“The kids said they had daily experiences of constant fear where they were bullied or were in an environment in which there were fights every day,” said Okinczyc-Cruz, who graduated in May from the Graduate School of Religious and Religious Education (GRE) with a doctorate in ministry with a concentration in Latino ministry. “The communities that we work in also experience high rates of gun violence, so there is always the risk that kids traveling to school might be caught in the midst of gunfire.”

Through the ‎Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, an organization he co-founded with a group of Catholic community leaders last year, Okinczyc-Cruz has been working with Latinos, African Americans, and other ethnic populations in the Chicago suburbs of Maywood, Melrose Park, and Broadview to curb violence and implement programs that engage youth and their parents.

“One thing that we’re doing now is mobilizing parents, families, and youth to develop safe passage programs in local public schools to ensure that students have a safe path to walk on their way to and from school,” said Okinczyc-Cruz, who serves as executive director of the organization.

At GRE, Okinczyc-Cruz explored Ignatian spirituality, which he said challenged him to reflect on how one’s commitment to spiritual life and discipline can inspire a change in disposition toward pain and suffering. In the suburbs of the West Side of Chicago, where minorities are often plagued by apathy, gun violence, and other social ills, an understanding of Catholic social tradition can be transformative, he said.

“The families and young people that we’re working with should be able to access theological and spiritual resources that can help them put their faith into action, reflect on their own struggles, and work to create a just society. It’s a mandate of our faith,” said Okinczyc-Cruz, who considers himself a theologian as well as a community organizer, and sees the two as intertwined.

Through the coalition, Okinczyc-Cruz has helped to organize workshops and lectures with spiritual leaders, theologians, and community organizers that are focused on Catholic social teaching.

The organization also has committees focused on violence prevention and immigration— two of the most pressing issues facing the Latino and African-American populations.

‘Their Stories Are My Story’

A first-generation American, Okinczyc-Cruz developed a passion for working with underrepresented populations because of his upbringing. His mother is a Mexican-American who went on to become a teacher despite a poor upbringing; his father was a Polish refugee who once stayed at a refugee camp outside of Vatican City; and his maternal great-grandparents were migrants from Guanajuato, Mexico.

“In so many ways, I’ve been shaped by their experiences,” he continued, “Their stories are my story. I am who I am today because of them.”

Coupled with his biracial background, Okinczyc-Cruz said growing up in San Diego, a border city, also had a profound impact on him.

“I think early on, it was instilled in me that life oftentimes isn’t easy for immigrants and people of color,” he said.

“Learning about my family’s history gave me a perspective on American history [and]what immigrants and refugees had to go through and continue to go through as they struggle to obtain stability and opportunities for their families.”

With the programs he offers, Okinczyc-Cruz hopes members of his community will be able to not only address issues related to economic, racial, and immigrant justice in their neighborhoods, but also help to inspire change beyond the streets of Chicago.

“We’re not just forming leaders to be civically skilled so that they can work strategically for political and social solutions,” he said. “We also take seriously the cultivation and development of their spiritual life.”

Photos courtesy of Michael Okinczyc-Cruz

“Sometimes when we talk about humanity, we have a very limited construction of what it is, and it’s limited by the extent to which we have engaged with the human family,” said Cruz, who has visited more than 50 countries, including South Africa, Germany, and Japan. “If there is one thing that I, as an educator, would like to pass on or inspire others to consider, it is for them to experience the world.”

Cruz, who was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, came to Fordham on July 1 after serving as associate dean of academic affairs in the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. Recently, he has facilitated partnerships between GRE and international universities in Asia and Europe.

On May 28, GRE signed an agreement with De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila, which currently offers the only Ph.D. in religious education in Southeast Asia. In addition to fostering the exchange of academic publications and scholarly information, the agreement would give qualified DLSU students the opportunity to study at GRE beginning this fall. A month before partnering with DLSU, Fordham signed a similar memorandum of understanding with the Pontifical Catholic University of Croatia in Zagreb. For many years, Fordham has also partnered with Ateneo de Manila University, a Jesuit university, as part of its study-abroad program, which Cruz said he is hoping to strengthen in the coming months as GRE collaborates more closely with Ateneo de Manila’s Formation Institute of Religious Education.

Why is it important for spiritual or religious leaders to “experience the world”?

