“To be part of the process to really rebuild populations and to speak about these incredible animals has been really a wonderful part of what I’ve been doing,” she says.

“As you move through the zoo community, and you learn different ways in different positions, on how you can contribute, how you can connect people, how you can elevate people. I was looking for a greater opportunity to be better able to do that,” she says. 

“My vision is very much what the Zoo is putting forward to continue our over 90 years of community service, to be a leader in wildlife conservation and to find opportunities to continually make that connection between our community with that mission to make this planet a better place for all of us, wildlife and people.”

“It’s radical, it’s different, it’s good,” Victor Tuohy, GABELLI ’70, ’72, said of Tetlow’s appointment as the first layperson and first woman to serve as president of Fordham in its 181-year history.

Tetlow, who had served as president of Loyola University New Orleans for four years before beginning her tenure at Fordham on July 1, told attendees the story of how she exists because of the University—her parents met and fell in love as graduate students at Rose Hill in the late 1960s. Although her father, Louis Mulry Tetlow, Ph.D., passed away in May 2017, one year before she became president of Loyola New Orleans, she credited him with helping to prepare her to lead that Jesuit institution and now his alma mater Fordham, in part because he had been a Jesuit priest before leaving the order to start a family.

‘Doubling Down’ on Fordham’s Jesuit Catholic Identity

Tetlow said that Fordham’s future is about “really doubling down [on] our identity” as a Jesuit Catholic institution.

She described Fordham as “a place that really believes in training our students in discipline and hard work and keen intelligence, and giving them the tools to go out there and make a difference,” to “lead lives of purpose and integrity” and become “the kind of people that you in this room, as alums, represent so well.”

Joan Garry, FCRH ’79, said that she believes Tetlow is the right person to carry forth the Jesuit tradition at Fordham.

“I also think that you don’t have to be a Jesuit to embody the values of Jesuit education,” she said.

Garry said that she and her wife, Eileen, often refer to Jesuit values as “interfaith values”—ones that can include people of many different backgrounds and beliefs.

“I think that for the University to make a statement, that [the president] is a female who is not a Jesuit, actually amplifies that message” of inclusion, she said.

Tetlow said that she believes there’s “real momentum” surrounding Fordham, particularly because of its location in “the most exciting city in the world, the center of the global economy, the place of so much opportunity and cultural richness and chances to be a person who has impact.”

“I’ve now figured out that every third person I meet in the city of New York went to Fordham, and there’s a reason our graduates get really good jobs here because you all take care of them,” she said, gesturing to the alumni in the room.

Among the attendees was Robert E. Campbell, GABELLI ’55, a trustee emeritus and former chair of the Fordham Board of Trustees who led the 2002 search committee that selected Tetlow’s predecessor, Joseph M. McShane, S.J. He said he hoped she would build on Father McShane’s accomplishments in the past two decades and on her unique experiences as a leader to continue to elevate the university.

“I think it’s great,” he said, after he met with her right before the official reception began. “It’s a whole new perspective—it’s just new and exciting and I think that she’ll be great.”

For young alumna Mia Behrens, FCRH ’21, seeing Fordham hire its first woman president was powerful. She said that she and her friends thought the University was still a few presidents away from hiring a layperson, let alone a woman.

“I think it’s definitely really exciting to see a woman in a position of power,” she said. “I also think everyone knows that she has big shoes to fill [in following] Father McShane, and I think picking a woman was a really good idea because there’s not going to be as much comparison—it’s going to be just a completely new Fordham era.”

Behrens attended the reception with Liam Fitzmaurice, GABELLI ’21, who described meeting Tetlow as “an awesome experience.”

“I think it’s pretty exciting to see what she’s going to do with the school, being the first non-Jesuit president,” he said.

Ottilie Droggitis, a 1978 graduate of Marymount College, said she is excited that Fordham has its first woman president, and she hopes it will strengthen the bonds between Fordham and Marymount, which was part of Fordham from 2002 until the college closed in 2007.

“As a woman who graduated from an all-women’s college and is on the [college’s alumnae] board, I can tell you that we are just thrilled now that a woman is … the head of the University,” she said.

The Importance of Alumni

In her speech at the reception, Tetlow said she’s been trying to immerse herself in Fordham and its community.

“I’m learning so much, listening really hard, and really hearing the stories of extraordinary possibility,” she said.

Tetlow emphasized the importance of how Fordham alumni have helped fuel the University’s growth.

“The institutions whose trajectories take off are the ones whose alumni believe in them and invest in them and are the champions who go out and spread the word, who send their own children, who convince other people to send their children, who … make transformative gifts that matter to the institution [and] take us to the next level,” she said. “And I have met so many of you to know that we are building on something really special.”

The presidential reception in Spring Lake was the first opportunity for alumni to meet with Tetlow, with more following around the country—and even in London—later this year. To see a full list of events, visit forever.fordham.edu/presidential. Tetlow will also be at Fordham’s Homecoming on Saturday, September 17.

