Fordham rose to number 32 for study abroad among U.S. doctoral-level institutions, according to this year’s Open Doors report on undergraduate study abroad participation. Approximately 40% of Fordham undergraduate students participate in a study abroad program.

For Joseph Rienti, director of the university’s international and study abroad programs, it’s exciting to see the participation rate begin to recover after the pandemic. Before international travel paused, around 50% of Fordham undergraduates took part in a study abroad experience. 

Global diversity is a longstanding value in Jesuit education, Rienti said, and study abroad programs help fulfill the University’s mission. 

“Study abroad broadens student perspectives and deepens their knowledge. We do that in our classrooms in New York, but there’s no better way to do that than to leave your comfort zone and learn from professors and students in another country,” Rienti said. 

A Study Abroad Option for Every Student

The wide variety of study abroad programs available to Fordham students makes it easier to participate, Rienti said. 

Fordham has major study abroad outposts in London, U.K., and Granada, Spain, and offers access to study abroad programs in over 50 countries on six continents. In the 2024-25 academic year, over 1,000 undergraduate students are studying abroad in 30 different countries.

Students can choose immersive “direct enroll” programs, where they learn alongside locals at esteemed universities across the globe, or “island programs” with classes designed to cater to American study abroad students. The university also offers short-term study abroad opportunities, typically ranging from one to four weeks, and special focus programs that integrate a central theme or academic topic, such as the 14-week theater intensive at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts, or the CNN Academy journalism intensive at University College Dublin. 

Now that federal, state, and University financial aid dollars can be applied to study abroad expenses, participation is more accessible than ever for students of all backgrounds. Students who qualify for financial aid such as a Pell grant, student loan, or tuition remission can use that aid to fund a study abroad experience. For those who do not receive financial aid, there are study abroad-specific scholarships available. 

The Open Doors Report includes data from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and the Institute of International Education.

Through a partnership with Fordham’s London campus, GSS students can study abroad, learning about the differences between social work in the U.S. and the U.K. and visiting historic sites. This past summer, about 30 students participated in the two-week program, but two of them stayed behind for three more months to complete inaugural field internships abroad. 

“I felt like this program was made for me,” said Melanie Hills, 24, a master’s student from Glastonbury, Connecticut, who interned at a London community center and served predominantly immigrant populations. “It’s a multi-service, multigenerational approach—and it’s exactly what social work, in my mind, stands for.” 

A Moving Encounter with an Asylum Seeker

Hills worked at Coin Street, a community center that serves Waterloo and North Southwark residents, where she assessed the needs of local families and connected them with services. She recalled a pregnant woman who had experienced human trafficking in her native country and was seeking asylum in London with her two young daughters. Hills said she was able to connect the mother with a local school for her children, a children’s center that could teach her daughters how to communicate in English, and a midwife who could alleviate her stomach pain, despite some initial language barriers. 

“We couldn’t understand each other because our translator phone wasn’t working, so we just stood there, trying to communicate with each other. Finally, I used Google Translate,” Hills said. “She gave me this big hug afterwards, and I was like, ‘OK, this is why [we]do this.” 

As someone who isn’t native to the area, said Hills, it wasn’t easy to connect Londoners with certain services and understand what rights and entitlements they qualified for. But by the end of her internship, she described herself as “self-sufficient.” 

“I had support from Fordham the whole way through and from Coin Street, but I really worked hard, and I’m proud of myself,” said Hills, who regularly checked in with GSS faculty, deans, and her supervisor while abroad. 

This spring, Hills will graduate with her master’s degree in social work, and plans to work in hospital administration. 

“Being in London taught me how competent and powerful I can be,” she said.  

‘Helping People to Be Their Best Selves’ 

Master’s student Vaughn Rush interned at Oxford House, one of the first settlement houses in the United Kingdom that has evolved into a modern-day community center. Rush said he helped to facilitate multiple events, including a Somali culture festival and a “Black history bike ride.” 

“It felt [like]social work in a community-based sense because … they embedded the community in getting things that the community needed and working with them to help themselves,” he said. 

Rush, a 36 year old from Jamaica, Queens, has worn many hats. He is a veteran who served as a behavioral health specialist and medic in the U.S. Army for seven years and a male drag queen, among other things. After graduating this spring with his master’s degree in social work, he plans to earn his master’s degree in applied theater. He wants to combine his social work and theater skills “to make some mental health magic” in a non-traditional way, ideally for the U.S. Army or the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said. 

What he will take from his London internship experience is his growth in empathy, he said. 

“Listening to the differences in people’s lives and their values … showed the differences between us, but also the things we have in common,” Rush said, “and that helps with us being one big world … and helping people to be their best selves.” 

