The goal of the event was to help students find internships for the spring and summer and connect them with potential employers for future full-time opportunities. At Fordham, nearly 90% of undergraduates complete at least one internship before graduating.

Fordham News spoke to students and employers about their goals and the connections they made.

Jacqueline Risch, a senior at the Gabelli School of Business majoring in marketing, was interested in connecting with leaders from the beauty and fashion industries.

What did you think of the internship fair?
I thought it was great. It was actually my first in-person career fair because I was a COVID freshman, so I was a little nervous. It was really fun to be able to get out here and see all the tables and excitement. I got some contacts [from L’Oréal and Tapestry, Inc.], dropped my resume off, and I’m going to track some people down on LinkedIn afterward.

Ekin Kara, a recruiter from AlphaSights, an information services company, said the company was trying to build more of a brand presence at Fordham.

Why did you come to the internship fair at Fordham?
From a recruiting perspective, Fordham is actually one of the campuses that we’re trying to build our brand presence in. It was a higher-level strategic decision—our offices are in New York and San Francisco, and with Fordham being such a reputable school in the New York City area, I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential.

Sean Borsum, a first-year student majoring in environmental studies, said that he was looking for employers that would allow him to work on environmental issues.

What interested you in the Wildlife Conservation Society specifically?
For me, it’s the environment. I personally like the research side, just getting to know more about the world that we live in and also climate change—all of that is pretty important.

Was it helpful to have employers come to campus and meet with you?
It’s amazing. It’s the most valuable thing you can have, not only for your resume, but also just meeting people in the community and for the future. It’s incredible.

Alumnus Raymond Moya, PCS ’18, a volunteer and community outreach associate at South Bronx United, said he wanted to use the fair to grow the nonprofit’s partnership with Fordham.

Can you tell us a bit about South Bronx United and the internships available?
We’re a sports-based youth development organization and we use soccer as a tool for social change. We help young athletes with career mentorship and career development. We also do a lot of community work, and on top of that we offer immigration and social services to student-athletes and their families and the overall community. We have education internships, communication internships, nonprofit development internships, and community outreach internships.

Benjamin Sano, a first-year student at the Gabelli School of Business majoring in finance, said he enjoyed getting the opportunity to meet with employers.

Why did you choose to connect with South Bronx United?
In Ground Floor [a first-year business course], we have to choose a Bronx company to research. So I went over there to further my knowledge of their company and maybe look to intern next year.

What was it like talking to employers?
It was very interesting. This is my first time doing 30-second pitches and things like that. I don’t like going out of my way to speak to people, I get nervous. But they’re here for us. I was thinking about it as a chance to get my name out there, and hopefully I’ll get an internship my first year. That would be awesome.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity. Additional reporting by Franco Giacomarra.

“They get the summer to actually focus on their research, instead of having classes or jobs or other things going on,” explained Christopher Aubin, Ph.D., Fordham College at Rose Hill faculty director for undergraduate research. “And they get to interact with other students outside of their disciplines, in a way where they’re watching each other generate knowledge.”

Students in the program worked closely with faculty to pursue topics that they find interesting.

“Everyone was very very helpful, and there were workshops if you didn’t know what you were doing, or if you needed help,” said Diana Paradise, a rising junior who worked on a psychology research project this summer. “It was a really great experience. I wouldn’t have been able to find what I found or learn what I learned without this program.”

Maura B. Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, attended the presentations, and spoke to the students on day two.

“This program is amazing. I’m so excited that you all get to learn from each other and that we get to learn from you,” Mast said. “And I’m really grateful for [our donors’]  support. We are able to fund this because we get amazing support from our alumni; they’re the ones who gave the money so that you could have this incredible experience.”

Hear from four of our summer scholars in in this video series, including the video below:

“I didn’t have too much gear—it was all in the laundry,” said Mehta, who graduated from the Gabelli School of Business in May.

He texted his friends: “What if we just went shirtless and just painted our chests for this game?”

They were immediately in.

“I got the text at like 11:30 the night before the game,” his friend John O’Friel, FCRH ’23, said with a smile. “And I was like, ‘Bet.’”

The Shirtless Herd

The pair recruited other friends and the group painted their chests to spell out R-A-M-S. The Shirtless Herd was born, and the Rams upset Saint Louis, the top team in the A-10 conference at that time.