The more we experience the world, the more we experience humanity. I think empathy is what the leadership of today needs—the ability to be in another person’s shoes, to discern and make decisions that are mindful of the different faces to whom we’re accountable. This really is a question of accountability. I always ask students what their communities of accountability are because leadership education, ministerial formation, and pastoral ministry aren’t personal practices. They are communal practices for the transformation of church and community, not only of individuals.

How did your own experiences traveling the world and ministering to different communities inform your perspective on global education?

As an immigrant, I’m very aware of insider-outsider relationships. I’m very attentive to dominant-minority relationships. I’m very sensitive about who’s not around the table in conversations and decision-making. In the classroom, I’ll purposely ask the question: Who should be in the classroom with us right now? And what might be some of the reasons for which they are not? A constitutive part of faith-based leadership is a deep awareness that there are people making decisions that affect other people’s lives. In response, faith-based leadership ensures that  we claim the agency, which allows us to participate actively in discernment and decision making.

What do you think is unique about this period in history that requires leaders to be culturally responsive?

A lot of our challenges today are grounded in religious conflict. The more we learn about the religious and spiritual lenses that we use to understand our daily lives and  struggle, the more we can understand our neighbor. Religiously, it is shifting from a posture of stranger to neighbor. We make a stranger a neighbor by understanding intentionally what it is in their religious socialization or cultural upbringing that makes them act the way they do. There is no better time than today to make use of our religious resources to understand current events—like the refugee crisis, human trafficking, and the removal of immigrant children from their undocumented parents.

How do you think Fordham’s partnerships with De La Salle University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Croatia align with your vision for GRE?

I personally chose the Pontifical Catholic University of Croatia because it is 10 years old. An emerging university is a vulnerable community. This is a good partnership, particularly in pastoral counseling and spiritual care, because of what Croatia and neighboring countries have recently experienced. They are still going through the effects of trauma. They are still recovering from of the traumatic effects of war. They would provide a broader perspective on how trauma affects people outside of America. I hope this will widen our students’ perspectives about what the human reality is all about.

De La Salle University is one of the largest research universities in the Philippines and they are also the home of the Religious Educators Association of the Philippines, with very comparable focus to GRE. For us, the focus is on global education and what the multiple practices of religious education are in that part of the world.

Flynn served as a trustee of the University from 1992 to 1997. He was elected a trustee fellow in 2005 and served in that role until his passing.

“I know the Fordham family joins me in grief over the loss of Bill Flynn, a man so full of life that his passing still seems improbable,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Bill lived a life full of accomplishment—in business, in philanthropy, and in service to the human family, including his work to build a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Our hearts go out to Peg, his family, and loved ones today.”

The son of Bill Flynn Sr. and Anna Connors of County Down and County Mayo, respectively, Flynn attended Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York, and received an M.A. in economics from Fordham in 1951. Before pursuing a professional career in business, Flynn, a native New Yorker, served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He developed a distinguished career in the life insurance industry at Mutual of America, where he held various positions over the span of more than 30 years and eventaully rose to become president and CEO. Under his leadership, Mutual of America grew from a small organization to a nationally recognized financial services company with 33 regional offices across the continental United States. Since 2005, he had served as the company’s chairman emeritus.

In a statement, John R. Greed, chairman, president, and CEO of Mutual of America, described Flynn as a humanitarian and an innovative leader “who touched the lives of countless individuals both in the United States and abroad.”

“We who were privileged to have known him will gratefully remember his wise counsel, exceptional insights, high ethical standards, moral courage and most especially, his friendship. He will be greatly missed,” he said.

An Honest Broker

In addition to his business activities, Flynn, who was named to Irish America magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2011, was dedicated to social justice and peacemaking initiatives in his parents’ homeland. During the early ’90s, Flynn served as chairman of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP), an activist organization focused on advancing conflict resolutions. In 1994, he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times announcing that the group was inviting the leaders of the political factions in Northern Ireland to New York to discuss the Downing Street Declaration, a framework to end violence in the region. Later, Flynn helped to negotiate a U.S. visa for Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams to attend a NCAFP-hosted conference, which reportedly led to an IRA ceasefire that same year.

“I was considered an honest broker because I had no personal or business interest in anything in Ireland, except that I love the country and want peace,” said Flynn in a 1995 interview with Fordham magazine.

Among Flynn’s many affiliations, he was a former chairman of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy and of the board of the Life Insurance Council of New York. He also served on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Catholic Health Association of the United States, United Way Worldwide (formerly United Way International), the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, and the College Construction Loan Insurance Association.

