In her role as chief people officer at Phoenix Tower International, a wireless infrastructure company, Barry is responsible for “the whole people aspect regarding strategy, leadership, talent acquisition, retention, benefits, and payroll.” She is grateful to Fordham for the education she gained and the connections she forged—an underlying connectivity she taps into daily to help her thrive professionally (her last three bosses attended Jesuit schools) and personally (her husband, Tom, is Jesuit educated, too).

Embrace Your Past to Claim Your Future

This gratitude is why she works to uplift current students. A first-generation college graduate, she’s particularly interested in helping students who are the first in their families to pursue higher education.

Her parents, who immigrated to New Jersey from Italy, always pushed her to succeed, Barry said, adding that they were “dumbfounded” with pride when she graduated.

“Embrace that you are first-generation,” she said at an intimate ceremony for first-generation graduates in May 2022. “Talk about it because it defines who you are, and in life, it’s those stories that are really important to tell; you’re telling what your story is. Always embrace where you came from … because it defines who you become.”

All in the Fordham Family

Barry wants students and young alumni alike to connect with each other and remember how powerful the Fordham network is. With a tendency to keep her head down and just work, she didn’t always “realize the importance of networking and of really keeping that pipeline open.” But maintaining those connections—and creating new ones—is necessary for access to different opportunities, Barry said.

“Stay connected to Fordham because it’s a very strong community and it opens doors,” she said. “I graduated in 1992, and I’m still coming back; they’re still having me.”

Barry supports the Fordham Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship Fund and serves as vice chair of the President’s Council, a group of successful professionals and philanthropists who are committed to mentoring Fordham’s future leaders, funding key initiatives, and raising the University’s profile. The latter enables her to rekindle the excitement she felt as a student at Rose Hill.

“When I’m working with the people on the council, I still feel like I’m a student: eager and motivated,” she said. “And that same eagerness and adrenaline that I had every day I walked on campus, and I was so excited to be there, I’m feeling that now.”

Following the May 21 ceremony on Edwards Parade, an emotional Ferreira embraced her parents and, to honor their sacrifices, placed her cap on her mother’s head and her gown around her father’s shoulders. The moment was caught on video and went viral on TikTok, where it has been viewed and liked more than 132,000 times since Ferreira posted it on June 15. Her story got the attention of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, which recently aired a segment about the commencement video and spoke to Tiffany and her sister, Lauren.

“I wouldn’t have the degree without them, all their hard work, their support, all their love throughout the years,” Ferreira told NBC Nightly News anchor Kate Snow. “They literally sweat every single day to provide us with everything we need to succeed.”

She also said that she hopes the video inspires other first-generation students to go to college.

“I think that being a first-generation college student is difficult. Many students may think, ‘Oh, because my family didn’t, I’m also unable to go to college,’ and I really hope this video inspires people to try.”

“I don’t have to be shy about what I want to ask. I don’t have to lie about my financial needs. Sometimes on campus I have to deal with cultural differences and I feel like I have to code switch, but at CSTEP, I can throw that all away and come as I am,” she said.  

Reynoso is a senior in Fordham’s Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, known as CSTEP. The statewide program prepares minority and economically disadvantaged undergraduates for professions in areas where they are underrepresented; Fordham’s chapter, which currently serves about 250 students, is one of the largest in New York. Its counselors have helped many first-generation students find community and stay on track.

‘A Backbone Throughout My Years’

CSTEP was established at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx in 1987 and expanded to the Manhattan Lincoln Center campus about 15 years ago. Students benefit from multiple academic and career-oriented resources, including paid internships and research opportunities, career seminars, networking events, and support classes for pre-health courses. But one of the greatest resources, students say, is the relationship they build with their CSTEP counselors. 

Fiona Sampaney was struggling with the coursework in her natural sciences major, but she couldn’t devote enough time to studying. In her free time, she said she often babysat her three younger siblings and worked as a supermarket cashier. But thanks to her CSTEP counselors, she found a solution. 

“Changing majors was something I had already thought of, but I didn’t know how to go about it. They helped me draw out a two-year plan for the rest of my time at Fordham and see how a major switch would affect my GPA and academic standing for medical school,” said Sampaney, a Bronx-born first-generation student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center who plans to become a pediatrician. 

Rashain Adams Jr., another first-generation student and a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, said CSTEP feels like a family. 

“Nobody is trying to compete with you when it comes to grades or success. Everyone truly just wants you to be OK, mentally and emotionally,” said Adams, who joined CSTEP in his second semester at Fordham. “The program has been a backbone throughout my years here.”

This past spring, Gerald “Geraldo” De La Cruz, a first-generation student and a senior at the Gabelli School of Business, became a residential assistant at the Rose Hill campus. He felt stressed and isolated, thanks to pandemic restrictions. But he was able to open up to his counselor, Renaldo Alba, who also serves as CSTEP’s associate director. 

“I was in a really bad place last year, mentally. I felt burnt out and drained,” De La Cruz said. “But when Renaldo starts his conversations with you, he’ll be like, ‘How are you?’ I was honest with him.” 

Sometimes students just want to be heard, Alba said. 

“They may just need to vent in a space that is judgement-free and confidential,” Alba said. “If you’re a first-generation student, you’re grappling with issues that parents and perhaps previous support systems cannot continue to help with.” 

To help students find community and perspective, he said, counselors work to connect students to colleagues in other offices, CSTEP alumni, and peers. “Finding others in moments of isolation helps a great deal,” he said.

A Parent’s Love and Pride

For many students, feelings of isolation begin even before they stepped foot on campus, as they navigate the application process largely on their own. Once they arrive, they feel the pressure to perform—both self-imposed and from family members who don’t fully understand college life. But at the end of the day, the students say they know their parents are proud. 