O’Friel said the group grew over time, adding members and changing up their lettering.

“People were like, ‘Oh, this is cool, let’s do this,’” O’Friel said. “And that’s how we got ‘Bronx Built’ going, and ‘Urgonomics’—we started getting longer words, because more people want to be a part of it.”

The group caught the eye of Coach Keith Urgo.

“How about Rose Thrill, man!” Urgo said in the postgame press conference, using the nickname he coined for the loud atmosphere that the Shirtless Herd and other fans brought to the Rose Hill Gym. “The last couple of games, they have no idea how intense that atmosphere really is…we gotta continue that. We need that. It makes a world of difference.”

Social Media and Word of Mouth

The Shirtless Herd was just one part of a much-talked-about student fan section that came to life in 2023 as the men’s basketball team reached heights not seen for 30 years. Students packed the gym, creating a standing-room-only, loud, competitive atmosphere that caught the attention not only of Urgo but also the media.

In addition to the Herd, there were Instagram pages created that helped publicize the games and related events, such as @thehillfordham run by Sam Jones, a rising junior in the Gabelli School of Business.

“I thought, ‘maybe if we started an Instagram page, we could get a core group of people that went to every single game,’” he said.

Jones talked about the account with people in the community, including David Greco, the owner of Mike’s Deli on Arthur Avenue, which is a sponsor of Fordham athletics. Greco put him in touch with a few athletics staff members who were also working on increasing turnout.

“It just merged beautifully—we worked together throughout this semester to put on events [like pre- and post-game meetups] and and push the times of the games and push people to get there,” he said.

The main draw, of course, was the team’s performance. The men’s team finished third in the conference—after preseason polls projected them to finish last—and reached the semifinals of the A-10 tournament

While Urgo made sure his players were ready on the court, he also emphasized the importance of building a culture off the court, with slogans like “It’s a great day to be a Ram” and shoutouts to the fans for their support. Urgo and the players said it was a big part of why the Rams won their final six home games and went 18-2 overall at home.

Jones said being a part of this fan culture was “an absolute dream.”

“It changes your college experience—just to be walking around campus and hear, ‘oh, are you going to the basketball game?’” he said. “I loved it.”

Subway Chants on the Ride to Barclays

Mehta said that the credit really goes to Urgo for fostering the environment.

“He’s built a great culture here,” Mehta said. “He has a relationship with the students, with the fans. They’ve done a great job feeding off the energy and encouraging students to come back.”

And that energy expanded beyond students. When the team played in the A-10 tournament at the Barclays Center, Fordham fans, including students, alumni, and parents, packed the arena.

“It was great—on the subway on the way to the games, you had ‘let’s go Fordham!’ chants ringing throughout the cars,” Mehta said.

Keeping It Going

While many members of the fan section graduated, they hope that the tradition will be carried on. Jones, who is a junior, said that the plan is to build on this past year’s success and use it for other sports.

Jones said one of the most special things about Fordham is “how much of a family it really is.” That’s why he encourages students, particularly first-year students, to attend the games.

“Those are the events that you’re really going to remember—going to all the basketball games and yelling your heart out and standing the entire time in the fan section,” he said. “You’re meeting all these new people and you have all these friends and you see them at the next basketball game—it just creates such a strong culture.”

Visit fordhamsports.com to find the schedules for all teams and athletics events. Students attend for free with a student ID, while others can purchase tickets in advance.

The group—a professor, a psychologist, and three students—gathered in a classroom in Duane Library on Feb. 14, where they spoke to members of the Fordham community about how love appears in their professional work.  

Literature on Love

Some of them shared their favorite literature on love. Thomas O’Donnell, Ph.D., associate professor of English and medieval studies, printed out three poems and passed out copies to the audience: a joyful poem written by Comtessa de Dia, a 12th-century French noblewoman; a mournful poem by Umm Khalid, an Arabic poet from the 8th or 9th century; and a funny poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, a 14th-century English poet. 

“[Chaucer] says he is so in love that he feels like a piece of roasted fish in jam sauce,” O’Donnell said, to laughter from the audience. 

