While five of the dancers had actually attended the Rose Hill ceremonies on May 19, there was no way of telling beforehand whether they could make it. Such is the life of a dancer. Like doctors, they’re on call. They never know when they may be required to step into a role at last minute. To be sure that their years of hard work would indeed be recognized, the dancers organized their own ceremony just in case.

Indeed, one of the dancers, Ashley Laracey, was not able to make it up to the Bronx because she was performing that day in Jerome Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs. Nevertheless, Laracey was able to celebrate with fellow dancers Abi Stafford, Emily Kikta, Cameron Dieck, Marika Anderson, and Claire Kretzschmar.

Retiring Young

Just like Fordham’s other distinct diploma ceremonies following the main University commencement, the New York City Ballet event recognized the unique nature of these graduates’ experience. Most of these dancers can only take one course per semester. Between rehearsals and performances, it can take them upwards of eight years to get their diploma.

A dancer’s career is limited; retirement comes young. And for dancers at the level of the New York City Ballet, one of the premier ballet companies in the world, most have been devoted to their craft since childhood. Preparing for a life after dance was once an afterthought. But increasingly the culture of the University has flowed across 62nd Street to the backstage of the ballet.

For many years, dancers at the New York City Ballet have found an academic home at The School of Professional and Continuing Studies, where deans and professors strive to work with the dancers’ schedules and keep them on track. Davidson spoke of how their Fordham education blended with their roles at the top of the dance world.

“I appeal to you to leverage the cultural diversity you encountered, not only at Fordham, but very much so at PCS and in your professional lives,” he said. “Place an emphasis on community service. Develop a sense of us and not me, which is embodied by the motto of cura personalis, which is at the core of the University’s mission.”

In in her “honorary valedictorian” address, Anderson also spoke of the blended learning.

“The relationship between Fordham University and New York City Ballet is very special and important, I think, to all of us,” she said. “If not for this wonderful collaboration, and help from the deans and professors at Fordham who work closely with City Ballet students to accommodate our busy schedules, I probably wouldn’t be standing here before you as a graduate myself.”

Anderson said that dancers’ natural determination helps when facing the long haul of studying while performing. The twelve years it took her to complete her degree involved tests, papers, and readings alongside rehearsals and performing. But she said it paid off.

“Focusing on a path towards organizational leadership and business administration has developed not only the way in which I communicate with people, but it has also taught me to look at the world with open, compassionate, and fearless eyes,” she said.

As a teacher at the School of the American Ballet, Anderson said she got to put those skills to use.

“For those of you in the audience currently attending Fordham, or when just working towards a goal, the road may seem long, but don’t worry, you will get there,” she said to an audience of family members, friends, and fellow dancers.

Ice Packs and Books

Indeed, the journey is very, very long, said Dieck, in his address as “honorary student body president.” The economics major recalled studying with ice packs all over his body and trips to the library after Sunday performances in a pursuit that felt as though it “went on forever and ever.” He retired from dance exactly one week after receiving his diploma. He said that he will miss his colleagues, but he is also looking forward to the future as an analyst at the investment bank at Credit Suisse. 

“The theater, I’ve heard, was reportedly built without windows as to not let dancers get distracted by the outside world,” he said. “Today we celebrate achievements in that once forbidden realm together as a family, which I find really cool.”

Dieck said he found himself applying physics concept he learned in astrophysics to his ballet technique, asking himself, “How do certain forces allow for better execution of a step?”

He said that Kretzschmar, who majored in communication and media studies, mentioned to him that she used lessons from her philosophy class to approach a role she was learning or an individual performance that she was giving.

“So, as you can see, you learn so much from your education that you can bring into the studio,” he said.

Jesuits and the Ballet

As commencement speaker, fellow dancer Silas Mark Farley traced the relationship between Jesuit education and the ballet. He said the “path of formation of New York City Ballet dancers at Fordham is the modern manifestation of a connection between Jesuit education and the art of ballet that stretches back to the 17th century.” At Lycée Louis-le-Grand, sometimes called “the Jesuit College of Paris,” ballet figured prominently, he said. Louis XIV attended ballet performances presented by the students.

