“I came into college just really trying to have this one focus. … On the first day of sophomore year I realized I wanted to change my major,” said Singer. “I found these two things that I’m really interested in. My thinking was, ‘Well, I might as well try them both and see what sticks.’ Turns out they both stuck, so here we are.”

Recently, the two disciplines have converged in unexpected ways, particularly when people became infected with COVID-19 at religious gatherings and when large religious gatherings were subsequently banned. As a theology major and a religious Jew, Singer understands the importance of religious rituals in times of crisis. But as a biologist who interned at a virology lab for animals, he understood the public health risk. He doesn’t believe anyone should be in large gatherings during this time for any reason.

“I wasn’t working with the virus directly, but I saw how careful you needed to be and how easy it was to contaminate everything,” said Singer, whose concentration was in organismal biology. “A public health response really needs to have a lot of empathy to be successful. Just in a utilitarian sense, you’re not going to accomplish what you’re hoping to accomplish if you’re not cognizant of what that takes for people.”

Curiosity Beyond the Familiar

Singer said that being a Jew in a Jesuit institution has taught him a lot about understanding others. He said the starting point for any dialogue should be a genuine curiosity about those outside one’s intimate circle.

“It’s not out of trying to debate or find points that you disagree on, because that’s not productive, and that’s not the point of having theological conversations at a school like this,” he said. “It’s more about trying to really understand how another person is thinking, without trying to point out flaws in their argument and break them down. It’s about practicing empathy through logic.”

His mentor, Assistant Professor of Theology Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Ph.D., said Singer is poised to understand the sometimes-rocky intersection of science and theology.

“One of the things that we’re learning right now is how science and medicine are very much connected to all of the other dimensions of our lives: to urban planning and to race and to religion and communities,” said Kattan Gribetz. “Understanding how tied people’s spiritual lives are to their physical health is something that is really important. Someone like Michael who is really comfortable in both worlds can navigate that in really creative ways.”

Separate Interests Converge

The clash between ideology and science is nothing new, said Singer. But studying them together in today’s specialization culture is rare. He recalled his semester studying abroad at Trinity College in Dublin. His European counterparts were confused when he discussed his double major.

“It was completely unheard of for a lot of professors and students that a person could do two unrelated majors,” he said. “But I wouldn’t say they’re completely unrelated disciplines.”

In his studies, he learned that in the 18th century, before science was a fully established profession, theologians attempted to reconcile the two disciplines to show that the scientific discoveries of Newton and Galileo were indeed connected to the spiritual realm.

“They ended up with this really impersonal deity that was divorced from people’s spiritual reality, and ultimately ended up being a very poor reflection of physical reality,” he said of deism, which espouses a belief in a supreme being, though one that doesn’t interact with the natural world.

Though he’s aware of and inspired by the many ways they intersect, he considers his areas of study to be two separate pursuits, with science concerned with the physical and theology focused on the metaphysical, he said. Indeed, some of his theology professors had no idea he was also majoring in biology until he told them.

“I wouldn’t have even guessed he was a biology major, except for that he told me. I would say he’s such a deep humanist. I’m sure he has this really intense, scientific side too, but I really felt, when he was in the class, he was in the class because he was deeply invested in learning theology,” said Kattan Gribetz.

She added that while she imagines Singer has a very bright scientific future ahead of him, he could have had a promising career in theology as well.

Trusting the Text

Singer just completed an internship in a lab at Rockefeller University and will spend the next two years working in a lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering. At Sloan Kettering he’ll be focused on epigenetics, researching DNA in the developmental process to see if mutant signals that lead to cancer can be intercepted. From there, he expects to grasp the research he wants to pursue in graduate school. It would seem that the scientific side of Singer will be at the forefront of his budding career, with theology continuing to inform his life.

“I think one of the things I learned at Fordham is that even though they’re so different, there are these weird places of contact. There’s a concept in theology called exegesis, which, especially when reading the Bible, refers to the idea that you’re supposed to draw out the meaning inherent in the text. You’re not looking for anything in the text. You trust that the text knows what it’s saying and will tell you,” he said.

The concept of exegesis has become very helpful to him in the lab.

“You’re not trying to impose your existing conception of reality on your experiment; that’s data fudging. That’s extremely bad. People lose careers over that,” he said. “What you’re trying to do is just let the observation show you what the real meaning behind the data is. I suppose it’s sort of Zen. … It’s the concept of sort of just working really hard at surrendering to whatever the text is telling you, or the observations are telling you.”

