“It was very humbling and … certainly an acknowledgement of what I had done, but for me, it was like, ‘OK, so now what?’” Jerome said. “I figured, if I’m going to represent Bergen County in this capacity, I need to know what’s going on in Bergen County.”

Jerome, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Fordham College Rose Hill in 2007 and a master’s degree at the Graduate School of Education two years later, had an idea that she would visit teachers from each of the 76 public school districts in Bergen County, New Jersey. She wanted to learn about some of the innovative projects they were bringing to their classrooms, and share their insights and creativity with the community.

The question was, how?

“I can’t just bombard a teacher and say, ‘Hey, can I come visit you?’ I have to bring them something,” she said. “Then it came to me—coffee, everybody likes coffee or some variation of a warm beverage.”

That’s how the idea for the web series Teachers in Classrooms Drinking Coffee was born—inspired by the Jerry Seinfeld show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Visiting 76 School Districts: #Mission76

Putting the idea into practice took some logistical planning, she said, but she managed to secure a sponsorship from Dunkin’ Donuts, and she hasn’t had a hard time finding teachers willing to talk with her on camera.

By late January, Jerome was already up to her 34th interview in the series.

Her plan is to finish visiting all 76 districts by May, when she is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the County Teacher of the Year Luncheon, where she plans to share some of the success stories she’s heard from her fellow teachers.

“I want to celebrate what I’ve seen going on in the county, and I think then I will have served the position well if I can report back on what’s actually going on in Bergen County schools,” she said.

On January 29, she stopped to visit Tara Mizzoni, a fourth grade teacher in Rochelle Park, a district about 20 minutes away from Pascack Valley.

Mizzoni was happy to tell Jerome of her experience working with 49 other teachers across the United States to launch a postcard project to help fourth graders learn from each other about the geography, culture, and fun facts of other states.

“We wrote to them and we introduced New Jersey,” she said, and so far, they’ve heard from students in about 40 other states.

Besides teaching the students about each of the states, the project has introduced some of them to letter writing and receiving mail.

“Every day [the students ask], ‘Do we have mail, do we have mail?’” Mizzoni said. “And it’s so interesting because they don’t get mail at home really, because of technology, so there’s now this huge passion” for the project.

In addition to wanting to understand what was happening in school districts across Bergen County, Jerome thought the project might help shine a light on the lessons teachers put together to help enhance the learning experience for their students.

So far, her journey has brought her to classrooms all over the county and showed her lessons on how “Carpool Karaoke” can be used to teach students about the intersection of history and music; how beekeeping can help students understand sustainability practices; and how a “student of the month” program, displayed near the school’s main entrance, can help boost confidence and productivity.

“The idea is to elevate the profession,” she said. “We’re trying to say, ‘Magic goes on in these classrooms.’”

Jerome said learning about other teachers’ projects inspires her in her own work. One of the ideas she came across that she’s planning to implement at Pascack Valley is a tribute to military veterans who attended the school.

Her own innovative lessons, however, helped her gain the recognition in the first place.

In January, to help her students understand the “forces of revolution,” including nationalism, and feminism, that were brewing across the globe in the early 20th century, she had her AP World History class write biographical poems about some of the key historical figures involved in these movements and present them to the class.

She’s also very involved outside of the classroom, serving as the adviser to the Asian Culture Club and One Spirit, a service club that visits South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Reservation to both volunteer with the Cheyenne River Youth Project and learn about Native American culture and history. She also runs the school’s National History Day.

In addition to being named Bergen County Teacher of the Year by the New Jersey Department of Education, Jerome has been recognized by the New Jersey Council for Social Studies, which selected her as its Secondary Teacher of the Year for 2018–2019. In 2013, she earned a James Madison Fellowship, which she used to attend Drew University to study early American history and the Constitution.

It’s this work that impressed both the school and the officials at the Department of Education, according to Pascack Valley Regional High School District Superintendent P. Erik Gundersen.

“We are proud of Leah’s compassionate, innovative, and progressive spirit,” he said in a statement. “I believe it is her work both in and out of the classroom, her dedication to her school and individual students, and her passion for social justice and history, that makes her such an exceptional educator.”

A Jesuit-Inspired Passion for Teaching

Jerome said her passion for teaching was kindled while she was still an undergraduate at Fordham.

“Fordham gave me [a]forum to explore my love of history, to be taught by true experts in their field, and to be surrounded by a community of students who shared in that passion,” she said, “to a point where I went back to Fordham for my master’s in education.”

She also credited the University for helping to form compassionate teachers, professionals who care about their work and their students. The previous teacher of the year for Bergen County, Christine Esola, FCRH ’98, is also a Fordham graduate, Jerome noted.

“Fordham’s doing something exceptional … [creating]teachers who love and value education,” she said, “and for me, Fordham was a big part of that development and growth.”

Watch Teachers in Classrooms Drinking Coffee: An Interview with Fordham Alumna Leah Jerome

As the 2012-13 academic year comes to a close, news of academic, cultural, and service-oriented awards continues to pour into the Office of Prestigious Fellowships. As of June 26, Fordham students earned 161 national and international awards, including 12 Fulbright fellowships, a Boren Scholarship, a Lilly Graduate Fellowship, and a James Madison Memorial Fellowship.

