Alumni spanning seven decades made it back to campus—some who are frequent visitors, some reunion first-timers, but all eager to reconnect with friends, see how the University has grown over the years, and do their part to give back.

This year’s reunion classes contributed more than $75 million to the University since their last Jubilee, in 2018. All of the money raised supports Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, the University’s $350 million campaign to reinvest in all aspects of the student experience.

A Family Affair

For Anne Mickut Valentino and Christopher Valentino, who met as members of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Class of 1988, this year’s Jubilee was a special one—their first time attending alongside their son Peter Valentino, FCRH ’18. Christopher, an Army lawyer who retired from active duty in 2006, said, “Out of all the people I’ve met around the world, none have the quality and integrity of fellow Fordham graduates.”

Another Fordham couple, who were catching up with friends at the Go Rams! Pub Party under the Jack Coffey Field bleachers Saturday afternoon, said they never met as undergraduates. Instead, Billy and Melissa Barbour, both FCRH ’93, were introduced at their first Jubilee, in 1998, and were engaged the following year.

Now, when Billy finds out a student of his at Easthampton High School on Long Island is attending Fordham, he makes sure to tell them: “Don’t miss your Jubilee. You might meet someone.”

A Culture of Service

Elsewhere on campus, the Class of 1973 gathered in the library to reflect on the ways they’ve dedicated themselves to the greater good—from activism to community service to their careers—and to hear from Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning on the ways in which the University continues to partner with the community and local organizations.

In Butler Commons, members of the Marymount College community recognized the lives and accomplishments of their fellow graduates, honoring four alumnae for their community service and professional success.

Debra DeVenezia, MC ’83, won the Gloria Gaines Memorial Award; Rena Micklewright, MC ’90, won the Golden Dome Award; Sharbari Zohra Ahmed, MC ’95, won the Alumna of Achievement Award; and Linda McMahon, Ph.D., MC ’63, was honored posthumously. 

Camaraderie and Corn Hole

At the all-class picnic held on Martyrs’ Lawn Saturday afternoon—complete with a barbecue, face painting, and games of corn hole—a group of 2013 graduates who were involved with both the Philippine American Club and the Asian Cultural Exchange on campus expressed how important those student clubs were to their college experience.

“It helped me connect with my roots,” said Danielle Flores, FCRH ’13, whose parents immigrated from the Philippines and who double-majored in economics and Spanish language and literature as a member of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Honors Program.

Thinking back to her arrival as a first-year student, Gillian Pantaleon, GABELLI ’13, ’14, echoed Flores’ sentiments on the strong balance of classwork and connection she found at Rose Hill.

“I never knew that … I would have really intellectual conversations in the classroom, learning a lot of lifelong lessons and building a fantastic network here,” she said. “If I could do it all over again, I would.”

Video by Rebecca Rosen

A Tribute to the Trailblazers

At their annual luncheon, a few dozen alumnae of Thomas More College, Fordham’s undergraduate school for women from 1964 to 1974, presented an award to Tania Tetlow, president of the University, and designated her an honorary alumna of the Class of 1968, the college’s first graduating class.

Introducing Fordham’s trailblazing president, who is the first woman and first layperson to lead the Jesuit University of New York, Meredith Waltman, TMC ‘68, noted that the women of TMC are “part of a list of firsts,” too, opening “the door for generations of women afterward to benefit from the rich tradition of a Jesuit” education at Fordham.

“Hereafter, when pictures are taken of the alumni of Thomas More College, she has to be in it,” Waltman said, referring to Tetlow.

Accepting the award, Tetlow admitted to sometimes grappling with a catch-22 of sorts when thinking about the trails blazed by the women of TMC and others like them.

Younger women enjoy a greater degree of freedom but may not fully “understand how hard the fight was to get it to them,” she said. “We are torn between wanting them to be grateful and also wanting to liberate them from any knowledge that it was ever true that people would underestimate them.”

“I don’t know if they will always think of you and remember you, but I will,” she said.

—Adam Kaufman contributed to this story.

Students competed in a round of Kahoot! with Asian themes, snapped photos of each other against a celebratory background, and consumed chicken poppers and samosas that they washed back with good ol’ American Coca-Cola served in champagne flutes.

Later, the group counted 330 origami cranes that committee members and other participants have been folding over the course of April as part of an Origami Awareness project. They hope to make 1,000 cranes by April 2022. According to Japanese tradition, the making of a thousand origami cranes grants the creators one wish, which in this case was for peace and acceptance for all Asian communities, said Fordham College at Rose Hill senior Angela Ly.

“It’s been really hard on the Asian community in general. That’s why,” said Ly, the AAPI cultural programming coordinator. Normally the month-long celebration of Asian identity is held in May, but with Fordham’s commencement and end-of-year celebrations held that month, the committee opted to honor their heritage in April.

Ly, who identifies as a Chinese-Vietnamese American, said that as the event was coming together, the committee decided to invite students from South Asian groups, who might not normally attend an AAPI event.

“It’s like when you fill out the census, not every Asian think of themselves as just Asian,” she said. “There are so many other countries in Asia, you could be Indian or Pakistani. We wanted to embody that, so this is the first time that we got so many different clubs that are Asian identified together.”

With the rise in Asian hate crimes coming on the tails of the Black Lives Matter movement, Ly said that over the past year the committee sought out solidarity with the Black History Month Committee and will continue to forge alliances through events like the Cultural Showcase.

FCRH junior Nazeath Emama identifies as Bangladeshi. She said that the Asian students can also count the Muslim Students Association as steadfast allies.

“We completely understand what’s happening to them because we go through it a lot. I hear slurs at me all the time,” she said. “I just want them to be aware that they have our support 100%, regardless of what is happening. We will be there to either protect them or show our support to let them know that they’re not on their own.”

Emama said she’d like to see more white students come to the events.

“These events are not just to make our people comfortable, but also for white people to come and ask questions, to learn more,” she said.

Ly agreed that club mixing could be the key to integrating campus more.

“We’re making it something more, something more like a family, where we can embrace our cultural backgrounds, but it’s also about just being at college,” she said.

Arthur Liu is an international student from Hong Kong and president of the Asian Cultural Exchange. He concurred with Ly that the common denominator is college life at Fordham.

“The American college experience is so rich and there’s a lot to learn from it. You sort of run into an issue as to who should reach out to international students, but I think specific outreach from these clubs could do it,” he said.

Liu’s dad is from Malaysia and his mom is from Hong Kong, though he has full Chinese lineage on both sides of his family. He identifies as Hong Kong-Malaysian because Hong Kong was where he was born and raised, but he maintains strong ties to Malaysia.

Liu said he’d like to see more club involvement from international students like himself.

“There’s a natural tendency to want to stick to people of a similar background to you,” he said.

But he noted that everything from language skills to the culture shock of arriving in New York can keep international students from mixing with the cultural clubs, where a lot of the members are fluent in English and have adapted to the city to the point of being New Yorkers.  He said he’d like to see these clubs be integrated into the orientation for international students.

Later, as Liu hosted Kahoot!, students participating in the evening’s fashion show began to arrive in elaborate Bengali and traditional Chinese dresses. Allies arrived in Bronx style, and one student wore a traditional Muslim thobe for men. For his part, Liu was wearing shorts and what most Americans might call a Hawaiian shirt, but in this case, it was Southeast Asian.

“It’s not necessarily traditional, but it’s authentic—especially the flip-flops,” he said.