“We’re gathered to celebrate the women who made the county what it is—they who lived with faith and worked with hope and made love a reality here in the borough, [even]when they did not believe in the borough,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said to a crowd of more than 100 in Keating Hall. “They took to heart the motto of the Bronx: Ne cede malis. Never give in to evil.”

The event, hosted by the Bronx Borough President’s Office, featured five women from different walks of life: Alessandra Biaggi, LAW ’12, New York state senator; Nathalia Fernandez, assemblywoman for the 80th District; Karines Reyes, assemblywoman for the 87th District; Sunny Hostin, ABC News senior legal correspondent and co-host of The View who moderated the panel discussion; and Deputy Bronx Borough President Marricka Scott-McFadden, who served as emcee of the night.

What they all have in common are their ties to the Bronx. Hostin was born and bred in the South Bronx. Biaggi, whose senatorial district includes portions of the Bronx, is the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who lived in Hunts Point. Fernandez’s father and mother immigrated to the Bronx from their native Cuba and Columbia, respectively. And although Reyes and Scott-McFadden aren’t Bronx natives, they have made the borough their home.

“I am originally from Georgia. I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in the Bronx,” Scott-McFadden said to laughter from the audience.  

A Woman’s Perspective in Politics

The panel spoke about the need for women legislators who can vouch for the importance of women’s reproductive health, universal childcare, and reducing maternal mortality in New York state.

“When I hear men stand up and matter-of-factly talk about a woman’s body and how things happen in operating rooms that don’t really happen—because I’ve been in operating rooms; it’s my profession—and hear all these people that don’t have a medical background sway how legislation affects us … it’s scary,” said Reyes, who’s worked as a registered nurse in Montefiore Medical Center’s oncology ward. “It’s important to have more women at the table. But [also]more professionals with different backgrounds.”

Another issue that women face is a lack of childcare, said Biaggi. Although today’s U.S. mothers are spending more time in the workforce than in the ’60s, they’re also spending more time on childcare.

“What we would like to see—and this is why our voices are so important and why it’s so important that we’re in the room—is childcare everywhere,” Biaggi said. “When you have children, they don’t disappear just because you’ve gone to work.” A few women in the audience expressed their agreement.

The panelists also discussed a disturbing trend affecting mothers in New York state—the rising rate of deaths in the delivery room. The rate of maternal deaths in the state rose from 13.2 per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 25 per 100,000 live births in 2015.

“The women who are dying in this state … they’re educated. They’re lawyers, they’re doctors, they’re teachers, they’re nurses. They’re literally your neighbors, and they’re dying at higher rates than they’ve ever died before,” Biaggi said. “And the women who are mainly dying are women of color.”

“It happened to Serena Williams,” Hostin chimed in. “She almost died because they [the doctors]weren’t listening to her.”

“And it’s Serena Williams. Like … what? How can this be?” Biaggi said, searching the eyes of the audience. “We have a real problem with women’s voices [not]being heard.”

A Personal Fight for Equal Pay

The five women also discussed the gender pay gap in the U.S. On average, female workers earned around 80 cents for every dollar a man made in 2018.

Hostin recalled the day she was signed onto The View. When she received her deal sheet from her male agent, she was ecstatic. “When I say I’m a kid from the South Bronx projects … I had never seen money like that,” she said. “I was dancing around.”

Then her cell phone buzzed. It was Sherri Shepherd, a previous co-host on The View. Shepherd revealed to Hostin her personal pay history from a decade ago. It turned out, said Hostin, that Shepherd was offered more money than her successor.

“[It’s only because] she opened up and shared with me her deal history and her salary that I now have the deal that I have,” said Hostin, who renegotiated her deal sheet with her agent. “And I shared that deal with everybody that came after me.”

It was a lesson Fernandez could relate to. She remembered working in a team where she was the only woman. Two months into the job, she discovered she was making less than all her male colleagues. She was told she was paid less because she was a new employee. But eventually, she said, she received a pay raise to match the men’s salaries.

Speak up when you see discrepancies, Fernandez said—be brave enough to demand your worth.

Leaving a Legacy in the Bronx

At the end of the night, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. presented each panelist with a citation of merit and thanked them for their service to the Bronx community. He asked the audience to give a round of applause for the women who work with him every day. And, in a candid speech, he spoke about the women who have shaped him into who he is today. 

Diaz Jr. grew up in a maternal community of abuelitas and mothers in the Bronx, whom he called “the force of the household.” Eventually, he met a woman who became his wife, Hilda Gerena Diaz—the person who became the family breadwinner while he ran for office.

“Even though I lost that first race, she’s the one who paid the bills in our house,” he said to thunderous applause and whistles from the crowd.

He added that the Bronx—home to more women than men—is also the birthplace of women like Jennifer Lopez, Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“In this borough, when you give a woman the opportunity, she will conquer her craft,” Diaz Jr. said. “And she will conquer the world.”

