Future Rams

Reviewing applications for the incoming class is just one part of the admission team’s work. Counselors are also actively engaging with prospective high school juniors and sophomores—meeting with them in their schools, at college fairs, or on Fordham’s campuses— as they begin the college search process.

Students interested in learning more about Fordham are invited to visit campus and see what student life is like. There are a variety of opportunities, including tours, information sessions, and fall open houses. Fordham also offers recently expanded pre-college summer programs for high school students interested in challenging themselves and gaining college experience. 

“We’re excited to welcome the Class of 2028 and all our future classes of Rams,” said Peek. 

Learn more about admissions opportunities and how to apply to Fordham. 

Fordham grads are at the heart of a new collective giving artists and audiences space to develop and discover new works.

How do up-and-coming artists break through, and how do people discover new and exciting art?

A group of Fordham graduates thinks they have an answer. The Village is a new collective that the graduates created to support artists through live events that create community, similar to what they experienced as students at the University’s Lincoln Center campus.

“Our [art and media] consumption has become very individual and yet so impersonal because all of our feeds are just churning out more of what we already like,” said Marc David Wright, a 2019 Fordham College at Lincoln Center graduate and co-founder of the Village. “Our events provide a bit of excitement and surprise.”

Wright launched the collective a few years ago with Caroline Potter Shriver, a 2019 graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA in dance program, to give artists a place to share their work—or works in progress—with engaged audiences through live events called salons.

Singers, dancers, poets, writers, and visual and performing artists of all kinds can apply to be a part of the events, which are held four times a year and typically feature about 10 artists a night. The next one is scheduled to take place at Ideal Glass Studios in Greenwich Village on March 25. The salons are broken into three parts—a visual arts showcase, performances, and an after party featuring a DJ and an opportunity for artists and attendees to mingle.

Art for Humans, Curated by Humans

Shriver said that they curate the events so there’s a “diversity of artists and art types,” and people leave the events “feeling so inspired to create.” The mix of genres is designed not only to entertain audiences but also connect artists across disciplines.

“If they’re a painter and they saw an actor do something really cool, and now they’re thinking about how they can bring their art into the performance art space—just the creativity and the inspiration that comes from being celebrated is really impactful,” Shriver said.

Wright said he, Shriver, and Dana Seach, FCLC ’19, GABELLI ’20, the third member of the team, work to foster that kind of cross-pollination.

“We have preliminary artists’ socials before every salon in which just the artists present their work for one another, and we ask specific feedback of each other,” he said. “And it really just took me back to Fordham Theatre’s cultivating of community and of collaboration, which I think has greatly influenced the vibes of the Village.”

Shriver and Wright got the idea for the Village when they were working together on The Stella Show—Shriver’s one-woman performance piece exploring “sisterhood, grief, and the unpredictable magic of memory.”

The pair had developed a 15-minute segment in 2021 and wanted to get some feedback on it. At the same time, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, they sensed a desire among artists to reconnect. That fall, in a friend’s Tribeca loft, they shared their work with some friends who were also “working on things that weren’t really ready, but were ready for some kind of audience,” Shriver said.

After it was over, Wright and Shriver said everyone immediately asked, “When are we doing this again?” And like that, the Village was formed.

A Growing Community

After that initial gathering, Seach reached out and said she wanted to get involved. Seach, who earned a bachelor’s degree in film and TV and a master’s in media management at Fordham, now serves as the group’s managing director, with Shriver and Wright as artistic directors. Wright also handles marketing and social media, and Shriver works on fundraising, sponsorships, and community outreach.

The Village has hosted eight salons in the past two years in Manhattan, selling out small studio spaces. The co-founders expect the upcoming Salon 9 to be their biggest event to date, as the group has continued to grow. The collective is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service that allows them to take in donations that support the events and some of the artists’ works.

While most salons have been in New York City, in February the team expanded to the West Coast. Working with fellow Fordham alumni David Kahawaii IV, FCLC ’18, and Elizabeth Kline, FCLC ’19, the group produced its first event in Los Angeles.

“I feel like every salon improves from the last one, and I felt that was still the case with this, even though we were starting fresh out there,” Seach said. “I think just the opportunity to expand our community is so exciting and great for us.”