“My friends, you will never have a job,” said Joseph McShane, S.J., in his final address to graduates as Fordham’s president.

“You will have something much more important. You will have a vocation—a demanding vocation, a loving vocation, a vocation that will change people’s lives. A vocation that will heal hearts, and vocation that will bring hope.”

The ceremony featured the conferral of bachelor’s,  master’s, and doctoral degrees in social work, as well as an honorary doctorate of humane letters conferred upon Bill Baccaglini, former president and CEO of t he New York Foundling. 

‘Because It Needs to Be Done’

Baccaglini told graduates that they deserve every bit of respect as is afforded to the great entrepreneurs and CEOs in this country.

“They built great companies and they’ve done big things, but ask yourself, have they ever sat with a distraught 4-year-old and told him or her that they couldn’t live with their mom any longer because it was unsafe? Have they ever counseled the family of a terminally ill person and talked with them about what the right time was to let their loved one go?” he said.

“You don’t do this because it’s easy. You’ve chosen to do this because it needs to be done.”

He cautioned that graduates should work for long-lasting change, and most importantly, he implored them to “have a life.” 

“You will work 80-hour weeks when your teams are short-staffed, and you’ll always wonder, ‘What else can I do?’” he said.

“It’s the nature of the work and likely what brought you to it. You can try to be perfect and lose sleep when you’re not, but here’s the truth: You’re not doing your clients any favor, and you’ll be burnt out in just a few short years.”

Although the problems we face are numerous, Baccaglini said the COVID-19 pandemic had revealed to many what heroism looks like.

“We’ve seen enough suffering to know that the true heroes are those individuals who believe that the highest calling and greatest gift is to have the opportunity and ability to improve the lives of those around them,” he said.

Dean Urges Adaptation to New Challenges, But Not Acceptance

Debra M. McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, called the graduates’ commitment an antidote to a surreal time when oppression is legitimized by leaders. The social work field is not the same now as it was when they started, but they’re equipped for the new reality.

“You already have learned a most critical lesson of adapting to the life that unfolds in front of you, as opposed to the one that you expected. I urge you, however, not to confuse adaptation with acceptance,” she said.

“Step into the uncertainty of the present but commit to building the future that you want to live in—a future not designed to protect the status quo, but a future that helps reset our collective moral compass, making unacceptable the conditions that perpetuate racism, violence, poverty, and the intentional disenfranchisement of whole communities.”

A Drum Call to Action

Vanessa Tricoche Pacheco, a member of the graduating class, serenaded those in attendance with a drum and song, and pronounced her classmates “the ones that our ancestors prayed for.”

“We use the drum as a way to call to action,” she said after acknowledging the Munsee and Lenape indigenous peoples who called the land where Fordham sits home.

“Those who are living and those who have passed, we use our drum and voice to acknowledge, to cry, to celebrate, and to come to the present moment.”

The Class of 2022, she said, are a unique group of social workers who understand that they are on the front lines of building a new world.

“We understand what it feels like to sacrifice, pivot, shift, work, advocate, organize, occupy, decolonize, and co-create during very, very challenging times,” she said. 

First Time on Campus

Several graduates echoed the importance of being present. Jessica Champagnie, a native of the Bronx who was paralyzed from the waist down by an errant bullet when she was 19, enrolled in the GSS online program because it felt safer than in person learning, she said. She decided to become a social worker because when she was shot, it was social workers who, along with her family and friends, helped her rebuild her life. 

“I lost my father five years ago, and with these big achievements, it feels a little sad. But I worked hard, and he is here in spirit. I carry him in my heart, and I am proud of myself, and so is my family. So, I decided I deserve to come to this graduation,” she said.

It was the first time she’d been to the Rose Hill campus and the first time she’d seen her classmates in person. She loved her online classes, but there was nothing quite like seeing people in the flesh.

“It was such a friendly and warm atmosphere, and to meet some of the people that I was going to class with on Zoom, it’s just, it’s like, ‘Yay, we did it, we came through!’” she said.

“There’s been a lot of screams and hugs and kisses and high fives.”

After Working 40 Jobs, a Desire to Be Part of the Solution

Vivek Sreekumar had graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in economics and had worked, “something like 40 jobs” before the pandemic hit. Inspired by his mother, Mridula Nair, he gave GSS a look.

