But some scholarship donors are advancing this goal through their focus on students from particular schools—like the Catholic schools in Fordham’s backyard.
One of the newest such efforts is the Cristo Rey‒Fordham Scholarship Fund, which supports Fordham students who graduated from schools in the Cristo Rey network. The fund’s initial gift came from Thomas Kelly, M.D., FCRH ’71, who sought to help students overcome financial need and receive a Jesuit education, which for him took place at Canisius High School in Buffalo, New York, and then at Fordham, with scholarship help.
“Those were important years for me, and therefore I’d like to see the next generation have that opportunity,” said Kelly, a member of the Fordham University President’s Council.
Schools in the Cristo Rey network serve students from lower-income backgrounds, providing a four-year corporate work-study program that helps pay their tuition. Nearly all Cristo Rey graduates at Fordham come from Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem. Kelly’s scholarship adds to Fordham’s own commitment, announced four years ago, to meet up to the full cost of tuition for students from the Cristo Rey network.
Bronx Catholic Schools ‘Feed’ Fordham
Further north, in the Bronx, are Catholic high schools with socioeconomically diverse students that have long been “feeder” schools for Fordham—educating many a first-generation Irish American like William Rockford, FCRH ’67, GSAS ’72. A “dayhop” student who commuted to Fordham and worked his way through, he established a scholarship to Fordham for students at his alma mater, All Hallows High School, seeking to help the less-advantaged students of today.
He and his wife have been contributing to the William D. and Beverly B. Rockford Endowed Scholarship for more than two decades. “I hope it helps out these kids that are probably very ambitious but couldn’t afford to get a good education,” he said.
Albert Salvatico, FCRH ’71, another Bronx native from a working-class background, established a scholarship with his wife, Jean, to enable graduates of his own alma mater, Cardinal Hayes High School, to come to the University. A believer in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, he wanted to help students overcome socioeconomic barriers to a Fordham education.
So far, the scholarship has helped eight Hayes graduates do just that. “It’s been one of the more rewarding things of my life,” he said.
Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student and make a gift.
]]>The fund has personal resonance for Crawley, a Fordham trustee and business executive raised on Chicago’s working-class West Side by grandparents who were born in the Jim Crow-era South. On the way to his current role as executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Morgan Stanley, he has made a second career of giving back—among other efforts, serving on the boards of Covenant House New York and the national Boys and Girls Club, from which he benefited while growing up.
The Crawleys’ contribution advances the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student—in particular, its goal of fostering a richly diverse, inclusive campus community. In fact, Fordham’s commitment to that goal was one reason Crawley came to the Gabelli School of Business for his executive MBA, graduating in 2009.
The program was infused with real-world experience, Jesuit values, and a strong sense of community, and left him with many strong friendships—hence the joy in making his gift, he says. “I have a real heart for the University, and now that I have an opportunity to devote financial capital to this mission, in addition to my personal human capital and my time, it feels awfully good to be able to do so.”
Why did this giving opportunity appeal to you?
I’ve had a tremendous amount of help and support that made a real difference for me. There are no silver bullets in life, but education is probably the closest thing to it in terms of putting folks who come from under-resourced areas on a path to not just self-sustainability but success over time. So for me, being a beneficiary of such efforts over the years, I feel like now that I’m in a position to give back in a meaningful way, what better way to do it than through a mechanism like the Trustee Diversity Fund?
Do you see progress in improving racial equity and justice in America?
Undoubtedly we’ve made progress in middle-class representation, health and life expectancy, housing and homeownership, and the number of Black and brown folks who are graduating with college degrees. One area that really gives me the greatest degree of optimism is the vibrancy of entrepreneurship in Black and brown communities, even though capital raising is uneven and remains a challenge. I’m not saying “mission accomplished”—in some areas you could argue we haven’t made as much progress. There’s still a lot of work that remains.
What’s the best way to achieve greater workplace diversity and inclusion?
I think there are three non-negotiables. You’ve got to commit resources to the necessary programming. And you’ve got to always be thinking about new, creative ways to get at this—for instance, looking for talent beyond your typical talent pools, as long as they’ve got the requisite hard skills to make the transition. But most of all, it’s having sustained will for the work and creating a culture in which everybody feels like they belong, including our majority colleagues.
To what extent can greater workplace diversity boost a company’s performance?
This is an area where there’s a great deal of debate. Diversity on its own is insufficient; I think the important added context is a team that has a high degree of competence, a necessary level of collegiality, and competitive urgency. If you have those foundational factors, and then you add to that a diverse mix and different perspectives, I think it’s irrefutable that you’ll get outperformance.
What do Jesuit values look like in a business context?
I’d say, within my industry, avoiding the false choice—the idea that in order to be wildly successful in your financial pursuits, you have to compromise your morals and virtues. It really gets at ethics and character.
His reasons stem from challenges family members have faced, and from his own experience as a first-year Fordham Law student whose vague worries about fitting in were quickly put to rest.
“I immediately had a feeling of belonging and felt a lot of support there,” rather than feeling like “the odd person out” as someone who came from a working-class family and was a first-generation law student, said Torrente, a senior partner with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in New York.
