Molly Bedford and Anthony Hazell, FCLC ’06, stepped down last year as the paper’s visual and editorial advisors, respectively, after seven years. During the annual Block Party reunion, former staff members were presented them with cards, flowers, and framed mock Observer covers featuring group photos and messages from their advisees.

“We had such a special relationship with Molly and Anthony,” said Sophie Partridge-Hicks, FCLC ’21, a former editor-in-chief who helped organize the tribute. “We were there during the pandemic, so we did a lot of Zoom calls, and they were so incredible and supportive of us that we really wanted to celebrate them and all the work they did.”

Courtney Brogle, FCLC ’20, a former managing editor, echoed Partridge-Hicks’s gratitude for the advisors and the rest of the staff.

“The Observer was a real light in a dark tunnel at that time,” said Brogle, who is now an assignment editor at NBC News. “It was a saving grace in a sense, where I got to collaborate with like-minded people. I got to publish student journalism that really mattered as we were navigating an uncertain time. It granted an outlet for people who otherwise would have been very isolated.”

Brogle also credited The Observer not only with setting her on her career path but also providing an opportunity to build personal relationships.

“I met so many people from different walks of life that I consider lifelong friends,” she said. “It brought a lot of joy into my life.”

Hazell, who was the paper’s editor-in-chief during his senior year and is now the director of communications for Bay Ridge Prep in Brooklyn, said that the paper has grown in the past two decades, from 20 to 30 students when he was an undergraduate to about 100 students today.

“I never thought that I would come back almost 10 years later and be involved again, but it was so much fun,” he said. “It was really nice to see the students control the paper and figure things out on their own and help guide them and problem-solve things.”

“It is an astonishing thing that Fordham has this location at the center of everything,” Fordham President Tania Tetlow told attendees. “The epicenter of the global economy, the center of so much media, of arts and culture, of business, of everything you can imagine.”

The alumni who gathered—from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Gabelli School of Business, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the School of Professional and Continuing Studies—spanned generations and spoke of the lasting impact of their time at Fordham.

“This is a place with many happy memories and a place that really changed my life—my husband, my career, my lifelong friends,” said Karen Ninehan, a teacher and former school principal who earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 1974.

When she decided to go into administration, she returned to campus to earn a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education in 2000. “I knew this was the place where I would get the best of everything,” she said.

As Ninehan and other guests arrived Friday evening, they had the opportunity to hear some live jazz in Pope Auditorium, thanks to a group made up of two music professors, four students, and Walter Blanding, a tenor saxophonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. They attended school- and club-specific receptions across campus before coming together on the plaza for food, drinks, and dancing well into the evening.

Reconnecting with Those Who ‘Helped You on Your Journey’

Margot Reid, GABELLI ’21, said she was especially excited for this year’s celebration—in part because as a member of Fordham’s Young Alumni Committee, she had had a hand in planning it.

“It’s something I look forward to—it’s like a big event of the season,” said Reid, who is a marketing associate as ESPN. “It’s nice to see and connect with everybody.”

Matthew Leone, FCLC ’17, another member of the Young Alumni Committee, was attending his first reunion. “I’m coming back just to find some sense of normalcy again and just to rekindle everything,” said Leone, who finished grad school at American University this spring and is working as an immigration paralegal. “I love seeing this different side of Fordham.”

Harleny Vasquez, GSS ’18, a social work career coach and the founding CEO of yourEVOLVEDmind, was among the featured speakers at the Graduate School of Social Service reception, which highlighted the diverse range of careers and opportunities open to MSW graduates.

“GSS did a wonderful job of teaching us our social work foundation,” said Vasquez, who received the GSS Alumni Service Award in recognition of her work with the school’s graduating students. “You hold the power to utilize your social work degree to design the career you desire.”

For Abigail Brown, Julian Goldstein, and Alice Wong, who bonded more than a decade ago in the Gabelli School’s executive MBA program, Block Party was a chance to reconnect and reminisce about their experiences.

Brown, who graduated in 2014 and now works for General Motors as a future retail development manager, said that she not only enjoys networking with fellow alumni but also catching up with faculty and staff.

“It’s really good to see where people are at, and to connect with old deans and faculty members who helped you on your journey,” she said. “It’s inspiring. That’s the word I always leave here with—inspiring.”

Paying Tribute to Influential Faculty and Advisors

At its alumni reception, Fordham College at Lincoln Center honored two retiring faculty members—English professor Anne Hoffman, Ph.D., and economics professor Janis Barry, Ph.D. Members of the Class of 1973 were inducted as Golden Rams, and there were special shout-outs to the Silver Rams of the Class of 1998 and other graduates celebrating milestone reunions.

