“People get excited about the $2 T-shirt” and don’t think about the impact on factory workers making the clothing, Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham, told Fordham Now.

But industry leaders are looking to help companies and consumers change, in part by incorporating more sustainable practices that are better for workers and the planet.

Three Fordham graduates in the fashion and beauty worlds shared some industry and personal insights at a recent Fordham Women’s Summit.

Corporate and Consumer Responsibility Is a ‘Give and Take’

Georgeanne Siller, GABELLI ’17, an assistant buyer for women’s apparel at Macy’s, said that customers can be “catalysts for positive change” in the fashion and beauty world through their buying habits. However, oftentimes she feels “an undue amount of responsibility falls on consumers when it’s really the companies that need to be driving the change.”

“I think that there’s a lot of company influence on consumers, things like seeing the popularity of TikTok hauls, where fashion influencers will just buy an insane amount of clothing at one time,” she said, adding that influencers can end up buying tons of products each week “looking for dupes or cheaper alternatives.”

“There’s a lot of give and take, I think, with the consumers and the companies, and I think the responsibility definitely tips towards the companies, but consumers can still be a powerful voice for that change,” she said.

Companies Can Do More to Source Sustainably Created, Long-Lasting Materials

Fast fashion usually involves “cheaply produced and priced garments” that are designed and produced quickly, according to Earth.org, an environmental news organization.

Claudia Rondinelli, FCLC ’91, head of global materials, leather, and trims at Ralph Lauren, said the company is working to “take a more proactive approach when we’re talking about material research and materials we’re using—specifically on handbags and footwear—but also in apparel.”

This means sourcing materials that will last longer, leading to less turnover and waste, as well as materials that are made sustainably, such as by using recycled products.

“It is really [about] selecting materials that are truly making a difference, and focus[ing] on the circular life of the material, not just looking at it from a short term, on how it might look like it’s less impactful on the environment, but really looking at end of life,” Rondinelli said.

Stacey Ferrara, GABELLI ’10, director of strategic initiatives and operations for Estée Lauder, said the company is working to make its sourcing practices more sustainable.

“We really want to help the communities [where] we live, work, and we source our ingredients from,” she said. “We’re partnering with organizations around the world, assisting women who are sourcing our ingredients—we’re working with them to make their lives better and help them get the tools that they need to succeed.”

An Eco-Friendly Approach to Packaging Materials Can Help Reduce Fashion and Beauty Industry Waste

One way Estée Lauder is looking to reduce waste is through their packaging, Ferrara said.

“By 2025, we aim to have at least 75% of our materials be recyclable, reusable, refillable—and refillable is something that I really am hoping is going to be a trend,” she said.

Ferrara said that this is a practice she’s incorporating at home and is starting to see it more with beauty companies, where people can bring their containers and have them refilled.

The “pass the phone” challenge—a trend in which members of a group quip about the next person to appear on camera unbeknownst to them—is normally an occasion for light ribbing among friends. Instead, the Fordham grads, all members of the Class of 1983, used the occasion to speak earnestly of their love and support of one another throughout the years.

“We cannot believe how much attention this video received,” said Cara Rothenberg, who filmed the video and posted it on her TikTok account. “My sister and I spent our lives surrounded by this version of positive masculinity and we are better for it. The Fordham boys, and their wives and children, are all family to us.”

The TikTok has amassed more than 650,000 views and generated more than 150,000 comments so far.

“I’m stunned,” said her father, John Rothenberg. “When we heard the number of views, we said, ‘Is that us? Is it because we keep clicking on it?’’’

The friends met when they were all placed in the same residence hall in the fall of their first year at Fordham. Irv Gonzalez, who had just arrived from Florida, counts sharing the first college meal with those new friends as one of the great blessings of his life.

“It’s more than friendship—I was an only child until August of 1979,” he said. “We’ve been there for all the great stuff in each others’ lives. We’ve seen our kids get married. Who would have thought?”

It’s been called a venerable throwback, a hidden gem, a cathedral of college sports. Since its inaugural game in January 1925, ‘Rose Thrill’ has always been much more than a gym.

They don’t make them like they used to, you might say, and you’d be right. Consider Rose Hill Gym’s exterior walls. The builder’s “local gray stone” is likely a mix of Fordham gneiss and Manhattan schist—the ancient, gritty bedrock upon which much of New York City is built. Could there be a more symbolically apt building material for a Fordham icon?

Through the decades, the gym has been the site of countless athletic contests. It’s where students push themselves to excel—amid the roar of the crowd or just the echoey squeak of sneakers on hardwood. And it’s where generations have gathered for momentous events, from Fordham presidents’ welcome addresses (where many students and families first fall in love with the University) to unforgettable concerts, baccalaureate Masses, and award ceremonies.

As the gym turns 100, here’s a look at some of the many moments and people whose energy, camaraderie, grit, and grace have brought the building to life since 1925.

