On a balmy Bronx morning, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel did not mince words at Fordham’s 168th Commencement, held May 18 at the Rose Hill campus.

Engel, a New York City native and one of the nation’s foremost chroniclers of Middle East wars, revolutions, and political transitions, used his commencement address to reflect on being captured and held hostage for five days last December in Syria by government loyalists.

“When you have guns pointed at your head, your thoughts are very clear.  The fat of doubt is trimmed away,” said Engel, who was subjected to mock executions by his kidnappers. “As I sat there and thought, many times, ‘OK, now I’m about to die. It will come very soon, and it will be a bad death,’ I also thought, and this is critical, ‘At least I tried. At least I got part of the way.’

Engel told graduates that if they subtract the 20 years of life they’ve lived so far and the 10 final years they can expect to live, that leaves them with roughly 50 years to make the most of their lives.

“‘I [have]50 years to accomplish something, and unfortunately,’ I thought, ‘I’m not going to get all the way, because these people in ski masks are about to cut my life short.’ I was angry, I was annoyed, but at least I knew I was going to die trying to be myself.”

Honorary degrees were awarded to Engel; singer and musician Dion DiMucci; Paulette LoMonaco, R.G.S., executive director of Good Shepherd Services; John Tognino, PCS ’75, former chair of the Fordham University Board of Trustees; and Patricia E. Harris, first deputy mayor of New York City. In all, a total of 3,445 degrees were conferred at the ceremony.

Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Sally J. Bellet, Esq., LAW ’76, former vice president of real estate development for Amtrak, each received an honorary doctorate of laws at the Fordham School of Law diploma ceremony on May 19 at Radio City Music Hall, where Bharara addressed the graduating class.

Kaushik Basu, Ph.D., chief economist and senior vice president for development economics at the World Bank, received an honorary doctorate of humane letters and gave the keynote address at the diploma ceremony for the Graduate School of Business Administration, also on May 19, at Avery Fisher Hall.

Peter Vaughan, Ph.D., who is retiring as dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, spoke at that school’s diploma ceremony on May 20, also at Avery Fisher Hall, and was awarded the University’s Presidential Medal. (see U.S. Attorney Delivers Graduation Address at Fordham Law)

Speaking about four archetypal personalities, Engel said it is of the upmost importance that graduates of the Class of 2013 have the “guts” to choose their path now, be it as a hedonist, commander, nurturer, or explorer. Characterizing himself as an explorer, Engel said he knew, upon graduation from college, that he wanted to be a foreign correspondent. He moved to Cairo two weeks later with a $2,000 nest egg and a determined dream.

When graduates know for sure what suits them, they will be able to truly accomplish something great, he said. The good news, he noted, is they have those choices when many people in the world don’t.

“I’ve been in war zones for a long time. I’ve met nurturers, hedonists, commanders, and explorers who, because of where they live and the famine and poverty and violence all around them, don’t have options. If you are living in Aleppo, Syria, today, you don’t have the luxury of sitting around and wondering, ‘What’s my true nature, and what can I do that will allow me to experience it?’” he said. “[Their] main concern is staying alive.

“You have choices. Don’t squander this opportunity. Have the guts to take a chance.”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, told the Class of 2013 that although their academic careers might be coming to a close, their transcripts for life were now going to be updated via “take-home,” “open-heart” tests that will emerge from everyday situations.
“Strangely enough, when all is said and done, all of these heart and life tests will consist of only two frightening questions: Whom do you love, and what do you love?  These questions will, in turn, invite and challenge you to identify, embrace, and nurture the values that will define and direct your life,” he said.

“My friends, as you prepare to confront these questions and thus begin the work of compiling the transcript of your lives, I hope that you will always be haunted and guided by the challenge and the dream that stands at the heart of Jesuit education: To educate men and women for others, men and women whose lives will always be marked by competence, conscience, compassion, and a deep commitment to justice and the cause of the human family.”

Father McShane also thanked the Class of 2013 for raising $1.046 million, the largest class gift in the University’s history. Be “conspicuous in compassion rather than in consumption,” Father McShane implored them, and live lives of bold, daring love. He said that if they allowed themselves to be bothered by injustice, embrace suffering, and champion the poor, they would be “true sons and daughters of Fordham.”

“When I see you on Fifth Avenue, and you call out to me and tell me what you have done, I promise that I will throw open my arms and say, as I listen to what you have achieved in love, ‘You are, all of you, as you are today, my great heroes.’”

Student Achievers: Faces in the Class of 2013

There’s not much moving on an early Sunday morning in New York. But at 8 a.m. on Aug. 30, Fordham’s campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx were a flurry of sound and motion.

That was the day members of the Class of 2013 officially became part of the Fordham community—and what a welcome they received.

More than 200 student orientation leaders lined the sidewalks leading to the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center dormitories, showering cheers and applause on the incoming freshmen and whisking away their luggage as soon as they arrived.

“Everyone’s so excited; everyone’s so happy. I didn’t have to carry anything,” said Bianca Cesario, who is entering Fordham College at Rose Hill.

The move-in program, which spearheads three days of new student orientation, is run by the University’s Office of Student Life and Community Development (OSLCD).

Cesario traveled from Matawan, N.J. with her parents and two brothers, and was among the first to arrive. While negotiating the boxes and bundles that occupied much of her dorm room floor, her parents commented on their eldest child entering college.

“It hasn’t hit us yet, but it probably will on the way home,” said Carol, her mother.

“The boys are looking forward to her room,” added her father, Sal. “They’ve already got the PlayStation set up in there.”

“They’ve been sad,” Cesario confided.

This was the 18th admissions cycle in a row that Fordham has set a new high in applications, with 24,464 high school students vying for acceptance letters—a 3 percent increase over the previous year.