For many attendees, it was a chance to see New York City come back to life after two years of social distancing and separation. Meghan McAlary, a senior at the Gabelli School of Business, who serves as the president of Fordham’s Gaelic Society, said she was grateful to participate in the parade after going through the pandemic.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of pent-up energy to get out here, so it’s nice to finally be able to get together,” she said.

Continuing the Tradition

McAlary was marching with her father, John, who said that he was thrilled to see his daughter so involved with both the Fordham community and her Irish roots.

“We got to travel together to Ireland before the pandemic, so just to see her out here as the president of the Gaelic Society—I couldn’t be prouder. I grew up in New York City and I used to come down to the parade every year as a child, and to see her continuing that tradition is just wonderful,” he said.

Eight decades’ worth of Fordham Rams participated in the parade, spanning graduates from the 1950s to current students. All nine of the University’s colleges, as well as Marymount, were represented, according to Michael Griffin, associate vice president for alumni relations.

Two of those generations were represented by the Wiedenhoft family, as Fordham College at Rose Hill sophomore Carolyn Wiedenhoft marched in the parade with her dad Robert, FCRH ’86.

“Seeing her love it and being able to share that with her is a great connection,” he said.

Catherine Trapani, a 2013 graduate of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Fordham University Alumni Association advisory board, brought her daughter and best friend to the parade to participate for the first time. Trapani said that she wasn’t sure how the turnout would be with the weather and pandemic-related hesitations.

“It’s nice to see it filled with all different ages and schools,” she said.

Across the region, other traditions returned this year. In White Plains, James J. Houlihan, GABELLI ’74, served as the grand marshal of their St. Patrick’s Day parade to honor him for helping to establish the Great Hunger Memorial, among other volunteer and philanthropic works in and beyond Westchester County.

James T. Callahan, general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers, served as the New York City parade’s grand marshal. The parade featured a moment of silence for victims of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in memory of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the war in Ukraine. The Fordham contingent stopped at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on its way up Fifth Avenue and tipped their caps to the church.

Honoring Father McShane: “It’s Why I’m Here”

This year’s parade marks the last time that Joseph M. McShane S.J., president of Fordham, addressed the delegation, as he will be stepping down in June. For many alumni, saying goodbye to him was part of the reason they decided to march.

“It’s why I’m here—this morning I got up and it was raining, but I said ‘I’m going anyway because it’s McShane’s last (one),’” said Stephen Centrillo, GABELLI ’79, ’81.

“He’s the most inspirational human being I know. I’ve known him for 20 years now and I’m just so happy for what he’s done for Fordham. And I wanted him to see as many Rams here, recognizing how we feel about him.”

At ‘Every Moment in Fordham’s History,’ Becoming People for Others

Before the parade, more than 200 participants gathered for brunch at the Yale Club. Father McShane served as the keynote speaker, and was met with a standing ovation from those in attendance. He called on the crowd to remember not only the story of St. Patrick, but also the story of another Irishman, Fordham’s founder Archbishop John Hughes— “a latter-day St. Patrick.”

Father McShane said that Hughes did four vital things for the city: purchasing land where the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral was built on Fifth Avenue; making sure there were Catholic schools for children to attend at their parishes; starting St. John’s College, which would become Fordham University; and helping to start Emigrant Savings Bank, which provided banking services to previously underserved Irish customers when it first opened.

“All of them really were aimed at one thing—taking care of the downcast, the downtrodden, the forgotten, the marginalized—us,” Father McShane said. “And Fordham has kept faithful to that mission.”

Father McShane said that “at every moment in Fordham’s history, Fordham is drawn to helping young men and women who have “great hearts and exceptional intellectual ability” find their way in the world and become people for others.

“This is what we’ve done for generations we’re able to do it now because of you—your kindness, your goodness, your generosity,” he said.

Those in attendance said that they were grateful for Father McShane continuing that mission throughout his tenure, particularly during the last few years.

“I feel like this St. Patrick’s Day, this parade is marking the point of [getting]  back to normal—it’s a brand new day, and it’s also being led by Father McShane,” said Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association’s (FUAA) Advisory Board.

“We didn’t lose him and his leadership during the pandemic—he led us to the finish line and now we’re safe, we’re going to be OK.”

Several thousand Fordham alumni, family members, students, and friends took part in the festivities, which included special receptions for the classes of 1970 and 1971, a 5K Ram Run, the launch of the first-ever Alumni Book Club, a jaunt to the New York Botanical Garden, and the traditional Homecoming tents on Edwards Parade, where attendees of all ages mixed and mingled for the first time since November 2019. (Last year’s Homecoming was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

“This is Fordham—active, students running around, Edwards Parade full of people,” said Mary Boland, a 1979 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

For Joe McAteer, a 1999 graduate of the Gabelli School of Business and a former Fordham football player, the day was a chance to resume a family tradition. He and his wife, Anne, took their daughters, Brigid and Melaney, to the family tent, where an artist drew caricatures of the girls and made balloon figures for them.

