Throughout her time at Fordham, senior Olivia Griffin has been passionate about protecting the environment while supporting native communities. Now the Udall Foundation is recognizing her as a future leader in the environmental space. 

Griffin is a recipient of a 2024 Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, a highly competitive award for scholars building impactful careers in environmental protection, tribal public policy, or health care. The tribal public policy and health care tracks are only awarded to Native American and Alaskan Native scholars, while the environmental track that Griffin earned is open to all, meaning the competition is fierce. Out of 341 applicants in the environmental category, she was one of 37 who received the scholarship.

The benefits of the scholarship include $7,000 for academic expenses, connection to a vibrant alumni network, and a four-day orientation in Tucson, Arizona. Griffin especially enjoyed meeting fellow Udall scholars at the orientation this summer and listening to lectures about indigenous ecological knowledge. 

When she learned her application was successful, “I was ecstatic,” Griffin said. The scholarship is just her latest award — she also earned Fordham’s Trinity Financial Fellowship in Urban Studies for 2024. 

Connecting with Native Heritage and Mother Earth

Griffin grew up in Oklahoma City and is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She says she feels a strong link to the environment that stretches all the way back to her ancestors. She recalled a passage from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” that illustrates this connection. 

“It’s a pretty well-known creation story that varies from tribe to tribe of this sky woman falling down to the Earth and all the animals that help her with her landing. She brings these seeds down, and she creates the planet, sort of like a Mother Earth character,” said Griffin. “Tied into Indigenous origin stories is this inherent sustainability and care for the Earth.”

Environmental Advocacy at Fordham and Beyond

Griffin is a member of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Honors Program, pursuing a degree in Urban Studies with a minor in English. She’s also a member of the United Student Government at Rose Hill Sustainability Committee, where she plans events like cleanups and educational seminars and a member of Students for Environmental Action and Justice. 

Griffin has interned with Cherokee Federal, where she helped manage Federal environmental projects. The scholarship is making it possible for her to continue gaining valuable experience in the field alongside her studies. As part of an internship with Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, she’s started working with Bronx community members to study and address brownfield sites, former industrial areas contaminated by pollutants that can pose risks to human health. 

“The scholarship will help to cover my expenses since the nonprofit can’t pay me. That will definitely help compensate some of my work,” she said. 

A Rising Star in Sustainability

After graduation, Griffin plans to work for a few years before pursuing a master’s in urban planning at a school with a focus on indigenous planning and resource management. 

Combining urban planning, environmentalism, and tribal studies makes for a rare specialty, but Griffin hopes other scholars will follow in her path. “I’d like to see how my experiences and knowledge could help the Cherokee Nation, but also in a broader sense,” she said. 

—Alex Williamson

In the video above, Victorio explains the research she’s conducting with her Fordham mentor, Nicholas Sawyer, Ph.D., and talks about how Fordham has helped her grow as a scientist.

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

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.

Aggressive Pigeon Behavior: Bridget Crosby, Taylor Goche, Cream Sananikone, and Van Tran

Going to school in New York City made these four biological science majors “fascinated by pigeons.” “I’ve noticed particularly how close pigeons get to us, how they’re foraging for food, how they’re really never alone,” Crosby said. “I’m just fascinated by pigeons, especially in Manhattan, in comparison to more suburban areas. We wanted to see whether there was a correlation between the aggressive behavior and the location that they live in.” Working with the Ecology Lab at Fordham, the team spent hours in four parks analyzing pigeon behaviors. They found pigeons were more aggressive in the urban parks—Bryant Park and Washington Square Park, compared to the more suburban parks—Van Cortlandt Park and Crotona Park, concluding that pigeons in more urban areas are more accustomed to traffic and people, prompting them to act more boldly.

Mental Health in Literature: Marianna Apazidis

A senior from Massachusetts who is double-majoring in psychology and English, Apazidis united her academic interests through research that examined the portrayal of mental health in literature, particularly in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The novel centers on a protagonist often considered to be schizophrenic in literary interpretations. Apazidis received a summer research grant that allowed her to visit the Jean Rhys archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, she conducted empirical research, first-hand interviews, and archival research to investigate why the novel’s protagonist is often diagnosed this way and whether this is an accurate portrayal of psychosis. “I started with psychology because I’ve always been interested in how people work and what makes them who they are,” she said. “I quickly found that English is a very similar parallel discipline. I think literature is one of the most important ways to study human nature.”

