“I looked to my roots in neuroscience. I thought surely there was a scientific way to being happier,” said Chiles, who majored in integrative neuroscience.

Three Tips for Happiness

But instead he found it in positive psychology, a field credited to psychologist Martin Seligman, Ph.D. Chiles cited three tips from Seligman and tied them back to his Fordham experiences and lessons.

“First, go out, find someone who needs help, and help them.That reminds me of the Jesuit tenet we all know—to be people for and with others,” Chiles said to fellow students in Rose Hill Gym.

“Second, he tells us to learn and cultivate optimism,” he said.

“Finally … he says anything you’d like doing, do it with someone else.”

A Roast from the Lady of the Manor

Chiles’ speech followed the Lady of the Manor address—a traditional humorous student’s reflection—from Samantha Sheridan, a political science and digital media major. Sheridan joked that her inspiration for the address came from a speech she heard from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham, who stepped down last June.

“It was move-in day and I was very nervous,” she said. “And Father McShane provided us with the answers to some questions. He said, ‘You may be wondering if you will make lifelong friends here at Fordham? Yes. You may be wondering if you will find your purpose here at Fordham? Yes. You may be wondering if your high school boyfriend still loves you? No!’ And he was right. On all three accounts.”

Sheridan joked that she and her classmates experienced something that not a lot of Fordham students got to experience: “genuine excitement about our basketball team.” And, she said, a new president.

Looking Backward to Look Forward

Fordham College at Rose Hill Dean Maura Mast encouraged graduates to participate in an Ignatian examination with four steps—presence, gratitude, review, and response.

“The response moves us from looking backward to looking forward,” she said. “My hope is that as you look backward over your time at Fordham, you go through these steps … and you begin to understand what you need to go forward.”

Celebrating the 2023 Graduates

The ceremony, which traces its roots to the ancient Greeks, recognized students inducted into top academic honor societies and those who won prestigious awards, fellowships, and scholarships.

Two awards are a surprise to the recipients. The Claver Award, given by the Jesuits of Fordham to a FCRH senior who exemplifies dedication to service, was given to Michela Fahy.

“We are struck by and so grateful for how much you did to foster recovery for our community, as we all sought that recovery in the wake of the pandemic,” Mast said about Fahy’s community work with the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

The Fordham College Alumni Association Award, awarded to a senior who “exemplifies the Fordham spirit,” was given to Arthur Ze An Liu.

“He’s known and respected as a mentor, a role model, a hard worker, a problem solver, a conflict mediator and what one person termed, an amazing friend,” Mast said. “[He] is someone really committed to promoting Asian American Pacific Islander culture, along with the values of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

She related all this not at a policy forum or in front of a class, but during her valedictory address at Encaenia in May 2019, taking advantage of the large, attentive audience at the traditional pre-commencement event for Fordham College at Rose Hill graduates and their families.

“This isn’t a story about what I overcame, or what so many of us have overcome. This is a story about how no one should have to,” said Happel, who majored in environmental studies. “There’s still time to fix this, but only if we start right now. Together, we have the power to solve the climate crisis.”

That crisis is getting more public attention because of nature itself, as wildfires have ravaged the West Coast this year and stoked public concern about extreme weather in a warming world. At Fordham, professors who have spent decades observing the effects of climate change offered insight into how science can help frame the need to take action.

Preserving Ecosystems

To build support for climate action, “you have to explain to people that their own survival depends on it, using economic terms and then health terms,” said Craig Frank, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences.

With species struggling—and possibly failing—to adapt quickly enough to rapid warming, natural processes that sustain humanity could be disrupted in ways we can’t anticipate, he said. In his own research at the Louis Calder Center, Fordham’s biological field station in Armonk, New York, he has seen eastern chipmunk populations drop by about two-thirds over the past two decades.

Warmer temperatures have changed the chemistry of seeds they feed on, preventing the chipmunks from lapsing into an energy-saving state of torpor while hibernating underground. To make it through a wakeful winter, they often need to gather more food than can be found in the forest, where trees are producing fewer seeds because of hotter and drier summers, Frank said. He estimated that nearly 1,000 mammal species use torpor in one way or another. It’s not clear, he said, how many hibernating species could adapt to environments that are changing at “an artificially rapid rate” due to growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

“We’re already in a situation where between 20% and 30% of the mammals in the world are threatened with extinction,” a figure that would grow substantially if warming temperatures keep disrupting hibernation, Frank said.

