Amelia Medved, a 2023 Fordham graduate, analyzed how the dead have become part of the landscape of the city in “A Breathing Place: Sanctified Burial Sites in New York City Public Space,” a research project she conducted through a Duffy Fellowship from Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture. 

Medved, a studio assistant at the landscape architecture firm SCAPE, says that honoring the collective memory of the deceased is a healthy expression of urban life—one that can “enliven our connection to place and engage the dynamic communities that inhabit New York City today.”

Hart Island 

Hart Island, located at the western end of Long Island Sound in the Bronx, has a long and morbidly fascinating history as New York City’s public cemetery, with mass graves stretching back to the Civil War. Described by Medved as a “remote, windy, indeterminate landscape far from the beating heart of the city,” the island had been controlled for many years by the city’s Department of Correction, which used prison labor to bury more than 1 million unclaimed and unidentified New Yorkers. 

The maintenance of the island came under scrutiny in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy unearthed some remains. In July of 2015, the grave sites became accessible to the families of those buried on the island, and in 2019, control of the island was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks.

Hart Island is now open to the public through small guided tours requiring lottery registration. The Hart Island Project, a public charity incorporated in 2011, has worked to destigmatize the burial ground and create an online resource to help families find the locations of their buried loved ones.   

The Enslaved African and Kingsbridge Burial Grounds, Van Cortlandt Park

Consecrated in 2021, this section of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx was nothing more than a neighborhood ghost story until a chance encounter by Kingsbridge resident Nick Dembowski. After noticing a few broken headstones against a fence, Dembowski went to the Kingsbridge Historical Society. There he learned that the fenced-off area was once home to an 18th-century burial ground, particularly for people enslaved at the estate. Their bones were discovered in the late 1870s, when the New York Northern Railroad Company broke ground in the area. 

Following Dembowski’s efforts, the Enslaved People Project was born—launched by the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Van Cortlandt House Museum, and Kingsbridge Historical society to help shed light on the history of the burial grounds.

Medved said this site offers visitors “the chance to encounter the people who walked through the trees or stood beside the lake centuries ago.” 

Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Fort Greene Park

Just a few blocks from Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, Fort Greene Park is a 30-acre public space, filled with history dating back to the Revolutionary War. In the center sits the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a war memorial dedicated to more than 11,500 American prisoners of war. Many of these prisoners, who died on British prison ships in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, were thrown into the bay or buried in shallow graves on the shoreline.

Their remains were left there until the 19th century, when they were collected after funding was secured for a public monument. They were briefly interred in a public tomb before being moved permanently to the newly constructed Fort Greene Park in 1873. The monument that stands today, with its massive doric column and granite stairway, was completed in 1908.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the monument, according to Medved, is the way it “convenes the living and dead in intimate proximity to the unawareness of most visitors.”

The 9/11 Memorial

Located where the Twin Towers once stood, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum honors the lives lost at the World Trade Center during the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The site features two reflecting pools bordered by bronze parapets engraved with the names of 2,983 people—2,977 who were killed on 9/11, and six killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. 

The most striking part of the memorial, according to Medved, is the sound—the white noise generated by running water  creates a pocket of “overwhelming silence” in an area bustling with foot traffic. 

The contemplative nature of the space has led to myriad improvised displays, including “missing” posters, flowers, American flags, rosaries, and even unauthorized etchings of additional names on the monument’s surface. 

Medved says that these contributions from visitors are evidence of a vital, dynamic “public grieving process.” 

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That was the call made by Ryan Ruocco as a thrilling, historic WNBA season ended on Sunday night, when the Liberty toppled the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the Finals at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center—the first title for one of the league’s original franchises.

Ruocco, a 2008 Fordham graduate, is a lead play-by-play announcer for WNBA, NBA, and women’s college basketball games on ESPN, and he and color commentator Rebecca Lobo have called all the WNBA Finals games for the network since 2013.

