Dubbed a “live interpretation takeover,” the performance event presented a “mashup” of Shakespeare, interpretive dance, and swordplay across the vast Tower complex.

Getting invited to perform at the Tower of London even once is no small thing, Pogson said. The Tower belongs to the Historic Royal Palaces, holds the Crown Jewels, and runs under the auspices of the Royal Army. There are many constituencies involved, not least of which is the resident group of professional actors called Past Pleasure, who have portrayed historical events for more than 25 years.

“It’s run by the military, so to get in there you have to work with thousands of stakeholders,” said Pogson. “We pulled it off and didn’t ruffle any feathers, and it seems to have pleased everybody.”

Though it was their first time at the Tower of London, LDA students were no strangers to performing in royal palaces, thanks, in part to Charlotte Ewart, a Fordham instructor in period dance who is also an associate artist with Historic Royal Palaces. Since fall 2017, Ewart has arranged for students to perform at Hampton Court, a palace once occupied by Henry VIII that sits about 18 miles southeast of London.

An Interpretive Takeover

The Hampton Court performances taught students and teachers alike about the possibilities and limitations of immersive theater on a grand scale. The genre started to take shape professionally through historical reenactments in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, said Ewart. She also tipped her hat to hobbyist reenactors of historic events, such as the Civil War reenactors.

“The costumed interpretation of historic events falls between theater, education, and tourism,” said Ewart.

Traditionally such performances attempted to portray what’s happened historically, she said, and authenticity was the driving objective in order to give audiences a view of the past.

“We can’t actually recreate 1536, so now we’ve shifted our performance toward highlighting the themes or stories and telling them in an accessible in an entertaining manner,” she said. “This way we can create a theatrical presentation and it can be in modern dress using modern dance or movement. “

Ewart noted that the Tower complex is large and diverse. It holds an infamous former prison, acts as a fortress, and serves as a functioning palace. The performers were charged with tying in those particular themes, which they explored through workshops. They spent weeks in a movement class, for example, delving into what it feels like to be imprisoned; the resulting performance melded their individual interpretations into a cohesive whole that was performed in the tower’s prison.

Those abstract movement pieces were complemented by reimagined performances of classic plays, like Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Ewart said that while LDA students may have helped tourists better interpret the Tower’s history with their performances, it was nearly impossible for them not to be affected themselves as well. After all, more than 10 centuries of history took place in that very space.

“The students were doing the Richard III speeches exactly where the king stood,” she said.

But while the spaces hold tremendous history (prisoners included Thomas Cromwell and the future Queen Elizabeth I), the vast rooms can seem to hold little context to some visitors.

“When you place a special performance in there, it brings the space to life and people begin to see it in a different way,” she said.

Working with Local Teens

In spite of the very real challenges posed by a rambling ancient site, the performances were deemed a success and prompted Tower management to invite the students to come back next spring—this time with young people from the area, said Pogson.

Unbeknownst to the students, their professionalism succeeded in bringing a pilot program to Fordham London Centre next semester when LDA students will coach acting for local teens from underserved neighborhoods.

Fordham London Centre got its start 40 years ago when leadership at Marymount College of Fordham and a group of instructors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts established LDA as a conservatory steeped in the British acting tradition. Liberal arts and business programs soon followed. Like the rest of the center, the conservatory accepts students from Fordham and students registered full time at a U.S. college or university.

“When we moved to Clerkenwell, Father McShane said he wanted us to come into the neighborhood as proper, good neighbors,” said Pogson. “We were looking for an overall link into the neighborhood, and we’ve found it.

As rehearsals for the November performance progressed, Pogson invited management from the Tower of London to visit the new London Centre. The close proximity and professional facilities more than impressed them, she said.

“When they visited and saw the space and they said, ‘Oh, you really are in the neighborhood,” said Pogson.

The Tower was already seeking programming for the area’s 11-to 18-year-olds. Having student mentors close to the teens’ age that were supervised by LDA’s professional staff seemed to be a perfect fit.

“They will have the benefit of being mentored by students not too much older than themselves, which is a great way to build connections,” said Pogson. “Many of these state schools cannot provide one-to-one connection for acting classes that we’ll provide.”

Students from nearby state schools and youth centers can try out for 25 slots and perform alongside LDA students at the next Tower of London performance in April 2019.

“It’s quite a coup, and I do think it’s the cura personalis that we talk,” said Pogson. “It’s a win-win for the Tower, for the teens, and for Fordham.”