Enoch has seen nearly every corner of the Harlem community, and from several different perspectives. He’s seen the inside of its drug clinics as both a patient and later as an advocate. He served on the board of several nonprofits, sat on community board committees, worked with the homeless, marched in dozens of protests, fought for voter education, and ran for New York City Council. As he leaves the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) with a master’s in social work, he’ll return to his community, this time as founder of a new nonprofit for the visually impaired called the 145th Street Alliance. 

A Head Start

Enoch’s story has auspicious roots. He attended the prestigious Ethical Culture Fieldston School before heading off to Boston University in 1976. Despite problems with his eyesight that began when his left eye was hit with a baseball as a child, forcing his right eye to work harder, he continued to play baseball in college. But he left Boston after two years under the false impression that he wasn’t doing well in school. He took a job offer at a bank in back in New York City.

“I fooled myself into thinking I was doing badly at school so I could come back to New York,” he said. “I was making good money at the bank, but I also wound up working at some famous nightclubs.”

He said he’d stay up all night at the club and try to work the next day at the bank. Something had to give, so he dropped his job at the bank, stayed at the clubs, and worked a bit in real estate. He was the living the quintessential lifestyle of what became known as the Go-Go ’80s, until things took a turn for the worst. He became addicted to cocaine, which lasted until the mid-2000s. He became homeless.

Getting Back Up to Run

A shaky recovery began in 2003. He joined Picture the Homeless, an organization founded by and serving New York’s homeless population. By 2007 he was officially clean. Among the established nonprofits he worked for are Hope Community, Working Families Party, and most recently for Transportation Alternatives, the nonprofit advocating for cyclists, pedestrians, and straphangers. There, he helped strategize with the group to gather more than 45,000 signatures in a campaign to improve public transport. But by 2012, issues with his eyes became very serious.

“My eyesight was bad for a while, but then it started getting really bad and I realized I could no longer do that work. I was tired of running into things on the bike,” he said.

He had been diagnosed with glaucoma and cataracts and could no longer work with Transportation Alternatives. To make matters worse, he was battling lung cancer. He had two lobes removed. On recovering, he decided he wanted his voice heard, loud and clear.

“One door closes, another door opens,” he said. “I was like, ‘Well what can I do?’ I said, ‘I know what I’ll do, I’ll run for City Council.’” And he did, in 2013.

“I lost to Mark Levine, but that’s cool. Him and I are still close. He’s a good guy.”

Enoch knew his chances were slim, as most of the candidates had already secured union support and political endorsements, but he had grassroots support. At the time of the race, New York Amsterdam News, the august African-American newspaper, called him “a Harlem resident with a rough past.” It was a description he wore proudly; Enoch made no secret of his battle with cocaine addiction—a struggle many voters in the district understood, he said.

“If you look at my history and the history of Harlem, it’s the same,” he told the website DNAinfo during his run. “We’ve had our downtimes and now we are where we’ve always wanted to be.” 

Learning to Learn

In 2015, he formed the 145th Street Alliance as an LLC, in an effort to keep the issues of the blind at the forefront of politicians’ minds. But his failing eyesight became something he could no longer ignore. He went to the New York State Commission for the Blind, which offers an array of services for the blind, including career services and training.

A counselor there suggested he apply to City College, though he was warned, to his secret relief, they would not likely accept his 40-year-old credits. As an older student, he was more than a little reluctant to return to school. But his relief was cut short by a surprise. When his transcript arrived from Boston University it turned out that he had actually excelled in college, despite his youthful insecurity about his grades. He was accepted into the college’s prestigious Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.

“I thought, come on, will somebody say no? Will somebody stop this madness?” he said with a laugh.

Though he graduated magna cum laude, he didn’t get into the law school. Again, he breathed a sigh of relief—until Fordham’s GSS accepted him.

“I’m like, [expletive], I guess I have to go,” said the reluctant scholar.

Leadership Realized

Enoch’s journey continued to evolve. The GSS faculty began to recognize Enoch’s growth and his potential as a leader within the school’s community.

“Brodie’s background brings that connectivity between being an advocate and his own resilience and that makes for a great social worker; we’re just putting on the final touches to mint him as a part of our profession,” said Ji Seon Lee, Ph.D., associate dean at GSS. “Like a lot of people who come to this work, Brodie has a sense of what he wants to do; we provide structure so he can have a guided purpose to achieve his goals.”

