We asked grads to welcome the Class of 2024 with a special gift: their advice and life lessons. And they eagerly answered the call.

Always Persist  

Persist even in the face of iron-clad adversity. We get one chance to do this thing called life, so don’t dream too small, and never give up!

Benedetto Youssef, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Class of 2012

Balance Your Ambition and Happiness

Don’t ever let your hunger for success ruin your happiness.

Michael Bennis, Gabelli School of Business, Classes of 2017 and 2018

Turn the Page

Take it all in—day by day, week by week, month by month. You will feel weird at first. It’s inevitable. A chapter closing. But your new chapter will bring so many blessings, so many new lessons—and some old lessons and people that you will hold on to. Whether you’re staying in NYC, in your hometown, or venturing out where you know no one, you’ll be great and amazing at everything you do. Congratulations, and here’s to many new memories for you!

Aminata Konateh, Fordham College at Rose Hill, Class of 2023

Embrace Change, But Stay True to Yourself

Don’t be afraid to change direction. Remember why you started this whole journey.

Jayne (Zambito) Lee, Graduate School of Education, Class of 1977

Build Strong Relationships

Cultivate meaningful connections with friends, family, mentors, and colleagues. These relationships will support you through both the good times and the challenges life throws your way.

Lisa Manfredi, Gabelli School of Business, Class of 1991  

Lift Up Those Around You

Hold on tight to one another and lift up those around you, for the best is yet to come. I was lucky enough to find a group of women who were supportive, kindhearted, and passionate. If you had asked us in March 2022 where we would be today, we would have responded, “Together, of course.” But we accepted life-changing opportunities, erupting with excitement for one another: I accepted a job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, another accepted a position with Amazon in Seattle, one with the Los Angeles Lakers in LA, another began her career in luxury real estate in San Diego, one went to Boston to work in marketing, and one stayed in the Big Apple. Although we are still living coast to coast, we make time for each other, whether it is in our group chat, at Homecoming, or on our yearly weekend trip. I am so grateful to Fordham for allowing our paths to cross.

Maggie Flahive, Fordham College at Rose Hill, Class of 2022

Keep Reading, Keep Learning

Always be reading a well-written book—even if it’s just a few pages a day. I’m an attorney, and that habit always sharpens my mind and is enjoyable. In the course of a year, it’s amazing how many books you’ll read!

David G. O’Brien, Fordham College at Rose Hill, Class of 1969; School of Law, Class of 1975

Submissions have been edited for length and clarity. Many thanks to all the alumni who shared their advice and graduation day photos.

But it’s not the end of their Fordham experience.

When they graduate, they officially join the Fordham University Alumni Association—a global network of more than 200,000 people. Through events in and beyond New York City, career support resources, affinity groups, and regional chapters, these new alumni will never be too far from Fordham friends and potential mentors.

To help welcome them to the alumni community, we invited some Fordham grads to share a bit of personal wisdom, advice, and encouragement with their fellow Rams.

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Off the Beaten Path

Everyone’s timelines look extremely different, so always make the best possible choice for you in your current moment, and you can never go wrong.

Don’t be afraid to go off the beaten path. Post-grad and your early 20s aren’t for figuring things out right away; they’re for taking risks and learning more about yourself every day.

—Alexa Pipia
Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Class of 2014

Export Your Gifts

May you always know how good it feels to open doors for others, through your wisdom born of life experiences—by being a role model, a mentor, a friend. May you continue to export your gifts, sharing with others that all that is really important in life is grace, passion, and an elegance of spirit, whether you’re raising a family, building a career, playing a game, losing or winning, or reaching out your hand to help a friend.

—Jacqueline Fenley
Thomas More College, Class of 1968

Try Something New

I had followed my mother’s career path and always thought that I would work in magazines—ever since I was little. I ended up working in public relations at an educational consultancy. It’s an industry that I honestly had never even considered while I was in school, but I absolutely love the work that I do. Always be open to trying something new; chances are that you may love it!

And even if you weren’t as engaged with Fordham as you would have liked while you were a student, it is never too late to get involved. I regretted not joining more clubs and making more connections, but I decided to get involved with the Fordham Young Alumni Committee in the fall of 2018 and have since made up for lost time!

