“It is such a wonderful time of year to come together and celebrate, particularly after these last few Christmases,” Tetlow said to more than 600 members of the Fordham community at Cipriani 42nd Street on Dec. 5. “The magic of being able to come together as a community is ever more apparent—of gathering at Christmas and Hanukkah with our families, those we were born to, those we have chosen, and seeing the wonder in our grandkids’ eyes at this time of year.” 

Awaiting the First Snowfall in New York

In her speech, Tetlow said that she’s excited to spend Christmas with her 10-year-old daughter, Lucy, in New York for the first time. This weekend, they plan on seeing the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, an 82-foot-high spruce that adorns the center of the city every year. They’re also excited about something that most New Yorkers take for granted: snow. 

“We’re waiting with bated breath for snow, which she has really only seen once in her life—in a layover in the winter at the Newark Airport. We let her go outside, probably not the most sanitary decision, but to play in the snow, outside of the airport doors. And for years, she’s spoken longingly of Newark,” Tetlow said, to laughter from the audience. “So we’re very excited for snow, and to see our golden retriever experience it for the first time and what his reaction will be.” 

Remembering the Religious Meaning Behind Christmas

Christmas comes at the darkest time of year when the nights are longest, Tetlow said, but by coming together and shining the light of the Fordham family, “we pierce the darkness with the light.” 

She said that during Christmastime, it’s important that we all take a moment to breathe and remind ourselves of why we do what we do, as well as remember the religious meaning behind the holiday. 

“At this moment, we celebrate the fact that God so loved us that he wanted to be human with us, and not to come as a great glorious king bathed in splendor, but as a tiny, fragile, humble little baby born to poor parents, trying to find a place to stay,” Tetlow said. “In that humanity, God wanted to experience everything that we experience with us.”

From Students to Alumni Who Live ‘Lives of Integrity’

She thanked the Fordham community for warmly welcoming her and her family into the Ramily. At Fordham, we are not only continuing to build on the legacy of St. Ignatius, but also helping students to find their meaning in life, she said. 

“Our students today from Fordham come from every corner of the globe and join every corner of the Bronx. They have such blazing talent, which our brilliant faculty get to invest in, get to tutor and teach and mentor, and help launch them into lives that matter … And you embody them,” she said, addressing the alumni in the room. “You were them, and you have now demonstrated to the world what a Fordham education can do … in careers that matter and in lives of integrity.” 

Father McShane told guests the wintry mix was no match against the spirit of New York City.

“The weather is not cooperating as we kick off the Christmas season, but the city certainly is. The city is sparkling already—and filled with the sounds of the season. Choirs are turning up everywhere,” he said, noting that Fordham’s own choir is preparing for the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols.

“This evening we find ourselves … looking backward and forward at the same moment. Looking backward at all the blessings and graces that God poured into our lives in the course of a year that is now winding down, and at the same time we’re looking forward to all the graces and blessings that lie in store for us at Christmas and throughout the new year.”

At Fordham, he said, the past year has given us much to be thankful for, including the completion of Faith & Hope | The Campaign for Financial Aid. That financial aid “allows us to keep faith with the promise of our founding founder, Archbishop Hughes, and his vision, and it enables us to spark revolutions of hope in the hearts and lives of the students who come to us,” he said to the room filled with donors and supporters. “You made it happen.”

Looking to the future, Father McShane invited guests to be a part of the University’s next campaign, now in the quiet phase, that will be focused on enhancing the student experience at Fordham. The centerpiece of the campaign, he said, is a major expansion of the McGinley Center on the Rose Hill campus, adding that it will be a campaign for $300 million over five years. “And with this campaign, we will drive the amount of money that we’ve raised over the last 16 years above the billion-dollar mark,” he said.

Reflecting on the Christmases of his childhood, Father McShane shared a custom of his home parish. The pastor would ask families to take home a bit of straw from the nativity scene surrounding the crèche—or as he corrected, the crib. “We were New Yorkers,” he said. “We didn’t have crèches, we had cribs.” The mothers of the parish had responded to his invitation by taking off their Christmas corsages and leaving them before the Baby Jesus in place of the straw they took, he said. “It was a holy exchange of gifts.”