“This was our 12th Finals together,” Ruocco said, “and to get a chance to be the soundtrack of this moment in women’s basketball, it feels like a dream come true.”

The moment he references is one of great growth for the league, with the past season seeing increases in TV ratings and game attendance thanks to veteran stars like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson and rookie phenoms like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. To cap it off, fans were treated to a dramatic Finals series that included an overtime final game and a stunning game-winner from Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu in Game 3—a contest that had Ruocco “practically losing his voice thanks to all the huge shots” but earning praise from fans and critics.

“I was so elated and stunned that this game has given us even more excitement, even more drama,” Ruocco said about calling Ionescu’s game-winner. “Because it felt like the Finals just kept outdoing itself.”

A Legacy of Sports Broadcasting Excellence

Ruocco got his start in broadcasting at WFUV—part of a long list of Fordham alumni who learned the ropes at the University’s public media station and have gone on to great success in the business, from Vin Scully to Mike Breen.

In 2019, Ruocco told Fordham Magazine that working under the mentorship of former WFUV executive sports producer Bob Ahrens made his career possible.

“It’s this simple,” Ruocco said. “If I did not go to Fordham and work at WFUV, I would not be here doing what I’m doing today. Period.”

Looking ahead, he sees only continued growth for the WNBA. And he put in a huge endorsement for checking out a New York Liberty game in person.

“I think the atmosphere at Barclays Center for Liberty games is as good as or better than any atmosphere for basketball in the country,” he said. “There’s a sense of community and jubilation and fun, in addition to the passion. It feels like a party where everybody’s invited and everybody’s welcome.”

As the Mets take on the Los Angeles Dodgers and look to move ahead to the World Series, Majkowski, who launched his sports broadcasting career at Fordham’s public media station, WFUV, looks back at five of his most memorable moments working in the booth.

5. The 2015 NLCS Sweep of the Chicago Cubs | October 2015

When did Citi Field become home? Maybe the loudest I’ve heard it before these last couple games [against the Philadelphia Phillies in this year’s National League Division Series] was when they played the Cubs in that 2015 NLCS. And then we went to Chicago and they clinched there.

4. Regular-Season Series vs. the Washington Nationals | July 31 – August 2, 2015

It was right after the [Yoenis] Céspedes trade. The Nationals came in and the Mets beat them at Citi Field—the Sunday night game, they hit three home runs in five pitches.

And then we went back down to Washington [in September]. Maybe the Nationals had a chance to make a last stand. They had a lead, I think, every game. And the Mets came back on, putting the nail in the coffin, so to speak, for Washington.

3. Game 5 of the 2000 World Series vs. the New York Yankees | October 26, 2000

Even though the Mets lost, Game 5 of the 2000 World Series against the Yankees [is very memorable]. I had Mike Francesa sitting next to me in the booth, and when the ball first came off of Piazza’s bat against Mariano [Rivera in the ninth inning], you thought, “Oh, maybe it’s going to go,” and even Mike—he probably wouldn’t admit it, but he even had a little start.

From a producing standpoint, we had to do a postgame show. And because it was on FAN, they wanted us to incorporate both sides of the story, with Suzyn Waldman down on the Yankee side and Eddie Coleman in the Mets’ clubhouse, which was obviously, after losing the World Series, not an easy task.

That’s something I’ve always been proud of, because we balanced both sides of that story very well, I believe.

2. First Game at Shea Stadium After 9/11 | September 21, 2001

After 9/11, we were in Pittsburgh, and we ended up busing back to New York, and we came over the George Washington Bridge and you could just see [the World Trade Center site] in the distance. Coming back to Shea for that first game back … that was something.

1. Robin Ventura’s “Grand Slam Single,” Game 5 of the NLCS | October 17, 1999

I’ve always had my greatest affinity for that team, that 1999 and 2000 bunch—Robin and Johnny Franco and Al Leiter and all the guys there. I got to know them a bit more than some of the other teams along the way. Just so many players on those teams have always been my favorites.

