The two immigrated to the Belmont neighborhood from Kosovo in 1995. While her husband worked, Lasku stayed at home and raised their three children. But when their youngest entered kindergarten, she also began looking for work in custodial services. Two years later, she landed a job just a few blocks from their Arthur Avenue home, at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

On May 21, 10 years of scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, dusting, and setting up for campus events finally paid off, as Valentina, the oldest of their children, earned a master’s from the Graduate School of Education (GSE). Valentina had already earned a bachelor’s in psychology last year from Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH), but the day was no less sweet for Verenika.

“I’m so proud of her. It’s even better with a master’s,” she said.

“[My husband and I] finished grammar school but we didn’t have the chance to do more,” she said. “It’s always been something on my mind that I want my kids to do better than I do. Even if I didn’t get this job, I would do anything to make it happen—even if I had to take out a loan.”

For Valentina, who was born in the Bronx a year after her parents moved to the United States and grew up in the shadow of the Rose Hill campus, this graduation was particularly sweet because there was little time to savor earning her bachelor’s degree last May. In September, she’ll start a job teaching third grade special education at a school in the Bronx.

“I graduated last year on a Saturday, and on Monday, I started grad school,” she said. “I spent my whole summer and this past year taking classes, so I feel like I crunched two years into one.”

“I’ve wanted to become a teacher since I was very little, so I when I heard Fordham had a graduate education school program, I knew I wanted to jump on that.”

And Valentina’s younger sister Gabriellais following in her footsteps, having completed her first year at Fordham College at Rose Hill. Lasku hopes her son Robert will follow her when he graduates from high school, too.

“I feel accomplished, knowing that I was actually able to do something and make something out of myself for myself,” Valentina said, noting that she was thankful both for her mother’s sacrifice and for fact that she got to see her on campus periodically.

“It feels good being the first one to be able to graduate and set an example.”

In her Lady of the Manor address, senior Abigail Gibson joked that she was thankful to be Jesuit-educated, or “Jesucated,” as she put it.

“I truly believe that I have become a better, more caring, and socially conscious person after taking all of the Jesuit catch phrases to heart. That being said, I should take a moment to apologize for taking St. Ignatius’ advice (to set the world afire) and setting the Tierney Hall microwave on fire,” she said.

“I should also apologize for insisting that ‘men and women for others’ means that freshmen are required to give me meal swipes. One final thing I need to apologize for is skipping class to take a bubble bath because, cura personalis.”

Class valedictorian Brett Bonfanti likewise got laughs, saying “many of you may not know me … I just got out of the library where I have been secluded for the past 4 years.” He asked his fellow classmates to reflect upon the ways they’ve changed since first stepping foot on the Rose Hill campus four years ago. If they fail to habitually reflect on their past, he cautioned, they might end up becoming something they really didn’t intend to be without realizing how it happened.

“What really made you into the person you are right now? How have the last four years affected you? Changes come in many forms: social, intellectual, and moral,” he said.

Bonfanti said that his time at Fordham had dramatically expanded his worldview through interactions both off campus and on. He recalled wrestling with questions of guilt and conscience after reading Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. A political science major, he also cherished how small, seminar-style classes allowed for robust discussions about life or death issues, redistribution of wealth, and Supreme Court decisions. It was up to the Class of 2016, he said, to use their education “wisely, and with purpose.”

Maura Mast, PhD, dean of the college since 2015, beseeched the first class to graduate on her watch to make gratitude a part of their daily life. After intimating that they must be grateful to have been earned college degrees, Mast corrected herself, noting that it was they who would know what they were grateful for. She called for a moment of silence to ponder that question.

Mast said that Society of Jesus founder St. Ignatius of Loyola took gratitude very seriously, calling ingratitude one of “the most abominable of sins.”

St. Ignatius’ solution to ingratitude, the “Daily Examen,” has been described by theologians as the act of “rummaging for God,” said Mast—a metaphor that appealed to her.

“When I rummage through a drawer or a box, I’m looking through a bunch of stuff.  I may find something familiar, or something I’ve overlooked or forgotten about, I may find a treasure, large or small,” she said.

“St. Ignatius’ point was that God freely and abundantly gives to us.  By reflectively walking through our day looking for gratitude, we begin to identify the gifts—the treasures—we are given.”

Mast said that understanding gratitude transforms one’s relationship with God, oneself, and the larger world. She cited the late Daniel Berrigan, SJ, who saw God in the faces of the people, and imagined them as connected as beads on a rosary.