Cesario is one of roughly 1,800 freshmen at Fordham. Preliminary estimates indicate that 1,356 will study at the Rose Hill campus and 443 will call Lincoln Center home.

The average SAT score for the class is 1240, which represents a nice increase from 1228 last year.

“This class is among the most talented and diverse that we’ve had in years and, I would venture, in the history of the University,” said John W. Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

Geographically diverse, these freshmen hail from 40 states plus the District of Columbia. Forty-one students are from other countries, and 26 are international students who were studying at high schools in the United States.

In a room a few floors below the Cesarios, Ryan Kramer watched his mother and grandmother set up his room with near-military precision.

“I’ve just got to stay on task,” said his mother, Mary Beth. She did, however, take a moment to remind her son what laundry detergent looks like.

“We were packing to come here, and I told him, ‘Here’s the container with the Purex in it,’ and do you know what he said? ‘What the heck is that?’

“You make me so nervous!” she told her son.

Kramer, who left Albany, N.Y. just after 6 a.m., will be entering the College of Business Administration.

“I love cities,” he said. “I only looked at schools in New York and Boston, and Fordham was the right place for me.”

Meanwhile, at the Lincoln Center campus, Patrick Kelly and his parents had just finished settling into a five-person suite in McMahon Hall.

It wasn’t too difficult to unpack; Kelly had brought only four bags of clothes and other necessities on the journey from his home in Wisconsin.

“My sister goes to the University of Wisconsin, but I like the East Coast and I wanted to get away,” he said.

If Kelly’s parents were unsure about their son’s decision to attend college so far away from home, it didn’t show.

“We’re excited—very excited about it,” said his father, Mike. “Fordham is a great Jesuit school, and this will be a great Jesuit education for him in the heart of New York City.”

Many of the parents were also excited about the helping hands they received from the student orientation leaders.

“Parents respond very positively to the efforts of our orientation leaders,” said Christopher Rogers, dean of students at the Rose Hill campus, who added that this year marked the largest cohort of student volunteers in his two decades at Fordham.

“We hear from parents with some regularity how much they appreciate it,” he said.

The Class of 2013 is also multicultural. African American, Asian and Hispanic students account for 28 percent of the roster. Asians make up 12 percent of the class, which is a 13 percent increase over last year.

There’s not much moving on an early Sunday morning in New York. But at 8 a.m. on Aug. 30, Fordham’s campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx were a flurry of sound and motion.

That was the day members of the Class of 2013 officially became part of the Fordham community—and what a welcome they received.

More than 200 student orientation leaders lined the sidewalks leading to the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center dormitories, showering cheers and applause on the incoming freshmen and whisking away their luggage as soon as they arrived.

“Everyone’s so excited; everyone’s so happy. I didn’t have to carry anything,” said Bianca Cesario, who is entering Fordham College at Rose Hill.

The move-in program, which spearheads three days of new student orientation, is run by the University’s Office of Student Life and Community Development (OSLCD).

Cesario left Matawan, N.J. with her parents and two brothers, and was among the first to arrive. While negotiating the boxes and bundles that occupied much of her dorm room floor, her parents commented on their eldest child entering college.

“It hasn’t hit us yet, but it probably will on the way home,” said Carol, her mother.

“The boys are looking forward to her room,” added her father, Sal. “They’ve already got the PlayStation set up in there.”

“They’ve been sad,” Cesario confided.

This was the 18th admissions cycle in row that Fordham has set a new high in applications, with 24,464 high school students vying for acceptance letters—a 3 percent increase over the previous year.

Cesario is one of roughly 1,800 freshmen at Fordham. Preliminary estimates indicate that 1,356 will study at the Rose Hill campus and 443 will call Lincoln Center home.

The average SAT score for the class is 1240, which represents a nice increase from 1228 last year.

“This class is among the most talented and diverse that we’ve had in years and, I would venture, in the history of the University,” said John W. Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

The Class of 2013 is also multicultural. African American, Asian and Hispanic students account for 28 percent of the roster. Asians make up 12 percent of the class, which is a 13 percent increase over last year.

Geographically diverse, these freshmen hail from 40 states plus the District of Columbia.  Forty-one students are from other countries, and 26 are international students who were studying at high schools in the United States.

In a room a few floors below the Cesarios, Ryan Kramer watched his mother and grandmother set up his room with near-military precision.

“I’ve just got to stay on task,” said his mother, Mary Beth. She did, however, take a moment to remind her son what laundry detergent looks like.

“We were packing to come here, and I told him, ‘Here’s the container with the Purex in it,’ and do you know what he said? ‘What the heck is that?’

“You make me so nervous!” she told her son.

Kramer, who left Albany, N.Y. just after 6 a.m., will be entering the College of Business Administration.

“I love cities, and New York especially,” he said. “I only looked at schools in New York and Boston, and Fordham was the right place for me.”

Meanwhile, at the Lincoln Center campus, Patrick Kelly and his parents had just finished settling into a five-person suite in McMahon Hall.

It wasn’t too difficult to unpack; Kelly had brought only four bags of clothes and other necessities on the journey from his home in Wisconsin.

“My sister goes to the University of Wisconsin, but I like the East Coast and I wanted to get away,” he said.

If Kelly’s parents were unsure about their son’s decision to attend college so far away from home, it didn’t show.

“We’re excited—very excited about it,” said his father, Mike. “Fordham is a great Jesuit school, and this will be a great Jesuit education for him in the heart of New York City.”

Many of the parents were also excited about the helping hands they received from the student orientation leaders.

“Parents respond very positively to the efforts of our orientation leaders,” said Christopher Rogers, dean of students at the Rose Hill campus, who added that this year marked the largest cohort of student volunteers in his two decades at Fordham.

“We hear from parents with some regularity how much they appreciate it,” he said.