—Megan Zuckerman
Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Class of 2016

Keep Your Relationships Strong

Reach out to friends OFTEN! Especially if they move away. Even if it’s a quick “How’ve you been” or “Thought of you” text, that goes a long way in keeping your relationships made at Fordham strong.

—Michael Bennis
Gabelli School of Business, Classes of 2017 and 2018

Be Open to New Experiences

You don’t have to have your entire life planned out right now (or ever!)—be open to new experiences and opportunities because you never know where they will lead.

—Christine Schwall-Pecci
Fordham College at Rose Hill, Class of 2009

Cultivate Humility and Pride

Humility and pride should not be seen as opposites or equivalents; they are separate virtues that can be applied to situations with, without, and subsequent to the other. Humility does not mean you shouldn’t defend yourself and your opinions. Pride does not mean you should be over-stubborn and egotistical.
They mean that you must always keep the bigger picture in sight.

So stick to your principles and protect yourself, but what you think is correct is not always what is logical, and vice versa.

Good luck on your journey, and even though you’re done with school, your education has just begun.

—Robert Stryczek
Gabelli School of Business, Class of 2021
School of Law, Class of 2024

Be True to Your Convictions

Hold true to your values—both ethically and morally—and you will never be wrong. Sometimes you may stand alone in conviction, and that is OK!

—Noelle Bauer
Graduate School of Social Service, Class of 2017

There’s no need to apply and no membership dues—just relevant, engaging programming for you to take part in. From timely lectures to career forums to social events, you’ll find many opportunities to connect with your fellow alumni. Your Fordham degree also grants you access to a host of special offers and benefits.

Make sure to visit forever.fordham.edu for an updated list of all things Fordham alumni!

Fordham Alumni by the Numbers

As new alumni, you’re part of a large, global network of Fordham Rams. There are more than 200,000 total alumni living in all 50 U.S. states and 160 countries. Around 57% of Fordham alumni live within 50 miles of New York, but there are 50+ regional chapters worldwide.

Upcoming Alumni Events

Jubilee at Rose Hill: June 2 – 4

Block Party at Lincoln Center: June 9

FUAA Night at Yankee Stadium: September 8

Young Alumni Yacht Cruise: October 6

Homecoming: October 7

After graduating from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2016 and launching a career in public relations and event management, Zuckerman got involved with Fordham’s Young Alumni Committee—a group of alumni who coordinate social events, educational programs, and opportunities for professional development and community engagement for recent Fordham graduates.

Now, having just finished her second term as the committee’s communications chair— a position that gave her an opportunity to stay engaged with what’s happening on campus, reach current students, and meet more alumni—she fully appreciates the power of the Fordham alumni network.

Making the Most of the City

After spending her first year of college as an economics major in Canton, New York, Zuckerman realized she wanted a change: She wanted to study communications at “a larger school with more opportunities” and “be in a city rather than” the small village she had originally chosen. Though she grew up at the Jersey Shore, Zuckerman has always been familiar with the Lincoln Center area—her aunt and uncle lived just a block away from Fordham’s Manhattan campus.

Excited to be able to “actually study what I wanted to study” in an environment that was both familiar and full of opportunity, Zuckerman transferred to Fordham the fall of her sophomore year and majored in communications and media studies. Almost immediately, thanks to an art history class she took as part of the undergraduate core curriculum, she realized just how much she’d be able to take advantage of all that New York has to offer.

“For one of our first assignments, we were instructed to go to a museum in a city,” she said. “I went to the Metropolitan Museum with a few other classmates … and I remember just being really excited. … I realized that I was going to be able to do that a lot more by going to school in New York.”

New York’s status as a communications hub made it possible for Zuckerman to complete internships at various organizations—from Good Housekeeping and Town & Country magazines to Bloomingdales and Time Inc. But between commuting and serving those internships, she said she had little time to get involved with clubs and other activities on campus—that’s something she’s been trying to rectify in recent years, through her involvement with the Young Alumni Committee. And she’s grateful for the opportunities she had to complement her coursework with work experience as an undergraduate.

“It was important to be able to have all those internships,” she said. “I definitely look back on [them]as being really helpful and helping me narrow down what I wanted to do with my career.”