It all began with a professor named Sarah Gambito, an award-winning poet and director of Fordham’s creative writing program. She had heard about Yale’s most popular class of all time—Psychology and the Good Life, a college course designed to teach students how to have a happier life. She thought it was something she could bring to Fordham.

But Gambito’s class, titled The Good Life, has a different take on happiness. Through twice-weekly lectures, Gambito taught 16 students how creative writing can spark a deeper sense of personal well-being—and vice versa.

“The point is how can creative writing help usher us into a greater—a better—sense of living?” Gambito said. “It’s been said that a good life is a creative life.”

Yoga, Succulents, and Adventures in the Bronx

At the beginning of the semester, Gambito gifted each student with a small green succulent. Over the next few months, the students fed and watered their succulents, took notes about their development, and watched their plant babies grow.

“Taking care of yourself is like taking care of a plant,” she explained. “You have to nurture yourself.”

In the classroom, they took a meditative approach toward the creative writing process, drawing on the four main goals of life in the Hindu religion: dharma (truth), kama (joy), artha (prosperity), and moksha (liberation). For one class session, they gathered at the McGinley Center for an afternoon of yoga, contemplation, and freewriting about their meditation experience. After a few rounds of yoga, they draped Korean white sheet masks across their faces, lay on mats and towels, and listened to a soothing, instrumental music playlist on Spotify. The idea was to quiet their bodies and listen to that small, still voice deep inside, said Gambito—a voice that’s often eclipsed by the noise of our everyday responsibilities.

Their expeditions also extended beyond the campus. Gambito sent them on a scavenger hunt through the New York Botanical Garden, where they free wrote about the flora and fauna. Another day, they visited Egidio Pastry Shop, a mom-and-pop store a few blocks from the Rose Hill campus, and reflected on their dining experience via Google reviews.

“Part of what it means to be a creative writer is to get out of the classroom and to be involved with your community,” Gambito explained.

Storytelling Over A Shared Meal

On their last day of class in Keating Hall, Gambito and her students shared a potluck supper.

Their classroom windowsill was laden with goodies baked or bought by students: vegan monkey bread, mini pizza bagels, empanadas. Gambito herself bought five pies from Bella’s Pizza, the place with “the best pizza in the Bronx,” she declared to the class—according to Google, that is.

As they ate, the students spoke about experiences that helped them become better creative writers or thinkers. Some brought meaningful objects: a drawing from a student’s favorite book, pencils tagged with poems on small slips of paper, homemade Irish soda bread, a student’s first published story for a Fordham student journal.

Then there was Fia Swanson, FCRH ’21, who brought in her most valuable piece of jewelry—a simple pair of bronze-colored, chandelier-style earrings. She asked her peers to guess who gave them to her.

“In popcorn style, yell out your first guess,” she said.

“Mother.” “Grandparent.” “Boyfriend.” “Best friend.” “Godmother.”

“Yourself!” someone said, as people laughed.

“Actually, my therapist gave me these,” Swanson answered.

In her senior year of high school, Swanson’s father contacted a therapist for her named Dr. P. She didn’t have time for any more clients. So without telling his daughter, he sent Dr. P something that Swanson had written: a personal essay about her identity, being biracial, and her childhood.

“She read it, and said, ‘I read what you wrote, and I just had to meet you,’” Swanson recalled. “I couldn’t believe it was my writing that would get me the therapy that changed my life.”

On the day of her last session with Dr. P, Swanson’s face was covered in tears.

“She hugged me that day, and I broke down crying like I never had before,” Swanson said. “When my father came to pick me up, she jokingly said to him, ‘She’s gonna write my book for me someday.’”

The last presenter, Haris Basic, FCRH ’21, recalled memories with his best friends of nine years, like watching a zombie movie together at one in the morning and reminiscing about their high school days during a six-hour car drive to Buffalo, New York.

“I wish they were here to hear you talk about that,” said a student. “Because it was just so beautiful.”

“They would roast me,” Basic said, as the rest of the class erupted into laughter.

As he finished his presentation and the class began to applaud, he suddenly broke in.

“Wait, wait … I wanted to thank you all and Professor Gambito for being people who have inspired me to explore my creative side through writing,” he said. “Thank you all for being open and accepting.”  

Finding Community Among Writers

In the final minutes of their last class, Gambito’s students reflected on what they’ve learned. Through workshopping each other’s work, the students say they learned that writing a good piece is a group effort. But perhaps most importantly, the course has shown them the importance of caring for both their mind and body. By becoming more in touch with their emotions and their body, the students say they have developed a crucial skill for good writing—being more vulnerable in the stories they write.

“The greatest text you can think about is the text of your life. And for you to be an author of that, for you to feel agency and empowerment [is very important],” Gambito said. “Sometimes that’s easy to forget—that you are the architect of the stories that you’re able to tell.”

The Good Life will be taught again next fall.