Leah Jerome, FCRH ’07, GSE ’09, is the recipient of the first James Madison Memorial Fellowship to be awarded to a Fordham student or alumnus in more than a decade. The fellowship allows current teachers to obtain graduate degrees geared toward teaching American history, American government, the Constitution, and/or social studies on the secondary education level.

Jerome plans to attend Drew University to study early American history and the Constitution.

“As a teacher, I feel I’m always learning through teaching, and teaching through learning,” said Jerome, who teaches social studies at Pascack Valley High School in New Jersey. “Going back to school is valuable to me, and also valuable to my students, because I become more of an expert in my field.”

As a fellow, Jerome will attend a four-week Summer Institute on the Constitution taught by constitutional scholars at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Other award highlights include:

• a Boren Scholarship to Ian Grotton, FCRH ’15, to China;
• a Lilly Graduate Fellowship to Marian Rogers, FCRH’ 13;
• a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship to Navena Chaitoo, FCRH ’13, who will begin a master’s of science in public policy and management at Carnegie-Mellon University in the fall;
• 12 Fulbrights as of June 26, awarded so far to Asmaa Awad-Farid, GSE ’13, to Israel; Jayson Browder, PCS ’13, to Turkey; Anne Buckel, FCRH ’13, to Vietnam; Lucy Barnhouse, GSAS ’16, to Germany; Matthew Briel, GSAS ’15, to Austria; Sean Cox, GSAS ’13, to Guatemala;Nusrat Jahan, FCLC ’13, to Bangladesh; Sara Lynch, FRCH ’11, to Colombia; Kelly O’Brien, FCRH ’13, to Canada; Andrew Palomo, GSS ’16, to Guatemala; AnnaMaria Shaker, FCRH ’13, to Morocco; and Anjanae Wilson, GSS ’13, to Brazil.

Like Jerome, outgoing President of the United Student Government Stephen Erdman, FCRH ’13, will put his award to use on a local level. Erdman has been accepted into the NYC Urban Fellows Program, a nine-month fellowship designed to expose participants to urban issues and public policy work in city agencies.

“Studying in the Bronx and New York City has taught me that good urban planning can promote the development of vibrant, sustainable communities,” said Erdman, who is graduating with a double major in urban studies and visual arts. “I hope to enter the planning field so I can help positively shape struggling communities.”

Other award recipients are meanwhile preparing to venture abroad. Anjanae Wilson, GSS ’13, is one of nine Fordham students who won Fulbright Fellowships. She will travel to Brazil for her English Teaching Assistantship, offering English as a Foreign Language instruction at a public university.

“I learned Portuguese as an undergraduate and volunteered in Brazil for a summer,” said Wilson, who plans to work in the field of international social work. “It was a unique experience for me as an African-American to be able to share my experience with Afro-Brazilians and engage in cultural exchange. I fell in love with the country, its culture and people, and I was determined to go back and to make a difference.”

Nicholas Espinoza, FCLC ’13, won a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship. The scholarship, which offers intensive summer language institutes in 13 critical foreign languages, will fund Espinoza’s study of Urdu in Lucknow, India and his research on cyber security.

Espinoza hopes to apply his linguistic and cultural immersion experience toward government work with a focus on U.S.-South Asia relations.

“I believe the U.S.-Pakistan-India relationship could benefit from more efficient and precise intergovernmental communication,” said the Pasadena, Calif. native. “The Critical Language Scholarship can help me learn the lingua franca of India and Pakistan to work toward a greater understanding between these states.”

Other prestigious scholarships won this year include:

• a Baltic-American Freedom Foundation Scholarship to Maris Krumins, GSAS ’14;
• an English teaching assistantship to Austria through the Fulbright program and the Austrian-American Educational Commission to Kathleen Glatthaar, FCRH ’12, GSE ’13;
• three Catholic Relief Services (CRS) International Development Fellowships to Oliver Hughes, GSAS ’11, to Burkina Faso; Erin Lewis, GSAS ’13, to Burundi; and Michelle Virgin, GSAS ’13, to Haiti;
• four Critical Language Scholarships to Nicholas Espinoza, FCLC ’13, to study Urdu in India;Asmaa Awad-Farid, GSE ’13, to study Arabic in Morocco; Dorothy Goehring, FCLC ’13, for Turkish language study in Turkey; and Devon Ressner, FCLC ’16, to study Arabic in Morocco;
• three Clare Boothe Luce Foundation research scholarships to Molly Clemens, FCLC’ 14; Bridget Mulroe, FCRH ’16; and Jessica Timko, FCRH ’16;
• a Phi Beta Kappa scholarship to AnnaMaria Shaker, FCRH ’13, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Fordham’s TAU chaper; and
• a University College Dublin (UCD) Global Excellence Scholarship to Megan Curran, FCRH ’05, to fully fund her pusuit of a graduate degree in public policy at UCD.

John Ryle Kezel, Ph.D., director of prestigious fellowships, noted an uptick in prestigious awards won by graduate students.

“While our primary source of scholarship applicants still come from the undergraduate schools, we have all been gratified to see increasing numbers of graduate and professional students seeking our services,” Kezel said. “This healthy situation is leading to greater recognition of Fordham students as serious contenders in fellowship competitions nationally and internationally.”

Fordham also had several prestigious award finalists, including Erik Angamarca, FCRH’ 14, and Sama Habib, GSB ’14, who were named as alternates for the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, and Evangelos Razis, FCLC ’13, who was named as a Fulbright alternate to Singapore.