Keeping Young Alumni Engaged

Zuckerman learned about the Young Alumni Committee in 2018 when she attended an event sponsored by the Fordham University Alumni Association. Matt Burns, the alumni relations office’s director for reunion programs and affinity groups, introduced her to some members of the committee.

A few weeks later, Zuckerman attended one of their meetings and eventually got more involved. She recently finished her second term as the committee’s communications chair, engaging with alumni and getting the word out.

This past year, that included reaching out to the editors at Fordham’s student-run news outlets, including The Fordham Ram and The Observer, to gauge their interest in writing “articles about the committee so that way the current students and recent graduates could learn about it and potentially join,” she said.

Zuckerman told The Observer that, thanks to the Young Alumni Committee, she’s been able to connect with a wide range of Fordham graduates, including alumni of other degree programs, schools and colleges, and class years. She said she hopes the committee will see the payoff of those articles as “even more members come to our meetings and events this year.”

Maintaining a Commitment to Service

Thinking about the lasting effects of her Fordham education, Zuckerman points to her ongoing commitment to service. In addition to her work with the alumni committee, she volunteers with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Junior League (NYJL).

“Since I am very involved with volunteering and different nonprofits, that’s something that I really appreciated about the University and, looking back, definitely just appreciate even more now that I’m a graduate,” she said.

She joined the NYJL as a sophomore at Fordham to get involved with a philanthropic organization in the city and meet people outside of the University community. Today, she serves as the training council head, overseeing three committees responsible for conducting “ongoing training for everybody to be able to be the most effective volunteers” possible.

Though it’s her first time serving in “such a big role,” she’s taking a bit of the advice she hopes current Fordham students will follow: “Always try something new if it’s offered to you—because you never know if you’re going to really like something or not.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
Definitely volunteering and philanthropy! I joined the New York Junior League, a women’s nonprofit organization, while a sophomore at Fordham in order to be connected with the wider NYC community beyond school and to have a long-term volunteer opportunity after graduation. Beyond the NYJL, I volunteer [with]the Billion Oyster Project and School Year Abroad.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Never be afraid to try something new! One of my favorite things about Fordham was the ability to hold so many internships during the school year, in addition to the summer. I tried so many different types of internships, which really helped me narrow down what I wanted to do after graduating.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in New York City is Union Square. I lived nearby in Flatiron for a few years and loved how centrally located it was and how many great restaurants were nearby. Most of all, I loved stopping by the Greenmarket on my way to the subway before work or for a leisurely stroll on the weekends. Not to mention how festive it is at Christmastime!

My favorite place in the world is the Jersey Shore, where I’m from. It’s of course at its best during the summer, but it’s so special year-round. I love the natural beauty, rich traditions, local businesses, and close-knit community.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I love books set in New York City, so would have to say either The Age of Innocence or The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Kathleen Adams, FCRH ’10, GSAS ’12: We didn’t overlap while at Fordham, but we volunteer together at the New York Junior League. I was so excited to learn that she is also a Fordham alumna, but not surprised, as she embodies the University’s mission so well! I am so impressed by all that she does in her professional and volunteer life.

What are you optimistic about?
I work on the marketing team for an educational consultancy and am impressed by current high school students and optimistic about the impact that they will have on the world as they continue to pursue their passions.

That thought experiment was at the center of a Forever Learning Week lecture by Patrick Hornbeck, D. Phil., professor of theology and interim dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham.

“What I want to talk about tonight is what Ignatius of Loyola would have to say about our particular moment, where it often feels like we are talking past each other,” Hornbeck said during the March 28 event, held online and sponsored by the Fordham University Alumni Association. He argued that “the Jesuit tradition equips all of us with skills and tools and opportunities to be human, even when we’re conversing with each other through the technology that we find ourselves with today.”

Hornbeck noted that Ignatius was no stranger to great advancements in communications technology: By the mid-16th century, the printing press had spread throughout Europe, democratizing the sharing of information in a way with parallels to the growth of the internet, he said.

He presented three quotes from Ignatius to help the audience imagine what kind of guidance the Spanish priest and theologian would offer if he were writing today.