Watch the video below and learn more about the GSS program abroad. 

A grad student develops a health record system for an orphanage in Africa

From her home in London, Mishal Ahmed developed an electronic health record system for an orphanage in Benin. She did it as her capstone project for Fordham’s new online master’s degree program in applied health informatics, which teaches students to create cost-effective information systems for hospitals and health care providers.

“Rather than just reading and learning from theory, I want to practice it,” says Ahmed, who graduated from Fordham in May and is continuing to work with Humanity First, the international relief organization that put her in touch with the orphanage.

“Whenever a child enters the orphanage or is adopted, they need to fill out forms and submit them to the government,” Ahmed explains. “The orphanage wanted to make those forms electronic so they’re more safe, secure, and easily shareable.”

Ahmed says the Fordham program helped her develop her skills in information technology, artificial intelligence, and programming. And although she never had a permanent physical campus, she participated in two Fordham-hosted residential workshops at Oxford University’s St. Edmund Hall, where she met some of her classmates and other professionals.

With her new degree, she’s looking forward to continuing to “create something that will help people in the real world.”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program supports undergraduates with a strong academic record and community impact who have been historically underrepresented in study abroad programs. Nearly half of all Gilman Scholars are first-generation college students; about 70% identify as racial or ethnic minority students. The Gilman Scholarship is a key program of the U.S. Department of State, intended to increase the diversity, equity, and inclusion of U.S. foreign policy.

Thirty-two Fordham students have been awarded the scholarship over the past decade, with this year being the highest number yet.

Combating ‘Japanglish’

Among this year’s Gilman Scholars is Karen Watanabe, a rising senior at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, who earned a scholarship this January and is studying at Sophia University in Tokyo from March to August. 

“I wanted to rekindle my relationship with my culture,” said Watanabe, a Japanese American who grew up in Sunnyside, Queens. “Over the years, my Japanese has become more like Japanglish. I took more Japanese classes at Fordham and realized that my Japanese has improved, but it can become even better.”

Watanabe, a political science major and peace and justice studies minor, has taken courses in Japan that are difficult to find back home, including Japanese government and politics and modern Japanese history. “As a political science major, I think it’s important to learn about different systems of government,” said Watanabe, who aspires to be a diplomat or translator. 

While living in a dorm in Tokyo, she has visited the biggest shrine in the city, participated in popular festivals like Kanda Matsuri, and spent time with her family members who live in Japan.  

Watanabe—a first-generation college student and member of the Higher Education Opportunity Program at Fordham—said she is thankful to Fordham for helping her achieve a dream she’s had since high school: to study abroad. 

An ‘Amazing Opportunity’

Devin Moreno, an incoming junior at the Gabelli School of Business, will study at Fordham London next spring. Moreno, an applied accounting and finance double major, said Fordham’s London campus had all the classes he wanted to take—and a bonus backdrop. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity, especially for lower-income students. …  [T]he Gilman Scholarship makes it a little less expensive and attainable for me and my mom,” said Moreno, the son of a single mother in the Bronx who wants to someday start his own accounting firm, primarily to help low-income families with their finances. “I’m so thankful that I’m at a school where I can study while traveling around the world.” 

In addition to the Gilman scholarship, there are new changes in study abroad financing at Fordham, expanding access to study abroad. 

Watanabe and Moreno are joined by five other Fordham students in receiving a Gilman Scholarship during the 2022-2023 academic school year:

• Rumsha Aqil, FCRH ’25, an economics major from New Jersey, will study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom in Spring 2024.
• Jillian Klostermann, FCRH ’25, an international studies major from Massachusetts, will study at Freie Universitat in Berlin, Germany, in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024.
• Emily Lai, FCLC ’23, a political science major from New York, is studying at Fordham London in Spring 2023.
• Sabrin Sultana, FCLC ’24, an economics major from New York, will study at the American University in Dubai in Fall 2023. 
• Hannah Yang, GABELLI ’25, an applied accounting and finance major from New York, will study at Fordham London in Spring 2024. 

 

The celebration featured several events throughout the day, including a sustainability quiz and an herb and tomato planting on the rooftop terrace. Invited guest speaker Jessica Sweidan, founder and trustee of Synchronicity Earth, a UK-registered charity focusing on global environmental conservation, gave a talk for those in attendance. Attendees were able to donate unwanted clothes and other household items for reuse and recycling. Vegetarian and vegan lunches were served using ingredients that had traveled the lowest amount of food miles possible.

