The inaugural Victory Bell ceremony is “something special to recognize our student veterans in a way that shows our gratitude for their service,” said Matthew Butler, the University’s director of military and veterans’ services. While ringing the bell, each veteran also wore a newly created medallion—given to all graduating veterans—that had just been conferred in a ceremony in Keating Hall.

The May 17 ceremony marked another effort to embrace military veterans and make them feel welcome and supported at Fordham, consistently ranked among the top military-friendly Yellow Ribbon universities by Military Times.

Butler noted that the Victory Bell is one of many military symbols around Rose Hill. Traditionally rung to celebrate Ram athletic victories, the bell was taken from a Japanese aircraft carrier and was presented to the University by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in 1944 in remembrance of lives lost in the conflict.

The Victory Bell ceremony “recognizes more than just the completing of the requirements for your degree,” Butler said in the Keating Hall ceremony. “We recognize the whole person today. Today’s graduates are special,” he said, for taking the path of military service—“a path less traveled”—on their way to college graduation.

More than half of service members and veterans name educational opportunities as one reason for joining, he said, and noted the many first-generation college students enrolled in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

“Today marks the end of one chapter of our lives, and for most all of you, I suspect part of [your]continued journey is service—service to our nation, to our communities, to the men and women of the world. For we are men and women for others. It’s part of our Jesuit education and ethos,” said Butler, PCS ’17, a member of the Class of 2019 who is completing a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership.

Another speaker was Wesley Wilson, president of the Fordham Veterans Association, who described his initial trepidation at leaving the service. He wondered if anything else would be as fulfilling, “but Fordham quickly assuaged any of my concerns,” he said. “As you walk around campus … you quickly get a sense that there’s something different about Fordham.”

“The mantra of cura personalis, or care for the whole person, has given Fordham a very special place in my heart,” he said. “It was through Fordham that I was given the opportunity to continue serving—this time, my fellow student veterans.”

A Family Occasion

Nineteen graduating veterans, including Butler, took part in the ceremony, joined by friends and family members. Wilson had 14 family members make the trip from South Carolina for his graduation from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies with a bachelor’s degree. He ascended the steps to the Victory Bell with his 9-year-old nephew, Preston, who gave the clapper a good, strong tug.

Butler, invoking a common Jesuit expression, exhorted the graduating veterans to “go and set the world on fire.”

“Set it on fire with your continued service, with your compassion, with your conscientiousness, with your care for your fellow man, with the zeal that you learned in the military to take on all challenges, large and small.”

He named several new efforts carried out with student veterans’ help, like expanding the orientation for new student veterans from one hour to a full day and holding it at both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses. Other initiatives include a student veteran career ambassadors program, a disability services program, and an online checklist for veterans making the transition to college.

Another new initiative provides services and support for student veterans’ spouses and children.

“A huge thanks must be given to our families, who support us through this academic journey,” Butler said. “Today we say thank you, because we couldn’t do it without you.”

“To our soon-to-be officers, congratulations,” said Jack Keane, GABELLI ’66, a national security and foreign policy expert and Fordham trustee fellow who was the ceremony’s featured guest speaker. Later, he added: “The oath which you are about to take is a sacred trust between you and the American people.”

“We who take it, embrace it, and take it very seriously. I expect you to do the same,” said Keane, who administered the oath of office to the cadets. In his address, he outlined several security threats that he said will continue to challenge the military worldwide, ranging from a resurgent Russia to a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Twenty-two cadets became second lieutenants at the May 17 commissioning ceremony, held in the University Church on the Rose Hill campus the day before Fordham’s 174th Annual Commencement. Another cadet was commissioned on May 20. Nine members of Fordham’s Class of 2019 were among the cadets, who attended a number of New York-area universities.

In his address, Keane told the cadets they are entering not just a job or a career but something “more akin to a vocation” because of the sacrifices and discipline it demands.