The highest rate of extinction is among plants, said Steven Franks, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences.

He has led or contributed to studies showing how field mustard plants are affected by extreme weather shifts. While they adapt to flower earlier in response to droughts, their seed production suffers, and earlier flowering can leave them more vulnerable to disease, he said. And when the plants respond to wetter periods by evolving to flower later, it’s that much harder for them to readapt when drought returns. The plants used in the studies were harvested in a part of California that, since 2004, has seen several droughts as severe as any in the prior 100 years after seeing only one such drought since 1977.

Drought is having “an enormous effect on many plants, and water scarcity is a really pressing environmental issue,” he said. “The population can be evolving and can even be evolving rapidly, but still not adapting fast enough to keep up with the rate of climate change, and the population still goes extinct.”

The rate of extinctions is accelerating, with about 1 million species—both plants and animals—at risk of dying out, “more than ever before in human history,” according to a 2019 statement by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Many of them could go extinct within decades, the organization said.

Frank highlighted what else could be lost or affected when species die out. “The air that you breathe is a result of natural processes,” he said. “The food that you eat is a result of natural processes. The soil that grows the food is produced by natural process. The water that you drink, that’s a natural process, too. All these are what we call ecosystem services provided to [us].” And yet, “we don’t fully understand how the ecosystems work or how they’re interrelated,” he said.

Using an analogy from the naturalist Aldo Leopold, he likened degraded ecosystems to an airplane losing rivets from one of its wings in midflight. “Each one of these rivets is a species, and we don’t know when the wing is going to fall off,” he said.

Consequences Big and Small

Thomas Daniels, Ph.D., associate research scientist and director of the Calder Center, noted the importance of getting people to care about nature and about future generations—not “by yelling at them,” but by setting an example. National leadership and political will are critical, along with cultivating an appreciation of nature among the young, he said.

Occupying 113 acres, the Calder Center serves as a laboratory where many subtle, still-unfolding impacts of climate change can be seen. Daniels’ own research specialty is ticks, the tiny arachnids that can transmit Lyme disease. Studying their population at the center over the years, he has seen them becoming active earlier in the spring and later into the winter because of rising temperatures. The warming climate has also allowed the Asian tiger mosquito, a possible vector for yellow fever and dengue viruses, to show up in Orange County, New York—“farther north than we expected,” he said.

While this is worrisome, “the larger picture is so much more devastating than vector-borne diseases being an issue,” he said. “The consequences [of climate change] go so far beyond us, and our particular risk in a particular location on a particular day, or in a particular year.”

Those consequences can range widely, from rising seas to food shortages to ocean acidification to an increase in climate refugees who are driven north by rising equatorial temperatures, said physics professor Stephen Holler, Ph.D., who will teach a new honors course on climate change in the spring 2021 semester. Emissions of carbon dioxide from human activity are contributing to the planet’s sixth major extinction event, which follows five others that also correlated with heightened amounts of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, he said. The most recent major extinction was the one that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

He noted the value of showing how people can immediately benefit from actions to curb climate change. As part of the University’s Reimagining Higher Education initiative, launched in spring 2020, his team of faculty and staff members devised a project for communicating climate science through the lens of air pollution and how it affects people who live in the Bronx. It will bring together students from Fordham and from Bronx elementary and high schools to educate the community about air quality, using data from particulate sensors to be placed at the Rose Hill campus and throughout the Bronx.

Their goal is to empower residents to take social or political action about air quality in the borough. The Bronx has some of the country’s highest rates of asthma, which is exacerbated by particulates in the air, Holler said.

Holler’s course will cover social justice aspects of climate change, such as populations displaced from Pacific islands—as well as parts of the U.S.—because of rising seas, in addition to droughts and other environmental impacts.

Taking Action

In her speech at Encaenia, Happel called on her audience to work on climate issues with other members of “Fordham’s amazing global network, [f]rom bankers to biologists, diplomats to dancers.” And she called out one particularly inspiring Fordham graduate, a head of state who is “a powerful voice on the world stage for the rights of island nations.”