Enoch’s field placement with Pastors for Peace allowed him to delve into his passion for policy via a street-naming project that put him back in touch with community board members and City Council. Alongside his placement, he continued with his own work with the 145th Street Alliance.

“It was at that point that I spoke to a couple of people at Fordham and realized that it would be better for me to start a not-for-profit, and that’s what I did in January of this year,” he said.

The 145th Street Alliance’s improvements to the built environment for the blind help create safer streets for the elderly and for young children through the group’s Walk Safe 20/20 project, he said, which addresses street safety.

“If you’re doing stuff for the visually impaired, it works for everybody,” he said.

Caballero Jaime is a pastoral mental health counseling student at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. This May, she will graduate with her master’s degree and plans to transition in the future from her full-time job as a liaison at the Mexican consulate in New York City to a job in her new field. 

“I would like to continue helping women especially, and children, to be with them in this journey they have, and try to help them in any way possible as a pastoral mental health counselor,” Caballero Jaime said. 

An Immigrant from Mexico

Caballero Jaime was born and raised in Mexico City, the fifth most densely populated city in the world, according to the United Nations. She grew up in a conservative Catholic family with her parents and two older brothers. Her father, a lawyer, passed away when she was 9 years old, but instilled a love for reading and writing in his daughter—“one of the best presents you could ever have,” said Caballero Jaime. 

She said she also found a role model in her mother, a family housewife who became a vice-director in a cosmetics company. 

“I am here because of her hard work,” she said. 

Caballero Jaime went on to serve as deputy director of public relations for the Senate of the Republic of Mexico and political adviser for the National Action Party in Mexico City. In 2008, she moved to the U.S. to work for the Consulate General of Mexico in New York, where she currently works to assist the Mexican population living in the tri-state area. The consulate provides passports, IDs, records, visas, and consultations on protection and community affairs. Its members travel to more than 60 locations, including regions that are eight hours away from its main office in Manhattan.

“She articulates a deep desire to improve the quality of life of Mexican immigrants in the United States,” said Faustino “Tito” Cruz, S.M., dean of GRE. “In many ways, she is an insider-outsider who attempts to address both the personal and systemic/communitarian quest for human dignity.”

Five years ago, she realized she wanted to help people in a different way. From 2015 to 2018, she served as a pastoral care volunteer at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she supported patients with neurocognitive disorders, addictions, trauma, and terminal illnesses. It was an eye-opening experience that made her want to do more, she said. 

One day, she sought advice from her pastor. “I think I have this call[ing],” she remembered telling him. “I think you should look at this,” he said, pulling out a copy of Fordham Magazine and showing her a story referring to the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. Later that night, she returned home and browsed the GRE website. She was hooked. 

‘You Are Here, and You Are More Than Welcome’

For three years, she learned about a new world. Instead of studying translation and political science, as she had done for her prior degrees, she learned about psychopathology and diagnosis, trauma, and ethics. She studied religion and theology from different perspectives and learned how important it is to embrace the culture and country you come from. In a supervised clinical internship at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone in Brooklyn this year, she said she realized the need for bilingual psychotherapists—especially with a background like her own.

“One of my patients, I remember, she told me when she first saw me, she thought, oh my goodness, she’s not going to understand where I am coming from because she’s white,” said Caballero Jaime. “She said she felt identified when I described myself. I said, ‘Well, my name is María, I’m Mexican, and I’m also an immigrant.’ That was the link. That was the click.” 

She said that experience reminds her of one of the most important lessons she learned from GRE. 

“It’s something that Fordham has taught me. It doesn’t matter where you come from. It doesn’t matter if you are Latina, if you are Chinese, Korean, Egyptian. You are here, and you are more than welcome,” Caballero Jaime said. 

In the years ahead, Caballero Jaime said she wants to empower her clients, especially women who have been physically or sexually abused. And no matter what that role looks like, Caballero Jaime will do a great job, said one of her mentors at GRE. 

“She’s very impressive, personally, intellectually, and in her own work in pastoral counseling studies,” said Francis X. McAloon, S.J., associate professor of Christian spirituality and Ignatian studies at GRE, to whom Caballero Jaime served as a research assistant for three years. “She is a godsend, really. And I know whatever she’s going to pursue in the future—presumably some kind of pastoral counseling practice—she’ll do a great job.”

