Today, they’re helping Fordham build its own.

When they learned about the waterfront center that Fordham is planning, “it was something that we felt really strongly that we’d like to be able to help create,” Laura Ekholm said.

They’re doing just that with a major gift toward the project, for reasons that have a lot to do with their children’s experience at Fordham.

Support for Sailing and Other Aquatic Sports

The waterfront center will be built on Eastchester Bay in the Bronx, four miles east of the Rose Hill campus, to serve the varsity women’s rowing team as well as men’s crew, co-ed sailing, and women’s sailing. The first phase, construction of docks, is expected to be completed in time for the fall 2024 season.

Fordham donors and supporters have been moving the project along for years, led by Fordham Trustee Fellow Dennis Ruppel, FCRH ’68, and his wife, Patricia Ann Ruppel, who are making another major gift to the project this year. In October, Fordham Trustee Kim Bepler hosted and underwrote a fundraising dinner for the project at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.

The event raised $1.3 million for the project—with $1 million of that coming from the Ekholms.

‘Something of Great Value’

The Ekholms raised their family on Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka, and their children grew up sailing on it, so when two of them—Anders, FCRH ’17, and Annika, FCRH ’20—went to Fordham, it was no surprise that they signed up for sailing.

They were impressed at the strength of the classroom education their children received, as well as the tight-knit sense of community in the sailing program and its rigors that hone time management and other life skills.

Today, Anders Ekholm is a team lead with TransPerfect, a translation and language services company in New York, and Annika Ekholm is involved with the sailing program full time. In addition to volunteering as a coach, she works for the Fordham Sailing Association, helping to set up a community sailing program in conjunction with the Villa Maria Academy, a Catholic elementary school next door to the waterfront center’s site.

She’s excited to see how the center could support other programs for area youth as well. “Sailing has given me and so many other people in the Fordham sailing sphere so much,” she said, “and anything that we can do to spread that, to give that to the community, will be a great, great thing for all involved.”

Being involved with the sailing program has been “a ton of fun,” Laura Ekholm said. “It’s just a fabulous community.”

She and Paul are investing in the waterfront center not only because of its immediate benefits but also to advance the University generally. “Giving money away is something to do when you find something of great value,” Paul Ekholm said. “For me and Laura, the great value of Fordham was the education they got, and we feel like we should support Fordham beyond sending our kids there.”

Gifts in support of the Fordham waterfront center advance the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more about the campaign and make a gift.

Cicione, a 1987 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH), believes that college is about learning how to think and finding yourself, so he encourages students to apply to schools where education isn’t limited to the classroom. He thinks the ideal place for that experience is Fordham—and for more than 20 years, that’s what he’s told his students.

This year, he’s bringing that philosophy to his fellow alumni through Forever Learning, a monthlong series of programs focused on the intersection of humans and technology.

Created by the Office of Alumni Relations in collaboration with the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA), it kicks off on April 3 with presentations online and in person at the Lincoln Center campus by faculty and alumni at the forefront of tech innovation. Later in the month, alumni will have a chance to sit in on a Fordham class. The series will also feature a tour of Red Hook, Brooklyn, a former industrial neighborhood now home to Pioneer Works, a cultural center led by artists and scientists.

“New York has so much to offer,” Cicione said, “and Fordham is fortunate to have that as one of the ancillary aspects of its education—that by choosing a school like Fordham, you’re choosing a place where your education extends beyond the classroom.”

The Immeasurable Value of Mentorship

A Long Island native, Cicione first learned of Fordham from his own high school English teacher, Ed Desmond, FCRH ‘67, who touted Fordham’s location as a major selling point. Desmond became Cicione’s mentor, offering him advice and leads when, after working in book publishing right out of college, he wanted to pivot to education.

“[He told me] how I could be better prepared to go into education, what I would need to do, where I was deficient, and how I could make that up,” Cicione said.

Desmond and his son even helped Cicione secure his current role at Commack High School, where he’s been mentoring students and schooling them on the merits of a Fordham education for the past two decades. (His own son, Conor, is also a Fordham alumnus; he graduated from FCRH in 2018.)

Some may think that it’s hard to stay fresh and motivated after teaching at the same high school for two decades, and Cicione admits that it can be challenging, but he finds ways to shake things up, he said. And he embodies a piece of advice he gives to students: Once you know what will truly make you happy, “the other things will fall into place—the money, the wanting to wake up every day and go to work: Those things happen only when you feel good about where you’re going and what you’re doing.”