“It’s really exciting because it brings back a lot of my classmates, and especially since this is our 20th reunion, we have a really good showing,” said Samara Finn Holland, FCLC ’03, a member of the Fordham University Alumni Association Advisory Board. “I think that makes this year stand out above the rest.”

Nearby, more than 20 alumni who worked on The Observer, the award-winning student newspaper at the Lincoln Center campus, gathered to catch up and honor Molly Bedford and Anthony Hazell, FCLC ’06, who stepped down last year as the paper’s visual and editorial advisors, respectively, after seven years.

And at the Graduate School of Education reception, retiring professor Margo A. Jackson, Ph.D., received the Dr. Kathryn I. Scanlon Award for her service and commitment to the University since 1999.

‘Fordham Was the Difference in Your Life’

This year marked the first Block Party for Fordham President Tania Tetlow, who spoke at various receptions across campus and also addressed a group of the University’s loyal donors at a cocktail reception in Platt Court.

“I love hearing the stories of how many of you feel like Fordham was the difference in your life,” she said, “the investment and opportunity that gave you the launch to everything that you wanted to do, and helped embed the desire in you to matter to the world.”

—Tanya Hunt, Kelly Prinz, and Connor White contributed to this story.

Today, those words still ring true, with the 61-year-old campus playing home to a diverse mix of schools and programs and an eclectic student body. Even as the campus has expanded, literally grown up—most recently with its 140 West 62nd Street building, McKeon Hall, and a new home for the School of Law—it has remained a vibrant hub in the middle of one of the most bustling cities in the world.

On Thursday, June 9, alumni from five of the University’s schools—Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Gabelli School of Business, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Service, and the School of Professional and Continuing Studies—will gather for the Block Party at Lincoln Center, a reunion highlighted by an outdoor, all-school party on the Lowenstein Center plaza.

Prior to the festivities, alumni and guests can join one of several guided tours of campus offered between 3:30 and 5, when Miguel Sutedjo, a rising Fordham senior, will kick things off with a piano performance in Pope Auditorium. From 6 to 7:30 p.m., each of the five schools will then host its own gathering, with food, drinks, and speeches.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., who is stepping down as president of Fordham on June 30, is expected to make the rounds of these receptions, which will include a brief ceremony honoring Robert R. Grimes, S.J., dean emeritus of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC); the presentation of the Graduate School of Education’s 2022 Distinguished Contributions to Education Award to Aramina Vega Ferrer, Ph.D., GSE ’09, a member of the 12th Judicial District of the New York State Board of Regents; and an opportunity to hear from Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., who is returning to teaching and research next month after 15 remarkable years as dean of the Gabelli School of Business.

The FCLC gathering will also feature a special ceremony honoring the Class of 1972—the college’s first Golden Rams—who will mark 50 years since graduation.

The evening will be capped off by the all-school Block Party celebration on the plaza. From 7:30 to 10 p.m., alumni will have the opportunity to eat, drink, dance, and mingle across schools in the open air.

Alumni can register for Block Party and find more information—including a full schedule and photos from previous years—at Forever Fordham.

Molly Hellauer, who studied communications and political science at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, plans to be among those tuning in.

Though she graduated in 2016, Hellauer said her ongoing connection to the University has made the time fly. “Fordham still feels very close. It doesn’t feel like five years at all, but it is nice to have that community as a resource five years later—and I know it will continue to be a resource 10 years, 15 years from now.”

Staying Connected Through Service

Hellauer immersed herself in the Fordham community as a student, serving on the Campus Activities Board and volunteering as both an orientation leader and captain prior to working as an orientation coordinator for two years. Each of these activities helped her learn “a great deal about professionalism,” she said, and inspired her to keep the Fordham connection going after graduation.

She joined the Young Alumni Committee in 2016, and last year led its social justice subcommittee, which organizes service projects for recent graduates. In recent years, they have worked with the Bronx Is Blooming to plant new trees and clean up parks, and with Socks in the City—a nonprofit founded by Cat Fernando, FCLC ’20—to get socks and other supplies to New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.

Before the pandemic, that meant organizing a day for young alumni to go out in small groups and distribute supplies. “It’s also really about building connections,” Hellauer said. “So, they’re not just giving things to folks; they’re talking to them, learning about their lives, hearing their stories, and making them feel heard.”

In the past year, the subcommittee embraced remote service work, joining a Socks in the City initiative to order supplies and have them shipped to a central location for volunteers to distribute. And Hellauer helped organize a Zoom-based letter-writing campaign, during which alumni gathered virtually to write letters and holiday cards to people living in nursing homes.

“We all just figured it out and were able to keep people engaged, and that’s just a really good feeling,” she said. “Obviously, I would rather do things in person, but I’m just really impressed with everyone’s adaptability.”