Asher Harris, a Ph.D. student in theology, talked about American jazz musician John Coltrane, who expressed love and gratitude to God for saving him from his heroin addiction. The most open expression of this love appeared in his album A Love Supreme, particularly in the song “Psalm,” said Harris, who played a recording for the audience. 

Another scholar, Christopher Supplee, FCRH ’25, a creative writing major, shared a poem he wrote and recited in honor of the event: “A World Without Love.” 

“There are matters that cannot be mended by mortal hands alone,” he said to the audience, reading from his poem. “That only miracles may fix, assuming they still exist.” 

Supplee said that when he was writing his poem, he was inspired by the question “What is love?” 

“It made me want to sit down and think about what love means to me—what are my experiences, what I’ve read, what I’ve been taught from scholars, writers, and entertainment,” Supplee said. “Love can be expressed in many different ways, whether it be through justice, romance, or friendship.” 

Queer Love at Fordham

Other scholars shared their own research on love. Benedict Reilly, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill who studies theology, discussed the theme of love from his book Queer Prayer at Fordham. He started the book project two years ago, interviewing LGBTQ+ members of the Fordham community about how they pray. During those conversations, he learned about the connection between prayer and love. One interviewee said that she learned to love herself through prayer. Another interviewee—an asexual and aromantic woman who longed to have a child of her own—spoke about how she found love and comfort through a Hail Mary. 

“I’m sharing all of these with you because I want you to think about different prayers or songs that might be helpful to you all as you fall in love,” Reilly said. 

The final invited speaker, Sarika Persaud, Ph.D., a supervising psychologist in Counseling and Psychological Services who specializes in love and relationships, spoke about what her work has taught her about love. 

“When I’m sitting with a person and helping them heal, I’m not only opening them up to love as a feeling, to feel love again, but to love as who you are—to exist in the world as love,” said Persaud, who added that her Hinduism philosophy informs her work. “All of your desires, whatever relationships you enter into, whatever relationships come your way, whatever challenges come your way, they’re all opportunities … to love more.”

What Love Means to a Jesuit

After each guest spoke, event host and theology professor Brenna Moore invited the audience to reflect on what love means to them. 

Among them was Timothy Perron, S.J., a Jesuit in formation and doctoral student in theology. 

“As somebody who has taken a vow of celibacy, a lot of times, people think, ‘What could that person know about love, especially romantic love?’” Perron said. “But actually, I’ve thought about it a lot.” 

Before he decided to become a priest, he wondered if he could commit to that vow. After much thought, he said he realized that every human has the same needs and desires, but they appear in different ways. 

“I still have a need for close friendship, intimacy, love, and care for others … [but there are]all of these different ways that love could be understood,” Perron said. “If I see somebody who is looking for money or something, I’ll often stop and talk to them or take them to the nearest deli … Just stuff like that, where you feel that love and that connection … intentionally developing close relationships with people, keeping in close touch, calling them—all of those sorts of things, I think, are part of what love means.” 

“She told me about where she came from, what she hoped to do in her life, and her leadership experience,” recalled Watts.

As it turns out, each of those things played a large part in Britton’s Fordham career. On Saturday, in addition to graduating with a bachelor’s in biological sciences, Britton will also graduate with a bachelor’s in African and African American Studies. Next year, she will head off to Boston University in her hometown to get her master of science in medical programming before applying to med school. In her time at Fordham, she played violin in the orchestra; sat on the executive board of ASILI, the Black Student Alliance at Rose Hill; worked at FUEMS, the university’s emergency medical care organization; and served as a resident assistant.

She said two mentors, Dean Watts and Assistant Dean for Seniors Lisa Gill, Ph.D., helped her make it through what was at times a very difficult four years for any student, let alone a woman of color trying to advance in the sciences. Despite her drive, there were moments she didn’t live up to her own expectations.

“Sometimes, not reaching a goal is just part of being a person. You just have to bounce back. You can’t let it take you down,” said Britton.

Dean Gill said that Britton’s resilience is not unlike that of the rest of her classmates who spent only one year on campus after a global pandemic sent them home. And before they came back to campus for their senior year, the country had a nationwide reckoning with racism.