“I’m not coming from a background where my entire family is doing finance,” he said. But some of the other students, he noticed, had been exposed to the fields of corporate banking and hedge funds because of their families’ experience in the field.

So Li, an international student originally from Shanghai, decided to learn everything he could from his classmates—from etiquette to insight into how financial markets work. Many of them, he said, began interning as early as freshman year.

“They had their part-time career, part-time jobs—and I was kind of jealous, honestly,” he said. “So that really pressured me a little bit, but at the same time, it encouraged me to do a better job.”

He continued applying throughout sophomore year, and landed an internship at Aflac. Around that time, he also began working with Jennifer O’Neil, associate director of career advising in the Gabelli School’s’s Personal and Professional Development office, who helped him improve his resume and tell his own story better.

“Before he even came to see me, he had gotten his first internship at Aflac and he did a great job of [not just]taking…an internship but leveraging his foreign language skills and coming up with an idea to penetrate the Chinese business community for [Aflac’s] products,” O’Neil said. “He’s just always thinking outside the box.”

This thinking allowed him not just to add an internship to his resume, O’Neil said, but “add value to Aflac in a way that another intern couldn’t.”

O’Neil said that her biggest role was helping Li take the skills he had acquired from Aflac, his work in school, and other hobbies and showcase them on his resume to highlight his unique interests, which extended beyond finance and academics. His first year on campus, he auditioned for the Fordham University Choir.

“When I went to the audition, I did not expect that it would be for this formal University choir,” he said with a laugh. “I thought it was a club, somewhere that could give you some kind of lesson—Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, something like that.”

Li said that he was the only one who hadn’t been singing since high school or middle school, but after the director took a chance on him, he decided to stick with it for all four years.

“I learn very quickly. I think that’s one of the things the director [saw in]me” he said.

It’s that dedication that helped him land a summer internship his junior year with Bank of America as a fulfillment, service, and operations analyst.

“I was lucky enough to get a return offer from them,” he said.

After Li graduates, he’ll be starting as a full-time corporate banking analyst at their headquarters in Shanghai.

“I will be covering multinational corporations’ subsidiaries that are operating in Asia, in China, who have a revenue of $2 billion and above as well as some local corporations,” he said.

O’Neil said, often international students have to work hard to overcome some of the challenges they face, such as language barriers or lack of familiarity with the country. Li was a great example of how that hard work can pay off, she said.

“I tell a lot of the international students—get on the treadmill next to your American counterparts and put the incline on 10 and put the speed about two miles per hour faster than them, because that’s how much harder you’re going to have to work,” she said. “And he did it.”

Li said that he was grateful for the support from Fordham faculty and staff, like O’Neil, as well as the unique education Fordham offers.

“Studying in the city at Fordham Gabelli, you’re able to talk to people from all over the world; being able to emerge from such an environment has definitely broadened my horizons and given me more insight from different people of different backgrounds.”

“I said, ‘You know Mo, if it was anyone else I’d be really, really concerned, but I wasn’t concerned because it was you,’” he said. “She was able to do it all.”

From starting as a walk-on in her first year to breaking records her senior year, from juggling internships to pursuing a passion for storytelling, Morgan Williams, a television and film major in the Fordham College Rose Hill Class of 2020, proved her coach right.

Williams started all four years on the volleyball team as a libero—a defensive specialist position. Her senior year, she became the first Fordham player to win the Atlantic 10 Libero of the Year award. She broke seven school records and tied an eighth, making her Fordham’s most decorated libero.

Lately she’s been reflecting on some of the excitement of past games.

“There’s so many little moments that I’ve been thinking about,” Williams said.

One of those was the match against George Washington near the end of her senior season.

“We were down in the fifth set, I think 11 to 14—we had one really long rally and won. For as long as I’ve been playing volleyball, it feels like whenever the game is on the line and nobody wants to be the one serving, it always ends up being my turn,” she said with a laugh. “It happened in the George Washington game, and we came back and won and it was just such an amazing feeling.”

Williams became the program’s all-time digs leader, finishing her career with 1,862. She finished her senior season with 641 digs, at a pace of 6.05 per set, ranking her in the top 10 nationally in both categories.

Add it all up, and Williams is now one of the most decorated Fordham volleyball players of all time, something she never thought possible when she began her career as a walk-on.