Putting Her Fordham Education to Work in Politics and Public Relations

Giving back to Fordham and its local communities may keep Hellauer quite close to the University, but she has indeed spread her wings since graduating. The summer following her senior year, she was awarded a Students for a New American Politics PAC Organizing Fellowship. Run by Yale University students, the political action committee provides a stipend for fellows to work as grassroots organizers for progressive candidates running for Congress. Hellauer was sent to Rochester, New Hampshire, to work on Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.

To Hellauer’s surprise, she was placed with another Fordham Ram working as a field organizer in the state’s 1st Congressional District. “It was a very exciting time to be working on a statewide national campaign—and it was doubly exciting because New Hampshire is a very politically active state,” she said. She was able to learn “a lot about campaigns and electoral politics, and it was just a really exciting way to spend your first summer out of college.”

Once the fellowship concluded, Hellauer went into public relations. Today, she’s the manager of communications and research for the Office of the President at Columbia University—a “really good fit” for her, she said, in part because it allows her to draw on the skills she picked up as a student leader and orientation coordinator at Fordham. 

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
For my entire life, reading has been one of my absolute favorite things to do—definitely because it is a pleasant and relaxing activity but also because I get excited about how much there is to learn from a new book. After finishing—or often even while still reading—a great work of nonfiction, I have to immediately go down a “Wikipedia hole” to learn more about the figures or events covered in the book. But even in works of fiction that we might not consider as instructive, I learn so much about how to improve my own writing and how to be a person moving through the world.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
That you don’t have to do everything right on the first try. Personally and professionally, I always find myself fighting off embarrassment after making a mistake when doing something for the first time—even and especially when I am alone in my own kitchen screwing up a new recipe, despite there being no one around for me to be embarrassed in front of. It helps me to take a breath and ask myself: Why would I be expected to get something perfect when I’ve never done it before? It’s wonderful when you turn out to be a natural at something new, but learning where you may have veered off course and how to do something better the next time is valuable, too.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
There are so many corners of the city that I’ve missed visiting during the pandemic. If I had to choose a favorite, I’d have to say the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I used to love visiting during their late-night hours on Saturdays. It’s a favorite because I like to pick a certain section deep in the museum and immerse myself in it. I love the feeling of being so far removed from the city outside, but it’s also an experience that is quintessentially New York.

In the world, definitely Cape Cod, Massachusetts. My family has been spending summers there for most of my life. My absolute favorite day is spent on a beach in Cape Cod in the sunshine with a book, with dips in the ocean in between chapters. As I’ve grown older, I’ve enjoyed visiting at all times of year, not just summer—it’s a very special place that has something wonderful to offer year-round.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
My favorite books as a child were in the Eloise series by Kay Thompson. I love her spirit and independence. Eloise was always able to have a good time on her own, but she was also glad to take others (humans or animals) along for the ride. And, looking back on it now, I think she may have had an influence on my desire to one day live in New York City.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Most of my best friends are Fordham grads, and I admire and look up to them all for their intelligence and passion for doing good—qualities that were instilled in us all at Fordham.

The professor I admire most is Christina Greer, who I had for several courses in political science as a student (the thrill of seeing her on MSNBC has not grown old in the five years since I graduated, for me or my parents). I appreciate how she is able to communicate political concepts to students—no matter their major—and make them eager to know and do more outside the classroom. She [helps people]understand the issues and how they directly affect our lives. She cares a great deal about each and every student, and it shows.

“It was a chance to get away, a different environment,” he said. “I was working five days a week, 12 to 13 hours a day. When it was time for me to go to school, I was ready to go. It was awesome.”

Besides taking technology courses to buttress his career as a computer programmer, there were other benefits of attending Marymount. It was there that he met Michele Holmes Chavers, MC ’99.

“I decided to stay in the dorms that fall, and who stepped off the elevator in the science building but my future husband,” recalled Holmes Chavers. “And that’s how we met. We had classes together at different times, grabbed a slice of pizza, a cup of coffee, and it went on from there.”

By 1985, Chavers’ career hit high gear and he was off to other cities. When he returned to Marymount, its transition to becoming a part of Fordham had already begun, so he transferred his Marymount credits to Fordham and took classes at the Westchester campus on the weekends through the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS). He would go on to take classes with PCS at Rose Hill and finally at Lincoln Center—making him one of the very few to take classes at all four campuses.

“I really got a charge out of it. I was the first male student that helped create the ambassador program for career services [at Marymount]. I volunteered because I felt so good in my heart about Fordham,” he said, adding that he hopes to become more involved with the alumni community in the future.

“I contribute because they gave me a lot, especially having a program where I could go back to school as an adult. I was a man in my 50s and I got my [college]  degree.”