Flynn was recognized with several awards throughout his lifetime for his accomplishments in business and international relations. In 1994, the Life Insurance Council of New York named him the “Most Outstanding CEO” of the life insurance industry in the prior 20 years. He received the Special Peacemaker in Action Award in 2005 from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding “for a lifetime devoted to conflict resolution.” In 2009, he was named an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to the peace and reconciliation process of Northern Ireland.

Flynn is survived by his wife, Peg; his two children, William K. Flynn and Maureen Welsh; 11 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

“I’d go the place that I last remembered it was, but sometimes the bin was there, and other times it was moved,” said Goncharova, a recent graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

That experience is one of the things that inspired Goncharova, who studied economics and environmental studies, to research consumer incentives for recycling unwanted clothing. Donating and repurposing textiles is a critical way that consumers can reduce landfill waste, she said. However, the process must be efficient to create impact.

“The final step of the supply chain is the disposal aspect, and that’s the thing that companies don’t usually think about,” she said. “Recycling bottles and paper comes easy. Everyone knows where to put them. But when it comes to clothes, particularly those from fast fashion brands, it becomes difficult to know what to do with them when you don’t want them anymore.”

According to Hitwise, a consumer insights firm, the fast fashion industry—which includes brands like H&M, Forever 21, and the web-based Boohoo.com—has grown 21 percent over the past three years. But this growth has presented a lot of challenges, particularly for the environment, Goncharova said. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans discard about 13 million tons of textiles annually, and only two million tons of those clothes were recycled.

Goncharova believes this can change if consumers and businesses work together to recycle textile materials instead of throwing them out.

“I love sustainability because it allows us to create a self-sustaining supply chain,” she said.

Identifying Motivations for Sustainable Fashion

Through a Fordham-funded research study, Goncharova hoped to identify ways to motivate consumers to recycle their unwanted clothing. She recruited a randomized group of 100 students from the University and conducted a preliminary questionnaire via email that was focused on demographic information, the participants’ shopping habits, and their knowledge of sustainability.

Next, the participants were given eco-friendly plastic bags that were manufactured from 25 percent recycled HD plastic, with three types of options for shipping. They could use shipping labels that were prepaid, and send them to the recycling companies Give Back Box and Schoola; schedule a donation pick-up with the Salvation Army for free; or pay their own shipping to send their clothes to denim recycling companies like Blue Jeans Go Green and Patagonia.

“One of the goals was to see if people would be more inclined to donate clothes if shipping was free or if they received a shipping label for donations in-store at the time of their purchase,” she said.

Along with the donation bags, participants of the study were given a follow-up questionnaire about their reactions to the mailable donation bags and the likelihood that they would use the bags again.

Through the study, Goncharova found that participants given the prepaid labels were most likely to recycle. Results from the questionnaire showed a significant correlation between a participant saying they would recycle clothes if it was as easy as online returns, and if brands themselves offered rewards for recycling. They also showed that prior knowledge of sustainability was not related to the participants’ desire to recycle once they were offered this option.

“A lot of people want to donate their clothes, they just don’t know what to do with them,” she said.

Goncharova stressed that creating opportunities for sustainable fashion should be just as important to companies as it is to consumers.

Some companies are already working to reduce landfill waste. In 2013, H&M launched an in-store recycling initiative, which allows customers to drop off unwanted clothing from any brand. And Madewell, a brand that generates most of its sales from denim, partnered with Blue Jeans Go Green, a denim recycling company. Other companies, like Patagonia, allow customers to trade and repair their brand’s used clothing.

“Businesses have a role in this,” she said. “They can’t just throw their hands up, and say, ‘I’m not a part of that.’  These materials are part of the supply chain and they can still add value to it by putting materials back in.”

That question was at the forefront of a new study, “Young adults’ psychological and physiological reactions to the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” published in this month’s issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology and co-authored by Lindsay Till Hoyt, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Fordham.

Hoyt and researchers at University of Arizona and Arizona State University examined the emotions and stress hormone levels (measured by diurnal cortisol), of 286 young adults from November 6 through November 10.

According to Hoyt, who specializes in stress biology, health disparities, and positive youth development, the study complements the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2017 report, “Stress in America: The State of Our Nation,” which found that 63 percent of American cited the future of the nation as a significant source of their stress.

