The 11 new items include antiquities from Roman Spain—a fascinating and under-studied area of the ancient Mediterranean basin, according to the museum’s curator, Jennifer Udell. There are also new pieces of Greek and Roman sculpture from the Brooklyn Museum.

A Welcoming Space for All  

Udell said the museum has attracted some “regulars”—students who stop by often and help out around the space. Some have even helped to install the objects, getting the rare opportunity to unbox and arrange pieces of pottery and glass created by human hands thousands of years ago. 

One such student is senior Grace Monteith. When the museum reopened in 2022 after the pandemic, she helped with the reinstallation. “The unpacking was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Dr. Udell took a picture of me and it’s everywhere on my social media. It’s the coolest,” she said. 

First-Hand Encounters with Antiquities

The museum is a teaching collection that creates unique experiential learning opportunities. Professors in several academic departments bring their classes to the museum, and Udell herself teaches courses in museum studies and other subjects. Like business students who gain experience on the Gabelli School trading floors, students who take a museum studies class with Udell get to work with the objects, make decisions about how they’re presented, and curate a group exhibit at the end of the semester. 

One group of students, Udell’s interns for this semester, are at work on an interactive new development: a mobile app through Bloomberg Connects that will offer museum visitors a guided tour of the collection. They’re putting together audio and video content that will provide historical context and highlight points of interest. 

Udell says the tour will not just be for art history students. The app will have information about theatrical masks for theater majors, ancient glass objects for those interested in organic chemistry, and even something for students studying finance. “We have a cuneiform tablet that’s a receipt for a bundle of reeds. It’s not crypto, but it is ancient economies,” she said. 

New Wonders with Each Visit 

For senior Ryan Moore, visiting the museum never gets old. “Every time I come I notice something new that I’ve never seen before,” said Moore, who helped to reinstall the objects for the reopening in 2022. He pointed to a case he’d helped to arrange, noting the way a sculpture’s wings parted to create the perfect opening through which the object in the background could be seen unobstructed. 

“That’s an arrangement I happened on by chance,” he said. “It’s something I’m still proud of to this day.”  

That was the call made by Ryan Ruocco as a thrilling, historic WNBA season ended on Sunday night, when the Liberty toppled the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the Finals at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center—the first title for one of the league’s original franchises.

Ruocco, a 2008 Fordham graduate, is a lead play-by-play announcer for WNBA, NBA, and women’s college basketball games on ESPN, and he and color commentator Rebecca Lobo have called all the WNBA Finals games for the network since 2013.

“This was our 12th Finals together,” Ruocco said, “and to get a chance to be the soundtrack of this moment in women’s basketball, it feels like a dream come true.”

The moment he references is one of great growth for the league, with the past season seeing increases in TV ratings and game attendance thanks to veteran stars like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson and rookie phenoms like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. To cap it off, fans were treated to a dramatic Finals series that included an overtime final game and a stunning game-winner from Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu in Game 3—a contest that had Ruocco “practically losing his voice thanks to all the huge shots” but earning praise from fans and critics.

“I was so elated and stunned that this game has given us even more excitement, even more drama,” Ruocco said about calling Ionescu’s game-winner. “Because it felt like the Finals just kept outdoing itself.”

A Legacy of Sports Broadcasting Excellence

Ruocco got his start in broadcasting at WFUV—part of a long list of Fordham alumni who learned the ropes at the University’s public media station and have gone on to great success in the business, from Vin Scully to Mike Breen.

In 2019, Ruocco told Fordham Magazine that working under the mentorship of former WFUV executive sports producer Bob Ahrens made his career possible.

“It’s this simple,” Ruocco said. “If I did not go to Fordham and work at WFUV, I would not be here doing what I’m doing today. Period.”

Looking ahead, he sees only continued growth for the WNBA. And he put in a huge endorsement for checking out a New York Liberty game in person.

“I think the atmosphere at Barclays Center for Liberty games is as good as or better than any atmosphere for basketball in the country,” he said. “There’s a sense of community and jubilation and fun, in addition to the passion. It feels like a party where everybody’s invited and everybody’s welcome.”

As the Mets take on the Los Angeles Dodgers and look to move ahead to the World Series, Majkowski, who launched his sports broadcasting career at Fordham’s public media station, WFUV, looks back at five of his most memorable moments working in the booth.

5. The 2015 NLCS Sweep of the Chicago Cubs | October 2015

When did Citi Field become home? Maybe the loudest I’ve heard it before these last couple games [against the Philadelphia Phillies in this year’s National League Division Series] was when they played the Cubs in that 2015 NLCS. And then we went to Chicago and they clinched there.