Cultivating that sense of belonging is one aim of recent law school initiatives such as IDEAL, or Increasing Diversity in Education and the Law, founded in 2019 to help New York City college students from underrepresented backgrounds learn about careers in law. Torrente gave in support of IDEAL before the law school’s new diversity effort got his attention.
Supporting Students, Unleashing Potential
The number of Fordham Law students that report some kind of learning difference has steadily increased during the past decade. The differences range from physical ailments to sensory issues, cognitive or psychiatric challenges, and ADHD. An initiative under development, Empowering Every Mind, is aimed at helping them thrive at Fordham Law and as leaders in the profession.
“As law schools increasingly think about the importance of professionalism and leadership skills, I’m delighted that Fordham Law is squarely focused on supporting our neurodiverse students in ways that will help them realize their full potential as future lawyers and leaders,” said Joseph Landau, associate dean for academic affairs at Fordham Law, noting that these differences can be sources of professional strength.
Torrente and his wife, Jill Torrente, had seen this in a few close family members who have had to navigate learning differences, ADHD, or physical ailments while working to live up to their full potential by capitalizing on their strengths and tackling their challenges. In fact, these experiences were among the reasons that inspired Jill to go to graduate school and earn her master’s degree in social work from Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service. “So when this initiative came up … it made a lot of sense for me and my wife to support it,” he said.
He noted that Kirkland and other law firms are striving to be accommodating to lawyers with learning differences. For example, Kirkland offers professional networks, mentoring, and other resources to support all attorneys in their professional growth.
“For me, this just is another dimension of making people feel like they belong, and enabling them to voice how they feel, and also make them feel comfortable being vulnerable,” Torrente said. “It opens the door for more candid conversations.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key priorities of Fordham’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more and make a gift.
]]>Less visibly, the event also showed the power of philanthropy. Hosting Ignatian Q is just one thing made possible by a fund that is creating new momentum around the University for initiatives that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning students, plus other sexual and gender minorities.
Founded last spring, the LGBTQ+ Student Wellbeing Fund is supporting everything from pastoral care to academic events and the development of classes reflecting LGBTQ+ themes—with the promise of more initiatives to come.
“I’m really encouraged and optimistic about the kind of response the fund has gotten, not only from LGBT members of the Fordham family but also straight members of our family who are deeply committed to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Joan Garry, FCRH ’79, a former executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD and nationally recognized activist who serves on the Fordham University President’s Council executive committee.
Garry and her wife kick-started the fund last year by leading a Fordham Giving Day campaign for it and providing a $50,000 matching gift.
The need is plain, Garry said: The number of students who identify as other than heterosexual or cisgender is growing “off the charts.” These students “have all kind of struggles every day,” from self-acceptance to harassment to bullying, and suffer disproportionately from anxiety and depression, she said.
The fund is also needed because of a political climate that has become “downright terrifying,” she said, pointing to the Human Rights Campaign’s June 6 declaration of a “state of emergency” for LGBTQ+ people due to laws being enacted around the country.
By helping to foster a more inclusive campus community, the fund dovetails with a key priority of the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student.
Impact of the Wellbeing Fund
In addition to providing critical support to the Ignatian Q conference, the Wellbeing Fund has supported Campus Ministry programs including Queer Spirit Community and the Prism Retreat, as well as the publication of a Queer Prayer at Fordham booklet distributed at Ignatian Q, said Joan Cavanagh, Ph.D., senior director for spirituality and solidarity at Fordham.
The fund has also supported Center for Community Engaged Learning initiatives including scholarships that helped LGBTQ+ students take part in Fordham’s Global Outreach and Urban Plunge programs, a panel discussion on LGBTQ+ history, and grants for faculty. Co-sponsored by the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, the grants support innovative classroom projects related to LGBTQ+ history and advocacy.
The Wellbeing Fund has “ignited an understanding that there is so much to do,” Garry said. “I am excited about the forward motion the fund is creating to educate, drive awareness, and galvanize support.”
Learn more about the uses of the LGBTQ+ Student Wellbeing Fund and make a gift.
See related story: Pope Francis Sends Warm Letter of Support for LGBTQ+ Conference at Fordham
]]>He always looks forward to it. “They’re very engaged, and it’s fun to answer questions about my experience … as a business student and somebody who’s immersing into the corporate world,” he said.
Cintron is one of several Gabelli students involved in a program that seeks, among other things, to increase diversity at the Gabelli School by attracting more students from underrepresented groups. Dubbed the Corporate Communications High School Pipeline Program, it’s a way of engaging with Fordham’s New York City community and giving students an opportunity to serve and learn from others, in keeping with the University’s Jesuit mission.
It operates mostly at Catholic high schools. Cintron, a student co-director of the pipeline program, took part in it himself while attending one of those high schools, Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. That makes his teaching especially rewarding, he said. “The program, honestly, gave me the confidence that I would succeed in business, so it’s nice to be able to spread that confidence to other students.”
Because of its potential for enhancing diversity at Fordham by attracting more students from the Bronx, one of the most diverse areas in the United States, “I’m really proud to be part of the program,” Cintron said.