‘Be More Ready to Justify Than to Condemn’

The first quote he shared is from The Spiritual Exercises:

“It must be presupposed that any good Christian has to be more ready to justify than to condemn a neighbor’s statement. If no justification can be found, one should ask the neighbor in what sense it is to be taken, and if that sense is wrong, he or she should be corrected lovingly.”

Hornbeck contrasted that idea with a social media environment in which people are quick to try to score points against strangers, often with an assumption that others mean the worst.

“The important thing here is he’s not saying, ‘Don’t judge,’” Hornbeck said. “He’s saying, ‘Don’t judge too quickly.’ He’s saying, ‘Don’t leap to judgment, don’t have a prejudice about what the person you’re speaking with might have to say.’

“And so, part of what Ignatius is inviting us to do is to see the person and to correct or to engage with or to disagree with that person as someone who is fundamentally a bearer of equal dignity as we are,” Hornbeck continued. “I think that what Ignatius is presuming in his presupposition, is this common, shared belief [that we are made] in the image and likeness of God, and if we can’t maintain that, I think that’s something that we all need to think quite a bit about today.”

Avoid ‘Excessive Fervor’

The second quote Hornbeck shared with the attendees is from a letter Ignatius sent to Jesuit scholastics in Coimbra, Portugal, in May 1547:

“Disorders in the life of the spirit arise not only from coldness of heart (ailments like tepidity), but also from overheating as where there is excessive fervour. … The philosophical dictum ‘Nothing in excess’ applies to everything, even justice itself. … When such moderation is absent, good is transformed into bad and virtue into vice, and many problems arise for those taking this path, blocking their basic purpose.”

“What Ignatius is asking us to do is to find something like a middle way or a middle path, not because we shouldn’t believe deeply in the things in which we believe,” Hornbeck said, noting that while sometimes decisive action is needed, it may not be appropriate in every moment. “It’s in this moderation and the pushing against the temptations or instincts that we have that we learn to become more fully ourselves.”

Cultivate Ignatian Indifference

The final quote Hornbeck offered is one from The Spiritual Exercises that speaks to the ways that any created tool—including the internet and social media—can be used for both positive and negative ends:

“The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by so doing to save his or her soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created. It follows from this that one must use other created things in so far as they help towards one’s end, and free oneself from them in so far as they are obstacles to one’s end. To do this we need to make ourselves indifferent to all created things.”

This passage describes a form of spirituality that “acknowledges that all that we have on the face of the Earth is neither good nor bad unto itself, but good or bad only as we use those things,” Hornbeck said, clarifying that the indifference Ignatius referred to was not the same as apathy, but “the sense of not being attached to something, not being convinced that a certain career or a certain way of life, or a certain standard of living is in and of itself good.”

“And so Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and all of the other tools that we have at our disposal, I think Ignatius would say are neither good nor bad. It’s how we use them. It’s … deciding when to engage [and] in what kind of spirit we should engage.”

Toward the end of the event, moderator and Fordham University Alumni Association board member Jake Braithwaite, S.J., GABELLI ’11, GSAS ’15, raised a question about how Ignatius would handle deep disagreements not only with strangers online but also, say, at the Thanksgiving dinner table with loved ones.

“Ignatius was a man of very strong convictions,” Hornbeck answered. “And so my guess is Ignatius might have been quite feisty at the Thanksgiving dinner table. But I think that what he would encourage us to think about is how [to do] it while doing our very best to maintain our relationships—that we can gently, and without that kind of excessive passion that he was talking about, say, ‘You know, I just don’t see it that way,’ and then explain how it is.”

This event was part of Forever Learning Week, a series of free talks and tours featuring Fordham experts that is sponsored by the Fordham University Alumni Association.

The quotes from St. Ignatius Loyola used in this article are taken from the Penguin Classics edition of Ignatius’s personal writings.

The annual event recognizes alumni volunteers and helps further the FUAA’s mission to foster lifelong connections among alumni and promote a sense of general goodwill and support for Fordham worldwide.

Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, chair of the FUAA Advisory Board, introduced new and returning board members, 24 volunteers who represent the University’s 200,000-plus global alumni worldwide. They include graduates from 10 Fordham schools, including Marymount and Thomas More College, and their class years span six decades. Quoting another graduate, Benner said the group aims “to serve as connective tissue—to connect us to each other, to connect you to the University, and to connect the University to you.”