“Just seeing the devastation that was happening around us, I felt like I wanted to be part of the solution. I realized that social work was bigger than just clinical work, so now I’m focused on macro social work policy and advocacy,” he said.

His mother and father, Cumar Sreekumar, drove in from Rochester, New York, for the occasion. Nair, a scientist at Kodak Eastman for the last 42 years, said that her son was living her dream of devoting oneself full time to helping others.

“I always believe in serving people and giving things back. We all have so much. We forget those around us, and with just a quirk of fate, we could be one of the those who are marginalized by society,” she said.

“The more science and research I do, the more I wonder about all of the people around me, these amazing minds who have never been tapped into because they haven’t had the resources—and what can we do to make change?”

Crawley, who received an honorary doctorate during the ceremony, recalled his own experiences in the executive MBA program at the Gabelli School during another fraught period: the Great Recession.

“I was in a cohort that represented many of the banking institutions engulfed by the crisis,” said Crawley, who earned his MBA in 2009 and has since risen to a series of high-profile senior leadership positions at Morgan Stanley, including chief marketing officer and head of the firm’s private wealth management business. “My classmates and I relied on each other and got through that experience together.”

Indeed, this idea of building community through a tough shared experience was a common theme at the ceremony, present in nearly every speech the audience heard. Throughout the afternoon, the graduates—including 20 military veterans who were also feted at a special Victory Bell-ringing ceremony on May 20—were cheered on by hundreds of friends, family, faculty, and members of the Fordham community who had gathered on Edwards Parade.

The Value of ‘Strategic Persistence’ and the Gabelli Network

Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., GABELLI ’83, dean of the Gabelli School, told graduates that their time together at the University helped them hone a capacity for what two-time Fordham graduate Caroline Dalhgren, director of global consumer insights at Tiffany & Co., calls “strategic persistence.”

“What does that mean? Caroline says it’s that Fordham graduates are ‘scrappy’ in the best possible way,” Rapaccioli said. “You do not expect that anything will ever be handed to you on a silver platter. Instead, you are go-getters. You are solution-finders. You know what you want—and you come up with exciting plans to get there.”

Rapaccioli described Dahlgren as an ideal member of the alumni community, someone who has helped hire many Fordham graduates in her role at Tiffany & Co. and who always says yes when Fordham students and alumni reach out to her for career advice. Rapaccioli encouraged graduates to do the same as active members of the Fordham alumni network—more than 200,000 people worldwide, including 40,000 Gabelli graduates, she said.

“When they contact you asking for career guidance, or when they email you asking for help in their job search, say yes,” she said. “As Caroline puts it, ‘We only will be successful in building this alumni network if we all say yes.’” 

Graduate School in Turbulent Times

Addressing graduates at his final degree ceremony as president of Fordham, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., cited the challenges they encountered as they pursued their degrees: the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial instability it spurred, the country’s ongoing issues with race and inequality, and budding international political strife.

“My dear friends, let’s be honest: Your time in graduate school has not been an easy time,” he said. “You found yourselves in graduate business programs preparing to take on a world—and a global economy—at a time that both of them were seriously out of joint.”

He congratulated them on persevering, even as they “may have been a bit battered along the way,” and encouraged them to never forget the lessons they learned as Fordham students, namely how to be business professionals marked by competence, conscience, compassion “and deep commitment to the cause of the human family.”

A Heartfelt Tribute to Dean Rapaccioli

Father McShane also offered a special thank-you to Rapaccioli, who is stepping down at the end of June to return to teaching and research after a remarkable 15-year tenure as dean. He surprised her with a Magis Medal, making her the first-ever recipient of the award, established this year to honor longtime administrators who have strengthened the Fordham community “through their discerning wisdom, extraordinary leadership, and unstinting commitment to excellence in the service of others.”

“She has led the school with energy, vision, devotion, and love,” Father McShane said of Rapaccioli, who led the unification of the University’s undergraduate and graduate business schools in 2015, launched Gabelli’s first doctoral programs, and oversaw significant growth in enrollments and rises in rankings at the school. “In the process, she has transformed it and made it a leader not only in American business education, but a leader and trailblazer in international Jesuit business education. Therefore, we are all in her debt, a debt that is so great that I could never adequately thank her.”