The strength of the Fordham athlete finds root in spirited competition, a strong will to win, forbearance in defeat, and tempered joy in victory.

John Francis “Jack” Coffey

Widely considered the father of Fordham sports, Jack Coffey, a 1910 grad, served as the graduate manager of athletics and baseball coach for nearly 35 years, overseeing the Rams’ rise to national renown, particularly in football.

When Coffey retired in 1958, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist and fellow Fordham grad Arthur Daley wrote that Coffey always “seemed as much a part of the Fordham landscape as the university’s gymnasium.” He called Coffey “the soul of erudition,” not just a coach and administrator but “a friend, confidant, and advisor of … generations of athletes.”

Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ

Rose Hill Gym has been the beloved stomping grounds of many a Ram. Do you know it well enough to knock out this quiz as quickly as the Fordham Flash* might have?

Check out the answers at the bottom of this story.

* Who’s the Fordham Flash? None other than Frankie Frisch, Class of 1920. Arguably the Fordham sports GOAT, he excelled in baseball, track, football, and basketball before going on to a Hall of Fame pro baseball career.

1. The gym was considered so big for its time that Rams called it …

• The Meadow
• The Prairie
• The Plains

2. When it opened, the gym boasted …

• Equipment for weightlifting
• Three 400-square-foot boxing rings in the basement
• A swimming pool, with cutting-edge machinery for filtering and purifying water

3. Which Fordham men’s basketball star was the latest to have his number retired and jersey hoisted to the gym’s rafters?

• Ken Charles
• Ed Conlin
• Charlie Yelverton

4. What did Cindy Vojtech do for a Rose Hill Gym encore after her stellar volleyball career?

• Sang the national anthem
• Joined the WFUV broadcast team
• Delivered a valedictory address

5. Which women’s basketball star’s buzzer-beater against Rhode Island inspired a SportsCenter anchor to kick off the night’s highlights from the “Boogie Down Bronx”?

• Anna DeWolfe
• Mobolaji Akiode
• Abigail Corning

Highlights in the History of the Rose Hill Gym

1925 Brought a Flurry to Fordham

Fordham was in the midst of “a million dollar year” when the Rose Hill Gym opened in 1925, declared the Maroon yearbook staff. In addition to the gym, they cited a new campus bookstore and seismic lab along with a new library that was halfway to completion.

But it was the gym that dominated the team’s attention: “The sight of its huge, though artistically proportioned bulk is quite enough to instill in every Fordhamite a full-grown superiority complex.”

Fordham leaders clearly had great confidence in the gym’s architect, Emile G. Perrot, who also designed what would become Duane Library. “Architecture,” Perrot once said, “is the incarnation in stone of the thought and life of the civilization it represents.”

Keepsakes Lie Behind the Cornerstone

When the gym’s cornerstone was laid on a Sunday afternoon in early November 1923, a copper box of treasures from those times was buried alongside it. A list in the Walsh Library archives documents the contents.

Some items speak to Fordham’s Catholic and Jesuit ties, among them a medal of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. There are U.S. stamps, coins, and a flag bearing 48 stars along with copies of New York newspapers from the day.

There is no mistaking the school pride of the collection’s curators. Included are the Fordham catalog, University seal and colors, a copy of The Fordham Ram, and photos of campus buildings and grounds.

Finally, recognizing the gym’s calling as a home for sports and community, the copper box boasts Fordham athletics schedules, popular University songs, and the athletic association’s constitution.

A treasure trove, indeed—one now more than a century old.

1925: The new gym opens, hosting its first basketball game on January 16. The Rams beat Boston College 46-16 in a contest refereed by former four-sport star Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash, then a second baseman for the New York Giants.

Coach Ed Kelleher’s “Wonder Fives” go on to win 85 games and lose only nine between 1924 and 1929, christening the gym in spectacular fashion.

1927: A record 6,000 fans turn out to see Fordham beat City College of New York on January 22, a crowd well beyond the gym’s current 3,200-seat capacity.

1936: Foul weather forces the football Rams to practice in the gym. The team’s nationally renowned line, the Seven Blocks of Granite, includes Fordham senior and future pro football icon Vince Lombardi.

c. 1940: Trainer Jake Weber operates out of the gym’s basement. A fixture at Fordham for more than three decades until 1942, he also trains U.S. Olympic teams and is known for his “magic elixirs” and “baking machines” used to soothe student-athletes’ sore muscles.

1943: Bob Mullens earns All-America honors and leads the Rams to their first appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. He goes on to play for the New York Knicks in their inaugural season (1946–47), and in 2019, Fordham retires his No. 7.

1953: In his third season as head coach, Johnny Bach, a 1948 grad, leads the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament berth. He goes on to become Fordham’s all-time winningest coach, compiling a 264-192 record in 18 seasons. He departs Fordham in 1968 and later joins the NBA. As an assistant coach, Bach helps lead the Chicago Bulls to three straight titles in the early 1990s and leaves an indelible mark on Michael Jordan, who calls him “truly one of the greatest basketball minds of all time.”