]]> 172451 https://now.fordham.edu/arts-and-culture/fordham-london-professor-teaches-shakespeare-with-a-modern-twist/ Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:51:08 +0000 https://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=167011

Panjwani was born in India and raised in Dubai and Kuwait. At 18 years old, she moved to the United Kingdom, where she became a British citizen. She is now a Shakespeare expert who has contributed her research to journals and film festivals and has been invited to deliver talks at prestigious institutions, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Oxford. She is also host and creator of the podcast Women and Shakespeare and author of the book Podcasts and Feminist Shakespeare Pedagogy (Cambridge University Press, 2022), both of which include work from Fordham students. She is currently working on a new introduction for the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. 

For the past eight years, Panjwani has served as an adjunct faculty professor at Fordham London. In addition to teaching a Shakespeare course there, Panjwani teaches at Boston University and New York University. 

In a Q&A with Fordham News, Panjwani explained why Shakespeare’s work is important to the average person and how she involves Fordham students in her scholarly work. 

How did you become interested in Shakespeare? 

I grew up watching Bollywood adaptations of Shakespeare. I also had a fantastic teacher—a fellow woman of color, Dr. Amina Alyal, who made me feel like people like me could own Shakespeare. 

Why is Shakespeare important to the average person? What can we learn from him? 

When most people think of him, they imagine an old, balding, middle-aged, historical, costumed guy on a pedestal who is not relevant to their lives. This is what some of my students imagine before they come to my class. But that is not how we teach Shakespeare here. In London especially, there are multiple histories of Shakespeare. You of course have the Globe, a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, which has been putting on plays since 1977. You have the British Asian company, Tara Arts, which has been doing Shakespeare since before then. There is also a Black theater company called Talawa Theatre, which has been doing Shakespeare since 1991, when they put on Antony and Cleopatra. All of these intersecting histories are important to note. I think students also realize how diverse people’s histories intersect with Shakespeare when they see a woman of color in London teaching them Shakespeare. 

But apart from these several legacies, I also think that Shakespeare is important for the average person because of the conversations that his work enables. A couple of weeks ago, my class went to see an amazing queer adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Shakespeare and Race Festival is opening at the Globe very soon. And our students want to have these conversations: How is Shakespeare relevant to our lives? So we talk about how he is making an appearance in social justice issues, in agency, in issues about gender that are happening today. My focus is always on what Shakespeare can do for us, what he has done for us, and how we can shape Shakespeare to talk about what is important for us today.

What is your favorite Shakespeare play? 

That is such a difficult question for me because there are many favorites, depending on my mood. My current favorite is A Midsummer Night’s Dream because it is overlooked quite a lot. People think it’s a silly play with fairies, but there are actually deeply embedded issues of consent to be explored there, as well as queerness.

In my Shakespeare course, the plays l teach vary according to what is being performed around London. This semester, we studied A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Hamlet. We also saw a queer production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a production of The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe, and engaged with a Bollywood movie of Romeo and Juliet in the seminar.

What do you love about Fordham London?  

We have a great community here, including Vanessa Beever, senior director of Fordham London; Mary Bly, chair of Fordham’s English department; our great support staff; and colleagues who make time for each other, despite being adjuncts.

Mary has been a part of this community for a long time, even though she is based in New York. She herself visited our campus to teach the Shakespeare course. Although this was around 8 years ago, she has a great grasp on what Fordham London students need. She has given me feedback on the course and assignment design from time to time. She is also a guest speaker on my podcast Women and Shakespeare.

I have especially found great leadership and collaborative support from Mary and Vanessa. It’s great to see women in these leadership roles because women are often not included in the rooms where decisions about their future are made. It’s a breath of fresh air for my students to see them in these positions, and it gives me hope to be working in an institution that respects women. 

You create podcasts about Shakespeare with your students. How does that work? 

My podcast Women and Shakespeare invites experts, local playwrights, academics, novelists, and actresses—the culture makers of the U.K.—to talk about how Shakespeare is used to amplify the voices of women today and how women are redefining him and his work.

One of my guests, Kathryn Pogson, talked about issues of consent in Richard III and how these are relevant today. Another guest, Doña Croll, told us how she imagined Cleopatra as a sharp political operator as opposed to just sexy and sultry and how the treatment of Cleopatra by the Romans can be compared to the way in which the British press treated Meghan Markle. So they provide nuanced perspectives not only on women characters, but also on how Shakespeare’s plays are pertinent to issues today.

On my podcast, students have a chance to be researchers, interviewers, or producers. They also receive credit on the podcast. I think it’s a very meaningful way for the students to engage with local culture makers. I firmly believe that to be a global citizen, you have to learn how to be a local elsewhere, and this helps them to not only meet local culture makers and learn from them, but also to co-create a resource that is useful for themselves and their communities. I also think this is a great way of decolonizing education because you’re not going somewhere with just the aim of what you can take from them, but also the aim of what you can give back to your academic and social communities. 