As she spoke about the Fordham community and its commitment to cura personalis, or care for the whole person, Benner noted that the alumni were gathering during a week in which “the world commemorates the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.”—and less than two weeks after a fire killed 17 people and injured dozens of others in the Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx, a mere 15-minute walk from the Rose Hill campus.

She shared how she is motivated by a quote from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “’We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects us all indirectly,’” she said, quoting King. “Tonight, I ask our alumni community to consider care for the whole person to include care for our communities.”

Benner encouraged alumni to seek out Julie Gafney, Ph.D., executive director of the University’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, who was in attendance with a list, now posted on the center’s Instagram account, of how victims of the fire felt the Fordham community could offer support.

“If you have the means to share your abundance, by contributing your skills or good fortune to help, you will learn how the largely Gambian community would value it most,” Benner said.

A Legacy of Transformation

This year’s FUAA reception also marked the last one for Joseph M. McShane, S.J., before he steps down as president of Fordham in June. Throughout the evening, on a big screen behind the ballroom stage, the FUAA featured a slideshow highlighting the University’s transformation under his leadership since 2003. Prior to the event, attendees had an opportunity to submit their own personal tributes and memorable McShane moments, which were included in the slideshow.

During his own speech, Father McShane thanked Benner, who stepped into her role as chair just this year, for “organizing us this evening and doing it with her characteristic class.”

He also remarked on the University’s strength as it continues to navigate the pandemic, noting that the Class of 2025 is “the largest, most diverse, and brightest class in Fordham’s 180-year history,” and that 2021 was the “best fundraising year” in the University’s history, thanks to the “extraordinary generosity” of alumni and others who invested more than $84 million in the University and its mission.

“We didn’t just get through,” he said. “Fordham came through with great strength because it was true to its sense of mission, and its mission and its heart is a mission that is based on love and directed toward the cultivation of all the gifts that students have—cura personalis, in other words.”

The FUAA is always looking to connect with new voices from the University’s alumni community. For info on its upcoming events or to learn more, visit Forever Fordham.

“I said, ‘Of course you are. You’re part of the University.’ We were laughing, but it emphasized for me that perhaps there isn’t a [strong]  sense of belonging [among graduate school alumni], and we want to work on that.”

Hence her mission as the new chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association’s (FUAA) Advisory Board. Benner, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1984 and previously served as the board’s vice chair, will be taking over for John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, the FUAA’s founding chair, in January. And when she does, she wants to unite all University alumni, all around the world, during her four-year term.

During this year’s Homecoming celebration, members of the FUAA ­gathered for a toast to recognize the advisory board’s ongoing work and commitment to the University. During the event, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, recognized all that Benner has contributed to Fordham thus far. “You brought in grit, courage, determination, and you never lost it,” he said. “You brought it to Fordham. You endowed Fordham with your enthusiasm.”

Referencing Benner’s undergraduate involvement with Mimes and Mummers, the theater group at Rose Hill, Pettenati added, “I know how passionate she was about that organization: She’s going to bring that passion to the FUAA.”

Benner said she has been thinking about how to stay engaged with Fordham almost since she graduated, and her leadership role on the advisory board enables her to get involved on a deeper level.

A Buffalo, New York, native, Benner said that in the ’80s, she was one of relatively few students from outside the New York metropolitan area. In recent decades, Fordham has transformed itself from a strong regional institution to a prestigious national university.

As board president, Benner plans to offer FUAA programming and events designed to unite all University alumni, particularly those who tend to think only of their affiliation with a particular campus, or with an undergraduate or graduate school, or who live beyond the New York metro area. “The thing we have in common is Fordham University; that’s what’s printed on each of our degrees,” she said. “Once you’ve graduated, you are in the world, and you wear lots of hats. You’re not your major.”

Benner added that although many of us have Zoom fatigue after being in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly two years, online programming has afforded alumni who live outside the New York metropolitan area far more opportunities to get more involved with their alma mater. She’s optimistic that it will continue to be “a portal through which alumni can stay involved and feel that they have a role—that they can volunteer in some capacity from where they are.”

