Crawley, who received an honorary doctorate during the ceremony, recalled his own experiences in the executive MBA program at the Gabelli School during another fraught period: the Great Recession.

“I was in a cohort that represented many of the banking institutions engulfed by the crisis,” said Crawley, who earned his MBA in 2009 and has since risen to a series of high-profile senior leadership positions at Morgan Stanley, including chief marketing officer and head of the firm’s private wealth management business. “My classmates and I relied on each other and got through that experience together.”

Indeed, this idea of building community through a tough shared experience was a common theme at the ceremony, present in nearly every speech the audience heard. Throughout the afternoon, the graduates—including 20 military veterans who were also feted at a special Victory Bell-ringing ceremony on May 20—were cheered on by hundreds of friends, family, faculty, and members of the Fordham community who had gathered on Edwards Parade.

The Value of ‘Strategic Persistence’ and the Gabelli Network

Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., GABELLI ’83, dean of the Gabelli School, told graduates that their time together at the University helped them hone a capacity for what two-time Fordham graduate Caroline Dalhgren, director of global consumer insights at Tiffany & Co., calls “strategic persistence.”

“What does that mean? Caroline says it’s that Fordham graduates are ‘scrappy’ in the best possible way,” Rapaccioli said. “You do not expect that anything will ever be handed to you on a silver platter. Instead, you are go-getters. You are solution-finders. You know what you want—and you come up with exciting plans to get there.”

Rapaccioli described Dahlgren as an ideal member of the alumni community, someone who has helped hire many Fordham graduates in her role at Tiffany & Co. and who always says yes when Fordham students and alumni reach out to her for career advice. Rapaccioli encouraged graduates to do the same as active members of the Fordham alumni network—more than 200,000 people worldwide, including 40,000 Gabelli graduates, she said.

“When they contact you asking for career guidance, or when they email you asking for help in their job search, say yes,” she said. “As Caroline puts it, ‘We only will be successful in building this alumni network if we all say yes.’” 

Graduate School in Turbulent Times

Addressing graduates at his final degree ceremony as president of Fordham, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., cited the challenges they encountered as they pursued their degrees: the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial instability it spurred, the country’s ongoing issues with race and inequality, and budding international political strife.

“My dear friends, let’s be honest: Your time in graduate school has not been an easy time,” he said. “You found yourselves in graduate business programs preparing to take on a world—and a global economy—at a time that both of them were seriously out of joint.”

He congratulated them on persevering, even as they “may have been a bit battered along the way,” and encouraged them to never forget the lessons they learned as Fordham students, namely how to be business professionals marked by competence, conscience, compassion “and deep commitment to the cause of the human family.”

A Heartfelt Tribute to Dean Rapaccioli

Father McShane also offered a special thank-you to Rapaccioli, who is stepping down at the end of June to return to teaching and research after a remarkable 15-year tenure as dean. He surprised her with a Magis Medal, making her the first-ever recipient of the award, established this year to honor longtime administrators who have strengthened the Fordham community “through their discerning wisdom, extraordinary leadership, and unstinting commitment to excellence in the service of others.”

“She has led the school with energy, vision, devotion, and love,” Father McShane said of Rapaccioli, who led the unification of the University’s undergraduate and graduate business schools in 2015, launched Gabelli’s first doctoral programs, and oversaw significant growth in enrollments and rises in rankings at the school. “In the process, she has transformed it and made it a leader not only in American business education, but a leader and trailblazer in international Jesuit business education. Therefore, we are all in her debt, a debt that is so great that I could never adequately thank her.”

Six faculty members were also recognized during the ceremony. Paul Kramer, GABELLI ’88, and Joseph Zirpolo, GABELLI ’98, each received the Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence; Miguel Alzola and John Fortunato each received the Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence; and Alex Markle and Iris Schneider each received the Stanley Fuchs Award, presented in memory of the former area chair of law and ethics who was a devoted teacher and student advocate.

A Framework for Fulfillment

In his remarks, Crawley, a native of Chicago’s West Side, spoke about his professional path. He has been working at Morgan Stanley for three decades, since he landed a work-study position with the company in high school.

“My journey was far from linear; it was quite circuitous,” he said. “I started out as a 17-year-old intern running errands for bond traders, earning a wage of $5 an hour, [and] worked my way across different parts of the Morgan Stanley ecosystem.”

He continued working on the firm’s municipal bond sales and trading desk in Chicago while attending Northeastern Illinois University at night, transferring to Morgan Stanley’s New York City headquarters once he’d earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2004, he garnered his first management role, and in 2014, he was elevated to chief marketing officer, a position he held until taking over the company’s private wealth management business in 2017. He has been the firm’s global chief human resources officer since early last year.