On Nov. 2 at Keating Hall, the Fordham Veterans Association hosted two executive leaders from Student Veterans of America (SVA), a nonprofit organization that aids more than 1,500 colleges and 700,000 student veterans across the country. James Schmeling, SVA’s executive vice president, and Jared Lyon, SVA’s president and CEO, gave a talk geared toward faculty and staff at Fordham, which is home to around 500 student veterans and veteran dependants.  

The day’s lecture was a personal topic for many in the room, including Matthew Butler, PCS ’16, director of Military and Veterans’ Services at Fordham and a former Marine, and the two guest speakers—both of whom are first-generation college students who served in the military. And, said Butler, who introduced the talk, it was also a chance to remember Fordham’s veterans who died nearly a century ago.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to draw your attention to the armistice signed on November 11, 1918—a hundred years ago. I draw your attention to the armistice because of the men from Fordham University who joined the fight in Europe during World War I,” Butler said.

“Several of them didn’t come home … Those service members who fought in the war to end all wars are why we are here today.”

Facts and Figures

Schmeling spoke about the post-9/11 veteran population, their challenges with returning to civilian life, and how colleges and universities can benefit from having veterans in their student body.

“Forty-six percent of post-9/11 veterans are somewhere between 18 and 34,” he said. “That’s the population that’s returning to school.”

These veterans face a variety of challenges when they leave the military: navigating their veterans benefits, finding a job, acclimating to a non-combatant life, struggling with finances, and understanding how to apply their military skills to their new jobs, Schmeling said. But they’re also better students than most people might imagine.

On average, post-9/11 veterans achieve higher educational attainment than earlier generations and the general U.S. population, he said. Forty-one percent of post-9/11 veterans have a college or associate degree. On the other hand, only 28 percent of the total U.S. population have that same level of education. Many student veterans are well-educated, Schmeling said—but most people don’t think they are.

“I’ve just given you the data and the facts,” said Schmeling, who sourced statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Census Bureau, journal studies, and information collected in a collaboration between SVA and the Institute for Veterans and Military Veterans at Syracuse University. Then he paused.

“But these,” he said, introducing his next topic, “are the perceptions. And these perceptions are what are really, really important.”

Fighting Commonly Held Perceptions

Schmeling addressed common perceptions held by veterans, non-veterans, employers, educators, and military spouses. He showed the audience several bar graphs from the 2018 Veterans’ Well-Being Survey, a study of more than 4,500 veterans and non-veterans conducted by Edelman Intelligence, a global communications marketing firm.

Majorities from each population indicated that that they think veterans are more than or equally likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree as non-veterans, he said. However, the same is not true for advanced degrees.

A whopping 70 percent of military spouses said they believe military veterans are less likely than the average citizen to obtain a degree ranked around a Ph.D.

He also noted that 53 percent of employers believe that, compared to non-veterans, most veterans do not have successful careers after they leave military service. And barely half of veterans themselves believe that the majority of veterans have successful careers post-military service.

From Combat to Campus

But student veterans have both facts and data on their side. They’re not only college material—they’re an asset to college classrooms, Schmeling argued.

First off, student veterans aren’t likely to incur much debt. As of May 2018, the post-9/11 G.I. Bill/ Yellow Ribbon program has funded $75 billion for veterans’ tuition, fees, book stipends, and housing allowance, he said. Fordham’s commitment to the Yellow Ribbon program guarantees that all tuition and fees are fully covered for admitted eligible veterans.

Student veterans also bring diversity in age, ethnicity, marital status, and disabilities. In addition, they possess military-honed skills that can transfer to their studies and future jobs: work ethic and discipline, mental toughness, teamwork. And on average, he added, student veterans have a higher GPA than traditional students at four-year-degree-granting institutions nationwide.

“This is contrary to the picture that the media paints—of homelessness, of PTSD, of workplace violence, among other sorts of things,” he said. “Why is that? Well—what sells? A negative story, right?”

Veterans typically do best in colleges and universities that have a good peer support system, advisors, and networking opportunities, Schmeling and Lyon said.

“The number one thing we can provide a student veteran—if you give them this one thing, they’re three times more likely to graduate than anything else—shocks a lot of people. It’s a peer. It’s a friend—someone you can relate to firsthand in that college environment,” Lyon said.

“I started my undergraduate experience at the age of 28 years old at Florida State University,” he said. “And as I looked across a sea of 42,000 undergraduates … I mean, one of these things was not like the other. And that was me.”

Schmeling added that many student veterans he’s spoken with, especially first-generation college students, had no idea they could graduate from college after serving in the military.

“They had no idea they could thrive in an environment like Fordham,” he said. “If you tell them that they can be successful, we convince them that they can be successful, and we continue to invite them to our campuses, they will be successful.”

Anna Ponterosso, university registrar and director of academic records, said she found the lecture to be informative. 

