“What Matters to Me (and Why),” a series of lunch-time discussions held at the Lincoln Center, Rose Hill, and Westchester campuses, was part of the programming tied to Ignatian Heritage Week.

For Anne Fernald, Ph.D., special advisor to the provost for faculty development, and Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, their talk at the Lincoln Center Campus centered on three Cs: contribution, community, and change.

The Three Cs

They kicked off the afternoon by asking the audience how they contribute to their community. McPhee noted that recent studies show that the feeling of making a tangible contribution to society has a greater effect on people’s happiness than any other variable.

“It’s kind of a shocking thing, right? You’d think it’d be health or money, or something like family. But it’s really contribution that was the most significant element, whether the person is in the workplace or out of the workplace,” she said.

“It resonates with both me and Anne in terms of what drives us to be in the profession we’re in, and the work we do at Fordham.”

Of course, the concept of the community that one might contribute to has changed radically in recent years. Fernald recounted how she’d reunited this summer with a friend she hadn’t seen in 20 years. The meeting only happened because they realized, via Facebook, that they were going to be visiting the same upstate New York region at the same time.

Her friend was dropping her son off at a camp for trampoline enthusiasts. He had developed a passion for the activity, and bonded over it with other campers, via videos of their exploits shared on Instagram. Up until that point, though, he’d never met them person.

“When he got out of the car, she said it was amazing. There were a dozen other 14-year-old boys who saw him, and said ‘Emmitt’s here!’ And they all enveloped him in this giant hug, and then went over the trampoline to show each other their flips in person.” Fernald said.

“So, when we think about community for our students, it’s not the same kind of community that’s anything like what any of us grew up in.”

Beware the Temptation to Restrict Your Circle

McPhee said a major challenge for older generations is appreciating the positive aspects of online life while acknowledging the pitfalls. Older generations’ conceptions of community were constrained by geography, and were therefore more limited, whereas young people can be pickier and limit their circle to say, only fellow teenage male trampoline enthusiasts. There is a potential downside to this, she said.

“When you can pick from the whole world, most are going to pick those that are like you, as opposed to those that are different. So do we navigate that difference better because we have a more global perspective, or do we actually restrict ourselves because we just sing to the choir and go to the people who are interested in what we’re interested in? I don’t know that we have an answer to that,” she said.

Embrace Change

All of this leads to the third C, which is change. Long gone are the days when educators are the keepers of information, said McPhee.

“My students can Google anything I’m going to tell them before they walk into a classroom, so what does that do to the nature of what we’re doing? That “sage on the stage” bit gets challenged quite a bit in terms of what it means for the entire institution, how we react to teach other, how we see our own jobs, and how we see change.”

That, said Fernald, is why the class environment is more important than ever: She challenged everyone to imagine ways to make the classroom an occasion for students to imagine themselves as each other’s colleagues in learning. Both acknowledged how easy it is to accept the narrative that says that anyone under 30 is not engaged in the world, is not a critical thinker, and is not engaged in community. It’s a narrative that should be rejected.

“Those in charge of the education need to bring their whole self to it, and say ‘This is hard for me, it doesn’t resonate with me, but I need to look at the gap. I need to look at the difference,” McPhee said.

“The current challenge in front of us is, how we engage that narrative, and how we engage the change that’s right in front of us.”

It was a day of reflection for staff, faculty and students throughout the Fordham community. Dorothy Marinucci, associate vice president for presidential operations, and John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Office of Prestigious Fellowships, hosted a What Matters to Me luncheon at the Rose Hill campus. Stephen McGowan, recruiter and admissions associate at the Graduate School of Social Service, and Joan Cavanagh, Ph.D., director of spiritual and pastoral ministries in the Office of Campus Ministry, hosted one at the Westchester campus.

Abraham Mercado, an international political economy major, is a graduate of Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is fluent in English, Spanish and French and intends to pursue a juris doctorate with a concentration in international law.

Mercado is Fordham’s eighth Truman Scholar and its second from Puerto Rico. He began working with the St. Edmund Campion Institute for Prestigious Fellowships in his sophomore year to prepare his application. The $30,000 federal scholarship is awarded each year to between 60 and 65 college juniors who have demonstrated leadership and a commitment to public service.

