“This is a way for Fordham to celebrate the theme of this year’s National Catholic Schools Week, Catholic Schools: Learn, Serve, Lead, Succeed, encompassing the core values that can be found in the schools of the Archdiocese,” said Gerald M. Cattaro, Ed.D., director of the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education. 

For many of the approximately 800 children from 19 different Catholic schools across New York City, it was also an opportunity to see a college campus for the first time. 

“By giving them the opportunity to visit classrooms, see college students in classes, and walk the same paths as college students, we hope to inspire these visiting students to reach higher in their academic choices and study habits,” said Virginia Roach, Ed.D., dean of GSE. “We want to show children, especially those who could be first-generation college-bound students, that there are pathways to realize their dreams of a college education.”

Shortly before 10 a.m. last Monday, students started to arrive at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, located across the street from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. For the next hour, they sat in the wooden pews and attended morning Mass. They sang hymns like “Here I Am, Lord” and “City of God,” led by choir singer t’Jacques Guillot, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, and Timothy Perron, a Fordham Jesuit scholastic and pianist. At the beginning of Mass, they were reminded of one of Fordham’s guiding tenets: 

“At Fordham, we’re committed to the idea of cura personalis. That’s Latin for caring for the individual. We really care deeply about you and supporting you today, tomorrow, and after you graduate,” Anthony P. Cavanna, Ed.D., associate dean for academic affairs at GSE, said to the students. “No matter what college or high school or university you finally choose, you map out cura personalis. Take care of yourself, take care of others, and God bless you.”

Presiding over Mass was Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J., a scholar in residence at GSE and the first provincial of the newly created USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. He urged the students and teachers to continue to care for one another in “one family of faith and goodness and hope.” 

Today, he said, they were celebrating the feast of Saint Angela Merici—a religious educator who was dedicated to the education of girls. 

“When Catholic schools only taught boys, she said Catholic schools should educate girls, too. Girls, you think that’s a good idea?” he said to applause. “Absolutely … so we gather to celebrate Catholic schools and remember the heroes of Catholic schools like Angela Merici.” 

After Mass, the students split into two groups. Half of them toured the Lincoln Center campus; the other dined on pizza in Pope Auditorium with Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. 

For Isabella Marina Martinez, an eighth-grader at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Washington Heights, it was her first time at Fordham College at Lincoln Center. This past spring, she visited her cousin, Xienna Dejesus, a student at Fordham College at Rose Hill, at the Bronx campus.

“I’ve seen it in pictures, and I wanted to see it [in person], so she took me one day,” said Martinez, who said she’s considering a future as a lawyer—and keeping an eye on the Fordham School of Law.  “It would be cool to come here.” 

For half an hour, Martinez and her classmates explored the Lincoln Center campus, including Hughes Hall. It was Matthew Capellan’s first time seeing a trading room with Bloomberg terminals. It was also a special experience for his classmate, Manuel Ramirez. 

“The part that I found most interesting about the tour today was the business room—how they had all the stocks going around on the screens and how every computer is updated to the most recent stocks,” said Ramirez, who lives in Morris Heights and wants to become a biologist. 

Nisha Reyes, an eighth-grader who wants to study business or law, said she was struck by the number of student clubs and overall diversity. 

“Everyone’s so different, but they come together in such a special way at Fordham,” Reyes said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from. You can still come together; everyone can be part of a family at Fordham.” 

Many of the middle schoolers are students of color who will be the first in their family to attend college, said Virginia Roach, Ed.D., dean of the Graduate School of Education. Exposure to college life can help set them on the right path, she added.

“Researchers have found that implicit sorting of children into college-bound and non-college-bound groups begins as early as middle school,” Roach said. “By hosting these children on campus, we hope to reinforce that they all can be college-bound by seeing themselves on our campus and envisioning their future at Fordham or other colleges or universities.”

Linda Dougherty, FCLC ’79, regional superintendent of Catholic schools in the Northeast Bronx, said it was especially important for the young Bronxites to see Fordham.

Right in Their Backyard

“This is a great way for them to see what’s right in their backyard,” she said. “You have an excellent university right here in the Bronx.”

At the beginning of the week, more than 1,000 students congregated at the Rose Hill campus for late morning Mass at the University Church, lunch in the McGinley Ballroom, and a 25-minute tour across campus.

Hundreds of little heads bobbed above the pews at Mass. The students, wearing their Catholic school uniforms and winter jackets, sang along to hymns like “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.” At the end of Mass, Joseph O’Keefe, S.J., had a few words for them.

“One of the wonderful things about Catholic schools is it gives all of us a second home,” Father O’Keefe said. “Look around this church. Think of your goodness and talents and gifts and, yes, use them to have a happy life. But [also]use them to do the will of God—to bring healing and hope and comfort, and to bring love to all of those people that God put into your life.”

Campus Tours

After Mass, Fordham student-athletes shepherded the students to some select locations on campus: Hughes Hall’s trading room with Bloomberg terminals; the Jack Coffey Football Field; the Rose Hill Gym, home to the oldest Division I basketball facility in the country; and the Edgar Allan Poe Rock.

“It’s a special rock,” said Katie McLoughlin, FCRH ’21, one of the student tour guides.

“Dwayne Johnson?” joked one of the middle school students.

As they drew closer to the rock—a tribute to the famed American writer who moved into a three-room cottage near campus and befriended several Jesuits at Fordham—McLoughlin continued her story.

“Rumor has it that the University Church’s original bell was the inspiration for Poe’s haunting poem ‘The Bells,’” she explained. “So he has a lot of presence on the campus. And to honor him … he has a rock!”

The middle schoolers giggled. “That’s awesome!” one quipped.

Others were more impressed by Rose Hill’s ambiance. Derek De La Hoz, a seventh-grader at Saint Clare of Assisi, said his sibling lives in Faber Hall. He recalled the first time his big brother gave their family a tour of the undergraduate campus.

‘It’s So Peaceful’

“It was like paradise. It’s so peaceful,” said the younger De La Hoz, who said he lives in Country Club, a mixed-income neighborhood in the Bronx. “You can hear the birds chirping.”

The day ended in the McGinley Ballroom, where students were treated to a slice of pizza and a plastic zipped file folder filled with a Fordham adhesive card holder, a printout of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells,” and a sheet explaining the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), Fordham’s enrichment program for middle and high schoolers.

“Make sure you come here for college, alright?” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, to a group of students from Sts. Philip and James School. “We’re your neighborhood school.”  

Isabella Batista, a wide-eyed sixth-grader at Saint Clare of Assisi, was sitting in the ballroom with her classmates.“This school is so big,” she said. “I went to the buffet and I can’t believe when you’re in college, you get to eat anything you want.”

Batista said she has a cousin who is currently enrolled at Fordham and loves it. Someday, Batista might apply here. But for now, like the rest of the students who visited Fordham this week, she said she’s taking things one step at a time. 

“I think college is about getting ready for when you’re all grown up,” Batista said. “And starting your own life.”