Crawley shared two frameworks he uses to assess his professional progress—one to determine if it’s time to do something different, and one to determine what career he should be doing.

For the first, he told graduates to ask themselves four questions, suggesting that if the answer to any of them is ‘no,’ they may consider reevaluating their role: Am I learning? Am I growing? Am I having impact? Am I happy? Meanwhile, he said, graduates should ask themselves a second, broader set of questions: Am I interested in the work? Does it align with my core capabilities or superpower? Can I be useful?

Crawley used his love for basketball as an example of how interest doesn’t always align with capability. “I’m interested in the game. I’m a tall guy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t wired for it. The NBA won’t be reaching out to me anytime soon,” he joked. But he encouraged graduates to bring passion to their careers.

“The energy and enthusiasm you have right now? Do not lose it; let it drive you,” he said. “Channel it throughout what I know will be long and successful careers for all of you.”

Better Today Than Yesterday

The ceremony also featured two student speakers: Jason Gurtata, president of the Student Advisory Council and a graduate of the full-time MBA program, and Aaron Martins, who earned an M.S. in global finance.

Looking back to the beginning of his Gabelli journey, Gurtata remembered meeting his cohort for the first time—on Zoom.

He said that while they may not have fully understood what they were in for at the outset—”Did we have any idea of what it meant to immerse ourselves so deeply that all we did was dream about LinkedIn Premium features during our naps?”—he relished being on the other side and credited his Gabelli experiences for teaching him the “most important lesson”: Strive to be better today than yesterday.

As he and his classmates learned “not to chase dollars but to chase our dreams,” Gurtata said he not only gained a new family of Fordham Rams but he also learned the true meaning of success.

“Success is not a test score; it is not that job at a high-end bank, investment firm, or media company; it is not about your salary,” he said. “It is about who we are as individuals. We have learned to partake in business with a purpose, but I encourage each and every one of you to live your life with a purpose.”

Nowhere Near the End

Martins echoed the day’s theme of persevering through the pandemic’s “unchartered territory.”

“We showed that we will adapt and overcome whatever life will throw at us,” he said. “In difficult, uncharted territory we were still focused on our goals and aspirations, ready to keep moving forward.”

He stressed that while their Fordham education was concluding, the ceremony certainly wasn’t the end of the road.

“This may be the end of the chapter, but the book is far from over,” he said.

New York Was Her Campus

Daniella Mignogni, FCLC’ 22, a natural science major, arrived at Commencement with her mother Rosa, her father Sam, her brother, and an aunt and uncle who traveled from Houston for the occasion. For her first two years, she commuted from her home in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and although the pandemic kept her from moving into McMahon Hall last year, she was able to live on campus this year. She’s currently working as a dental assistant and is applying to dental school.

“I know it’s so cliché when they say ‘Fordham is my school, New York is my campus,’ but it’s true. I was able to go off campus all the time—going to restaurants, and just exploring the city in general. It was really fun, and I still had all my friends from Fordham.”

Her mother admitted she was emotional and happy.

“It’s been great. She absolutely loves it. She chose the right school for her. Some of the classes were difficult. She stressed, but she always excelled,” she said.

‘I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams’

Being a resident assistant helped bring together friends Ayana Bitter and Che Puentas, both 2022 graduates of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

“I was an RA for three years, and I got to build a community everywhere I was placed,” said Bitter, who’s from the Bronx. “I’ve been placed in freshman buildings so having the ability to help freshmen transition from high school to college has been a big part of my Fordham experience.”

Puentas, who’s from Brooklyn, said that he was only able to be an RA for a year since he transferred in, but it still helped him find his community.

“Being an RA, it’s helped me not only get to make friends within the RA staff and community, but it’s helped me get to know people throughout class years as well,” he said.

Bitter, a sociology major and African and African American studies minor on the pre-law track, will be attending Howard University’s School of Law in the fall. She said she wants to put her Fordham degree to work there.

“I was interested in sociology, learning about people and different groups of people. Being from a marginalized community, it was very important to me to know about aspects of life and how this affects our community and how we can work together, change structures and institutions,” she said. “Sociology does all of that.”

Bitter said that getting to this day is not only special after the last four years, but also because of how much it means to her and her family. She decorated her graduation cap with the phrase “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

“This once wasn’t even a reality for people like us, people of color, and just having the opportunity to be all together with the community, your family’s here it’s just a big achievement,” she said.

A Postgradaute Fellowship in D.C.

For Ned O’Hanlan, GSS ’22, a native of New Canaan who carried the banner for the school at Commencement and served as the school’s Beadle, Commencement marked the first time he’d set foot on the Rose Hill campus.