“And so tonight, as we celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season, I want you to take home a bit of Fordham’s Christmas. I don’t have straw, but I do have this, this golden star,” he said, holding up an ornament that was given to each guest. “Whenever you look at it, see in it two things: Fordham’s gratitude to you, who make every day Christmas through your generosity, and also, see in it the light that shines in the heart of all that Fordham does, the light that is derived from a love of God and manifest in his son, who comes to us on Christmas.”

In welcoming guests, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, listed some of the many joys of the season: greenery, greetings, angels, singing—and tourists.

“I know, I know, they don’t know where they’re going, they clog the sidewalks, they walk too slow, and they stop you when you’re at a sprint to catch a train, to ask for directions,” he said. “But I love tourists. You may say, why? … Why did God create tourists? The answer is a simple and very important one: Someone had to pay full price.”

More seriously, he noted that we should all appreciate tourists because “they see a New York Christmas with new and open eyes.”

Christmas Customs

New York does Christmas like no place else, Father McShane said. But it’s not just the city’s traditions that we celebrate at the start of the season, he said, it’s our personal holiday rituals as well.

He talked about his own family’s “great McShane Christmas custom,” in which he and his three brothers piled into their 1948 Pontiac when his father drove their uncle home to midtown Manhattan.

On the way back to their home in Marble Hill, they would drive by what his father thought was “the greatest hidden Christmas treasure in the city of New York,” the Star of Bethlehem that sat atop the tallest building of the Fordham Hill apartment complex.

“It just presided over the whole city in a very special way,” he said. “It is as steady as love itself.”

“When I look at it, it reminds me of that first love that set fire to the stars,” he said, recalling a line from Dylan Thomas. “It reminds me of the first love that we celebrate at this time of year.”

‘Be the Light’

Father McShane let all guests know that they would be receiving an ornament shaped like a Moravian star—a representation of the Star of Bethlehem.

Part of Fordham’s mission, he said, is to be a “source of light in darkness.” He told guests that he hopes when they look at the ornament, they will be reminded of their own responsibility and mission:

“Be light in the world. Be the light that people’s eyes seek in times of uneasiness, in times of sorrow, in times of fear. Be the light. Be the star.”

That was the message delivered by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, as he kicked off the holiday season with the President’s Club Christmas Reception on Nov. 27.

The annual reception drew some 700 members of the Fordham community to the promenade of the David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center, where Father McShane called upon them to soothe the sharper moments of this past year with a celebration of gratitude for God’s love.

“Auntie Mame would say ‘haul out the holly, we need a little Christmas’—but what about that holly? Why do we deck the halls with holly?”

Rich in Christian symbolism, holly is not so innocent, he said. While the green in that little sprig marks the eternal youth of Christ, the rest evokes Christ’s sacrifice.

“Early Christians also saw spikey leaves—the crown of thorns—and the red berries as the blood [Christ] shed for us,” he said. “In this difficult moment in our history, when the world is tense and the nation is polarized, I look at holly and it reminds us of the first Christmas gift—that of God’s inexplicable generosity, absolutely astounding love for us all. And on the basis of that, we hope. Because we know that God, who loves us so much, will continue to watch over us.”

Gifts to Be Thankful For

As the evening progressed, guests shared the holiday spirit by recalling some of the more meaningful gifts they’d received in their lives and were grateful for. Christopher Knight, FCRH ’16, said he was thankful for “a Fordham education.”

For Andrew Ketchum, FCRH ’09, it was a Batman Bruce Wayne Mansion he got when he was 8 years old—but not really. “It was a really cool gift for sure …  but I’d actually have to say my wife,” he said.

The couple met at the Rose Hill campus’s Queens Court during their freshman year when, says Karen Hogan Ketchum, FCRH ’09, Andrew approached her asking if she knew how to make “easy mac”—macaroni and cheese.

“I thought, oh, here’s this poor guy who has no idea how to cook, let me take pity on him,” said Hogan Ketchum.

“And the line worked,” Andrew chimed in. The two were married last year in the University Church.