4. Regular-Season Series vs. the Washington Nationals | July 31 – August 2, 2015

It was right after the [Yoenis] Céspedes trade. The Nationals came in and the Mets beat them at Citi Field—the Sunday night game, they hit three home runs in five pitches.

And then we went back down to Washington [in September]. Maybe the Nationals had a chance to make a last stand. They had a lead, I think, every game. And the Mets came back on, putting the nail in the coffin, so to speak, for Washington.

3. Game 5 of the 2000 World Series vs. the New York Yankees | October 26, 2000

Even though the Mets lost, Game 5 of the 2000 World Series against the Yankees [is very memorable]. I had Mike Francesa sitting next to me in the booth, and when the ball first came off of Piazza’s bat against Mariano [Rivera in the ninth inning], you thought, “Oh, maybe it’s going to go,” and even Mike—he probably wouldn’t admit it, but he even had a little start.

From a producing standpoint, we had to do a postgame show. And because it was on FAN, they wanted us to incorporate both sides of the story, with Suzyn Waldman down on the Yankee side and Eddie Coleman in the Mets’ clubhouse, which was obviously, after losing the World Series, not an easy task.

That’s something I’ve always been proud of, because we balanced both sides of that story very well, I believe.

2. First Game at Shea Stadium After 9/11 | September 21, 2001

After 9/11, we were in Pittsburgh, and we ended up busing back to New York, and we came over the George Washington Bridge and you could just see [the World Trade Center site] in the distance. Coming back to Shea for that first game back … that was something.

1. Robin Ventura’s “Grand Slam Single,” Game 5 of the NLCS | October 17, 1999

I’ve always had my greatest affinity for that team, that 1999 and 2000 bunch—Robin and Johnny Franco and Al Leiter and all the guys there. I got to know them a bit more than some of the other teams along the way. Just so many players on those teams have always been my favorites.

RELATED STORY: Meet the New York Mets Radio Engineer Who Hasn’t Missed a Game in 30+ Years

Chris Majkowski engineers and produces the Mets’ radio broadcasts on WFAN. It’s a job he landed in 1993, four years after graduating from Fordham, where he was sports director at WFUV. And he hasn’t missed a day of work for the Mets since his sister’s wedding the year he started.

What does your average Mets game day look like?
If it’s a night game, I’ll get to the ballpark around 3 p.m., about four hours before first pitch, and just set up the booth—do all the cabling, check all the connections, check the studio.

And then it’s, “Okay, what are we doing on the pregame show today?” Then we have other segments during the game: “This Date in Mets’ History” and the “Electrifying Play of the Game.” The sound needs to be edited for that and I will do research for “This Date.”

Then the broadcasters and I go through the news and the notes from the day, not just for our game but for the rest of the league. We make sure we go through the commercial log. And then I’ll get something to eat and it’s “play ball.”

And then what are you doing during the game?
If something comes up during the game, like [play-by-play announcer] Howie Rose, says, “Hey, I remember back in … ” or whatever, I’ll look into that. And the whole time, I’m also mixing the show. If something’s happening and the announcers are yelling and the crowd is loud, you have to balance that.

I also do the posts for the Mets Radio Booth X account to keep the masses informed and say, “Hey, something’s happening. Maybe you want to tune in.” Don’t ever say that there’s a no-hitter going, though, because then the fans tell you that you jinxed it all if it doesn’t happen.

Next year, you’ll potentially work your 5,000th consecutive game. Do you get sick of hearing or thinking about that streak?
So, the funny thing is, I recently worked an event for Bloomberg Radio, and Cal Ripken Jr., who of course has the streak of 2,632 straight games that he played, was there as a guest. I’m not one to ever ask for a picture or anything, [but] I wish I had because I think that that would’ve been pretty neat.

Back in August, I worked my 5,000th game overall. The 5,000th straight game will happen sometime next year. Well, 5,000 is a nice round number, so maybe I’ll take the next day off.

Do you have any favorite road cities or ballparks?
San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego for the city. Boston as well. That’s not an every-year stop, but Fenway is great, and Boston as a city is great. We had a couple games against the Phillies in London back in June, and we went to Tokyo in 2000.

Maybe I’ll start cutting back so I can go back for a trip to London or maybe a trip to Tokyo where I don’t have any responsibilities and can just be a tourist.

Was there a moment you realized this year’s team might have something special?
Maybe you look back and you say, “That was the moment,” but that’s only looking back. Earlier in the season, we were thinking, “Oh, this is one of those years,” and it’s all down and out. And then suddenly, we’re flying to California for a League Championship Series and hopefully beyond. So yeah, it has been remarkable.