Dana Marlow, Ph.D., associate clinical professor of social work, joined Acevedo as a lecturer, while Nancy Wackstein, GSS director of community engagement and partnerships, helped coordinate site visits on both sides of the Atlantic. 

“Most of the U.S. social welfare history traces back to England, starting with the poor laws from the Elizabethan era,” said Acevedo.

England gave rise to two traditions that would become the basis of social work as a profession: the charity organization societies and the settlement houses. Settlement houses were created as a new way to care for the underserved: Activists “settled in” to live among the poor, better understand their needs, and to help out.

The charity organizations promoted the casework tradition, where social workers would come into the community as day workers to assist individual clients. The settlement house tradition sprung from religious ethos at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Students from the universities were recruited to live in the communities they served.

“The brilliance was that it was the first innovation as a community-based practice model where practitioners would live among the population,” said Acevedo.

Social Work student Monica Griffin said she didn’t realize the extent to which settlement houses were an integral part of the communities they served. For her part, she said that she would like to work on policy one day, but not until she’s spent time working directly with clients.

“Studying settlement houses made me realize that you have to have an understanding of the obstacles your clients face before you can do policy work or garner funding,” she said. “You can’t just be charitable and presume you know who you’re serving. We need to align our work with their goals and aspirations.”

Among the first settlement houses were Toynbee Hall and Oxford House, both of which Fordham students visited during their trip to London this past June. The first populations that Toynbee served were Jewish and other immigrant populations; now it primarily serves a Bangladeshi population. The students also visited a local mosque with robust community programming.

Acevedo said that he was very interested in highlighting for the students the historical and contemporary role that universities and faith-based institutions have in social welfare and reform, and also in seeing how institutions and professions adapted to changing populations and contexts.

Students met with CEOs from both of the London settlement houses they visited “to look at the dollars and cents as well the programming,” he said, adding that even some of the most established settlement houses have closed over the years.

Griffin, who had left a career in business to pursue her M.S.W., said that meeting with CEOs proved to be a very important part of the curriculum.

“One of the big shared concerns in London and in New York was with the effect government austerity measures have had on settlement houses since the 1980s,” she said. “They’re having to be creative with how they raise money and that was a concern among all the leadership we met.”

Acevedo said that despite the budget constraints, these organizations manage to stay true to their mission. “Settlements houses have changed the type of services they offered over the years, but places like Toynbee Hall continue to work on national and local policy, as they always have,” said Acevedo.

He added that after more than a century, Oxford House nearly closed too. The difference between the physical plants of Toynbee and Oxford was stark. Students visited Toynbee’s sleek offices and then saw buckets catching leaking water at Oxford House. But the organization recently turned a corner by introducing social enterprise components and other innovations to their business model.

As Oxford House is located in the increasingly gentrified Bethnal Green neighborhood (a 15-minute taxi from Fordham’s new Clerkenwell campus), the organization plans to open a café and pub that will fund their nonprofit efforts. Likewise, students also learned of Coin Street Community Builders settlement house, whose properties near the Tate Modern museum have allowed them to create a community development corporation with big time real estate investments—to say nothing of the gastro pub near the National Theater, which left students’ “jaws dropping.”

“These organizations are really old, but not dead,” said Acevedo. “They’re living breathing organizations that have changed dramatically.”

Offering study-abroad opportunities in liberal arts, business, and theater, Fordham’s London Centre had operated out of Heythrop College in the Kensington neighborhood for several years before outgrowing the space. The new 17,000-square-foot space will be central to the University’s commitment to global education.

Dunbar is overseeing the renovations, as well as the interiors by the design firm Maris Interiors LLP. His firm, Dunbar Associates, has been managing construction projects for universities, investment banks, and hotels throughout London since 1973. 

Welcoming students this fall, the center’s six floors will house arts and sciences, theater, and business courses up to the graduate level. The ground floor will consist of a shared student space with a learning center and a small library. The first floor of the new building will be devoted to the London Academy of Dramatic Arts—long a cornerstone of the London Centre—with two large performance spaces. The remaining floors will hold seven classrooms, a conference room, faculty offices, and group study rooms. The entire ensemble will be topped with a roof terrace overlooking the lively neighborhood.

What distinguishes the Clerkenwell neighborhood?