Detecting the Presence of Metals in Water: Eva Riveros

Riveros was drawn to chemistry as a tangible way to find environmental solutions. Her research project involved the development of a Thiazole probe—a solution that uses proton transfer and fluorescence to detect the presence of metals in water samples. Riveros hopes to eventually create strips using the solution that can be used more easily and efficiently. “One of the main applications we’re thinking of is drinking water, so safety,” said the junior from New Jersey. Riveros developed her love of research after completing the ASPIRES program, which gives incoming students practical exposure to labs and hands-on experimentation.

Religion as Rebellion: Christopher Supplee

Supplee’s interest in how shared narratives shape cultural experiences led him to research the role of Haitian Vodou in confronting the shared traumatic experience of slavery. Supplee applied the three-part trauma recovery theory from Dr. Judith Herman, a leading expert on trauma, as a basis to examine the migration of Vodou from Haiti to the United States. “I look at how the enslaved population used [the practice of]voodoo as a means of maintaining their humanity under the dehumanizing conditions of slavery and rebuilding the community bonds that were separated through the TransAtlantic slave process,” said Supplee, an English and theology major from Philadelphia, “but also making new ones as a result of the diverse peoples that were coming from or transported from the African continent,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kelly Prinz.

“I want to show how diabetes can teach you meaningful lessons that can be applied to sports, family, [and] friends,” said Shah, a general science and anthropology double major who aspires to become a pediatric endocrinologist.

Within its first week of publication this past February, the book reached #1 in Amazon’s New Releases in Children’s Books on Physical Disabilities, #1 in New Releases in Children’s Disease Books, #1 in New Releases in Children’s Nonfiction Health Books, #5 Best Sellers in Physical Disabilities, and #13 Best Sellers in Children’s Disease Books, said Shah.

Watch the video above to learn more about Shah’s new book, Shots at Life, and what it’s like for Shah to live with diabetes as a college student.

In their Feb. 21 talk, Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, deputy NYC mayor for Health and Human Services, and Catherine Blaney, FCLC ’86, development lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies, encouraged students to consider opportunities in government, nonprofits, and more.

The pair, both of whom are members of Fordham’s President’s Council, spoke in Keating Hall at Rose Hill to more than 150 students in the symposium, part of Fordham’s pre-law offerings, which also include advising, programming, and clubs. The symposium brings in speakers to help students learn about careers, prep for the LSAT, and analyze mock cases.

Though Williams-Isom has spent much of her career in government and nonprofits, she said the training she got in law school was “very important” to her work.

“I wanted to be a good writer, I wanted to increase my analytical skills [and] be able to synthesize information quickly,” she said.

Williams-Isom, previously the CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, said that she often pairs those skills with values she learned at Fordham.

“Through all of this, the decision to go to Fordham and to want to focus on justice, and to want to focus on service—I do think I have come full circle in what I’m doing … and how I’m able to lead at this moment,” she said.

Blaney said that “law school is a place that allows you, when you graduate, in whatever job you take, to think five steps ahead.”

That way of thinking helped her develop a close connection with her boss, Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor.

“He is a very precise, analytical, driven human being, and he wants to put action and results together, and he wants you to quickly analyze the problem and come up with a decision,” she said.

Thinking about Public Service and Law

For students, learning about the different paths and skills that law school can provide made an impact.

“I want to become a lawyer, but more the public service route—I want to be helping communities do better,” said Vincent Brandy, a first-year Fordham College at Rose Hill student, who plans to major in international studies.

Sinclair McKinney, a first-year Fordham College at Rose Hill student studying environmental studies, said that she appreciated learning about the role Fordham played in the speakers’ careers.

“The most interesting for me was … how Fordham’s focus on social service and helping others has followed them throughout their lives and led them to where they are,” she said.