We’ve had a couple of years—2015, now this year—where you have the moments when the stadium becomes more of a home. This is our place now. It’s not just another ballpark, not just another booth, but this is home.

RELATED STORY: New York Mets Radio Engineer Shares 5 Most Memorable Moments

How did you decide to go to Fordham and get involved with WFUV?
At Herricks High School [on Long Island], there was an English teacher who was a Fordham alum, and he always tried to steer one or two of us a year to Fordham. Around that same time I had started listening to One on One, FUV’s sports call-in show on the weekend. So, through Mr. Desmond at Herricks High School, and then listening to FUV, I was introduced to Fordham, and I applied and got in.

When I got to Fordham, I thought I would go more toward writing and just never made it to the newspaper. A bunch of friends and I were all commuter students and instead of hanging out in the commuter lounge, we hung out in the hallway at FUV.

I started doing some stuff on air. By the time senior year rolled around, I was the sports director. We were doing the play-by-play for football and basketball and even some baseball. There’s a group of us from the radio station who still are close, and we get the whole gang together when we can.

And you still do public address work at Fordham too?
Yep. I was still in school, and I started doing the public address for some of the women’s basketball games. I’ve continued to do that to this day. Joe DiBari and the folks over in the athletic department are very accommodating. They’ll say, “Hey man, whenever your schedule allows, we’d love to have you up to still do the game.”

So I still do a couple of football games a year and about 20 basketball games between the men and the women. In a way, it’s like I never left because I’m still up there all the time. Once Fordham gets in your blood, it’s tough to get it out.

Interview conducted, condensed, and edited by Adam Kaufman, FCLC ’08.

This story was updated on October 25.

Throughout her time at Fordham, senior Olivia Griffin has been passionate about protecting the environment while supporting native communities. Now the Udall Foundation is recognizing her as a future leader in the environmental space. 

Griffin is a recipient of a 2024 Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, a highly competitive award for scholars building impactful careers in environmental protection, tribal public policy, or health care. The tribal public policy and health care tracks are only awarded to Native American and Alaskan Native scholars, while the environmental track that Griffin earned is open to all, meaning the competition is fierce. Out of 341 applicants in the environmental category, she was one of 37 who received the scholarship.

The benefits of the scholarship include $7,000 for academic expenses, connection to a vibrant alumni network, and a four-day orientation in Tucson, Arizona. Griffin especially enjoyed meeting fellow Udall scholars at the orientation this summer and listening to lectures about indigenous ecological knowledge. 

When she learned her application was successful, “I was ecstatic,” Griffin said. The scholarship is just her latest award — she also earned Fordham’s Trinity Financial Fellowship in Urban Studies for 2024. 

Connecting with Native Heritage and Mother Earth

Griffin grew up in Oklahoma City and is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She says she feels a strong link to the environment that stretches all the way back to her ancestors. She recalled a passage from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” that illustrates this connection. 

“It’s a pretty well-known creation story that varies from tribe to tribe of this sky woman falling down to the Earth and all the animals that help her with her landing. She brings these seeds down, and she creates the planet, sort of like a Mother Earth character,” said Griffin. “Tied into Indigenous origin stories is this inherent sustainability and care for the Earth.”

Environmental Advocacy at Fordham and Beyond

Griffin is a member of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Honors Program, pursuing a degree in Urban Studies with a minor in English. She’s also a member of the United Student Government at Rose Hill Sustainability Committee, where she plans events like cleanups and educational seminars and a member of Students for Environmental Action and Justice. 

Griffin has interned with Cherokee Federal, where she helped manage Federal environmental projects. The scholarship is making it possible for her to continue gaining valuable experience in the field alongside her studies. As part of an internship with Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, she’s started working with Bronx community members to study and address brownfield sites, former industrial areas contaminated by pollutants that can pose risks to human health. 

“The scholarship will help to cover my expenses since the nonprofit can’t pay me. That will definitely help compensate some of my work,” she said. 

A Rising Star in Sustainability

After graduation, Griffin plans to work for a few years before pursuing a master’s in urban planning at a school with a focus on indigenous planning and resource management. 

Combining urban planning, environmentalism, and tribal studies makes for a rare specialty, but Griffin hopes other scholars will follow in her path. “I’d like to see how my experiences and knowledge could help the Cherokee Nation, but also in a broader sense,” she said. 

—Alex Williamson

Pascrell enjoyed a long life in public service that included a postcollege stint in the military, more than a decade as a high school history teacher, and six years as mayor of Paterson, New Jersey. He was nearing the end of his 14th term in the House of Representatives.