Clerkenwell Road, where the center is located, is a cosmopolitan mix of industrial and residential buildings. There are graphics and high tech companies, showrooms, and a publishing house. It’s really in the heart of the action, but equally it’s on the fringe of the central business district, so there’s a lot of development going on around there. When we got the zoning changed so that we could use the building for educational purposes, there was an intimation that we would consult with and keep in touch with the local community. Fordham wants to immerse itself in the community, not just be an isolated entity. The area has a very eclectic feel about it. Students will have some interesting things to pick and choose from.

Is the location easy to get to? 

Farringdon station is nearby, which will be a new Crossrail interchange with a great east-west link, so that’ll give a very rapid transit out to the airport at Heathrow. Equally, north-south you have the Thameslink going connecting nearby Kings Cross station to Gatwick airport. And then there’s St. Pancras International railway station, which means Paris is less than three hours away by train.

What are the nearby neighborhoods like?

Across the street is Leather Lane Market, where there’s street food and wine tastings. The new center is north of the City of London, which is the financial district. Nearby Holborn and Bloomsbury have a lot of classic Georgian buildings. The University of London and the British Museum are probably a 15-minute walk. Even closer is the City University of London. Just around the corner is Hatton Garden, the famous jewelry center where there’s plenty of diamonds and jewelry—if anybody’s interested.

What is the building’s history?  

The building is a combination of three buildings originally. Fronting Clerkenwell Road there were two Victorian buildings, probably built for commercial use, not residential. They were combined a long time ago and formed the offices and manufacturing plant of a printing ink company called Winstone Printing Inks. Probably in the 1920s or ’30s, a north wing was added to create the building we are now refurbishing. That was occupied by Winstone, which made the inks for Fleet Street newspapers that were a mile down the road. So, the building has a bit of an industrial archeological history, though there’s not much sight of it now.

What’s the schedule for completing the renovations?

We’re on schedule to complete the renovations at the end of July, so August will be move-in and time to set everything up, get the computers working, and get the networking up. By then the London Academy of Dramatic Arts will have its stage set lighting, a combination of spots and strip LEDs so you can change the scene. A blacked-out ceiling also gives it a stage effect. The ground floor entrance hall will have some interesting architectural lighting using copper tubing, which really has to be seen, describing it just won’t do it justice. The ground floor windows are nearly floor to ceiling height and will provide good visibility and daylight into the student center from the street.

How will the building connect with the New York campuses?

We’re working on the audio-visual and IT content for interactive screens, and teleconferencing for remote teaching. Professors and experts in London will be able to communicate with New York classrooms and vice versa. We’ll be all wired up across the Atlantic so if you open a door in London they’ll know who opened it in New York—without breaching any privacy issues, of course. The security system in London will be compatible with New York’s systems in terms of monitoring, so that the ID cards can work in either country.

I didn’t expect such a cloudy city to bring so much to light. London has managed to teach me something new every day while making me feel at home at the same time.

I am living in West Kensington, a busy residential area with enough cafes and stores around to keep me occupied without having to travel too far. If I am feeling particularly motivated in the mornings, I’m lucky enough to even be able to walk to my classes at Fordham London Centre.

Look Both Ways

Whether walking near my apartment or on the opposite side of town, one of the first things I noticed about the city were the crosswalks. New Yorkers are usually confident in their abilities to cross the street while avoiding the hundreds of yellow cabs. London will humble that confidence, however. This is not the Upper West Side and these black cabs will not stop for anyone! They also will not beep. The city is so quiet that I began to wonder if the cars here were actually built without horns.

The same characteristic of ‘quiet’ goes for people. It’s easy to mistake a tube station for a library, due to how many people are reading instead of talking. I thought it was a fluke at first, but it seems true that to be a Londoner you need a cup of tea and newspaper in your hand. I love this union of character. It’s as common to see The Guardian sprawled out on someone’s lap in London, as it was in New York to see someone clutching a cellphone and scrolling through the New York Times app.

While the transportation systems are extremely clean and reliable in London compared to New York, one major difference is that they’re only clean and reliable for a part of the day. Not every line will run at all hours of the night. That has made for some interesting situations in finding my way home. We New Yorkers won’t realize how lucky we are to take that dreaded “D” train ride from the Bronx to midtown at any time we wish—until we visit a city that actually does sleep.