“Through participating in these ballets, these students were learning to embody noble character, and they were learning the importance of art and communication,” said Farley. “In your work here as New York City Ballet dancers, you graduates daily cultivate and demonstrate your mastery of that physical communication. And the degrees you receive today from Fordham in English, history, economics, journalism, psychology, and in communications and media studies, demonstrate your having further developed your capacity to communicate through the written and the spoken word.”

Papers Between Performances

In concluding the program, Jonathan Stafford, PCS ’16, a ballet master and former principal dancer with the company, thanked PCS Dean Davidson and Associate Dean Cira Vernazza, as well as the Fordham professors and staff. He also credited scholarships from Dance On, a fund that support dancers interested in pursuing a college degree while dancing with the company.

“I sincerely believe that I would not be here standing in this role today if it wasn’t for my experience that I had with Fordham for seven and a half years, working and earning a college degree,” he said.

He said that while dancers remain focused on the physical aspect of their work, the often don’t get enough credit for their intellect.

“When we walk backstage, dancers are frantically reading something, or typing up a paper in between entrances to ballets, that’s how intense it can get,” he said. “It shows that you are more than just a ballet dancer in New York City Ballet; you are a well-rounded individual capable of much more.”

Highly ranked and aligned strongly with Fordham’s mission of service, GSS produces graduates who work throughout the New York region and beyond to help empower people who are abused, incarcerated, addicted, disabled, and disenfranchised.

“Class of 2018 you are a beacon,” said keynote speaker Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone. “The foundation of your work is going to be hope, and I’m talking about a radical hope.”

Fordham presented Williams-Isom with an honorary doctorate at the ceremony, where she recalled an upbringing that was not unlike the clients of the future social workers. She said that she and her mother were “terrorized by domestic violence” until a concerned neighbor called the authorities to intervene.

“What that neighbor did for me changed the trajectory of my life,” she said.

It was a theme that resonated for many in the crowd, as several said they were called to social service in attempt to break cycles they witnessed in their own families and neighborhoods. Gloria Key, who received a Master of Social Work (M.S.W.), said that some of the coursework brought back suppressed feelings of troublesome experiences.

“You come into this work because you are the work,” said Key. “Going through the courses and learning about treatments and different programs was really an eye opener for me. I have gone through a lot of the same social injustice, mental trauma, and mental illness in my own family.”

Just one week before graduation, Key’s daughter, Shauniqua Key, graduated with an M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania. She said that bearing witness to trauma can help in understanding clients.

“It helps with that empathetic role you have with your clients, just letting them know that you understand where they’re coming from,” said the younger woman.

Both mother and daughter touted the value of having social work schools at private institutions like Fordham and Penn.

“It’s important that people who work in impoverished neighborhoods go to school here to help enlighten others,” said Shauniqua Key.

With so many graduates talking about how their relatives supported and inspired them, families fostering the call to service became a theme of the day. But that support wasn’t limited to careers in social services.

On leave from the U.S. Army, Specialist Xaniel Alcantara showed up on stage to surprise his sister Stephanie Peña, who graduated with an M.S.W. His mother, Anna Nieves, was also unaware her son would be there that day, making the reunion even more emotional. Alcantara credited his mom with the family’s call to service.

“My mom is a really helpful person so I think she pushed us to help people,” he said. “My sister is just like my mom, she’s been working on this for years.”

The graduates’ accomplishments also had a profound effect on their families. MSW graduate Oruada Oruada’s parents, siblings, and cousins traveled from Nigeria and Atlanta to see the eldest son in their family graduate.

“Anyone who knows Oruada knows he’s a go-getter,” said his sister Ugo Oruada. “Seeing him be the first person in the family to get the master’s degree, it is so inspiring.”

In concluding her remarks, Williams-Isom pointed to the stands filled with family and friends and encouraged the graduates to lean on them when times get tough.

“You are going to hit the wall, and these are the people you’ll need for support,” she said.