That alumna is Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine, chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. A graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, for the past 20 years she has been the elected leader of this internationally recognized nation populating low-lying coastal areas and islands stretching from North Carolina to Florida. “It’s no stretch of the imagination to say that, someday, her country may simply cease to exist,” Happel said.

To avoid that outcome, Queen Quet has become a high-profile voice on climate issues, speaking at the United Nations and testifying before Congress while also working on smaller, more local efforts. (See related story.) In an interview, she touched on the importance of plain language in describing climate change and getting people to care. One of her projects is devising educational materials to explain the concepts of heat islands and ocean acidification. “Just because we throw around these terms in the environmental world, doesn’t mean the average person knows what we’re talking about,” she said.

Immediate actions can counter the feeling that the issue is too complicated and beyond one’s control, Franks said. It’s important to “promote the positive ways … we can change our major patterns of consumption … in a way that’s really going to be sustainable and beneficial for us as well as natural populations,” he said.

One example is choosing energy sources other than fossil fuels, he said. In her current studies toward becoming an environmental lawyer, Happel is learning about the importance of getting involved in local government to ensure clean energy is an option.

“So much of our energy grid is regulated through state public service commissions,” she said. “Even though I think a lot of us focus on national policy, state and local policy have a huge impact on whether you’re able to have clean energy in your neighborhood.”

Happel’s remarks at Encaenia in 2019 were part of the youth-led “Class of 0000” campaign to focus graduation speeches nationwide on the issue of climate action and convey its urgency.

“So many students and parents came up to me after that and thanked me for it, and said they thought it was really important,” Happel said. “So many people are impacted now. I think the landscape has changed so much, just in the past few years.”

See our related story, “Alan Alda on Creating a Good Communications Climate.”

Erin Kiernan, an English and film and television student who opened for Saturday Night Live comedians Alex Moffat and Mikey Day this past Spring Weekend, was the 2019 Lady of the Manor. In a monologue that mixed nostalgia with good humor, she poked fun at her home for the past four years.

“We entered Fordham with countless questions: Will I make friends? Will I find my passion? Is my roommate bringing the mini fridge, or am I? When will Edward’s Parade occur?” Kiernan joked.

“As we move into the next stages of our lives, we’re faced with even bigger questions: Will I get a job? What is my purpose? How do you pronounce Cunniffe House? Is the small building next to Freeman a seismic station or a tomb? Where did all the cats come from? What is the Calder Center for, except shutting down for a week every time there’s a rumor of snow?” she continued, to laughter so frequent it seemed like a laugh track.

At the end of her playful satire, she tempered her tone to one of gratitude. Kiernan listed a string of things she was grateful for at Fordham. Among them were the sunny days on Eddies and GO! (Global Outreach) trips.

“Thank you for turning me into the woman I’ve always wanted to be. And most of all, thank you for not having an application fee or requiring a supplementary essay,” Kiernan said, as her classmates cheered.

Valedictorian Robin Happel, an environmental studies major and the daughter of field biologists, steered the night’s speeches toward a tougher topic—climate change.

But before doing so, she acknowledged two young women who should’ve been at the ceremony that evening.

“I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge Donika Celaj and Sydney Monfries, two members of our class who tragically could not be with us,” Happel said. “May their memories be a blessing.”

She then delivered a personal reflection on the climate change crisis. For three consecutive years, Happel and her friends faced natural disasters that were worsened by the effects of climate change. The fall of her sophomore year, her close friends from California were forced to drive through wildfire flames that encircled—and eventually destroyed—their homes. A year later, her roommate’s hometown flooded during Hurricane Harvey. And last fall, Happel’s own family home flooded during Hurricane Florence.

She urged the audience to not only celebrate her classmates’ four years of achievements but to also focus on what they need to achieve in the next 11.

“That’s how long climate scientists have given us—11 years to avoid catastrophic climate change,” Happel said. “It’s already damaging our homes, our health, our safety, and our happiness. We won’t let it take our futures, too.”

It’s more than possible at Fordham, she said. The University already has solar panels that help provide low-cost power to its neighbors in the Bronx. It’s home to the fair trade start-up Spes Nova and other student clubs that aid the less fortunate. And it’s created a global alumni network that now includes the Class of 2019, she said—the class of “zero emissions, zero excuses, and zero time to waste.”