“This was a very untraditional college experience. Many students had to develop skills that they did not necessarily come into university life with. Then to have to come back with the culture shock of being seniors, as opposed to sophomores. They had to develop all kinds of skills in terms of being resilient, being adaptable,” said Gill. “Sydni exemplifies that, and not just strength in a traditional black-woman-are-strong kind of thing. She can see what’s happening around her and not get pulled under by all of the things that are happening.”

Still, Britton admitted was so “terrified” of doing badly that she nearly missed the point of doing science. But Watts helped her see the discipline as one in which mistakes are not just tolerated, they’re encouraged.

“Med schools look very close at the trend of how you do, not just the GPA,” Watts said. “They want a sense that you don’t fold. You don’t give up, you dug deeper, you found a way to identify more resources, you went and asked for help, which is the key.”

Britton said she began to learn how to fail forward.

“Science is a field where imperfection is valuable because getting something wrong also gives you information, so in the end, it’s hard to even make science into something that’s graded in a performance evaluation,” Britton said. “The nature of real science and real research is that failure’s okay, but within academia, it’s not okay.”

She further clarified that for her, and many other students of color, a lower grade is not simply something to feel badly about. For most of them, it’s a marker of the systemic racism that played out well before they stepped foot onto campus.

“The reality is that Black students disproportionately come from underperforming high schools,” she said, adding that most students from underperforming high schools do not have sufficient courses that bring them up to what’s expected at the college level. “[And] Fordham’s biology department is significantly more challenging than the average university science program.”

For her African and African American Studies thesis, Britton is writing about how the Black male collegiate experience has become commodified for purposes that are not always academic.

She added that over the past four years, the average American teen had begun to look for a more diverse campus experience, making it important for colleges to tout their diversity. But true diversity is not that simple, she said.

“There’s diversity around us all the time, but when you make it a point of selling it is when it becomes racialized,” she said.

“The cultural sentiment around Black students in the classroom is that they are here for a job, the school is giving them a handout, and they’re here to fulfill an image of diversity,” she said.  “Every Black person comes to campus with a personal history with, personal relationships, with family backgrounds, so when talking about understanding Black people, it’s not about some monolithic quality that all Black people have. It’s about a monolithic system that Black people are put under that treats them as a singular entity.”

Similarly, if someone were to walk into a room full of white people, she said, they’d say it wasn’t diverse. “But we have no idea who is rich and who is poor. But for most people, when they think diversity, what clicks for them is racial and ethnic diversity.”

True diversity would look beyond the color of a person’s skin and take into consideration their socioeconomic background, education, politics, sexual identity, and much more, she said.

As Britton wraps up her time here at Fordham, she said both her majors utterly changed her perception of identity and race.

“Scientifically we’re all the same. All our bodies operate more or less in the same way,” she said.

She said she had to stop thinking about Blackness has some inherent quality.

“Blackness is constructed by society. But if I want to be a doctor, I need to understand what’s going on there. I have to get out of myself and start recognizing that it’s not because these people are Black that they have certain health issues,” she said. “It’s because they’re being oppressed. It has to do with larger ideas of economic depression, exploitation, and commodification. These are big theories and concepts that were superimposed on Black people for a very long time.”

She said that the University, and Jesuit institutions at large, are in a unique position to change that.

“I’m not saying that religion is a tool, but Jesuit institutions have a guide that goes beyond this world. They have the ability to reflect and meditate, because of their tradition and their discipline, that allows them to actually be able to fix these issues in a way that is lasting and significant. I mean, other universities don’t have that. That’s honestly how I feel. That’s what I believe.”

“Nearly 20-some years ago, Mark had a vision, a plan—some might say a determination—to establish the center at Fordham,” said Connie Curran, who, with her late husband, John Curran, Ph.D., PHA ’66, has been the center’s chief benefactor. “Father Massa set out to put Fordham on the map as a center for Catholic studies, and that is exactly what has happened. …You can’t help but to be proud of the work that has been achieved.”

Curran said that Father Massa laid the groundwork for his successors to make the center one of the nation’s premier centers on Catholic studies that it is today.

To honor his efforts, the University will host Music, Mingling, and Magis with Father Massa on June 2. Proceeds from the benefit will go toward the Mark S. Massa, S.J., Curran Center Magis Fund. And Father Massa will be there, ready to mingle.