“Beauty lives side by side with tragedy. You have to remember to take care of yourself. You cannot be a healer if you are not healed. You can’t fill someone’s cup if your cup is empty. We must be our best selves to best serve.”

Study goals. || Photo by MSW student @beccakaitlyn_, via @fordhamgss . #fordham #fordhamlincolncenter #manhattan #springinnyc

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Apr 26, 2018 at 9:04am PDT

Walkin’ on sunshine. || Photo by @rachzambernardi (@fordhamgsb ’18) . #fordham #fordhamrosehill #fordhamgsb #keating

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 29, 2017 at 4:28pm PST

Post move-in with some of the best orientation leaders #Fordham #LincolnCenter #fordham4me #wearefordham

A post shared by Victoria Cleveland (@toria_land) on Aug 30, 2015 at 8:54am PDT

Fall photos: Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Photo by @stephsapienza (GSB ’18) • #Fordham #fordhaminthefall #rosehill #hugheshall

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 16, 2016 at 5:53am PST

We made it! Enjoy your spring break, Rams. || Jubilant photo by @shalenaboca (GSAS ‘18) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ . #fordham

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Mar 23, 2018 at 7:51am PDT

Happy first day of the semester, Rams! We hope you’ve had a restful break and are ready take on the spring. || Photo by @astrangecharm, FCLC ’18, taken during her first week at Fordham in 2014. . #fordham #fordhamlincolncenter #manhattan #firstday

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Jan 16, 2018 at 6:49am PST

@kat_falzon (FCRH ’18) met @louboutinanyc, the famous hugging dog of New York City. (She also wrote an article on Loubie and owner Cesar for @hercampusfordham — check it out!) Photo via @kat_falzon . #fordham #nyc #NewYorkIsMyCampus #louboutinanyc #loubie #thehuggingdog

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on May 15, 2017 at 7:20pm PDT

Campus in bloom Photo by @allaboutmeehan (FCRH ’18) . #fordham #rosehill #fordhamuniversity

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on May 9, 2017 at 8:58am PDT

First snow of the season || Photo by @liyakhali (GSAS ’18) . #fordham #fordhamrosehill #cunniffefountain #firstsnow

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Dec 9, 2017 at 2:43pm PST

Daydreaming about being back at Fordham in a week

A post shared by Michael Theodore (@michael_theodore) on Jan 8, 2017 at 5:25pm PST

Saturdays at Fordham are my favorite (feat. Fr. McShane)

A post shared by madison koury (@madisonkoury) on Sep 26, 2015 at 1:53pm PDT

‪Sailing into graduation || #fordham2018 ‬ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ‪Repost @fordhamsailing: Seniors Katherine “KJ” Jones and Emma Archard cap off their spring semester with a sail in their Saturday best. Looking forward to Commencement this weekend followed by the ICSA Nationals.‬

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on May 15, 2018 at 12:02pm PDT

Happy new year, seniors!! Who else is excited to see what 2018 has in store? : @nicolefrancesca . . . #fordhamrams #fordham2018 #fordhamseniorweek

A post shared by Fordham Senior Week RH (@fordhamseniorweekrh) on Jan 1, 2018 at 6:16pm PST

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.

Rapaccioli listed a number of famous moments in U.S. business history where people lacked the vision to see the possibilities of the future. She started with Charles H. Duell, the commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office in 1899. Duell famously said the patent office was no longer necessary because “everything that can be invented has been invented.” She mentioned a Western Union executive who thought the telephone had too many shortcomings to be considered a valid means of communication. And she concluded with an IBM executive who speculated that the world market for computers might number around five.

“How many of you have five computers in your own home?” asked Rapaccioli. “In each of these cases, people closed their mind to possibility. They thought ‘No, that cannot be.’ Tonight, I encourage you never to say, ‘No, that cannot be.’”

Rapaccioli said that she hoped that the students’ education taught them of the power of themselves individually, but also the “collective power of your friends, classmates, and colleagues.”

“You can achieve anything, especially together,” she said.