Jade Belliard, a junior at Fordham College at Rose Hill majoring in history, said that she appreciated their message that students can “do anything with a law degree,” and that they spoke about balancing their careers and family.

“Especially for women, I feel like you have to choose between a career or starting a family—especially being in law,” she said. ”It was kind of a relief that they were like, ‘just go for it.’”

Additional reporting by Franco Giacomarra.

“We pray hard for Luke’s family and friends who are grieving right now at this terrible tragedy,” wrote Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham, in a message to the University community. “We will forever hold Luke’s memory in our hearts.” 

A Man for Others

Santos immersed himself in politics at a young age. He became involved in political campaigns when he was 14, working for well-known elected officials and campaign staff across Massachusetts and beyond. When he moved to New York City and became a Fordham student, he balanced his coursework with bolstering the New York City Council campaigns for Julie Won, Yusef Salaam, and Christopher Bae. Most recently, he served as a wealth management intern for The Taylor Group at Morgan Stanley.

Santos was born on April 4, 2003, in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school, where he was a member of the National Honor Society. 

Santos became interested in politics after an 8th-grade field trip to the Massachusetts State House. He soon printed his own business cards, donned his suit and tie, and returned to the state house on his own to introduce himself to whomever he could, according to an obituary written by his family.  

As a high school student, he provided support for several election campaigns, managing staff and budgets and canvassing local neighborhoods, according to his LinkedIn profile. At 15 years old, he even called into C-SPAN to share his thoughts on the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Later, he helped plan the 2018 Democratic State Convention in Massachusetts and the statewide coordinated campaign. He played a role in the campaigns of many candidates, including Joe Kennedy III’s run for U.S. Congress and Elizabeth Warren’s bids for U.S. Senate and president.

Santos was most passionate about affordable housing and social justice. When he was a junior in high school, he founded the Mask Up Project, a student group that distributed more than 800 homemade masks to those in need. Santos told his high school newspaper that he wanted to help “vulnerable communities such as our homeless population, who don’t have the luxury of socially distancing.”  

‘Make Sure Every Single Voice Matters Just As Much As Mine’ 

Santos often shared his passion for politics on social media, including one post about the day he officially joined the Democratic Party.

“My grandpa grew up in public housing in New York, and my grandma was a school teacher who came from a family of immigrants and janitors. Today, their grandson (pre)registered as a Democrat. … I’m blown away that I actually have a chance for my voice to matter,” Santos posted on his Facebook profile in 2019. “And I’m gonna use this vote and fight like hell to make sure every single voice matters just as much as mine.” 

Despite his own view on politics, he supported camaraderie among parties. In 2017, he posted a photo from a Youth Action March, noting “it was an inspiring moment when young Democrats and Republicans joined together to say we are the voice of America.” 

In his spare time, Santos enjoyed traveling, skiing, fishing, and summering on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with his family. He embraced his Filipino heritage through food, often introducing his friends to Filipino dishes in New York City and sharing his foodie adventures with his father. 

“Luke brought joy to so many that were fortunate enough to have known him and will always be remembered for his independent spirit, love of nature, sharp analytical mind, boundless curiosity, and inspiring ambition,” Santos’s family wrote in his obituary. 

Santos is survived by his mother, Allison Bailey; father, Albertino Santos; stepfather, Joseph Audette; siblings Grace Mary Audette and Samuel Lancaster Audette; grandparents Rita and Gary Bailey and Alicia Santos; and many other aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. 

A University memorial service will be held for Santos at the Rose Hill campus on Feb. 28 in Sacred Heart Chapel, Dealy Hall, at 12:45 p.m. His wake will be held on March 1 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Saint Cecilia Parish at 18 Belvidere Street, Boston, MA 02115. A funeral Mass will directly follow at the same location. Gifts in his name may be made to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center.  

“I was always really interested in migration and movement—why people move and what happens when they move and how they form community,” said Maddox, an associate professor in the African & African-American Studies department.

In her new book, A Home Away from Home: Mutual Aid, Political Activism, and Caribbean American Identity (University of Pennsylvania Press), Maddox explores those ideas, as well as the influence of organizations that supported Caribbean immigrants as they arrived in the U.S. around the early 1900s.

