“That was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, I want to be a surgeon,’” Sanchez said. “I want to be that guy who is in control of the room, who knows what’s going on, who has all the knowledge and the capability to save someone’s life.”

Today, Sanchez is a senior chemistry student on the pre-med track at Fordham College at Rose Hill. In his four years at Fordham, he’s conducted research in three labs. He’s shadowed three medical specialists and observed tumor removals and colonoscopies. He’s volunteered at St. Barnabas Hospital—just a 15-minute walk from campus—and served both English and Spanish-speaking patients from the Bronx.

But it was a buildup of experiences, beginning at home, that inspired him to pursue a career in medicine.

A Boy from Queens

Sanchez was born and raised in a family of health care professionals in Bayside Hills, Queens. His mother is a geriatrician; his father was an ultrasound technician. Both of them left their native Ecuador in their 20s to achieve the American Dream.

Whenever Sanchez fell ill, his mother “always had the answers,” he said. Those “answers” extended to their family members in Ecuador, who often called their home in New York for medical advice.

“I loved that she was that source of knowledge and information to people,” Sanchez said. “And I aspired to be that.”

Bringing Science and Solace to the Bronx

His dream of becoming a doctor slowly took shape.

At Fordham, he worked as a research lab mentor for three chemistry professors who taught him how to better navigate the heavy science associated with pre-med studies. Under the tutelage of Christopher Koenigsmann, Ph.D., Sanchez synthesized cobalt nanowires for fuel cells. In the lab of Fariborz Firooznia, Ph.D., he learned how to separate different substances and measure heat transfers. And since last fall, he has worked in the lab of Paul Smith, Ph.D., where he analyzes cortisol, a stress hormone found in hair and saliva.

Last year, he also served as a STEM student representative for Fordham College at Rose Hill’s academic integrity committee, said Rachel Annunziato, the associate dean for strategic initiatives. In fact, she was the one who selected him for the role.

“He was just so thoughtful in terms of his ethical responsibilities,” said Annunziato, who met Sanchez and his family at the fall 2017 dean’s list ceremony. “He’s so personable, hardworking, and determined …. He’s a really good kid.”

In the spring of 2018, Sanchez started volunteering at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, where he surveyed patients on the quality of care during their stay. But he also connected with them, particularly those that spoke Spanish, his family’s native tongue. He bonded with a middle-aged Dominican patient, who, like him, loved the taste of arroz con habichuelas and pasteles.

“This was human interaction … conversational care,” Sanchez said.

Life and Death in the Operating Room

For years, Sanchez had wanted to become a doctor. But it wasn’t until 2017 that he formally decided to pursue a profession in medicine.

Two summers ago, Sanchez shadowed a family friend: chief surgical oncologist Mario Leone, Ph.D., who works at the Society to Fight Cancer, a hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador. For almost two months, Sanchez observed surgeries and clinical appointments.

Many of the patients he observed in Ecuador suffered from soft tissue sarcomas, or cancers that begin in the bone and muscle. One patient, who had lost an eye, complained about the wind flowing through his empty socket. Another had a fist-sized sarcoma growing from her scalp—a bald, pink mass that was only visible when she took off her hat. 

In the operating room, he watched Leone and his medical staff remove tumors in surgeries that took hours. As an electrocautery probe sliced across a patient’s body, he could smell the burning flesh. With the aid of a surgeon’s scalpel, he saw skin layers peel apart. But he wasn’t afraid.

“I was totally intrigued by learning the anatomy of it—learning how to be careful,” Sanchez said. “Not severing any major arteries or veins and being careful of the nerves.”

He also loved the vibe of Leone’s team. Sometimes they played rap or bachata music during surgery, he said. But what he liked the most was their team dynamic.

“The fluidity, the way they joke around, but also the way that they solve problems off the fly and rely on each other—that’s what I like,” Sanchez said. “[And] they all have the same goal: They want to save this person’s life.”

That doesn’t always happen. Leone told him about how he had cared for a child in Ecuador who later succumbed to liver cancer, Sanchez said.

“You’re not always gonna have a success in the operating room. You’re not going to be able to fix everybody that comes in there,” Sanchez said. “But you keep on trying.”

After he graduates from Fordham, Sanchez plans on taking a gap year before applying to medical school. He said he wants to gain more clinical experience, and plans on applying for medical scribe and research assistant positions. He looks forward to people putting faith in him the way they put faith in his mom.

“You look after these people with all your heart and soul because you genuinely love them,” Sanchez said. “I want to have that friendship where they trust me as a doctor, and a smile comes on their face every time I walk in the room—‘cause I know I’m going to have a smile on my face.”

Widdi, a lifelong New Yorker who is earning a J.D. from the School of Law, has zero tolerance for injustice. A Stein Scholar and board member of the Fordham Law Defenders and the Coalition of Concerned Students, Widdi has accepted a position upon graduation with the Bronx Defenders, where she will represent parents accused of abusing and/or neglecting their children.

It’s an area of law that is sorely in need of rehabilitation, she said.

“People respect criminal defense attorneys because they know that our prison system is racist and classist, and that most people in jail are there for things they shouldn’t be in jail for, or because there are underlying reasons of poverty or mental health or addiction,” she said.

“But people don’t have the same understanding of the child welfare system.”

Seeing Injustice Up Close

Widdi, who grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has a great deal of experience in the child welfare field. A 2015 graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, she interned during her first year at Fordham Law at the Brooklyn Defender Services’ family defense practice, and the Bronx Defenders Family Defense Practice her second year. She noted that in four months, she could count on one hand the number of defendants who weren’t black or Latino.