“I haven’t been on campus since the pandemic,” McAteer said. “And my daughters would come up here for years and loved, loved coming up here—it’s the family atmosphere. Being back on campus with my kids, it’s great. It’s just that ambience, that feel that you get walking back on campus.”

The celebrations commenced on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, when Fordham athletics inducted 13 alumni into its Hall of Fame during a ceremony under the Homecoming tent on Edwards Parade. Among this year’s honorees were record-breaking quarterback Mike Nebrich, FCRH ’15; former Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara, GABELLI ’13; former women’s basketball star Abigail Corning, GABELLI ’14; and Joe Moglia, FCRH ’71, a former CEO of TD Ameritrade and former head football coach at Coastal Carolina University.

Celebrating the Golden Rams

Moglia, who will be honored at the Fordham Founder’s Dinner on Nov. 8, was among the members of the classes of 1970 and 1971 who were invited to a special reception on Friday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation from Fordham. While the Golden Rams are traditionally honored during Jubilee weekend in June, the celebrations for both class years were delayed until Homecoming this year, when the alumni could be feted in person.

Prior to the reception, they visited Butler Commons in Duane Library, home to a quarter-scale replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco—a gift from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Fordham in 2018. Art history professor Maria Ruvoldt, Ph.D., gave alumni and their guests a sweeping history of the storied fresco, gesturing above their heads to indicate specific areas of Michelangelo’s masterwork.

For Timothy Buckley, FCRH ’71, LAW ’74, and Eileen McDonough Buckley, TMC ’71, the space was a far cry from the Duane Library they knew 50 years ago, when the two met on campus as undergraduates. After the lecture, as they headed to University Church for a Mass honoring the Golden Rams, they recalled their wedding at the church in 1975, the year after Buckley graduated from Fordham Law School, as well as the charm of the old library.

“Walsh Library was long overdue,” Buckley said, referring to the William D. Walsh Family Library, which opened in 1997, “but when you came from where I came from, [the Finger Lakes region of New York], Duane was a big deal.”

“I loved those spiral staircases” in the old library, McDonough added.

Likewise, Peter Dolan, GABELLI ’71, ’75, and his wife, Mary Marcia Dolan, arrived on campus Friday afternoon with 50-year-old memories of a place that has changed dramatically in the intervening decades. Dolan took only a few classes at Rose Hill, but he recalled a scrappy population of students who, like him, often worked to pay for tuition while pursuing their studies. Mary Marcia attended Manhattanville College, a Fordham football rival at the time, but the couple had little time for Homecoming games until this year. Dolan said that by the time he was in graduate business school at Fordham, they already had two children. For him, college rivalries played out in job interviews.

“I’m grateful to Fordham for my career. I went on so many interviews going up against Princeton and the like and they’d say, ‘Finally, somebody from Fordham is here,’” he said on the steps of Keating Hall, standing next to his wife and grandson Patrick, a first-year student at Rose Hill, before heading into the tent on Edwards Parade for the Golden Rams reception.

Dolan said he had tried to convince his children to go to Fordham, but they all went to other Jesuit colleges, making his grandson’s presence at Rose Hill all the more special.

“To have my grandson come here is a thrill of a lifetime,” he said.

Dancing the Night Away, Amid Views of Keating Hall and the Manhattan Skyline

On Friday evening, approximately 1,000 young alumni from the classes of 2011 to 2021 began their Homecoming weekend on a yacht cruise around lower Manhattan. For members of the classes of 2020 and 2021—who made up the majority of the sold-out crowd—it was one of their first opportunities to reconnect with classmates and friends since graduation. Many also saw it as an event that made up for a tradition they missed as undergrads: Senior Week programming.

“I don’t think any of us have been in that kind of crazy-busy celebratory environment since before 2020,” Finley Peay, FCLC ’20, said after the event.

Meanwhile, at Rose Hill, current undergraduates resumed another tradition: the annual President’s Ball. The dance had a new location this year—the Homecoming Tent on Edwards Parade, following the Golden Rams reception—and it drew more than 3,400 students, one of biggest turnouts in the history of the ball.

A Flying Start

On Saturday morning, about 50 students, alumni, staff, and other members of the extended Fordham family took part in the 5K Ram Run, which started and ended in front of the historic Rose Hill Gym. Their path, three loops around campus, took them past the new campus center, which is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion that will enhance services, programming, and resources for Fordham students.

For Fordham College at Rose Hill senior Kyle McAuley, who placed first, the race was a chance to enjoy an early-morning run and be part of the larger Fordham community.