As if to back up Rapiaccoli’s belief in collective power and not taking no for an answer, Sihien Goh, GABELLI ’13, recipient of the Alumnus of the Year Award, recalled the moment he and his roommate lobbied to have value investing become a part of the school’s curriculum. The two reached out to business professors and “our success rate was zero,” he said. But they kept at it and made an appointment to see the dean, in the hope that “they were more convincing in person.”

“I’m not sure, to be honest, what happened to our proposal, but I think that the stars aligned and suffice it to say that the plans took root and came to being,” he said.

Today, value investing is offered as a secondary concentration. Goh said that after investor and philanthropist Mario Gabelli made a “meaningful donation” to the school he ended up graduating from the newly-renamed Gabelli School of Business.

“Gabelli is one of the most recognizable names in the value investing business,” he said. “The Gabelli magic worked, and I was able to get a graduate job at J.P. Morgan and then at Goldman Sachs.”

But while teamwork and business courses helped launch his career, Goh said core courses in liberal arts and philosophy helped him “empathize better with clients.” He encouraged students to give back once they begin their careers. He said he’s made a concerted effort with other alumni working at Goldman to help Fordham grads get hired at the firm.

“There is nothing particularly unique about what we did and you have the opportunity to do it soon,” he said. “The only thing it requires is recognizing the opportunity and give back. You don’t have to be rich; it’s about taking the time.”

In addition to recognizing dozens of students from the Gabelli School at Rose Hill with awards throughout the evening, the event also celebrated faculty contributions. The Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence for full-time faculty went to Rosa Romeo, clinical assistant professor; the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence for adjunct faculty went to Robert Cordova; the Faculty Cura Personalis Award went to Dennis Cappello, visiting assistant professor; and the Faculty Magis Award went to Kelly Ulto, clinical assistant professor.

Film and television major Colleen Granberg was tasked with lightening the mood as the 2018 Lady of the Manor. In a speech peppered with jabs at food, dorm life and WiFi service, she compared Encaenia to the Oscars, because it’s an honor just to be invited.

“Or at least, that is what you will tell your parents later tonight when they ask you why exactly you did not receive any prizes tonight,” she joked.

Some of the biggest laughs came from Granberg’s observation that the University’s severe weather alerts seem to always note that the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses will be open, but that the Louis Calder Center is closed.

“I don’t know where exactly the Calder Center is, but it must have the most dangerous weather conditions of all time. It’s like one of those towns in rural Alabama that doesn’t have any plows so when it snows like, half an inch, they have to shut down the whole city, except it’s in Westchester,” she said, poking fun at Fordham’s biological field station, which is located 25 miles north of the city.

“I have been let down too many times by those emails. I kind of want to go to the Calder Center just to see what’s happening there, but now I’m too spiteful. I wish everyone at the Calder Center well, but our relationship is beyond repair.”

Valedictorian Mimi Sillings, a psychology major who commuted from Pleasantville for four years, joked that ‘Fordham is my school. Metro-North is my campus.’ She implored her classmates to appreciate that the “good old days” are actually now.

Sillings said she stumbled badly in a class her first semester, but when her mother gave her a necklace that said “This too shall pass,” Sillings said it became a talisman that provided her with a surprising source of strength. At some point, it broke.

“With sadness, I presented it to her. But my mom smiled. I was taken aback. She said, ‘Don’t you see, Mimi? You don’t need the necklace anymore.’ She was right, as moms often are,” she said.

“As a freshman, ‘This too shall pass’ was reassurance that my current struggle was only temporary. Now, on the eve of our commencement, ‘This too shall pass’ is a somber reminder of time’s fleeting nature.”

Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, told students that because they’d finished classes but have not yet graduated, they were in “a thin place” –where two worlds come together and are both seen and unseen.

“In Celtic spirituality, a thin place is where the ‘distance between heaven and earth collapses,’ a sacred place where you can feel the transcendence and the immanence of God,” she said.

“It can be confusing and unsettling to be in a thin place, but it can also be transformative: This experience can jolt you to see yourself—and the world—in a new way.”

