Take Frances Berko, for example. A pioneer in the disability rights movement, she earned a Fordham Law degree in 1944. By 1949, Berko, who had ataxic cerebral palsy, helped start United Cerebral Palsy. She later served as New York state’s advocate for the disabled.

“I’ve had much success,” she told a panel of legislators in 1981. “But the one achievement which I held most precious—for which I’ve most constantly striven—I’ve never been able to attain completely: that is, the full rights of a citizen of this country and this state.”

That achievement came in 1990 with the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1994, two years before Berko died, Fordham awarded her an honorary doctorate, and Janet Reno, then U.S. attorney general, called her “a symbol to me of what you can do and how you can do it magnificently.”

Today at Fordham, Berko’s spirit is evident in the work of senior Abigail Dziura, who has focused her research on improving the New York City subway system, where only 27% of all stations are considered fully accessible to people with disabilities.

In April, she earned a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which recognizes college students dedicated to public service. “One of the hardest parts of advocacy work is knowing that you don’t always get to see the end result,” she told Fordham News. “Sometimes you’re setting things up for future generations because something can’t be completed for another 20 years. … But someday, I’d love to see a fully accessible New York subway system.”

The ever-striving, regenerative spirit that links Berko to Dziura and beyond is just one example of Fordham people working to build stronger communities. You’ll find more in our latest “20 in Their 20s” series.

The Emmy and Golden Globe winner is creating a scholarship for Fordham Theatre students, giving back to the university that had a formative influence on her acting career.

At 19, Patricia Clarkson made a decision that changed everything for her. Attending Louisiana State University, near her hometown of New Orleans, she was missing the acting she had done in high school and feeling uncertain about her direction. Then she realized the change she needed: “New York was calling,” she said, “and I just had to go.”

She transferred to Fordham as a junior and flourished. After graduating summa cum laude with a degree in theatre, she earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama and went on to pursue a variety of complex roles on stage and screen, earning acclaim and awards. These include three Emmys, two of them for her performance in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, and a 2019 Golden Globe for her work in another HBO series, Sharp Objects. Her other accolades include a 2003 Oscar nomination for her performance in Pieces of April and a best-actress Tony nomination in 2015 for her role in The Elephant Man.

Clarkson has spoken out on many social issues, including LGBTQ+ rights, and in the movie Monica, released last May, she plays an ailing woman being cared for by the transgender daughter she had expelled from her home years before. In the upcoming film Lilly, she portrays equal-pay activist Lilly Ledbetter—whom she recently described to The Hollywood Reporter as “one of my heroes.”

She has regularly returned to Fordham to meet with students in the theatre program. Now, she’s giving them a new form of support—one that reflects her own experience as a student.

Why did creating a scholarship appeal to you?
My heart is always with Fordham. I loved this school. I am always thankful for my beginnings, and I think it’s why I am successful. I know it’s a struggle to be an actor, and I thought, “Well, I’m going to give someone just a little bit of extra help because that’s what I needed when I was there.” With just a little bit more money, it would’ve been easier for me. I’m thrilled and excited to be doing this. I’m proud of my alma mater, and I’m proud to help out in the little way I can.

What was your transition to Fordham like?
I was welcomed with open arms. I had no idea what I was walking into, and I walked into heaven, if you know what I mean, at Fordham. I arrived at this great theatre department and quickly had this extraordinary mentor in [acting professor]Joe Jezewski, and he took me under his wing. He just cared—he said, “You have a gift, Patti, don’t waste it. Let’s really work on it.” He’s the reason I got into the Yale School of Drama. Everyone said, “Oh, you have to have connections to get into Yale,” and Joe was like, “That’s crazy. We’re going to work hard on your auditions. You’re going to get into Yale.” I had this incredible support system, along with my incredible parents who were sacrificing so very much for me to be there. Fordham is conducive to helping people—I think it’s just conducive to learning, and to making you feel at home and making everyone welcome, which is very Jesuit.

Which of your movie roles has had the greatest impact on you?
That would be hard to say because every film you do, every part you play, it still remains with you. I shot Monica almost two and a half years ago, and it’s all still with me.

How does that work?
As actors, we have to like our character and relate to them. Otherwise, you’re just going to be playing [the part], not living it. It has to be a part of you in some way. When I was at Fordham, I started to realize I had a long way to go—acting wasn’t creating, acting was being. And I play, at times, characters that are quite distant from me. In Monica, I’m a woman in probably the last month of life, and I’m quite robbed of speech and movement, often the two biggest assets you can have as an actor. That’s what is exciting about acting—suddenly you’re going to be challenged to find other ways to portray a character. It’s a beautiful film, and I’m proud and thrilled to be a part of it.

With your role in the movie She Said, you helped tell the origin story of the #MeToo movement. Is it having a sustained impact?
Well, it was vital to our industry, a much-needed wake-up call. Women really have risen with the #MeToo movement. Not only are we safer, and not only is our pay better, predatory behavior is no longer accepted. We still have a ways to go, especially behind the camera. And we need more female voices, and we need many more people of color to rise in our business. But we’re making advancements, and that’s what is crucial.