“As our United States Representative, Bill fought to his last breath to return to the job he cherished and to the people he loved,” his family wrote in a statement announcing his death. “Bill lived his entire life in Paterson and had an unwavering love for the city he grew up in and served.”

‘An Opportunity to Help My Community’

A grandson of Italian immigrants, Pascrell was born in Paterson on January 25, 1937. He graduated from St. John the Baptist High School, where he was elected student council president, and enrolled at Fordham in the mid-1950s. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1959 and a master’s in philosophy in 1961.

Pascrell talked openly about his Fordham education and how he aimed to put it to use in the service of others.

“My degree from Fordham gave me an opportunity to help my community and make it better, and that is the way I looked at it,” Pascrell said in a 2023 interview with The Fordham Ram.

For him, plain speaking wasn’t just a way to communicate—it was essential to getting things done. And it was tied to his Fordham education and Catholic faith.

“Those values include saying it like it is,” he told The Ram. “Don’t camouflage what you’re trying to get across. Say it; don’t be afraid. We say at Mass many times—in fact, we sing it, ‘Be Not Afraid.’ You go to Fordham, you’re not afraid. It seems that everyone at Fordham knows how to speak their mind.”

A Fordham Sports Superfan

Pascrell was also a passionate supporter of Fordham athletics, his son Glenn Pascrell, FCRH ’90, said in a eulogy during a funeral Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on August 28.

“He had a great sense of loyalty to institutions, and one of them was Fordham University,” he said. “I will always cherish going to Fordham games with my dad in the Bronx.”

A basketball and football season ticket holder for more than 30 years, Pascrell was a fixture in the stands at Rose Hill and frequently traveled to away games when his Capitol Hill schedule allowed. He didn’t play for the Rams, but he had been an all-state baseball player in high school and at one point tried out for the Philadelphia Phillies.

For many years, he served as a coach during the annual congressional baseball game. His uniform of choice at those events? The maroon and white of the Fordham Rams.

“Bill was an exceptionally devoted alumnus and the biggest Fordham basketball fan. Whenever we needed him, he was always there for us,” said Fordham President Tania Tetlow. “We will certainly miss Bill’s impact on Fordham and the communities he served. Our prayers are with [his wife] Elsie and the entire Pascrell family.”

A ‘Beloved Bridge Builder’ Who Fought ‘Relentlessly’ for His Constituents

After grad school at Fordham, Pascrell served in the Army and the Army Reserve for much of the 1960s. He received an honorable discharge in 1967 and spent 12 years as a public high school teacher and college professor in New Jersey before entering local politics in Paterson.

He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1988 and was twice elected mayor of Paterson, where he served from 1990 to 1996, when he ran for Congress.

In Congress, Pascrell served on the influential House Ways and Means Committee and focused on issues such as tax reform, environmental protection, and funding for public safety and education.

His signature achievements include helping to establish programs like the Fire Grants and Safety Act that directly fund first responders across the country. He also played a key role in establishing the Paterson Great Falls as a national historical park.

Frequently described in the media as “brash,” “blunt,” and “feisty,” Pascrell was a passionate advocate for issues that affected everyday community members in New Jersey’s diverse 9th congressional district.

“Yeah, I live in Paterson,” Pascrell was known to respond when others questioned his lifelong residency in his hometown, the country’s first planned industrial city. “You want to make something of it?”

Pascrell was also regarded as an affable presence noted for his ability to connect with people from all walks of life. In a statement, President Joe Biden praised Pascrell as a “beloved bridge builder” and a “champion for working-class people” who “fought relentlessly to ensure their voices and needs were at the center of policymaking.”

In his eulogy for his father, Glenn Pascrell quoted an oft-repeated line that underscores the philosophy by which his father lived.

“My dad held many public titles. When he spoke in front of a group, he always opened with the following line: ‘Titles come and go. In the end they don’t matter,’” he said. ‘What matters is how we treat each other.’”

Pascrell is survived by his wife, Elsie Marie (Botto) Pascrell; his three sons, William J. Pascrell III, and twins Glenn and David, both 1990 graduates of Fordham College at Rose Hill; two sisters; and six grandchildren.

In 1965, there were an estimated 60,000 Catholic priests living in the United States. By 2022, that number had dropped to around 35,000, even as the country’s population had grown by 100 million.

In a new documentary, Discerning the Call: Change in the American Priesthood, two Fordham students seek to explain why.

“Today, there are not as many men joining [the priesthood], and they join later,” said rising junior Jay Doherty, the film’s co-director.

“There are all sorts of different changes that have impacted the church and vocational discernment, and we wanted to tell the story of those changes through the lens of American history,” Doherty said.