“I challenge you tonight to see yourself as placed here for a purpose. Whatever that purpose is, I hope that—win or lose—you pursue it. Because you are free, free someone else. Because you are alive in this moment, do more than simply step aside. Because we are the class of zero, and we have zero time to waste,” Happel said, to a standing ovation from her peers and other audience members.

More Fordham College at Rose Hill students were recognized for being inducted into top academic honor societies and winning prestigious awards, fellowships, and scholarships over the past four years.

There were two special awards, whose winners—unlike the rest—were a surprise.

The Claver Award, given from the Jesuits of Fordham to a senior who epitomizes the University’s commitment to community service, was bestowed on Katarina Martucci, a senior who met weekly with an immigrant child living alone in the United States, and then accompanied the child to court as a child advocate with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The Fordham College Alumni Association Award, given to a senior who exemplifies the Fordham spirit, was presented to Charlotte Hakikson, a senior who served the campus community in more than six roles at Fordham, including vice president for ASILI: the Black Student Alliance.

At the end of the night, Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, addressed the graduating class of 2019. She encouraged them to find God in all things—including the bad and the ugly—with a simple approach used to cross a street: stop, look, and go. When you stop, you take a break from the chaos of reality and begin “to see clearly,” she said. When you “look” and become more aware of the reality around you, you can develop a deeper, more receptive attitude. And when you “go,” you engage with the world based on what you have learned from stopping and looking.  

“Weave attention, reverence, and devotion into your life,” she said. “And when you do that, when you practice that, your eyes will open, your heart will open, and you will find God in all things.”

Mast also described the students as her “classmates.” Like the students sitting before her, Mast said, she was also new to Fordham in August 2015. She learned the hard way that she “couldn’t get on the red trains bound for Grand Central” at Fordham’s Metro-North station. It took her three years to find Pugsley’s, thanks to the aid of Google Maps.

But the last four years, no matter the train or on-campus Wi-Fi issues, were transformative for all—and the years ahead will be, too.

“Your education doesn’t stop on Saturday,” Mast said. “I expect you to continue learning and growing as you reflect on your Fordham experience throughout your life.”

Film and television major Colleen Granberg was tasked with lightening the mood as the 2018 Lady of the Manor. In a speech peppered with jabs at food, dorm life and WiFi service, she compared Encaenia to the Oscars, because it’s an honor just to be invited.

“Or at least, that is what you will tell your parents later tonight when they ask you why exactly you did not receive any prizes tonight,” she joked.

Some of the biggest laughs came from Granberg’s observation that the University’s severe weather alerts seem to always note that the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses will be open, but that the Louis Calder Center is closed.

“I don’t know where exactly the Calder Center is, but it must have the most dangerous weather conditions of all time. It’s like one of those towns in rural Alabama that doesn’t have any plows so when it snows like, half an inch, they have to shut down the whole city, except it’s in Westchester,” she said, poking fun at Fordham’s biological field station, which is located 25 miles north of the city.

“I have been let down too many times by those emails. I kind of want to go to the Calder Center just to see what’s happening there, but now I’m too spiteful. I wish everyone at the Calder Center well, but our relationship is beyond repair.”

Valedictorian Mimi Sillings, a psychology major who commuted from Pleasantville for four years, joked that ‘Fordham is my school. Metro-North is my campus.’ She implored her classmates to appreciate that the “good old days” are actually now.

Sillings said she stumbled badly in a class her first semester, but when her mother gave her a necklace that said “This too shall pass,” Sillings said it became a talisman that provided her with a surprising source of strength. At some point, it broke.

“With sadness, I presented it to her. But my mom smiled. I was taken aback. She said, ‘Don’t you see, Mimi? You don’t need the necklace anymore.’ She was right, as moms often are,” she said.

“As a freshman, ‘This too shall pass’ was reassurance that my current struggle was only temporary. Now, on the eve of our commencement, ‘This too shall pass’ is a somber reminder of time’s fleeting nature.”

Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, told students that because they’d finished classes but have not yet graduated, they were in “a thin place” –where two worlds come together and are both seen and unseen.

“In Celtic spirituality, a thin place is where the ‘distance between heaven and earth collapses,’ a sacred place where you can feel the transcendence and the immanence of God,” she said.

“It can be confusing and unsettling to be in a thin place, but it can also be transformative: This experience can jolt you to see yourself—and the world—in a new way.”