It’s a good time she said, to reconsider what it means to “become men and women for others. It is not about being nice, nor is it a feel-good marketing slogan or a form of secular social activism,” she said.

“As men and women for others, you are called to be present to and in solidarity with others; in fact, to see them not as ‘others’ who need your help but as people, as individuals, as children of God; and through this shift in focus, you see God,” she said.

If it seems overwhelming, she said, consider two pieces of advice: Do something very well, even if it’s small, that will bring about positive change, and let God’s grace enter and do the rest. And, she said, fall in love.

“I ask you to fall in love, to stay in love, to act with love, and to let love guide you in becoming true men and women for and with others,” she said.

Mast presented two students with special awards. The Claver Award, which is granted by the Jesuits of Fordham to a senior who best represents Fordham’s dedication to community service, was given to Meghan Townsend, who spent almost a year living at St. Joseph House, the soup kitchen and homeless shelter founded by Catholic activist Dorothy Day.

The Fordham College Alumni Association Award, which recognizes a senior who embodies the “Fordham spirit,” was awarded to Erin Shanahan, whom Dean Mast praised for her leadership at the student-run newspaper The Ram.

“In a period marked by the rise of fake news and increasing incivility in both our public life and on college campuses, The Ram under her leadership and guidance strove to uphold high standards of fact-based journalism, took on difficult and controversial issues with skill and nuance, and encouraged a campus atmosphere of civility and dialogue,” she said.

For her senior thesis project for the honors program at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, she expressed her ideas in a graphic novel titled Nath for its lead character. In Cleary’s imagined world with no weapons, Nath is a college athlete in a street gang. But the author, a major in new media and digital design, pointed out that just because there are no knives or guns, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a world without violence.

“I was curious how people may adapt to something like that, so I settled on hand-to-hand combat,” she said. “In Nath’s world there’s a lot of emphasis on honor in fighting, and I thought about how in martial arts they focus on protection and not on harming others.”

Set in an urban landscape that combines the density of 20th-century New York with the sprawl of modern Tokyo, Cleary’s novel wrestles with many contemporary issues, such as the need for weapons in the first place.

Cleary also majored in economics at Fordham, and her background in that area informs the story as well; the characters come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. She said Nath’s life in college differs from her hardscrabble upbringing on the streets.

“There’s an otherness to her, and she tries to bridge that gap,” she said. “Throughout the course of the first issue, she feels that gap in some ways closing and in other ways, it’s too great for her to exist in both worlds.”

It’s an otherness that is not too far from the personal challenges faced by Cleary, who grew up in a suburban working-class family and is the first to go away to college. Her father died when she was 8, and her mother raised the family on her own.

“I am here on scholarship and I don’t come from a very privileged background,” she said. “But my mother always made sure we were together and doing things even when she was looking for work. She never broke down. I’ve always been inspired by her. No matter what struggles I’m facing, because of her, I know I can still overcome them.”

While in Nath’s world there is no established patriarchy, in the real world, Cleary said, the comics industry has been somewhat dominated by men. But she said publishers— even the big ones like Marvel—are starting to hear and hire diverse voices. She plans to shop her comic around at the end of the summer and use her economics background to help market it in “a changing economy.”

In the meantime, fans can keep up with Nath on Instagram by following @streetfighterturbo.

“It was very cold, but I was so happy that I didn’t mind,” said Oruada.

His comment is indicative of his glass-half full view of life. Today, despite his challenges, or maybe because of them, he will earn a Master of Social Work degree from the Graduate School of Social Service. Oruada’s name stems from a traditional pattern for his clan, the Chief Oruada Udeagah family in the Abiriba community. All the first sons in the family bear the first name Oruada, he said, and for some it is a surname as well.

After he arrived from Nigeria, his father enrolled Oruada in a crowded Queens high school where classmates bullied him for his accent and earnest participation.

“I did well, so I didn’t mind whatever the students were saying to me,” he said. “I flipped every single bad thing thrown at me and turned it into motivation.”

