Photos by Taylor Ha

Thirty-three cadets officially began their military leadership careers on May 17 at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. At the 94th commissioning ceremony for Fordham’s Army and Navy ROTC program, speakers praised this year’s cadets for all they had accomplished so far while also describing what’s required of those who lead America’s soldiers and sailors.

For one thing, the guest speaker said, there are no days off.

“You are leaders 24/7, 365,” said Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command, at the ceremony held at the University Church. “Lead by example. … You should hold yourself to a higher standard, because trust me, soldiers notice everything their leaders do.”

She conferred several other lessons gleaned from her 36-year career: Get to know your troops. Listen to noncommissioned officers; they’ll tell you what you need to hear. When you inevitably make a mistake, “get over it, fast,” and learn from it. Enjoy yourselves, as hard as it may be sometimes, and serve with passion and zest. Set high standards, communicate them clearly, and hold your service members accountable.

“At the end of the day, soldiers want to be part of a winning team, and they want a leader they trust and respect,” Barrett said.

Love-Driven Leadership

She then administered the oath of office to the cadets, who came from several New York-area universities including Fordham, which was to hold its University-wide commencement the next day. Most cadets were bound for the Army, the Army Reserve, and Army National Guard. One was commissioned in the Navy and one in the Marine Corps. One cadet, Miguel Angel-Sandoval, was an Army enlistee who would take part in a Yellow Ribbon ceremony honoring Fordham’s student veterans later that day.

Lt. Col. Paul Tanghe, Ph.D., professor of military science and the officer in charge of the Army ROTC program, noted the diversity of the cadets: they comprised 24 ethnicities and hailed from 11 states as well as countries as far away as South Korea and Senegal. And 40% were multilingual, speaking a total of 13 languages, Tanghe said in his remarks.

He lauded the cadets for demonstrating the love-driven leadership exhorted by two of their recent class dinner speakers, not to mention St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37.

“Love-driven leadership is how great officers lead, it’s how the Jesuits educate, it’s why ROTC has the home and the partnership that we have here at Fordham,” Tanghe said.

Cadets received various awards and honors, including the President’s Saber, presented to Brian T. Inguanti, a member of Fordham College at Rose Hill’s Class of 2024 who was headed for the Army Corps of Engineers. The Rev. Joseph M. McShane Award for Excellence in Faculty Support to ROTC was presented to Matthew Butler, PCS ’17, senior director of military and veterans’ services at Fordham.

In her own address, Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, noted the essential role played by the cadets’ family members gathered in the University Church.

“You have raised, supported, challenged, inspired these extraordinary men and women graduating here today,” she said. “You have rooted them in service, you imbued them with courage, and so we are so grateful for you this morning.” 

Harris played numerous leadership roles—in ASILI, the Black student alliance; in Fordham’s Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, or CSTEP; and at Loschert Hall, where he served as a resident assistant. He served on the University’s undergraduate advising task force, and he was part of a team working with philosophy professors to add diverse voices to the department’s curriculum as part of a Teaching Race Across the Curriculum grant.

He was a leader among his friends, too, always ready to help them or dispense a wise word when it was needed.

“There wasn’t a moment when Vincent wasn’t a big brother to us,” said one of his friends, Anita Adu Manu, a fellow Fordham College at Rose Hill senior. “He taught me so much, and we’re all going to miss him.”

Harris was serious and hard-working, and always got things done on time, but he could also be “a goofy guy,” and fun-loving, said Rashain Adams Jr., president of ASILI.

“He was extremely authentic, and one of a kind,” Adams said.

A CSTEP Scholar 

A native of Orange County, New York, Harris graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan in 2018 before coming to Fordham and joining CSTEP, a statewide program that prepares college students from underrepresented backgrounds for careers related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), or careers in healthcare or in licensed fields. Harris was interested in law school, said Renaldo Alba, associate director of the Fordham CSTEP program and its partner program for younger students, STEP.

Harris was a Dean’s List student double-majoring in philosophy and German language and literature, said Lisa Gill, Ph.D., assistant dean for the senior class at Fordham College at Rose Hill. Harris was also pursuing a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps through its Platoon Leaders Class and was set to become a 2nd lieutenant on June 10.

He was a member of the Caribbean and African Students Association, among his other roles, and he was described as someone who often brought different campus groups together for discussions.

“Vincent was a talented, warm-hearted, and highly engaged member of our campus community who gave of himself in so many ways,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Words cannot fully convey the tragedy of losing someone so young and so full of promise.”

Harris had received the C. David Ferguson CSTEP Scholar Award on May 5 in a ceremony at the Rose Hill campus. He had served in CSTEP’s companion STEP program for junior- and high-school students by teaching a seminar course—Philosophy and the Black Experience—to STEP students on Saturdays last fall at Rose Hill, Alba said.

He was also a tutor/peer counselor for STEP students enrolled in math, earth sciences, and rhetoric enrichment courses taught on campus by area high school teachers, he said, serving as a role model and helping to demystify the college experience and make it more accessible. In addition, Harris was part of a trio of CSTEP students who visited area schools on weekdays for conversations that supported a college access and student life curriculum, Alba said.

Harris had served as treasurer of ASILI and was vice president of the student organization this semester, Adams said. Harris played a significant role in arranging the virtual Fordham event in February featuring prominent author and activist Cornel West, Ph.D. “Without him, it wouldn’t have happened,” Adams said.