1964: Women’s basketball begins as a club sport after Barbara Hartnett Hall and several of her classmates pitch the idea. “We went to talk to the athletic director … and [he was]surprisingly open to it,” Hall, a four-year captain, later recalls.

1965: The gym is the scene of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final high school game. Then known as Lew Alcindor, he leads Power Memorial to victory in the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association Championship on March 7.

Video: Watch highlights of the NBA legend’s standout performance in a packed Rose Hill Gym.

1966: The Beach Boys bring their surf rock to the Bronx on March 18, at the height of their popularity. The Lovin’ Spoonful is also on the bill.

On December 3, Simon and Garfunkel perform the first of their two concerts at the Rose Hill Gym, taking the stage for Winter Weekend. The following year, they return on October 13 to play Homecoming.

RELATED STORY: Rockin’ Rose Hill: A Look Back at Campus Concerts Since the ’60s

1967: Men’s basketball beats Iona on February 25 to launch a school-record 25-game winning streak in the gym. The home streak lasts until December 17, 1969.

The Supremes, featuring Diana Ross, perform in the gym on March 11. Future stars Gladys Knight & the Pips open the show.

1970: Women’s basketball debuts as a varsity sport, beating NYU in its first game.

“We started winning games we weren’t supposed to win, and you couldn’t get in the Rose Hill Gym. It was … a real happening. When that team played, it was New York City’s team.”

Frank McLaughlin, FCRH ’69, former longtime athletics director, on the magical 26-3 season of the 1970–1971 men’s basketball team. He was an assistant to head coach Digger Phelps that year, when the Rams rose to No. 9 in the national rankings.

1971: With gritty team play, men’s basketball captures the hearts of New Yorkers, packing the gym and selling out multiple games at Madison Square Garden on the way to a 26-3 record and a top 10 national ranking. The magical season ends with a loss to Villanova in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional Semifinals.

RELATED STORY: ‘The Darlings of New York’: An Oral History of the 1970–1971 Fordham Men’s Basketball Team

1974: Women’s volleyball posts a 4-3 record in its first season.

1975: Eight years after his last performance in the Rose Hill Gym, singer-songwriter Paul Simon returns to tape a skit for the second-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. In the skit, which airs on October 18, he goes one-on-one with basketball great Connie Hawkins. Despite a 1-foot-4-inch height disadvantage, Simon pulls off the upset—and some deadpan comedy. “First of all, when my outside shot is on, it’s really on,” he says in a mock postgame interview with broadcaster Marv Albert.

1983: Men’s basketball upsets top-seeded Iona to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

1984: The Ramones play their hits in the gym on April 27. But basketball is also on the mind of NYC’s seminal punk band, according to concert committee chair Joe Cerra, then a Fordham senior. “[We] had to keep giving Joey Ramone updates on the Knicks game,” he recalled in a 2013 interview with this magazine.

1990: Jean Prioleau hits a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead Fordham to a 69-68 win over Seton Hall on November 29, spoiling Fordham grad P.J. Carlesimo’s return to Rose Hill as Seton Hall’s head coach.

Video: “Bang!” Fordham grad and Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, makes the call as Prioleau hits the game-winning shot. Fans rush onto the Rose Hill Gym floor to join the celebration as Prioleau is carried off the court.

1991: Men’s basketball wins the first of two straight Patriot League titles.

1992: Women’s basketball claims its first Patriot League title, a feat the Rams would repeat in 1994.

2000: Volleyball star Cindy Vojtech becomes the first (and, to this date, only) Ram to earn three straight Academic All-America honors, picking up the awards in two sports. Following her senior volleyball season, she joined the women’s crew and helped lead them to a second-place finish at the Dad Vail Regatta in 2000.

She went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics and is currently a principal economist with the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Fordham President’s Council, helping to provide scholarship support to Fordham students.

2001: Fat Joe and Ashanti use the Rose Hill Gym in their “That’s Luv” music video.

2004: Fordham retires the No. 11 jersey of Ed Conlin, a standout player for the Rams who went on to a 10-year NBA career after graduating in 1955. “He played with a passion,” Conlin’s former Fordham coach, Johnny Bach, says at the ceremony. “We need people like Ed Conlin, people who love the game and who love Fordham.” He remains the men’s team’s all-time leading scorer (1,886) and rebounder (1,930).

2010: Fordham retires Anne Gregory O’Connell’s No. 55. A 1980 grad, she led the Rams to four consecutive postseason appearances and remains Fordham’s all-time leading scorer (2,548) and rebounder (1,999).

2012: Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Stephen Colbert meet in the gym on September 14 for “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life.” The discussion, moderated by bestselling author James Martin, S.J., draws a crowd of more than 3,000 “cheering, stomping, chanting students,” The New York Times reports, calling it “the most successful Roman Catholic youth evangelization event since Pope John Paul II last appeared at World Youth Day” in 2000.