“I’m a distance runner—I recently finished the Bronx 10-mile and I just really enjoy running in the Bronx. I think we need more races here, so to have one on Fordham’s campus was pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a good time to be a part of the community—I’m graduating this year, so it felt nice to be able to do this, especially after not having really any type of Homecoming last year.”

Sophomore Michael Parrinello, who finished second, brought a family feel to the event, running with his sister, Lauren.

“It was exciting to welcome family onto campus after all this time,” he said. “There’s just a lot of energy, which has kind of been missing the last 18 months.”

Catching Up on Campus

Homecoming attendees also had the opportunity to learn about some of the work that’s been taking place on and off campus in the past couple of years.

The deans of Fordham College at Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center shared how the Cultural Engagement Internships program, which they launched in 2020 with support from Fordham alumni, has grown from two partners to more than 20 for the current semester. The program provides students with paid internships at local nonprofits and cultural institutions such as the Bronx Book Festival, the New York Hall of Science, and the Brooklyn Museum.

“Many of these organizations were introduced to us by alumni or by faculty or by other members of the community,” said Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

One of Fordham’s partners is the Elmhurst/Corona Recovery Collaborative, which unites the efforts of 24 nonprofits in Queens. Fordham College at Lincoln Center sophomore Arika Ahamad supported the collaborative’s communications efforts this past year, working on a newsletter and other publications to help connect residents to community resources such as vaccination locations and help with government forms. “What they were all doing was working together to help the area recover from COVID-19,” she said.

Alumni also had the chance to welcome Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, who will become the chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) advisory board in January.

“I come here today, and I think of when I was a [student] trying to study on Homecoming Saturday,” she said, while speaking in the McGinley Center’s North Dining Hall. “I was wondering what was all that fuss? Who are these old people in that tent? And now, I am that person, and I want a bigger fuss—more noise!”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, led a champagne toast at the FUAA reception, after which he called for attendees to join him in singing “The Ram,” Fordham’s fight song.

“I want to thank you for everything you do for Fordham,” he said. “I want you to be proud of Fordham—be as proud of Fordham as Fordham is of you. Pray for Fordham that we might always be true to the vision and the mission that John Hughes had,” he said, referring to the University’s founder.

Benner will succeed John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, the FUAA’s founding advisory board chair, who congratulated her on her new role. He said although he didn’t know her when they were students, he knew she was a member of Mimes and Mummers, the theater group at Rose Hill, “and I know how passionate she was about that organization: She’s going to bring that passion to the FUAA.”

Benner’s fellow Mimes and Mummers alumni also reunited on Saturday morning, enjoying coffee and catching up outside Hughes Hall before visiting Collins Auditorium, where they reminisced about their old college shows and marveled at the building’s new elevator and display of show posters framed by light bulbs.

Under the Tent

The Homecoming tent, however, was the main attraction. Alumni, students, families, and friends gathered there for pre-boxed lunches and drinks, played Jenga and other games, enjoyed each other’s company, and shared their favorite Fordham memories with friends and loved ones. (After the day was over, the alumni relations office donated 500 meals to Bessie Green Community Inc., a nonprofit organization that has been serving the underprivileged in Newark, New Jersey, since 1978.)

For Ruddy Castillo, a 1998 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate, and his wife, Gloria, Homecoming was the first time they had the chance to share the campus experience with their daughters, Emma and Victoria.

“I’ve never done it before—there’s so much change, and it’s great to actually see all the changes and to see people again,” Castillo said. “It’s even better [with my daughters], to share in the memories and show them around the campus that I came to school at, and get them exposed to this type of event.”

Several attendees took the opportunity to meet Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English Department, who signed copies of her novel Lizzie & Dante (Random House, 2021), which was recently selected as the inaugural selection of the Fordham Alumni Book Club.

It’s the first novel she’s published under her real name, but she’s well-known in the romance genre for the more than 7 million books she’s sold under her pseudonym, Eloisa James.

The book club will meet via Zoom for two, one-hour sessions on Wednesday, October 20, and Wednesday, November 10. The first session will be moderated by Fordham English Professor Stuart Sherman, Ph.D., and the second session will be moderated by Phillip Cicione, Ed.D., FCRH ’87, one of the alumni who stopped by the tent to pick up a copy of Lizzie & Dante.

Cicione, an English teacher in New York’s Commack school district, met Bly through a former student who recently graduated from Fordham. “[Mary and I] had lunch right before [the COVID-19] shutdown, and she was asking me for ideas of how to get English alumni more involved with Fordham and, specifically, the English department,” Cicione said.

They stayed in touch, and eventually he was asked to serve as a moderator for the Fordham Alumni Book Club. “It’s a perfect fit, as an educator, to be moderating,” he said. “Every day in my classroom is a book club.”

Game Time—or a Walk in the Botanical Garden

As the 1 p.m. kickoff approached, the Fordham cheerleaders and dance team helped get the crowd hyped up before the big game, while the Fordham band played the University’s fight song. But not everyone made their way to Coffey Field.