Helping more students from underrepresented communities come to Fordham is one goal of the University’s current $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. To advance this effort, donors have been contributing to the recently established Gabelli Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Scholarship Fund for academically strong students who, like Cintron, came through the pipeline program.
Creating a High School to University Pipeline
Founded five years ago, the pipeline program prepares students for business school through mentoring, corporate site visits, a class on the Fordham campus, and a pitch proposal competition. Working in teams, students at each school devise a strategy for addressing an issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion that arose in a Fortune 500 company. The winning strategy is chosen by a panel of judges drawn from industry.
The class taught by Cintron and other students helps the high schoolers prepare for this competition. Cintron’s fellow student co-director, Luz Perez-Arias, said it’s “amazing” to teach the class because of the students’ eagerness and the research, public speaking, and presentation skills they’re learning. She came through the pipeline program herself as a student at Aquinas High School, which has since closed.
“When these kids learn these skills, they’re going to appreciate it so much when they go to college, because this is something that I’m doing now” as a Gabelli School sophomore, she said. “I know that they’re going to make use out of it, and that makes me happy.”
Cintron and Perez-Arias are recipients of the Gabelli diversity scholarship. It has several contributors, including two lead donors who, as it happens, know what it’s like to be part of an underrepresented group themselves.
Benefactors with Bronx Roots
Eileen Walsh, GABELLI ’76, and Mary Ann Bartels, GABELLI ’85, GSAS ’92, both became supporters of the scholarship via Fordham’s giving circles, a form of participatory philanthropy that grew out of the University’s annual Women’s Summit, for which Bartels has been a keynote speaker.
They were both drawn to support the scholarship because of their own stories. Walsh, a Bronx native and daughter of Irish immigrants, graduated from the Bronx’s Academy of Mt. St. Ursula, now one of the pipeline schools. After graduating from the Gabelli School, she secured a “Big 8” accounting firm job at a time when such a thing was unusual for women.
“I do give credit to Fordham and the Gabelli School for helping me succeed,” she said, “in a very serious position that not many women had at the time.”
She serves as a judge for the pitch competition at the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula and calls it “magical” to see how the students grow through the program.
“They are way ahead of the game,” said Walsh, a retired audit partner at KPMG and member of the Gabelli School advisory board’s executive committee. “They have an idea of what business is, they have an idea of what successful companies are, they have an idea of how poorly and how well the companies may have done because of what they did or didn’t do—and they can give a presentation that will knock your socks off. They effectively know how to work as a team, which in business is huge.”
Bartels also grew up in the Bronx, on City Island. A self-described “risk student,” she was accepted with the help of a strong recommendation from a neighbor who worked at Fordham. “Fordham took a chance on me,” said Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth, who believes she would not have had a successful Wall Street career without the help of the University’s faculty and administrators.
She has been giving back to the University for years—as a donor and a member of advisory boards and the President’s Council. The Gabelli scholarship fund caught her interest because she’s well aware of the community it serves. “It’s part of the area that I grew up in, so it really touched my heart,” she said. “To be able to give back to other people in the community that have gifts and talents and can go to, really, an elite institution to further their ability and skillset and interest really appealed to me.”
Cultivating Diversity in Business
There’s “a huge pedagogical imperative” to having greater diversity among Gabelli School students, said Clarence E. Ball III, the school’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, who founded and still directs the pipeline program. “Learning outcomes for all students—at the Gabelli School and at the high schools—are increased when they have access to a diverse range of human perspectives,” he said.
Ultimately, businesses need greater diversity in their ranks as they seek to be more socially responsible, he said. “If you want to be an agent for change in society, you need all perspectives of the society in order to be an agent of that change.”
To inquire about giving to any area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.
]]>From there, he commuted for two hours. Each way.
“That is very difficult to do, if you do that every day,” especially in light of the “pretty intense” workload that comes with being an English major and biology minor on the pre-health track, said Feliz Varona, a senior.
Then he found out about the Fordham Housing Fund, devoted to helping students overcome the financial barriers to living on campus. With support from the fund, Feliz Varona moved onto campus in junior year and today lives in O’Hare Hall. The move enabled him to take leadership roles in clubs including the Black Student Alliance, for which he is now vice president, and the Minority Association of Pre-Health Students, of which he is president.
“[When] you have those extra four hours, your life changes completely,” he said. “The difference was way bigger than what I anticipated. And honestly, it’s just a blessing that I am thankful for every day.”
This year, the Fordham Housing Fund is supporting Feliz Varona and eight other students who came to Fordham via its Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, or CSTEP, a New York state program that helps students from underrepresented groups enter science-related fields and the licensed professions.
The fund has been focused on CSTEP students since it was established in 2011 by Brian and Kathy MacLean, both FCRH ’75, who sought to help students who would most benefit from living on campus. Recipients had often struggled with long commutes or other challenges such as crowded and distracting living situations that made it hard to focus on their studies, hurting their grades.
The MacLeans, two of the University’s generous donors, made further major gifts to build the fund’s endowment after meeting recipients and hearing how they had benefited from it. “The stories from the CSTEP students that get the [funding awards]are so amazing,” said Brian MacLean, a former Fordham University trustee and current trustee fellow. Kathy MacLean, a current member of the Board of Trustees, noted one benefit in particular: “When we talked to the students, we were surprised that for many of them, the number one benefit they most appreciated was being able to sleep more. This positively impacted their grades and general well-being.”