While Williams, originally from Los Angeles, planned to play volleyball like her sister Ashlie, who played at Georgetown, she was a late recruit to Fordham, committing in April of her senior year of high school. By then, all of the athletic scholarships had been distributed. Still, Williams decided to bet on herself.

“I had a plan to earn my spot, and then also hopefully earn a scholarship,” she said. “I was really intimidated at first because there were two liberos ahead of me. I worked really hard and … when it was time for our fall preseason game, my coach read off the starting lineup and she read my name off as the libero.”

Once Williams got the spot, she never let it go, missing just three sets in her entire career. She was awarded a scholarship for her final two years.

“It was calculated by her, and it was self-actualized,” Choi said. “She demonstrated more than enough value.”

Volleyball was Williams’ first love, but her passion for storytelling grew alongside it.

At one point in high school, she said, her love for the game also began to cause her some anxiety.

“So my dad found me this writing class at UCLA … and it was three hours long and all you did was write stories. It was the best outlet.”

She grew to love writing dialogue and set her sights on screenwriting, which inspired her to major in television and film. When Williams got the chance to intern at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she knew she couldn’t let it slip away. Still, the internship would require her to miss a few practices, something that traditionally wasn’t allowed.

Williams presented the opportunity to her coaches who helped her come up with a workaround, albeit one that required long hours on her part.

“Mondays would start with an early morning lift,” she said. “[I’d] get out, shower, get dressed, hop on the train, get to work around 8:30, 9 … and when it was over, I’d head straight back to the gym, and one of my assistant coaches would be there with the court set up and we would do an hour, hour and a half of reps…and then I would go home and do my homework.”

“That was most definitely my toughest semester at Fordham,” Williams added, but also said it gave her some incredible memories.

“It was just really cool to watch Stephen [Colbert] test out jokes to make sure that when it was showtime he gave the people the funniest stuff he could,” she said. “Soundcheck was awesome because I could watch it for both the house band, which is stacked with super cool jazz musicians, and for the music guest.”

Choi said that he was proud of her for being able to balance it all that semester.

“Spot on for Mo to finish her career with this award—the only Libero of the Year I know who got to work with Stephen Colbert,” Choi said. “I’m happy to see her go out this way.”

Williams plans to continue to play volleyball recreationally and hopes to volunteer to teach it at local schools. She’s also applying for jobs in the media industry and working on a few side projects, including a book about the journey of a volleyball player and the lessons learned along the way.

“It’s been a really crazy ride, but something I wouldn’t trade in a million years,” she said.

“A lot of people with Ph.D.s don’t look like me, or sound like me, or have a name like mine,” said Rodríguez, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Education who will be the first in her family to have a Ph.D. “I want people to know that just because I’m this little girl from East Harlem with a family that isn’t the most educated doesn’t mean that I don’t belong.” 

In the Neighborhood

For Rodríguez, East Harlem has always been home. In the summers, she spent her weekly allowance on snacks from a little blue truck near her building that sold microwaveable cheeseburgers and juices for a quarter. Sometimes, the local Icee man gave her free ice pops. 

When Rodríguez was a little girl, she wanted to be a medical doctor. Her parents aren’t technically immigrants—her mother, previously a substance abuse counselor, and her father, a construction worker, were born in Puerto Rico—but her family held onto the “immigrant dream” and hoped to see their daughter get a medical degree one day, she said. Little did her mother know that she was inspiring her daughter to become a different kind of doctor.

For many years, Rodríguez’s mother worked as a substance abuse counselor at Rikers Island. Her clients were imprisoned for drug possession, scamming, theft—sometimes worse. When they were released from Rikers, they often ran into Rodríguez and her mother in their neighborhood.

“I remember seeing how happy they were to see my mom and give her updates on how they’re doing well and how they’re committed to their programs [to stay sober], and now they’re clean,” Rodríguez said. “I remember just feeling so impressed by that—how much of an impact my mom had on them and feeling like I wanted to be in a similar position.” 

Rodríguez, now 27, wants to be a psychologist for children and their families. She will graduate this May with her Ph.D. in school psychology from the Graduate School of Education, where she also earned her master’s degree in the psychology of bilingual students in 2019. 

She came to Fordham because she wanted to work with Giselle Esquivel, professor emeritus of the Graduate School of Education, who was known for her work in bilingual psychology. 

“Unfortunately, she was very sick by the time I got into Fordham, and she actually passed away,” said Rodríguez. “But I remember feeling how Fordham really emphasized culture and language and practiced what they preached.” 