2014: Women’s basketball captures its first Atlantic 10 title and holds an NCAA Tournament selection show watch party in the gym. They would go on to win the title again in 2019.

2021: The rapper A$AP Ferg (now known as Ferg) headlines the November 4 “Late Night on the Hill” event that kicks off the 2021–2022 basketball season.

2022: Fordham hosts—and on November 22, the men’s basketball team wins—the first Konchalski Classic, an annual basketball tournament to honor the life and legacy of 1968 Fordham grad Tom Konchalski, one of the most trusted basketball scouts in the country. His four-decade career included assessments of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James as high schoolers.

In February 2021, one day after Konchalski’s death at the age of 74, New York Knicks broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, told viewers that while Konchalski “may not have been what’s called a household name, in basketball homes, he was legendary.”

“Tom was the most influential, the most respected, and the most loved high school basketball scout in the country,” Breen said. “He helped thousands of young men, thousands of high school basketball players, achieve their dreams of playing college basketball and beyond. And every single day, he did it with kindness and humility.”

On November 29, the gym floor is designated the Frank McLaughlin Family Court—a tribute to Frank McLaughlin, the 1969 grad and former basketball star who became a devoted coach and longtime athletic director.

2023: After raucous home crowds seem to will the men’s basketball team to a pair of impressive victories in January, head coach Keith Urgo coins a new nickname for the historic gym when he opens a press conference with five words: “How about Rose Thrill, man!”

RELATED STORY: The Rise of ‘Rose Thrill’: Fans Fuel Fordham Basketball Resurgence

2024: In September, the University unveils a new court surface featuring a prominent Fordham script wordmark set over the silhouette of a large Ram head.

Did we miss your favorite Rose Hill Gym moments?

Share your own Rose Hill Gym story on the Fordham athletics website celebrating the gym’s 100th anniversary.

Answers to the ‘Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ’ Quiz

1. The Prairie 2. A swimming pool 3. Fordham retired Charlie Yelverton’s No. 34 in 2023. 4. Cindy Vojtech was the valedictorian of the Gabelli School of Business Class of 2000. 5. Anna DeWolfe hit the game-winner against Rhode Island on February 22, 2023.

VIDEO: Watch DeWolfe’s game-winning shot.

From Vin Scully to Mike Breen and beyond, WFUV and the Rose Hill Gym have nurtured some of New York City’s and the nation’s top sportscasters.

Bang! Basketball fans across the country know Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Breen’s signature on-air call. But how many know that it started from the stands at the Rose Hill Gym?

“When a Fordham player made a shot, I would scream, ‘Bang!’” the 1983 grad once told a reporter. “I tried it on air as a student a couple of times. I said, ‘This doesn’t work.’ … Then I went back to it when I started doing TV and felt it was a nice, concise [phrase] in a big moment. You say a one-syllable word, and the crowd rises and you don’t have to scream over it. One easy word. I’m from the Vin Scully … school of conciseness.”

Vin Scully, of course, was the 1949 Fordham grad widely regarded as the best baseball broadcaster of all time. But Scully, who died in 2022 at age 94, was also among the first to call a basketball game for WFUV, Fordham’s public media station. By January of his senior year, he was doing it from a new booth in the Rose Hill Gym’s east balcony, The Fordham Ram reported.

Since those days, WFUV and the gym have been a launchpad for many grads in sports media. Breen is the voice of the New York Knicks on MSG Network and the lead broadcaster for ABC and ESPN’s national coverage of the NBA. Chris Carrino, GABELLI ’92, is the longtime radio voice of the Brooklyn Nets.

There’s also CBS Sports broadcaster Spero Dedes, FCRH ’01; ESPN host Tony Reali, FCRH ’00; and Ryan Ruocco, FCRH ’08, a lead play-by-play announcer for pro and college basketball games on ESPN who has called the WNBA Finals since 2013.

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

RELATED STORY: Celebrating 100 Years of Rose Hill Gym: A Thrilling Legacy

I sat beside my parents on the crowded gym floor, impressed by what the president, Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., said about students who make the city their classroom. And I thought about basketball, too. As a Knicks fan, I knew that broadcaster John Andariese was a Fordham grad. I’d learn much later that his Fordham coach was Johnny Bach, the master of the “Doberman defense” who helped lead Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to three straight NBA titles in the early 1990s.

As the Rose Hill Gym turns 100 this season, it’s hard to imagine a better exemplar of its spirit than Bach, a Fordham grad of grit and class.

Bach was a decorated World War II veteran who bookended his Navy service with studies at Fordham. He enrolled in 1942, returned in 1947, and graduated the following year with a degree in economics. That final year, he starred on the men’s basketball team, earning team MVP honors.