Six faculty members were also recognized during the ceremony. Paul Kramer, GABELLI ’88, and Joseph Zirpolo, GABELLI ’98, each received the Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence; Miguel Alzola and John Fortunato each received the Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence; and Alex Markle and Iris Schneider each received the Stanley Fuchs Award, presented in memory of the former area chair of law and ethics who was a devoted teacher and student advocate.

A Framework for Fulfillment

In his remarks, Crawley, a native of Chicago’s West Side, spoke about his professional path. He has been working at Morgan Stanley for three decades, since he landed a work-study position with the company in high school.

“My journey was far from linear; it was quite circuitous,” he said. “I started out as a 17-year-old intern running errands for bond traders, earning a wage of $5 an hour, [and] worked my way across different parts of the Morgan Stanley ecosystem.”

He continued working on the firm’s municipal bond sales and trading desk in Chicago while attending Northeastern Illinois University at night, transferring to Morgan Stanley’s New York City headquarters once he’d earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2004, he garnered his first management role, and in 2014, he was elevated to chief marketing officer, a position he held until taking over the company’s private wealth management business in 2017. He has been the firm’s global chief human resources officer since early last year.

Crawley shared two frameworks he uses to assess his professional progress—one to determine if it’s time to do something different, and one to determine what career he should be doing.

For the first, he told graduates to ask themselves four questions, suggesting that if the answer to any of them is ‘no,’ they may consider reevaluating their role: Am I learning? Am I growing? Am I having impact? Am I happy? Meanwhile, he said, graduates should ask themselves a second, broader set of questions: Am I interested in the work? Does it align with my core capabilities or superpower? Can I be useful?

Crawley used his love for basketball as an example of how interest doesn’t always align with capability. “I’m interested in the game. I’m a tall guy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t wired for it. The NBA won’t be reaching out to me anytime soon,” he joked. But he encouraged graduates to bring passion to their careers.

“The energy and enthusiasm you have right now? Do not lose it; let it drive you,” he said. “Channel it throughout what I know will be long and successful careers for all of you.”

Better Today Than Yesterday

The ceremony also featured two student speakers: Jason Gurtata, president of the Student Advisory Council and a graduate of the full-time MBA program, and Aaron Martins, who earned an M.S. in global finance.

Looking back to the beginning of his Gabelli journey, Gurtata remembered meeting his cohort for the first time—on Zoom.

He said that while they may not have fully understood what they were in for at the outset—”Did we have any idea of what it meant to immerse ourselves so deeply that all we did was dream about LinkedIn Premium features during our naps?”—he relished being on the other side and credited his Gabelli experiences for teaching him the “most important lesson”: Strive to be better today than yesterday.

As he and his classmates learned “not to chase dollars but to chase our dreams,” Gurtata said he not only gained a new family of Fordham Rams but he also learned the true meaning of success.

“Success is not a test score; it is not that job at a high-end bank, investment firm, or media company; it is not about your salary,” he said. “It is about who we are as individuals. We have learned to partake in business with a purpose, but I encourage each and every one of you to live your life with a purpose.”

Nowhere Near the End

Martins echoed the day’s theme of persevering through the pandemic’s “unchartered territory.”

“We showed that we will adapt and overcome whatever life will throw at us,” he said. “In difficult, uncharted territory we were still focused on our goals and aspirations, ready to keep moving forward.”

He stressed that while their Fordham education was concluding, the ceremony certainly wasn’t the end of the road.

“This may be the end of the chapter, but the book is far from over,” he said.

Read the full story at Fordham Law News.

“You persevered during the perfect storm” of the COVID-19 pandemic and a national reckoning with racial inequities, José Luis Alvarado, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE), told them during the May 23 ceremony on the University’s Rose Hill campus.

“The path you chose was tough, yet the skills you developed—resourcefulness, tenacity, resilience, and patience—will serve you well in your professional career. … As GSE alumni,” he added, “you are equipped with the tools to promote a just society and to advance educational and social equity.”

For Ever Ramirez, the sense of solidarity Alvarado described was palpable.

“All these people right here who I’m graduating with—they’re my people,” said Ramirez, who earned a master’s degree in school counseling. “I know everyone here is going to support me.”