Feature photo: Shutterstock; Other photos: Taylor Ha

The rabbi is Hanan Schlesinger, a Zionist settler who once viewed Palestinians as less than human; the young activist is Shadi Abu Awwad, a Palestinian who grew up hating Israelis. For decades, their countries have claimed ownership to the same land, leading to hostility, hatred, and hundreds of deaths on both sides. But after these two men forced themselves to get to know their neighbors, they reached a simple, yet striking realization—their “enemies” are humans who live, love, and bleed, just like them, they said.

“How could it be that I have lived my life in an area where there are probably nine Palestinians for each Israeli, and for 33 years, I never really met even one Palestinian?” Rabbi Schlesinger admitted to Fordham students, faculty, and guests at the Rose Hill campus last week. “I want to tell the story of how I think that happened … and how that can change.”

The two men shared their stories in a lecture called “A Painful Hope: Seeing the Humanity of Your Enemy,” hosted by Fordham’s peace and justice minor program and Chief Diversity Officer Rafael Zapata, at Keating Hall on Nov. 1. They also spoke about Roots, their organization that has facilitated conversations between Israelis and Palestinians since 2014. Rabbi Schlesinger is Roots’ international director; Abu Awwad is a youth group leader.

Roots is the only organization of its kind in their region, said Samuel Muli Peleg, Ph.D., a longtime peace activist and faculty member in Fordham’s peace and justice studies program.

“Because they are from the West Bank, the most contested area where the friction between Israelis and Palestinians is the biggest,” explained Peleg, “they are the most genuine [peacebuilders].”

“I see it again and again—Palestinians and Israelis coming to our center with hesitancy, with fear, like there’s a red line in the sand,” Rabbi Schlesinger said, his voice rising in a crescendo. “But when the meeting takes place, I often see a sense of liberation on people’s faces, as the fear dissipates, and the disease begins to be healed, and people become, in my mind, whole … and a little bit more human.”

Rabbi Schlesinger’s Story

Rabbi Schlesinger lives in a Zionist settlement in the West Bank, a territory to the east of Israel. In 1967, Israel took control of the West Bank, along with its 2.6 million Palestinian residents. To the Palestinians, the West Bank is stolen Palestinian land. But to Rabbi Schlesinger and his kin, the West Bank is “Judea and Samaria”—the homeland of the ancient Jewish state, he said. It’s the home of many sacred sites, burial areas, and, ultimately, Jewish heritage. If you scrape away the dirt outside his home, he added, you might unearth ancient potshards from his ancestors thousands of years ago.

“When I drive on the roads of Judea, when I walk in the fields, I see the return of the Jewish people to our ancient homeland after 2,000 years of exile. It was only in 1948—three years after the Holocaust ended—that we finally created one little dot [Israel] on the map,” Rabbi Schlesinger added. “What could be more just than that?”

For 33 years, he had viewed Palestinians as background noise, “the gray, drab scenery that passes in the background of a movie, but is not part of the plot,” he said. Four years ago, that narrative changed.

He met Jamaal, a Palestinian man from the town of Beit Ummar. Jamaal told him how Israeli soldiers had made his childhood miserable; how, after shaking hands with an Israeli man, he had run to the bathroom to wash away “the filth of touching an Israeli”; and how he had considered Palestinians who attended interfaith meetings to be traitors. But after hours of meaningful conversations with other Israelis—after “seeing that there’s a human being and a partner on the other side,” Rabbi Schlesinger recalled him saying—Jamaal’s perspective changed.

Rabbi Schlesinger met more Palestinians, and listened to many more stories: a man whose mother was beaten before his eyes by an Israeli, a Palestinian whose brother was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, a group of Israeli and Palestinian mothers who mourned their murdered sons together. He came to a conclusion.

“In living out my life on the basis of only one truth—my truth, and ignoring theirs—I was trampling their rights,” Rabbi Schlesinger told the audience. “Both sides in this conflict are living out identities at expense to the other side, causing injustice, pain, suffering, and death.”

“Neither side is gonna get up and leave. We have to get beyond what I call the ‘hubris of exclusivity,’ as if it’s only us. It’s both of us—together.”

Abu Awwad’s Story

Abu Awwad’s childhood taught him two things: Fear is not an option. And, once you leave home in the morning, there’s no guarantee that you’ll return home alive.

“That was more than enough for me as a child to start to hate Israelis,” said 27-year-old Abu Awwad, who grew up amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In 2004, an Israeli soldier shot his brother in the leg. Hours later, an Israeli doctor saved the brother’s life. But when Abu Awwad visited his brother in the hospital, he ignored the doctor. His brother stared at him. “You can’t say hi to the one who saved my life?” he asked.

When Abu Awwad returned home, he was angry and disoriented. He despised Israelis, he said, but how could he extend that hatred to the woman who had helped his family? As time passed, his animosity began to dissipate. He visited peace camps, befriended Israelis, and came to a realization: “They [Israelis and Palestinians] are killing each other because they are afraid of each other,” he said. “Now what’s controlling the conflict is fear.”