Doherty, who majors in digital technologies and emerging media and philosophy, directed the film along with Patrick Cullihan, FCRH ’24, a fellow Duffy Fellow at Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture. They conducted 30 hours of interviews with 27 priests, many of them residents of Fordham’s Jesuit communities. The film debuted in April at a Fordham Center on Religion and Culture event at the Howard Gilman Theater in Manhattan and is now available online. 

High-profile Catholic leaders such as Cardinal Timothy Dolan and James Martin, S.J., editor at large at America magazine, make appearances, as does Fordham faculty member Bryan Massingale, S.T.D.

A Culture Long Gone

Cardinal Dolan spoke about how, in the years leading up to and during World War II, a strong “Catholic culture” made the vocation much more common than it is now. Catholics were born in their own hospitals, lived in predominantly Catholic neighborhoods, attended their own schools, and married other Catholics.

“With the collapse of the Catholic culture, that kind of external prop and encouragement to priestly vocations would have gone,” he said.

Dolan, who himself entered the seminary right out of high school, said that means fewer men are taking that path as teenagers. 

“Now, the decision to become a priest would not be something imposed from the outside. It would not be something that would just be expected. It’s something that is a radical choice,” he said.

The priesthood has also been attracting more men who identify as theologically orthodox; the filmmakers note that a recent survey found the percentage of priests who identify as such increased from 20% in 1970 to 85% in 2020.

Stricter Requirements

Father Martin noted that one of the changes that affected recruitment into the Society of Jesus was stricter entrance requirements implemented in the 1960s. That resulted in fewer men joining, which some church leaders have welcomed, as it means those who do are more committed. 

For the church to grow, though, Martin said leadership might have to also come from those in the pews.

“I think that the Holy Spirit might be calling lay people to a more active participation in the church,” he said in the film.

A Complex Issue

Father Massingale noted that many incorrectly assume the decline can be pinned on the church’s requirement that priests remain celibate.

“That’s certainly the case for a given segment, but it’s never been a complete explanation for all groups in the church,” he said, noting that racism also played a role.

“For many Black young men, another reason why they never entered the priesthood was because they were never asked.”

Doherty said the filmmakers wanted to include men spanning a wide range of ages, from 20-somethings to retired priests. 

Each one had an intensely personal reason for joining, he said, noting that he hopes to create a second film from unused footage focusing on these stories. He’s also interested in stories from women religious. 

In the meantime, the young directors are receiving recognition for their first film. It has been featured on SiriusXM’s Catholic Channel and WFUV, and in June, it was named the 2024 recipient of Fordham’s William F. DiPietra Award in Film.

Rediscovering Faith

For Doherty, the project has enabled him to explore his own faith.

“When I came to Fordham, I think I really rediscovered the faith and what it means to be Catholic,” he said. 

“I had many interactions with Jesuits, and they were all so brilliant and interesting,” he said. 

“I found myself wondering, ‘How did they come to this life?’”

“Artists are entrepreneurs. We are our own business.” That’s what Fordham Theatre grad Marjuan Canady, FCLC ’08, says when she teaches creative entrepreneurship at places like Georgetown University and NYU. Her words ring true for many Fordham alumni who have cut a professional path with their arts and business acumen.

“There’s creativity in everything that is going on in the room, whether it’s the business side or the actual creative side,” said Canady, who founded Sepia Works, a multimedia production company, and Canady Foundation for the Arts, a nonprofit that creates educational and career opportunities for youth of color by connecting them with professional artists. “That’s what makes it fun.”

SaVonne Anderson, FCLC ’17

Founder and Creative Director, Aya Paper Co.

After graduating from Fordham in 2017 with a degree in new media and digital design, SaVonne Anderson worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she had interned as a student. Being around inspiring art got her gears turning, and she decided to start her own greeting card and stationery business, Aya Paper Co., in 2019. The following year, she decided to focus on Aya full time. Since then, her work has been featured in Time, Allure, and Forbes magazines, and carried in stores like Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Whole Foods. And while it can be difficult to balance her design and illustration work with the demands of running a business and the challenges of parenting a toddler, Anderson feels it’s all worth it.

Martha Clippinger, FCRH ’05

Artist and Designer

Like many textile artists, Martha Clippinger, FCRH ’05, was greatly influenced by the Gee’s Bend collective, a group of African American quilters whose work she first saw at the Whitney Museum as a Fordham student. “It ignited a desire to explore color and shape and rhythm,” she says. More than 20 years later, Clippinger has made a career out of that artistic exploration, displaying her work in museums, galleries, and corporate collections, and selling bags, rugs, and tablet covers on her website. Some of those items are woven by her professional partners in Oaxaca, Mexico, where she spent time on a Fulbright-Garcia Robles grant in 2013.