Forever Fordham, Forever Learning

As an alumnus, Fordham parent, and New York resident, Cicione finds it easy to stay connected to the University in ways that are personally meaningful.

He’s been a loyal supporter of the Fordham men’s crew team, where he met many of the people he still calls close friends. He has fond memories of “getting up early in the morning to run down Fordham Road and go to the boathouse,” he said.

For roughly 10 years, he’s served as leader of Fordham’s Alumni Chapter of Long Island. The chapter is a way for alumni to reconnect, he said, but it’s also a way for them to pay it forward by supporting Fordham students. In 1991, the chapter launched the Long Island Scholarship in Memory of John Cifichiello, GABELLI ’68. Funded through contributions from chapter members and through fundraising activities, such as an annual golf outing, the scholarship provides four years of tuition assistance to high school students from Long Island.

Last but not least, Cicione serves as vice chair of the FUAA Advisory Board, through which he has been helping to plan this year’s Forever Learning month. He said he’s looking forward to the mix of in-person and online events, where faculty and alumni will share their research and thoughts on the role of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technologies in education, business, and art—and the larger implications for the human experience.

Cicione sees the Forever Learning initiative as just another example of education not ending with graduation.

“You’re going to get that kind of education that Mark Twain talked about when he said, ‘I never let my schooling get in the way of my education,’” he said. “You’re breaking down boundaries and you’re going beyond the textbook … to extend your curriculum to the things you love.” 

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about the four B’s—books, baseball, beer, and Bruce Springsteen.  When I’m in school, it’s only three B’s and I omit beer. Everything else stems from that.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best bit of advice I ever received came from the book The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. He wrote: “You have to get obsessed with life and stay obsessed with life.” I’ve taken that to mean you have to try new things and don’t let opportunity pass you by.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in NYC is Yankee Stadium. I truly realized this after things eased up regarding COVID-19 protocols in 2021. When I first approached the stadium for the first time since 2019, I could feel myself getting excited like a child on Christmas Day. The limestone facade against the elevated tracks of the 4 train resonates with the vast differences of this great city.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
The book that has left a lasting impression on me is The Catcher in the Rye because it made me want to be a reader. The book that means the most to me is The Things They Carried—I quoted it in my father’s eulogy.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
The Fordham professor who I admire most is Constance Hassett, Ph.D. I still talk about her to my students. I didn’t have great grades with her, but she is brilliant and she helped me realize that what was good enough for high school wasn’t good enough for the next level.

What are you optimistic about?
I am the eternal pessimist. To borrow an idea from one of my professors in my master’s program: The optimist believes that everything is good; the pessimist believes that no matter how good things are, they can always get better. I have used that mantra in my teaching and my life. Get smarter and better—no matter how good you think things are at the moment.

On April 7, the men’s crew team captured the Secretary of the Navy Cup at the prestigious San Diego Crew Classic, held every spring in the city’s Mission Bay, by besting University of California, Santa Barbara, 07:01.166 to 7:06:546 in a head-to-head race.

In a ceremony at Cunniffe House on April 26, the team presented the cup to Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

Both the men’s club, which was formed in 1915 and revived in 1957, and the women’s varsity crew teams have been under the direction of Coach Ted Bonanno for the last 30 years. During his tenure, he has had 10 undefeated crews and 19 national championships—13 at the Dad Vail, three at the ECAC National Invitational Collegiate Regatta, and one each at the Division-I national championships, IRA Championship, and U.S. Rowing Collegiate Championship. The men’s team won the Visitors Cup in 1992 at the Crew Classic, and almost captured the Secretary of the Navy Cup in 1994, narrowly losing in a photo finish to Harvard University. Both the men’s and women’s teams have also won and broke course records at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston.

The teams train on the Eastchester Bay, the Long Island Sound, and the Hutchinson River. They launch from the Harlem Yacht Club, which is on City Island in the Bronx.

The men’s hockey team, which like crew is a club-level sport, also ended its season with a milestone: its first appearance in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s national championship. The championships were held March 21 to 31 in Frisco, Texas. To get there, the team had to best Springfield College and George Mason University at a regional tournament in West Chester, Pennsylvania, earlier that month; they did so with scores of 6-3 and 7-1, respectively. The team won the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference championship for the second year in a row, and presented the trophy to Father McShane on April 26.