Abu Awwad recalled a day when he was driving across a junction. He had spotted an Israeli woman who wanted to cross the street, and slowed his car down. But when she saw his Palestinian license plate, she stopped in her tracks. She’s afraid that I will hit her, he thought. Then a nearby Israeli soldier cocked his gun. If I continue driving, Abu Awwad wondered, will he shoot me? If I don’t move, will he think I have a bomb in my car—and still shoot me?

“I’m afraid. He’s afraid. She’s afraid. The three of us could be killed for nothing—just because we are afraid of each other,” he said. “Is this the life that we want?”

Today, he is a youth leader and peace activist at Roots. Every month, he facilitates meetings between teenagers from both sides of the conflict, ages 15 to 18. At this age, he said, the young Palestinians gather in the streets and throw stones at Israeli vehicles and are shot and killed; meanwhile, the Israelis enlist in the army and stand against the Palestinians.

“How can we let them do that without even knowing anything about each other?” he asked. “Talk to him before he has a weapon in his hand. Tell him who you are. Tell him why you have to be in the army. Let him think about it from your eyes.”

He said the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come from the people—not the government. Therefore, he added, nonviolence and organizations like Roots are key.

“I don’t think that I will see peace in my life,” Abu Awwad admitted. “But I’m sure that what we are doing, one day, will help the people who are gonna live in that land. We never know when. But it’s enough to believe in what we are doing right now.”

A new image will be revealed every night as we count down to Halloween 2018.

 

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Spooky season is upon us ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Fordham presents: The 13 Nights of Halloween. Enjoy these haunting illustrations by Peter Stults; a new one will be revealed every night. . . [Image: an illustration shows a ghost photobombing two girls standing on a path on the Rose Hill campus] . #fordham #halloween #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 19, 2018 at 3:24pm PDT

 

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You never know who — or what — is watching over the Plaza… ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of a gargoyle perching on a clock overlooking Fordham Lincoln Center’s Plaza] . #fordham #halloween

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 20, 2018 at 3:44pm PDT

 

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There’s a new resident in Loyola Hall #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ . [Image: An illustration of a ventriloquist dummy sitting on the floor inside a residence hall room] . #fordham #halloween

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 21, 2018 at 3:33pm PDT

 

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*Turns around and runs the other way* #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: A flock of rams with red eyes blocks a hallway in Lowenstein] . #fordham #halloween #rams

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 22, 2018 at 3:37pm PDT

 

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Spooky illustration or actual @fordhamcats photo? #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: A black cat sits in a graveyard] . #fordham #halloween #blackcat

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 23, 2018 at 3:21pm PDT

 

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It follows #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: A shadowed figure floats next to a Ram Van parked in front of Fordham Lincoln Center] . #fordham #halloween #ramvan #nyc

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 24, 2018 at 3:34pm PDT

 

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When you think you’re finally safe on the Westchester campus but you’re wrong #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: A disgruntled student walks around Fordham’s Westchester campus while bats follow him] . #fordham #halloween #bats #fordhamwestchester

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 25, 2018 at 3:17pm PDT

 

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Go Rave — we mean, Rams! #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: The Ramses mascot stands in front of the football stands holding a raven on his hand] . #fordham #ramses #halloween #raven

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 26, 2018 at 3:43pm PDT

 

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Beware of the Flying Dutchman #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of a ghost ship passing behind Fordham Law School] . #fordham #halloween #ghostship

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 27, 2018 at 3:20pm PDT

 

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Down to take a dip in Calder Lake? #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of a creature emerging from the lake at Calder Center] . #fordham #halloween #CalderCenter

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 28, 2018 at 3:12pm PDT

 

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Tomorrow is our @fordhamlondon dedication! Be sure to check out our Instagram story and Facebook Live stream for the ribbon cutting ceremony, tours of the building and surrounding neighborhood, and more! #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of a werewolf sitting on top of the Fordham London Centre building with a full moon in the background] . #fordham #halloween #werewolf #london #clerkenwell

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Have you seen the pesky poltergeists playing in the Keating Bell Tower? #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of poltergeists playing in and around the Keating Bell Tower] . #fordham #keating #bells

A post shared by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 30, 2018 at 3:17pm PDT

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Happy Halloween, Rams! Thanks for taking this spooky journey with us #Fordhams13NightsofHalloween . . [Image: An illustration of zombies on Eddies as the sun rises over Keating Hall] . #fordham #DawnOfTheDead #Keating #EdwardsParade #Eddies

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“Ed, aren’t you a math teacher?” he asked.

Yes, said Burger, president of Southwestern University, a mathematics professor, and the author of a new book called “Making Up Your Own Mind: Thinking Effectively through Creative Puzzle-Solving,” which was the subject of his presentation at Fordham College at Rose Hill on Oct. 3.

The boy asked him for help. Burger scanned the math problems. Try the question about donuts, he suggested. But Seamus was stumped.

“He was, basically, intellectually constipated,” Burger remembered. “He was pushing and pushing, and not one idea would come out.”

So they tried something different.