Keane noted that he began his own military career as a cadet in the Fordham ROTC program. Following his commissioning, he was assigned to an infantry paratroop unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It was intimidating. “They were our very best. I did not know if I could measure up,” he said. “The noncommissioned officers, though subordinate to me, were also my teachers. Outside of our beloved Jesuits, they were the most professional and different group of men I ever encountered—smart, confident, totally dedicated, and completely selfless.”

They cared little about his background, he said. “What they wanted to know was, who was I? Was I willing to work hard to learn the necessary skills, did I really care, would my troops truly come first? In other words, they were … more interested in my heart than anything else.”

“I tried awfully hard to earn their respect and trust,” he said. “I eventually became one of them. I lived a life of shared experiences that enriched my life and my family’s beyond expectations.”

A career infantry paratrooper, Keane was a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam, where he was decorated for valor. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division and the 18th Airborne Corps, the Army’s largest war-fighting organization, and served as the Army’s acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff before retiring from the Army in 2003. He spoke about the Russia threat before the Committee on Foreign Affairs on May 1, one of many times he has provided expert testimony before Congress.

Keane said the U.S. faces security challenges “on a scale we have not seen since the end of World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union.” They include China’s efforts to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and supplant the U.S. as the world’s leader; radical Islam; and tensions being inflamed by Iran in the Middle East, in addition to the challenges posed by Russia and North Korea, he said.

In light of these threats, along with past defense budget cuts and the erosion of America’s military dominance, the Trump administration’s defense buildup “is even more critical than the Reagan defense buildup of the 1980s,” he said. “The United States military is a much-needed deterrent to these dangers. Your job will be to prepare yourself, your unit and your troops, to be ready.”

“I am proud you want to serve your country,” he said. “We do not take your commitment lightly.”

Protecting America’s Ideals

Speaking before Keane took the podium, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, reflected on the ideals in the country’s founding documents, calling them “luminously beautiful” but also “inherently fragile.”

“They must be protected, defended, and nurtured in every generation,” he told the soon-to-be-commissioned cadets. “They have called out to you and they have awakened in you the same bold generosity that has marked the lives of our greatest heroes.”

“I admire your courage. I am grateful for your generosity,” Father McShane said. “I am challenged—as I always am when I am in the presence of heroes—by your selfless love of our nation.”

During the ceremony, Father McShane presented Lt. Col. Samuel Linn, professor of military science at Fordham, with a certificate praising him for his “transformative leadership” of the ROTC program over the past three years. Linn is departing for Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to command an artillery battalion.

Two cadets were presented with awards honoring distinguished military graduates: Declan Wollard, GABELLI ’19, received the President’s Sabre, and Chris Bolton of Columbia University earned the General Jack Keane Award.

Also on May 17, two Fordham students earned commissions in the Navy ROTC program based at SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx, and the University held an inaugural Victory Bell ceremony at the Rose Hill campus to honor the veterans among the Class of 2019.

Photos by Argenis Apolinario, Bruce Gilbert, John Haubrich, and Chris Taggart

On Saturday, May 18, Tim Shriver delivered the following remarks to the Fordham class of 2019.

Tim Shriver: Class of 2019, congratulations. Father, I know you’re fond of saying … Uh oh. Already I’m cut off? I know it’s supposed to be short, but that. There we go.

I know you’re fond of saying … What’s the expression? I should know it now. Fordham is your university and New York is your campus? Fordham is my school. I screwed it up already. Okay. How about we add ‘And we forgive all your loans?’ I mean, this is a religion all about forgiveness, Father. You’re trying to get people to confession. Here you have the chance.

Joseph M. McShane: Senator Casey, what do you say? Can we take care of that? I mean, it would be great. I’m the wrong guy to talk to.

Tim Shriver: Congratulations in advance, especially to all the parents who are here. Let’s hear it for our moms, dads, uncles, aunts, people who mothered us and fathered us. Are you proud back there?

I know the next expression you’re going to say to all of them after you say how proud you are is get a job, right? Lincoln Center grads, the rest of you, these are your classmates. These are your classmates from Lincoln Center. I know it’s late in the process to be meeting them, but they’re wonderful people. I think this is Rose Hill over here. You guys should get to know each other.