He graduated from high school with honors and enrolled in New York City College of Technology, where he studied human services. He said he chose Fordham for his M.S.W. because it emphasized on-the-ground experience with city nonprofits and also offered opportunities to work with international nongovernmental organizations. Today, he is doing both.

During the day, Oruada interns at the United Nations as a youth representative for Close the Gap, an international NGO that supplies computer systems and supports social innovation projects for young entrepreneurs in developing countries. At night, he works at a residence for young people with severe autism. Oruada said that working at the United  Nations fulfilled a lifelong dream. When he first set foot on U.N. grounds, he spent a half hour gazing up at the buildings, where he now gets to employ his passion for statistics and data that can help create social change.

“I want outcomes,” he said. “For example, if you tell me five out of 10 are doing well and recovered from opiate addiction, that’s good! Don’t just tell me we helped ‘a good amount of people.”

Oruada said that he expects to stay in New York City to continue in social work and advocate for the profession. He said the field is deserving of more respect.

“Social workers are saving lives,” he said. “We’re the liaison between the community and the services they need.”

He hopes to continue in his role at the U.N. and in his work with autistic youth.

“We immigrants are purpose driven; we have goals to meet, like a better life or education,” he said. “I like to do things that make an impact on someone else, not for self-gratification but to empower others.”

]]> 89667 https://now.fordham.edu/commencement/2018/postal-carrier-discovers-new-routes/ Wed, 16 May 2018 15:45:27 +0000 https://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=89661 Mail carrier LaVerne Bowen visits her old West Farms route in the Bronx.LaVerne Bowen’s mother found out she had cancer when Bowen was approaching her teens. She asked each of her seven children where they would like to travel with her. While Bowen’s brothers and sisters chose places in the West Indies, Europe, and Africa, Bowen chose Los Angeles. She wanted to see where the movies were made.

“We went on every single production tour, tours of the movie stars’ houses, because I wanted to be an actress and a director and my mother knew that,” said Bowen, who is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Soon after her mom passed away, Bowen’s father left his job at the fire department to became a full-time preacher in Harlem. The family lived above his Pentecostal church. Alone, with seven children, he encouraged them to get steady government jobs. For the past 15 years, Bowen has worked as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. A bit of a rebel, she left the family congregation to join a church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She worked in youth ministry there, putting on plays with the children that riffed on the pastor’s sermons.

One day, along her old route in the nearby West Farms neighborhood, Bowen noticed kids standing idle after school. She decided to break out the plays from her past and got the kids to perform fundraisers for a local storefront church. They eventually developed a program for Bronxnet, the local cable access network.

“From the time we did that show, my job was a better job, I loved going to work every day,” she said.

Around the same time, she began to notice Fordham literature in the mail she was delivering. She enrolled in 2005 and took some business courses, but soon needed a break from school to care for her son. She returned to Fordham in 2015 and realized business wasn’t a good fit. Roberta Willim, an assistant dean at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, began to ask her about her background.

“When I started I didn’t really tell her about my past and my work with the kids, I just wanted to start fresh and go to school,” said Bowen.

Willim unearthed 60 credits that Bowen had accumulated from other colleges that could be transferred. She then set about getting Bowen life-experience credits for her community work.

“She sat and chatted with me and she said, ‘You’re gonna go for communications and you’re gonna
graduate,’” Bowen said. “I loved it and I started to flourish. I wrote a script about a mail lady called ‘She Delivers’!” she said with a laugh.

At a recent convention for postal and other federal employees, Bowen began to envision how her newfound media skills could take her beyond her route. She can now consider communications jobs within the post office and at other federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Smithsonian.

“With this degree, I can start applying to other jobs and bring my federal pension with me,” she said. “I love my route. But as a single woman, I have to look at the outcome for my future. I now have enhanced my skill sets and opened up options so I can be upwardly mobile.”

“We are so proud of all of the students who worked with us this year, especially the graduates of 2018,” said John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Campion Institute, which helps Fordham students apply for prestigious scholarships and fellowships. “We are also delighted that so many alumni decided to come back and work with us to achieve their dreams.”