Adams, a history major raised by a single mother in the Bronx, said his mother loves talking about her three children: “She’s very excited that all of her kids have gone to college at this point. My brother graduated from John Jay, and he’s looking at his master’s degree. My sister just started her first year at New York University, and I’m about to graduate.” 

Others had similar things to say about their families.

“My mom is the cutest. She’s a home attendant, and she tells one of her patients about me all the time. When I finish a paper or get a good grade, she’ll be like, ‘Send it to me so he can read it!’” said Reynoso, an environmental studies major who wants to improve health outcomes for urban populations, especially people of color.  

De La Cruz, the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, said he is thankful for his family, especially his mother, a small business owner who once wanted to study psychology. 

“I have an opportunity to do something that my parents couldn’t,” said De La Cruz, who wants to become a marketing executive for an entertainment company. “The sacrifices they made in life made it possible for me to do this.”

‘Lifting Myself and Those Around Me’

One of the most meaningful parts of being a first-generation college student is starting a legacy of education and generational wealth, said the students. 

“I can graduate and have a higher paying job,” said Sampaney. “That provides more knowledge for not just myself, but my future children and grandchildren.” 

For Reynoso, being a first-gen student also means representing others like her. Through Project TRUE, a youth development program between Fordham and the Wildlife Conservation Society, she has mentored local high schoolers who may become the first in their families to attend college, too. A good education also means personal freedom, she said. 

“I can think and make decisions for myself more freely. I’m given some sort of authority to validate my opinion more, but at the same time, I’m creating space for others who may not have had the same opportunities that I have, while saying that their experiences have equal authority,” Reynoso said. “I’m lifting myself and those around me.”

The Fordham Founder’s scholar is currently on the national tour of the Broadway show Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The tour started last fall, so the Fordham College at Rose Hill junior had to take exams to complete the semester between rehearsals, performances, and travel.

Louissaint said she was grateful that her professors worked with her to coordinate her classwork remotely. She finished papers, read e-books, and persevered with the support of her fellow cast members.

“They appreciated my tenacity,” said Louissaint, a first-generation college student who was born in Haiti. “I kept my 3.5 GPA, so I’m still on track to graduate next year.”

With 19 one-week performances underway this spring, Louissaint has taken a leave of absence this semester. But despite the lure of the professional stage, she has no plans to abandon her education.

Marla Louissant performing in 2016 at Declaration of Sentiments: The Remix 

Education as Foundation

While her parents are very supportive of her artistic endeavors, she said, they want to make sure she’s educated in a field that’s not as volatile as the arts. Having not had the chance at a college degree themselves, her parents see the value in a foundational education, she said.

“My family wants me to have a more solid career, something else that can help support us,” she said.

Louissaint was raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, near 158th and Amsterdam Ave. The extended family lives in the same neighborhood: Louissaint’s grandmother lives downstairs and her aunt lives next door. Louissaint helps pay for her grandmother’s rent as well as her own college tuition. Before landing the role in Beautiful, she worked desk jobs as a temp in various companies.

“My family can’t help me out, and a girl’s gotta eat,” she said with a laugh.

She recalled receiving an email just before she went into a computer systems class, saying she’d been selected to be a Fordham Founder’s scholar. “I called my mother and shouted ‘Amnwey!’”— which is Creole for “Oh my god!” “Wow!” and “Look here!”

A Day in the Life of the Theater

While on tour, Louissaint’s typical day starts with breakfast and a walk around whatever city she’s touring in.

“I like to see what the city has to offer,” she said. “It’s easy to want to sit around and catch up on TV shows, but I like to explore the cities because chances are I won’t be visiting again.”

She then makes her way back to the hotel to warm up her voice for 20 minutes or more, “depending on how long that cast was out on the town the night before,” she said.

Then it’s off to the gym for a couple of hours before the show.

“It’s important to condition my body, especially if I have to dance to the song ‘Locomotion’ once, sometimes twice a day,” she said.

Every day she says she sets aside time at lunch to call family back home.

“I find a cute cafe to eat in and get to dialing my mom, dad, sister, grandmas, and everybody I haven’t heard from in a while,” she said.

Even though she’ll be on tour, Louissaint said she’ll be at the Fordham Founder’s Gala on March 19. She looks forward to seeing her family, and reassuring them that she’s still committed to getting her degree. 

Where Art and Science Meet

While Louissaint said she was always proficient in math, she said she didn’t discover her acting talents until she was a junior in high school. There, she won a best actress award in The National High School Musical Theater Awards. She got an agent and was soon performing off-Broadway opposite James Earl Jones in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

While it may seem that her chosen fields of theater and computer science have little to do with each other, she said she sees the connection.

“You always have to use creative thinking [in both]acting and writing code,” she said.

Another similar factor, she said, is staying power. If something goes wrong onstage, the show must go on. She said the same persistence is required in writing code.

“It’s fight or flight in both fields,” she said.

“I was the eldest of four children and the first in my immediate family to attend high school. There was no university in Jamaica at that time and my parents couldn’t afford to send me abroad for higher education. Early in 1948 I received an offer of a scholarship to Fordham from Father Robert I. Gannon, president of the University. I started at Fordham in September 1948 as a junior in the college and graduated in June 1950 with a BS in chemistry. I stayed on through an assistantship in the chemistry department and completed my master’s in June 1951 and Ph.D. in the summer of 1955.

“In 1962, I was appointed associate professor of chemistry. Promotion to full professor was achieved in 1970, and I have continued in that position to the present day.

“I never dreamed of the possibility of such accomplishments as I was growing up.”

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