The University’s Internship Promise, unveiled this week, pledges that every undergraduate student from the Class of 2029 and beyond will have the opportunity to participate in at least one internship, research project, or other form of experiential learning.

“Learning by doing has always been part of the Fordham experience, as our students demonstrate every year through their internships and research in our hometown of New York City,” said Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow. 

With New York City as their launchpad, 90% of undergraduate students participate in at least one internship—and many enter the workforce with more than one on their resume. Unlike other locations, New York City offers internship opportunities year-round. 

Fordham students have interned at places as varied as Bloomberg, the Apollo Theater, the United States Tennis Association, EY, and Disney. They have been awarded research fellowships and opportunities stemming from unique partnerships, including those with NYC’s faith communities. Student journalists at Fordham’s WFUV have reported from the field at Yankee Stadium and gone on to intern at top news organizations like MSNBC.

Proven Benefits

Annette McLaughlin, director of Fordham’s Career Center, said students who participate in internships are more likely to receive offers for full-time employment, regardless of their field of study. 

“There’s great value in any type of hands-on learning experience, and we find that’s true even with students who do internships and then decide that it’s not the right industry for them,” she said.

“Internships are important for student’s career exploration and professional development, as well as giving them insight into the culture of an organization.”

A recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers rate internship experience within their industry as the top factor they consider when deciding between two otherwise equally qualified candidates. 

“In everything they study, students want to understand the ‘why.’ So when they can get hands-on experience through internships, they can connect what they’re doing in the classroom to the real world,” McLaughlin said.

Finding Internships at Fordham

The Career Center, which expanded its footprint in the Joseph M. McShane, S.J. Campus Center in 2022, hosts employers at several events each semester. In addition to holding nine career fairs annually, the center also hosts a fair devoted exclusively to internships, featuring employers such as Barclays, EssilorLuxottica, L’Oreal, Phillips Auctioneers, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, EY, LSEG, and Tapestry. 

Students can also access internship opportunities—86% of which are paid—through Handshake, the Career Center’s one-stop online career platform for students and alumni. Gabelli School of Business students have access to the Career Center’s resources as well as their school’s Personal and Professional Development Center, which has connected students to internships at companies such as Morgan Stanley, Estee Lauder, and PwC. 

Fordham students can also receive internships via Serving the City, a unique paid internship program that connects them to New York area nonprofits and cultural organizations. 

In addition to internships, learning opportunities such as research and fieldwork can be found University-wide. Fordham faculty oversee capstone projects, assignments, case studies, and research projects. Students can also gain experience with Fordham departments such as the Center for Community Engaged Learning, Marketing and Communications, and the Office of Information Technology.

Continuous Support

As they progress in their education, students are encouraged to connect with alumni mentors who can help them with career advice and utilize all the tools of RamConnect, the University’s online community for professional development. Career counselors also work with students all four years to help them improve their career readiness skills. 

“We are always looking to prepare our students for the future,” said McLaughlin. 

“Internships, research, experiential learning, and study abroad are key components to setting our students up for success.”

“The first time I knew about the Climate Museum, I was just walking in SoHo; I saw the window and I went in and loved it,” said Salume, who recently graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. “I thought, ‘Wow, it would be great to work at an organization like this, that combines art and climate action.’ It was right up my alley with my environmental studies and humanitarian studies majors.”

John van Buren, Salume’s major advisor and director of the environmental studies program, sent an email a few weeks later with internship opportunities that included one at the museum.

Salume said she “applied immediately.” She started in January as a development intern, working with companies to secure donations.

“Majo [her nickname]has been an incredible force,” said Saskia Randle, a design and curatorial associate at the museum—the first of its kind in the U.S. “As the Climate Museum looks to expand our impact, her research and organizational skills have been essential. Her sincere and enthusiastic work with visitors, particularly younger students, has reinforced our mission to offer opportunities for climate awareness and action to all.” 

Salume said that she became interested in sustainability at a summer camp when she was younger. At Fordham, courses, such as Art Design and Politics, have helped her connect art with environmental action. She also explored those two themes through another internship with the Chelsea Music Festival, which had an environmentally-focused theme last year.

Through working at the museum, Salume said that she saw how art helps younger people connect with complicated topics like climate change. 

“We have this mural, and I think it’s so visually appealing,” she said. “It has so much color, and it does a great job at envisioning a sustainable future. There is a section where it represents where we are now, which is a lot of protests …. And at the end of the mural, you can see a very green, very colorful, very lively world—the kids really resonate with that more than just plain facts.”

Salume was surprised to find she liked the fundraising aspect of her internships. 