Katte Geneta, FCLC ’06

Founder, Narra Studio

Katte Geneta grew up thinking she was going to become a doctor. But when she arrived at Fordham and took a fine arts class, she discovered a talent for drawing. After graduating in 2006, she exhibited her paintings and later pursued a master’s degree in museum studies at Harvard. Soon, she took up weaving—the smell of oil paint made her nauseous while she was pregnant. Motivated by a conversation with a weaver in the Philippines who was hoping to find broader exposure, she started Narra Studio. The studio sometimes designs goods and sometimes just works on distribution. It partners with upward of 15 weaving communities in the Philippines and sells the pieces—from jewelry and blankets to jackets and traditional barong tops—through its website and at markets.

Bryan Master, FCRH ’99

Composer; Founder and Executive Producer, Sound + Fission and Partner in Crime Entertainment

Bryan Master has been writing and playing music for as long as he can remember—he apologizes to any Fordham neighbors who may have heard his frequent drumming at Rose Hill. But when he graduated in 1999 with a degree in communications, his passion took a backseat to his job in advertising—until 2022. That’s when his side hustle—a music, production, and creative services company called Sound + Fission—became a sustainable, full-time endeavor, thanks, he says, to a boom in audio storytelling listenership. Along with his other company, Partner in Crime, which focuses on creating and developing series, Sound + Fission was behind Can You Dig It?, an original Audible series about the birth of hip-hop that featured narration from Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

Courtney Celeste Spears, FCLC ’16

Co-Founder and Director, ArtSea

Courtney Celeste Spears had achieved many of her dreams as a dancer: She began dancing with Ailey II—Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s second company—while she was still a student in the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program, and she joined the main company in 2018, two years after graduating. Last summer, though, she made the leap to devote herself full time to ArtSea, a Bahamas-based arts organization she founded with her brother, Asa Carey, in 2017. Now living on the island, where she spent time visiting family as a child, Spears works to bring high-level dance education and entertainment to the Caribbean and expose young artists to the wider dance world.

That’s the question driving the summer research of Jackson Saunders, a rising senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill. In a Fordham lab, he’s building chambers to split and direct the flow of sound, pursuing research that could impact not only acoustics but also bulletproofing, rocket design, and more.

Innovative Acoustics

Saunders, a physics and philosophy double major, is working under the guidance of Camelia Prodan, Ph.D., the Kim B. and Stephen E. Bepler Professor of Physics at Fordham. Supported by a summer fellowship from Fordham’s Campion Institute, Saunders is building on Prodan’s research into acoustic techniques inspired by topological materials.

First discovered around 1980, these materials intrigue scientists because of their internal configurations, or topology, that guide electricity into precise streams separated by gaps that block current. A topological insulator, for instance, can channel electricity along its surface but keep it from passing through to the other side.

Since then, scientists have found that such segmented flows can be seen beyond electricity.

Prodan published research in January showing that acoustic materials can be designed to guide the flow of sound in a similar way.

Building Sound Chambers in the Lab

Based on that research, Saunders is building a series of sound chambers that mimic the internal symmetries of topological materials, perfecting a design that will split sound in the same way that topological materials direct electricity into discrete streams.

It’s a project that showcases physics that dates back to Isaac Newton, Saunders said, with the behavior of atoms and electrons being recreated in larger objects like the sound chambers he’s making with a 3D printer.

“We’re taking a very well-studied quantum mechanical effect and realizing it” with classical physics, he said. “What’s novel about what we’re doing is we’re showing that we can create specific applications … using this classical mechanical approach.”

Through the project, he’s helping to build knowledge that could have many uses, from making better soundproofing materials to reducing urban noise pollution to designing rooms that contain all the sound generated within them—even if one side is open.

From Better Bulletproofing to Quantum Computing

Studies of topology-based sound flows could have implications for other innovative materials as well, he said. These could include bulletproof vests that dissipate a bullet’s impact along their surface or a rocket built to channel vibrations along its surface during takeoff without rattling the electronics within.

Topological materials could also be applied in the development of quantum computers that have vastly greater processing power. “Any field that has computation, quantum computing will benefit,” so it’s exciting to be working on questions related to that, no matter how tangentially, Saunders said.

In his research, he has an eye on the past as well as the future. “I’m doing work that is at the leading edge of a 400-year legacy of scientists, and that’s motivating,” he said. “You want to be part of that.”