He did his field work placement in Brooklyn at MJHS Health System and East New York Family Academy, and after graduation, he’s doing a postgraduate fellowship at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.

“I felt a part of Fordham before, but after two years, it’s interesting to see everything in person. It’s more exciting, and I feel like it’s a great cap to everything,” he said.

O’Hanlan said that while he had an untraditional experience, taking many classes virtually, the faculty and curriculum made it worth it.

“Any sort of feelings that I felt earlier on when I was a little bit confused about how it would go with Zoom courses, that’s all been appeased,” he said.

Focusing on ‘Business for Good’

For Laira Bhurji, a 2022 graduate from the Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill, attending Fordham not only helped her earn a bachelor’s degree in applied accounting and finance, but also figure out her own identity and community.

“I think a big part of the last four years was figuring out my identity within my college and my community,” she said. “I’m originally from California, so I moved across the country. I did everything by myself, like moving in. It was a solemn experience, but I learned a lot. My parents are immigrants who came here from India. They basically came here with nothing and worked really hard for me to attend a private university. As I reflect, I’m really thankful for all the opportunities I had.”

Bhujri will be going on to work as a risk business controls associate at accounting firm PwC after graduation.

“I’m really into social innovation, entrepreneurship, and business for good,” she said. “I want to change businesses from within, instead of just making new ones. I chose Fordham because of its social innovation programs and proximity towards big businesses I want to work for, like big banks.”

Bhujri said that she plans to use her Fordham lessons in her new role.

“I think my peers and I have a really good head on us, and we think not just about money, but also stepping into the world and figuring out how to impact people on a greater level,” she said.

And she and her family aren’t quite finished with Fordham just yet—her younger brother is following in her footsteps and starting at the Gabelli School of Business this fall.

A Spiritual Director Working with Disaffiliated Children and Their Families

Don Kremer, GRE ’22, a spiritual director from Arkansas, said he was called to pursue his doctor of ministry degree at Fordham.

“I had kind of a spiritual experience in that I heard God telling me to do this. I’m a spiritual director, and I’m a teacher too, so the reason I chose this is that I just liked the social justice orientation,” he said. “I just liked the philosophy of the Jesuits and Fordham.”

During his program at Fordham, Kremer wrote and defended his thesis on the impact of the disaffliation of children on the parents, and plans to put what he learned into practice.

“I hope to take back some sort of ministry for parents of children who have left the church,” he said.

Learning to Be Adept at Adapting

Erica Messina, FCLC ’19 and now GSAS ’22, who got her master’s in English, aid that she appreciated how her Fordham professors and classmates dealt with all the challenges of the last few years.

“What I was most impressed with was that my classes worked both online and in person,” she said. “Students and faculty were all very adaptive. I think my Master’s Capstone was my most rewarding class, being in a classroom physically and talking about how we could improve our work, being supportive of (each other’s) work.”

Messina, who hopes to work in publishing, said that she was “grateful to my family for being supportive of me and putting up with me stacking books all over the house.”

Bringing Cura Personalis to Goldman Sachs

Angel Alcantara, originally from Queens, New York, graduated from the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center with a bachelor’s degree in global business with a concentration in global finance and business economics.

Alcantara said one of the things he appreciated about his education at Fordham is that it gave him a wider perspective on how to be successful in business beyond just the profits.

“Cura personalis is embedded within every teaching, including finance classes,” he said. “It’s not always cutthroat. It’s more of thinking of the greater good.”

This July, he will begin working as a full-time investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs, and wants to bring some of those lessons with him.

“At the heart of the field is the idea of trying to help companies achieve their end goals. Usually there’s a stigma when it comes to finance that it’s sort of culling the excess employees and stuff like that, but I think it’s more of giving a company opportunities to grow, and that also means giving employees and people the opportunity to extend their living,” he said.

Staying at Fordham for a Social Work Master’s

Meg Cardi, a 2022 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill, said she decided to transfer into Fordham for its social work program, location in New York City, and the community. Cardi, a double major in social work and anthropology, said one of her favorite experiences was participating on the Graduate School of Social Work’s strategic advisory commmittee.

“I was the bachelor’s student representative,” she said. “That was really cool—being able to speak up on what the students are wanting and getting involved in behind the scenes stuff like course schedules.”

Cardi decided to continue her Fordham education at GSS, in the hopes of “advocating for children with chronic illness and disabilities.” That made her graduation feel more like a next step.

“It feels really rewarding—it was a very crazy four years I think especially for this class, getting here and then leaving and then being able to come back, it’s just really exciting,” she said. “I’m staying with Fordham for my master’s degree, so it also feels like I’m not fully done yet, but it’s definitely really exciting and rewarding.”