An Unequal Distribution of Stress

“The big takeaway of the APA report was that the election represented a time of heightened stress for the country,” said Hoyt. “However, our study suggests that stress is unequally distributed. As someone who studies health disparities, I’m interested in how these larger social and political events have distinct effects on different groups of people and how that might contribute to long-term social or health disparities.”

For their study, Hoyt and her co-authors focused on young adults between the ages of 18 to 25 who were based at a mid-sized private university in New York and a public university in Arizona.

Before the study, the 286 participants took a survey about their mental and physical health, attitudes toward the different candidates, political orientation, who they were planning to vote for, and their families’ political orientation. Then, researchers asked them to document their daily attitudes, feelings, and behavior across five days: two days before the election, on election night, and two days after the election.

According to Hoyt, it was important to couple these self-report methods with the participants’ salivary cortisol levels, which were gathered three times per day over five consecutive days.

“When you’re measuring something like mood, you’re relying on people’s self-assessments,” said Hoyt, “but sometimes there are a lot of things going on in our brains that are interfering with how we may report feeling.”

The researchers found that overall, participants had high levels of negative emotions before the election and increasing negative emotions on election night. Though most participants experienced a decrease in negative emotions after the election, or a “recovery” in their moods, Hoyt said physiological responses to the election were partially dependent on gender, ethnicity, race, and other factors.

For example, participants who self-identified as a member of an ethnic/racial minority (ER) generally reported an increase in negative emotions and a marginal increase in bedtime cortisol levels leading up to the election, with no post-election recovery. White young adults had an increase in negative emotions before the election, a decrease in negative emotions after election night, and a distinct physiological response across the week: marginal drop in bedtime cortisol before the election and a significant increase after the election.

“This may suggest a delayed response to the election results among white young adults in this sample—to the extent that they were more surprised by Trump’s win than their ER-minority peers,” she said.

One thing that made the election different, Hoyt said, was that Hillary Clinton was the first female presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party.

The research findings showed that men, on average, experienced a decrease in positive emotions leading up to the election and a slight increase in positive emotions, as well as a decrease in bedtime cortisol, on election night. Meanwhile, women experienced a decrease in positive emotions on election night without a post-election recovery.

“We have to think about these results in context. For example, pretty much every major polling organization was expecting a Clinton victory,” said Hoyt. “And previous research about men’s attitude toward women in authority roles suggests that men may have had a more positive reaction to the maintenance of the patriarchal dominance in the U.S. compared to women.”

Still, Hoyt noted that there are limitations to the study. For example, the young adults who participated in the study were in college and a majority of them were white and middle-to-upper class.

For future studies, she plans to examine the long-term impacts of political events on a larger sample of traditionally marginalized groups, including low-income groups, LGBTQ individuals, women, and immigrants.

“Our hope is that this study will provide the fuel for a larger study where we can examine intersectionality,” she said.

The article “Young adults’ psychological and physiological reactions to the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” is co-authored by Lindsay Till Hoyt, PhD, Katharine H. Zeiders, PhD, Natasha Chaku, MA, Russel B. Toomy, PhD, and Rajni L. Nair, PhD. It appears in Psychoneuroendocrinology (2018), published by Elsevier.

“The caregiver often has things going on in their own life and focusing on the patient’s experience is something we, as caregivers, want to always have on our minds,” said Berry, who graduated in May with a doctorate in ministry from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE).

In April, Berry organized an event at the multispecialty hospital called “Walking the Patient Experience: Labyrinth Meditation,” where she asked staff to reflect on a patient who challenged or inspired them. Afterwards, they were invited to take a walk on a labyrinth, an intricate circular path, on a canvas that was lined with unworn patient socks.

The idea was inspired by lessons she learned in the Foundations in Pastoral and Practical Theology course, taught by Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D., an associate professor of religion, where she explored how objects and everyday materials can be used to promote spiritual growth.

“In chaplaincy, we integrate spirituality, behavioral health, mental health, and emotional health as well as education and holistic care, which looks at the whole person,” said Berry.

“[Labyrinth meditation] was a meaningful way for the spiritual care department to create more awareness about patient experience, to support staff, and to bring to life the sacredness of the hospital space.”

As participants made their journey towards the center of the labyrinth, they could reflect on several things, including a patient’s suffering, how caregivers coped with their patient’s struggles, and how they experience compassion for them as their caregivers.

“When you work with patients for a long time, you get to know them,” said Berry. “If their health deteriorates or they die, sometimes that grief can linger.”