“It’s not like other communities don’t use drugs, leave their kids unattended, have their kids get into accidents, or have mental health issues. But these poor communities don’t have the resources to protect against the state getting involved. They’re going to public hospitals, and they’re getting public benefits, so they’re always kind of being monitored.”

“When we see a mother of color letting her kid go to the park by himself, she’s probably ‘unfit’ to be a mother. But when it’s a white family in Park Slope, that’s just a parenting style, and you’re building independence.”

Seeking Alternatives to Foster Homes

Widdi doesn’t dismiss the fact that parents dealing with issues of mental health, poverty, institutionalized racism, and substance abuse can struggle to care for their children. But she doesn’t believe that removal from their homes is the answer, noting that children who are placed in foster homes are incarcerated more frequently and have more mental health issues.

“Instead of helping the family with the services that they need, which is what the child welfare system is required to do by law, they take a better-safe-than-sorry approach, and take a kid out of their home,” she said.

“Judges are not going to end up on the front page of a newspaper for taking a kid out of his home because they were being extra cautious, even though the effects of that on that family are monumental. But they will if a kid stays at home and ends up dead. It rarely ever happens, but of course it’s so sensationalized when it does.”

A Drive Inspired by Heritage

Widdi’s devotion to social justice has resonated both outside the walls of the Law School and inside it as well. She has pushed to have a space created where students who don’t live nearby can relax between classes, and as part of the Coalition of Concerned Students, she’s advocated that professors and administrators think about the ways that Muslims are portrayed negatively when discussed in the context of law. She chalks up her interest in social justice to her upbringing as the child of Palestinian immigrants.

“I go back home to Palestine as often as I can and see a lot of similarities between the injustices that happen there and what happens here every day, though on a different scope,” she said.

“In doing public defense, I am working against systems of racism and classism and misogyny, and so I’m doing my part, albeit indirectly, to help my own community.”

Inspiring Others to Pursue Family Law

Leah Horowitz, LAW ’06, director of student organizations and publicity at the Law School’s Public Interest Resource Center, repeatedly falls back on the word “phenomenal” to describe Widdi. She recently submitted Widdi’s name for consideration for the Law School’s prestigious Donald Magnetti Award, which is presented to a member of the graduating J.D. class in recognition of their outstanding public commitment and contribution to those beyond the Law School Community. When she asked for co-signers, 15 faculty members swiftly added their names to the nomination.

“People now know about criminal defense because of TV shows, and because there’s a lot of information about the injustices in the criminal defense system. But there are injustices everywhere, and I think that one of the amazing things that Leena has done is she’s shone a light on what’s happening in the child welfare system,” she said.

Widdi has also been a mentor to others, Horowitz said. Students routinely reach out to her and say ‘Leena told me I had to come see you,’ about practicing family law, she said.

“What I admire most is her level of commitment, her heart, her vision, and her love for people. She has a vision for something better in this society.”

“I was raising a lot of money and I was enjoying the act of doing so, but I got frustrated with not having any say in the strategic way that money would get spent,” said Marino.

She was looking for a graduate program that would help her move into a leadership role in the policy or advocacy field, but also teach her more about the needs of the people and communities she wanted to serve.

At GSS, she found both. She chose to pursue the school’s leadership concentration. However, regardless of whether a student wants to work directly with clients or in administration, all GSS students must fulfill two field placements: one in their first year that is assigned to them, and one of their choosing in the second year.

While Marino knew early on she wanted to play a leadership role in her career, her first placement was very hands on. She was a forensic social worker for Legal Aid Society on Rikers Island.

Her role required her to assess incarcerated people and present her findings to their defense lawyers, who are looking for a social worker’s perspective in helping to build their case. In explaining the details of the incarcerated person’s life—their past, the issues they may be struggling with—she was able to help the defense explain what led to the person’s arrest in the first place. She also helped plan appropriate alternatives to incarceration.

It was a writing intensive placement, but Marino also had to be on hand to interview the client. She recalled her first visit to Rikers as particularly jarring.

“You have to take a bus over the bridge to get to the main gatehouse. I remember locking my stuff in the locker and taking another bus to the jail my client was housed in. The room was dark and claustrophobic,” she recalled.

When she reemerged to take the bus back over the bridge to go home, she found the daylight blinding and she was overcome with exhaustion.

“That’s when I realized I was acting as a bridge between the people I’m serving to the entire outside world,” she said. “They’re why I’m getting this education is—to be the best bridge I can be. The fact that it was painful to experience made me realize the power I have and how seriously I need to take this experience.”

Marino said that the hands-on experience was the very reason she wanted to pursue social work as a skillset to add to her development and administrative experience.

“When you’re sitting at a board table and able to advocate for people, it’s important to know the people you’re advocating for,” she said. “You’re affecting their lives by the decisions you’re making, and I thought that might be lacking in my experience.”

Marino’s second-year placement was at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainably, which is not necessarily the sort of government agency one would associate with social work. Her supervisor, Nancy Wackstein, director of community engagement and partnerships, said that Marino’s past experience in the nonprofit sector made her a good match to work with a city agency.

“She had a great experience before she came here and it’s really a revolving door between city government and nonprofit leadership, so her getting experience in government will be a great asset going forward,” said Wackstein. “Social workers have a skillset and a particular world view, so whenever we think of the environment or transportation, low- and moderate-income people deserve a voice at the decision-making table—and that person should be a social worker.”

Whereas her previous placement was on the micro side of the practice, this role was far more macro, said Marino.

“I don’t know too much about the science of sustainability, but now I know intimately about the populations that environmental injustice impacts most directly,” she said.