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

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

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

Next Steps in NYC

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Heartfelt Goodbye

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

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

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

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

Proud Beyond Words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marjuan Canady, FCLC ’08
Hell’s Kitchen

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

John Johnson, FCLC ’02
Stereophonic

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

Tom Pecinka, FCLC ’10
Stereophonic

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

Morgan Steward, FCLC ’19
Suffs

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

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

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

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

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

Steven Skybell
Adjunct Professor, Fordham Theatre
Cabaret

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

Kenny Leon 
Former Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre
Purlie Victorious

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

Take Frances Berko, for example. A pioneer in the disability rights movement, she earned a Fordham Law degree in 1944. By 1949, Berko, who had ataxic cerebral palsy, helped start United Cerebral Palsy. She later served as New York state’s advocate for the disabled.

“I’ve had much success,” she told a panel of legislators in 1981. “But the one achievement which I held most precious—for which I’ve most constantly striven—I’ve never been able to attain completely: that is, the full rights of a citizen of this country and this state.”

That achievement came in 1990 with the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1994, two years before Berko died, Fordham awarded her an honorary doctorate, and Janet Reno, then U.S. attorney general, called her “a symbol to me of what you can do and how you can do it magnificently.”

Today at Fordham, Berko’s spirit is evident in the work of senior Abigail Dziura, who has focused her research on improving the New York City subway system, where only 27% of all stations are considered fully accessible to people with disabilities.

In April, she earned a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which recognizes college students dedicated to public service. “One of the hardest parts of advocacy work is knowing that you don’t always get to see the end result,” she told Fordham News. “Sometimes you’re setting things up for future generations because something can’t be completed for another 20 years. … But someday, I’d love to see a fully accessible New York subway system.”

The ever-striving, regenerative spirit that links Berko to Dziura and beyond is just one example of Fordham people working to build stronger communities. You’ll find more in our latest “20 in Their 20s” series.

Horbatiuk, an attorney who majored in history at Fordham College at Lincoln Center before earning a J.D. at Fordham Law School, has been enthralled by the storied bivalve since reading Mark Kurlansky’s 2006 book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. In public talks, he recounts oysters’ emergence as New York City’s leading export in the 19th century, when “New York had street cart vendors selling oysters for a penny a shell.” He also describes the demise of the city’s oyster beds due to overharvesting and pollution.

The Environmental Benefits of Oyster Restoration

In recent years, New Yorkers like Horbatiuk have been reintroducing oysters, not to be eaten but for the environmental benefits—the mollusk’s circulatory system filters contaminants from the city’s waterways, and the reefs help create habitats for other marine life. On Saturday mornings from May through September, he travels to City Island to measure the oysters’ growth, determine how many of them are growing on each craggy shell pulled from Long Island Sound, and pal around with a diverse group of volunteers devoted to the research project.

Measuring and counting the oysters is painstaking work that demands focus and dedication. Horbatiuk clearly has both, as he works methodically through an orange plastic pail filled with oysters affectionally labeled “Kevin’s Bucket.” His volunteer efforts that sunny Saturday morning in August were part of City Island Oyster Reef’s research study on oyster propagation and biodiversity in Long Island Sound. Among the species found living with the oysters that morning were grass shrimp, bristle worms, skillet fish, slipper snails, and boring sponges.

Horbatiuk recalls that in the 1830s, as many as 39 million bushels of oysters were harvested annually, with New York the center of the world’s oyster trade. Since industrialization, however, the oyster beds died. And today’s oysters, while helping to improve water quality by filtering up to 50 gallons of sea water a day, are inedible because the toxins that get filtered out remain in the oyster flesh.

“The history grabbed me first,” said Horbatiuk, who grew up on New York’s Lower East Side and now lives in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. “Very few people realize how important they are historically and what they do for the water’s health.”

‘Oysters for a Penny a Shell’

Horbatiuk’s love of the city’s past dates back to his undergraduate days at the Lincoln Center campus. His favorite courses focused on social and intellectual history, which helped illuminate developments in pop culture in American society.