The MacLeans have been the primary donors to the Fordham Housing Fund but left their names out of its title in order to encourage others to support it as well. In adding to the fund, they also sought to enhance diversity among on-campus residents—a goal that dovetails with those of the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, which the MacLeans helped to advance with a new gift to the housing fund this year.
A Transformative Experience
Thirty to 40 students apply every year for funding awards, which cover housing and a basic meal plan, said Michael Molina, Fordham’s CSTEP and STEP director. Students are selected based on grade point average, an essay, and an interview focusing on how they would get more involved and contribute to the on-campus community if they could live in a residence hall.
For those selected, the experience of living on campus can be transformative, Molina said—especially if they would otherwise be living with multiple family members and wanting for privacy.
As a student, “there are those times you need to be around people, to be around your peers and your friends and your classmates, then there are those times that you need to have some time to yourself,” he said.
The number of CSTEP students helped by the fund has grown from two in the first year to nine today, Molina said. For this year’s recipients, the fund has made all the difference, helping them realize their ambitions for their time at Fordham.
A 180-Degree Change
Yu Jin In, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, had been waking up as early as 5:30 a.m. to commute to Rose Hill from her family’s home in Queens—taking two buses, occasionally having to run from one to catch the other, to arrive in time for 8 a.m. classes.
Now, thanks to her housing fund award, she lives in the Martyrs’ Court residence halls and her Fordham experience has “changed 180 degrees”—she’s better able to make friends, take night classes, and use her evenings for unbroken studying or other engagements. “I could finally say ‘yes’ to dinner [with]people,” she said.
Things also changed for Fawziah Fariha, a senior on the pre-health track who is double-majoring in psychology and theology, when she no longer had a long commute to and from her Bronx home.
With the extra time and flexibility, she was better able to get more involved with student clubs and push beyond her comfort zone. “I’m able to really lead,” said Fariha, who is a secretary in the Muslim Student Association; director in Fordham University South Asian Entity, or FUSE; president of the Laennec Society, a pre-health students’ club; and co-founder of the new Bengali Student Association. Through leadership, she said, “you learn so much about yourself.”
Some students faced long commutes even if they were relatively close to Rose Hill. For Giovanni Barreiro, a senior engineering physics major, it could take an hour and a half from the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. For Chealsy Garcia, a junior general science major also in the pre-health program, it could take an hour to get to and from Washington Heights. Living on campus, Garcia is able to spend more time with various activities, like being a mentor with Mentoring Latinas, and is in the process of joining Fordham’s EMS service, known as FUEMS.
Daphne Buitron, a pre-health senior majoring in sociology and minoring in biology, enjoys being able to meet up with other students for studying, as well as having time for other things like joining the dance club, which has late meetings.
“This gave me the chance to do something for myself, but also continue with my academics,” she said. “I could do what I want instead of what I need and then leave.”
‘Somebody Looking Out for You’
Maria Del Sol Estrada, a senior double-majoring in political science and Spanish language and literature and applying to law school, originally applied for the on-campus housing out of concern about bringing home COVID-19 to her family members—including her grandmother—with whom she was living in Manhattan.
“It affects you subconsciously,” she said. “You think about things more. I literally think I washed my hands every single time I would touch something. I didn’t take my mask off for a really long time.”
Isaac Mullings, a junior psychology major on the pre-health track, said it’s been interesting to be able to pick up food on campus without opening his wallet; he can simply use his meal plan card.
He said the housing award has encouraged him to do well. “I think it’s served [as]a point of motivation—‘Okay, there’s somebody looking out for you, so just try your best in class today,’” he said.
Make a gift to the Fordham Housing Fund here.
To inquire about giving to any area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.
]]>The Many Voices Prize was established in June by Elizabeth Stone, Ph.D., the Fordham English professor who also helped establish The Observer itself in 1981 and served as its adviser for 35 years. Carrying a cash award of $1,500, the prize will be awarded with a preference for Observer staffers who are first in their families to attend college or who come from other underrepresented groups.
Stone, a first-generation college graduate herself, believes that journalism has “a kind of moral obligation to be a big table at which everybody could sit.”
The prize is “a way to invite people to the journalistic table,” she said. “The hope is that once they join, they will feel invited, and they will speak what’s on their mind, they will do stories that are on their mind.”
Stone’s gift advances a key priority of Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, which seeks to reinvest in the entire student experience and foster a more diverse and inclusive Fordham community.
Stone’s gift will fund one Many Voices prize in the coming academic year and eventually three per year. The prize will be awarded for three nonfiction articles or their equivalent published in The Observer, either in print or online, by a staff member. In addition to writing, these works could include video, podcasts, photography, graphic design, graphic texts, cartoons, or other formats that emerge from the evolving media landscape, Stone said.
Alumni Involvement
The prize is coupled with a new effort to advance the career development of Observer staff members by harnessing the connections and expertise of Observer alumni, many of whom got their professional start on the award-winning publication and stay in touch with each other.