Completing a Religious Ed Degree Online

Kelly Henderschedt, GRE ’22, decided to pursue her master of arts in religious education, with a concentration in youth ministry, after learning that she would be able to do it all online.

“Since I work in Hartford, I wasn’t able to get to campus, so I’ve been able to take all these great classes but do it remotely,” she said. “I just was impressed with the academic rigor of the program, and … just the great reputation Fordham has.”

Henderschedt, who works for the Archdiocese of Hartford, said she’s going to use her degree to help support the youth ministers and the faith formation leaders there, and hopefully use her own story to inspire them.

“At 53, I didn’t know if I could do it, but I just felt like it would really inform the way I work with the people in Hartford. I just thought, ‘I can do this!’” she said.

A Real Estate Master’s Grad from Colombia

Carlos Mena, PCS ’22, moved to Astoria, Queens, from Colombia more than three years ago.

“I’m happy to be here at Fordham,” he said. “I came as an international student, and the faculty, staff, and the professors—and the whole environment—gave me the opportunity to stay here, and I’ve enjoyed it.”

Mena got his master’s in real estate this year, after already earning degrees in finance, engineering, and public administration in his home country. His goal is to find a job on the development side that connects all of his interests.

“I would like to connect the engineering, the finance, and international view of the [real estate]business,” he said.

Additional reporting by Patrick Verel, Sierra McCleary-Harris, Taylor Ha, and Adam Kaufman.

“The Reverend Dr. Butts is a giant of the civil rights movement, and a New York institution,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He is a powerful preacher and educator who has used his voice in the service of the city’s marginalized and dispossessed: in this he is our lodestar and our conscience. It is with great pleasure and humility that I formally welcome him into the Fordham family.”

A globally recognized leader in civil rights, education, and community development, Dr. Butts has served many organizations and causes in New York City, the U.S., and the world. His powerful sermons are attended by Harlemites and out-of-towners each week at Abyssinian, where for more than 30 years he has focused on the church’s core values of worship, evangelism, service, and education. He helped found and now chairs the nonprofit Abyssinian Development Corporation, a community-based organization responsible for over $1 billion in housing and commercial development in Harlem. He was also instrumental in establishing the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change—a public, state-of-the-art, intermediate and high school in Harlem, and he is the visionary behind the Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School.

From 1999 to 2020, Dr. Butts served as president of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Old Westbury, one of the most racially and ethnically diverse schools in the SUNY system. His leadership reinvigorated the Long Island campus, leading to the college’s largest enrollment ever, the addition of full-time faculty, and the expansion of student support services. The school also earned new accreditations and created its first-ever graduate programs during his presidency. And he oversaw the college’s investment of approximately $200 million in capital projects. During his tenure, SUNY at Old Westbury received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine for 2018, 2019, and 2020. After his retirement, Dr. Butts was named president emeritus of the college for his years of distinguished service as its longest-serving president. Former SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson has called Dr. Butts “an inspirational leader” and “a strong advocate for access to an affordable, high-quality education.”

As an adjunct professor at Fordham, Dr. Butts taught a course in Black church history. This semester he joined Fordham’s Graduate School of Education as a distinguished visiting professor in support of the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education. Fordham education professor Margaret Terry Orr, Ph.D., praised the reverend’s “enormous range of experience as a social justice, religious, and educational leader,” which she said would enrich the school’s programs, faculty, and student experiences.

Dr. Butts has frequently been praised for his forceful leadership in times of crisis. During the pandemic, he publicly urged Black Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, even getting photographed receiving the shot himself at Abyssinian. “To those who may be a bit skeptical about receiving the vaccine,” he said, “good religion goes best with some common sense.” When a white gunman killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, The New York Times quoted his sermon on forgiveness. “They were Christians; they had to shake off hate,” Dr. Butts said of the Charleston parishioners. “Because, you see, hatred kills the hater faster than it does the hated.”

Dr. Butts grew up in New York City, graduated from Morehouse College in 1972, and earned his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Drew University, respectively. He serves as a member of the leadership board of New Visions for Public Schools; is chairman emeritus of the board of the National Black Leadership Commission on Health; and served as president of Africare NYC, an independent organization dedicated to the improvement of the quality of life in rural Africa. He is co-chair of Choose Healthy Life, a collaboration of Black clergy to address racial health disparities and protect Black communities against COVID-19.

On the subject of faith in action, Dr. Butts has said it’s the responsibility of a leader to inspire faith that produces good works.

“That’s what God has called you to do, to convince people of the love of God and to show them that their faith, if it does not produce works, is dead,” he once told a Duke Divinity School publication. “And what are those works?” he said. “Well, what’s the need? And the need—it could be housing, it could be education— that’s the real responsibility of a leader.”