Berry also provided a wooden finger labyrinth for participants who were not able to walk the full-size labyrinth. The small-scale, portable labyrinth allowed them to trace the path to the center with their fingers. Through the exercises, participants reflected on a variety of other personal experiences, she said.

“One of the volunteers shared that when she looks at the four quadrants of the labyrinth, she thinks of the four seasons,” said Berry. “And as she walks through each of them she reflects on the season of [her]life, considering where she has been, where she is, and what may be unfolding next for her in her life.”

Berry views the labyrinth walk as a form of meditation that could inspire hospital staff to slow down and better understand their patients’ diverse needs and perspectives.

“The nice thing about the labyrinth is that it’s interfaith,” she said. “People may understand it as prayer or a contemplative experience to reflect and be aware of their bodies and what it means for their foot to hit the ground. The goal is to allow your body to move through the circles, twists, and turns. And trust that you will get to the center.”

At the event, held on May 18 in the McNally Amphitheatre, Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School, said the Class of 2018 served as a testament to the program’s potential. While the Gabelli School had distinguished faculty; academically talented students; and a campus in the middle of New York City, one of the most powerful financial centers in the world, Rapaccioli said there were still a few unknowns when the program started.

“There was a lot that we couldn’t foresee, but in business and in life, we learn that you can expect great things when they’re not expected,” she said.

Since 2013, the graduates have made New York City their campus, she said. Many of them participated in their first Consulting Cup challenge, launched socially conscious business ventures as Social Impact 360 fellows, and helped to enhance electric vehicles for BMW through Fordham’s Social Innovation Collaboratory. She shared that members of the Class of 2018 have also interned at institutions and companies such as Memorial Sloan Kettering, Bloomberg LP, and the Dr. Oz Show. This year’s graduates have accepted offers at companies such as the Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, and CNBC, Rapaccioli said.

“Truly [this]inaugural class of the Gabelli School of Business has exceeded our expectations,” she said, “but I know…the best is yet to come.”

The Lincoln Center awards ceremony conferred awards upon dozens of students, including Dean’s Award recipient Victoria Cleveland and Alumni Chair Award recipient Joseph Gorman. In addition to recognizing academic excellence, the Gabelli School honored students for their efforts to advance the educational and social programs of the school across a variety of concentrations, from global finance and business economics to digital media and technology.

‘Pioneers’ of the Gabelli School

During the ceremony, Michael McSherry, GABELLI ’78, was awarded the 2018 Gabelli School of Business Alumni Inspiration Award, which honors an alumna or alumnus who has made an admirable contribution to the present and future of the Lincoln Center program. An EY retired executive partner and adjunct professor at the Gabelli School, McSherry also assists the University on entrepreneurship curriculum as a member of the Fordham Foundry’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board. In his speech, McSherry called this graduating Lincoln Center class “pioneers” of the Gabelli School. He advised them to continue to dream big and set audacious goals.

“While dreaming, make sure to be patient,” he added. “Things don’t always happen when you want them [to]and sometimes they happen when you least expect it and sometimes they happen by luck and hard work.”

The International Awareness Award went to Andrea Mennillo, parent of Francesco Mennillo, GABELLI ’16. A senior partner and managing director of IDACAPITAL, Mennillo serves as the international chair of the Parents’ Leadership Council and a member of the executive committee of the Gabelli School’s advisory board. He said he sees the graduates as “ambassadors of the Gabelli School of Business and its distinguished values.”

“My request to you is that you embody those values in your careers and life,” he said. “Please remember to be compassionate business leaders. This will help you to discover and create new ideas and make them accessible to the next generation.”

Gabelli School faculty were also celebrated for their distinguished achievements. Mathematics professor David Swinarski received the Gratias Tibi Award  in recognition of his contribution to the overall experience of students and faculty. The Faculty Cura Personalis Award, which recognizes a faculty member who embodies the University’s Jesuit values and focuses on “care for the whole person,” went to James McCann, a lecturer in finance and business at the Gabelli School, and Brian E. Johnson, Ph.D., an associate professor of philosophy at the Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

At the 2018 graduate awards brunch, held earlier in the week on May 14, the Gabelli School also honored Dario Werthein, GABELLI ’91, with the Alumni Award.

Wertheim, who worked on his family farm, spoke about the importance of hard work and said that his time at Fordham helped reinforce the values he was raised with. He said that Gabelli School faculty provided him with valuable professional advice.

The graduate awards brunch recognized the distinguished accomplishments of graduating master’s students, faculty, and alumni. Students were honored for service, for overall academic success, and for achievements in their chosen concentrations.