Benner’s first six months in office will put her mission to the test, with both virtual and in-person events planned for all alumni. The fifth annual FUAA Alumni Recognition Reception will be held on January 20 in the ballroom at the historic 583 Park Avenue. Created by the advisory board’s networking and engagement task force, the reception hasn’t been held in person since 2020. (Last year, it was held virtually.)

And Forever Learning Week, planned by the Forever Learning task force to offer alumni “master classes taught at Fordham,” will kick off on March 28. Last year, the programming was offered virtually throughout April. “Hundreds of alumni from around the world dialed in,” Benner said. “It was fascinating because it was the mosaic of all the parts that make up Fordham.”

In addition to uniting alumni across schools, Benner hopes that she’ll be able to unite alumni across experiences, too, recognizing that Fordham is a different university than the one she attended—but in the best possible ways.

“We’ll all have different experiences, increasingly diverse experiences, more cosmopolitan experiences,” she said. “But we are all from Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York. We have New York in common. So, whatever our generation, whatever our school or campus, we’ve got that to open the door. That’s our calling card to have something in common.”

What are you most passionate about?
Doing all that I can to open doors to opportunity for others.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Some decisions make themselves.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
In New York, anyplace where the Chrysler Building is within view. In the world, in Paris, sitting on the Seine River’s stone embankment watching boats and people of the world glide by while imagining scenes from history play out in that setting.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (HarperTorch, 1974) by Robert M. Pirsig

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you remember most?
English professor Richard Giannone because his syllabus introduced me to the writing of the masterful author Joan Didion.

What are you optimistic about?
That whatever our troubles are in whatever our era, solutions can be forged by the handiwork of people coming together sincerely to find a common cause.

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.

The May 21 event, hosted by the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA), recognized alumni with a graduating senior in the Class of 2021, along with members of the Parents’ Leadership Council (PLC) and their graduating students.

Matthew Burns, associate director for young alumni and student engagement, and Kathryn Mandalakis, assistant director of the Fordham Fund, kicked off the virtual event. Mandalakis thanked the council members for making Fordham “a real family affair,” and fondly remembered her own graduation in 2019.

“It has been two years, almost to the day, since I was attending my own PLC and legacy family reception, as my dad is an alumnus himself,” she said. “It feels really special to be here with you all and celebrate your graduates and celebrate the long maroon line with your legacy.”

During the event, two families reflected on their time at the University and on what it means to share an alma mater, with the graduates interviewing their parents.

Anthony Quartell, FCRH ’64, whose daughter Olivia Quartell, FCRH ’21, served as president of United Student Government and a mentee in the Fordham Mentoring Program, said that after his family moved near the Bronx campus, his father suggested he enroll at Fordham to learn about religion.

“I had no idea who Ignatius Loyola was,” he said, noting that he had attended public schools, including Bronx High School of Science, but the Jesuits at Fordham taught him “a whole lot more [than religion]. They taught me how to think.”

Olivia said Fordham wasn’t initially one of her more “obvious” picks, but her experiences at the University were nothing short of a gift.

“I think it’s funny that a lot of people who found such a home here didn’t necessarily seek it, [but]it was definitely something that Fordham gave to them. … It just naturally kind of comes from being in this place.”

Katherine Beshar, FCLC ’21, who writes for The Observer, the student newspaper based on the University’s Lincoln Center campus, transferred to Fordham during her junior year due to a sports injury, but she echoed Olivia Quartell’s sentiment. She said “home” is a fitting word for what the University has given her.

She asked her mother, Maureen Beshar, FCLC ’86, about her own undergraduate experience. Like her mother, Katherine was a commuter student. Maureen commuted from Brooklyn and initially worked two part-time jobs before pivoting to night school so that she could work full time.

Maureen, who is now a member of the Fordham President’s Council, said she continued to experience Fordham’s sense of community, maybe even more so, after graduating. “The Fordham experience [is]really now just beginning,” she said. “There’s so many different ways you can stay involved as your life changes and … as you go forward in life. You can go back home [to Fordham], because I think you’ll always find some way to be involved.”