An alumni advisory board, formed from the Observer Alumni Affinity Chapter, is being created to advise Student Affairs in awarding the prize and to help connect the paper’s staff members with mentoring, networking, internship, and job opportunities. The board will also help with fundraising to augment the prize, said Anthony Hazell, FCLC ’07, communications director for a K-12 private school and The Observer’s editorial adviser since 2016.
Students for whom the award is meant are often working to meet their college expenses, “so hopefully offering a financial award to make up for the time that they spend on The Observer can help get their voices heard,” said Hazell, who served as the paper’s editor in chief as an undergraduate.
Stone announced the prize June 9 at the annual Block Party celebration at the Lincoln Center campus, saying that a robust diversity of journalistic voices is needed for the survival of our democracy.
The award also reflects her own experiences, she said in an interview. She challenged stereotypes in one of her earliest pieces of journalism, “It’s Still Hard to Grow Up Italian”—published in The New York Times in 1978, it incorporated narratives by several Italian Americans, and much of her early writing was about being the granddaughter of Italian immigrants at a time when, in popular culture, Italians were routinely associated with the mafia.
She hopes the prize will inspire people from underrepresented or misrepresented groups to speak out as well. “What I really hope is that they will speak to who they are, in terms of the subjects that interest them, the politics that interest them, the personal essays that interest them, in the same way that I did.”
Striving for Diversity
Allie Stofer, Observer editor in chief and an incoming senior at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, said she was excited to learn about the award because its cash prize could help students of diverse backgrounds make the time commitment required of Observer staffers. Maddie Sandholm, the managing editor and also an incoming senior at the college, noted that the Observer will also award a new $1,200 scholarship to one of its staff members in the coming year for similar purposes.
She said the paper has been making other diversity-related efforts in recent years, such as relaxing its meeting attendance requirement—to accommodate potential staffers who have conflicts—and hosting workshops on things like keeping biases out of headlines and page layouts.
“The chance to uplift new and underrepresented voices is something that has always and will always be invaluable to The Observer, and so we are honored that Elizabeth Stone … [has established] this prize to support and embody that mission,” Sandholm said.
Working with The Observer was the most engaging part of her job at Fordham to date, Stone said. She fondly recalled the daylong barbecues she hosted for the staff as a sort of retreat, as well as tricky editorial questions that fostered “teachable moments,” she said, “where there was a really vital conversation, and where I was delighted not to be the one who knew everything.”
She is proud to have helped develop and strengthen the paper over the years and hopes the prize will help The Observer stay in step with the anti-racism and multicultural perspectives that are being amplified in the Fordham curriculum.
“I really do believe in a kind of multiculturalism, but to believe in it, you have to see it all around you,” she said. The prize, she said, is “a way of helping to realize that vision.”
To inquire about supporting the Many Voices Prize or another area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.
]]>While Fordham Law School was founded to serve people who had traditionally been excluded from the legal field, “we have significantly more work to do … to truly ensure that all of our students, particularly those from underrepresented communities, experience a learning environment that is supportive and free from bias,” Matthew Diller, dean of the law school, said in an October 2020 statement.
Among many other efforts, the school expanded its Increasing Diversity in Education and the Law (IDEAL) program, a pre-law program for New York-area college students from diverse backgrounds. In August 2021, the school launched its Realizing Excellence and Access in the Law (REAL) Scholar’s program to provide peer advising, mentoring, a pre-orientation program, and other support to first-year law students from underrepresented groups.
The law school also brought in consultants for in-depth surveys that informed new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the Fordham Law community.These initiatives were enabled by benefactors including David Tanen, a 1996 Fordham Law graduate who has been a member of the Dean’s Planning Council and given back to the law school for more than a dozen years, making philanthropic investments to enhance its educational environment.
His experience at Fordham Law continues to enrich his life, he said, because of the friendships, connections, and skills he gained there. A native of small-town Nahant, Massachusetts, he initially pursued a legal career by majoring in criminal justice at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
He came to Fordham Law wanting to be a criminal defense attorney, but pivoted after graduation to work in the life sciences industry. Today, he is a partner with Two River, LLC, a venture capital firm in New York City that he co-founded in 2004. He has been a cofounder, officer, and director for a number of the firms incubated by Two River, including Kite Pharma, Inc.
Tanen has made major gifts in support of the law school’s diversity efforts, helping to advance a key priority of Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, Fordham’s campaign to raise $350 million for enhancing the student experience across the University. And he previously provided funding for six professionalism fellows, upper-level law students who promote mentorship, professionalism, and inclusion among students as part of the law school’s “house” system. Begun in 2019, the house system sets up communities of faculty, alumni, student advisers, and others to provide support and guidance for students.
Discussing his reasons for giving back to Fordham Law, he cited the collegial school character that he experienced as a student, as well as the law school’s culture that makes change and progress in anti-racism efforts a realistic aspiration.
How did your giving in support of diversity efforts at Fordham Law come about?
It was shortly after the murder of George Floyd that I met with Dean Matthew Diller and Assistant Dean Vera Tkachuk, and we were talking through some of the initiatives that they wanted to implement. Of particular note was an Instagram account called Black at Fordham Law, which highlighted some of the concerns about discrimination. Dean Diller was understandably concerned about the student experience at Fordham Law and recognized that this is an issue that needed to be addressed and addressed quickly. Fostering a more inclusive community where people from all backgrounds feel that they are welcome is important, not just for the law school but for all academic institutions and professional environments. This was something that resonated with me.