For tickets to the event, which includes a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m., register by Thursday, May 19.

Father Massa joined the Fordham University faculty in 1987. He received a distinguished teaching award from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1994 and, seven years later, established The Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at the University. He served as its director until 2010. He was also the first holder of Fordham’s Karl Rahner Chair in Theology.

The center remained a small program with big ambitions—Father Massa once called it “a phone
and a desk on the third floor of Keating Hall”—until the Currans stepped in with an endowment.

Today the center presents programs on arts, culture, and ideas throughout the academic year. Its most recent program examined Billie Holiday’s Catholic background in a lecture and live performance. The center is also an internationally recognized base for Flannery O’Connor studies. Other recent events have focused on liberation and womanist theologies, Irish poetry, Joe Biden’s Catholicism, and Puerto Rican migration.

Father Massa left Fordham in 2010 to become dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where he is now director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. His influence continues to be felt at the center where he is regarded as a guiding spirit.

Yip has explored the human relationship with ethnic identity in more than 50 peer-reviewed papers. Her research specifically focuses on ethnic identity development among underrepresented populations, the association between ethnic identity and psychological adjustment, and the impact of ethnic-specific and general stressors on people’s well-being. Her work on racial and ethnic identity was featured in a 2019 Fordham News Q&A.

Gaelic football traces its roots to the 1600s. It involves a round ball that can be caught, kicked, and hand-passed, as players aim to score points or a goal by kicking or punching the ball over the crossbar or kicking it under the crossbar and into the net.

Fordham has a rich history of ties to Ireland; its founder Archbishop John Hughes was born in County Tyrone, and the University has educated many Irish immigrants and sons and daughters of immigrants since its founding. The University is also home to the first Irish Studies program in the U.S., and boasts many prominent Irish alumni. Joseph McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, often speaks about his Irish Catholic heritage.

Fordham’s Gaelic Society started the Gaelic football team this year, and players said that the sport has helped them feel connected to Irish culture and history, as well as the Fordham Irish community.

The Gaelic Society is just one of more than 220 student clubs and organizations at Fordham, which include everything from United Student Government to Jazz Collective, Fordham Experimental Theater, and the Investment Banking Club.

Learn more about the Gaelic football team at Fordham.

No in-person classes will be held today, but online classes will proceed as planned. Deans and instructors may contact their students with further information about alternative arrangements for classes affected by this announcement.

Ram Van service is suspended until 7 a.m. on Wednesday, October 27. Employees who are unsure of their work status should contact their supervisors directly.

Please use caution while walking on campus, and avoid walking near or under large trees. Avoid walking through flooded areas. As few as six inches of moving water can knock a person over. Consider remaining indoors this evening and avoid traveling, since even subways can become flooded given a large volume of rain within a 24-hour period.

To prepare for possible power outages, charge cell phone batteries, gather supplies, and turn your refrigerator and freezer to a colder setting. If you lose power, items that need refrigeration will stay cooler for longer.

Local weather forecasts are imprecise, and the storm may be worse than predicted. As always, members of the University community should take local conditions into account when traveling to or from campus.

In an emergency, please call Fordham Public Safety at (718) 817-2222.

No in-person classes will be held on campus before Noon, but online classes will proceed as planned. Deans and instructors may contact their students with further information about alternative arrangements for classes affected by this announcement.

Please use caution while walking on campus, and avoid walking near or under large trees. Avoid walking through flooded areas. As few as six inches of moving water can knock a person over. Consider remaining indoors this evening and avoid traveling, since even subways can become flooded given a large volume of rain within a 24-hour period.

To prepare for possible power outages, charge cell phone batteries, gather supplies, and turn your refrigerator and freezer to a colder setting. If you lose power, items that need refrigeration will stay cooler for longer.

Local weather forecasts are imprecise, and the storm may be worse than predicted. As always, members of the University community should take local conditions into account when traveling to or from campus.

In an emergency, please call Fordham Public Safety at (718) 817-2222.