What do you hope your students take away from your course? 

Anyone can harness Shakespeare’s cultural power and bring it back to their communities. Shakespeare need not be inaccessible—his work should be made to work for everyone.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

“Fordham London has an amazing community,” said Tohumcu, who first arrived at the campus as an adjunct faculty member in 2016. “I’m excited to develop a new program that will not only enrich our students’ experience with Fordham’s curriculum, but also their experience in an international city like London.”

A Sustainability Expert with Training From Al Gore

Tohumcu was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. At age 18, she moved to the U.S., where she earned two degrees from George Washington University—a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and a master’s degree in finance—as well as a master’s degree in management and systems from New York University. In addition, she served as a business analyst for Merrill Lynch, where she worked in private and corporate banking, and as a consultant in the World Bank’s treasury department. In 2009, she joined Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, an organization that educates the next generation of climate change activists, where she received training from Gore himself on how to raise awareness about climate change.

She went on to found and co-found several companies related to her expertise, most notably Yesilist, an award-winning digital content marketing website that helps Turkish businesses build sustainable brands.  

“Sustainability marketing has become extremely important over the last few years. I think consumers are becoming more conscious about the way their products are made, in terms of their impact on the environment and human labor, and businesses need to be part of the solution as well,” said Tohumcu. “They need to create products that have little to no negative impact on society and the environment, and the rest of us need to invest in businesses that serve both society and the planet.” 

Giving Students More Exposure to London’s Business World

Tohumcu moved to London in 2012. Four years later, Fordham recruited her to teach marketing at the London campus. Tohumcu added her own twist to the course, which is now called Global Sustainability Marketing. In addition, she has taught electives related to strategy and marketing consulting, where she tries to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. 

“Even if my students don’t directly work in sustainability, I want them to understand how businesses can help to solve problems while still making a profit,” said Tohumcu, who has taught hundreds of students that now work in marketing, financial services, and other fields. 

Tohumcu will continue to teach this academic year, but her focus will be on her new role as head of experiential learning at Fordham London. She said her goal is to organize more field trips and hands-on experiences where students can find creative solutions to real world business problems by collaborating with U.K. companies in technology, financial services, and other sectors. She also plans on reinventing a guest speaker series where students previously learned from experts in the U.K.’s business community through an online format. The speaker series will transition to an in-person “brown bag lunch” setting as early as mid-November, she said. 

“We learn best through experience,” said Tohumcu. “Classroom learning is important, but we want to enrich their education with more exposure to London’s business world.”

What makes Fordham London unique, said Tohumu, is its community. 

“I’ve been here for the past six years, and we have excellent faculty and administrators here who have been resilient throughout the pandemic and supportive of our staff and students. Our new building gives us the opportunity to showcase Fordham to our local community,” said Tohumcu, “but we want London’s business world to get to know us better.” 

“We are so delighted to have a new president with such deep and interesting connections within the U.K. and a commitment to continue to develop Fordham’s international impact,” said Fordham London’s senior director, Vanessa Beever, LAW ’94, a University alumna herself. “It’s fantastic to have a fellow female lawyer, mother, and dog owner as our president.” 

Fordham London opened in 2018. After nearly a decade of borrowing a building from another institution in London, the University signed a long-term lease for a space in the center of the city that it could call its own. The 17,000-square-foot facility has six floors that comprise a lounge, small library, classrooms, and a rooftop terrace that overlooks the trendy Clerkenwell neighborhood. Students from New York can swipe into the London campus with their original ID card. Inside the building, they take business and liberal arts courses that have taken them across the city—to British art museums, theaters, and even fashion shows. 

At a presidential alumni reception that also included current students and several Fordham board members and administrators, Tetlow said she’s been hard at work building on the many advantages Fordham offers its students—both in New York and in London.

“In this work of leading Fordham, I get to build on incredible strengths, on our location in the other capital of the world, in New York, and on the chance we have—with our amazing strengths in the humanities, in law, in business, and so much of what we do—to matter to the world, to model for our students what that looks like, to give them opportunities that come from being in New York and also in London,” she said. “To show them the kinds of jobs they can get, the kind of impact they can have on the world, and how they can stretch their imagination about what that looks like.”

Tetlow’s Longtime Ties to London 

Tetlow herself is no stranger to London and the United Kingdom. She is a longtime member of the British-American Project, an organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding among young leaders. Through this group, she made many friends in London and met her husband, Gordon Stewart, who is originally from the United Kingdom. She has a daughter who has American/British dual citizenship; a stepson who lives in Scotland; and a home in Fife, Scotland, with Stewart. 