This was a seismic event—a cultural shift. There are challenging conversations to be had. My aim was to help provide resources to the law school so they could implement programs and facilitate those discussions.
Has your own work shown you the importance of DEI efforts?
Absolutely. Having an understanding of different perspectives can only provide for a better experience in the classroom and in the conference room or boardroom. For a long time, boards were dominated largely by white men, but we have initiated efforts at our companies to expand diversity at the management and board levels.
Moreover, our portfolio companies research and develop novel therapeutic technologies intended to address unmet medical needs, primarily in oncology. In drug development, ensuring people from diverse backgrounds join clinical trials is key to advancing health equity. Participants in clinical trials should represent the patients that will use the medical products. This is often not the case—people from racial and ethnic minorities and other diverse groups are underrepresented in clinical research. This is a concern because people of different ages, races, and ethnicities may react differently to certain medical products. The Food and Drug Administration encourages diverse participation in clinical trials.
Tell me about your support for the house system and the professionalism fellows.
The house system is a unique way of providing support to students. It creates a smaller community within the larger Fordham Law School community that promotes mental health and well-being and teaches some of the softer skills that aren’t taught in the classroom, and which are important to developing legal skills and critical thinking. Being solution oriented, communicating effectively, and working collaboratively are vital skills that are necessary for being a successful attorney and a better advocate. The professionalism program helps develop these skills. It also helps develop extra-legal skills that may be necessary, like financial literacy, but that are also useful in your professional and personal lives, such as cross-cultural understanding.
Have you faced a career challenge that offers a lesson for today’s students?
Growing up, I knew that I wanted to go to law school and focus on criminal law. As an undergraduate, I majored in criminal justice and at Fordham I focused primarily on criminal law classes and joined Fordham Law’s first trial advocacy team. Following graduation, however, I was unable to secure a position at any of the district attorney’s offices in New York. That’s when one of my classmates from Fordham Law reached out to me about an opportunity to join a boutique life science venture capital company. At the time, I wasn’t sure what a boutique life science company was. Nonetheless, disappointed with the failure to secure a position in criminal law, I decided to pivot to the corporate world, and it changed my life in meaningful ways.
Since then, together with my partners, we have built a number of successful biotechnology companies, created thousands of jobs, driven meaningful value for investors, and most importantly, brought life-saving therapies to patients who desperately need them. Venture capital was never a vocation that I had envisioned for myself. I always saw myself cross-examining someone in a courtroom rather than negotiating a contract in a conference room. The experience helped me to understand that when life presents you with challenges, you need to be flexible and take advantage of opportunities when they’re presented to you. It’s like the old adage goes—when life give you lemons, make lemonade.
This concept of adapting to change is nicely presented in a book I found influential—Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson. It’s about what you do when that “cheese” you’ve been chasing—in my case, being a criminal law attorney—is no longer there. I had to face my fears—“Okay, what do I do now? This is what I’ve built myself up to be over the last 24 years. Now, what am I? Where am I? How do I address this?” The lesson I learned is that you have to be open minded, you have to be flexible, and be ready to pivot to a new opportunity when it presents itself.
How did your Fordham Law education help you in this transition?
One of the things that I appreciate about Fordham Law is that it teaches you how to practice the law. At some other schools you learn about the philosophy of law, which is also important. However, with my Fordham Law education, I felt I was well prepared to practice as a criminal law attorney, and I was able to bring those same practical skills to a corporate law environment as well.
What’s a highlight from your student experience at Fordham?
Overall, I had a great experience at Fordham Law. Coming into law school, we had all watched The Paper Chase and read One L by Scott Turow and feared a cutthroat environment where students would tear cases out of the books or steal your notes in order to gain an advantage. I had just the opposite experience. Our class was very collaborative and cooperative. That culture, the openness and the friendships that I’ve built and keep to this day, are some of the highlights of my Fordham Law experience.
Looking at the world today, what are you optimistic about?
I’m optimistic about my children and their future—not just my children, but their generation. I think that it’s a much different generation than when I grew up. They are more accepting of other cultures, sexual preferences, and gender identifications. America is still a very divided country, but I hope that the younger generation can bridge these issues and we will get past some of these challenges.
I’m also optimistic about the law school. I am very happy with the direction and leadership of the deans and faculty. It’s the professionalism program, the DEI programs, the willingness to not only listen to the concerns that students have, but also address them, and to foster an environment where people feel comfortable expressing their views. Fordham is helping students not only to become successful professionally, but also to cultivate critical “soft skills” and demonstrate resilience.
The approach is clearly working—I recently learned that 94% of 2021 graduates are employed, which ties the school for No. 15 in the country. Also, last year’s incoming class had very strong scores, a 166 median on the LSAT and a median GPA of 3.7. And the school is ranked in the top 30 across 10 programs, from trial advocacy to criminal law and beyond, so the school really has amazing breadth.
What’s kept you involved with Fordham Law over the years?