Several thousand Fordham alumni, family members, students, and friends took part in the festivities, which included special receptions for the classes of 1970 and 1971, a 5K Ram Run, the launch of the first-ever Alumni Book Club, a jaunt to the New York Botanical Garden, and the traditional Homecoming tents on Edwards Parade, where attendees of all ages mixed and mingled for the first time since November 2019. (Last year’s Homecoming was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

“This is Fordham—active, students running around, Edwards Parade full of people,” said Mary Boland, a 1979 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

For Joe McAteer, a 1999 graduate of the Gabelli School of Business and a former Fordham football player, the day was a chance to resume a family tradition. He and his wife, Anne, took their daughters, Brigid and Melaney, to the family tent, where an artist drew caricatures of the girls and made balloon figures for them.

“I haven’t been on campus since the pandemic,” McAteer said. “And my daughters would come up here for years and loved, loved coming up here—it’s the family atmosphere. Being back on campus with my kids, it’s great. It’s just that ambience, that feel that you get walking back on campus.”

The celebrations commenced on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, when Fordham athletics inducted 13 alumni into its Hall of Fame during a ceremony under the Homecoming tent on Edwards Parade. Among this year’s honorees were record-breaking quarterback Mike Nebrich, FCRH ’15; former Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara, GABELLI ’13; former women’s basketball star Abigail Corning, GABELLI ’14; and Joe Moglia, FCRH ’71, a former CEO of TD Ameritrade and former head football coach at Coastal Carolina University.

Celebrating the Golden Rams

Moglia, who will be honored at the Fordham Founder’s Dinner on Nov. 8, was among the members of the classes of 1970 and 1971 who were invited to a special reception on Friday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation from Fordham. While the Golden Rams are traditionally honored during Jubilee weekend in June, the celebrations for both class years were delayed until Homecoming this year, when the alumni could be feted in person.

Prior to the reception, they visited Butler Commons in Duane Library, home to a quarter-scale replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco—a gift from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Fordham in 2018. Art history professor Maria Ruvoldt, Ph.D., gave alumni and their guests a sweeping history of the storied fresco, gesturing above their heads to indicate specific areas of Michelangelo’s masterwork.

For Timothy Buckley, FCRH ’71, LAW ’74, and Eileen McDonough Buckley, TMC ’71, the space was a far cry from the Duane Library they knew 50 years ago, when the two met on campus as undergraduates. After the lecture, as they headed to University Church for a Mass honoring the Golden Rams, they recalled their wedding at the church in 1975, the year after Buckley graduated from Fordham Law School, as well as the charm of the old library.

“Walsh Library was long overdue,” Buckley said, referring to the William D. Walsh Family Library, which opened in 1997, “but when you came from where I came from, [the Finger Lakes region of New York], Duane was a big deal.”

“I loved those spiral staircases” in the old library, McDonough added.

Likewise, Peter Dolan, GABELLI ’71, ’75, and his wife, Mary Marcia Dolan, arrived on campus Friday afternoon with 50-year-old memories of a place that has changed dramatically in the intervening decades. Dolan took only a few classes at Rose Hill, but he recalled a scrappy population of students who, like him, often worked to pay for tuition while pursuing their studies. Mary Marcia attended Manhattanville College, a Fordham football rival at the time, but the couple had little time for Homecoming games until this year. Dolan said that by the time he was in graduate business school at Fordham, they already had two children. For him, college rivalries played out in job interviews.

“I’m grateful to Fordham for my career. I went on so many interviews going up against Princeton and the like and they’d say, ‘Finally, somebody from Fordham is here,’” he said on the steps of Keating Hall, standing next to his wife and grandson Patrick, a first-year student at Rose Hill, before heading into the tent on Edwards Parade for the Golden Rams reception.

Dolan said he had tried to convince his children to go to Fordham, but they all went to other Jesuit colleges, making his grandson’s presence at Rose Hill all the more special.

“To have my grandson come here is a thrill of a lifetime,” he said.

Dancing the Night Away, Amid Views of Keating Hall and the Manhattan Skyline

On Friday evening, approximately 1,000 young alumni from the classes of 2011 to 2021 began their Homecoming weekend on a yacht cruise around lower Manhattan. For members of the classes of 2020 and 2021—who made up the majority of the sold-out crowd—it was one of their first opportunities to reconnect with classmates and friends since graduation. Many also saw it as an event that made up for a tradition they missed as undergrads: Senior Week programming.

“I don’t think any of us have been in that kind of crazy-busy celebratory environment since before 2020,” Finley Peay, FCLC ’20, said after the event.