She was part of an interdisciplinary team that examines policies and programs. Her team functioned as an internal consulting arm on sustainability for other agencies, such as the Department of Buildings and the Department of Transportation. She also helped bring specific projects to community boards and neighborhood-based organizations.

“Part of this intermediary role I play is to translate between what different groups of people need to hear, and how they need to hear it,” she said. “Policy people talk at a very high wonky level and that may actually turn some people off.

She used the example of solar panels, which before her internship she believed were only an option for the middle-class homeowner, not necessarily for renters. She said that unlike homeowners, most renters in New York can’t put a solar panel on top of their building. But through Con Edison, they can choose an electric company that uses renewable energy. This is something most renters are unaware of, she said, and need to be educated about.

“We have to think very differently about what is it that we’re asking people to do,” she said. “The city is actually promoting  community-shared solar programs, which you could probably sign up for now if you’re a renter.”

In her role, she looked at what was working in other cities around the country and created a spreadsheet with all the programs she was impressed by.

“We researched every single policy or program that the mayor’s office could promote, fund, or create to deploy more solar in New York City.”

She said the strategic exercise is a macro social work skillset that city government needs more of, though it’s not necessarily something that agencies expect from a social worker.

“There is this big gap between the people who make the decisions and the people who are affected by them,” she said. “So being the person who can connect information by translating between the two, I think is an interesting space.”

For Mumbai, India, native Samrat Dhar, a desire to master this new reality drew him to the Gabelli School of Business, where he’s earning an M.S. in media management.

After earning a B.S. in economics in 2007 from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, Dhar worked for a hedge fund, for Groupon, and most recently, for a gaming company for mobile devices that he founded with his brother. He was also making short films on the side, and in 2017, he started looking for a way to jumpstart his entrepreneurial ambitions.

New York as Tech and Media Hub

“There were programs in the Midwest, and even in Boston, but I thought New York was a better environment because there are more tech people in New York than there are in Silicon Valley,” he said, pointing to the recent $200 million sale of New York-based digital news company Cheddar as an example.

“The Flatiron district is the perfect incubator for all sorts of new tech startups. There’s so much happening there. The talent is now readily available on the East Coast, which wasn’t the case 10 years ago.”

As a St. Xavier graduate, Dhar was attracted to the familiarity of Fordham’s Jesuit heritage. But New York City was brand new to him. He came here with no preconceived notions, he said, and found the city to be welcoming and warm. His experience at the Gabelli School was equally positive.

“The best thing about my experience the last two years has been the curriculum, and how you have the liberty to structure it in the direction that you want it to go based on what you see yourself doing 10 or 15 years from now,” he said.

“It allowed me the flexibility to take courses in finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship.”

Exploring the Stories That Unite

It also allowed him to direct Unexplored India, a 23-minute-long forthcoming documentary about an annual fair in Mhasa, a tiny hamlet 50 miles northeast of Mumbai. The village takes its name from the Hindu deity Mhasoba, and the fair, which is a tribute to Mhasoba, is a common way for villages around the country to honor deities. Fairgoers come from neighboring villages and even other states to honor Mhasoba, which translates to “Buffalo God.”

“What drew me to this was how folklore crosses boundaries and borders. In India, there are so many diverse states, and every state has a different language and a different culture. But there are certain things that can hold people together,” he said.

Bozena Mierzejewska, Ph.D., an associate professor of media management, who supervised Dhar’s independent study, said that the master’s program’s flexibility is no accident.

“The media industry is so diverse, it would be very difficult to give a set of say, five classes, and then say, ‘You know everything,’” she said.

“Because if you want to be a filmmaker, it’s different than if you want to be in the book publishing industry. So there are three core courses, and then you design your electives around your main interests.”

The Future of Technology and Entertainment

Of all the courses he took, Dhar said Consumer Adoption of New Media resonated the most. He learned a great deal about emerging trends in media consumption, such as holographic TV.

“Couple that with the entrepreneurship course, you could actually build a business idea around it. You can see how all that information can be made relevant for the future,” he said.

“When you’re in that environment where there’s a lot of thinking happening, whether by yourself or your peers, it forces you to come up with more innovative ideas.”

Spending time in New York opened his eyes to an area of finance that he had not been exposed to when he first entered that field: private equity and venture capital firms that specialize in media and the entertainment industry. It helped him understand why the city is often referred to as the media capital of the world.

“One of my most memorable experiences was a visit to the Time Warner Medialab, where they create focus groups and have been trying to essentially build a system to evaluate whether a project will do well,” he said, noting that measuring audience reactions has taken an almost clinical approach. “They get people of different demographics to participate, and they measure not just responses to questions, but also things like their vital stats, their heartbeat.”

Dhar is weighing several options for jobs after graduation. He may work for himself but would also consider working for an established firm. One thing he’s sure of is he will stay in New York City.

“So far, I’ve seen the academic life. Now I’d like to see the professional life of the city,” he said.

Mierzejewska said she expects Dhar to find success in whatever path he chooses. She was impressed with his devotion and compared his independent study to the kind of work that doctoral students might tackle.

“He didn’t just do a research paper; he did an analysis of all the materials that will help young filmmakers manage a project,” she said.

“He was trying to learn theory on the one hand and develop his film documentary on the other. It was very unique, very ambitious. It was all coming from his own natural talent, which I found to be extraordinary.”

For the past year, Natalie Ward, a math major at Fordham College at Rose Hill and a George and Mary Jane McCartney Research Fellow, has been exploring the link between PM 2.5—an air pollutant smaller than the cross-section of a human hair—and pediatric asthma in the Bronx.