Brian Lyman, who has been immersed in Alabama state politics as a reporter for nearly two decades, was named a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his “brave, clear, and pointed columns that challenge ever-more-repressive state policies flouting democratic norms and targeting vulnerable populations.”

For Lyman, a 1999 Fordham graduate, it was the latest milestone in a journey that began at the University’s Rose Hill campus a quarter century ago, when he was the opinion editor of The Fordham Ram. 

He previously worked at the Montgomery Advertiser, the Press-Register, and the Anniston Star—and last year, he became the founding editor of the Alabama Reflector, a nonprofit outlet that’s part of States Newsroom, a group that aims to bolster state-level reporting across the country.

What was it like finding out you were a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize?

We have this huge story running, and I’ve been deep in editing it, so I was not actually listening to the Pulitzer announcements. A friend who’s working in Nashville texted me, “Congratulations on the Pulitzer!” And I texted her back, “Wait, what?” Then my colleagues ran in telling me, so I may have been the last person to find out.

In your commentary you focus a lot on major issues—crime, the death penalty, transgender youth. How do you pick the topics you want to dive into?

The transgender issue has been going on for almost three years now in Alabama, but the column [cited by the Pulitzer board] was [published in April], when the latest [transgender sports] ban was moving toward passage. It just felt like it was something we needed to let people know. “Oh, by the way, this extremely small, extremely vulnerable group is being targeted by your lawmakers, and we need to pay attention to this.” 

Some issues, like the column I did about prisons, legislators aren’t really talking about, because it’s not an issue that wins votes, and it’s something they would rather not deal with. But I’ve been inside those prisons. You don’t need to read the Department of Justice reports on the violence within those prisons to be horrified. So, it was just a way of trying to remind people there’s a huge humanitarian crisis that the state government is not dealing with. 

And sometimes it’s both an issue in the news and something that happened in real life. My column about the libraries (“The most dangerous idea in a library? Empathy”) was provoked by my daughter just asking me about the value of reading.

Those issues are at the center of a lot of national conversations too. How do you see your role in covering them in Alabama as they go beyond your state? 

I said in the opening column when we launched the Reflector, Alabama is the place where America confronts itself. This is where we see the very best and the very worst of the American character. 

Let’s talk about the negative side: We still work under a state constitution passed in 1901 that was framed deliberately to disenfranchise Black Alabamians and poor white [people]. You have a government that’s habitually uninterested in really helping address issues of poverty, which are rampant in Alabama. It’s a government that constantly jumps at moral crises that really don’t have any impact on the day-to-day lives of people. 

On the positive side of things, almost every major Civil Rights event that took place between 1955 and 1968 came from Alabama. It’s not just Rosa Parks. It’s not just Martin Luther King. It’s school funding issues, it’s voting issues. New York Times versus Sullivan came out of Montgomery. There are brave men and women in this state who constantly demand better. When they demand more, they lead to these great decisions that have, sometimes slowly, pulled Alabama forward. I feel like our role is just to make sure that all these good people in Alabama know what their state government is doing so they can take the appropriate action to support it or, more often, oppose it.

Thinking back to your time at Fordham, do you have things you learned here that you still use today?

It’s been 25 years since I graduated from Fordham, but I feel like everything I do is basically what I did at The Ram, just more—short ledes, hitting deadlines, making as many phone calls as possible. We learned from our older colleagues, and then we passed it on to our younger colleagues. And we did some great things. One editorial sticks out. An LGBTQ group applied for club status and was denied for whatever reason—this is 1997, I think—and we wrote a very lengthy editorial blasting that decision. I was always very proud that we did that. 

Now, on the other hand, it’s obviously a student newspaper, so we had some mistakes. It was fall of 1998, and I think it was Daniel Berrigan who taught a class called Poems by Poets in Torment. It’s the end of the semester, and this ends up on our front page. And this story, I swear goes through six pairs of eyes, including my own, and none of us notice that we have named the class Poems by Pets in Torment. I did not hear the end of that for months.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Kelly Prinz, FCRH ’15.

Awardees will travel to countries in Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe for 10 months of teaching and research, immersing themselves in new cultures. The University announced 12 Fulbright winners in early May; the number rose to 14 a few weeks later, and has now risen to 15, because of awards granted to students who had been named Fulbright alternates.

“We are overjoyed that we have a record number of Fulbright awardees this year! It’s a testament to the outstanding work of our students and alumni, and the faculty and staff who support them,” said Lorna Ronald, Ph.D., director of Fordham’s Office of Prestigious Fellowships.