History and Beauty All Around

Once back above the underground (and after ‘minding the gap,’ a saying that is repeated in London as much as “Please step aside and let the customers off the train first” is in New York) I fall in love with whatever neighborhood I have arrived in. The city is most definitely European in its relaxed cafe lifestyle but also very much a typical city with citizens who hustle and bustle. Piccadilly Circus is its Times Square, while Buckingham Palace is its Colosseum. Whether in a small and secluded neighborhood filled with colorful mews and orange brick buildings or an extremely packed maze-like Westminster, there is history and beauty all around. Each turn around a new corner has a story that inspires me to go out and find the next.

Living in a different country is entirely different from just visiting. You begin to feel like a native—yet part of you always remains a tourist ready to discover hidden treasures. Studying abroad in London has inspired me to want to treat every day in my hometown of New York City like a 24-hour visit in a city I may never have the chance to  return to.
[doptg id=”104″] ]]> 86788 https://now.fordham.edu/fordham-magazine/talk-town-night-justin-lacoursiere/ Mon, 02 Oct 2017 22:08:45 +0000 https://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=78438 Photos by Dana MaxsonDozens of Fordham alumni are already chatting, sipping, and laughing on the top deck, but the yacht is still in port, and Justin LaCoursiere, FCRH ’12, GSAS ’13, is still standing on Pier 81.

The Cornucopia Destiny is chartered to float around Manhattan for the Young Alumni Yacht Cruise, a three-hour dinner party for nearly 300 recent graduates. But that can’t happen until everyone is on board, and one grad, who shall remain nameless, is not yet here.

Waiting on the pier, LaCoursiere looks off at the Manhattan skyline. “You can see my office!” he points downtown. “The one with all the lights!”

The Starrett-Lehigh Building looms on the Chelsea waterfront, bigger than any cruise ship, a marvel of Manhattan. In his day job, LaCoursiere is the social and digital director for RXR Realty, one of the biggest commercial landlords in New York City. At 26, he’s already conquering his corner of Manhattan, sharing stories about parties with Derek Jeter and a rooftop spin class with Ralph Lauren designers—but his day job isn’t what brought him to this yacht on a Friday night in September.

This is the Fordham cruise, and he’s the chair of the Young Alumni Committee this year. The group serves as a bridge to Fordham for graduates from the past 10 years, helping to organize social justice activities, coordinate alumni giving, and plan social events. The cruise is the committee’s first big event of the year, and the chair decides he’s not boarding the yacht until the last guest makes it up the gangway—top-deck partying be damned.

But then she appears, the one missing alumna, wearing a brown leather jacket and a sky blue silk scarf tied around her neck, chic enough that the slight delay is forgiven and forgotten.

Later, on the top deck, LaCoursiere shows off his own style, fitting of a Fordham fanatic: maroon slacks.

“I dig them,” he says, “and I try and wear them to Fordham events because I think they’re fun!”

That attire paid off when LaCoursiere was touring London as a member of the University Choir in 2013. His maroon pants caught the eye of Jeffrey Cipriano, FCLC ’14, who was studying at the Fordham London Centre at the time. “He was begging his friend to introduce us,” LaCoursiere recalls, beaming. They hit it off, and, after a date where Cipriano cooked—“he’s a phenomenal baker,” LaCoursiere says—they’re still dating, four years later.

Last fall, they and several other alumni helped found the Rainbow Rams, Fordham’s first affinity group for LGBTQ alumni. In June, approximately 30 of them marched under the Fordham banner in the New York City Pride Parade—a first for the University.

Given the demands of his job and his involvement with Fordham—not to mention training for the New York City Marathon, which he plans to run in November—calling LaCoursiere motivated is an understatement. But tonight, he’s allowing a quick break for nostalgia. Talking on the upper deck of the yacht, he stops mid-sentence when the DJ puts on the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” LaCoursiere grabs a friend by the shoulders with a huge smile. “I sang this song in high school!”

Behind him, dozens of alumni sing along. Some swing dance. Others jump. But most stand still, drink in one hand, other hand stretched out toward the sky. In the distance, the Statue of Liberty strikes the same pose.

—Jeff Coltin, FCRH ’15

View a gallery of images from the 2017 Young Alumni Yacht Cruise. (Photos by Dana Maxson)

“In the Harry Potter books, magic is a broad metaphor for human agency,” said Jones, an associate professor of philosophy who believes the series’ popularity reflects the mood at end of the 20^th and beginning of the 21st centuries.