When she first began visiting the United Kingdom, she was surprised by the similarities and nuanced differences between American and British culture, she said. Now, the country—and Fordham’s London campus—feel like home. 

“I am proudly bilingual. I drink a cuppa. I take out the rubbish. I feel chuffed from all this praise,” she said at the presidential alumni reception. “And I can, if I’ve had a couple of pints, even understand Geordie. That’s how local I feel.”

Connecting with the Catholic Church Abroad

Tetlow’s first trip to London as president of Fordham began with a visit to Westminster Abbey, a historic church that has witnessed coronations and burials for generations of British rulers. As the sun set below the London skyline, Tetlow sat in the same space where recently deceased monarch Queen Elizabeth II had once walked, and observed an evensong performance with colleagues from New York. 

On Oct. 25, her first full day in London, she attended a morning Mass at Farm Street Church, which has served as the Jesuits’ flagship church in London for nearly two centuries. She was introduced to Michael Holman, S.J., a prior Jesuit provincial of the United Kingdom, who gave her a tour of the sacred space and taught her about the history of London’s Jesuits. (Father Holman has a connection to Fordham, too. In 1989, he earned his master’s in education and administration from the Graduate School of Education and lived at the Rose Hill campus with the Jesuits for several years.) 

Meeting Fordham London’s Staff

In the afternoon, Tetlow visited Fordham’s London campus for the first time. Following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., who last visited Fordham London in 2021, she toured the facilities and met its staff.  

Seated at a table with staff, Tetlow inquired about Fordham London. What are the academic programs and curriculum like? Where do the students live? And what are the students themselves like?  

Every year, there are about 500 students at Fordham London, she learned, most of whom are upperclassmen from the Gabelli of Business and liberal arts students. The majority are Americans from Fordham’s New York campuses, and they tend to come to Fordham London for a single semester. Students from other American universities studying abroad can also study at Fordham London. Through connections with study abroad housing partners, students are able to live in local apartments that offer a glimpse of post-graduate living. They commute to campus by taking the Tube, riding a red double-decker bus, or simply using their own two feet. 

Through partnerships with local universities, students are able to take one or two courses outside the campus, at the City University of London and other schools. But the bulk of their education takes place at Fordham. Through their faculty and coursework, liberal arts students have been able to perform in the iconic Tower of London and view versions of Shakespeare’s plays that appeal to a modern audience. Through school-sponsored trips, students from all disciplines travel across the United Kingdom to famous sites like Stonehenge. (They also use their free time to explore the whole European continent, including Paris, which is no more than three hours away by train.) And just outside the Fordham London campus is Leather Lane, a bustling food market that stretches across several streets and boasts a wide selection of cuisines, from Persian kebabs to Japanese hibachi to Yorkshire burritos—pudding wraps with sage stuffing, spinach, roast potatoes, and gravy.  

Armando Nuñez Jr., chair-elect of Fordham’s Board of Trustees, attended the meeting with Tetlow and Fordham London staff. 

“It’s so wonderful to be here in person with our new president and to be engaged in this conversation,” said Nuñez. “The University has a great opportunity here to expand its global footprint in a smart and strategic way.” 

After the meeting, Tetlow hosted a reception for the British-American Project at Fordham London. The next day, she welcomed more than 100 members of the Fordham family at the presidential alumni reception held in the Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe. And in private meetings paired with food and wine throughout her trip, she became acquainted with alumni who now call London home. 

William J. Loschert, GABELLI ’61, is a trustee fellow who grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in London.

“Fordham London is a great hub for students,” Loschert said. “London has a lot more traditional history than New York. We also have a different form of government, which right now is kind of a mess with three prime ministers in two months, but it’s a different culture, and I think it’s good that students can get out of New York and America and see how the rest of the world lives.”

On Thursday—Tetlow’s final day in London—she met with the Fordham London Advisory Board and other senior members of the University’s administration to brainstorm ways to improve the study abroad experience for students; she also met Fordham London’s new head of experiential learning. At an evening reception held on campus, she was introduced to Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the apostolic nuncio to Great Britain. 

A Luncheon with the ‘Future Generation of Fordham Leaders’

Finally, she ate lunch with visiting Gabelli School of Business students in Fordham London’s ground floor lounge. The students, who study in the Professional MBA Program, had flown to London as part of their course called The Tale of Two (Global) Cities. For one week, they studied the differences between American and British businesses through lectures, walking tours, and site visits at places like Goldman Sachs, Mercer, and TrueLayer. 

In attendance at the luncheon was Andrea Mennillo, Ph.D., chair of Fordham London’s Advisory Board, who thanked the business students for coming to the London campus. 

“At this table are my fellow members of the board,” he said, gesturing to his colleagues in the room. “We are available to help—to advise, to consult—because you are the future generation of Fordham leaders.” 