“When I say go, I want you to give me an answer that you’re confident is wrong,” said Burger.

“16!” Seamus immediately said.

The boy was wrong, but he was close. And that was the point. Instead of just sitting there, trying to solve a problem he couldn’t, he took action. He ignored the pressure of getting the right answer, got a wrong answer, and learned from his mistakes. And once he did, the right answer wasn’t far behind.

“Effective failure is how you respond to failure. So the failing itself—not that interesting or important,” he said. “It’s what you do next.”

Solving Real-World Problems through Effective Thinking

This concept—intentionally failing, and then gaining a different perspective that allows you to grow and react in a meaningful way—was the foundation of Burger’s presentation, “Making Up Your Own Mind: Thinking Effectively through Creative Puzzle-Solving.”

“Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that you do this on your final exam,” he told the students at the lecture. “But it’s an intermediate step.”

The lecture, co-sponsored by the Rose Hill dean’s office, the math department, and the Graduate School of Education, was about how to think more effectively and creatively in our daily lives. Burger’s advice, he said, could apply to all aspects of life: work, academic, personal.

Failing effectively was just one part of a three-part formula that Burger developed and described to the audience gathered in Keating Hall.  

Understand simple things deeply. Don’t try to understanding something that, at first glance, seems very complicated, Burger said. Focus on something simple that’s related to that complicated problem. Examine it at a “subatomic particle level,” until you’ve noticed some feature that didn’t register before. “You’ll begin to understand that simple thing deeper, and then the more complex thing that you were first struggling with becomes easier to think about.”

Add the adjective. When you approach a math question, your first instinct is to solve it, said Burger. That can be a bad approach if you’re not fluent in the material. “Back up. Force yourself to describe it. Add as many descriptors as you can to describe the thing that you’re looking at. And every word that you add is going to reveal something you otherwise wouldn’t have seen,” he said.

Fail intentionally. Failure is good for you, he emphasized—as long as you gain some new insight from that failure, and then respond in a thoughtful way.

The audience was riveted. “How did you come up with this stuff?” asked one man.

It was an idea that was more than 20 years in the making, said Burger. He integrated these three steps into a class he developed at Southwestern University, where he gave students puzzles on which to practice this mindset, and eventually encouraged them to apply it to their own everyday lives.

After explaining the three-part approach, Burger quizzed his audience with a problem from his new book.

On a projector screen, he presented pictures of three black-and-white chess boards. The first one was normal. The other two were truncated: the second board was missing its northwestern and northeastern corners; the third one was missing its northwestern and southeastern corners.

“Imagine that you have a whole bunch of dominos, and each domino will cover exactly two squares,” he said. “And so the question is, can you cover each chess board with dominos so that every domino covers two squares, every square is covered, and no square is covered by two dominos?”

For two minutes, he said, apply those three practices to a puzzle. Brainstorm with the strangers next to you. And don’t actually solve the puzzles. Practice this way of thinking, and see where it leads you.

Each chess board had an even number of squares. The first board had 64.

“Sixty-four is a big number. What if I thought about a smaller chess board?” Burger said. “So understand simple things deeply.” Using a black ballpoint pen, he sketched the simplest version of the normal board—a two-by-two version.

And then, after drawing mini versions of the other two boards, an audience member “added the adjective.” The chess boards, said the audience member, were “white and black.” In a regular chessboard, a Domino needs to cover a white square and a black square, Burger reasoned. Then the audience noticed something different: the colors of the tiles that were removed. In the second board, a black and white tile were removed. In the third board, two black tiles were removed. Thus, the third board would not work.

“Now you realize that the missing squares in the second case were a different color, and the missing squares in the last case were actually the same color,” Burger said. “Just within a matter of minutes, you’ve looked at something that you’ve seen your whole life in a different way.”

“Just using those three things, you now see a chess board differently. And in some sense, I think that’s a metaphor for what we have within ourselves—the power we have through our own thoughts, when harnessed effectively, to see everything differently,” he continued. “And more magically.”

Joanna Mercuri

Look who’s at #Fordham! @jimgaffigan and @jeanniegaffigan! Jeannie is receiving the #EloquentiaPerfecta award from the Graduate School of #Religion.

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 14, 2016 at 4:18pm PDT

When the real #Greektragedy is a pair of tiny little arms Meet Oedipus Tyrannosaurus Rex. (a.k.a., Devin D’Agostino, FCRH ’20) A scene from the annual Classics Department #Halloween party — dress as your favorite Homeric figure. • #happyhalloween #classics #oedipusrex #TRex #trexcostume #toga

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Oct 31, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

Oedipus Tyrannosaurus Rex: Sheer. Brilliance.

Tanisia Morris

A snowy, wintry day in #NYC Photo by @fordhamramblers • #Fordham #cunniffefountain #rosehill #bronx #snow

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Dec 17, 2016 at 10:44am PST

This photograph of the Rose Hill campus after a snowfall is ethereal.