Kayla Matteucci is the first Fordham student to be selected as a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a global think tank with centers around the world. She was one of 12 students chosen out of hundreds of applicants. The yearlong fellowship in Washington, D.C., which will focus on nuclear policy, will allow Matteucci to advance the research interests she developed as an intern at Fordham Law’s Center on National Security.

“I was doing research related to counterterrorism and cybersecurity, and there’s a lot of overlap with nuclear policy,” said the international relations and Spanish major, who is graduating from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. Matteucci is currently interning with two nongovernmental organizations at the United Nations, where she focuses on disarmament. In April, she traveled on a Fordham-funded trip to Geneva for the U.N. Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, attending as part of a youth delegation.

“It was clear that states are preparing for the eventuality of cooperation on  disarmament,” she said. “With dialogue lacking in most political spaces—even the nuclear field is quite partisan—it is exciting to see people searching for common ground.”

Sean McKay is graduating from Fordham College at Rose Hill, but he will be celebrating in Rio de Janeiro, where he is studying Portuguese on a Boren Scholarship. And McKay has even more reason to celebrate: This year he won a Fulbright, which he expects will have him returning to Brazil to teach English. He’ll also be required to design a community engagement project, and has proposed starting a creative writing workshop where students will offer constructive criticism and share Brazilian and American media for inspiration.

“The idea comes directly from the creative workshop classes taken at Fordham as part of my creative writing minor,” said McKay.

Upon completing the Boren, McKay should be well prepared for his Fulbright teaching position; this past year he has been studying Brazil’s language and literature.

“I had learned Spanish and there was linguistic crossover with Portuguese, but I had never heard of, or engaged with, plays, short stories, and fiction of Brazil,” he said. He has also noticed similarities in Brazilian and American identities, which he would not have been aware of had he not immersed himself in Brazil’s “vibrant and rich culture.”

“In its core, the Fulbright means growing your sense of empathy to build deeper relationships with communities that Americans don’t often directly engage with,” he said.

Olivia Korth graduates today from the Gabelli School of Business with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a double minor in sustainable business and environmental studies. After winning a Newman’s Own Fellowship, she will have the opportunity to combine all of her interests while helping underserved communities. Korth will be getting in on the ground floor of a new nonprofit called Wholesome Wave, a food equity company that seeks to salvage and sell fruits and vegetables that are deemed unattractive by consumers and supermarkets but are perfectly fine nutritionally. Newman’s Own will pay her salary.

“I’ll be working with a team of four for one year. We hope to grow the number of grocery chains that carry the food from five to 15,” she said. “The stores are near farms in the Appalachian region of Virginia, an area that has high rates of poverty, obesity, and diabetes.

She added that she had just been talking about the “ugly food” movement in one of her classes a day before she interviewed for the position, so she felt well versed in the subject.

“I had already worked in the realm of sustainability, all my classes touch on it, so I felt like everything just came together,” she said.

As of May 10, other prestigious awards won this year include:

• In addition to Sean McKay, six Fulbright awards: Shay Chang, FCLC ’18, to South Korea; Margaret Fahey, FCRH ’18, to France; Elodie Huston, FCLC ’18, to Germany; Israel Muñoz, FCLC ’17, to Mexico; Melani Shahin, FCRH ’18, to Germany; and Luca Vettori, FCLC ’18, to Jordan
• One Luce Scholarship: Nikolas Oktaba, FCLC ’15
• One Rangel Graduate Fellowship: Erik Angamarca, FCRH ’14
• One Coro Fellowship: Taina Quiles, FCLC ’18
• One National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates award: Sunand Raghupathi, FCRH ’20
• One New York City Teaching Fellowship: Mayarita Castillo, FCLC ’16
• Three Gates Millennium Scholarships: Amarachi Korie, FCLC ’18; Yota Oue, FCRH ’18; and Anisha Pednekar, GABELLI ’19
• One White House Internship: Victoria Pascullo, FCRH ’19
• Three Boren Fellowships: Michael Johnson, GSAS ’19; Robyn J. Murray, GSAS ’19; and Jessica Way, GSAS ’19