The students introduced themselves to Tetlow and the senior members of Fordham’s administration. Most of the students are in their final year in the MBA program and already hold jobs at prestigious companies, including Warner Bros, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and JPMorgan Chase. They work in a variety of industries, including advertising, fashion, law, cybersecurity, health care, media, investment relations, and private equity.

Tetlow told the students she was glad their business education at Fordham could include this international perspective. 

“This is an amazing city, and I bet a lot of you have gotten a taste of it and want to come back,” Tetlow said to the students. “So I’m glad, especially to those of you who are here just for a week, that you’re digging in, really listening hard, asking good questions, and learning in ways that will change your thinking forever.” 

“We need to make our students’ education truly global,” Tetlow said to the board members. “They need to understand how to function in a global economy, develop cultural competences, and think beyond the neighborhood they grew up in.” 

Tetlow attended the Oct. 27 meeting of the Fordham London Advisory Board, which also welcomed Armando Nuñez Jr., chair-elect of Fordham’s Board of Trustees; Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs; Ellen Fahey-Smith, Ed.D., associate vice president in the Office of the Provost; Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill; Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D., interim dean of the Gabelli School of Business; Anthony Davidson, Ph.D., dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies; Roger Milici Jr., vice president for development and university relations; Michael Griffin, associate vice president for alumni relations; and Joseph Rienti, director of international and study abroad programs. The group’s last board meeting took place this past summer at the London campus, before Tetlow stepped into office. 

A President with a Global Mission

Fordham’s newly inaugurated president formally introduced herself to the London Advisory Board as someone who had been raised to appreciate the beauty of global travel. She said her family spent what little money they had on exploring the world. Her mother is a polyglot who can speak 10 languages, while her uncle Joseph Tetlow, S.J., has visited every Jesuit community in the world. Both family members showed her how to see the world through a different lens. 

Tetlow said that Fordham has a global mission, too. It’s important to not only continue to draw international students to Fordham, but also to give our students a global education that helps them understand how to think beyond their hometown, said Tetlow, who previously served as associate provost for international affairs at Tulane University. 

Nuñez, who was a senior executive in the global media industry for more than two decades, echoed Tetlow’s thoughts. Expanding Fordham’s global footprint is a must, he said, adding that the University needs to utilize its “incredible asset” in London to a greater degree and expand its presence in the United Kingdom. 

Enhancing the Fordham London Student Experience

In a nearly three-hour meeting led by Andrea Mennillo, Ph.D, chair of the Fordham London Advisory Board, the team of administrators explored ways to give Fordham London students a richer experience abroad, enhance Fordham’s reputation as a global brand, and develop new programs that further Fordham’s Jesuit mission and global vision.

Rienti noted that student enrollment at the London campus is currently high. During the coronavirus pandemic, all study abroad programs were suspended for about a year and a half, but enrollment at Fordham London has recovered, he said. (In the 2019 academic year, there was a total of 492 students. This academic year, there are 468 students.) 

Beever reported that Fordham London will welcome John J. Cecero, S.J., vice president for mission integration and ministry, and Julie Gafney, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning, this November. Father Cecero and Gafney will seek out connections and collaborations that further Fordham’s mission and develop community engagement opportunities for students to help them learn and grow outside the formal curriculum.

Aksoy and Mast co-presented a PowerPoint presentation with potential ideas for strengthening the undergraduate study abroad experience. They suggested developing and piloting an anchor course to support students’ transition to London, including a reflective component in which students articulate goals and expectations. They are also exploring restarting and restructuring the internship program in London to further deepen the immersive study abroad experience. Aksoy, Mast, and Davidson noted successful collaborations with other institutions and described ways to build and strengthen University-wide global partnerships with other institutions of higher education as well as corporations. Aksoy and Davidson spoke of potential opportunities to develop innovative executive education programs in a range of formats, combining research and real-world experience. Davidson noted a unique advantage in leveraging Fordham’s international relationships and providing students with the opportunity to take courses in multiple geographical locations as well as online.

Recommendations for Business and STEM Students

Aksoy offered some specific recommendations for business students. She suggested a new sophomore London cohort who can participate in a real-world consulting experience where students work together to solve business challenges facing companies in London. In addition, she mentioned restarting and expanding the London Speaker Series, Business Perspectives From Europe, which is currently being worked on by the new head of experiential learning in London, Ergem Şenyuva Tohumcu.

Mast, a mathematician, suggested building more research opportunities for STEM students studying abroad. There are few STEM students who study abroad due to the rigorous nature of their studies, said Mast, but there are opportunities to partner with institutions in the United Kingdom.