Walcott, who currently serves as president and CEO of the Queens Library, addressed more than 3,000 members of the Class of 2018 on May 19 at Fordham University’s 173rd Commencement, held on the Rose Hill campus.

“You are the generation that will lead us to a far more perfect union,” said Walcott, a New York City native and 1980 alumnus of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service (GSS). “You are the generation that will get us out of this hole. You are the ones who will say enough is enough. If each of you does something to move us toward a more civil society, we will all get there together.”

Speaking in the Lombardi Center during the ceremony, which was moved indoors due to the rain, Walcott noted that millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers in 2019 as the nation’s largest generation. And he pointedly told graduates that with this imminent shift comes great responsibility.

“As members of a community that strives to educate its students to recognize the whole person, to work to achieve social justice, and to serve others, you are well positioned to make sure that we listen,” he said, noting that the graduates have already begun creating positive change. He cited examples from their Fordham careers, from leadership opportunities in clubs and organizations that improve the lives of others to stewarding $1 million of the University’s endowment in the Student Managed Investment Fund. “I would even go so far as to say that in light of the privileges which Fordham has endowed you,” he said, “it is your obligation to get us there.”

Walcott, who received the President’s Medal from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, shared his memories of taking late-night courses at GSS in the ’70s after working all day. He recalled waiting on the outdoor platform in the dead of winter for the No. 7 train at Queensborough Plaza. During moments like this, he’d often ponder his future. After recognizing that someone might be going through a more difficult time and could one day benefit from the knowledge he was gaining, he was further determined to succeed.

“The same holds true for every one of you graduating today,” he said. “Fordham has educated you to be people for others and people who lead lives of service to others. As you continue to learn, work, and grow, you will be changing people’s lives and shaping our world for the better. No matter what career you decide to choose, we are counting on you.”

‘Sidelines No Longer Exist’

Father McShane, whom Walcott commended for his leadership in an era of “unprecedented tension and distrust,” described commencement as a golden day for the Class of 2018. He urged them to be active participants in our history.

“Through it all, you have come to understand that no one can any longer stand on the sidelines of history as a disinterested observer,” he said. “Sidelines no longer exist. The raw, immediate flow, force, and power of history ‎engulf all of us and challenge us to us try to make sense of things, and to respond to all that is unfolding around us.”

Father McShane also encouraged graduates to the use the lessons they’ve learned at home and Fordham as their compass.

“If you are attentive, compassionate, and passionate citizens of the world eager to do the world a world of good, if you are men and women for others, you will truly be every day what you are called to be,” he said. “If you do all of this, the history you will make will be a history that is marked by justice, by equality, by love and by great, great commitment.”

Fordham conferred honorary doctorates on nine other notable figures: Emanuel (Manny) Chirico, GABELLI ’79, chairman and CEO of PVH Corp.; actress Patricia Clarkson, FCLC ’82; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Marianne Kraft, principal of St. Athanasius School; Louise Mirrer, Ph.D., president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society; William S. Stavropoulos, Ph.D., PHA ’61, board chairman emeritus of the Dow Chemical Company; Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., archbishop of Newark, New Jersey; Peter B. Vaughan, Ph.D., dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Social Service; and Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone.

A Day of Celebration 

Despite the steady rain and cloudy skies, graduates found special ways to celebrate their accomplishment across campus.  Some graduates danced playfully in the rain as they waited for the start of the procession.

Others graduates like Manny Linares, a groundskeeper at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, celebrated the end of their academic road and the start of a new journey with their families cheering them on.

“It’s a little surreal,” said Linares, who received a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. “It has yet to really hit me, but it’s a long time coming.”

As a working student with a three-year-old daughter, Linares said his professors and advisers played a role in helping him to acomplish this feat.

“I always wanted to get a degree, but I didn’t think it was something that was within reach until I arrived at Fordham,” said Linares, a first-generation graduate, who was recently admitted in the Masters of Science program in health administration.

Emilio Alvarez, Ph.D., said he is excited to be a source of encouragement to those who face struggles similar to his own. After becoming an emancipated minor at 15 years old and receiving his GED in his early 20s, he received his doctorate in religious education today from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. He’s serving as a chaplain at a federal detention facility in Batavia, New York.

“I’m grateful,” said Alvarez, whose family donned t-shirts with the words, “From GED to Ph.D.” on them. “As much as I understand that this is an accomplishment, I hope to look beyond that and see it as an inspiration to others.”