Fordham Law’s motto is “In the service of others.” The law school has helped me in countless ways, and so it’s rewarding to be able to give back to the law school and its students, and hopefully they feel the same way.
To inquire about giving in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts or another area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, our campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.
]]>The First Gen Network debuted in the fall, founded by students after Fordham administrators held listening sessions last year about first-generation students’ experiences. It’s proving a valuable connection point for students who may arrive at the University less familiar with college life—and college opportunities—because of their family backgrounds.
Jin Lin Chen, a senior in the Gabelli School of Business and one of the founding student members, said she’s excited about the First Gen Network because of the importance of outreach to different social groups at the University to foster diversity and inclusion. “I’m glad I’m leaving the school knowing that this network exists,” she said.
The group held sign-up events at the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses on Nov. 8, celebrated as National First Generation Day since 2017. It happened to be the same day that the University launched a fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, that seeks—among other things—to honor Fordham’s heritage of welcoming first-generation students by ensuring that the University is accessible to them and to students of other diverse backgrounds.
The network has generated strong interest; Alexa Stegmuller, a second-year Fordham College at Lincoln Center student and another founding member, estimated that more than 200 people have joined its email list. For its next event, the group is hosting a spring mixer on March 25 at the new campus center at Rose Hill.
The group welcomes all students, not only those who are first-generation, as well as administrators and faculty. On Nov. 29, the First Gen Network and the Diversity Action Coalition held a panel discussion that included professors who were first-generation students themselves.
Nicole Varela, a first-year Fordham College at Lincoln Center student, joined the group at its Nov. 8 event. Her parents both attended college in El Salvador but never finished. She benefited from having seen her older brother apply to college—after he was able to find help from people who knew the process.
“SATs, ACTs, college essays—I feel like people who know a lot more about that have an advantage,” she said.
Stegmuller noted that many first-generation students have to overcome the inclination to do everything themselves, since that’s what they’re used to.
Asking for Help
Seeing a professor during office hours, asking a dean for help, checking in with a counselor—these things can feel weird for first-generation students, she said. She recalled a professor handing out a syllabus in one of her classes and seeing that it had a listing of student support services—three pages’ worth.
“I didn’t expect that of a college coming in, just because I didn’t really have an idea of what college was until I got here,” she said. “There are so many people here wanting to help.”
In high school, her friends tended to know the college application process “inside and out, basically,” because their parents or siblings had gone to college, she said.
“It’s daunting to like be like, ‘I think I need to ask for help,’ or ‘I’m really not sure, I don’t know what a FAFSA is,’ that sort of thing,” she said, referring to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
The application process was hard for her and her parents—“they didn’t really go through that experience,” she said. “It was a learning experience for all three of us.”
The Impact of Giving
She and Jin Lin Chen said scholarships and financial aid made all the difference in helping them enroll at Fordham. Stegmuller received a Jogues Scholarship and a need-based grant from the University. Jin Lin Chen received a federal Pell Grant in addition to a few different scholarships from Fordham. In addition to helping her pursue her dreams and take advantage of opportunities like studying abroad, “it was a way that I could somehow give back to my parents,” she said.
The aid “helped solidify a lot of the things that they wish for me and … things that I wish for myself,” she said.
Scholarships and financial aid are one priority of the Cura Personalis campaign. Campaign gifts could make a difference for first-generation students in any number of other ways, said Christie-Belle Garcia, assistant dean for student support and success at Fordham College at Rose Hill.
They could provide funding for travel to conferences, for instance, or stipends for unpaid internships, or the creation of a summer bridge program that helps incoming first-generation students familiarize themselves with Fordham and the college experience, she said.
Garcia helped launch the First Gen Network along with Tracyann Williams and Marisa Villani, her counterparts at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and the Gabelli School of Business, respectively.
“It started organically, because we were hearing from students that there was a need,” Villani said. They held a few listening tours via Zoom, and then students took the lead in launching the group.
“We work with them closely, and at the same time we want to make sure that the ideas are coming from them,” Williams said. “Because they are amazing.”
Patrick Verel contributed reporting.
The First Gen Network welcomes members of the Fordham community who are first-generation students as well as those who wish to support them. See here for more information about the group or send an email to [email protected].
To inquire about giving in support of first-generation students or to meet other needs at the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.
]]>“The whole concept of sexuality was confusing. I chose to repress the subject rather than confront it,” he wrote in a memoir that he completed in 2017, the year before he died.
As he worked to overcome fear and secrecy about his own homosexuality, he wanted to help others do the same. This intention fueled his desire to write his memoir, not yet published. And it motivated him, in one of the final acts of his life, to make a gift to advance the cause of inclusivity and tolerance across all lines of difference.
With a bequest of $200,000, Esposito created the first endowment for Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, a fund that is now poised to bear fruit for the office’s programming. The funding arrives, in fact, in the midst of a Fordham fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, that has diversity, equity, and inclusion at its heart.
“He would be so proud to be part of this campaign,” said Jackie Comesanas, senior director of gift planning in Development and University Relations at Fordham, who worked with Esposito on setting up his gift. Esposito wanted to make a diversity-related gift focused on the Bronx and Fordham, of which he had fond memories, she said.