“I encourage you to keep gratitude present in your daily life, and to let gratitude guide your future,” she said.

About 150 members of the senior class took home awards in recognition for excellence in areas ranging from academics to service to personal growth.

“Truly, this class understands that a humble and strong spirit produces amazing results,” said Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, dean of the Gabelli School.

“The ceremony signals the end of our time together here at Fordham. But more important, as the name ‘commencement’ suggests, it’s also the beginning… A beginning that you have proven to us and to yourselves in so many ways that you are prepared for.”

In her final piece of advice before Saturday’s University-wide commencement ceremony, Rapaccioli reminded the students that they possess many important qualities to succeed—intelligence, grit, a reflective nature, and even a “New York attitude.”

She also urged them to embrace another critical yet undervalued trait: humility.

Often, humility gets lost among old stereotypes that cast business as a field concerned with prosperity and pompousness, Rapaccioli said. However, that’s not the kind of business education Fordham offers.

“Humility is not about hiding your accomplishments or being a doormat. It is about being open to others’ opinions, seeking feedback, reflecting on your experiences, and admitting mistakes,” she said. “It is a reflection of the confidence you have in what you know and what you believe, so that you don’t need to be showy about it.”

Taking home the top academic awards were valedictorian Graziella Coppola, who graduates with a 3.996 GPA, and salutatorian Bradley Florio, who earned a 3.97.

Coppola, a first-generation college student who is receiving a bachelor’s in public accounting, spoke to her classmates of the uncertainty many of them are feeling as this chapter in their lives closes.

“If you’re anything like me, you fear the unknown and want everything to go the right way,” Coppola said. “But life doesn’t work that way, and we can’t let fear hold us back.”

Their Fordham education has prepared them well not only for business, but for the world at large, said Coppola.

“We’re not just business students—we’re men and women for others. So let’s inspire and bring out the best in others around us. That’s the Jesuit way. That’s the Fordham way,” she said. “Let’s be proud of what we’ve accomplished here tonight, but acknowledge that it’s just the beginning.”

Highlights from the ceremony include:

• The Dean’s Award for commitment to the Fordham community to Emily Raleigh, founder and CEO of Spire & Co., and co-president of Fordham’s Entrepreneurship Society;
• The 2016 Gabelli School of Business Alumnus of the Year award to Brent Martini, MBA ’86;
• The E. Gerald Corrigan Thesis Award for the best original research in the global business honors program to Leona Lam (“The Impact of Female Risk Aversion of Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure”) and Alisha Mehndiratta (“Addressing Peru’s Child Labor Problem”);
• A tie for the Patricia Ramsey Honors Thesis award to Federico Giustini and Tahseen Hasan, for their honors thesis “Privatization of Eminent Domain: The Misconstruing of Eminent Domain’s Ethical Underpinnings” (Giustini) and “CEO Risk-Taking: Does Generation Matter?” (Hasan);
• CSTEP Scholar Awards to Dorina Cipollone and Marisa Diaz; and
• Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence to Ben Cole, PhD, associate professor of management systems, and Paul Lynch, PhD, clinical assistant professor of accounting and taxation.

Two of this year’s graduates—Andrew Santis, who is receiving a bachelor’s of science in marketing with a concentration in global business, and Stephanie Ballantyne, who graduates with a dual master’s degree in public accounting and taxation—have worked, lived, and studied in more than a dozen countries between the two of them.

To Ballantyne, the global bent at the Gabelli School felt like home. Born in Germany and raised in Switzerland, she completed her undergraduate degree in accounting finance at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and then worked for Deloitte Zurich before coming to Fordham.

The move was challenging, she said; but then, having attended an international high school and traveled as a student to the likes of Egypt, Russia, and Greece, the challenge was a familiar one.

“I’ve always had culture shock happening at some point or another, but I grew up knowing I’d have an international lifestyle,” said Ballantyne, whose credits include president of the Gabelli School’s Accounting and Tax Society and chief operating officer of the Finance Society.

“I like New York,” she said. “Switzerland is a bit more laid back—they start work earlier, but also leave earlier, and on the weekends their phones are turned off. For someone starting their career, it can seem a bit slow.”

The New York pace has suited Ballantyne. She interned at Deloitte in Manhattan last summer, and by August she had secured a full-time offer.