She noted that Fordham’s number of applicants has risen from 25 to 38 over the past two years. “We’re working hard to let all our students know that they can apply,” she said. “There is no GPA cutoff or ‘right’ type of student. Fordham students are interested in service, and many have studied abroad, speak multiple languages, or come from multicultural backgrounds, so they make excellent Fulbright candidates.”

In February, for the sixth time, the U.S. State Department recognized Fordham for being one of the colleges and universities with the highest number of Fulbright awardees.

A Focus on Immigrants and Refugees

Jennifer Espinal, FCRH ’24, who grew up in the Bronx, is headed to Spain’s La Rioja province to work as an English teaching assistant. She hopes to expand her knowledge of Spanish—“I speak very ‘Nuyorican’ Spanish,” she joked—and learn more about the nation’s culture and its large refugee population.

Espinal double majored in history and Latin American and Latino studies, with a political science minor, and wants to become an attorney who serves immigrant families. She comes from one herself—her parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic, and her mother works as a custodian at the Rose Hill campus.

Seeing her daughter graduate on May 18 was an emotional moment. “None of this would be possible without you,” Jennifer told her in Spanish that morning. (Watch Espinal and other first-generation graduates give thanks to their families at commencement.)

Making Early Childhood Education Inclusive

Bailey Kaufman, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Education and adjunct professor at the school, will be traveling to the Slovak Republic to study early childhood math instruction, as well as the cultural biases in educational materials that can hinder learning.

One aspect of her research is the bias in picture books used to teach math and how that makes them less accessible to children from the country’s Romani minority. Romani children are already marginalized, Kaufman said, noting that only a third of them are enrolled in early childhood programs, compared with the republic’s national average of 72%.

Based at the University of Prešov, she’ll work with European organizations seeking to improve early childhood education and build a comparative analysis. A question she hopes to answer, she said, is “how are other countries approaching mathematics in early childhood and training future teachers, and what can we take from that and bring to U.S. institutions of higher education?”

Studying National Identity in Wales

In addition to the 15 Fulbright scholarships, one student was accepted into a different Fulbright program, the highly competitive U.K. Summer Institute for first- and second-year college students. Mackenzie Saenz De Viteri, a CSTEP Summer Scholar and first-year student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, will spend three weeks at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

She looks forward to learning directly about Wales’ history and identity, as well as how the country attained independence and structured its government, which may hold lessons for Puerto Rico, said De Viteri, an international studies and anthropology double major from Central Islip, New York.

Her interest is “taking examples from other parts of the world who have similar dilemmas and using that to help solve current issues,” said De Viteri, a first-generation college student who has family in Puerto Rico.

In addition to Kaufman and Espinal, 13 other students and alumni received awards from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program:

Caroline Albacete, FCRH ’21, from Pennsylvania, a member of the Honors Program who earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies, with minors in French and history, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Colombia.

Michael Au-Mullaney, from the Bronx, a doctoral candidate in philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, received a research award for study in Denmark.

Richard (Ricky) DeSantis, from California, a doctoral candidate in philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, received a Fulbright-ifk Junior Fellowship for study in Austria.

Alexandra (Alex) Huey, FCRH ’23, from Florida, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science, with a minor in economics, received a Fulbright-CY Initiative Award to pursue a master’s degree in Paris, France.

Nathan (Nate) Johnson, LAW ’22, who is from New York City and earned a juris doctorate, received a Fulbright/Ulster University Award to pursue an LLM in Northern Ireland.

Kathleen Kye, FCLC ’22, from New Jersey, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and Spanish studies, with a minor in psychology, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Argentina. 

Sophia Maier, FCRH ’23, from New York state, who earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies and will receive a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education this spring, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Spain.

Isaac Mullings, FCRH ’24, from the Bronx, a member of the CSTEP program who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, received a research award for study in Ghana.

Anna Nowalk, FCLC ’23, from Virginia, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theology religious studies with minors in philosophy and peace and justice studies, received a research award for study in El Salvador.

Christian Ramirez, FCRH ’23, who is from Minnesota and earned a bachelor’s degree in English and theology religious studies, with a minor in Spanish, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Colombia.

Margaret (Daisy) Salchli, FCRH ’24, from Chicago, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, international studies, and Chinese studies, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Taiwan.

Emilia Tesoriero, FCRH ’24, from Connecticut, who earned a bachelor’s degree in international political economy with a minor in Spanish, was awarded an English teaching assistantship to Spain.

Connie Ticho, LAW ’24, from Pennsylvania, received a research award for study in South Africa.

One alumnus is a Fulbright alternate:

Hanif Amanullah, FCRH ’24, from Texas, who earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies with a minor in environmental studies, was named an alternate for a study and research award to Kenya.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated from an earlier version.