He also encountered a 34-year-old Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, in the gym. The Fordham grad and future NFL legend was coaching the freshman basketball team at the time. At the start of the season, he instructed his players to stand along the baseline, Bach recalled. “Fordham University and God have ordained me to coach you,” Lombardi told them, “and I want every one of you who is willing to be coached … to step across that line.” It was the kind of affirmation that Bach carried with him throughout his life, Bulls head coach Phil Jackson once said—an affirmation about being coached and being part of a team.

After graduating from Fordham in 1948, Bach played for the Boston Celtics before returning to Rose Hill in 1950 as head coach. It wasn’t a career change he took lightly.

“I think everyone who goes into coaching must have some apprehension,” he once told a reporter, “because it’s far more than basketball. It’s philosophy and discipline. It has so many demands.”

For 18 seasons, he coached the basketball Rams to more wins than anyone else in Fordham history. And he remained an enthusiastic coach and educator for 56 years, the final 25 in the NBA. He had a gift for making the game “come alive in terms that [everyone] fully understands,” to quote a 1993 Fordham Magazine profile of him.

A Proud Product of a Fordham Jesuit Education

After Bach died in 2016, Mary Sweeney Bach told a reporter that her late husband’s Fordham education was key to his success as a coach.

“He was very proud of being the product of a Jesuit education because he believed in the importance of … being spiritually honest, intellectually honest. He believed in the importance of education. That’s part of what made him the kind of coach he was,” she said. “It wasn’t just rah rah, go get ’em. He was so much into teaching the basics, the fundamentals, the values; it was the basics of life as well as the basics of basketball.”

She also said that her husband admired how Michael Jordan “elevated the people around him” on the court. Likewise, Bach left an indelible mark on countless athletes, including Jordan, who described him as a mentor, friend, and “truly one of the greatest basketball minds of all time.”

What connects Bach not only to our story about the gym but also to the profiles of alumni changemakers and to Fordham’s “Best for Vets” reputation is his passion for teamwork and for building up those around him.

“When you love what you do,” he once told this magazine, “it really isn’t a job.”

B.A. Van Sise was driving his young nephew to the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, several years ago when he heard Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on the radio. The Moana actor was reflecting on his Samoan heritage. For years he had a hole in his heart, he said, because he didn’t speak the language of his maternal ancestors.

“I suddenly had this moment of epiphany,” Van Sise recalled.

Since graduating from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2005, Van Sise has worked as a photojournalist, artist, and author, but he studied linguistics at the University, and his degree is in both visual arts and modern languages. He took courses in Italian and Russian, and he also speaks French, German, and Ladino, an endangered language he learned from his mother and maternal grandfather growing up in New York.

“I realized I wanted to explore language in America,” he said. “​​What does American language look like?”

It’s more diverse than you might think.

The Resilience of America’s Endangered Languages

English has been dominant on the North American continent for centuries, subsuming other languages, “turning them upside down and shaking their pockets for loose vocabulary,” Van Sise said. And yet, “against unspeakable odds”—despite colonial forces, disease, cultural displacement, migration, and remixing—hundreds of Indigenous and diasporic languages exist in America.

Much of these languages’ variety and complexity is on brilliant display in Van Sise’s latest book, On the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues, and in a solo exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles through March 2.

The book features speakers, learners, and revitalizers of more than 70 languages in the United States. From Afro-Seminole Creole to Zuni, each language featured includes a brief cultural summary. And each portrait is paired with a single, often hard-to-translate word designed to inspire Van Sise’s visual approach and “show off the poetry inherent in each language,” he said. “Fundamentally, it is not an ethnicity project. It’s about the poetry of languages.”

In that sense, it’s a sequel of sorts to Van Sise’s first book, Children of Grass: A Portrait of American Poetry (2019), and it bears a kinship to his portraits and essays about Holocaust survivors in Invited to Life: Finding Hope After the Holocaust (2023). Like Holocaust survivors he met, endangered language speakers and revitalizers are “obsessed with the future,” Van Sise said, “the future of their stories, their legacies, their own families, and the people who come after them.”

Van Sise initially thought he might photograph “the last speakers” of various languages, “a really colonialist idea that I’m slightly embarrassed of,” he said. But he ultimately focused on the many people and groups working to revitalize—and in some cases resurrect—these languages. He traveled to 48 states with pivotal support from the Philip and Edith Leonian Trust, he said, and worked with dozens of Indigenous and diasporic cultural organizations, Native tribes and nations, and the Tribal Trust Foundation.

And while he photographed a Bukhari speaker and a Judeo-Spanish singer in his hometown of New York City, most locations weren’t so easy to reach. “Endangered languages really do best in places that are remote and where communities can still speak to each other,” he said.

Striving for Balance

Laura Tohe, former poet laureate of the Navajo Nation, met Van Sise near the Superstition Mountains, two hours east of Phoenix. She had a turquoise dress made specifically for the photo session, and “God gave me the sky” to match, Van Sise said. His playful sense of humor is on display in the way he and Tohe depicted hózhó, or striving for balance, “an extremely famous concept in Diné,” the Navajo language, he said.