Board of Trustees member and 1969 alumnus James P. Flaherty, the founder and chairman of International Healthcare Investor, echoed Ketchum’s sentiment: “Definitely my wife,” said Flaherty, who has known his wife, Jane, since they were teens.

For architect Edward Stand, whose firm designed the Gabelli School of Business, the most meaningful thing he said he’d given was the gift of travel to his sons: “I love giving them the opportunity to go traveling internationally—Istanbul, Italy, Turkey, the Yucatan—that’s the best gift I can give to them.”

Soccer, Service, and Funding Student Dreams

Father McShane shared his own gratitude list, starting with Fordham’s historic NCAA championship win last weekend against Duke by the men’s soccer team. The Rams were the only unseeded team to reach the Elite Eight, and only the second team in University history to reach the final eight in a national championship tournament. They play No. 3 seeded North Carolina this weekend.

“We, who had gone into the tournament unseeded, unheralded, unrecognized, are now ranked No. 7 in the country,” he said to a burst of cheers.

He then thanked the University’s devoted faculty, staff, students who “spend themselves in the service of others,” and the University’s donors. “You are the angels on whose shoulders I stand,” he said. “Your leadership has made it possible for Fordham to raise $115 million as we roar toward our $175 million goal in the campaign Faith & Hope, which supports financial aid.”

“Even in this difficult year, I have much to celebrate and be hopeful about as we go forward.”

View the slideshow:[doptg id=”99″] ]]> 80589 https://now.fordham.edu/university-news/holiday-season-kicks-off-at-lincoln-center/ Tue, 29 Nov 2016 15:00:00 +0000 http://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=58987 More than 800 members of the Fordham community gathered on Nov. 28 in the promenade of Lincoln Center’s Koch theater for the annual President’s Club Christmas reception.

The party, which was held for members of the Young Alumni President’s Club as well as alumni, parents and friends who’ve given $1,000 or more in a fiscal year, was an unofficial kickoff for the holiday season and a chance for old friends to catch up with each other and make new acquaintances.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, used the occasion to remind attendees that come December 25, the University will be celebrating its 175th Christmas, as part of its Dodransbicentennial anniversary.

“Dodransbicentennial—Say it loud, and there’s music playing. Say it soft, and it’s almost like praying. I cannot stop saying it,” he said.

This year, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate, including

-This summer, a record 44,000 applications were submitted for the incoming freshman class.
-The class of 2020 is the most geographically diverse in the University’s history.
-Both women’s softball team and mens’ soccer team were A-10 champions this year.
-The mens’ football team is 8-3 and on November 12, the Rams defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders for their first win at Yankee Stadium since 1941.

It is also, he noted, a time to celebrate 175 years of Fordham miracles: Young men and women of extraordinary talent and great generosity of heart who come to Fordham to be transformed.

“Fordham gives a distinctive education. It teaches young men and women to read critically, to think analytically, to write with persuasion, to speak with eloquence, to set their moral compasses so that they can go forward and lead lives filled with a sense of noble purpose,” Father McShane said.

“Without you, the Fordham miracles stops. Without your generosity, lives cannot be transformed. Because of you, the sacred ministry can continue.”

In fact, he said, attendees are not just benefactors; they are “colleagues in ministry,” and practically members of the Society of Jesus, sans the SJ initials.

“When I say your names in prayer, this, my friends is when music wells up in my heart, and tears in my eyes. You are colleagues in ministry, men and women, whom Ignatius would claim as his own.”

“The song brings about remembrances of Christmases past,” he said, “the most wonderful tastes, smell, and memories you’ve ever had. It’s the national anthem of the season.”

Father McShane made the remarks at the annual President’s Club Christmas Reception, held at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater on Nov. 30.

He joined with alumni and friends to ring in the holiday season and to celebrate an extraordinary couple of years of growth and change at Fordham, much of it happening just behind the Koch Theater at the school’s Lincoln Center campus. This year marked the new Law School’s first full year or operation, and a new wave of construction has begun on the expanding Gabelli School of Business, to open its new space in 2016.