Several attendees decided to tour the New York Botanical Garden at a discounted Fordham rate, a new option offered at Homecoming this year. The Ciciones each chose their favorite, with Phillip heading to the game and Jackie opting for the garden.

She cited her love of the botanical garden and the ease of touring it solo as reasons why she trekked across the street instead of going into the stands.

Fran Phair, PCS ’05, said that while she’s attended the Homecoming game in the past, this year she felt the garden would be more fun than football. “There’s a great exhibit going on right now. That’s why we made this decision.”

But for Fordham football and their fans, the scene at Jack Coffey Field was fun too.

Senior quarterback Tim DeMorat put on a show for the Ram faithful, throwing for four touchdowns and 339 yards in the first half, as he led the Fordham to a 56–7 victory over Wagner in front of an excited home crowd.

At the end of the first quarter, the 1971 crew team was honored on the 50th anniversary of an exceptional season. Despite the challenges of losing varsity status and having to find a new coach that year, the team won first place in the Deering Cup, beat eight of nine competitors in the Grimaldi Cup, and won first place in the Hudson River Presidents Cup.

The team’s coach, Ed Witman, GSAS ’77, was pursuing a doctorate at Fordham when he found a torn piece of loose-leaf on the windshield of his Volkswagen prior to the 1971 season. “Interested in coaching crew?” it asked.

It was a difficult time for the team, whose members had embraced the “cultural revolution,” Witman said, with their long hair and beards. They didn’t have a lot of support.

“And then we lost the boat,” he said. “So we had to row in borrowed shells. If these guys had not persevered and hung in there, though, I think the crew at Fordham would have vanished.”

Team member John J. Fischer Jr., FCRH ’72, said the team has remained close. “We’ve been good friends and we get together every year, almost, to celebrate our team and go out on a row—we used to go out on rows. We’re now in our 70s.”

The Rams put on most of their show in the first half, going up 42–7, thanks to DeMorat; senior wide receiver Fotis Kokosioulis, who had 101 yards and two scores; and first-year linebacker James Conway, who held Wagner’s offense in check by completing a game-high 12 tackles and forcing a fumble.

The weekend concluded with a Homecoming Mass in the University Church.

Chris Walchuk, FCRH ’84, GSE ’87, who attended Homecoming in 2019, said that she loved getting to share the experience of the day with her daughter Katarina, a first-year student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

“It’s the people,” she said. “It’s so nice. I was thinking about that as we were sitting inside the tent. This is just like the previous one, [in 2019]. It’s so nice to be back.”

—Taylor Ha, Nicole LaRosa, Sierra McCleary-Harris, and Tom Stoelker contributed reporting to this story.

That’s according to three members of the Fordham University President’s Council—Maureen Beshar, FCLC ’86, Errol Pierre, GABELLI ’05, and Ed Sisk, FCRH ’85—who shared their stories and experiences with Fordham students and others on Sept. 14. The online panel discussion, “Born, Bred, and Making it in New York City,” was part of the council’s Executive Leadership Series.

“There’s just something about a Fordham student that has Jesuit values, and wants to be a global citizen and give back to their community,” said Pierre, a senior vice president at Health First, the largest nonprofit health insurance company in New York. “And I think there’s something intangible that just comes with” living, studying, and working in New York City.

Putting Fordham Lessons into Practice

When Sisk, the managing director and head of public finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was put in charge of the company’s banking division after the 2008 financial crisis, he said that he used values he learned at Fordham years ago to help manage his team through it.

“For an organization to be successful, it has to be driven by core values,” he said. “We define our core values as: we focus on our clients, we work hard, we conduct ourselves with integrity, we win or lose as a team—that’s how I assess how people do their jobs.”

Beshar, a managing director and CEO of North America for Robeco, an asset management firm, said that in her field, she has to explain complex situations and solutions to clients, and her Fordham education helps her do that effectively.

“I think Fordham really helped me question things in a way that I might not have done before,” she said.

Seizing Opportunities to Explore Career Options

When Pierre started at Fordham, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He enrolled in the business school because he wanted to look like “the guy with the dress shoes and the suit whipping around The Wall Street Journal on the subway,” he said. But while he was at Fordham, he decided to use the internship opportunities presented to him to explore several fields.

“Internships really drove me to my passion,” he said. “I was glad I was in the city, because I had a lot of friends that went to other schools that didn’t have the plethora of opportunities for internships, as I did being so close to Manhattan.”

He started out interning for a life insurance company and quickly realized that wasn’t for him. “After two weeks, I was like, ‘I can’t do this,’ which was fine,” he said. “The beautiful thing about internships is, if you find that you don’t like something, that’s just as valuable” as finding something you like.

He then tried interning at a bank but found that the role was often about “helping rich people get richer.”