Meanwhile, at Rose Hill, current undergraduates resumed another tradition: the annual President’s Ball. The dance had a new location this year—the Homecoming Tent on Edwards Parade, following the Golden Rams reception—and it drew more than 3,400 students, one of biggest turnouts in the history of the ball.

A Flying Start

On Saturday morning, about 50 students, alumni, staff, and other members of the extended Fordham family took part in the 5K Ram Run, which started and ended in front of the historic Rose Hill Gym. Their path, three loops around campus, took them past the new campus center, which is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion that will enhance services, programming, and resources for Fordham students.

For Fordham College at Rose Hill senior Kyle McAuley, who placed first, the race was a chance to enjoy an early-morning run and be part of the larger Fordham community.

“I’m a distance runner—I recently finished the Bronx 10-mile and I just really enjoy running in the Bronx. I think we need more races here, so to have one on Fordham’s campus was pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a good time to be a part of the community—I’m graduating this year, so it felt nice to be able to do this, especially after not having really any type of Homecoming last year.”

Sophomore Michael Parrinello, who finished second, brought a family feel to the event, running with his sister, Lauren.

“It was exciting to welcome family onto campus after all this time,” he said. “There’s just a lot of energy, which has kind of been missing the last 18 months.”

Catching Up on Campus

Homecoming attendees also had the opportunity to learn about some of the work that’s been taking place on and off campus in the past couple of years.

The deans of Fordham College at Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center shared how the Cultural Engagement Internships program, which they launched in 2020 with support from Fordham alumni, has grown from two partners to more than 20 for the current semester. The program provides students with paid internships at local nonprofits and cultural institutions such as the Bronx Book Festival, the New York Hall of Science, and the Brooklyn Museum.

“Many of these organizations were introduced to us by alumni or by faculty or by other members of the community,” said Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

One of Fordham’s partners is the Elmhurst/Corona Recovery Collaborative, which unites the efforts of 24 nonprofits in Queens. Fordham College at Lincoln Center sophomore Arika Ahamad supported the collaborative’s communications efforts this past year, working on a newsletter and other publications to help connect residents to community resources such as vaccination locations and help with government forms. “What they were all doing was working together to help the area recover from COVID-19,” she said.

Alumni also had the chance to welcome Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, who will become the chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) advisory board in January.

“I come here today, and I think of when I was a [student] trying to study on Homecoming Saturday,” she said, while speaking in the McGinley Center’s North Dining Hall. “I was wondering what was all that fuss? Who are these old people in that tent? And now, I am that person, and I want a bigger fuss—more noise!”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, led a champagne toast at the FUAA reception, after which he called for attendees to join him in singing “The Ram,” Fordham’s fight song.

“I want to thank you for everything you do for Fordham,” he said. “I want you to be proud of Fordham—be as proud of Fordham as Fordham is of you. Pray for Fordham that we might always be true to the vision and the mission that John Hughes had,” he said, referring to the University’s founder.

Benner will succeed John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, the FUAA’s founding advisory board chair, who congratulated her on her new role. He said although he didn’t know her when they were students, he knew she was a member of Mimes and Mummers, the theater group at Rose Hill, “and I know how passionate she was about that organization: She’s going to bring that passion to the FUAA.”

Benner’s fellow Mimes and Mummers alumni also reunited on Saturday morning, enjoying coffee and catching up outside Hughes Hall before visiting Collins Auditorium, where they reminisced about their old college shows and marveled at the building’s new elevator and display of show posters framed by light bulbs.

Under the Tent

The Homecoming tent, however, was the main attraction. Alumni, students, families, and friends gathered there for pre-boxed lunches and drinks, played Jenga and other games, enjoyed each other’s company, and shared their favorite Fordham memories with friends and loved ones. (After the day was over, the alumni relations office donated 500 meals to Bessie Green Community Inc., a nonprofit organization that has been serving the underprivileged in Newark, New Jersey, since 1978.)

For Ruddy Castillo, a 1998 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate, and his wife, Gloria, Homecoming was the first time they had the chance to share the campus experience with their daughters, Emma and Victoria.