Whimsy is also evident in Van Sise’s portrait of former Houma chief Kirby Verret in Gibson, Louisiana. Verret and an alligator teamed up to show off the Houma French word onirique, or something that comes from a dream.

Van Sise spent nearly a week with Amish community member Sylvan Esh before Esh agreed to work with Van Sise on the photograph. Part of getting to know Esh included waking up at 4 a.m. several days in a row to milk his cows, Van Sise said. The Pennsylvania Dutch concept he ultimately depicted with Esh, dæafe, or to have permission to do something, is “extremely, unbelievably important in the culture,” Van Sise said.

A Movement to Revive Lost Languages

Amber Hayward, a member of the Puyallup tribe in Tacoma, Washington, chose the Lushootseed word ʔux̌ʷəlč, or the sound of saltwater waves washing onto the beach. Lushootseed once numbered 12,000 speakers along the Puget Sound “before going extinct approximately twenty years ago,” Van Sise writes. As director of the Puyallup language program, Hayward has aided its rebirth. It’s just one of several languages featured in the book that boast healthy revitalization programs.

Another is the Kalispel language, represented by Jessie Isadore. She recommended the word cn̓paʔqcín, or the dawn comes toward me, said Van Sise, who explained that Kalispel is one of several languages historically spoken in what is now Montana and Washington state that make no distinction between nouns and verbs. “The whole thing just becomes one idea,” he said. “There’s something really lovely about that.”

Nahuatl is one of few languages highlighted in the book that is not spoken primarily in the U.S., but Van Sise could not resist the Aztec language’s centuries-old tradition of making as big a poem as possible with a single compound word. He and Los Angeles–based folkloric dancer Citlali Arvizu (pictured at the top of the story) chose tixochicitlalcuecuepocatimani, or, you are bursting into bloom all over with stars like flowers.

Working with people like Arvizu to create “visual poems” in these languages is more than an artful way to document linguistic diversity. For Van Sise, the goal is to raise awareness and inspire further education and preservation.

“I can’t do much to make the Haida language revitalization program more robust,” he said, picking just one example. “But I can provide the sizzle for the steak.”

8 Uncommon Words to Spark Your Interest in Endangered Languages

B.A. Van Sise’s book On the National Language features conceptual portraits of more than 70 speakers, learners, and revitalizers of endangered languages in the U.S. Each image is inspired by a single word in the speaker’s language, one that isn’t always so easy to translate into English. He hopes readers might “find one impossible word, and want to learn another and another.” Here are eight.

tekariho:ken
between two worlds
Mohawk

kapará
worse things have happened
Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino

puppyshow
showing off behavior
Afro-Seminole Creole

amonati
something you hold and keep safe for others
Bukhari

koyaanisqatsi
nature out of balance
Hopi

ma’goddai
feeling when the blood rises that makes you act both violently and lovingly
Chamorro

opyêninetêhi
my heart is taking its time
Sauk

uŋkupelo
we are coming home
Lakota

An Essay by Afrika Owes, Fordham Law School Class of 2024

When I returned to jail this past summer, I lost a bet I made with a correction officer in 2011—that I would never set foot in Rikers again. Back then, I also wrote in my journal that I’d become a lawyer. I kept that pledge. As I walked through those familiar halls, this time as an invited speaker, I recalled the number they once gave me: ‍6001100148. That number stripped away who I was. It was a constant reminder that I was just a body, a statistic, a faceless soul among hundreds in a system designed to forget me. But that number couldn’t erase my name, my identity, my aspirations.

I returned to Rikers in July to talk with young women at the Rose M. Singer Center, where I had been incarcerated at 17. In their eyes I saw the same fear, the same sadness, and the same yearning for hope that mine had reflected 13 years earlier. I had been one of them, convinced that a bright future wasn’t something I deserved. But now I stood before them not as ‍6001100148 but as a woman who had fought like hell to reclaim her name and her power.

Less than 10 miles from where I served my six-month sentence, Fordham Law School was integral in that battle. Drawn to the University by the support and leadership of the Black Law Students Association, whose president went so far as helping me with my law school application, I soon found mentors who believed in me and opportunities that led to my success.

At Rikers that day, I told the women the truth: The system wasn’t built to rehabilitate them. It would try to break them. I had been where they were—lost, angry, ashamed, and hungry for love. My life felt like a series of small deaths. Every court date that got pushed back, every visit that never came, every letter that went unanswered. I feared I would never be seen as anything more than that number.

But what I didn’t know then, and what I needed them to understand, was that resilience—the kind that carries you through—isn’t found in the world around you. You build it within yourself, piece by piece. As I studied for the GED and SAT exams in my cell, I wasn’t just chasing a way out; I was keeping hope alive.

Hope was something no one could take from me, and it’s something I urged the women to hold on to as well. Though fragile, their hope was their power. Together with strength and purpose, it could propel them forward.