“I always wondered why a Gabelli School wasn’t in Manhattan,” said Patrick L. Tighe III, FCLC ’10, GABELLI ’11, adding that it is still “important that the Fordham College at Lincoln Center continues its tradition of being a liberal arts college,” offering classes in the arts, such as theatre and dance programs that are two of its hallmarks.

The annual President’s Club event draws approximately 1,000 alumni and friends from all campuses, past and present, to celebrate the University’s mission—although for some, the celebration of things past can no longer be pegged to a place.

Jane M. Shaw, UGE ’52, said she loved “going downtown to campus”—302 Broadway—where Fordham once held classes in an office building. She said she’s been coming to the President’s Reception for 20 years.

Nearby, a group of Marymount alumnae shared a laugh and reminisced about their former Tarrytown campus. Kristine L. Welker, MC ’88, said that the spirit lives on at Fordham through the alumnae legacy scholarship that goes to female students with a relative who is a Marymount alumnae.

“I’m a huge believer in the power of the female network and I think that the men here at Fordham are supporting women as much as women are,” said Welker.

Stanley J. Pruszynski, FCRH ’73, said that while Rose Hill remains for him an oasis in the city, the emphasis on service is something that “translates across all campuses.”

Robert F. Wetjen, GABELLI ’59, took the idea a step further calling Fordham spirit something that happens by “transference or osmosis.” But, still, Fordham memories for him are tied to a particular place, namely “those nooks and crannies” at Duane Library where students could cloister themselves and study.

John J. McCombe, GABELLI ’82, said that while the new buildings on both campuses are welcome and important, a University is much more than a place.

“It’s so beautiful around Lincoln Center and we’ve already got that going for us,” he said. “But it’s about the teaching, the feel, and the culture you create with the student body, which is worth much more than the physical plant.”

[doptg id=”37″]

President’s Club Christmas Reception from #fordhamnews on #snapchat.

A video posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Dec 1, 2015 at 12:09pm PST

(Above: Photos by Chris Taggart. Click to enlarge photo)

A crowd of more than 700 gathered at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 1 to once again ring in the Christmas season at Fordham University.

With the Fordham choir singing and lights twinkling from every corner of the Koch Theater Promenade, the annual President’s Club Christmas Reception appeared to be joining the city in gearing up for a “megawatt” Christmas, said Fordham President Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

And yet, Father McShane said, a far smaller display captures the true sentiment of the season.

“Our eye more than anywhere else is drawn to the most unassuming, most understated of Christmas lights—the candle in the window,” he told alumni, parents, staff, and other members of the Fordham community.

However, there is more to the seemingly innocent Christmas candle than meets the eye, Father McShane said. During the time of British persecution against the Catholic Church in Ireland, Irish Catholics would place candles in their windows as a secret welcome to priests, to whom they would offer hospitality in exchange for a celebration of the Eucharist.

With this subversive-yet-sacred history in mind, the image of Christmas candle was chosen to adorn the 2014 Fordham Christmas ornament, Father McShane said, because “it is a symbol that speaks volumes about who we are, what we believe in, and what we do.”

“Fordham has been about the sacred work of being ‘subversive’ for nearly 175 years, providing a different kind of education,” he said. “At the heart of Fordham is a passionate conviction that the core of a transformative and liberating education must be the encounter between the human heart and God.”

Father McShane thanked those gathered for the generosity that has helped sustain this mission.

“Your generosity is making a Fordham education affordable and accessible,” he said. “You have made it possible for Fordham to keep the candle in the window.”

For Valerie Poggioli and John Santanasto (both FCRH ’07), the President’s Club Christmas Reception has taken on a new meaning.

Not only does the annual event symbolize their commitment to Fordham, it is also a celebration of their engagement.

“It’s a little Fordham fairy tale,” said Poggioli, whose fiancé proposed to her during last year’s reception.

The fiancés, who began dating as sophomores, said they are grateful to the University for bringing them together.

“We wouldn’t have met each other if it weren’t for Fordham,” Poggioli said. “It’s one of the reasons Fordham is so special. It’s always going to be part of our lives.”

Many other guests echoed that sentiment of gratitude at the Dec. 5 reception, where University benefactors commemorated another year of advancing Fordham’s mission. More than 1,000 alumni, faculty members, administrators and supporters gathered in the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center, making this year’s reception the most well-attended in the series.