“Millions of New Yorkers are breathing in this harmful pollutant, but have no clue it might be really affecting their lungs,” said Ward, whose research was funded by a Fordham undergraduate grant.

Studies have shown that long-term exposure to PM 2.5, which originates from vehicle exhaust and fuel combustion, is linked to increased rates of pediatric asthma. And high particle concentrations are a bigger problem in the Bronx, where asthma death rates are three times higher than the rest of the United States.

Last summer, Ward examined air quality in the borough. Using a Temtop air quality detector, a TV remote-sized device that measures PM 2.5 levels, she collected air samples from different public parks located along major roadways in the Fordham and University Heights neighborhoods of the Bronx. Ward recorded PM 2.5 concentrations during three time periods—peak traffic hour from 7 to 10 a.m., 12 to 2 p.m., and rush hour from 5 to 7 p.m.—nearly every day for two months. Then she compared those numbers to their “green” equivalent at the New York Botanical Garden and Edwards Parade on the Rose Hill campus—spaces located more than 300 meters from a major roadway.

Her solo study provided a better picture of air conditions in the borough, said city health experts and environmentalists in a recent AM New York profile of Ward’s work.

“I found overwhelmingly that the farther I am away from the roadways, the smaller the PM 2.5 concentration, meaning healthier air quality,” Ward said, after using Python programming language and math modeling techniques to analyze her data. “But the closer I am to highways, large diesel trucks standing and idling—things of that nature—the PM 2.5 [levels are]consistently very toxic for vulnerable populations.”

Particle concentrations were in the “good” to “moderate” range in the green spaces, as classified by data from the Environmental Protection Agency. But the Bronx park locations near major roadways, including Noble Playground, had particle concentrations categorized as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” to “unhealthy,” Ward said.

“When I go to the public parks and see soccer teams, kids playing, moms and babies in strollers, and see the PM 2.5 [levels]as harmful,” said Ward, “it’s a staggering difference that tells a lot about environmental injustices taking place right in the borough.”  

An Alarming Discovery on the D Train

Her project was inspired by a program called Project True—a collaboration between Fordham and the Wildlife Conservation Society, where Ward worked on an urban ecology research project in 2017. It sparked her interest in how the natural landscape interacts with people and cities. It also made her think about a topic closer to home: the pediatric asthma crisis in the Bronx, her home for the past four years.

“It’s a disease that will be affecting cities as they grow in population, as more cars are added to the roads, and also as the EPA continues to deregulate air pollution,” Ward said.

She added that her preliminary subway data is “scary,” too.

Last September, she said she stood on the uptown subway platform at 59th Street and, on a whim, decided to measure the air quality. A “good” PM 2.5 concentration is 0 to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air, according to the EPA. Ward’s measurement, however, was nearly 120—a number deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” she said. And the further underground she ventured into the subway station, the higher the PM 2.5 concentration became.

“At every stop along the D train route, levels have been harmful to human health in general—not just for those who already have lung conditions or children,” Ward said, adding that other subway lines could have similar levels. “The levels are twice what I see typically at roadside locations … That ultimately could tell a lot about the health of subway workers and the millions of people who ride the MTA every day.”

Using Science to Push for Change

Ward will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics this May. She is currently enrolled in Fordham’s five-year master’s program in humanitarian studies, where she will continue conducting research that blends science and math with social justice. Right now, she is in the process of submitting her research article for publication. But over the next few years, Ward said she’s planning on collecting and comparing more quantitative data, particularly between the D and Q subway lines, with a better air quality detector.

She said her research is dedicated to the memory of Fordham first-year student Nicholas Booker, who died after a severe asthma attack last fall.

“Science can be used as a tool to enact change and advocate for justice,” Ward said. “Ultimately, it can be that tipping point to make lawmakers and policymakers see that there is a problem.”

The Gabelli School of Business seniors are both first-generation immigrants from Eastern Europe (her parents are from Hungary, his are Albanian). Both were born at the same hospital in Manhattan and attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side. Both commuted to Rose Hill as first-year students and transferred to the Gabelli School at Lincoln Center their sophomore year, where they both majored in global business with a concentration in digital media and technology.

Both have opted to stay at Fordham to earn master’s degrees in computer science at the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS). And they’ve been a couple since their first year at the University.

It’s been an eventful path to graduation for each of them.

A Nudge Toward Something New

Although Marko tried her hand at marketing when they first enrolled at the Rose Hill campus, it didn’t quite click for her. Becaj suggested she give computer science a shot.

“Before that, I never really knew what computer science entailed. No one ever talked to me about it. Then I took Computer Science 1 and I just instantly loved it,” she said.

Not only did she take to it, but because she had AP credits from high school and took summer classes, she finished her undergraduate studies a semester early and enrolled in GSAS this spring to begin her graduate studies. This summer, she’s interning at Take Two Interactive, the makers of Grand Theft Auto video games; she expects to graduate with her master’s in December.

Becaj started out with a pre-med concentration at Fordham College at Rose Hill before transferring to the Gabelli School, and will be taking a little longer to finish his graduate studies. At the Gabelli School, he tried his hand at finance and marketing as well. He credits Marko with giving him the strength to try—and fail at—new things.

Feeding Off Each Other’s Successes

“I’m actually more comfortable with trying things when she’s around. I’m just a lot more comfortable doing it. She steps out of her comfort zone all the time,” he said. In their sophomore year the couple were finalists for the Consulting Cup, a semester-long course where student teams are tasked with investigating real companies.