I want to do a special shout out to the dancers. Hello, dancers. Yes. When I was in college I got in trouble for dancing too much, they got degrees for dancing too much. I want to congratulate my daughter, Caroline. I just couldn’t let you go. I had to get a degree with you. Linda and I, and your brothers and sisters, are extraordinarily proud of you, and of all of the graduates here.

Graduates, I hope you’re realizing that if you’ve spent the last four years making fun of the nerds those days are over. You now start working for them, and you will be for the rest of your life.

And to the faculty who’s here, I want to congratulate you for allowing these young men and women to enter the halls of academia, the search for truth. They’re entering a world that because of a whole host of sources doesn’t think there is truth anymore, so, graduates, I think your first job is to return to the country the truth. It’s up to you to figure out what it is. Don’t expect me to tell you.

I am not here to preach. I think there are enough preachers in this place already. I think probably the best ones are the women religious. Are there any women religious here on the stage? Maybe I can ask them to stand because pretty soon I hope they’ll be preaching from the altars. No? Come on. How about all the women faculty, then? Let’s have them all up. Come on. That’s you guys, come on. Stand up. We want you to preach.

That’s not a liberal thing, so just relax. That’s not a liberal thing. Jesus told…let’s do a little theology. Jesus told Mary Magdalene to teach the boys. We could use a little of that. Okay. That may be a little political.

Speaking of teaching, I had a powerful encounter with a lesson not too long ago. I was on an elevator in a hotel down in Texas. I got on the elevator. There was a guy on the elevator with a 10-gallon cowboy hat and big cowboy boots, and blue jeans and a big silver belt buckle. I pushed the second floor where I was headed. He looked over at me and he said, “Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a Kennedy?”

I was on a short ride on the elevator and not up for a chat. I just said, “Yeah. I’ve heard that before.” As the elevator door opened he said, “Well, that must really piss you off, eh?” I want to go back to him and say, “President Trump loves us. Loves me. We’re all together in all this.” I’m not sure he’d hear me.

Actually, if I can take just a few moments, and trust me it’ll just be a few, I do think this issue of what we call one another, how we label each other is in fact a big issue for your time. We live in a time of labels. We have labels for everything, for political affiliation, for the college we go to, for genders, for races, for income brackets, for sexual orientations, for affiliation, for address, for income bracket. We label like crazy these days.

And we don’t agree on much across those labels, but we do agree on one thing. This country seems to have one consensus point of view, and that is that we’re divided. We’re so deeply divided we’ve lost a sense even in our own families often of being able to have conversation, of being able to listen and hear. Even in our own schools, even in our own communities.

The sense of division maybe driven by labels has led to anxiety, it’s led to distrust, it’s led to pain. And we agree on one other dimension of it. Almost everybody thinks it’s not their fault. It’s their fault. It’s someone else’s fault. We’re divided not because of me, but because of you. Because at some level you’re just too different, you’re just too wrong to be included, so we blame each other, we judge each other, we humiliate each other, and we try to make others pay by judging them.

It’s an old story, you might say, scapegoating. It’s in our biblical texts. The ancient Israelis took the sins of the people, the weaknesses, the fears, the anger, the mistakes, put them on a goat, chase it out. Remove it from the group. Exclude it from belonging. That will solve the problem.

It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now, because it relies on one big problem. It assumes you, me, we can be happy as long as we exclude someone else. It assumes that if we defeat or humiliate or dominate the other, we’ll find a way to be happy.

The problems aren’t mine. They’re just a function of getting rid of someone else. We don’t want to look inside, as Bishop Jakes has written in his recent book. We would rather hurt others, even those who are already hurting, than feel the hurt ourselves. This, my friends, my fellow graduates, is a guarantee, that we will never be happy, because being happy is something that we can only do together.

So I want to give you a challenge. It’s a pretty big one, I’ll admit. How do you take all the technology, all the anger of cable news, not network news, just cable news, all of our losses, our loss of feeling that we belong, our loss of feeling, the sense of justice in our country, our loss of a national narrative, how do we take all the hostility and anger of this moment and transform it into something new, something different?