“Even though I was in the business school, we still had to take philosophy, we still had to take religion—I didn’t know why I still had to take those classes—but then I learned, ‘Oh, I’m graduating with a conscience and as a global citizen,’” Pierre said.

That led him to his third internship, at Blue Cross Blue Shield. He started out doing data entry, but over the next 10 years there, he learned more about aspects of the insurance business that interested him, such as “coverage gaps—why some things are covered, why things aren’t,” and disparities in health care.

“I would not be in my line of business if it was not for interning while I was at Fordham,” he said.

Thinking Differently

When Beshar first enrolled at Fordham, she was working two jobs—one at a local deli and one at a hospital—to help pay for the cost of school. After her first year, she had to drop out and ended up taking an entry-level position at Merrill Lynch to save some money. Beshar knew that if she wanted to advance in her field, she had to go back to school, and when she did, she returned to Fordham and decided to study something that would help her think differently and stand out—philosophy.

“Going to Fordham, it almost felt like coming home again,” she said. “With my interest in philosophy, and trying to be a little bit analytical, Fordham … was a natural choice. … It was very exciting, and I think gave me exposure to so many opportunities, so many different people, so many different experiences.”

Tapping Into with the Alumni Network

One of the pieces of advice the panelists gave to students and those in attendance was to reach out to those who preceded them at Fordham, particularly because they all now share a bond with the school and the city they called home for at least four years.

“One of the reasons to love being a Fordham New Yorker is there’s so darn many of us, and we’re thriving where we are doing business and we are mentoring,” said Sisk, who added that he’s always available to offer advice to Fordham students.

Beshar said that she’s seen and benefited from the positive impacts of the alumni network.

“What you learn and the support you get and just the networking —if you’re open to learning, I think it’s always there” for you, she said.

“You go into grad school thinking you know everything,” said Condon, a former business intelligence manager who retired from Verizon in 2018. He soon realized he didn’t know it all, but he began to develop a nightly routine that ended up boosting both his spirits and his range of knowledge.

“I’d go home and flip on Jeopardy! and I would answer a bunch of questions and I would feel a little better about myself,” he said.

Condon said he even looked a bit like the quiz show’s host, Alex Trebek, in the mid-1980s, something that came in handy when Halloween rolled around. 

“Somebody was having a costume party, and I was either very smart or very lazy—and probably very poor too. I had a suit, had a mustache, had curly hair,” Condon said. “So I went as Alex Trebek.”

Last summer, more than 30 years later, Condon got a chance to meet Trebek in Los Angeles, when he was selected to compete on Jeopardy! He became a two-day champion, winning more than $70,000 on shows that aired from October 15 to 17.

“Alex Trebek is incredible because he’s doing all this stuff he doesn’t have to do,” Condon said, noting that Trebek, who has been undergoing treatments for pancreatic cancer, was very generous with his time, both with contestants and the studio audience, spending hours talking with people and answering their questions. 

Trebek and his wife, Jean, have also been very generous to the Fordham community. In 2015, two years after their son, Matthew, earned a philosophy degree at Fordham, the couple established the Alex Trebek Endowed Scholarship Fund with a $1 million gift to benefit undergraduate students from Harlem. They recently doubled the size of their gift, expanding the fund to include students from East Harlem. The Trebeks will be honored with the Fordham Founder’s Award in Los Angeles in January 2020. 

Condon’s own journey to Los Angeles started in April 2019, when he took the Jeopardy! online test for the second straight year in hopes of becoming a contestant. He got a call in May asking him to take a written test and audition for the show in June. 

“‘If you don’t hear from us, you can take the test in 2021,’” Condon said he was told by one of the show’s producers. “So, you know, you go back to your normal life.”

That normal life included cleaning the upstairs bathroom at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, in mid-July when his phone rang. At first, he thought it might be another level of screening for the show. Then reality set in.

“This is it, this is the call,” recalled Condon, who taught history and economics at Cathedral Prep in Elmhurst, Queens, from 1987 to 1989.  

He and wife headed to Los Angeles in mid-August for the taping of what turned out to be Condon’s three appearances on the show. 

For Condon, the appearances flew by, as previous contestants had warned him. While playing, Condon said he was so focused on ringing in and the categories, he barely had time to pay attention to the other contestants.

“You pay some attention to other people’s scores, but it’s more when you get a ‘Daily Double’ and you have to do the arithmetic” to decide what to wager, he said. 

Condon joked that the reason he bet a round number—$20,000—during the second show’s Final Jeopardy round was because he “couldn’t do the arithmetic” quick enough to figure out exactly how much he needed wager to ensure that he would win.

The category was “World Leaders,” and luckily for him, he had the correct response. Trebek read the clue: “This man who ruled from 1949 to 1976 was sometimes called ‘The Red Sun.’” Condon wrote, “Who is Mao Zedong?” Before revealing Condon’s bet, Trebek said, “Did he wager big? I’ll say he did!”

“Made my wife really happy,” Condon said with a laugh.