Marko currently works part-time as a salesperson for BLU Reality Group, but is hopeful that upon graduation, she will be able parlay her Take Two internship, which is in infrastructure automation, into a position in that area. Becaj is considering working this summer alongside his father, who turned 71 this year, before plunging full-on into his graduate studies. Like Marko, he’d like to intern for a software development company.

Both students say they take inspiration from their families. Marko’s father moved from Győr, Hungary, when he was 14, and found work as a limousine driver and personal assistant to Placido Domingo. Becaj’s father likewise made his way to the United States when he was a teenager; he has been a superintendent for nearly 50 years at a building on the Upper East Side—a far cry from where he came from.

“My dad was from a family of very poor farmers. The first time he had shoes, I think, was when he went into the army when he was 17,” he said.

Needless to say, Marko and Becaj, who both received scholarships to attend Fordham, are grateful for the opportunities they’ve been given. Marko credited Michael Kadri, an adjunct professor of computer science, with turning her on to computer science, while Becaj said James McCann, a lecturer of finance and business economics, made business easier to grasp.

The Great American Story

Vincent DeCola, S.J., assistant dean for the B.S. in Global Business at Gabelli, is their “number one” though, they said, and not just because he helped them transfer to Lincoln Center.

“I hear stories about what he’s done for other students who have gone through difficult times, and he’ll just be there to listen or provide advice. That’s technically not his job, but he goes above and beyond,” said Becaj.

Father DeCola, for his part, has fond memories of the couple visiting him five times, by his estimate, over a year and a half to change either their concentrations or minors. He called theirs a “great American story.”

“They both have very positive attitudes. That’s one of reasons I never got tired every time they came to my office thinking about changing their career path. They’re always so positive and just pleasant to work with. I always found it cute that they’d come in together, and that they were still together,” he said.

“And if they decide they want to come back and get married, I wouldn’t mind if they ask for my services in that capacity as well.”

Phillip Gregor likes to travel and he likes to take pictures. The former is something he is familiar with from his time abroad as a heavy equipment operator in the Air Force; the latter he’s learned at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), where he’s graduating with a major in New Media and Digital Design. At Fordham, he got to indulge both passions by joining the Study Abroad program in Rome and Tokyo.

“Art is something I have always had an interest in, but had neither the time nor resources to pursue,” he said. “The G.I. Bill afforded me both.”

Gregor served just over six years on active duty and was deployed to Iraq for six months, though his permanent station was at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He also volunteered for a yearlong deployment to South Korea and was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant.

He said he was attracted to Fordham after seeing it listed as one of the top schools for veterans in the Military Times, an independent armed forces news source. This was important to him, since he had struggled with the admissions staff at another college he was considering.

“The counselor I had at another college didn’t have a grasp on how to work with veterans,” he said.

On arriving at Fordham, he was soon integrated into citywide programs for veterans. That connection provided networking opportunities and helped him begin to think about translating his military skills into civilian jobs.

He initially paired his art major with social work, but eventually decided that he wanted to stick with art and later pursue law. His photography work prepared him for the legal field, he noted, because it involved a lot of the same critical-thinking skills.

“Street photography for me requires a lot of observation, understanding, and anticipation of human behavior,” he said. “Improvisation and quick thinking are also necessary skills for good photography. All of those skills apply directly to the law and business worlds.”

Moving Past Health Challenges

Gregor worked with Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, artist-in-residence in the visual arts program, both on campus and in Tokyo and Rome, where he spent one winter and two summers studying photography through Fordham’s Study Abroad program.

“His work harkens back to the golden periods of photos,” said Apicella-Hitchcock. “He shoots in a traditional mode, black and white.”

He called Gregor “a very modest guy” who reveals just “ten percent of what’s going on” in his personal life. Indeed, Gregor only mentions in passing the series of health troubles he’s had to grapple with while getting his undergraduate degree. Twice, he’s had to take a leave of absence for health issues relating to his time in the service.

“I started my education at Fordham while having severe medical concerns, at times thinking I was going to die; I pressed on,” he said, adding that his faith in God has been a source of strength.

“I have always been very committed to my Catholic roots and my faith has been the core of my success.”

Art in Place

As part of Fordham’s short-term faculty-led study abroad program, students can study in Rome during the summer and take classes in art history, visual arts, theater, or Italian. There are also opportunities to go to a host of other cities, like Tokyo. Professors often build their syllabi around landmarks and local museums.

Gregor participated in two summer courses offered abroad, but he first studied abroad in Tokyo during the winter session of 2015 with Apicella-Hitchcock. He later went to Rome to take photos in 2016 and again in 2018 to study art history with Jennifer Udell, Ph.D., curator of university art, and Joanna Issak, Ph.D., the John L. Marion Chair in Art History. He said he appreciated the art history classes for their immediacy and relevance.

“Every day instead of sitting in a classroom and looking in a book you’re actually there in front of the art,” he said. “You hear about the political campaigns of ancient Rome and how it relates to today.”

Even his required student presentations were done on location. He presented twice at the Vatican—once about St. Peter’s Baldachin, the bronze canopy over the high altar at St. Peter’s Basilica, and another time about the basilica’s facade.

“That was a memorable experience,” he said. “The ornate interior exudes a regal elegance.”

Trying Not to Be a Tourist

Gregor said he found Tokyo much cleaner and less chaotic than Rome, though adapting to their social norms proved a challenge when photographing people. He found this challenging, he said, as it made him feel more like a tourist and didn’t want his photos to appear as such.

“When you’re trying to let the experience saturate, your eye shifts from touristy to more of an intricate depth of the culture,” he said. “It’s just like in New York, you hit Times Square when you get here, but that’s not the culture.”