How do we be brave enough to turn toward each other instead of away from each other when we’re in pain? How do we stay open to each other even when we’ve hurt each other?

It’s a personal challenge. It’s a political challenge. I dare say it’s not going to be solved as Einstein said with the old remedies. Separation of powers, due process, protection of rights, those are the foundations of our democracy. They’re necessary, but we’ve lived with divisiveness now long enough. Narrow self-interest. We’ve lived with this fundamental sin of othering for long enough to see where it leads us. We need a new operating system of the heart.

Now, to some of you that will sound like a naïve dreamer, but I don’t think so, because ultimately, we are much more naturally we than we are me. We start out as we. My beautiful grandson doesn’t know me. He only knows we. That’s the story of each of your lives, a long, arduous period of extended helplessness that was met and healed and transformed only by love.

You were a we long before you were a me. If I try to defeat you, you try to defeat me. That’s the recipe for disaster.

On the other hand, if I want to change me I believe I need to love you, so I believe in this power to change our own hearts. I believe in the power to transform the hearts of others, because I’ve seen it up close. I’ve had a front row seat to the best of humanity, the transformers of the world. I’ve got to see them, watch, take the most painful, most difficult, sometimes the most heart-wrenching situations, and somehow turn them into healing.

Think of the … A Canadian. Some of you may have heard of it, but most of you haven’t, he died last week, Jean Vanier. He died at the age of 90 in France. When he was young about your age he was invited to go to an institution where those who had been excluded, totally left out, totally treated as other, he was invited to go and meet them.

He met two men, Phillipe Seux and Raphaël Simi. They looked him in the eye with the eyes of anguish and pain. They looked him in the eye, saying, I want to leave. I don’t want to be locked up for the rest of my life.

Now, he could’ve just seen the stress and abandonment of parents. He could’ve just seen the neglect of the system, but he saw a third force, another way to do it. He bought a little house and he invited them out. They opened a home three men living together as friends.

He called his communities L’Arche the place where creatures friend or foe, hunter or prey all were safe, all were cared for. Countless times he saw people come to him in homes, then around the world, with the face of anguish, with the experience of pain, with the struggle of a life of rejection.

He said to them over and over again, “You are more beautiful than you dare to imagine.” Those words, more beautiful than you dare to imagine. He said, “When you let people who are no good into your life, you are transformed.” Why are you transformed when you bridge the gap? Because when you let them in you’re not trying to be superior anymore. You’re not trying to be separate. You’ve stopped othering. In some ways, you can stop hiding, too. You can have a reunion with yourself.

Remember the text in scripture, do not be conformed, but be transformed. When you let the other in, that’s your chance. Vanier spoke of your primal innocence, that little part of you that’s fragile and tender and vulnerable. You can let it back in.

This is the vision I’m inviting you into, to be transformers, to transform pain into joy, hurt into love, separation into connection, instead of just fight or flight try to unlock a new form of sight. And know that separation is always a false solution.

Now, you know transformers already. Alvin Ailey was a transformer. He was a transformer. He saw racism, he saw exclusion, he saw misunderstanding. He saw the forces colliding in his world, and he chose an alternative, a form of expression. As he said, “I want to teach people to understand the inner kinds of things.” The inner kinds of things he let out, an expression that allowed people to see from the inside out.

We can learn to do this. I had a student years ago, Lamont Young. He did just this. He learned in high school how to do this work with social and emotional learning. He learned how to find his deepest self. He wanted to make a change in his life, and then he got shot seven times at point blank range. By a guy high on PCP. By a miracle, he recovered physically. And then, he says, by an even greater miracle, he recovered spiritually when he forgave the man who shot him.

Lamont once told a reporter the African-American story of going through slavery and discrimination and still being able to look someone in the face and say, “I love you, brother,” that’s what makes it unique. That’s how we survived, he said, for 400 years. The perseverance, the resilience, that’s my story.

Lamont graduated from this university last year with a master’s in counseling and is using his gifts to transform the lives of others who are locked in prisons of othering and rejection and racism.