“It’s not an accident that the books tap into an affirmation of our humanity when it’s not clear what the future of humanity looks like in politics, science, and economics—it’s not even clear that we are agents at all,” she said.

Jones said the course’s cross-disciplinary nature mimics that of the alchemists of history (think Sir Isaac Newton), whose interests blurred the lines between religion and science.

“Alchemists looked toward science as well as religion as ways to meaningfully participate in the world,” said Jones.

According to Jones, the very title of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (aka The Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States) suggests the alchemists’ attempts to produce an object—the Stone—that would yield immortality as well as turn base metals into gold.

“They did a lot of chemical experimentation, out of which grew in part [the field of] chemistry,” she said. This exercise in “transforming materials” went hand-in-hand with remaking oneself spiritually.

“In psychological terms, it was an attempt to overcome the ego,” she said.

In the postmodern period, however, people have become used to keeping science and spirituality separate, as the philosopher Descartes modeled them, Jones said. But Jones fundamentally believes that the compartmentalization of knowledge is not best for humanity.

“At the human level, we need the integration of these and other disciplines,” she said.

For students, the Harry Potter course has helped to reintegrate far-flung fields of thinking.

“My thoughts on Harry Potter as a work of literature have been subject to plenty of expansion,” said Fordham College at Rose Hill rising senior Sebastian Ullman. “I’ve also found that my thoughts on fantasy as a genre, and philosophy in general, have been deeply enriched.

“But the excursions planned by Dr. Jones have been far and away the most incredible part of my trip,” he said.

Seeing the sights has been equally exciting for Jones; though she had been to Scotland, she’d never visited England before.

“At some of the places we visit, I find myself with my jaw gaping open—and in genuine awe,” she said.

Shannon Harman graduated from the Gabelli School of Business on May 20, just like two of her sisters before her. Abigail (Abby) Harman earned her Gabelli diploma in 2016, and Emily Harman graduated from the school in 2015.

Having her two older sisters on campus with her was helpful, said Shannon, standing outside the Rose Hill Gym with her family just before the Gabelli ceremony, where Abby and Emily joined her on stage as she received her diploma.

“I got to know a lot of people over the years, especially having two sisters [here] before me,” Shannon said, adding that watching her siblings navigate Fordham’s classes and extracurriculars helped her pursue her own path toward a career in finance.

Shannon followed in her sisters’ footsteps in some key activities during her Gabelli career. She was CEO of Smart Woman Securities, where Emily had also served as CEO and Abby was chief development officer, hosting weekly seminars with finance professionals who shared advice and career perspectives. The nonprofit organization, with chapters on several college campuses, aims to educate undergraduate women on finance and investing through networking events and mentoring. Each of the Harman sisters attended the organization’s annual trip to Omaha, Nebraska, where they were among a group of students who met and dined with Warren Buffett.

“One of my favorite things here was being in Smart Woman Securities. That really helped me grow,” Shannon said. “And it actually helped me get my job, because of one of the events they helped me attend.” In July, she’ll be starting a rotational finance program at JPMorgan Chase, where she interned as a student.

All three sisters studied abroad with Gabelli at Fordham’s London Centre. Emily said that learning what it was like to work in finance in London, as well as connecting with Fordham’s alumni network there, gave them each valuable international perspective. “It had a huge impact on my Fordham experience,” she said.

Emily started her career in BNY Mellon’s Emerging Leaders Program before moving last summer to Blackstone, where she is an analyst in the Private Wealth Group. Abby is also currently at Blackstone in the rotational finance program, a position she landed after completing the summer internship there in 2015.

Though the three sisters ended up together at Fordham, they went their own ways in high school. The family lives in Brielle, New Jersey, and they each went to a different specialized high school in the Monmouth County Vocational School District. The fact that they attended separate high schools gave them a greater appreciation for the time they spent together at Fordham. Their youngest sibling, Gracie, is currently a junior in Manasquan High School, where she is part of the finance academy. The family affectionately refers to her as a potential Fordham Ram.

“I’d love to see her come to Fordham and have a great experience like we did,” Emily said.

Two of this year’s graduates—Andrew Santis, who is receiving a bachelor’s of science in marketing with a concentration in global business, and Stephanie Ballantyne, who graduates with a dual master’s degree in public accounting and taxation—have worked, lived, and studied in more than a dozen countries between the two of them.