From Barracks to Museums on the G.I. Bill  

More than his photos, Gregor likes to talk about the journey. He gives credit to his professors and classmates for their support.

“Fordham’s faculty is phenomenal, the teachers really care, and the students are welcoming,” he said. “I’m an older non-traditional student and there’s not been one time in a class in Rome or Tokyo where I felt like an odd man out.”

Gregor will walk at commencement in May, but he’ll return to Rome over the summer to fulfill an internship requirement under the mentorship of Apicella-Hitchcock. He’ll be assisting the Study Abroad office to capture the student experience abroad. He plans to float between the theater, documentary photography, and art history programs to document their classes, update social media platforms, and create an archive for future publications.

On his return, he plans to apply to law school.

“I served my country, I was great with the standards, the conduct, and did very well on the professional military education,” he said. “That gave me the leeway to major in art and focus on Fordham’s core philosophy courses, and a lot of law schools are looking at students with more versatile backgrounds.”

He became drawn to the little church building near his home. Castellano prayed the rosary, sang in the parish choir, and joined the youth ministry. By the time he reached high school, his life began to revolve around three places: home, school, and the church.

Then one day, a thought occurred to him:

“I started loving being in the church,” Castellano said, waving a hand that holds a silver devotional ring—an early gift from a fellow Passionist priest. “Before graduating from high school, I asked myself: ‘What if I consider life in the priesthood?’”

The Path to Priesthood

Today, Castellano is a 41-year-old priest of the Passionists of St. Paul of the Cross Province, an order found in more than 50 countries worldwide.

At age 28, he became ordained as a priest and, later, a vocation director: a person who helps and guides those who are discerning their vocation in the church. Over the next decade, he journeyed across the country, recruiting future priests and shepherding young seminarians to priesthood. But in his travels, he also witnessed things that could hurt the psychology of a potential priest—deep-seated poverty and “broken” families—particularly in Manila.

“Where he works in the Philippines is one of the poorest, most vulnerable communities in urban Manila,” said Faustino “Tito” Cruz, S.M., dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, who was born and raised in the capital city.

There are only two places in the world where divorce is illegal: Vatican City and the Philippines. This has led to the development of “second families,” Castellano explained—conglomerate families of informal stepparents, illegitimate children, and, often times, difficult childhoods.

He recalled a young seminarian who grew up in a “second family.” Life in the seminary was difficult for the young man. He disobeyed his superiors and left the seminary at night when he wasn’t allowed to.  

“Families play an important role in vocation formation. If a child witnesses brokenness or infidelity in the family, that affects the child,” Castellano said.

Redefining the Taboo Behind Mental Illness

Castellano found a solution in Fordham’s master’s program in pastoral mental health counseling—what he called a “marriage of spirituality and mental health counseling” that could help him better guide young seminarians.

In the summer of 2017, Castellano moved to the U.S. and started school at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. Over two years, he completed 60 credits’ worth of coursework.

“There’s a warm and generous spirit about him,” said Kirk Bingaman, Ph.D., who taught Castellano in the Theology of Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Care class last fall. “He’s able to explore things comprehensively and in depth … He really had a compassionate approach to his work.”

One of Castellano’s most challenging classes was Psychopathology and Diagnosis, a course designed to help students understand mental disorder diagnosis and treatment. He said it reshaped his understanding of mental health treatment, which is widely seen as a cultural taboo in Asia.

“For Filipinos, if we have problems, we just go to the karaoke bar,” he said, letting out a short laugh. “Our country is bombarded with a lot of manmade and natural calamities. If we have floods in the Philippines, like up to this,” he said, standing up and gesturing below his chin, “we would just enjoy swimming.”

Treatment for mental health issues, he said, is especially stigmatized.

“It’s the last resort of our problems,” Castellano said. “When you go to a counselor or psychotherapist, people will tell you, ‘Are you crazy? Like, can’t you handle your life?’”

What he learned as a young man heavily shaped the way he viewed people with mental health disorders. For years, it was difficult to understand and sympathize with them—including some of the young seminarians in his care. But his time at Fordham changed his attitude.

“A person is always more than their diagnosis,” he said. “The client is a person … There is always this chance for each and every one of us to have that process of healing.”

Paving a New Path in the Philippines

At Fordham, he learned to love Rose Hill’s Gothic buildings and the small, tight-knit community at GRE. He met people who were neither Catholic nor Filipino—men and women from countries as far as Croatia, the Solomon Islands, and Ecuador.

And because Castellano’s student cohort was so small—less than 10 people—he was able to bond with each of them. He recalled the day they walked to Arthur Avenue for some chit-chat and a couple of beers. He also remembered when he connected with Kate Hoover, a Buddhist classmate, who taught him a different way of life.

“I’m amazed at how we tolerate, and how we’ve become so respectful of each other’s faiths,” Castellano said. “And how we decide to love our own faith and at the same time, be open to knowing God in different perspectives.”

In a few months, he will return home to the Philippines. Castellano plans on using his newfound skills to help him better serve his community, the church, and God. He sees himself counseling young men wrestling with emotional turmoil and the priesthood, and even helping some seminarians realize that they aren’t destined for the priesthood after all. In the future, he might obtain his doctorate in ministry.

But for now, he hopes his GRE training will especially help the young students under his wing.

“That would be a great fulfillment for me,” Castellano said. “To see a seminarian who’s undergone counseling and was able to get over, or at least manage, his issues and become a successful priest.”

She chose Fordham College at Rose Hill and never looked back.

“I knew I would be happy at either school, but I wanted something different for college. I wanted to branch out and I thought, ‘What better place than New York City?’”