Photos by Bruce Gilbert, Chris Gosier, Dana Maxson, Matthew Septimus, Chris Taggart, and Gina Vergel. Video by Tom Stoelker and Jeff Coltin.

“In most of my ministry work, I’ve worked with women because we had a really hard time getting young men to show up for anything,” said Baker, who was serving as director of campus ministry at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania.

He wondered if the absence of young Catholic men was a sign that the programming was not relevant in their lives.

“I simply wanted to ask—where are they and what are we doing wrong?” said Baker, who graduated this year with a doctorate in ministry from Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. The hybrid doctoral program allowed him to take many of his classes online and complete the degree remotely.

“Before I started this program, it was hard for me to see the direct connections between ministry, theology, and spirituality,” he said. “These were three things that I knew were central to my work, but I couldn’t always articulate or see how they all connected.”

His doctoral thesis, “Men For and With Others: Engaging the Stories of College Men and Exploring Pastoral Postures,” aimed to examine some of the challenges of reaching college-aged men of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

The project led him to research topics in philosophy, spirituality, masculinity, gender, and feminism, along with current practices related to campus ministry in Catholic universities.

He also organized a focus group with college-aged men to develop potential interview questions for other young men who were disaffiliated from their faith. He later carried out the interviews at two Catholic campuses in the Northeast.

“I was very intentional in my work, especially in my interviews with people from some diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds,” he said. “That’s where you get into layers of privilege. Privilege isn’t just about men versus women. Privilege gets wrapped up in race, culture, and sexuality as well.”

Through the interviews, Baker learned that getting young men to participate in campus ministry was not a matter of “simply winning them over.”

Too often, he said, campus ministry is focused on “trying to deliver to people the things that we want to fill them with, [like]our preset agendas,” rather than recognizing the things that are distinctive in some young men’s lives—whether they are queer, black, atheistic, or from an interfaith background.

“We’re missing the richness of people’s lives,” he said. “We’re missing the insights and the wisdom for today’s spiritual age, which is wrapped up in the lives of young people who are already navigating a lot of challenging issues that previous generations didn’t deal with.”

Having recently been promoted to vice president for mission integration at Mercyhurst, Baker, a father of four, said he is looking forward to putting the lessons he learned about student engagement into practice in his own ministry.

“Part of what campus ministry should be able to do is serve all students regardless of their faith tradition,” he said. “I’m not here to bring my truth to students. I’m here to help them uncover their own truth. I want to make myself present to their stories and the theology and spirituality already at work in their lives.”

A native of Wooster, Ohio, Gorman is a member of the Gabelli School’s inaugural Lincoln Center class. He’s graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Global Business, and he’s one of the top students in his year. But he didn’t get there without a little help.

During his junior year, he earned an internship with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the world’s largest private cancer center, through an interaction he had with Ian Cairns, GABELLI ’18.

“He said, ‘I like the things that you said in class. I’m interning at Memorial Sloan and part of our role is to help recruit,” recalled Gorman. “Why don’t you send me your resume?”

Cairns passed Gorman’s resume along to recruiters at the hospital. After being interviewed, he was offered a role as an investment management intern. When his internship ended, Gorman helped to recruit and interview other Fordham students for his role, just as Cairns had done for him.

“If you like your employer, and you like Fordham, then you want to help them both find one another,” he said, adding that he hopes younger classmates will follow his and Cairns’ example.

After completing several internships, Gorman served as a chief economist for the Gabelli School’s Student-Managed Investment Fund. He also worked on the Dean’s Council alongside Vincent DeCola, S.J., assistant dean of the Gabelli School of Business, to help improve the academic experience of undergraduates at the Lincoln Center campus. And he’s volunteered at open houses for admitted students and events for first-year students.

“I remember being in their place four years ago and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and talking to current students was very helpful,” said Gorman.

Hu— who is graduating with a Master of Science in taxation— has helped to organize networking events with Fordham alumni as a board member of the Fordham Accounting and Tax Society. She also helped spearhead a career fair with representatives from firms like Friedman LLP and Ernst & Young. Last spring, she put together an event with a professional English-language teacher for international students interested in improving their English.

Her drive to help other students in her program was inspired by a phrase her mother, a quality controller at a food company, used to say to her growing up.

“She would always tell me that ‘helping others is helping yourself,’” recalled Hu, a native of Nehe, China. “That helped to build my character. I never go somewhere and expect that I could just receive things and take that for granted.”