In Rodríguez, Equivel’s work carried on. 

A Hard Pill to Swallow

Over the next six years, Rodríguez served as a psychology intern and extern in organizations across New York City, including the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx and the Harlem Child Development Center. She has provided therapy and conducted psychological evaluations for many clients, from infants to adults, with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD. 

Sometimes, the possibility of a diagnosis is a hard pill to swallow. There was one mother, recalled Rodríguez, who refused to accept her son might be autistic. Her oldest son is nonverbal and autistic, but because her younger son could speak, she believed he couldn’t be autistic, too. 

“To accept the fact that your child is on the spectrum, in some ways, is like mourning the potential of your child,” said Rodríguez. “Every parent has a dream or vision of how their children are going to be. And I think her defensiveness was really because she wasn’t open or ready to accept that her other child also is on the spectrum—and what does that mean about maybe her as a parent, or what does that mean about this child’s opportunities and the child’s potential?” 

After a year of working together, the mother allowed Rodríguez to refer the boy for a psychological evaluation. Rodríguez’s supervisor later confirmed that he had autism, she said. 

“Not knowing is so difficult. Not understanding why their children are behaving the way they are. And when they have an answer and they have more information, I’ve noticed—sometimes, not always—they feel a little comforted or reassured by that,” Rodríguez said.  

Some days are emotionally taxing. But Rodríguez says it’s rewarding to see people make gains and better understand themselves—especially clients of color. 

“I really love working with people of color and seeing them feel less stigmatized by their diagnoses. There’s a lot of misinformation and stigma behind mental illness. I think that’s a global problem, but it’s even bigger for people of color,” said Rodríguez. “Especially working with Latino populations, I’ve heard a lot of myths and misconceptions and hesitations around therapy. I hope to show people that a lot of those misconceptions are incorrect and that therapy is not for crazy people—therapy is useful for everyone.” 

‘Her First Time’ Presenting

Through Fordham, Rodríguez also traveled to Kenya in 2019 and mentored children. She was accompanied by several students and a longtime mentor, Diane Rodriguez, Ph.D., professor in curriculum and teaching at GSE (to whom she shares no familial relation). For several years, Ashley served as Diane’s graduate assistant. They co-authored a peer-reviewed article in the journal Insights into Learning Disabilities in 2017. That year, they were supposed to co-present their research at the New York State Association for Bilingual Education’s 40th anniversary conference in Westchester County—the first professional presentation for the younger Rodríguez. Diane was unable to attend the conference because her father became very ill, so Ashley presented alone. 

“It was her first time, and I wasn’t there with her to support and guide her … But then my colleagues who went to see both of us were sending me these fantastic, raving emails about how wonderful my graduate assistant was at presenting the data,” said Diane. “As faculty, what you want to see is how your students grow and become these outstanding professionals and do the job better than you. She’s one of those people.”

After graduation, Rodríguez said, she will become an adjunct instructor in bilingual assessment at GSE. She will also continue to work at New Alternatives for Children, a child welfare agency in New York City, where she currently serves as a paid psychology intern. Next year, her title will change to postdoctoral psychologist and she will earn a salary instead of a stipend. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has switched the therapy sessions she does there from in-person to virtual, and it’s not the same—especially for her young clients. 

“I’m hoping that my clients see that even through a pandemic, I’m still there for them,” she said. 

Fulfilling a Promise

When Rodríguez receives her Ph.D. in a few weeks, there’s one person who won’t be around to witness it: her abuela. Rodríguez was close to her grandmother, a woman named Petra Soto, since she was born. Soto was a homemaker who went to school until second grade, when her mother became paralyzed and required constant care. But Rodríguez said she always told her abuela she would receive her doctorate, and her grandmother knew she would become a doctor before passing away three years ago at age 99. 

“I know she was really proud that I’ll be able to serve our community,” said Rodríguez.

“That career dream turned into becoming a surgeon,” said Krisch, a February 2020 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill. She is heading to medical school this fall. 

Body Cells, Dry Ice, and Dissections

Krisch has lived on Long Island her whole life. She grew up in Glen Cove with her mother, a high school anatomy and chemistry teacher; her father, an IT worker; and two older brothers, an accountant and an aspiring police officer. 