So these transformers are heroes of mine, but I really want you guys to recognize that this is your real superpower. You’ve all got it. You can go to the movies and watch someone else pretend to have it, but you’ve actually got this superpower. We don’t use it that often, but I’m going all over the country. I ask young people, “What do you wish Americans knew?”

As you sit here, answer the question, what do you wish the country knew? The answer I get over and over again is ‘I wish Americans knew that everybody counts, that everybody deserves a chance, that everybody belongs.’ That’s a creed. You may not hear it in church in those words, but wherever you worship remember that creed. It is the defining, in my view, creed of your generation.

Rather than just tell you about it, maybe it’s better to practice. So I want to ask all of you to join me in a little fun. Let’s imagine this day is actually a track meet. You’re here for the local Bronx Special Olympics local games. Right down on here is the track, and assembled here before you are six or eight athletes. They’re ready to run their 100-meter dash. Are you with me? Okay.

Now, in Special Olympics people get loud, they get noisy, so I want you to imagine catching the eye of one of the athletes. You’ve got your Starbucks, you’ve got your … You’re ready to go, but just for a moment as you’re watching your own life capture the eye of one of the athletes. Maybe a 12-year-old boy or a 12-year-old girl. Make your choice.

Maybe just for a moment let that athlete catch your heart. Maybe just know, at least unconsciously, that that young man, that young woman has been rejected over and over and over again. Maybe just remember, unconsciously maybe, that when that little child was born, maybe it was a tough day for his or her mom and dad, maybe just be aware how hard it was to get into a preschool, how hard it is to fit into school, how many kids don’t speak to him in the cafeteria, in the hall.

Maybe you could just imagine his little eyes looking up at yours and somehow know that those little eyes have seen their spirit wounded over and over and over again by a world that saw them as other.

So now, join me in pretend. I’m going to pretend I’m hitting the starting gun. I want to ask you guys to, all of you, to join me and cheer. We’re going to do a mock race right here and I want you to get loud. I want you to be as loud as a Ram’s audience has ever been. This is your final wild, crazy cheer, and it’s going to be for these athletes right here running in front of you.

When I hit the gun, when I say “Go,” I want you to cheer, and I want all the parents in the back to cheer and I want you to get loud. I want you to get up. It’s going to be a short race, so I want you to give it all you’ve got. Do I have you with me? All right.

So meet the eyes of the athlete. Watch as I sound the gun, and as I run across this stage I want you to cheer like you’re seeing that athlete, that little boy or that girl, but one more thing. I want you to cheer using your name. I want to use your own name and say, “Go, fill in the blank.” That’s parents, too. Uncles, aunts, friends, brothers, sisters, teachers, mentors, faculty, Mr., Dr. How many titles do you have? President?

Joseph M. McShane: Just Joe.

Tim Shriver: Just Joe. I want you to cheer for Joe. You got it?

I’m running. You with me? Are you ready? On your marks, get set, go. [cheering].

Thank you. Yeah. Come on … Yeah. I can hear your name. So I wonder what happened in that brief moment. Did you see yourself? Did you feel that primal innocence that Jean Vanier spoke about? Did you know that that was you on the track, that little boy or that little girl, running to be free of being judged, running to be free of being humiliated, running to be free of anguish, running to return to that primal innocence?

I think you just had a reunion, I hope, with yourself, with your best self. I hope you know that when you have a reunion with your best self you’re having a reunion with everybody else, too, because we all share that. We all share that sense of trying to carry so much woundedness, so much brokenness, and yet let it out.

It’s what our country’s struggling with right now, so if you can see that person as you, I hope you will join them, these athletes, and you yourself, and remember their oath, let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt.

I would add let me be a transformer. Let me not just be a transformer in my relationships, with my friends, in my job, in my life, but let me be part of a transformed nation. Let me be … Let us be the class, the class of 2019, that invites the country into a new dialogue with itself.

There is no problem, Americans are fond of saying, that we can’t solve together, but it is so obvious that we need to do it together. So, I ask you to choose this life. You have a choice. You have to decide which side you’re on. I hope you will choose to be a transformer and to be brave.

