He noted that St. Ignatius, like many of the PCS veterans present, served in the military before he began his university education in his 30s. He was a nontraditional college student and went back to school, Father McShane said, because he thought that it would help him have a better understanding of the word of God.

“You went back to school so you could have a fuller life. A fuller life for him. A fuller life for you. So, on behalf of the Jesuit community at Fordham, I congratulate you and I thank you for reminding us of our connection and yours to our founder,” he said.

Of the nearly 160 PCS graduates, 60 processed on Eddies Parade with more joining in for a virtual ceremony at home.

Anthony Davidson, Ph.D., dean of PCS, said that that the graduates all faced daily challenges that ranged from financial to familial to medical, yet all had excelled and met the challenge of finishing their degrees. He acknowledged those in the class that had excelled beyond their dreams, moving on to several of the nation’s top master’s programs. And he encouraged graduates to build on the success of their peers.

“Every moment counts and time is marching on, so be constant, be dependable, be punctual, don’t waste time, give warmth to people and be their shining light, be passionate, and above all continue to live in the spirit of cura personalis that has so much been a part of your and our spirits here at Fordham,” Davidson said.

The ceremony’s student speaker, Kelly Jean Clair, arrived early. In heels for the first time in more than a year, Clair said should she take a tumble she made sure to be wearing the school colors beneath her graduation gown. She said she was rather nervous to take to the podium, despite her training as a stage actress, a profession she still works alongside temping. But in her speech, she said she recalled being far more nervous on her first day of class at Fordham.

“I was thinking, ‘Am I going to be the old lady in class?’ Will one of my classmates say, ‘You really remind me of my mom?’ Or would I be able to keep up? Would I really be able to contribute?” she said. “But none of that happened, as a matter of fact, it was quite the opposite. I was treated like a peer. It felt like family.”

In addition, she made it through the core curriculum.

“I don’t know about you guys, but as an English major, I was terrified of math. I mean I hadn’t taken math since I graduated high school back in nineteen eighty… ah, a little while ago,” she said.

Clair would go not only go on to complete her math courses, but she excelled in them, accumulating grades that would allow her to graduate summa cum laude. She plans to continue acting and is thinking of getting her master’s degree. Concluding her remarks, she explained how she and her classmates made it through.

“You know what? We worked our butts off! Now, I Kelly Jean Clair, stand before you as a proud graduate of Fordham University. And in the immortal words of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, ‘We did it!’”

“After leaving the military I wanted to work more with people so I had to decide: What am I good at? I didn’t want to just work to work, I wanted to be fulfilled, and social work met all of what I needed,” she said. “I wanted to make an impact. Also, I like the autonomy of social work, it’s me and my clients.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Wright joined the Air Force in 1999 and retired as a master sergeant. In the Air Force she served in a variety of roles, from working in dining, lodging, and deployment facilities to computer records management to communications and signal intelligence at Fort Gordon, Georgia—site of the U.S. Army’s Cyber Command. While in intelligence, she still longed to work directly with people.

After she earned her bachelor’s in social science online in 2017, Wright decided to concentrate on substance abuse when she began her social work studies. Like all GSS students, her first field assignment was chosen for her. She worked at a college in the office of student disabilities, which allowed her to use many of her military organizational skills while arranging services to meet students’ needs. Her second placement was when the “real social work” began, she said. She interned at the opioid treatment program at the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai. She noted that there’s a personal reason she loves working with that population.

“My parents both passed away early due to HIV as a result of drug use. I always thought that would be my way to help, because sometimes, in this world, real life gets hard,” she said. “I don’t need to be someone who is trying to change anybody. I just want to be there to support them and let them know that not everybody views them negatively.”

Once again, Wright drew from her military experience in her new role. She said that in the military you can’t take things personally.

“Therapy is to heal the client, it’s not to boost me up. People do whatever they need to do, whatever’s best for them, right? You should not want to change them, because that takes that responsibility and puts it on you. That’s a lot of responsibility,” she said. “And people are going to make mistakes, whether it’s relapsing or hurting others, that’s just life.”

Her mentor, Danielle Esposito, is a lecturer at GSS with 13 years of experience working with children and families. Esposito said that Wright’s life experience will protect her from the burnout many new social workers experience.