The three siblings were surrounded by science, thanks to their mother, who carried her classroom home. Once she scraped the inside of her children’s cheeks with a toothpick and showed them the structure of their cells under a microscope. Another day, she brought home dry ice and explained the science behind sublimation, the transformation from solid to gas. One summer, after Krisch helped her mother clean her classroom, the two of them dissected a fetal pig. For the first time in her life, Krisch saw an animal heart and “spaghetti” intestines up close. 

“I remember thinking, wow, everything in here is a lot gooier than I thought it was, but also a lot larger and complex,” said Krisch. “From a very young age, [my mother]instilled a passion for science in me.” 

In high school, she found a field that combined the two passions she had honed throughout her childhood: orthopedic surgery. 

“Bones. Musculoskeletal systems. Joint replacements, broken bones, traumas—all of that,” Krisch explained. “They call it the carpentry of medicine because there’s a lot of power tools involved.” 

For almost eight months in 2015, Krisch shadowed a local orthopedic surgeon in Great Neck, New York, and saw him diagnose and treat many patients. She recalled a man with osteoarthritis who couldn’t walk when he first arrived at the clinic. 

“By the end of my time shadowing Dr. Simonson, that same patient was shooting hoops with his grandchildren,” said Krisch. “I was like, wow, I want to be able to do that. That’s a miracle in medicine.” 

A Future Doctor at Fordham

In 2016, she graduated as valedictorian of Glen Cove High School. For the next three-and-a-half years, she studied biology on the pre-health track at Fordham College at Rose Hill. She mentored first-year students as an undergraduate assistant for the ASPIRES Scholars Program, served at-risk high school students through the Fordham chapter of Strive for College, and taught review sessions as teaching assistant coordinator for the Fordham chemistry department. 

“She is, at her core, a teacher, which is why she’ll be such a phenomenal physician,” said Ellen Watts, assistant dean for pre-health advising. “She has the natural ability to see when others need help and be able to guide them through what they need to move forward—not just to give them answers, but to help them learn.” 

At Fordham, Krisch took classes in medieval history and ancient philosophy—things that don’t necessarily go with biology, but can help her connect with patients from many backgrounds, she said. 

“Surgeons get the bad rap of being impersonal; they’re only interested in science, they can [only]talk about their profession. Fordham offers that great, well-rounded liberal arts education that enables you to talk about more than your major,” said Krisch. 

In her first month at Fordham, she began serving as an emergency medical technician with Fordham University Emergency Medical Services. Throughout various roles, from crew chief to captain to head of day staff, she provided patient care to both members of the Fordham and Bronx community until December 2019—her final month as an undergraduate. 

Krisch said she graduated a semester early to help her save money for medical school and give her brain a much-needed break. This spring semester, she’s worked as a full-time tutor for high school and college students and visited the Rose Hill campus several times to co-present workshops to juniors and seniors preparing to apply to medical school. Krisch said she has been accepted to two medical schools in New York state, but is waiting to hear back from several more; she will make her final decision by July. 

‘It’ll Be Maria Who’s Helping Them Be Their Best’

Becoming a physician in orthopedic surgery, a male-dominated field, will be a little challenging, said Krisch. More than 84% of orthopedic surgery resident physicians are men, according to the American Medical Association. But Krisch says she’s ready. 

“I’m excited to be able to make those dramatic life-changing transformations. I’m excited for the unpredictability of the job. No broken bone is the same,” she said. 

Krisch is becoming a doctor amid one of the worst health catastrophes to hit the world: the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the U.S. health care system didn’t lack the proper training to handle the pandemic, but it suffered from a shortage of ventilators and personal protective equipment. After things settle down, she said, it will be important to review what we did right and wrong. Her initial thoughts include returning the manufacturing of medical equipment/supplies/pharmaceuticals back to the U.S. and addressing socioeconomic disparities in health care. 

“In medicine, it’s absolutely important to be proactive, but it’s equally important to be flexible and reactionary when a Black Swan event such as COVID-19 comes about,” she said. 

Ten years from now, Krisch envisions herself as an orthopedic surgeon, a medical school professor, and an overall mentor. It’s a desire that stems from her science-driven upbringing and her mentoring experiences from high school to college, she said. 

Krisch isn’t a physician yet, but her mentor said she can already see her future. 

“She’s not even there yet,” said Watts. “But you can see that these little kids who are 5, 6, 7 years old who think they want to be a doctor 20 years from now—it’ll be Maria who’s helping them be their best.”