Is there a type of character you haven’t portrayed yet, that you would like to?
Oh God, I played everything, no! I just want a great script and a great director. That’s really all I’m looking for right now.

See related Fordham News article on Patricia Clarkson’s scholarship gift.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Chris Gosier is the director of special projects in Fordham’s marketing and communications division and a frequent contributor to Fordham Magazine.

She was also a double Fordham graduate who, whenever she could, encouraged people to give back. “She always instilled in her [students] who ‘made it’ that it’s your responsibility, because people helped you,” said her daughter, Susan Smith.

Monta died in 2020, but will be helping Fordham theater students posthumously through a scholarship that Smith recently created out of her mother’s estate. It comes as another Fordham alumna, actress Patricia Clarkson, FCLC ’82, is also creating a scholarship for students in the Fordham Theatre program.

Smith is certain her mother would approve. “She really, really liked contributing to education and providing opportunities for students,” Smith said.

Lessons from an Irish Immigrant

Growing up in New Jersey and Virginia, Monta was “the dramatic one in the family,” an aspiring actress who later set her sights on a career in education. Its importance was brought home to her early, when her live-in grandfather would always “sit there with a book in his hand,” reading voraciously to carry on the education that was cut short during his childhood in Ireland, Smith said.

Monta studied speech, English, and speech education at Fordham, earning a bachelor’s degree from the Undergraduate School of Education in 1952 and a master’s from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953. She later earned a doctorate in theater arts from Cornell University.

Arriving at what was then Pan American University in 1971, she established the theater area within the communications department and set about building the program, sometime sewing the costumes for productions herself, according to a statement from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as the university is now known.

‘Pay It Forward’

Over the years, she gave to charities, created a theater scholarship at the university, and helped others in numerous small ways, Smith said. One day, headed out to eat with colleagues, she gave away her brown-bag lunch to a student—and then kept bringing a lunch for him when she learned he was struggling financially.

When one of her former students—Valente Rodriguez—launched his acting career in California and tried to repay the money she had given him for moving there, she declined, telling him to “pay it forward” by funding a scholarship. And when her colleagues wanted to throw her a party upon her retirement in 2007, she declined again, citing the expense—until someone suggested turning the party into a fundraiser.

As a teacher, she was “a character,” known for blunt, colorful comments, Smith said, but she was also “incredibly loving.”

“She came across like a real hard-ass,” Smith said, “because she expected more of you than you expected of yourself.”

Scholarship gifts support the Access and Affordability priority of Fordham’s current $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more and make a gift. 

Throughout her career, Clarkson has sought out diverse and challenging roles and won wide acclaim for her performances on stage and screen. In an interview, she noted her parents’ sacrifices for her education, as well as her part-time work at a diner as a student. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to give someone just a little bit of help, a little bit of extra, because that’s what I needed when I was there,’” she said. “It would’ve been easier for me. I’m thrilled to be doing this, and I’m excited.”

Clarkson said she received mentoring and support at Fordham that were crucial to her career. “My heart is always with Fordham,” she said. “I’m proud of my alma mater, and I’m proud to help out in the little way I can.”

An engaged alumna, she regularly returns to campus to speak with students in the theatre program. Clarkson was inducted into Fordham’s Hall of Honor in 2016 and, in 2018, received an honorary doctorate from the University.

“Patricia Clarkson embodies the best of Fordham,” said Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham University. “Her determination and blazing talent make us so very proud. She is our ambassador, telling everyone how much her Fordham education matters to her. Best of all, she wants to pass that gift forward to other students, both with her generous gift and in the time she gives them every year on campus.”

May Adrales, director of the Fordham Theatre program, said Clarkson is “an exemplar of Fordham Theatre education, a consummate actor who radiates curiosity and vibrancy.”

The scholarship will go to students who possess Clarkson’s same fervor and fortitude in the pursuit of acting, as well as demonstrated potential, she said. “We are grateful for her support and hope to honor her immense talent and extraordinary body of work.”

Diverse and Compelling Performances

A New Orleans native, Clarkson attended Louisiana State University before transferring to Fordham as a junior. After earning her bachelor’s degree in theatre, she earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. Clarkson won Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2006 for her portrayal of the free-spirited Aunt Sarah on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, and in 2022 earned a third Emmy for her role in the British comedy series State of the Union.

In 2019, Clarkson won a Golden Globe for her performance in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects, in which she plays the matriarch of a troubled family of three daughters. Rather than portraying her character as “a one-note monster,” Variety noted, “Clarkson ensured there were complicated layers to peel back not only with every episode but every scene.”

In 2003, she was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her portrayal of a dying mother confronting her anger with her estranged daughter in Pieces of April. Her performance in The Elephant Man on Broadway earned her a best-actress Tony nomination in 2015.