Ramirez, who started as a part-time student in the program, will begin working as a counselor at Tompkins Square Middle School in Manhattan this fall. “It’s been four long years, and it’s not just [about]me. It’s the people who have been helping me through it: my parents, my fiancée. They’re honestly more excited than I am.”

A ‘Sympathetic and Caring’ Faculty

Several graduates noted how Fordham faculty members not only imparted their expertise in the classroom but also acted as mentors who provided space for making connections, even as classes shifted to meeting online.

“The professors were so sympathetic and caring about our days, so there was a lot of catching up on our weeks” during online sessions, said Coleen Clarke, an assistant teacher at an early childhood center in the Bronx who graduated from the curriculum and teaching master’s program. “I loved all of my professors, each and every one of them. I gained so much from all of them.”

For Teresa Garofalow, online classes were part of the plan from the outset. She graduated from the online master’s program in childhood special education, earning an M.S.T. and certification in both childhood education and teaching students with disabilities in childhood. But she said that faculty support was essential in making things go smoothly.

“I loved my adviser, Annie George-Puskar,” said Garofalow, who works at a private school that emphasizes applied behavior analysis. “She was really easy to get a hold of and talk to with any issue I had. She became my

adviser mid-program, which was honestly really helpful, because I felt I was a little lost. She was a huge help in getting me in the right direction.”

An Accelerated Path to the Classroom

The diploma ceremony marked the second Fordham graduation in three years for Jazmin Nazario.

Three years ago, as a Fordham junior, the Red Hook, Brooklyn, native enrolled in the Graduate School of Education’s accelerated master’s in teaching program. She had been serving as an AP calculus instructor in Fordham’s STEP program, and she knew she wanted to become a math teacher. Nazario began taking graduate courses while completing her bachelor’s degree at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2020. That same year, she joined the faculty at Icahn Charter School 6 in the Bronx, where she teaches math to seventh- and eighth-graders.

“What was nice about the accelerated program was Fordham was already familiar to me,” Nazario said, noting that she had the chance to work with her graduate adviser, Alesia Moldavan, Ph.D., as an undergraduate researcher. “It didn’t feel like I had to start over. I already had familiar faces, so it was like keeping it going instead of starting from scratch.”

Bridging a ‘Gap of Inequity’ in Mental Health Services

Ricardo Perez, who graduated from GSE’s bilingual school psychology advanced certificate program, said that one of his professors—Yi Ding, Ph.D.—became a familiar face as soon as he looked into attending Fordham.

“She was at my open house,” Perez said of Ding. “She was actually the person who sold me on Fordham. I credit her with my decision to go here. She’s also been a huge pillar of support. She recommended I apply for scholarships [that I got], so I’m in a great position because of her.”

Perez is currently interning at P.S. 142 Amalia Castro on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and he is applying to full-time positions as a bilingual school psychologist for the fall. He said he was motivated to become a school psychologist because of his experiences with a younger brother with autism and because of his own childhood ADHD diagnosis. While completing childhood clinical psychology internships as an undergrad at NYU, he realized he wanted to work in a public school. Doing so would offer him a greater opportunity to serve children who have fewer resources, he said.

“The first point of mental health contact is schools, public schools specifically. I wanted to bridge that gap of inequity in mental health services.”

In the Service of Others

Better serving children—a goal at the heart of so much of the work being done by GSE students, faculty, and graduates—was the reason that Melissa Szymanski enrolled in the school’s doctoral program in educational leadership, administration, and policy.

“I consider myself the lead learner of my organization,” said Szymanski, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Westchester County, New York. “So everything that I’ve done through this program is really in service to my own learning, in contribution to my organization, and in support of the children.”

That sense of service and dedication is what made Joseph M. McShane, president of Fordham, refer to the graduates as “brave oddities.”

“More precisely, you are saving and heroic oddities,” he said in his address to graduates. “You are not in a profession that you will spend your lives in for either money or glory. Rather, you are a reckless bunch who put the welfare of those in your care above your own. … I am jealous of the students whom you will teach.”

“These big days are really a celebration of those days that didn’t seem to matter at all … That day you were at work and thought, ‘Oh, man—I’m not going to that class tonight,’ but you went anyway. Or that day you stayed up till three o’clock to finish that paper or take-home exam. That day you sat down at your computer and finally submitted an application to college and did something to change your life,” he said, to cheers and applause from the audience. “That day did change your life.” 