His Saturday morning efforts on City Island dovetail with his role as a volunteer as an ambassador for the Billion Oyster Project, which does public outreach on oyster restoration and monitors oyster propagation in New York waterways. That outreach includes talks he gives throughout the metropolitan area to New Yorkers interested in learning more about the history of oysters. At his talks, he’ll mention that the Fanny Farmer cookbook from the 1860s had 40 recipes for oyster dishes. He’ll also hearken back to the early 1600s, when the Lenape people, who had lived in the region for centuries, traded oysters with the Dutch and piled them high in middens along the coast.

“It’s an easy sell to the public,” he says. “It just captures their imagination when you tell them you could find oysters in Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx, and instead of hot dog carts on the street, New York had street cart vendors selling oysters for a penny a shell.”

In June, he manned a table at the New York Philharmonic performance at Lincoln Center that featured three classical pieces inspired by water—one depicted foreboding ocean moods and a vicious storm, while another portrayed the role of water in an Australian myth. During intermission, he chatted with concertgoers about the oyster project.

In mid-July, he participated in the City of Water Day by visiting the Sebago Canoe Club in Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn to talk about conservation and oyster restoration. That same month he spoke at the Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers about the history of oysters in the Hudson River estuary. That’s where he’s a member of the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club and served as club commodore from 2019 to 2021.

“Kevin may be a lawyer, but he’s found another passion: the history of oysters,” said Bob Walters, executive director of the Beczak Center. “He tells that story with such enthusiasm and passion. And he’ll share what he’s learned at the drop of a hat.”

Can You Dig It? was released on August 10 by Audible, as part of a slate of original series celebrating this milestone year. The series, co-created and executive produced by Bryan Master, FCRH ’99, and narrated and co-produced by legendary Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, chronicles the 1971 gang peace treaty in the Bronx that paved the way for hip-hop.

Through both scripted scenes and unscripted interviews, Can You Dig It? tells the story of the murder of Ghetto Brothers member Cornell “Black Benjie” Benjamin. Benjamin had been working toward a truce among rivals when he was killed, and his death resulted in an escalation of violence. That moment of chaos was followed by the Hoe Avenue peace meeting, organized by the Ghetto Brothers’ Benjamin “Yellow Benjy” Melendez, which ushered in an era of relative calm among gangs in the South Bronx. Two years later, on August 11, 1973, with young people in the area safer to socialize across neighborhood boundaries, Cindy Campbell threw a “Back to School Jam” in a recreation room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Her brother, Kool Herc, DJ’d the party, which came to be considered the origin of hip-hop music.

The series features documentary-style interviews with photographers Henry Chalfant and Joe Conzo, pioneering MC Coke La Rock, and a number of former members and associates of the Ghetto Brothers. These are interspersed with Chuck D’s narration, as well as dramatized portions, for which the series tapped into local voice talent from the Bronx’s community arts programs.

“It’s a love letter to the Bronx,” said Master, a composer who is also the founder and owner of Sound + Fission, a music and audio production company.

In a recent interview with Fordham student Jay Doherty, a co-host of WFUV’s What’s What podcast, Master described the story of the truce at the heart of Can You Dig It? as a manifestation of the Jesuit ideal of being people for others. “We applied that mantra by being a vehicle for a story that inspires people, that gives hope to others. That’s what this is all about. Black Benjie, Yellow Benjy, the Ghetto Brothers—they were men for others.”

The series comes at a moment when hip-hop is being celebrated not only as a revolutionary musical force but also as a vital part of New York City history. In June, the Bronx intersection of East 165th Street and Rogers Place was renamed Cornell “Black Benjie” Benjamin Way, making the site of the murder a landmark—and a reminder of the positive action that came out of the tragedy. In recent decades, Fordham has also been preserving hip-hop’s Bronx legacy, though efforts to recognize 1520 Sedgwick as the genre’s birthplace and through oral-history interviews with seminal figures such as Yellow Benjy and Kurtis Blow as part of the Bronx African American History Project.