To Ballantyne, the global bent at the Gabelli School felt like home. Born in Germany and raised in Switzerland, she completed her undergraduate degree in accounting finance at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and then worked for Deloitte Zurich before coming to Fordham.

The move was challenging, she said; but then, having attended an international high school and traveled as a student to the likes of Egypt, Russia, and Greece, the challenge was a familiar one.

“I’ve always had culture shock happening at some point or another, but I grew up knowing I’d have an international lifestyle,” said Ballantyne, whose credits include president of the Gabelli School’s Accounting and Tax Society and chief operating officer of the Finance Society.

“I like New York,” she said. “Switzerland is a bit more laid back—they start work earlier, but also leave earlier, and on the weekends their phones are turned off. For someone starting their career, it can seem a bit slow.”

The New York pace has suited Ballantyne. She interned at Deloitte in Manhattan last summer, and by August she had secured a full-time offer.

“It was a big change, coming here—especially because I started at Fordham in 2014 during the polar vortex. There were about two snow days per week, which made it hard to meet people,” she said. “But overall, Fordham was definitely the right choice.”

For Santis, a native New Yorker, it was a study tour to Spain during his junior year that sparked his passion for global business—but his real adventure began when he returned home to his internship at Cardwell Beach, a digital marketing agency.

“My boss knew how much I enjoyed Madrid, and in March he called and said they wanted to offer me compensation for my work, which would be to send me abroad to work for the summer,” he said. “It didn’t even have to be Spain—I could choose any country I wanted.”

His options boundless, Santis chose a multi-city tour of Europe. He began with a week in Paris, and then joined up with fellow Gabelli School students for a summer semester program at Fordham’s London Centre. After London, he continued on to Germany, where he spent a week each in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich.

In the mornings Santis explored the city, and in the afternoons, once his New York colleagues were at the office, he worked on creating buyer personas for Cardwell Beach.

“It was definitely a test of strength and character,” Santis said. “I learned a lot about myself by venturing out to another part of the world on my own.”

Both Santis and Ballantyne have jobs lined up following graduation. Ballantyne will continue with Deloitte in Manhattan, and Santis will take a full-time position at Cardwell Beach (a position for which he will craft his own title and job description).

“Fordham prepared me well,” Ballantyne said. “All the opportunities are here—you just have to take the initiative to go get them.”

Or maybe it was all of these.

“I was disappointed that I had to leave. I really want to go back,” said Jacqueline Gill, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill who spent a semester in Turkey last spring.

The number of Fordham students seeking such out-of-country experiences spiked over the past decade—to an estimated 37 percent of undergraduates, compared to a 9 percent national average—and is set to climb even higher as the University adds more foreign-study options to meet strong student interest.

“Time and time again, we hear students saying, ‘I chose Fordham because I knew I could study abroad,’” or because the University has a program in a particular country, said International and Study Abroad Programs Director Joseph Rienti, PhD.

The University just added programs in Argentina, Colombia, and Australia, bringing its total study-abroad options to 128, said Rienti; also, his staff is working with faculty members and reaching out to parents to smooth the students’ path to an experience that is important to the Jesuit mission of Fordham.

“Broadening your knowledge is what we are here for, and there’s no better way that I can think of to do that than to get the student abroad,” he said.

Students go abroad for any number of reasons. Clifford Mars, a senior majoring in history, went to Fordham’s program at Sophia University in Tokyo because “there couldn’t be a better place to learn about Asian history than in Asia,” he said. Mayarita Castillo, a senior at Fordham College at Lincoln Center double-majoring in math and Spanish, did back-to-back study tours in Ireland and Spain because such opportunities might not be there after graduation.

“When you’re in the professional world and working, you can’t just take a few months or a year off to go travel the world and fully immerse yourself in another culture,” she said.

Fordham is shooting for 50 percent of undergraduates studying abroad in the next four years, said Rienti. The University is following the lead of Generation Study Abroad, a campaign by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to double the number of U.S. students studying abroad by 2019.

Fordham’s numbers grew from 156 students in 2000-2001 to 768 this year. The University has long been among IIE’s top 40 doctoral-level universities ranked by their study-abroad numbers, starting in 2009-2010. (Fordham is No. 30 in the latest ranking, issued last year.)

The IIE campaign is an effort to help more students gain the skills—cross-cultural and otherwise—that come from international study, according to the Generation Study Abroad website.