John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, chair of the FUAA, formally welcomed graduates into the alumni community and urged them to stay involved, to “give your time, your treasure, and your talent back to the school. It is so important for [others to be]inspired by all of you.”

A recorded toast from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, brought the event home.

“My dear friends, we gather to toast you on your impending graduation that has special meaning for you and for your parents because by graduating you have not only followed in their footsteps, you have become men and women whose lives have a shared experience—an experience that makes you even closer than you were before,” he said. “You and your parents are both Rams.”

This was the focus of “Leading in Difficult Times,” an April 7 presentation by Chris Lowney, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’81, that was part of the Fordham University Alumni Association’s Forever Learning Month.

During his presentation, Lowney, the author of six books, including Make Today Matter (Loyola Press, 2018), talked about the past year in terms of the acronym VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, economic difficulties, and the need to foster equity in the workplace and society, leaders have had to find creative ways to build skills and inspire colleagues and constituents. When Lowney prompted the more than 30 attendees to state whether there was more or less volatility, complexity, and change today than there was 15 years ago, every respondent in the Zoom chat said they believed there is more now.

He cautioned the audience not to think of this past year as an exception, though, instead urging them to look at it as a somewhat more extreme version of the world in which we will continue to live. He also made clear that when talking about leadership, we shouldn’t just think about public figures, or even just high-level managers.

“I’m not talking about Pope Francis, Barack Obama, Joe Biden,” Lowney said of his definition of leaders. “I’m talking about every one of us. We’re all implicitly pointing out a way [for each other]and having an influence.”

In breakout rooms and after returning to the full group, attendees talked about what they’ve learned about leadership over the past 12 months. Patrick McGuire, Ed.D., GRE ’86, shared that volunteering has ­­been an essential part of his life, echoing Lowney’s call for gratitude in the face of so much suffering and hardship.

Jackie Fenley, TMC ’68, shared her efforts to cherish the things she has in her life even when losing touchstones, and Sharmini Pardo, GABELLI ’02, said she had learned many lessons about both joy and gratitude from her children in the past year.

“My kids have the innate ability to live in the present,” Pardo said. “They wake up in the morning, and they jump out of bed, and they’re excited that it’s a new day. I think as adults, we lose some of that, so I’ve been trying to appreciate it.”

Lowney’s experience is well-tailored to conversations about how to employ those values, as he began his own career journey with spiritual contemplation. As an 18-year-old, Lowney entered a novitiate with the plan to become a Jesuit priest, but as he told Fordham Magazine in 2018, “life happened. I discerned that my calling in the world lay outside the Jesuits.”

Lowney left the order in the 1980s after earning degrees in medieval history and philosophy at Fordham, and he went on to become a managing director at J.P. Morgan & Co. He published his first book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World (Loyola Press), in 2003, shortly after leaving J.P. Morgan.

In 2006, he established a nonprofit, Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future, to support education and health care initiatives throughout the world, and he also co-founded Contemplative Leaders in Action, an emerging leader formation program now active in a half-dozen cities. He is currently the vice chair of the board of CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest nonprofit health system, regularly writes about leadership strategy for Forbes, and has been an adjunct professor at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.

Even as a student at Fordham, Lowney recognized the value of Jesuit ideals and how they can serve as a foundation for a lifetime of both learning and leading. While introducing Lowney to the attendees, John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association, read a quote that his classmate contributed to their 1981 yearbook, where Lowney was highlighted as a “Tomorrow Scholar”: “Jesuit education is supported by a wisdom of what it means to be human.”

Forever Learning Month events will take place throughout April. For a full list of events, all of which are free to attend, visit Forever Fordham.

After earning a B.A. in English from St. John’s University, McGuire said he “stumbled” upon Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) during the 1980s. As the world grappled with issues of peace, war, and the proliferation of nuclear arms, he knew he wanted to “serve the people of God,” ultimately enrolling because GRE and its religious education program curriculum “just answered all my wants and desires.” McGuire added that John Shea, S.J., FCRH ’69, then a professor of psychology and his thesis mentor, “really opened up a whole new world” for him.