And if you need a reminder, why not let’s have us dance a reminder? You got up once. Dancers, I need you to help me now. The words of the Special Olympics oath include the words be brave. Let me be brave in the attempt. So right now, let’s have a little bit of music if we can. Let’s hear the words and the lyrics.

Okay. All right. Oh, yes. Dancers, up. Okay. All right. There we go. Let’s go. Come on. Come on. [music playing]. Be brave. Yeah. Just want to see you be brave.

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.”

Photos by Dana MaxsonFordham’s Gabelli School of Business rolled out the red carpet for its highest achievers on May 16 at its annual Awards Night celebration at the Rose Hill campus.

The ceremony, which took place in the McGinley Center’s student lounge, brought together about 400 students, faculty, administrators, friends and families, who sat on three sides of a stage.

Speaking to graduating seniors at the McGinley Center Ballroom, Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., implored them to remember the helpers in their lives. The notion that one can be successful all on their own is a lie, she said.

It’s also useful to remember organizational psychologist Adam Grant’s theory that people are generally givers, takers, or matchers, she said. We vacillate between the three at different points in the day, but in general, those who gravitate toward one specific model are more successful.

“In business, you might think it’s the takers: Hard-charging, take-no-prisoners types who pull themselves to the top no matter what. Or you might think it’s the matchers: People who master the delicate negotiation of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours.’ But it’s not. It’s the givers,” she said.

Their accomplishments are many, including jobs at the likes of Barclays, BlackRock, J.P. Morgan Chase, Blackstone, Amazon, Instagram, Adobe, BBDO, Nike, and all of the Big Four accounting firms, and Rapaccioli lauded them for being supportive of each other in hard times. Deep down, Gabelli School graduates are givers, she said.

“You have completed four years at a business school that is caring, not cutthroat. You have learned to use your business skills to advance society and the plight of others. You are interested not only in a great salary and a great apartment, but in doing something that adds good to the world,” she said.

Caroline Dahlgren, GABELLI ’11, recipient of the Alumnus of the Year Award, echoed that refrain, telling graduates that it’s now their turn to help each other. That’s how she connected with Tiffany & Co., where she is currently manager of global consumer insights, she said.

“Fordham said yes to you when you were accepted, and along the way, professors, deans, mentors, peers, coaches, parents, and maybe even some alumni said yes to you,” she said.

“But I ask now that no matter how busy you are, to find the tiniest block of time for that Fordham student who inevitably reaches out to you. Now you might say, ‘I can’t hire them, I can’t give them profound career advice—I just graduated.’ That may be true. But I ask that you not be afraid to impart even the smallest nugget of wisdom and experience with them. Its valuable. That’s the beauty of the Fordham community. We can support each other even in seemingly small ways.”

The class of 2019 featured two valedictorians, Clara Gastaldi and John Lichtmann.

Gastaldi, a finance and marketing major who minored in fashion studies and was a member of the women’s soccer team, compared her acceptance to Fordham to the U.S. welcoming her parents from Argentina 20 years ago. Her parents, she said, taught her the value of embracing the unknown with that move.

“Through hard work and dedication, they opened a world of opportunities for me and my three brothers. Whenever I had even the wildest of dreams, you always had my back and pushed me to do everything to my fullest potion,” she said, pausing to address her mother in back of the McGinley Center ballroom.

“Mom, please don’t cry.”

A “passion for fashion” that she had since she was a little girl, walking around in pink plastic high heels, led her to Fordham.

“I knew that my future was in New York. So, when the opportunity presented itself, I packed my bags, made the switch, and reported for preseason in August of 2016,” she said.

“In the same way that the United States welcomed my family, Fordham University and Fordham athletics took me in when I transferred to the Bronx from the University of Georgia, just after my freshman year, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”

For Lichtmann, an accounting major who commuted two hours to campus from New Jersey and is pursuing an M.S. in public accounting at the Gabelli School, his time was bittersweet, tinged with the sudden loss of his mother right before Christmas his sophomore year. He was devastated, and unsure he’d be able to return to Fordham, he said.