Porter majored in political science and was so taken with it that she stayed on another year to earn a master’s in election and campaign management at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. A member of the graduate student council, she will serve as the school’s beadle at commencement in May, though she’ll technically graduate in August.

An Interest in Polarization

Then it’s off to help alleviate the yawning partisan gap in U.S. politics. Inspired by classes such as Polarization in American Politics, which she took with professor Richard Fleisher, Ph.D., and informed by her own background growing up in a conservative area of the country, Porter hopes to find ways to bring Americans of different backgrounds together.

“The question at the end of our polarization class was, ‘What does this mean for our democracy? Is this detrimental?’ The answer was, not yet, but it really could be. That’s something that I think has really stayed with me,” she said.

“It sounds cliché to say, but I want to do something to bridge the gap between the parties. It gets really hard because you’re asking people to give up their beliefs to compromise, which isn’t gonna happen realistically. I think bipartisanship is understanding that there’s still partisanship involved, but you’re figuring out a way that it can work.”

She has no delusions about the challenges ahead. But research she’s conducted at Fordham has convinced her that some partisanship can be blamed on structural problems. In a paper she wrote about campaign finance laws, for instance, she found that a majority of Political Action Campaigns (PACs) are associated with corporations or membership and trade groups, and support centrist political positions. So the common perception that corporations and special interests are polarizing agents in politics today is not entirely accurate, she said. Individual donors, on the other hand, tend to reside at the ideological extremes, she noted. And those donors’ influence has grown in in recent years.

“We can see that candidates that position themselves further towards the extremes raise more money from individual contributors. So, limits on contributions change the types of donors that candidates can focus on and raise money from,” she said.

“Who candidates raise money from can effect which types of candidates get elected—either more centrist or more ideologically extreme. I’m trying to avoid a value judgment on which one is better, just trying to understand how the change can happen. It’s not about public policy. It’s about the rules and how they kind of shape what can happen in the public policy sphere.”

From the Theoretical to the Practical

If her undergraduate degree gave her a theoretical grounding, the master’s has given her practical training needed to work in the field. Porter has been interning at the political consulting firm the Advance Group this spring, and for her capstone project, her class is designing from scratch a political campaign for Martha McSally, the junior senator from Arizona. Voter profiles, polling questions, television scripts, a fundraising plan, phone banking—they’re designing all of it, using the knowledge they’ve learned from classes such as Survey Research, which is taught by Monika McDermott, Ph.D.

McDermott, who also taught Porter as an undergraduate, said she was an outstanding student, a fun person to have in class, and someone who was obviously actively thinking about the material being discussed.

“Whit’s got a passion for politics that is very important when you’re going into the political world, because it’s a really rough and tumble world and it’s not for the faint at heart,” she said.

“She’s got the sharp, and I would say, natural instincts of what works and what doesn’t in the political world. Some of that comes from learning, and some of it comes naturally. I think that’s what’s going to make her a success when she lands a job and starts working full time.”

Getting Ready for 2020

Porter’s not sure what she’ll do after graduation yet, but is attracted to consulting, for which there will likely be a great need as the 2020 presidential election approaches. Even if she doesn’t work directly with a 2020 presidential candidate, she anticipates that lower-level political races will also be affected, as voters tend to vote straight Democratic or Republican tickets, creating a coattail effect.

Moving to New York definitely prepared her to confront differing opinions, she said, and even caused her to change some of her own.

“I am not leaving Fordham with the same political beliefs I was brought up with. Coming to New York, you’re just opened up to an entirely different perspective and a different worldview,” she said.

“It’s interesting, because I can also see how people here have no idea what it’s like to grow up in the South, or in a place where conservative values are the norm, and it’s not always a bad thing. I feel like I have this really interesting perspective of both ideologies and how they’re so different. They kind of just shoot past each other without ever really intersecting.”

But one Fordham student has beaten the odds.

Callan O’Shea, a graduating Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, studied in Paris for six months last spring. For O’Shea, an integrative neuroscience student on the pre-med track, the trip was not only a “transformational experience to get a bigger scope of the world,” but also a unique step in his path toward becoming a neurosurgeon.

The Value of Human Relationships

Before O’Shea became a college student, he knew he wanted to become a doctor. Outside of his schoolwork during his first two years at Fordham, he volunteered at Mount Sinai West Hospital (formerly known as Roosevelt Hospital), located just a block away from the Lincoln Center campus. In the rehabilitation unit, he worked with elderly patients who had physical injuries, people recovering from stroke and spinal cord injuries, and patients with Parkinson’s disease. In the emergency room, he recorded patient needs and relayed their requests to medical staff.

It was there, he said, that he learned about the importance of connecting with patients—not just as clients, but as people.

“Speaking with patients in these often vulnerable conditions … they place a lot of trust in you, and it really touched me,” O’Shea said. “Then moving to emergency medicine, seeing the pace of that, and having the ability to do so much good so quickly—having that responsibility reinforced that.”

Nurturing a Passion for Neuroscience Abroad

Through online research, O’Shea began to look for research topics that connected his hospital volunteer service with his surgical interests. That’s when he learned about neural engraftment in Parkinson’s patients: taking skin cells from patients, turning them into new neurons, and implanting them into the same patients to rehabilitate motor skills.

“Being able to grow healthy neurons and insert them surgically into patients to restore function is something that really sparked my interest,” O’Shea said.

At the beginning of 2018, he studied abroad in Paris, where he conducted hands-on neuroscience research. At the Université Paris Descartes Centre de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, he examined social memory in the brains of mice. He also traveled a few days a week to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, where he analyzed how information is recorded and communicated within a hospital unit.