“In my past two internships, I’ve been the development intern, which became an unexpected interest of mine,” she said. “But I’m doing my thesis on fast fashion, and the environmental and humanitarian impacts of that, and that has really pushed me to that sector as well.”

On Sunday night, he and his fellow producers took home two Tonys: for Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge (best revival of a play) and for The Humans (best play). Johnson served as an executive producer of both productions.

In recent years, the Fordham Theatre alumnus has emerged as one of Broadway’s most prolific producers. He got his start as an intern for Joey Parnes Productions during his junior year at Fordham, when he helped coordinate the annual Tony Awards show. It was then that he met Fordham alumna and legendary Broadway producer Elizabeth McCann, LAW ’66, who became a mentor to him. McCann has earned 19 nominations and nine Tony awards in her five-decade career, including one for the 1998 revival of A View from the Bridge. Now, just 14 years after graduating from Fordham, Johnson is quickly catching up: He has received a total of 11 nominations and six Tony awards.

This season was especially fruitful for Johnson, who served as a producer of four other Tony-nominated productions: the revivals of The Crucible and Blackbird, and Bright Star and Shuffle Along in the best musical category—won by Broadway sensation Hamilton.

But even after another year of successes, Johnson is not one to rest on his laurels.

“Every year you are doing a new set of shows that present challenges in terms of how to sell tickets, how to establish an audience, how to work with the artists,” he told FORDHAM magazine in 2014. “There’s no getting to that place where we can kick back and have some cocktails and just rake in the money.”

You were still a student when you started working with Broadway producer Elizabeth McCann, LAW ’66. How did that happen?

Larry Sacharow [former director of the Fordham Theatre Program]was my adviser. He said, “If you want to be working in the business of theater, you need to work with Liz McCann.” She is a legend and has blazed so many trails for so many people. For the 10 years that I was in an office with her, Liz gave me this really broad perspective about the business. What she taught me, as a theater producer and as a human being, was priceless. She’s like my third grandmother.

Does success bring its own set of challenges?

Every year you are doing a new set of shows that present challenges in terms of how to sell tickets, how to establish an audience, how to work with the artists. The challenge for A Gentleman’s Guide now is how do we keep the spotlight on us as the sort of reigning champ? There’s no getting to that place where we can kick back and have some cocktails and just rake in the money.

Have theatergoers’ interests changed since you’ve been in the business?

They’ve definitely gotten smarter. The amount of content that we are producing is a lot. People have a big range of options. Normally there would be one or two A-list stars that would come to Broadway in a half-season. Now, this half-season alone, it’s Hugh Jackman, Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close, James Earl Jones. You don’t need to be an industry insider to hear about what’s happening so early on with a show anymore.

Is there a bigger risk with producing an original show versus a revival?

Oh, always. Original shows like A Gentleman’s Guide or Vanya and Sonia come with higher risk, but they also come with a reward, that you get to participate in the life of this show. At the same time, we did A Raisin in the Sun with Denzel Washington (FCLC ’77), and that was a huge success. If you have a known title or a known star, it helps build the machine easier.

What qualities should a successful producer possess?

A certain amount of levelheadedness and confidence. Even with an amazing director, an amazing design team, amazing writers, amazing actors, the producer has to be the one at the end of the day that says, “We’re going to do this show. I know we have to work on this, but we’ve got to do it.” So you have to be a risk taker.

How do you get a show from script to Broadway?

Obviously the goal for a lot of people is Broadway, but there are also many shows that don’t go to Broadway and have a great life in the regional theater circuit or in Chicago or off-Broadway. There’s no exact formula to it, and I think that’s what makes it exciting, because you can’t predict it.

What do you have in the works?

We have This Is Our Youth and A Delicate Balance. We’re working on Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, a play that he wrote and he’s going to star in. Then a production of David Hare’s Skylight with Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan, the Gentleman’s Guide tour, and hopefully some other things I wish I could tell you about.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Rachel Buttner.

– Rachel Buttner

According to the magazine, 75 percent of the 1,885 students in the Class of 2009 completed at least one internship during their time at the University.

Fordham tied with Duke University on the list of top 10 institutions.

U.S. News tabulated the statistics by using internship data for the Class of 2009 submitted by 692 schools.

Internships have become a particularly important part of the college experience, the magazine noted, as the increase in people with college degrees outpaced U.S. population growth by more than threefold over the past decade.

Gaining career-development experience as an undergraduate is one way that a student can stand out. Fordham was ranked with other high-performing institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania (No. 1), University of Pittsburgh (No. 7) and Johns Hopkins University (No. 9).

One common thread for many of the schools in the top 10 is an urban setting; George Washington University and American University are in Washington D.C., for instance, while Seton Hall University is near New York City.

For more information, visit U.S. News & World Report website.