Condon said his Fordham education helped him in a few spots during his run on the show. He credited a class called The Coming of the Civil War with helping him respond correctly to a Daily Double clue about which U.S. president preceded Martin Van Buren. (It was Andrew Jackson.)

Despite winning two straight games and earning praise from Trebek, Condon said “the absolute best part” of the experience was hearing his wife’s advice before the first taping.

“‘I don’t care if you win or you lose,’” she told him, “‘just have fun.’ And that absolutely meant the most to me,” he said. 

The all-day literary event, organized by book publicist and South Bronx native Saraciea Fennell, brought writers, illustrators, and industry professionals to the community, as well as a vendor to sell books on site. (Learn more about Fennell’s inspiration for this festival in this interview at Shondaland.)

Fordham stepped in as a last-minute cosponsor of the Bronx Book Festival, thanks to alumnus Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01, a senior editor at HarperOne, and Rafael Zapata, special adviser to the president for diversity, chief diversity officer, and associate vice president for Academic Affairs, who helped coordinate the University’s participation.

“I’m thankful that my colleague, Associate Dean and Professor of English Anne Fernald, learned of this unique opportunity to support Saraceia Fennell’s simple yet powerful vision: promoting literacy, creativity, and sharing of stories of the Bronx, by and for Bronx residents in public space. It’s profoundly democratic and empowering, and consistent with our mission as the Jesuit university of New York City,” Zapata said.

Doyle, who in his role at HarperOne specializes in religion, spirituality, and health and wellness, with particular interest in alternative self-help, said the book festival brought together what he loves most about books and the Bronx.

“Nothing brings me more satisfaction than engaging new readers with great books and everything they promise in their pages. At the same time, the Bronx has meant so much to me—first as an undergraduate at Rose Hill, where I started to take up these promises in earnest, and more recently as a resident of the Bronx and northern Manhattan, where I continue to enjoy and benefit from the area’s diverse and vibrant communities, as well as its local artists and businesses that continue to make this part of New York one of the city’s best,” he said.

The New York Times covered the event, asking residents of the borough to give their thoughts on its first book fair:

“We need a festival like this. Representation definitely matters, so to have all of these panels and to hear all of this, it matters,” 22-year-old Megan Pedragon told the newspaper. Read more here.

Related:

How to Break Into Publishing: Advice from Editors, Agents, and Bestselling Author Mary Bly

A Conversation with Rafael Zapata, Fordham’s First Chief Diversity Officer

Baisley, 83, remembers how, after moving from New York to Chicago in the late 60s, he’d even try to win over Midwesterners by mentioning that he knew Vince Lombardi, FCRH ‘37, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach (who during his time at Fordham tried unsuccessfully to convince Jim’s brother, a basketball player, to join the football team).

But when Fordham takes on Holy Cross for the Ram-Crusader Cup in a highly anticipated game at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 12, Baisley won’t be pulling for either team.

That’s because Baisley will have a grandson on both squads: Charlie, a sophomore offensive lineman at Fordham, and Jimmy, a senior offensive lineman at Holy Cross.

“Oh, it’s going to be absolutely wonderful,” says Baisley, who retired as general counsel for W.W. Grainger in 2000. “We used to go to all the Yankee baseball games. And so to have your grandkids playing in the game, it’s rewarding. You work hard and you try to educate your kids, and give them an opportunity to be good people. And I think they’re all good people.”

Baisley says he’s seen his grandsons, who were teammates in high school in Illinois, play against each other just once: Fordham’s 47-41 overtime win over Holy Cross last season. But he says it’s a thrill to see them suit up for opposing schools, especially since Charlie and Jimmy are both on their team’s offensive units.

“It might have been different if they were knocking heads against each other,” he says. “But that wasn’t happening.”

Baisley’s grandsons say they’re looking forward to the game as well.

“I’m really excited,” says Jimmy Murray. “This game has been on everyone in my family’s schedule for the last two years.” Indeed, Baisley says at least 50 family members will be on hand on Nov. 12.

Not surprisingly, his grandsons are trying to sway him to their schools’ side.

“I’ve been kind of leaving some Holy Cross gear around his house, and hoping that he picks up on the hints and is wearing more Holy Cross than Fordham,” says Jimmy Murray.

Charlie, meanwhile, plans to try and persuade his grandfather to pull for his alma mater. “I hope he ultimately roots for Fordham, but I’m sure he’s going to have a great time regardless of the score of the game,” he said.

But despite his family’s many Fordham connections—another grandson played golf at Fordham, and he has a granddaughter in high school who’s committed to play soccer for the Rams in 2017—Baisley says he’s not rooting for either team at Yankee Stadium.

To remain neutral on game day, he says “I may bring my Holy Cross hat and my Fordham hat, and wear them interchangeably.”

“I don’t care which team wins,” he says. “I think every kid on that field is a winner because they’re getting a Jesuit education.”

–Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06

Hundreds of soccer fans gathered in Dupont Circle on June 12, 2010, to watch three World Cup matches on two giant TV screens. The event’s principal organizer, Aaron DeNu, GSAS ’06, is working with the German Embassy to put on a similar event on June 26, during the 2014 World Cup.

Eight years ago, Aaron DeNu, GSAS ’06, was living near Fordham’s Rose Hill campus when he saw how soccer fans’ passion for the beautiful game could enliven an already vibrant neighborhood.

“I was fortunate to be living on 187th Street during the 2006 World Cup,” he said. “What an amazing experience it was to be in the heart of Little Italy during the Italian national team’s march to the finals.”

DeNu helped some local merchants coordinate ad hoc viewing parties.

“TVs were pulled into the street, makeshift projectors showed replays at night on Arthur Avenue,” he recalled. “I knew that wherever I would be living during the next World Cup, I would try to re-create the energy I felt during that summer in Belmont.”

In 2010, DeNu made good on his goal.

By then he was living in Washington, D.C., having accepted a job at George Washington University, where he currently works in the student affairs division as associate director of technology, outreach, and events.

Prior to the 2010 World Cup, he and a friend secured the permission, funding, and equipment necessary to stage what they called Soccer in the Circle. The daylong World Cup viewing party drew a multinational crowd of hundreds to D.C.’s Dupont Circle to watch three games, including a U.S.-England match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

“Dupont Circle is right in the heart of D.C.,” DeNu said. “It’s only a few blocks from the White House and it’s surrounded by embassies, so it seemed a natural place to host a World Cup festival.”

So natural that four years later, as the 2014 World Cup is set to kick off in Brazil, DeNu is at it again.

Aaron DeNu, GSAS ’06

He recently secured the support of the German Embassy, which agreed to foot the bill—approximately $30,000, DeNu estimated—to host a one-day World Cup viewing party on June 26, when the U.S. national team will face Germany.

This time, DeNu has far more experience working with local and federal officials to plan free public events in the park.

Following the 2010 World Cup, he founded Dupont Festival, a nonprofit that organizes activities in and around Dupont Circle throughout the year. DeNu is the principal organizer, and there are three other people on the group’s board of directors.

“Since that first World Cup viewing,” he said, “we have hosted more than 40 public projects in the park.”

They’ve organized outdoor film screenings, showing movies on the National Film Registry such as E.T., Casablanca, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. And DeNu has exhibited a flair for promotion.

For a screening of Back to the Future, he rented a DeLorean similar to the one featured in the film, parked it in the park, and attracted passersby by blasting “The Power of Love” and other tunes from the movie on the iconic car’s stereo.

“I’ve had a lot of luck in finding the right mix of pop-cultural activities and tying events in to the calendar,” DeNu said. “On the summer solstice we show a movie. When the fountain is turned on in the spring, we have a fountain day.”

Early this year, DeNu campaigned to get Bill Murray, star of the 1993 filmGroundhog Day, to take part in the Dupont Festival’s annual Groundhog Day celebration. “The D.C. Council even agreed to rename [the holiday]Bill Murray Day if he showed,” DeNu said. Although the actor did not respond, the Huffington Postpublished a piece about DeNu’s effort.

DeNu said the Dupont Festival’s events are about “creative placemaking,” leveraging arts and cultural activities to serve the community and transform the neighborhood around Dupont Circle.

“Our mission is to creatively animate public space,” said DeNu, who has been working closely with the National Park Service, the D.C. Council, the police department, and local businesses.

“We’ve been building trust with folks in town, and they fully understand what we’re trying to do,” he said. “They know that all of the money we raise goes directly to the events.”

The upcoming World Cup viewing party already has the community buzzing.

“Hundreds of people have RSVP’d already,” DeNu said, “so we’re expecting a nice crowd [for the U.S.-Germany match]. We’ll also be showing the Belgium-Korea match that afternoon. We have two large, super-high-definition LED screens that are glare-proof and weather-proof.”

Having the support of the German Embassy is especially satisfying for DeNu, whose paternal great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from Baden, Germany, and settled in Indianapolis.

DeNu grew up in Milford, Ohio, not far from Cincinnati. He was a record-setting striker on the Milford High School soccer team and went on to play for four years at Wilmington College of Ohio, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and history.

In 2004, he continued his interdisciplinary studies at Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, focusing in particular on the effects of technology on human interaction.

“I specifically sought out Fordham,” he said, “for its interdisciplinary master’s degree program.”

DeNu also said his time in New York City inspired his interest in creative placemaking.

“Living in New York City accelerated that for me. Walking around the Rose Hill campus and seeing all the different activities there and in the Bronx and in Manhattan, going to events in Central Park and Bryant Park, that was a real inspiration,” he said.

“Being at Fordham and being able to see all that stuff and see how it works was a degree in itself.”