“It usually takes a while to understand you can’t change a person and that usually happens after your first really tough case,” said Esposito. “You are not there to fix or change, but to support and be a sounding board for whatever a client chooses, especially in recovery.”

Esposito said that Wright was a natural leader in her classes, particularly when it came to a role-playing aspect of the course. She said that Wright was “willing to go anywhere” with a role, either as a client or a therapist, which made the rest of her classmates feel comfortable and safe.

“She would take on the role of the therapist and try out the techniques just taught in the class,” said Esposito. “She’s open to feedback and boy does she follow through with it.”

Wright seems to have absorbed the GSS training that stresses that social workers must take care of themselves before helping others. She volunteers with RamVets, she runs marathons, and she belongs to a MeetUp group that explores parts of the city that she never saw growing up.

“Did you know there’s a lighthouse on Roosevelt Island? I never knew that,” she said, noting that it was also her first time on the tram.

Her first priority will be to land a full-time position where she can help addicts know that they are not alone and that they can count on her not to judge them on their road to recovery.

Fordham SVA chapter president, Emma Cassidy, was nominated as a finalist for Student Veteran of the Year and Chief Diversity Officer Rafael Zapata spoke on a panel for the two-day event—which included a keynote address by First Lady Jill Biden, Ed.D.

Biden thanked the veterans for their service and encouraged attendees to share their stories so that other veterans might view higher education as a way back to civilian life.

“I’ve taught many veterans transitioning from military service, worried that they might not adjust to civilian life, only to find confidence and purpose in the classes they take,” said Biden. “I’ve seen them not only adjust, but thrive and become leaders in their communities and that’s what we see in SVA’s award nominees today.”

Zapata, who spoke on a panel on leadership an diversity, said that the many SVA chapters reflected the diversity of those communities and hold the potential for forging racial harmony.

“The military is uniquely situated to bring people of all kinds together,” he said. “I can’t think of any other organization that can bring people together who have never encountered each other—even more than colleges and universities. The military looks more like this country than most institutions, and I think there are great possibilities in that.”

For her part, Cassidy, who took the helm of Fordham SVA in January, said she was surprised to be nominated. She deflected attention to her predecessor Matias Ayala who she said maintained community and provided ways for members of the group, known as RamVets, to connect virtually during the pandemic.

“I was surprised that it was me, and while I’m proud to have been nominated, there were others who made more of an impact,” she said. “If had been on the nominating committee I would have chosen Matias. I have very big shoes to fill.”

Cassidy said she has given little thought to her role as a woman leading the chapter, though she acknowledged the challenges she faced when she was enlisted in the Navy.

“I was proud to be a woman in the military, but I had to adapt to a male-centric work environment,” she said. “I definitely had some pushback on my attitude. I think they expected me to be much sweeter and demure, but I didn’t see much point of being that way.”

For now, she said, she’s focused on her new role and picking up several virtual events, as well as a few socially distanced in-person events. She noted that the group will hold a socially distanced volunteer effort to help pack COVID-19 relief boxes in Brooklyn at 11 a.m. on Feb. 27 in partnership with DreamcenterNYC. RamVets can register ahead of the event, and the rest of the Fordham community can join the vets by registering at the What Remains website and selecting the Harman Street locale from the dropdown menus.

“We don’t know where we’re gonna land right now with the new normal; we’d love to add more in-person events, but we’ll definitely continue online as well,” she said.

In addition to the volunteer event, the Department of Veterans Affairs will hold a virtual event to help Fordham veterans navigate disability benefits on Thurs., Feb 25 from 7:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Assistant Director of Military and Veterans’ Services Steven Hellman said student veterans can email [email protected] to set up and appointment to revisit an old claim or start a new one.

“It’s a pretty wild process to get your disability claim done on your own without a support system in place and luckily the VA is sending a team over to help all our vets one-on-one,” said Hellman.

Hellman said that veterans often experience delayed ailments well after they leave the military. He encouraged the notoriously self-sufficient vets to reach out for help when they need it. It’s a notion that Zapata touched on during his panel, by paraphrasing the poet Audre Lorde.

“Self-care is a revolutionary act,” he said. “Our existence itself can be revolutionary, that we are still here and we are still thriving—we have to do that.”

 

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