“It was a big change, coming here—especially because I started at Fordham in 2014 during the polar vortex. There were about two snow days per week, which made it hard to meet people,” she said. “But overall, Fordham was definitely the right choice.”

For Santis, a native New Yorker, it was a study tour to Spain during his junior year that sparked his passion for global business—but his real adventure began when he returned home to his internship at Cardwell Beach, a digital marketing agency.

“My boss knew how much I enjoyed Madrid, and in March he called and said they wanted to offer me compensation for my work, which would be to send me abroad to work for the summer,” he said. “It didn’t even have to be Spain—I could choose any country I wanted.”

His options boundless, Santis chose a multi-city tour of Europe. He began with a week in Paris, and then joined up with fellow Gabelli School students for a summer semester program at Fordham’s London Centre. After London, he continued on to Germany, where he spent a week each in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich.

In the mornings Santis explored the city, and in the afternoons, once his New York colleagues were at the office, he worked on creating buyer personas for Cardwell Beach.

“It was definitely a test of strength and character,” Santis said. “I learned a lot about myself by venturing out to another part of the world on my own.”

Both Santis and Ballantyne have jobs lined up following graduation. Ballantyne will continue with Deloitte in Manhattan, and Santis will take a full-time position at Cardwell Beach (a position for which he will craft his own title and job description).

“Fordham prepared me well,” Ballantyne said. “All the opportunities are here—you just have to take the initiative to go get them.”

Zoom out to see the journey as a whole, however, and you’ll find that the two paths dovetail. The army captain-turned-religious-educator is graduating with a master’s degree in religious education from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education.

“It’s wasn’t too much of a switch,” Van Heusen said in a Skype interview from Koneitra, Lebanon. “I felt called to serve people, which is true for both.”

Van Heusen is a member of the Maronite church, an Eastern Catholic church that dates back to fourth-century Syria. Since October, she has been living and volunteering at a monastery in Koneitra to gain a deeper understanding of Maronite origins and witness how the tradition is lived out in the Middle East today.

Her focus in religious education is on youth and young adult ministries. It was from the monastery that she finished her master’s thesis, in which she develops a catechesis program for American Maronite youth.

“I love working with kids,” Van Heusen said. “The younger children understand so much. They still have that awe and wonder. And teenagers have such a thirst to learn, once you can get them talking and asking questions. Even young adults—in the parish [in Worcester, Massachusetts]where I was working, we would just sit sometimes for hours. They would tell me that it’s rare they can find someone who will just sit and talk with them like that.”

Before transitioning to parish work, Van Heusen was serving as an officer in the Army. She graduated from West Point with a bachelor’s of science in chemistry and life sciences, with a concentration in nuclear engineering. She toured widely as a military police officer, participating in force protection and peace and security operations in places such as Iraq, Guantánamo Bay, Kosovo, Israel, and Germany.

However, she couldn’t ignore a growing desire to work more closely with the Maronites, whose Syriac liturgy Van Heusen finds beautiful and “poetic.” Contemplating religious life, Van Heusen left the army and entered a Maronite convent.

She ultimately did not find her vocation with this community, and eventually relocated to Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn. It was there that she first heard of Catholic Extension, a national organization dedicated to supporting underserved mission dioceses across the country.

She was accepted to the partnership program between Catholic Extension and Fordham, which allows candidates to receive a master’s degree at no cost in exchange for two and a half years working in one of the mission dioceses.

Van Heusen will return from Lebanon in June and relocate to Darlington, Pennsylvania, where she’ll be assisting the pastor at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Maronite Mission.

“One thing that I’ve loved about Lebanon is the hospitality of the Lebanese people, which is something they’re known for,” Van Heusen said. “I remember one of the sisters trying to teach me the word for ‘hungry’ in Arabic, and I said to her, ‘But Sister, I’m never hungry—I’m always being fed!

“The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve fallen in love with the liturgy and the spirituality.”

Antonio Joseph DelGrande’s passion for language landed him one of Fordham’s five Critical Language Scholarships. The award offers intensive summer language instruction in 13 foreign languages deemed critical for building relationships between the United States and the international community.

DelGrande, who is graduating from the Gabelli School of Business‘s global business honors program, was originally destined for Bursa, Turkey to study Turkish, but his assignment has been relocated to Baku, Azerbaijan due to security concerns.

“It was a surprise to hear, and a bit of a bummer at first, but I’m excited to go,” said DelGrande, who is also proficient in Spanish and Italian, and has studied Mandarin and Swahili.