“I’ve never done it before—there’s so much change, and it’s great to actually see all the changes and to see people again,” Castillo said. “It’s even better [with my daughters], to share in the memories and show them around the campus that I came to school at, and get them exposed to this type of event.”

Several attendees took the opportunity to meet Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English Department, who signed copies of her novel Lizzie & Dante (Random House, 2021), which was recently selected as the inaugural selection of the Fordham Alumni Book Club.

It’s the first novel she’s published under her real name, but she’s well-known in the romance genre for the more than 7 million books she’s sold under her pseudonym, Eloisa James.

The book club will meet via Zoom for two, one-hour sessions on Wednesday, October 20, and Wednesday, November 10. The first session will be moderated by Fordham English Professor Stuart Sherman, Ph.D., and the second session will be moderated by Phillip Cicione, Ed.D., FCRH ’87, one of the alumni who stopped by the tent to pick up a copy of Lizzie & Dante.

Cicione, an English teacher in New York’s Commack school district, met Bly through a former student who recently graduated from Fordham. “[Mary and I] had lunch right before [the COVID-19] shutdown, and she was asking me for ideas of how to get English alumni more involved with Fordham and, specifically, the English department,” Cicione said.

They stayed in touch, and eventually he was asked to serve as a moderator for the Fordham Alumni Book Club. “It’s a perfect fit, as an educator, to be moderating,” he said. “Every day in my classroom is a book club.”

Game Time—or a Walk in the Botanical Garden

As the 1 p.m. kickoff approached, the Fordham cheerleaders and dance team helped get the crowd hyped up before the big game, while the Fordham band played the University’s fight song. But not everyone made their way to Coffey Field.

Several attendees decided to tour the New York Botanical Garden at a discounted Fordham rate, a new option offered at Homecoming this year. The Ciciones each chose their favorite, with Phillip heading to the game and Jackie opting for the garden.

She cited her love of the botanical garden and the ease of touring it solo as reasons why she trekked across the street instead of going into the stands.

Fran Phair, PCS ’05, said that while she’s attended the Homecoming game in the past, this year she felt the garden would be more fun than football. “There’s a great exhibit going on right now. That’s why we made this decision.”

But for Fordham football and their fans, the scene at Jack Coffey Field was fun too.

Senior quarterback Tim DeMorat put on a show for the Ram faithful, throwing for four touchdowns and 339 yards in the first half, as he led the Fordham to a 56–7 victory over Wagner in front of an excited home crowd.

At the end of the first quarter, the 1971 crew team was honored on the 50th anniversary of an exceptional season. Despite the challenges of losing varsity status and having to find a new coach that year, the team won first place in the Deering Cup, beat eight of nine competitors in the Grimaldi Cup, and won first place in the Hudson River Presidents Cup.

The team’s coach, Ed Witman, GSAS ’77, was pursuing a doctorate at Fordham when he found a torn piece of loose-leaf on the windshield of his Volkswagen prior to the 1971 season. “Interested in coaching crew?” it asked.

It was a difficult time for the team, whose members had embraced the “cultural revolution,” Witman said, with their long hair and beards. They didn’t have a lot of support.

“And then we lost the boat,” he said. “So we had to row in borrowed shells. If these guys had not persevered and hung in there, though, I think the crew at Fordham would have vanished.”

Team member John J. Fischer Jr., FCRH ’72, said the team has remained close. “We’ve been good friends and we get together every year, almost, to celebrate our team and go out on a row—we used to go out on rows. We’re now in our 70s.”

The Rams put on most of their show in the first half, going up 42–7, thanks to DeMorat; senior wide receiver Fotis Kokosioulis, who had 101 yards and two scores; and first-year linebacker James Conway, who held Wagner’s offense in check by completing a game-high 12 tackles and forcing a fumble.

The weekend concluded with a Homecoming Mass in the University Church.

Chris Walchuk, FCRH ’84, GSE ’87, who attended Homecoming in 2019, said that she loved getting to share the experience of the day with her daughter Katarina, a first-year student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

“It’s the people,” she said. “It’s so nice. I was thinking about that as we were sitting inside the tent. This is just like the previous one, [in 2019]. It’s so nice to be back.”

—Taylor Ha, Nicole LaRosa, Sierra McCleary-Harris, and Tom Stoelker contributed reporting to this story.