More than 300 students—including new freshmen, transfer students, exchange students, and American citizens who went to high school abroad—participate in the Global Transition program.

“It’s a great way to get to know the campus and other people, and to get help with all sorts of questions, such as immigration and visas,” said student leader Gladys Bendahan, a rising sophomore who participated in the program last year when she arrived from the Canary Islands.

“We are here to tell them that we all go through the same situation, that it’s normal to be nervous or to be homesick,” she said. “And to let them know they’re going to have an amazing experience.”

Of the total Global Transition participants, 207 are new freshmen members of the Class of 2020, making for the largest cohort of international incoming freshmen in Fordham history. As the University welcomes increasingly more students from around the world, the program is critical to helping students make the move to Fordham, said Monica Esser, director of international enrollment initiatives.

“We encourage the new international students to feel confident in their new surroundings, step out of their comfort zones and take advantage of all the opportunities Fordham has to offer,” Esser said. “Global Transition helps to create a supportive set of social connections for students to do all this—and to fully embrace the Fordham experience.”

The initial day of Global Transition was dedicated to moving in and helping the students get to know one another. In the following days, the group attended information sessions on topics such as cultural adjustment, health and wellness in the U.S., and Jesuit mission and identity.

There has also been plenty of time for fun, however—the group has taken trips to various New York City sites and participated in a scavenger hunt around the Lincoln Center campus.

“I don’t know if I’m just feeling this way now, or if the homesickness will hit later, but I feel like we’re already home,” Paula Najas, a new first-year student from Ecuador, said shortly after her team won the campus scavenger hunt.

Her teammate Jaissal Shalgolsen, from India, agreed.

“I always thought New York was a busy city and people had no time for each other. But here there’s been a community already set up and they’re here to welcome us and it feels like home already,” he said. “I was a tourist before, but now I’m settling down here and Global Transition has helped me to settle down really fast.”

An important component of Global Transition, said Esser, is the Global Transition Parent Program, which invites the families of international students to participate in a variety of activities while the students are orienting. Activities include a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Fordham faculty and a reception with Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

“We found the families of new international students—who may only travel the often long distance to Fordham for move in and commencement—eager for interaction with each other and the Fordham community,” Esser said.

“Of course, dropping your child off across the world feels better when you know members of their community and the families of their new friends.”

Rising freshman Gianna Antinori is the recipient of the second annual NSLC alumni college scholarship. The merit-based scholarship provides $10,000 per year in tuition, renewable for all four years of Antinori’s undergraduate education at Fordham.

Antinori, a graduate of Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, NJ, attended the NSLC’s medicine and healthcare program in Washington, D.C.

“These are merit-based scholarships, with applications evaluated on academic excellence, demonstrated leadership in extracurricular activities, and submitted essays and recommendation letters,” said Nate Silver, director of operations for the NSLC’s Yale and Fordham programs.

“We will be awarding one scholarship for each university each year, so by the time the class of 2022 enters Fordham, there will be four NSLC scholars on campus,” he said. “Our hope is that this scholarship generates interest in our host universities among our alumni and acts as an additional incentive for [them]to apply to Fordham.”

Rising sophomore Cameron DiGate was the recipient of the inaugural NSLC alumni scholarship in 2015. DiGate also attended the medicine and healthcare program, with the intention of becoming a veterinarian.

“We are very proud of this initiative, and we are very pleased to help some of our most outstanding students with their tuition payments at our partner universities,” Silver said.

Sponsored by the nonprofit National Student Leadership Foundation, the NSLC is a summer program that provides high-achieving high school students with an opportunity to live on a college campus and learn about careers that interest them. The conference has 16 programs on eight college campuses, offering instruction in business, government and law, STEM careers, leadership, and performing and media arts.

“It prepares students who are thinking about college,” said Richard Waite, director of Fordham’s conference services. “It’s a way of getting them to know what it’s like to live on campus or to go to school in New York City. And it’s a great way to get exposure for Fordham.”

During the two-week session, students participate in high-level classes, make site visits to organizations in their fields of choice, and meet with prominent leaders in the field.

“Students have the opportunity to go into Manhattan for site visits and meetings,” Waite said. “For instance, one year, students who were interested in culinary careers were invited to various restaurants in the city, including Per Se at the Time Warner Center.”

This summer marked the ninth year that Fordham partnered with NSLC to host the students on its Rose Hill campus.