While many students hold full-time jobs while attending graduate school, just as he did when he was a doctoral candidate, McGuire said he considers himself “privileged” that he was able to attend Fordham full time. And when he graduated, he began what would become a decades-long career as an educator, often returning to the same institutions that stoked his own love of learning. He returned to his alma mater, Monsignor Scanlan High School, where he taught religion for five years before hopping over to another alma mater, St. John’s, where he simultaneously taught theology and served as a dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Years later, he once again resumed work at Monsignor Scanlan, becoming the first alumnus of the school to serve as principal. “I was a student, faculty [member], and then 20-something years later, I became the principal,” he said.

Always eager to learn more, McGuire earned an Ed.D. from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1994, and has studied higher education development at Harvard University. And though the lion’s share of his time is currently spent volunteering and caring for his elderly parents, he said he’s eager to return to a full-time position in education after the pandemic.

Embracing Jesuit Ideals to Pay it Forward

McGuire said he strives to honor the Jesuit ideal of magis—the call to be more and do more for the world—by volunteering and performing community service. “Fordham opened up so many worlds and relationships,” he said. “And it was that Jesuit [mindset]of magis that really helped me to understand what Fordham and Jesuit education are all about. … It really speaks to me; it grounds me in my community service and my educational leadership in my role as a dean, teacher, and principal.”

He just celebrated his fifth anniversary with God’s Love We Deliver, volunteers with New York Cares and Coalition for the Homeless, and has also spent five years volunteering at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he works in the Payne Whitney Clinic with adults who have acute psychiatric illnesses—though he’s had to take a break from that due to COVID-19 protocols.

“I am the education and recreational consultant, and I work with a retired, now part-time, occupational therapist,” he said. “In a way, it’s a privilege because I take a lot of my counseling skills that I learned from John Shea and the different faculty at Fordham and bring that into my volunteering—my ministry with the patients.”

Though he’s a trained counselor, McGuire said his volunteer work at the hospital often has included anything from playing bingo and holding ice cream socials to reading scriptures or leading calming and relaxation exercises.

Learning from Within

The Forever Learning series is being held digitally—everything from the kickoff and livestream of Mass from the University Church on Easter to a culinary demonstration and panel discussions. And instead of the one-day agenda planned for last year, the programming will now happen all month long, with sessions recorded in case people aren’t able to attend live— although McGuire hopes that holding some events in the evening will mean that “people working can still log off, have some dinner, and then jump on the Zoom and learn, network.”

Plus, because last year’s Forever Learning initiative was canceled due to COVID-19, McGuire said he and his colleagues on the alumni association’s Forever Learning task force had a bit of a head start this year. The planning committee was able to incorporate last year’s speakers into the new agenda, scheduling them throughout the month. Looking ahead, McGuire said that he and other members of the committee are thinking of a hybrid experience in 2022, with some events held online and some held in person on campus.

Whether it’s community college, undergraduate or graduate school, or a handful of webinars during Forever Learning Month, McGuire stressed the importance of finding the subject and format that works for you—when it works for you.

“Some students work best with their hands,” he said. “Whatever their gift is, that’s what God has given them. I used to say, ‘If you’re not happy reading Shakespeare, look at a different area of study. Whatever makes you happy, that’s what you have to study.’ And then contribute to society.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
Through service, I am most passionate about improving the quality of life of others, whether by listening (empathy), reading to children and adults, providing a meal, or serving as a mentor with Fordham’s Mentoring Program or StreetWise Partners. Currently, my service is in volunteering with some New Yorkers with mental health challenges. Magis.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I received was from my Fordham mentor:  The best dissertation is a DONE dissertation.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in New York City is relaxing in Central Park with a good cup of NYC coffee.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
The published book that has had the most significant influence in my life—spiritually and professionally as a teacher of religion and theology—is Jesus Before Christianity, written by Albert Nolan, OP. Nolan’s writing has empowered me to continue serving others.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Two former GRE faculty members who have helped shape my personal and professional life, rooted in the ethic of care and spirituality, are John Shea (the interface of religion and psychology) and Maria Harris, Ed.D., (children before God) to think critically about important issues and make sound moral-ethical decisions.

What are you optimistic about?
I am most optimistic about teaching and mentoring individuals of the next generations, who will have a strong foundation of ethical principles and a deep commitment to serving others.