Hu said her father, a part-time computer shop owner and farmer, would talk about macroeconomics around the house when she was young.

“He wasn’t able to go to business school but supported my decision to go,” she said. “I was able to stand on his shoulders, learn more, and see a broader field.”

Hu and Gorman both said the experiential learning opportuni- ties and classes they have had at the Gabelli School helped to shape their post-graduation goals.

Gorman said he has always been interested in math but didn’t know what career path to take until he served on the winning team of the Gabelli School’s Consulting Cup challenge, the biggest on-campus academic competition for sophomores at the school. He also took a financial management course that same year.

“That’s when it clicked that I wanted to try something in the finance area,” said Gorman, who has interned for North Brookside Capital and the French investment bank Société Générale, where he will soon work as a full-time investment banking analyst.

“We were talking about current events around that time, about the border adjustment tax and the tax plan the new administration had been proposing. It was kind of eye opening to see those things in the news and then come to class and put some numbers behind it,” he said.

Hu’s aha moment came in an international taxation course, where she studied the tax systems of the U.S. and foreign countries as well as topics related to tax treaties, transfer pricing, and foreign tax credits.

“I’m interested in how international transactions work and how businesses get taxed in different jurisdictions,” said Hu. “A lot of the logic makes sense to me, especially with my international background.”

Hu recently accepted a position in Ernst & Young’s Diversified Staffing Group in Houston. She said she looks forward to putting her accounting training into action.

“My job would be to become a well-rounded tax professional in the beginning and then specialize in one area,” she said. “It’s really cool to know that what I was learning will apply to my job later on.”

Shea, who learned Spanish in elementary school, developed a bond with his Spanish-speaking coworkers. Many of them were men from Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

“They all worked super hard. I was just working there for a summer job, but many of the guys were working to provide for their families,” said Shea, a 2017 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate who will earn a Master of Science in marketing intelligence this year from the Gabelli School of Business. He said his personal experiences with the Bronx’s Latino community inspired his decision to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) after graduation.

For a year, Shea will serve as a family self-sufficiency case worker at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, where the population is more than 50 percent Latino. He’ll assist families and elderly clients with issues related to poverty, food insecurity, housing, and immigration.

“I wanted to do something where I could see the benefits of what I was doing,” said Shea, who chose not to pursue a “typical office job” after graduating. “I wanted something a little bit more tangible and a little bit more real.”

Shea is one of roughly 300 young adults in JVC’s global volunteering program at any given time, according to Mike Reddy, interim president of JVC.

“Jesuit Volunteers accompany poor and marginalized communities through service within agencies at the front lines of social justice,” said Reddy. “Their term of service in JVC not only benefits those communities, but it also gives our volunteers a sense of purpose, mission, and values for years to come.”

Annie David will serve with JVC for a year as an after-school coordinator and coach for Girls in the Game—a Chicago-based nonprofit focused on helping girls find their voice, confidence, and power through sports.

“It’s kind of like a safe place for girls in Chicago,” said David, who learned firsthand how sports can inspire and motivate when she joined Fordham’s women’s rugby team.

“I had never played before, but being supported by the team and learning that everyone is there to have fun and help each other, that led me to want to pass on what I’ve learned.”

David is graduating with a degree in communications from Fordham College at Rose Hill. Originally from Lynchburg, Virginia, she said that studying and living in a diverse, urban environment like New York helped her to become aware of the challenges faced by marginalized communities.

She thinks the year ahead will help her find her purpose.

As of May 2, eight other graduating seniors also plan to serve with the JVC next year: Brian Kriebel will serve at Catholic Parish Outreach in Raleigh, North Carolina; Stephanie Leo will work at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California; Emily Lindo will serve with Civicorps in Oakland, California; Siobhan Loughran will serve at Promise Arizona, an immigrant- rights organization in Phoenix; Christopher Ly will serve at the Midtown Assistance Center in Atlanta; Christina Monaco will work at Preble Street, which addresses issues like homelessness, hunger, and poverty in Portland, Maine; Michelle Nista will work at Friends of the Poor in Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Kathleen Stanovick will work at Raphael House, which serves homeless and low-income families in San Francisco. Greg Rigatti, who graduated in 2016, will serve at Community & Home Supports in Detroit. And Corina Minden-Birkenmaier, a 2017 graduate, will serve as a criminal justice reform intake specialist with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.