In those six months, O’Shea also got to take in Parisian culture. He lived with a host family, improved his fluency in French, and took a tap and jazz dance class at the Paris Marais Dance School.

It was his first time traveling abroad, thanks to the Center for University Programs Abroad—an independent organization introduced to him by Fordham’s study abroad office. This month, O’Shea returned to France for the annual Cannes Film Festival.

“[Studying abroad] was really important for me, as someone who didn’t really travel at all growing up and as a science student who doesn’t usually have the opportunity to incorporate language classes and things like that,” O’Shea said.  

When he returned from France, he wanted to extend that same potential to his classmates in the integrative neuroscience department, many of whom haven’t yet studied abroad.

“He set up a meeting with me and the chair of his department so the three of us could talk through how we could make [studying abroad]easier for his classmates,” said Joseph Rienti, Ph.D., the director of international and study abroad programs at Fordham. “One of the most remarkable things about Callan is that he does things not just for himself—there’s a real altruistic and broader vision that he has.”

Combining Neuroscience and Medicine

When he returned to New York, he began working as a research volunteer at the Icahn Medical Institute at Mount Sinai. O’Shea’s experiments spanned different strains of science: genetics, genomics, and neuroscience. In one research study, he and his colleagues took skin cells from schizophrenia patients and converted them into stem cells, then analyzed their potential.

“We essentially had cultures of patient neurons in a dish that we could test for certain drugs and analyze for genetic effects,” O’Shea explained.

After he graduates from Fordham this May, he will return to the Icahn Medical Institute at Mount Sinai; this time, though, he’ll be working as a full-time research technician. Once he gains enough out-of-classroom experience, he plans on applying to dual M.D./Ph.D. programs in neuroscience and neurosurgery next year.

But for O’Shea, the most rewarding part of being in the medical field is more than translating research into real-life applications. It’s the relationships—the intimacy of patient-doctor interactions and the special camaraderie shared among doctors, nurses, and technicians in difficult situations.

“The relationships that the medical field builds are really, really special,” O’Shea said.

“I was really struck by what a difference it made for her to sit down and just be listened to,” said Pitcan. “That got me interested in the power of having somebody to witness what you’re going through—and how that can give people hope.”

Pitcan is a 27-year-old doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at the Graduate School of Education who will graduate this May. Over the past decade, she studied psychology as an undergrad at the University of Florida and completed a master’s degree in mental health counseling at GSE. She also volunteered as a 24-hour crisis/suicide hotline operator and counseled people of varying ages at several psychology internships.

Exploring Racial Microaggressions Against Black Men

More recently, she is the mastermind behind a project published by the American Counseling Association—one of the world’s largest organizations dedicated to professional counselors.

Last December, Pitcan published one of her GSE research projects in The Career Development Quarterly, a research journal put out by the American Counseling Association. Her project, “Black Men and Racial Microaggressions at Work,” focused on the comments and behaviors that subtly—and often unintentionally—express discrimination toward marginalized groups. She analyzed the experiences of 12 black men employed in companies where the majority of the employees were white. Over a span of two years, she spoke with them about the microaggressions they had faced in the workplace. Then she asked them about how they had reacted: what they felt, what they thought, and how they coped.

“It made them feel really alienated at work,” Pitcan recalled. “It left a bad taste in people’s mouths.” But because the nature of many reported microaggressions was “ambiguous,” a lot of people were uncertain about how to address them.  

The motivation behind Pitcan’s project was her own experiences as a Jamaican-American. She recalled attending majority-white schools where students made “weird” comments that were supposed to be compliments, but came across as insults. “You don’t talk like a black person” was one of them.

“It’s a symptom of a larger problem,” Pitcan said, referring to racial slights and wider discrimination across the U.S. “It’s like the fever you experience when you have an infection.”

Treating Trauma at a National Military Medical Center

Now Pitcan is a full-time clinical psychology doctoral intern at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center—one of the biggest military hospitals in the United States.

Since last September, she has cared for U.S. military service members, retired military, and their families. Many of these patients deal with trauma related to combat, exposure to violence and death, sexual abuse, or childhood issues, she said. Some come in for couples counseling. Others grapple with more corporeal diseases like cancer.

Pitcan’s longtime GSE professor and research mentor, Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D., said that in the five years she’s known Pitcan, Park-Taylor has seen her consistently present her work at regional conferences with a “calm, cool, and collected” composure. She’s watched her connect with curious strangers in a “real” way, and break down complex topics into conversational language. And she’s reviewed hours’ worth of transcripts from Pitcan’s interviews with black men who’ve faced discrimination.

“All of her participants shared really personal and, I would say, painful experiences … She was able to create a safe environment for them to share that. To not make them feel any shame or judgment,” Park-Taylor said. “She was able to, I think, really probe in a deep way. And that’s really difficult sometimes with complete strangers.”

Pitcan’s internship at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center also required her to commission in the U.S. Navy and become a lieutenant. Before she started working in clinical care, she underwent five weeks of boot camp in Newport, Rhode Island.

It wasn’t easy. But at the end of the day, she said, it was all worth it to help her patients rebuild their lives.

“Whatever your political beliefs are or however you feel about everything else, the individuals who serve in the military are sacrificing a lot for what they believe in,” said Pitcan, whose ultimate goal is to become a psychologist and establish a multidisciplinary group practice—a holistic group of doctors that includes experts in psychology, primary care physicians, mindfulness practitioners, and nutritionists.

“It’s really rewarding to get to work with folks who are willing to do that kind of work.”