Looking north Here’s the view of #LincolnCenter from the 12th floor of #Lowenstein. • #NewYorkIsMyCampus #Manhattan #NYC #citylife #cityviews

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 28, 2016 at 6:03am PST

I like the backdrop of this image of Lincoln Center from the Lowenstein building. It really captures the stillness of the city.

Rachel Roman

#NewYorkIsMyCampus, from #Manhattan skyscrapers to the woods of #Westchester. Here’s a view of the #lake at the Calder Center, #Fordham’s biological field station in Armonk, NY. Photo via @louiscaldercenter • #Fordham175 #caldercenter #fordhaminthefall

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 27, 2016 at 11:27am PST

Nothing beats fall foliage at Fordham (like the alliteration?), and I love when we showcase the Calder Center.

#merrychristmas #bronx #rosehill #fordham #verymerry

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Dec 15, 2015 at 5:58pm PST

This photo is beautiful. I’m making a Christmas card out of it.

Janet Sassi

Now that much of #Fordham2020 has arrived, here’s some advice from a #NewYorker on taking care of some basics. #fordham4me #nyismycampus

A video posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Aug 30, 2016 at 10:44am PDT

There are no truer words of wisdom than the advice for new freshmen from this real New Yorker: Shop at the Dollar Store, where you can wander aimlessly for hours buying things you may or may not need, and still come out ahead.

Hey, #Fordham graduating seniors — what’s the song you think of when you look back on your time as a Ram? Post them in the comments section, and see if they make our special grads Spotify list! Need a little inspiration? Check out this video with some of your classmates!

A video posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Apr 25, 2016 at 4:54pm PDT

With four years behind them, we asked 2016 graduates to recall the song that summed up the overall sentiment of their college experience.

Tom Stoelker

TOUCHDOWN! Fourth quarter, 47-14, Rams winning #RCCup #GoRams #fordhamfootball

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 12, 2016 at 2:39pm PST

One of many touchdowns scored this season by the Rams, but this one is at Yankee Stadium for the Ram Crusader cup—which we won.

Not an “insta”gram, but we figured you could use some brightness on this rainy #NYC day. Here’s a shot from #Fordham’s #Westchester campus at last week’s #Dodransbicentennial celebration there. Check out the story on news.fordham.edu for more. • #NewYorkIsMyCampus #Fordham175

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 15, 2016 at 5:54am PST

A late fall sunset over Fordham’s Westchester campus highlights the modernist gem by architect Victor Bisharat.

Patrick Verel

Keating Hall and the moon. It’s a winning combination. #rosehill #fordham2016 #awesome

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on May 19, 2016 at 6:10pm PDT

May 20, 2016: Twas the night before commencement, and under a vibrant full moon, you could practically feel the energy of graduations past amidst empty seats on Edwards Parade.

It’s #SquirrelAppreciationDay! All you Rams know that Fordham squirrels are the best, so to them… congrats (on being awesome squirrels)!

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Jan 21, 2016 at 10:27am PST

The Ram is the official mascot of the University, but for my money, the black squirrel rules the roost at Rose Hill.

Gina Vergel

Guess who was on campus today? The @nyjets and members of the @nypd Police Athletic League! The group turned Martyr’s Lawn into a #flagfootball field for #NYC kids Check out our Facebook page for the full album. Thanks for coming by, guys! • #Fordham #fordhaminthefall #nyjets #nypd #NYC #Bronx

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 1, 2016 at 2:46pm PDT

Fordham offers so much to its students, but I love seeing when young people from NYC and beyond can enjoy our beautiful campuses!

#Fordham’s president, Father McShane reads to a class at #Trenton, New Jersey’s Christine Seix Dow Academy. Along with the students, the academy’s founder and Fordham benefactor Christine Seix Dow, TMC ’72, sits in to listen.

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Jan 7, 2016 at 1:01pm PST

Father McShane reading to little children? Instant favorite.

As the year comes to a close, here are a few of our favorites, in no particular order.

Patrick Verel

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 I have no idea why I thought it’d be fun to make Edwards’ Parade look like Hoth. I guess I was thinking about Stars Wars even back in February.

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Crocuses are far and away my favorite flower, because they show up way before anything else is hardy enough to make a go of it.

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I just love this kids’ attitude. She’s got future Ram written all over her.

Rachel Roman

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Okay, technically NOT a picture, but the drone footage was awesome.

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Everything about this photo is beautiful. The fog, the snow, even the bare tree branches. And I usually hate bare tree branches, because they look sad =(

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Because who doesn’t love a Pope doll in a Fordham jacket. Can I get one of these for my desk?

Tom Stoelker

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I love this shot from Mission and Ministry’s John Gownley. At 1600 likes it was one of the most popular posts of the year and reminded us that Keating isn’t Rose Hill’s only iconic tower.

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This shot by Patick Verel is a stunner of Duane Library. We’ve all seen the light stream like this and it never fails to impress.