“During this 50th anniversary of hip-hop, we hold the attention of the planet,” Chuck D told SPIN in June. “Now is the time to bring out the stories of people who paved the way for hip-hop and shaped its earliest days.”

“I don’t normally go out on a school night! I’m a teacher. I get up at 4:45 in the morning,” she said shortly before the December 13 performance. “But for this? I am willing to make that sacrifice.”

The show has been a long time coming for Ruffin. She has been an Ailey fan for years—“If you are an inner-city Black girl, you’ve heard of Alvin Ailey,” she said of the famed company, founded and fronted by the boundary-breaking eponymous Black dancer. But she hadn’t been to a show since 2000. A lot of life has passed since then. Ruffin went to Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and earned a master’s degree. Now she teaches seventh-grade public schoolers in Manhattan. And she somehow missed the part where Fordham brags about its partnership with the Ailey School. Since 1998, the two institutions have been offering a joint BFA program through which students learn dance at Ailey while getting a full liberal arts education at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

“I had no idea that Fordham had this connection with Alvin Ailey. And if I would have known that, I would have been humming and bumming for tickets for my teachers a long time ago,” Ruffin said. Does it lend Fordham a little—“Street cred? Absolutely!” Ruffin beamed. “Fordham never—I must admit, they do not cease to surprise me.”

The bond between Fordham and Ailey was on full display that Tuesday evening. The alumni event attracted a varied cohort. Couples, young and old, chatted over wine and cheese plates in the 100-year-old theater’s gilded lobby. Lovers of modern dance came alone; others brought friends. There were families—a couple of teenage daughters sat off to the side on marble stairs, avoiding small talk. Fordham trustee emeritus John Costantino, GABELLI ’67, LAW ’70, did not. “A lot of the programs tonight, they really relate to people,” he said. “They mean something.”

Costantino was talking about the dances—including choreographer Jamar Roberts’ In a Sentimental Mood, which had its world premiere earlier in the year, and three classics by Ailey, who died in 1989: Reflections in D, Cry, and of course Revelations, the 1960 piece that ends nearly every Ailey performance. But he could have been talking about the Ailey/Fordham BFA, too. The program certainly means something to Courtney Celeste Spears, FCLC ’16, one of seven Ailey/Fordham graduates now dancing with the company. She would take the stage later that evening, but first, she addressed a room of Fordham alumni and friends in the lobby—an intimate moment before the lights went down.

“It was such a whirlwind of four years,” Spears said of her college experience. “I think so much of the foundation that I got there shaped me as a young woman, as a professional, as a dancer, as an artist in so many ways. It was such a well-rounded program.” But more than anything? “I always felt just very covered, and safe and advocated for.”

That was music to the ears of Andrew Clark, Ph.D., a Fordham professor of French and comparative literature who also co-directs the BFA program. Clark’s sister was a classical ballet dancer, on her way to a professional career, when she tore the ligaments in her hip. “That totally changed her life. She couldn’t dance ever again. … She had to pick another path,” he said.

Today, the Ailey/Fordham program offers students a best-of-both-worlds approach: a top dance education and a top classroom education in New York City. “Having other curiosities, having other skills and interests and passions [beyond dance is]really important,” Clark said. But don’t think for a second that he doesn’t care about dance. His voice rose talking about the first number of the night: Spears would be dancing with Christopher R. Wilson, FCLC ’17, whom Clark advised when Wilson was an undergrad. He is “such a beautiful dancer, and they dance together all the time and they’re amazing,” Clark said.

Minutes later, the theater filled up. The show began. The program was rhythmic, painful, energetic, beautiful. A New York institution, performing for a hometown crowd. It was worth losing sleep for.

—Jeff Coltin, FCRH ’15, is the City Hall bureau chief at City & State New York and a contributor to this magazine.