Castillo, for instance, took a course at the University of Granada in descriptive probability and statistics that had no real textbooks, just lectures—in Spanish, of course. The midterm took four hours to complete, and approximately 40 percent of the class failed the course.

“It was one of the most challenging things I’ve done,” she said, adding that the Spanish courses and intensive practice “really opened things up for me in terms of what professional areas I can pursue.”

Such career-related aspects of foreign study are growing more important, said Rienti.

“What we tell students is, ‘Don’t just put it on your resume, [use]study abroad as a bridge to something.”

He noted the new internship program at Fordham’s London Centre, the first University-run internship program for Fordham undergraduates studying abroad.

Fordham offers both full-semester and shorter-term programs through its academic centers abroad—as in London, Granada, and Pretoria, for instance—and at other universities through exchanges that let students pay their usual Fordham tuition and take their financial aid with them. Some students enroll directly at universities abroad or join other U.S. universities’ foreign study programs.

That’s what Jacqueline Gill did, going to Istanbul through a Syracuse University program at Bahçeşehir University. A student of political science and Middle East studies, she found that seeing the refugee crisis up close “really solidified” her interest in a career in immigration law.

As for the challenges of living in Istanbul, she said, “I’m happy that I got out of my comfort zone.”

What excites you the most about your appointment?
Working for Fordham is really exciting. I think what’s very exciting is all the potential of the London Centre. It’s been growing quite quickly over the last few years, and there’s potential for more growth there, to make it into a truly global program.

Is there any particular growth area that you’re going to focus?
The largest of the three programs is the Gabelli School of Business, so I certainly want to pay attention with what’s going on there. But we also want to look at the London Dramatic Academy and see what resources they need. With liberal arts, we need to be mindful of our relationship with the University of London, and I want to make sure that where I am able to visit all those places where our students are studying. They don’t necessarily study with us; they study on the various campuses of the University of London. That’s exciting, but we want to make sure we have a handle on that.

We also have a lot of special programs. The Graduate School of Social Service has a program, and there are a number of others that are bringing people over for short stays. Are there opportunities for us to expand those kinds of programs and open up London for people who might not have a chance otherwise to go?

What are your goals?
The first goal is to make sure that what happens at London is best for Fordham and best for our students, whether they’re undergraduates or graduates, and the experience helps them understand the global reality that we’re in. American students tend to be a bit myopic in terms of the world. When they get onto campus, they live in that bubble, and they don’t watch the news or read a newspaper. To get our students into a truly global environment, and get them to understand that the world is bigger than New York or wherever they’re from, is important.

As we expand the program, I also want to work collaboratively with the other 27 U.S. Jesuit colleges, so they can send their students to London. We have some agreements now, but it’s a small number. We have a great opportunity to expand that number and really open up London not only to Fordham students, but to students at other Jesuit colleges.

What do you anticipate will be your biggest challenge?
There are a lot of moving parts to running the Fordham London Centre. The programs have some synergy, but there’s some independence in how they do it. So the challenge is, how do we make sure that all of them still carry the Fordham Jesuit educational stamp?

Why is it so important to be in London right now?
London is a world capital for culture and finance. Certainly Paris has a claim on culture, and you would also look at Germany and Italy, but in London, there are so many firms for finance and theaters in the vibrant west end that are right at our doorstep. I also hope to use London as a jumping point to travel to places like Rome, Berlin, Brussels, and engage our students in other EU capitals.

You oversaw the opening of a center in Bologna, Italy when you were the president of Spring Hill College. What lessons did you take from that experience?
We provide numerous student services here on our campuses, so students come to expect a certain amount of support and service. So part of what we need to be mindful of is how we are supporting our students outside of the classroom, and giving them places to study, places to interact, and opportunities to form community while they’re over there.

London’s program is kind of falling into that, so we need to be a little more intentional now that we’re growing, and make sure students are supported and have a good experience. Our academic program is strong, and we’ve got excellent faculty that we hire and bring over from New York. But we also need to mindful of all the other things that happen with our students outside of the classroom, much like we do here in the states.

What are our housing arrangements? Are they conducive to the experience we’re hoping they’re going to have? What kind of support services are there should there be problems? We have arrangements with some of the other bigger universities in London to access their staff, should we need to do that. But as the program grows, we may need our own staff to address those things. I’m a student affairs person, so I approach things from that perspective.

Contact: Patrick Verel
(212) 636-7790
[email protected]