“It has been an extraordinary year for Fordham,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, told the crowd.

Holding up a candy cane and explaining its resemblance to a shepherd’s crook, Father McShane told participants that their generosity merited them a special role in the University.

“When I look out to you, I see modern-day shepherds,” he said, likening the group to the nativity shepherds who traveled to Bethlehem with gifts. “Like the shepherds, you reach into your heart and into your treasure and you give generously. You give to the mission of Fordham.”

Christa Reddy and her husband, John (FCRH ’76), a member of the President’s Council, said they give to Fordham in thanks for past experiences and current ones, now that a daughter attends the University.

“She keeps saying, ‘Mom, I can’t believe how good my life is,’” said Reddy, whose daughter, Kathryn, is a Rose Hill sophomore studying physics and engineering.

John Tognino (PCS ’75), chairman of the Fordham University Board of Trustees, noted milestones that the University has achieved since last year’s reception. More than 24,000 donors raised $51 million, he said, bringing Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham to $438 million of its $500 million goal.

The announcement brought enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

“I have nothing but love for Fordham,” said Frank Lucianna Esq. (FCRH ’48, LAW ’51), who said that his education prepared him for the challenges and successes of his life.

“What I learned at Fordham helped me survive World War II. It gave me the spirit to run, and to serve my country, and to be married for 56 years, and to love my family and to love, love, Fordham,” he said.

President’s Club Christmas Gala
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In the last five years, Fordham University’sPresident’s Club—which is made up of donors who make gifts to the University of $1,000 or more annually—has increased by 37 percent.

To celebrate that spirit of giving and the holiday that inspires it, some 900 members and their guests turned out for the University’s President’s Club Christmas Celebration on Dec. 7, held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, reminded those in attendance of Fordham’s contribution to making New York’s Christmas special—Virginia O’Hanlon. As a little girl in 1897, O’Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun newspaper asking if there was really a Santa Claus. The reply from the paper’s editor, Frank Church, has become the most quoted editorial in newspaper history. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist.”

O’Hanlon, Father McShane said, went on to graduate from Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1930, and to serve others as a public school teacher and administrator. Her faith, coupled with the editor’s eloquent reply, shaped her life and has shaped the very spirit of the New York Christmas, he said.

“Fordham honestly helped invent the New York Christmas,” said Father McShane, who toasted the University’s supporters. “The University has thrived in its mission only because of the love, generosity and devotion of its alumni and its supporters. You believe in a University that is an occasion of grace for all students who pass through its gates.”

There were other reasons to toast to the Fordham family: undergraduate alumni giving participation has climbed to 24 percent. Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign For Fordham currently stands at nearly $290 million, more than half of its $500 million goal. And the Office of Development received nearly $72 million in gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2009.

The university was able to make good, Father McShane said, on its promise that no student would have to leave the university this year because of financial difficulty, and that employees would not face layoffs driven by the economic downturn.

But the deeply personal reasons were most resonant. Triple Ram Kevin Quaranta Esq., (PREP ’74, FCRH ’78, LAW ’81) said that the values acquired through a Jesuit education have inspired a devoted alumni network that keeps giving through friendship, professional support and the shared history of Fordham. “It’s like a circle that comes around again,” he said. “That’s why I am here.”

Recent graduate Tim Bassett (FCRH ’08) summed up his devotion to Fordham in one word: kindness. Two weeks before Bassett was to start classes as a freshman, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Bassett described how the University took a personal interest in his well-being, helping him manage his classes during arduous treatments in his freshman year and arranging for housing adapted to his needs.

“Fordham welcomed me when I was sick and unsure whether I’d be able to go to college at all,” recalled Bassett, who is now cancer-free. “I will never forget what it has done for me.”

Not all President’s Club members are alumni.

“I’ve worked here 20 years, and I like giving to Fordham,” said member Elaine Congress, D.S.W.., an associate dean of Graduate School of Social Service. “I believe in the school’s mission, which is very compatible with social justice issues.

“To me, it’s much more than a job,” she said.