How did you come up with the idea for A Home Away from Home?

I knew that I wanted to work on some aspect of immigration or migration history for my Ph.D. [which she earned in 2016]. I started going to the Schomburg Center [for Research in Black Culture]in Harlem, and I found these records of Caribbean-American mutual aid societies. There were so many of them. I thought, “They’re really important. We should be talking about this.”

What did you learn from studying these mutual aid societies?

I realized that the societies were important for lots of reasons: helping migrants form community with each other and taking care of them in a time where there weren’t many outlets for Black immigrants.This is when we have a lot of segregationist laws in the U.S. toward Black people … and they’re not OK with that. They become really politically active. They’re fighting against anti-lynching laws. They’re fighting for better living conditions within New York City, better education. This is also the time where we have a lot of xenophobic immigration laws.

What were some of the surprising parts of your research?

[These immigrants] are also still heavily involved in the politics of home—the political climate of the Caribbean, and what’s happening there. Globally, they’re also really invested in what’s happening in Africa. One of the key points that I look at is 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia; at this time, Ethiopia is the only country on the African continent that’s not colonized by European power. The whole African diaspora and all Black people around the world are looking at Ethiopia. And so these groups are raising money to send to Ethiopian troops. They’re sending supplies there. Some people are actually going to fight for the Ethiopian army. So not only are they invested in what was happening where they are, but they see themselves connected to Black people throughout the world.

How did you see those connections form through your research?

One of the things that I was really interested in is how Black identity is formed—even with my own family, we’re all Black, but there were differences. So how did they become Caribbean, because they start off as someone from Antigua or Jamaica, but then they become Caribbean in the U.S. At the same time, they’re also becoming Black, and they’re becoming African American. They’re living in the same neighborhoods with African American people, they’re in the same job positions.

What do you hope people take away from reading your book?

There aren’t a lot of books that study this early period of Caribbean immigration. We tend to talk about the period after 1960 when there’s this boom of migrants, but I’m really interested to show that there are Caribbean immigrants who were coming prior to that, who are part of the fabric of New York City history, of U.S. history. I’m excited this book is coming out during Black History Month, because we don’t always talk about Black migrants as part of that history. But they are. For instance—no one ever talks about Malcolm X’s Caribbean heritage and what that meant for him as a Black political leader in the U.S. I’m hoping that this helps people feel seen and represented in ways that they hadn’t been before.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The enhanced advising and tutoring programs at Fordham College at Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center aim to provide more tailored support for students across academic fields.

“I think that we’re meeting students where they are now in a much better way,” said Laura Auricchio, FCLC dean. “Students have different needs now than they might have had a generation or two ago.”

More Advisors

FCRH and FCLC unveiled their new advising system for first-year students at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, called the Fordham College Advising Center. This year, they added more advisors for all first-year and sophomore students, and all the advisors have office space together on both campuses, allowing students to walk in if they have a question.

“This way students always have access to someone; there’s a place you could just walk in and ask your question,” said Rachel Annunziato, professor of psychology and associate dean for strategic initiatives at FCRH

Auricchio said that the current slate of advisors have skills that will support students beyond academics.

“A lot of [our current advisors]have background experience in career development, some in mental health counseling—they bring a wide variety of expertise and they really work as a team,” she said.

One key addition, Auricchio noted, was hiring a director of transfer students to specifically work with that population.

“Transfer students have historically had a really tough time—systems were set up around the four-year experience, and that’s something that’s changed,” she said.

The next step for the program is hiring the next set of advisors for juniors and seniors, Annunziato said.

“When you are a junior, you’ll switch to a new advisor and have that person for two years, and those folks will come in with more experience on helping you transition to the next place after Fordham,” she said.

Both Annunziato and Auricchio said that by having advisors take on responsibilities like making sure students meet their core requirements, faculty will be freed up for deeper mentorship opportunities.

“I’ve been able to prepare seniors in psychology for graduate school applications and take more students into my research lab than I have been because my advising load has lessened,” Annunziato said.

A ‘Knack’ for Tutoring

In addition to academic advising support, both colleges also have expanded tutoring options through Knack, a company that helps connect students who need tutoring with Fordham student-tutors. Students can access the platform online at fordham.joinknack.com.