Clarkson has spoken out on behalf of causes including environmental protection, LGBTQ rights, and giving women more opportunities in theatre and film. In the new movie Monica, released in May, she plays an ailing woman who is unknowingly being cared for by the transgender daughter she had expelled from her home many years before.

Scholarship gifts advance Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, the University’s $350 million campaign to enhance the entire Fordham student experience. Learn more about the campaign and make a gift.

The fundraiser? An online auction, the third such event hosted by the Fordham College Alumni Association (FCAA), with a novel twist this year: celebrity alumni. Several offered virtual face time to the highest bidder, helping to propel the event far beyond its usual total.

The auction “gets bigger and better every year,” with all proceeds going toward scholarships and grants for students, said Debra Caruso Marrone, FCRH ’81, the association’s president.

It’s one of several events sponsored by the FCAA each year, complementing the broader efforts of the Fordham University Alumni Association, the Office of Alumni Relations, and other groups that serve students and the alumni community.

Founded in 1905, the FCAA is the University’s oldest alumni organization, and primarily serves Fordham College at Rose Hill students and alumni.

Contacting Celebrity Alumni

The idea of featuring celebrity alumni in December’s auction was driven in part by the pandemic, which put the kibosh on, say, auctioning off event tickets. “We really had to pivot,” said Christa Treitmeier-Meditz, FCRH ’85, who spearheaded the effort to reach out to various prominent alumni.

In the end, they were able to auction off a virtual comedy writing lesson with Saturday Night Live writer Streeter Seidell, FCRH ’05 (someone bought that for his wife, an aspiring comedy writer, Treitmeier-Meditz said). They also got help from some prominent alumni thespians: Golden Globe winner Dylan McDermott, FCLC ’83, contributed a virtual meet, and Golden Globe winner and former Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson, FCLC ’82, contributed a virtual master class and a post-pandemic in-person engagement—dinner out and tickets to the next Broadway show she appears in.

People also contributed various items, memorabilia, or experiences, such as a master cooking class or a trip around Manhattan by yacht. “It’s everything and anything,” Treitmeier-Meditz said. “The Fordham alumni community is very generous.”

Other planned events were canceled due to the pandemic lockdown last year: a sit-down for a dozen alumni with John Brennan, FCRH ’77, former CIA director and counterterrorism adviser to President Barack Obama, and an event with sportscasters Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, and Mike Breen, FCRH ’83.

Through such events, the association has raised money for various funds, including a summer internship fund for journalism majors, recently renamed for Jim Dwyer, FCRH ’79, the New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 2020. A new scholarship fund named for Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, is for students who reach new heights of academic achievement after arriving at the University.

The association provides other important support such as funding for undergraduate research and for student travel, noted Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “I’m so pleased to see how that support has grown over the past several years,” she said. “I am grateful for their commitment to the college, to our alumni, and to the larger Fordham family.”

The association’s Giving Day gift—a matching gift—was split between two scholarship funds: the FCAA Endowed Legacy Scholarship, a need-based scholarship for legacy students, and the Rev. George J. McMahon, S.J., Endowed Scholarship, awarded to students at Fordham College at Rose Hill and the Gabelli School of Business.

Serving on the board is a labor of love, Caruso Marrone said. “We’re doing something good: we’re raising funds, we’re helping students go through school,” in addition to bringing alumni together at events, she said. “The members of our board [are] of various age groups, various backgrounds, various careers, [and] we all come together and do this work and enjoy it immensely. We have just a great group of people who are dedicated to Fordham.”

It was the second Golden Globe nomination and first win for the actress, who has earned two Emmy Awards and received Tony and Oscar nominations during a career on stage and screen that spans four decades.

In a joyful and funny acceptance speech—which she opened with “Hot damn!”—Clarkson dedicated the award to her parents in her native New Orleans. Later, in a press conference, she explained how her upbringing and her parents’ support give her the strength to take on emotionally challenging roles.

“I think I’m able to play these incredibly compromised, fractured, brutal women characters because I had a beautiful life growing up,” she said. “And I actually think that feeds you in an odd juxtaposition, in an odd way.”

Clarkson, who was inducted into Fordham’s Hall of Honor in 2016 and received an honorary degree from Fordham in 2018, has gotten rave reviews from audiences and critics alike for her work in Sharp Objects. She told The New York Times that many of the show’s viewers have stopped her in the street to discuss her character. And Variety praised her ability to make audiences feel for someone who inflicts trauma: “The woman could have been just a one-note monster … but Clarkson ensured there were complicated layers to peel back not only with every episode but every scene.”

“She’s a character that I love still,” Clarkson said during the press conference, “with all of her foibles, all of her faults, all of her troubles. I still love her.”

 

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Patricia Clarkson – Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television – Sharp Objects. Photo by Paola Kudacki (@paolakudacki). #GoldenGlobes

A post shared by Golden Globes (@goldenglobes) on Jan 6, 2019 at 7:28pm PST