The two-month study will not be DelGrande’s first foray with Turkish. He has been studying the language since high school and also studied abroad in Istanbul. He plans to use his experience this summer to prepare him to begin a career in translation. He said he’s noticed many small businesses using websites and Facebook pages in both Turkish and English in order to reach a wider audience. Often, however, the translations are not good.

“I’d like to help these smaller business reach the English-speaking world by providing translations,” he said.

School of Law graduate Olivia Gonzalez will travel to Oxford University. Gonzalez won a Fulbright fellowship for graduate study in the United Kingdom, where she will work toward a master’s in social science with a specialty in cybersecurity law and policy.

“There is no existing international law on cyberwarfare,” said Gonzalez, who was also a 2014 White House fellow. “I’m interested in how the current laws of war are going to apply in the case of a cyberattack, and I’d like to help create new laws and policies around this.”

Boren scholarship winner Peter Terrafranca sets out in June to Amman, Jordan for a summer of intensive Arabic language study followed by a year researching the refugee crisis in the Middle East.

“I’m interested in how refugees integrate into the countries they end up in, as well as how U.S. foreign policy has affected refugee issues in the region,” said Terrafranca, a School of Professional and Continuing Studies student who is majoring in international studies and minoring in Arabic.

Terrafranca’s Boren win comes after a long journey of his own. After dropping out of a community college business program, Terrafranca enlisted in the military and made several tours to Afghanistan and Romania. While abroad, he witnessed firsthand the chaos that refugee families endure when they are forced to uproot and start anew in a foreign country.

“It’s a complex subject, and a sensitive one, because most refugees just want to go back home,” Terrafranca said. “I want to find out what hasn’t been talked about yet.”

As of July 5, other prestigious scholarships won this year include:

• Nine Fulbright Fellowships: Erik Angamarca, FCRH ’14, to Taiwan; Mostafa Elmadboly, FCRH ’16, to Turkey; GSAS student Kathleen (Ellie) Frazier, to Sierra Leone; Olivia Gonzalez, LAW ’16, to United Kingdom; James Lassen, FCRH ’16, to Taiwan; Pilar Mendez-Cruz, FCRH ’16, to Germany; David Rowley, FCRH ’13, to Turkey; Suzy Sikorski, FCRH ’16, to the United Arab Emirates; and GSE student LeAnn Tadros to Jordan.
• Eleven Clare Boothe Luce scholarships: FCRH junior Carolyn Allain; GSAS student Chelsea Butcher; FCLC sophomore Sammi Chung; GSAS student Nicole Fusco; GSAS student Carol Henger; FCRH sophomore Anna Jane Hudson; FCLC sophomore Juliet Mengaziol; FCRH sophomore Abby O’Neill; GSAS student Sarah Seepaulsingh; and FCRH sophomore Marissa Vaccarelli.
• Five Critical Language Scholarships: Antonio Joseph DelGrande, GABELLI ’16 (Turkish); FCRH sophomore Nicholas Guthammar (Arabic); FCRH junior Rich Himed (Arabic); Miranda Morton, FCRH ’15 (Urdu); and Suzy Sikorski, FCLC ’16 (Arabic).
• Six Gates Millennium scholarships: FCLC freshman Kevin Berlanga; FCRH junior Dylan Hollingsworth; Gabriel Hyman, FCLC ’16; FCLC sophomore Amarachi Korle; FCRH junior Yota Oue; and GABELLI freshman Anisha Pednekar.
• Four FBI Honors internships: FCRH junior Carolyn Allain; FCRH junior John Oddo; FCRH sophomore Cailee Tallon; and Luke Zaro, FCRH ’16.

Two additional Fordham alumni won Fulbright fellowships through other educational institutions. Michael Perrin, FCRH ’13, GSAS ’14, received an English teaching fellowship to Spain. A recent graduate from Yale University’s epidemiology and global health program, Perrin also plans to shadow at children’s hospitals and the Ministry of Health while in Madrid. Victoria Chatfield, GSE ’10, received a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching, which she will complete at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

John Kezel, PhD, director of the Campion Institute, said his office’s initiative to reach more students from all of Fordham’s schools paid off this year.

“We are seeing greater diversity in the students who are applying for fellowships and they are bringing increasingly more creative projects and richer cultural and social backgrounds into their applications,” he said.