“However, I kept faith that God would guide her safely to heaven, and I learned to trust the people around me to help adjust to my new lifestyle. I decided that I had to work harder and focus even more on school so I could make her proud,” he said.

Lichtmann was able to maintain a sense of humor as well. He joked that he was not really in any position to tell anyone what to think, because he only got to be on stage “because I was able to balance debits and credits for four years.”

“What I can tell you is, people will remember you for your actions. Opening the door for a stranger, greeting a co-worker with a hello—kindness and respect are contagious. At the end of the day, knowledge is power, but how you use that knowledge to affect lives of others is even more power,” he said.

“I hope to see a future where accountability is a virtue, dreams can become a reality through hard work, and people choose cooperation and collaboration over division.”

Capstone student awards include the Alumni Chair Award, which was given to Maxwell Lynch, the Mozilo Future Distinguished Alumnus Award, which was given to Morgan Mezzasalma, and the Dean’s Award, which was given to Amanda D’Antone.

In addition to recognizing dozens of students from the Gabelli School at Rose Hill with awards throughout the evening, the event also celebrated faculty contributions. The Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence for full-time faculty went to Stanley Veliotis, Ph.D., associate professor of accounting and taxation; the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence for adjunct faculty went to Linda Luca, adjunct professor of marketing; the Faculty Cura Personalis Award went to Nancy McCarthy, lecturer of communications and management; and the Faculty Magis Award went to Barbara Porco, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of accounting.

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.”

As of May 9, Fordham students have received 81 prestigious awards this year, including seven Fulbright awards, one Coro fellowship, and one Udall scholarship.

Wesley Wilson, PCS ’19, received a full-tuition scholarship to attend the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, home to one of the most prestigious public administration programs in the country. But life wasn’t always so smooth for Wilson. At age 16, he became an orphan. On top of that, he had a high school G.P.A. of 1.6. Then his mother’s longtime friend stepped in.

“‘Your mother always believed that you would be the first one in the family to graduate from college,’” Wilson said, recalling her words to him. “At that point, it just kind of … set something in motion.”

He earned his high school diploma, served as a U.S. Army military police officer in South Korea and at the United States Military Academy at West Point for five years, and graduated with honors from American Military University. In 2017, he began studying organizational leadership at Fordham. In his two years at the University, he has served as president of the Fordham Veterans Association, rallied support for student veterans as a High Ground Veterans Advocacy fellow, and secured a national finalist position for the Student Veteran of the Year award.

When Wilson completes his M.P.A. at Syracuse, he plans on returning to his native South Carolina, where he hopes to someday serve as a senior official in the state government.

Sabrina Jen, FCLC ’19, is a new media and digital design major who won the Humanity in Action Fellowship. The selective one-year program trains students to develop projects that address social justice issues in their own communities. Jen will train in Poland for a month starting this June. When she returns to New York, she plans to use her new skills to create a museum exhibit that will showcase her Fordham senior capstone project.

“My capstone project was about addressing the perception of Chinese food among American people in the United States,” Jen explained. “People look down on it and treat it as cheap junk food. My parents are from Taiwan, and I’m ethnically Chinese, so growing up, my idea of Chinese food was a lot different from that.”

But her project wasn’t just about food. It was a vehicle to talk about the complexities of Chinese-American experiences and the Chinese diaspora across the world, she said.

“My ultimate goal is for New York City public schools to be able to teach more about Chinese-American immigration and history,” said Jen, who will pursue a master’s degree in ethics and society at Fordham this fall while working on her fellowship.

Rosalyn Kutsch, FCRH ’19, won a Fulbright fellowship to teach English and Model United Nations to high school students in Madrid for almost a year.

Kutsch is a double major in international political economy and Latin American and Latino studies and a Spanish minor. As an executive board member in Fordham’s Model U.N. club, she helped the University host its first high school Model U.N. conference at the Lincoln Center campus. Last summer, she interned with the State Department. And two years ago, she earned a Fordham undergraduate research grant that took her to Guatemala, where she investigated the interaction between indigenous artisans and different social enterprises.