The 2022 PCS diploma ceremony celebrated more than 150 graduates, many of whom overcame different obstacles to get to that stage in the Fordham Prep theater at Rose Hill. Among them was John Lenehan, an 88-year-old veteran who completed his bachelor’s degree at Fordham. Lenehan started at Fordham in the 1950s but left for a good job offer. In a story for ABC News, he said, “It’s never too late to finish the job that you started, whether it’s your personal life, your business life, your professional life.” He walked across the stage to thunderous applause.

About 30% of this year’s graduating class at PCS are active or former members of the U.S. military. PCS has more members of the armed forces than any other school at Fordham, said Bach. (This year’s ceremony date also coincided with Armed Forces Day, an American holiday that celebrates past and present members of the military.) 

Juggling School, A Newborn, and Full-Time Job

Also among this year’s graduates is Ayana Jones, a Brooklyn native who earned her bachelor’s degree in social work while nursing a newborn and holding a full-time job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a unit assistant. She recalled one of her most difficult semesters.

“I had the baby on one hip, I was home on my one day off from work, seeing my kids on Zoom [during my internship at a public school in Manhattan], running out to do laundry in between seeing the kids, feeding the baby, feeding my older child, and making sure she was doing remote schooling,” said Jones. “There were moments where I really didn’t think this [degree]was going to happen for me.”

Over the past seven years, she completed a bachelor’s degree in social work—the “perfect” field for her, she said. “It really spoke to me. It allows me to advocate for people from a human justice perspective,” said Jones, who plans to someday return to Fordham for her master’s degree in social work. 

Jones credited her family, friends, and PCS staff with helping her complete her college education. 

“There were nights I cried. My family had to hold me. My child had to hold me. My coworkers had to hold me,” she said, sheepishly laughing. “But here I am, and I couldn’t be happier.”  

Her partner of 14 years, Chris Quinones, added that he is proud of Jones. 

“There were a few bumps in the road, but she persevered,” said Quinones, who cared for their family so that she could study and work. “I knew she was going to make it.”

An Architect Who Found A Silver Lining in the Pandemic 

After a decade of working as an architect, Gabe Seidel was laid off. His clients could no longer pay their bills because of the pandemic. But when he lost his job, he said he found a silver lining. 

“It seemed like a good choice to go to school if the pandemic was going to disrupt things for 18 months to two years. It was also a way to transition into what I really wanted to do—real estate development,” said Seidel, an Ohio native who earned his master’s degree in real estate this spring. “I have an internship that I’ll start next Monday with an affordable housing developer here in the city.”

A First-Generation College Student and U.S. Navy Veteran

For Kishell Davis, a first-generation college student from Jamaica, getting a degree is more than an individual accomplishment. 

“Getting this degree is not just for me—it’s also for my family,” said Davis, who earned her bachelor’s degree in international political economy last February. 

One of her favorite memories at Fordham is spending a month in South Africa with her peers, where she said she gained a new perspective on the international economy and saw the potential impact of her degree. “My studies will allow me to make a difference in the world and help reform policies that target people who are disadvantaged,” she said.

“I’ve always dedicated my life to serving people. In high school, I was an EMT. In the military, I served my country,” said Davis, who was an active-duty member of the U.S. Marine Corps from 2016 to 2018. “Through what I’ve learned here at Fordham, I will be able to continue helping people.” 

‘Seeing the Value Inside Us as Adult Learners’

Lori A. Gaskill, PCS ’22, who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in social work, delivered the student keynote speech. 

“I want to thank PCS in particular for seeing the value inside us as adult learners. Thank you for welcoming us—not in spite of our baggage, jobs, kids, parents, community commitments, and bills, lots of bills—but because of those things,” she said.

The life experiences of PCS’s students brings color and life to Fordham’s campus and beyond, said Gaskill. 

“At Fordham, what we have learned is that how we walk in the world matters. What we say and do and how we treat people … How we listen, the words we choose, and the efforts we each take to be a good person—it matters. I know I’m a better person for having completed this education,” she said, taking a moment to thank her loved ones, including her four children and her husband, who served 25 years in the U.S. Navy and made it possible for her to complete her Fordham education with his veteran benefits. “Looking around the room, I can see that we, the graduates of 2022, will make the world a better place.” 

—Reporting by Patrick Verel