“Abe is passionate about economics, politics, international affairs and foreign trade, and displays a sophisticated appreciation of how these issues can impact countless lives in developing countries,” said Maria Noonan, assistant director of the Campion Institute.

His career plans include securing a position of economic leadership within the United States government—first within the treasury department and later as a political and economic policy leader in Puerto Rico.

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“My vocation for public service is the main driving force behind everything I do. It is at the top of my priorities in my plans for the rest of my life,” Mercado said.

He is currently working with a group from Cornell University to establish Progressive Youth International, a non-governmental organization that supports sustainable, community-based development projects and small-business incentives aimed at poverty relief in Latin America.

“Fordham is blessed with students like Abraham Mercado,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “Yes, he is the beneficiary of a Fordham education. Yes, he had terrific support from the Office of Prestigious Fellowships. Nonetheless, he would be exceptional in any group of students.

“In more than just conspicuous achievement, Abe embodies the Fordham ethic: his natural gifts, his considerable energy and his great heart are all offered in the service of others,” Father McShane said.

Even his leisure pursuits are intensive. Mercado has been a racquetball aficionado since he was 14 and was the captain of Puerto Rico’s junior national team during the 2009 junior world championships. He practices three to four hours a day, six days a week, and aspires to join the national team in the coming years.

To prepare for the interview portion of the application, he prepped with Gualberto Rodriguez (FCRH ’95), who also won a Truman for Fordham and graduated from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, said John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Campion Institute.

“He invited me to his office and we spoke a lot about interview strategies, what kind of questions they would ask me, how I drafted my policy proposal and how I would defend it,” Mercado said. “After that, we started talking about life, basically, and went out to lunch. We’re very good friends now.”

He learned that he had won the award from Father McShane. The even-keeled Mercado tempered his reaction by reminding himself that he “still had to focus on class.”

Since then, he has let his parents and close friends in on the good news. “My parents congratulated me and told me they were really proud of me,” he said. “They also told me to keep pushing on, to further my commitment to my career and my graduate studies.

“The encouragement that I’ve received from everyone—my parents and friends and everyone at the Campion Institute—has played a huge role. I can’t thank them enough,” he said.

The University also drew a finalist in the 2011 Truman competition. Caitlin Meyer, a junior in Fordham College at Rose Hill, is a political science major from Oakland, Calif., and serves on the executive board of the United Student Government. She is Fordham’s seventh Truman finalist.

This is the second consecutive year that a student from Fordham has won a Truman Scholarship. Joseph Carnevale (FCLC ’11) is using the prize to attend medical school and simultaneously earn a master’s degree in public health.

Truman Scholars are elected by 16 independent selection panels on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability, and likelihood of “making a difference,” according to the Truman Foundation.

– Joseph McLaughlin

Dwayne Kelly, FCRH ’09

Graduate Scholarship.

The $50,000 scholarship will help Kelly, a native of Jamaica who majored in urban studies, pursue his dream of studying immigration law.

The award was open to students who had previously won a Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Undergraduate Scholarship—which Kelly received in 2006 while enrolled at Westchester Community College. That award made it possible for Kelly to attend and graduate from Fordham.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Graduate Scholarship Program is designed to help talented students with demonstrated financial need to pursue graduate or professional study. All recipients must have maintained a 3.5 GPA and have shown leadership ability and concern for public service.

Kelly, who was raised in the Bronx and who does community service with a local religious organization, said he hopes to become a “voice for the voiceless men and women who feel hopeless about their circumstances” in the United States.

“A legal education would equip me adequately to tackle the kind of injustices that immigrants suffer as a result of their lack of legal status,” Kelly said.

“As one of Dwayne’s teachers, I was delighted—but not surprised—to learn that this impressive graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill won the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship,” said John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the University’s St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Academic Excellence.

“Soon after he transferred to Fordham, Dwayne expressed his interest in the Campion Institute, especially our Matteo Ricci Summer Fellowships, but always with his eyes on the prize—obtaining a JKC scholarship so he could pursue a professional degree.”

The first-generation student, who said he never expected he’d get to attend college, made the dean’s list at Fordham for three consecutive years. He minored in philosophy.