The Ailey performance was one of many cultural events hosted throughout the year by Fordham’s Office of Alumni Relations. Learn more at fordham.edu/events.

At its annual benefit, held at Bryant Park Grill in Manhattan on October 20, POTS honored Fordham for “its longstanding partnership and unwavering support for our shared community.”

Christina Hanson, the nonprofit’s executive director, noted that Fordham students, faculty, staff, and alumni have been volunteering, interning, and working at the group’s Webster Avenue location, near the University’s Rose Hill campus, since POTS was established as a tiny storefront soup kitchen in 1982.

Today, POTS is far more than a soup kitchen. Last year alone, it served more than 35,000 people at its three-story building. In addition to its food pantry and the daily meal it offers in its community dining room, POTS helps guests with immediate and long-term needs through services including a barbershop, showers, medical and dental services, a legal clinic, and more.

‘Part of Your Loving Community’

John J. Cecero, S.J., vice president for mission integration and ministry, accepted the award on behalf of the University. He said Fordham shares POTS’ commitment to “the core values of respect, hospitality, and empowerment.”

“For this reason, so many community engaged Fordham constituencies have enthusiastically served at POTS, from the Fordham Kiwanis student leaders who were there from your very beginning, to our present engagement through Urban Plunge, Global Outreach, and Pedro Arrupe volunteers, among others,” Father Cecero said.

“We’re so grateful to be a part of your loving community,” he added, and “we hope to contribute as best we can to these efforts for years to come.”

Recognizing the Dignity of Each Person

The organization also honored former board member Francis J. “Fran” Conroy, GABELLI ’79, for his “leadership, service, and longstanding dedication to the people of the Bronx.”

Upon receiving the award, Conroy, a Fordham graduate and a longtime executive committee member of the Fordham President’s Council, said he was “humbled” by the honor and pleased to “celebrate two organizations that have been very meaningful to me.”

He said he and his wife, the Rev. Anne Conroy, FCRH ’79, met as undergraduates at Fordham, and “despite being a kid from upstate New York, in New York City for the first time, I felt an immediate connection” to the Bronx.

“Besides all the technical skills I learned at Fordham, what I really learned was a sense of gratitude and the desire pay forward my good fortune. Fordham continues to instill that in the students … [who come] from all over the country and have a desire to help their neighbors in need.”

He said he has been drawn to support POTS because “in its soul—and I don’t use that term lightly—it recognizes and respects the dignity of each person who walks through the door. It’s inspiring to see and it challenges us to do likewise.”

“As impressive as the food programs are, and as the legal assistance offered to its clients is, it was the shower, the haircut, the clothing—they seem like small things to most of us. But for many of our neighbors, that’s not the case,” he said. “Being able to take a shower, get a haircut, put on clean clothes, have an address that you can list on a job application or benefits application, that means all the difference in the world.”

Father Cecero told dinner attendees he was “especially humbled” for Fordham to be honored along with Conroy.

“Fran and his wife, Anne, are the generous benefactors of the Conroy Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fordham,” he said. “Their commitment to POTS is certainly consistent with how they live their lives for and with others.”

‘We’re in This Together’

Conroy is not the only member of the Fordham community who has served POTS as a board or staff member. Hanson noted that many other Fordham alumni have lent their expertise to the nonprofit throughout its 40-year history, including Jack Marth, FCRH ’86, POTS’ longtime director of programming.

Marth was a first-year student at Fordham when POTS was founded. He volunteered to help, working closely with Ned Murphy, S.J., GSAS ’66, one of the organization’s three co-founders. (Father Murphy died in 2012.)

“Being at POTS was an opportunity to sit down and get to know the people better—not just hand them a plate, but to get to know the reality of the people we serve,” Marth told Fordham Magazine in 2014.

“Father Ned used to say, ‘There is no us and them, it’s we. We’re somehow in this together.’ That’s a message POTS still wants to impart to the students who serve here.”