I shared the darkest parts of my journey: The nights I cried alone in my cell. The moments I thought my life was over. How after my release, the world didn’t suddenly open its arms to me. Bank accounts were closed, job offers rescinded. I was rejected again and again.

But every time someone told me “no,” I told myself “yes.” Every time the world tried to reduce me to my mistakes, I dared to believe that I was more than my past. And with each step forward, I built a new life—a life that no one ever expected me to have.

As I spoke, I watched their faces. Some were stoic, guarded, skeptical. I get it—hope is dangerous when the world has only ever let you down. One young woman, tears in her eyes, stood up and shared that she had passed her GED. She hadn’t thought it was a big deal—until that day. She realized how powerful that achievement truly was. In her, I saw my younger self—the girl who once thought she had nothing left, but now, standing before them as a lawyer, knew that she was unstoppable.

As I departed, I didn’t feel lighter. I felt the weight of the women I met, the lives they still had to live, the battles they would face. But I also felt hope. I made a promise—to myself, to those women, and to every girl who has ever been buried by the weight of the world: That world may feel impossible, but its soil is where you’ll grow.

Even within the coldest of concrete of Rikers Island, a rose will find its way to the light. Hope, like a rose breaking through concrete, defies the odds. It grows where it shouldn’t. And once it blooms, it transforms everything around it—quietly, relentlessly, and without permission.

—Afrika Owes is a 2024 Fordham Law graduate and a first-year law clerk in the tax practice group at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Spoiler Alert: The solution to the fall/winter puzzle is posted below. If you’d like to receive a copy of the print edition, write to us at [email protected].

How did you get interested in creating crossword puzzles, and how long did it take before you published your first one?
Growing up, I solved Sunday New York Times puzzles with my dad. Soon after my studies at Fordham, I found myself wondering what it took to make crosswords and started looking into it. I officially started constructing crosswords in November 2016. I was unemployed at the time and in desperate need of a distraction from world events.

Incredibly, I went from purchasing crossword construction software to getting my first puzzle accepted—a Sunday New York Times puzzle, no less—in just six weeks. I was guided by an incredible mentor, Nancy Salomon, and spurred on by an insatiable hyperfixation with the task of creating a satisfying, interesting, unique crossword. Since then, I’ve immersed myself in the crossword community, learned from so many people, and in 2022 began editing puzzles for two publications—AVCX and Puzzmo. It’s incredibly enriching work.

What do you think makes a crossword puzzle satisfying for people to solve? And what do you hope solvers feel when they complete one of your puzzles?
As a solver, I enjoy accessible, whimsical puzzles that balance wordplay, trivia, and pop culture references, so those are the kinds of crosswords I like to make. Crosswords are an art form, a means of expressing oneself. Each puzzle I make has personal touches and feels special to me. I hope that solvers learn a little something from my puzzles, have some nice “ah ha” moments, and finish with a smile on their face.

Do you have a favorite puzzle you created or some favorite clues you came up with?
I have a few standout favorites among the hundreds of puzzles I’ve made. One that comes to mind is a Sunday New York Times crossword called “All Aflutter,” in which I used grid art and the placement of a single extra letter in the grid to demonstrate the philosophical concept of the butterfly effect for the solver. I remember that when this idea struck me, it consumed a whole day—I sat in bed, obsessively designing the grid for hours and hours as it came together. I knew I was onto something special.

What’s your favorite clue and answer in the puzzle you created for the fall/winter issue of the Fordham mag?
I love the wordplay clue for WINEMAKER: “One working with vintage materials?” It’s always fun to come up with a fresh new misdirect, and I thought that was a clever one. I also enjoyed being able to be self-referential with the FORDHAM clue, putting myself in the same category as some major celebs! How fun is that?

Do you ever receive feedback on your puzzles, and is there a reaction or anecdote that sticks with you?
In April 2024, I attended the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut, for the first time. We all had lanyards with our names on them, and I was totally starstruck by some major figures in the crossword community that I got to meet. It was surreal, then, to have a few people come up to me and tell me that they love my puzzles. Certainly that’s the closest I’ll ever be to experiencing fame!

You earned a master’s degree in mental health counseling from Fordham’s Graduate School of Education in 2015. Why Fordham, and what was the grad-school experience like for you?
After graduating from Vassar in 2013, I decided I wanted to work in higher education, and that a counseling degree was the way to go. The Fordham program appealed to me because of its focus on multicultural approaches to counseling, and I loved the idea of going to school in the center of Manhattan. I greatly enjoyed my classes at Fordham; the teachers were extremely knowledgeable, and I found the curriculum to be well-designed.

Crosswords can be mentally stimulating, even a kind of meditative experience for people. How do you view them when it comes to education and mental health? Is there a connection to your graduate studies at Fordham?
One thing I love about solving crosswords is that there are countless ways to get to the right answer. People come to the table with different knowledge and lived experience, which means that the way I solve a crossword will differ from how you might solve it. The experience is really an exercise in exploration, of uncovering the grid, piece by piece, until it all comes together in the end.