In the Struggle
A Brooklyn native, Esposito worked in hotels and catering during his time at Fordham and went on to become a hotel casino executive and entrepreneur.
He served as vice president of sales for Fairmont Hotels, vice president of MGM Reno, and president of Bally’s Las Vegas, among many other roles. In 1988, he founded the successful sales and marketing consultancy Hotel Management International.
He was a driven executive, at times “over the top” in motivating his staff, he wrote in his memoir, My Name is Joe: The Journey of a Gay Recovering Alcoholic in the Casino Industry.
He was also a talented salesman whose strength was his authenticity, said Robert Benz, a longtime friend and former business partner of Esposito’s. “Being real and being himself was what made him a great salesman,” he said.
But Esposito also felt shame at not being more forthright about his sexuality. Was He gained clarity about his sexual orientation in his early 20s but still “compartmentalized” it and avoided the topic, he wrote in his memoir. He wrote of spending time with three nephews during their youth and young adulthood, traveling around the U.S. and Europe, but never discussing his sexuality with them until he had reached middle age.
“Here I was, now in my early forties, telling these guys in their twenties that I was gay,” he wrote.
One of them responded by saying “‘How could you spend so much time with me and hide who you are?’ I gave the standard answer that, “‘Being gay is not who I am,’” he wrote. And—“I asked him why he did not tell me that he was straight.” (Later on, he said, “it was fun being his gay uncle.”)
Esposito said he met many heterosexual people who stood up to anti-gay bigotry. But hate reared its head often. There was a day in 1980, at the MGM Reno, when his secretary came back from lunch and seemed to be hiding herself a bit. He walked around her desk and saw a red mark on her face.
“I do not know to this day how I knew that Maria had defended me,” he wrote. He responded with some gentle humor, telling her they couldn’t get into a fight with everyone that called him a name—“If we did, then we would both be fighting a lot with our 2,500 employees and neither one of us would get any work done.”
In 1984, he co-chaired the Las Vegas Task Force on AIDS with then-governor Grant Sawyer. The AIDS epidemic claimed the life of one of Esposito’s best friends, someone whose family hadn’t known he was gay. At a gathering following the funeral, Esposito wrote, “the gay people were on one side of the room, the family on the other, and a giant division in between,” as the family reeled from both the loss of their son and what they hadn’t known about him.
“My generation often kept our private lives hidden from family. It was wrong for us to do whether they accepted us or not,” he wrote. “It took away from our personal dignity.”
Esposito did his part to help people shed secrecy and fear about their orientation, said his husband, Edgar Esposito, whom he wed in Las Vegas in 2015.
“He was a person who wanted everybody to be happy, and just help as much as he could to make sure that those who are gay and in the closet a little bit make their way out in a much easier way,” Edgar said. “One of his nephews has a gay son, and the nephew came to him to talk about his son, and he kind of helped the nephew understand that acceptance is a very powerful thing, especially when it comes to your child.”
Alcoholics Anonymous
Sobriety, supported by the spiritual aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous, was an anchor of Esposito’s life. He turned to AA at age 30 to deal with “blackout” drinking rooted in childhood fears, inner emptiness, and the stresses related to being gay in a world that was not always tolerant. “Many people in my generation were fearful” about their sexual orientation, he wrote.
When he walked into his first AA meeting, “it was like I met people from my planet for the first time.”
Forty-six years of sobriety, he wrote, “is the most important accomplishment of my life.”
Esposito struggled with cancer toward the end of his life; he died on March 4, 2018, at the age of 76, within a year of signing the agreement to create an endowment at Fordham.
Impact of the Endowment
The Joseph E. Esposito Jr., FCRH ’63, Endowed Fund will help the Office of Multicultural Affairs expand its various efforts to foster cross-cultural competencies, engagement of diverse students, and a more welcoming and inclusive atmosphere, said Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion.
“Now we can reimagine things in ways that we couldn’t before,” Matos said. He plans to manage the funding for the greatest possible long-term impact. “I feel like there’s an obligation to make sure we’re spending any funds in an intentional way,” he said.
The endowment could help send students to diversity-related conferences or bring speakers to campus, for instance; it could also give the office’s student-run cultural committees latitude to come up with more on-campus programs and events.
With more events comes more student involvement, in a kind of “domino effect,” Matos said.
“Once you’re able to do some larger-scale programs that have an impact … you’ll naturally then have more students that are aware of either what the office does or ways to get connected, and then those students then join the committees and want to continue doing that work.”
The endowment could be used to sustain one-time events that drew a strong response from students, like the block party held at the Rose Hill campus during Welcome Week this past fall or the diversity graduation celebrations held last spring.
The celebrations for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ students and students of Asian or Pacific Islander descent were held in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, using funds that been freed up by the scaling down of in-person events during the pandemic lockdown of 2020-2021, Matos said.
The Esposito fund “allows us a level of sustainability for these really important events that we hope become markers of students’ experience here at Fordham,” he said. “The more you’re able to provide these experiences … that people look forward to, that increases a sense of belonging.”
Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student and make a gift.
If you have a question about giving to Fordham, call 212-636-6550 or send an email to [email protected].
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