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Love, love, love the pizza nuns shot! Joanna Mercuri tells us that the nuns were singing while waiting in line to see the pope at Madison Square Garden, but when they finally paused for a bite to eat Joanna captured a moment of community both large and small.

Chris Gosier

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Somehow, the Ram seems to be standing a little taller for his usual backdrop being blotted out by a snowstorm.

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I like this cool angle; you can almost see the flowers pushing upward because of the odd angle with the statue of Dagger John.

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Love this shot of Cunniffe House. The photographer seems to have caught it at just the right time of day.

Joanna Mercuri

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Because can we ever get enough of fall beauty shots?

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Fordham students abroad at our London Centre campus.

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Our new home in Martino Hall gives us some pretty awesome views of the Lincoln Center campus.

Gina Vergel

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Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J., our president, is a tremendous speaker – in public or in casual conversation. Joanna Mercuri caught him during Move-in Day 2015 and it was great.

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This beautiful shot of the candle-lighting ceremony on Edwards Parade during orientation/Move-In weekend garnered more than 800 likes, and shows the sense of community welcome new students receive.

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A beautiful shot of a commute so many in the Fordham family know so well.

Just ask Will (FCRH ’07) and Angelica (FCRH ’07, GSS ’08) Corrigan.

The Keating Hall steps, engraved with the names of heads of state who have visited campus, was the site of the Corrigans’ very first kiss, on a drizzly spring evening in 2005. Five years later, Keating served as the location of Will’s surprise wedding proposal.

Will had interned in Fordham’s alumni relations office as a student, and he kept in touch with several contacts there after graduating. In late 2010, he called on them for help with his plan to lure Angelica (née Iacono) back to campus for the proposal, asking them to create a fake evite for an alumni Christmas party to take place the first week of December in Keating Hall.

Will planned to ask Angelica to marry him on the steps of Keating, but when they arrived on campus that frigid Friday, Angelica insisted it was too cold to walk to the steps at the front of the building and wanted to enter through a side door instead. Somewhere in between, Will got down on one knee and proposed.

“There was a mix of tears and runny noses,” said Angelica. “But there was no hesitation in my reply, and it wasn’t because I was freezing but because there was nothing to think over or consider. I knew he was the one!”

Eventually, they entered Keating Hall so Angelica could take off her gloves and put on the ring. She then insisted that they get to the party—which she still didn’t realize wasn’t happening.

Instead, in true Fordham style, Will had made reservations at their favorite Arthur Avenue restaurant, Emilia’s, and after dinner, they stopped at another favorite hangout, Pugsley’s—where “Pizza is good and love is it!”—to tell the owners their news.

“Pugsley’s was a big part of our Fordham lives,” said Will. “Countless late nights were spent there just hanging out eating a Ritchie’s special or a garlic bread with cheese, or singing karaoke, or some other late-night shenanigans. We even got them to reopen after the Senior Ball.”

Owner Sal Natale recalled how Will and Angelica had started coming in as part of a group and over time came in as a couple, eventually winning a karaoke contest together.

“They are both beautiful people, and we watched their love grow,” he said. “We couldn’t ignore what we saw in them.”

Will and Angelica were married on May 5, 2012, at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Malverne, New York. The wedding party included their former classmates Christina Morea (FCRH ’07), Annette Vetrano (GSB ’07), Katrina Vetrano (FCRH ’07), and Robert Rowe (FCRH ’07), and more than 20 Fordham alumni attended the reception.

Today, Will is a performance and reward manager for HSBC, and Angelica is a social worker for the North Shore-LIJ Health System, where she works at an elementary school mental health clinic. She is taking a little time off, though, on maternity leave with the couple’s three-month-old son, Nino.

Wanting to acknowledge the important place Fordham has in their lives, the Corrigans recently decided to give back to the University that brought them together. They made a gift to the Fordham Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, and in so doing became members of the Young Alumni President’s Club.

As a former Founder’s Scholar, Will knows well the help scholarship support brings students, “how much of a burden was lifted off of me and my family.” He said giving back helps keep the Fordham community strong.

“Father McShane, from his first day talking to us, said, ‘We’re going to make Fordham the number one Catholic university in the country.’ And he hasn’t stopped,” said Will, referring to Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “In order to continue that, [we wanted]to give back.”

But at heart the Corrigans’ reasons for giving are personal.

“We had such a good experience at Fordham, and it is so close to our hearts,” said Angelica. “Our relationship, our marriage, our friendships … just to give kids who might not have the opportunity the extra help to get there. That’s why we give back.”

And while Will is still lamenting that Nino’s impending birth caused them to miss Homecoming last fall, and that Angelica has not yet let him bring Nino to visit the Rose Hill campus because of all the cold New York weather, he still feels that there might be a bit of the Ram in his son.

“I’m not saying that Nino will go to Fordham,” said Will. “But maybe he will meet his wife there someday.”

Now that would be some Fordham love story.

—Maja Tarateta

Photo by Jon Roemer

Photo courtesy of Fordham University Archives