More research is needed to understand the best way forward, said the administrators, but they are excited for the future of Fordham London.

“I am feeling excited and fulfilled,” said Mennillo, “because we are here to support students on their path toward their professional life.”

“I have such deep roots here, and I’m thrilled that we have a London campus,” said Tetlow, who has familial and professional connections in the U.K. “I’m so excited to dream even bigger about what we can do.”

The Oct. 26 event was part of a series of presidential welcome receptions scheduled for this academic year. Over the past few months, Tetlow has connected with members of the Fordham family in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. She is planning on visiting at least 10 more cities, including New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Miami.   

The reception was held at the Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe. It was attended by about 120 guests who traveled from the United Kingdom and other countries to attend. In total, about 10,000 Fordham alumni live abroad. 

From the Shard’s 34th-floor Sky Lounge, guests wined and dined while taking in panoramic views of the River Thames and iconic London landmarks such as Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

The reception began with a moment of silence for the late Scott Simpson, LAW ’82, a member of the Fordham London Advisory Board and the father of two Fordham graduates, who died last spring. Ginger F. Zaimis, a current board member, recited her translated excerpt from Meditations, a famous text by Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Later, Tetlow presented a token of appreciation to the evening’s host, William Loschert, GABELLI ’61, a trustee fellow who played a significant role in bringing Fordham London to life. (In 2021, he was also knighted by the Vatican.) 

Life Abroad in the ‘Greatest City in the World’

Before Tetlow formally addressed the guests, three current students offered her a warm welcome and reflected on their time at Fordham London. 

Kyla McCallum, a senior at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, introduced herself as a transfer student from the University of Michigan. She said that when she decided to enroll at Fordham, she heard stories from students at other universities who had experienced tough transfers. For her, it was the opposite. Upon her acceptance, she learned that she would need to complete the rest of her education on Fordham’s campus—and luckily, the University has one in the heart of  London. 

“In addition to receiving a Jesuit liberal arts education, I also get a global experience—something I barely dared to hope for after transferring amid the COVID pandemic,” said McCallum, who studies new media and digital design.

At Fordham London, she is learning about the business of fashion, Christianity, and Shakespeare. The latter course offers trips such as an outing to Shakespeare’s Globe, where McCallum and her classmates saw The Tempest and another Shakespeare play that features a 21st-century twist.  

“What I didn’t anticipate from my Shakespeare class was for our professor to take us to a queer retelling of A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” she said. “Fordham professors are remarkably dedicated to inclusion of diverse identities in their curriculum.” 

In London, she said, she has found a new culture and a future abroad. In fact, she’s planning to apply to master’s programs at schools in the United Kingdom after she graduates. 

A Gabelli Education in London: One of the ‘Financial Capitals of the World’ 

Matthew O’Sullivan, a junior at the Gabelli School of Business, has lived in London for only about two months, but said the city now feels like home. He’s even gotten used to vehicles driving on the left side of the road.

“I’ve gotten very comfortable with being here, even down to simply crossing the street—looking right, and then left,” said O’Sullivan, a business administration student from Garden City, New York.

O’Sullivan said that being able to study in both New York and London is especially helpful for him, since the two cities are among the world’s financial capitals. Sometimes, though, the best education comes from experiencing life in London—from trying beans on toast to successfully traversing the city in the Tube, he said. 

“During my time here, I’ve witnessed two monarchs, almost three prime ministers, so who knows—I could be prime minister by the end of the semester,” O’Sullivan joked. “But studying abroad here in London has … certainly has opened up a new chapter in my life, just as we’re opening a new chapter in the history of Fordham by welcoming President Tetlow to our amazing community.” 

Fordham London: ‘A Judgment-Free’ Home 

The final student speaker, Bradley Moyer, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, delivered a poignant speech about the role that the University has played in his life. Moyer said that he started college during a difficult time in his personal life, and the pandemic worsened his situation. The Fordham community offered him the support that he needed, he said. 

“Fordham offered me support with excellent professors and new people that I could rely on,” said Moyer, a New Jersey native who is majoring in communication and culture. “The staff at Fordham … helped me in the summer to get through missed work and had faith in me when I felt like I had none.” 

Moyer—who participated in Fordham’s second drag show—said Fordham’s New York and London programs both offer “judgment-free zones that allow everyone to be who they are.” 

‘I’m So Glad to Be Among You’ 

Tetlow concluded the evening with some reflections on her own connections to the United Kingdom. 

In her late 20s, she joined the British-American Project, an organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding among young leaders. Through the group, she made many friends in London and met her future husband, Gordon Stewart, who was living in Glasgow at the time. Today, she has a daughter, Lucy, who has American/British dual citizenship; a stepson who lives in Scotland; and a home in Fife, Scotland, with their family. 