Geraldo De La Cruz, a senior in the Gabelli School of Business and fellow ASILI board member, said Harris loved to be active, and was often in the gym. He was passionate about his opinions, which were always well-reasoned, De La Cruz said.

Full of Energy

Harris’s fellow Loschert Hall resident assistant and ASILI board member, Sydni Britton, said “he very much cared about whatever he’s talking about, whatever he’s doing, whatever he’s involved in.”

He showed fortitude in his well-grounded perspectives on societal and political issues, “and that’s an admirable quality, especially if someone wants to be a leader,” she said. He did, however, show he could change his views based on discussion and new information—“a very difficult balance that many people can’t do,” said Britton, also a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior.

She noted his love for the outdoors, which came out during a hiking trip in the New York outskirts that they organized for Loschert Hall students last fall. “It was really cool to see how enthusiastic he was with the students about the outdoors.”

She described him as someone who wanted to make the most of every day. “He was definitely always about being in service of others,” she said.

Anita Adu Manu described him as humble, never wanting to be rewarded for anything, and “incredibly smart.”

She said that she and his other friends were going to try to finish out the semester showing Harris’s same joyful spirit.

“‘There’s nothing in life that’s out of reach’—that’s something Vincent always told us,” she said.

A memorial Mass for Vincent Harris will be held in the University Church at Rose Hill on Friday, May 13, at 12:15 p.m.

“I learned discipline, and I’ve been able to mature a lot more and make better decisions in my life,” said Garcia, who has served as an active-duty Marine for about a decade. “The military shaped me into a better man.”

Garcia now aspires to become a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps. When he retires from the Marines, he said, he plans on returning to civilian life—with the help of his new Fordham degree. This August, he will graduate from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies with his bachelor’s degree in information technology and systems.  

A NYC Native Who Grew Up in the Dominican Republic

Garcia was born and raised in Brooklyn. As a child, he always saluted police officers in the street. He considered them heroes and dreamed of becoming a police officer or a member of the U.S. military, he said. But when his father was unexpectedly deported to the Dominican Republic, 10-year-old Garcia put his dreams aside. 

“I left behind good friends, and life in the DR was not what I was expecting, especially coming from New York,” said Garcia, who lived in the DR until finishing high school. “It was challenging, but it prepared me for life ahead and made me a tougher person overall.”

After high school graduation, he returned to New York City to attend the Globe Institute of Technology and play collegiate-level baseball. But he said it wasn’t easy to balance sports, school, and a full-time job. He dropped out of school before graduating and joined the Marine Corps in 2012.

Garcia also worked as a Marine recruiter in Brooklyn. One of his favorite memories as a recruiter was participating with his fellow Marines in the Tunnel to Towers Race in New York City, an annual run that honors the final route of a fallen firefighter on 9/11.

“It not only represents the Marine Corps, but also New York and the United States,” Garcia said. “Being together and having all the civilians cheering us on was very powerful. I still have my running badge number with me.”

An Officer in Training and Aspiring Cybersecurity Specialist

For many years, Garcia has served as an enlisted Marine, with the goal of becoming an officer. But in order to become an officer, he needed to earn a college degree. In 2019, he was selected to join the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP), which allows select active-duty Marines to serve in the military while attending a four-year college full time. 

“This program allows me to pursue my education, to better myself, and ultimately, to become an officer and serve in the fleet Marine force, where I can better serve my military branch and become a leader among the enlisted ranks,” he said. 

In 2020, Garcia enrolled at Fordham and its Navy ROTC program. Over the past two years, he said he has learned to think outside of the box and gained valuable networking experiences. His uncle who works in IT inspired him to study information technology and systems. Now he hopes to also earn a master’s degree in cybersecurity and specialize in that field in the Marines. 

Upon graduation, Garcia will become an officer in the Marine Corps. He said he hopes to spend at least another decade in the Marines and then retire from the military. What awaits him is life as a civilian—and the ability to give back to his community full time. 

“I struggled as a kid, seeing my dad get deported. So when I think about my kids and others who may be struggling and unable to see a way out, I want to give them hope,” said Garcia, now a 32-year-old father who lives on Long Island with his wife and their three children. “I reach out to young individuals I recruited and see how they’re doing; I try to show them different programs they can participate in or push them to further their education.” 

‘What It Means to Succeed’: A Mentor for Young Marines 

Kevin Dewaine Leonard, a retired master sergeant who was stationed with Garcia in New York from 2015 to 2019, described Garcia as a family-oriented man. (Their families are close, and their children have trick-or-treated together during Halloween.) That same dedication toward his family has extended to his brothers and sisters in the Marines, said Leonard. 

Garcia took young Marines under his wing, especially teenagers who were living away from home for the first time, said Leonard. There were other higher-ups around, but it was Garcia who took the initiative to organize physical training sessions for the young Marines, work out with them, and get them in shape. 

“We never had a situation where a Marine failed a PT test or didn’t meet their development milestones because Garcia constantly had his hands on the pulse with those guys. And his training was effective. When the unit got called up to deploy in 2018, we didn’t have any Marines who weren’t in shape or ready for the task at hand. Sergeant Garcia made sure that those Marines were ready,” Leonard said. 

“Garcia was willing to work and to show those Marines exactly what they needed to be successful and to advance within the Marine Corps,” Leonard said. “He showed the Marine Corps what it means to succeed.”