It’s a good time she said, to reconsider what it means to “become men and women for others. It is not about being nice, nor is it a feel-good marketing slogan or a form of secular social activism,” she said.

“As men and women for others, you are called to be present to and in solidarity with others; in fact, to see them not as ‘others’ who need your help but as people, as individuals, as children of God; and through this shift in focus, you see God,” she said.

If it seems overwhelming, she said, consider two pieces of advice: Do something very well, even if it’s small, that will bring about positive change, and let God’s grace enter and do the rest. And, she said, fall in love.

“I ask you to fall in love, to stay in love, to act with love, and to let love guide you in becoming true men and women for and with others,” she said.

Mast presented two students with special awards. The Claver Award, which is granted by the Jesuits of Fordham to a senior who best represents Fordham’s dedication to community service, was given to Meghan Townsend, who spent almost a year living at St. Joseph House, the soup kitchen and homeless shelter founded by Catholic activist Dorothy Day.

The Fordham College Alumni Association Award, which recognizes a senior who embodies the “Fordham spirit,” was awarded to Erin Shanahan, whom Dean Mast praised for her leadership at the student-run newspaper The Ram.

“In a period marked by the rise of fake news and increasing incivility in both our public life and on college campuses, The Ram under her leadership and guidance strove to uphold high standards of fact-based journalism, took on difficult and controversial issues with skill and nuance, and encouraged a campus atmosphere of civility and dialogue,” she said.

But the 2017 Encaenia ceremony of academic excellence wasn’t short of humor—thanks to the Lord of Manor Liam Paris.

Paris, who was tasked with delivering a playful address about his memories as a Ram, told the crowd that he first wanted to go to Fordham because of its reputation and “perfectly manicured flowers” in front of McGinley Center. He also couldn’t resist the opportunity to be a part of the “Ramily”—though he did have some gripes with the name.

“We have so many beautiful mantras—AMDG, Cura Personalis, “set the world on fire”— [but]Ramily?” he said. “Just change one letter? [We] couldn’t even put it in Latin?”

Ultimately, Paris said he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, as he recalled spending time at “Eddies” during the spring months.

“Albeit, I’m watching from under the shade of that tree by Freeman [Hall] while I slather on SPF 2 billion,” he teased. “But there’s never a stronger moment where I look out and am reminded that I am surrounded by the some of the most talented and awe-inspiring people I’ve ever met, and we’ve all got a shared experience together.”

Class valedictorian Jennifer Rutishauser, a double major in biology and history who is graduating with a 4.0 GPA, said attending Fordham allowed her to step out of her comfort zone. She shared how a contemporary history class taught by Assistant Professor Christopher Dietrich, Ph.D., enriched her academic experience and sparked her interest in history.

“I’m sure we all had professors like this who had a particular impact on us, who helped us find our way, inspired us, pushed us, and encouraged us to grow,” she said.

In addition to being a part of a community where it was “cool to be involved in campus ministry” and participate in social justice initiatives at community spaces like POTS and the Rosedale Center, Rutishauser said Fordham was also a place where students lined up an hour in advance at the Black Box Theater just to get a seat for a show, cheered on their on their favorite University dance crew, and watched the Ramblers serenade “unsuspecting students and professors on Valentine’s Day.”

“Fordham has shaped me and all of us in many ways, but the most significant reason my experience at Fordham has been life changing is because of all of you,” she said.

Two students received special awards from Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. The Claver Award, which is granted by the Jesuits of Fordham to a FCRH senior who best represents Fordham’s dedication to community service, was given to Madelyn Murphy. The Fordham College Alumni Association Award, which recognizes a FCHR senior who embodies the “Fordham spirit,” was awarded to Emma Bausert.

As the graduating seniors prepared for the next chapter in their lives, Dean Mast asked them to reflect on St. Ignatius Loyola’s Prayer for Generosity, which was handed out to attendees on a card before the ceremony began.

“As you’ll see throughout this prayer, we are continually asked to learn, to be open to reflection, and from that reflection to be open to change,” she said.

She encouraged them to be generous in their pursuits and not “count the cost” when they give.

“What if you are guided by this prayer? What if you live a life of generosity, of service, of giving?” she asked.

She told the graduates that they could transform the world with those principles.

“You are each called to something different, to something worthy,” she said. “There is no owner’s manual, there is no roadmap. You have to make the path by walking it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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