“I am proudly bilingual. I drink a cuppa. I take out the rubbish. I feel chuffed from all this praise,” she said, to laughter. “And I can, if I’ve had a couple of pints, even understand Geordie. That’s how local I feel.”

Tetlow asked the guests to help her to build on the strengths that already exist at Fordham’s London campus by sharing potential student internships, guest speakers, and resources with Vanessa Beever, senior director of Fordham London. 

“Thank you for demonstrating what Fordham means, what our students become, to the parents who’ve entrusted us with your children, to the friends who’ve helped us in so many ways,” Tetlow said. “We love you all—and I’m so glad to be among you.”

View all the photos from the event here. 

“It was nerve-wracking to move to another country that was eight hours away and not know anyone,” said Miller, who studied in London in 2018 and now works as a senior researcher at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a policy think tank. “It was a challenge, but a rewarding one.” 

Miller was born in Maryland and raised in New Jersey. She first attended Syracuse University, but later transferred to Fordham College at Rose Hill when she realized the latter was a better fit. She said she was drawn to the Rose Hill campus, which resembled the classic ivy-covered colleges she had seen growing up. The campus was also in New York City—her favorite city at the time. That initial attraction grew deeper when she visited her cousin Gabrielle Mascio, GABELLI ’18, at Rose Hill.

“When I was a senior in high school, she was the coolest thing: a college freshman. I visited her on campus and got to really experience Fordham,” said Miller. “Initially, I didn’t consider it because I wanted to be far away from home, and Fordham wasn’t within the radius that I had in mind. But I think you end up where you’re meant to be.”

Miller once wanted to become the first woman president of the United States. She tested that ambition in high school, where she served as student council president. But as she grew older, she realized she was less interested in the world of politics and more interested in shaping policies. 

“The part of me that wanted to be president wanted to do something like that because I wanted to feel like I was making a difference. But you can still do that with writing. You can sit down, think about big issues, and work out solutions for the government or private companies,” said Miller, who is getting a taste of that at the Tony Blair Institute, where staffers write about politics in the U.K. and develop recommendations for British policymakers. 

Developing a New Perspective at Fordham London

Part of what prepared her for her job was her last semester at Fordham, which she spent at the University’s London campus. She lived in a first-floor flat in Maida Vale, a neighborhood in north London that reminded her of the brownstone neighborhoods in Manhattan. On a typical school day, she would ride the bus from her apartment to Fordham London—a six-story building that opened in 2018 and features modern classrooms, a spacious student lounge, and a rooftop terrace. Several days a week, she commuted to her marketing internship at the Aid & International Development Forum, an organization that spreads awareness about key humanitarian issues. After class, she frequented London bars and restaurants with her new friends. Like many of her classmates, she also traveled to other parts of Europe on weekends, including France, Sweden, and Scotland, where she found a world beyond her home in New Jersey. 

“My study abroad experience in London showed me that the world is so much bigger than my life at home in New Jersey and in the U.S.,” said Miller, who also studied abroad in Granada, Spain, for one semester. “New York is a multicultural city, and you see just as many types of people in London as you do in New York. But being in a different country, meeting people who have never been to the U.S., and learning about politics outside of the U.S. has really opened my eyes to different perspectives and ways of thinking.” 

Navigating A New Job Abroad During the Pandemic

Miller loved her life in London so much that after she graduated with her degree in communication and media studies from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2019, she headed back across the pond to the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she earned her master’s degree in international social and public policy. A few months later, she began her first full-time job at the Tony Blair Institute. 

She started working during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said she made the most out of an unusual situation. 

“Our team published a lot of papers about mass testing and being prepared for the vaccine rollout. I think the government actually took into account a lot of our policy recommendations, so that was really exciting,” said Miller, who was promoted to senior researcher at TBI after a year and a half of employment. “I love being part of an organization whose mission is to make positive change. You may not be the person authoring a paper or speaking to the media about it, but all our work is going toward a common goal: providing policy solutions to governments in challenging times.”

‘Oh My Gosh, You’re British Now!’

It’s been four years since Miller first studied abroad in London, and she says life looks different in the U.K. 

“Now when I go home, it’s not the same,” she said. “Cars are on a different side of the road. The culture between the U.S. and the U.K. is also different. No Thanksgiving in London, but there’s a Sunday roast and different holidays like Guy Fawkes Day in November.”

If Miller lives in London for two and a half more years, she can become a permanent resident. At this rate, she says, it seems like that will become a reality. Even her family says that her accent is starting to sound like a native Londoner’s. 

“I don’t see it, but my family makes fun of me. Sometimes I’ll say bins instead of garbage, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re British now!’” she said, laughing.