Beating George Mason was especially gratifying, said hockey team director of operations Andrew Mola, GABELLI ’86, because Fordham lost to them in the same tournament last year 3-2. Under the direction of Coach Rich Guberti, the team finished the year with a 27-5-2 record.

Although the team won two out of three games in pool play in Texas, and thus did not advance to the semi-finals, it was still a big achievement, said Mola.

“All things considered, this was the first time we have ever gotten this far. We’ve never been to nationals before, and we’ve been around since 1970,” he said.

“This was a huge accomplishment for our program.”

For the 50 team members who have traveled here from Rose Hill, this is the first activity of the day. Six days a week, for more than two hours, the men and women haul out their shells, take to the river, and row.

And row.

And row some more.

Down the river and under the High Bridge, to Yankee Stadium, then up beyond University Heights. They race each other, starting at moderate stroke speed, gradually upping their strokes to build strength and endurance.

“For a college student, being on crew takes a lot of dedication,” said Ted Bonanno, coach of the men’s club sport and women’s varsity crew. “Not only do they row about 10 miles on the river every morning, but almost all of them come to the Lombardi Center in the afternoon after classes and practice on the rowing machines. It’s work.”

Such hard work led the men’s team to a record-breaking win last year in the Collegiate 4 at the internationally acclaimed Head of the Charles in Boston. On Oct. 23 and 24 of this year, the team returns to defend its title and try for another win—this time perhaps in the Collegiate 8 category.

However, Fordham’s crew already has set its own personal best by receiving bids to participate in five events at the Head of the Charles this year: three men’s categories and two women’s categories. It is the most bids a Fordham crew has ever received.

“We’ve never had so many rowers at the Head of the Charles before, and we’re all excited,” said Angelo Labatte, a Fordham College at Rose Hill junior majoring in history and anthropology. “We’re a pretty young team, but almost all of us should get some experience, and hopefully a win.”

Unlike most team sports, where star players are often singled out, being on crew is being part of a well-oiled machine that works not just in unison but also in tandem. Some have called it the ultimate team sport.

“Crew is unique; I don’t know of any other sport like it,” said John Kriss (FCRH ’62), a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees and an enthusiastic supporter of both men’s and women’s crew. Of all his experiences at Fordham, said Kriss, crew is the most memorable.

“Crew was the single biggest influence on my life,” said Kriss, who recently bought new shells for the team. “There are eight people pulling together as a unit. You slide together, you dip the oar in the water together, pull back together. You feel the same pain at the same time and you go into oxygen deficit at the same time. There is no room for slackers.

“If you dedicate yourself to that discipline,” Kriss continued, “by the time you graduate and go out into the world you’ll understand what it means to work as a team.”

The one crew position that stands alone is that of coxswain, defined literally as “boat servant.” The coxswain sits at the rear of the boat calling out the stroke rating and the direction for the rowers, who row with their backs to the front of the boat.

On this morning, Fordham coxswains Abigail Paparo, an FCRH junior majoring in Latin American studies, and John Callahan, a freshman in the Gabelli School of Business, also have to whip up motivation: Coach Bonanno has instructed them to take their crew up to a 32-34 rating (strokes per minute) on the last leg of practice.

“The psychological aspect of leading is tough,” said Callahan, a high school coxswain who was recruited to the team just a week after the start of the semester. “You want to get the rowers to empty it, give it all they’ve got, but you also have to make sure they don’t lose their technique when they tire.”

There is also pressure on coxswains, said Paparo, during a race such as the Charles, where the course winds and turns.

“If you don’t have a good grasp of steering and when to cut that turn, and if you can’t make split-second decisions, you could lose a race,” Paparo said. “It often comes down to seconds and inches.”

Bonanno said he expects “great things” from his team this year in skill-building and in competition.

And regardless of the outcome on October 23 and 24, crew members Michael White and Chris Reich, both FCRH juniors who were part of last year’s Head of the Charles Collegiate 4-winning team, say they will have a lifelong ethic of discipline—thanks to the sport.

“Crew has helped me learn to manage my time, with practice, study and classes,” said White, a double major in mathematics and economics.