“I’ve become more attracted to this idea of sustainable development: the ability to increase economic opportunity and equality in countries through interesting and innovative solutions,” said Kutsch, who plans to become a consultant or researcher in the field.

As of May 9, other prestigious awards won this year include:

• In addition to Rosalyn Kutsch, six Fulbright awards: Matthew Cappetta, FCRH ’19, to Nepal; Kevin Curran, FCRH ’15, to the Czech Republic; Kayla Matteucci, FCLC ’18, to the United Kingdom; Kevin Morales, FCLC ’17, to Russia; Jane Winsett, GSS ’19, to Kosovo; and Shelda Zajmi, FCRH ’19, to Germany
• Two U.S. Department of State Overseas Summer Internships: Hannah Fort, GSAS ’20, to the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, and Natasia Harrison, GSAS ’20, to the U.S. Embassy in the People’s Republic of China
• Two Critical Language Scholarships: Briana Boland, FCLC ’19, and Stephen DeFerrari, FCLC ’20
• One Udall Scholarship: Colleen Cochran, FCRH ’21
• One Coro Fellowship: Anya Patterson, FCRH ’19
• One National Science Foundation Fellowship: Micah Savin, first-year doctoral student at GSAS

Additional awards are still being announced. 

“Fordham University is proud to confer an honorary doctorate upon Timothy Shriver,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “If Fordham were only considering Dr. Shriver’s many accomplishments in education, childhood development, and special athletics, they would be more than enough to merit the honor. In conferring this degree, however, we also acknowledge a man who could have chosen any path in life but elected to devote himself to the welfare of society’s most vulnerable members. In this, Dr. Shriver exemplifies the highest of Fordham’s ideals and the best in all of us.”

An educator, author, and activist for social change, Shriver has spent his career working for the dignity and fulfillment of young people. In 1996, he joined the Special Olympics, founded by his mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, when he was a child. Under his leadership, it has become a beloved global organization that promotes health and education through sports, supporting more than 5 million athletes with physical and developmental disabilities who take part in over 100,000 annual competitions.

Earlier in his career, Shriver worked as a teacher in the New Haven, Connecticut, public schools, where he helped establish social and emotional education programs in an area plagued by violence and drugs. During a visit to Fordham in 2016, he talked about the importance of mindfulness at a time when so many young people are facing anxiety and depression.

“The silence that has come to us from contemplative practice can be . . . a source of direct experience of one’s goodness,” he said.

“The primary vector of discovery is of your own self-judgment. And when you finally start to unmask your own judgment, you get to the point where you can see a little more clearly.”

Shriver was a producer on four films including the 1997 Steven Spielberg film Amistad. His 2014 book, Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most, recounts his personal spiritual journey and vision of inclusivity.

Through its own commitment to service and education, Fordham shares many connections to Shriver and his family. The University ranks among schools that produce the most volunteers for the Peace Corps, originally led by his father, Sargent Shriver, who received an honorary doctorate at Fordham’s 1963 commencement. His son Tim has served as president of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, where many Fordham students volunteer after graduation. And his daughter Caroline graduates this May as a member of the Fordham College at Lincoln Center Class of 2019 with an Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. in dance.

Six other notable figures will receive honorary degrees at commencement. Fordham will grant a doctorate of humane letters to Ellen R. Alemany, chairwoman and CEO of CIT Group and CEO of CIT Bank, N.A.; Bob Casey, U.S. senator from Pennsylvania; Yueh C. Chen, secretary of the J. T. Tai & Company Foundation; Joseph P. Parkes, S.J., provincial assistant for secondary and pre-secondary education for the Maryland and USA Northeast Provinces of the Society of Jesus and a former Fordham trustee; and David Ushery, NBC News 4 New York news anchor and reporter. Alemany will be the speaker at the diploma ceremony for Gabelli School of Business master’s degree candidates on May 20. The Honorable Pamela K. Chen, United States District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York, will receive an honorary doctorate of laws and will speak at Fordham Law School’s diploma ceremony on May 20.