Annunziato said that the experience is a win-win for both the students who need tutoring, since they can be matched based on schedule and subject, and the student tutors who get paid for their efforts.

Auricchio also said that paying the tutors allows for more students to work on campus which helps with “getting them engaged and also building their own self-confidence, self-esteem, and skill sets.”

“My dream is that we have this culture of wellness here, where we have all the resources that you could possibly need to thrive and we make them accessible,” said Annunziato, professor of psychology and associate dean for strategic initiatives. “We thought by tying it all together, maybe it makes it easier and normalizes it, so there’s no stigma attached to needing help with something.”

So far this initiative has included launching academic coaching services, creating a centralized page featuring resources from the dean’s office and from across campus, and hosting events on skills like time management and studying.

Academic coaching services provide support to students looking to improve their organizational skills, learn time management strategies, and create study plans. Students can either be referred directly by an instructor or they can ask the dean’s office or their advisor for a referral if they think one-on-one coaching could help them.

Kristina Stevanovic, FCRH ’22, who worked with Annunziato on this initiative before she graduated, said that she appreciated the dean’s office’s willingness to add student services that go beyond academics.

“For people coming out of high school, you’re all of a sudden so free, and you don’t have a structure,” she said. “That newfound freedom can be exciting and overwhelming especially if you don’t have the best sense of time management.”

Wellness Wednesdays, a new Instagram campaign, has included advice such as how not to study and tips for managing stress.

Annunziato said that the office is also continuing to add resources to its website, based on student feedback, particularly for students feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

“We’re asking students what they would like—we want to be informed and driven by their voices in all of these things,” she said.

Dean’s office events and workshops are helping to raise awareness of some of these resources. In the fall, they hosted two sessions on “How to NOT Study for Midterms” and also organized tabling events in the campus center to let students know about tutoring and other programming offered.

Students can visit the academic wellness page on the dean’s site or follow @fordhamfcrh on Instagram to stay up to date.

Prodan published a paper in PhysRevLett that explored how a microtubule’s structure and its ability to store energy along its edges could be useful in areas like cancer research.

“My hypothesis is that through evolution, cancer-derived microtubules actually found a way to get rid of these energy storage methods,” she said.

One of her goals is to research ways to physically manipulate a cancerous microtubule into one that is noncancerous.

“Then you have another method to treat cancer,” she said.

Connecting Fields

Prodan’s work connects biology with materials science, a field that combines areas like physics and biology to better understand the properties of different materials and how they can be used. This field is useful in areas like engineering, energy conversion, and telecommunications.

“I have two areas that seem disconnected, cancer research and engineering new materials, but they are highly interconnected,” said Prodan, who came to Fordham from the New Jersey Institute of Technology this fall. “The main relationship between them is physics.”

In the course of researching microtubules, Prodan began noticing similarities between them and a new type of material, topological insulators. A topological insulator is a material whose surface behaves as an electrical conductor while its interior behaves as an electrical insulator, she said.

The possibilities of topological insulators became even more clear in 2016, when a team of scientists was awarded the Nobel Prize for its work on topological materials that “could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers.”

The microtubules’ ability to store energy on the outside of their structure, similar to a topological insulator, makes them a promising subject for future research, Prodan said.

Prodan said that physics has an important role to play in serving humanity, such as by assisting in drug discovery and helping run the communication technology behind programs such as Zoom.

Helping to Enhance STEM Efforts

Prodan said that she was drawn to Fordham because of the University’s expanding STEM offerings, particularly in physics.

That’s why she’s teaching an introductory physics course to undergraduates this summer. The hope is that students get excited about STEM at the beginning of their time at Fordham, before moving on to upper-level courses.

Prodan said that her lab is currently under construction but hopes that it will be ready by the summer or sooner, which would allow her to provide hands-on learning and research opportunities to undergraduate students, as well as local high school students.

“If you want people to have a better life, a healthier life, a happier life, physics and STEM in general are really important,” she said.

“In general, the discoveries that happen in physics don’t have an impact right away. It’s a long-term impact, but they’re essential.