I see a connection here with mental health. Therapy is a tool we use to explore our beliefs, relationships, and traumas, unknotting the messy knots that we get caught up in. After an especially effective therapy session, I feel a sense of satisfaction, relief, and gained knowledge about myself and the world. It is an exercise in exploration, in discovery. I have experienced similar feelings after solving a crossword.

Anything you’d like to add that I didn’t bring up?
If you’re interested in following more about me and my crossword work, or want to reach out with a question or comment, please feel free to find me on Bluesky, under the username Livienna. You can also find my daily categories game, Overlapt, over at the Puzzle Society!

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Ryan Stellabotte.

Solution to the Puzzle in the Fall/Winter 2024 Print Edition of Fordham Magazine

Featuring Matthew Capodicasa, GSAS ’15

The Glass Cannon Podcast is the flagship show of the Glass Cannon Network, a company that specializes in “actual-play podcasts”—live playthroughs of tabletop role-playing games (a genre that includes, most famously, Dungeons & Dragons). The podcast began in March 2015, when a group of five friends—including Matthew Capodicasa, a 2015 Fordham playwriting MFA graduate—decided to record themselves embarking on a campaign of the Pathfinder series’ Giantslayer Adventure Path. Almost 10 years later, Capodicasa and his fellow founders have expanded the Glass Cannon Network to include more than a dozen other shows covering multiple game systems. The cast members of The Glass Cannon Podcast also frequently put on a Glass Cannon Live! show, drawing fans to venues across the U.S. and Canada to watch Capodicasa and his fellow players go through the ups and downs of the game—and trade comedic banter—in person. They recently closed out their 2024 tour with a sold-out show at City Winery in Philadelphia, and their 2025 tour is set to kick off in February in Austin.

Two of the grads also had solo shows running at New York and Philadelphia galleries this fall.

Teresa Baker, FCLC ’08, whose piece Sunset Turns South was part of “Amarcord,” had her first New York City solo show open at Broadway Gallery in September. “Mapping the Territory” featured her large-scale, asymmetrical paintings, many of which featured the use of natural materials like deerskin and willow branches, in a nod to Native American traditions.

Amie Cunat, FCLC ’08, contributed Sparkler II to the alumni show. An assistant clinical professor in the Fordham visual arts department, she recently had a solo show titled “West McHenry” running at Philly’s Peep Projects, where her colorful abstract work ranged from small acrylic paintings on linen to large mixed-media pieces meant to evoke cross-sections of houses. 

Vincent Stracquadanio, FCRH ’11, an adjunct professor of visual arts, curated the alumni show, which spread out across the Ildiko Butler Gallery, the newly renovated Lipani Gallery, and the Hayden Hartnett Project Space in the Lowenstein Center. 

“A big thread with all the artists in the show is that they came to Fordham and found either a class or a professor here that just kind of swept them away, and it’s this path that they’re still on,” Stracquadanio said. “They left fully changed as an artist because of the teaching at Fordham.”

When we emptied out the house, you wanted to keep everything.
Books no one was ever going to read jammed into a storage unit
with the handbags we could never afford and the photos of everyone
alive. You left for Saigon with his sweaters and a suitcase full of letters
you asked to be buried with. The ink fades where your fingers trace the chin
of each line and you’re beginning to forget what some words mean
in English: epic, majestic, covenant, eternal. What will time make of us?
Years brackish with partial truths, I could almost float on what I don’t
say: I want to get better before I see you again. If I go first, who will help you
feed the spirits? When I call, it’s tomorrow on your side of the world,
the sea at a simmer, the wind readying its fists. You tell me Dì Sáu came back
a swallowtail and helped you make the bed. You’ve been buying lottery tickets.
I know this means you’re afraid to die. This, our only language: omens, unlucky
numbers, butterfly hauntings, tales of women who die weeping and come back
as trees. You make me promise to keep the couch he died on, remind me to give
Pippa the pearls when you’re gone. I look at the oak outside my window,
remember you crouched in the dirt, gloved to the elbows, raining seeds
from your fingers. Someday, you said, this will all be yours.

—Theo LeGro, FCLC ’10

About this Poem

I wanted to explore how grief tethers us together and makes us alone, and,
whether immediate or ancestral, is eternal, inescapable, a burden, and in so
being, ultimately a form of love.

About the Author

Theo LeGro is a queer Vietnamese-American poet and Kundiman fellow whose work has earned nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets. Their poems appear or will appear in Brooklyn Poets, diode, Honey Literary, Plume, The Offing, Raleigh Review, and elsewhere. Their debut collection, DON’T LET IT KILL YOU, won the 2025 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize and is forthcoming from Persea Books in 2026. They live in Brooklyn with a cat named Vinny.

This poem was originally published in Brooklyn Poets.