“It’s been a great season so far,” head coach Brian Bacharach said. “[W]e’ve won several games against top 10 and top 20 opponents that traditionally we’ve had struggles with. We’re in the strongest position we’ve ever been as a program.”

Indeed, after winning their fourth straight Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference title, the Rams rose to No. 1 in the nation (in a three-way tie with UCLA and USC)—higher than any Fordham team, in any sport. Now, they’re gearing up the NCAA Championship, which starts on December 6.

Watch to hear what the players had to say about the team’s historic run.

This story was updated on November 29.

“[It] makes me feel free,” said Marcelus “Maco” Dacanay, a music major who has played the guitar for more than a decade. “Practice is what makes you a better musician—and these spaces give that to us.” 

The music rooms are part of a revamped music and art suite that opened for the start of the academic year, generously funded by donors and named in honor of the college’s dean emeritus, Robert R. Grimes, S.J.

“For the music students, having a space that they know is theirs … [means]  they can feel comfortable and safe, collaborating and meeting with new people, experimenting with music, and exercising their creativity,” said Matthew Buttermann, Ed.D., director of jazz performance. “It’s going to be really great for everyone.” 

In the video above, Victorio explains the research she’s conducting with her Fordham mentor, Nicholas Sawyer, Ph.D., and talks about how Fordham has helped her grow as a scientist.

Remember, on the evening of May 18, New York’s Empire State Building will be illuminated in Fordham maroon for our graduates.

“[Tom] gave me guidance on how to carry myself, from looking at my cover letters to hearing me rant [about different issues],” said Harkins, a first-generation law student from New Jersey who plans on attending the Emory University School of Law. “It meant the world [to me].”  

Last fall, Harkins and Hughes—executive vice president and general counsel at Greater NY Mutual Insurance—were paired together through the Fordham Mentoring Program. Since then, they have met nearly every week. In a Q&A and video, the pair discuss their relationship, their favorite moments at Fordham, and advice for soon-to-be graduates. See their conversation in the video above and read more below. 

What is one of your most special memories at Fordham? 

William: My orientation took place on the Plaza. I was a transfer student from the Community College of Rhode Island. Looking at all the skyscrapers, cars, and people around me, I had this moment when I realized that Fordham was bigger than the school itself.

What makes you emotional when you reflect on your time at Fordham? 

Tom: My father attended Fordham for a year and a half. When I was born, he was just under 20 years old and needed to support our family. He took a job in construction and went on to work in the New York City Police Department. Decades later, my daughters Kathleen and Brittany completed their undergraduate and master’s degrees at Fordham. They both said that they completed his degree for him. 

How has Fordham changed your life? 

William: As a first-generation law student, I feel like the academic and emotional support I received have pushed me to expand my goals and try things that I wouldn’t have tried. Fordham also awarded me a merit scholarship that not only allowed me to attend undergrad, but also look forward to law school without worrying about immense debt.

Tom: At Fordham, I developed an intense interest in philosophy. Because of my experience at Fordham, I ended up going to Columbia, where I studied philosophy at the graduate level, and pursued my Ph.D. nearly 25 years later. 

William, what advice would you give to your freshman year self? 

Be more bold. In my first year, I was a little afraid of putting myself out there. It wasn’t until my junior year that I started to feel like I should say yes to every opportunity. That took effect with the mentorship program. You may try and fail, but you’re always going to learn something. 

Tom, what advice do you have for William as he graduates from Fordham and enters the next stage of his life? 

You have an amazing ability to raise issues and think through them. Take advice from people who give good advice. You have an intense interest in the law that you will continue to cultivate, but you also have a good perspective on work-life balance. Keep that balance, and practice the law honestly and courageously. And most importantly, stay true to yourself. Be William. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Remember, on the evening of May 18, New York’s Empire State Building will be illuminated in Fordham maroon for our graduates.

“I want to show how diabetes can teach you meaningful lessons that can be applied to sports, family, [and] friends,” said Shah, a general science and anthropology double major who aspires to become a pediatric endocrinologist.

Within its first week of publication this past February, the book reached #1 in Amazon’s New Releases in Children’s Books on Physical Disabilities, #1 in New Releases in Children’s Disease Books, #1 in New Releases in Children’s Nonfiction Health Books, #5 Best Sellers in Physical Disabilities, and #13 Best Sellers in Children’s Disease Books, said Shah.

Watch the video above to learn more about Shah’s new book, Shots at Life, and what it’s like for Shah to live with diabetes as a college student.

Check out our video featuring Nushelle de Silva, a new faculty member in the art history department originally from Sri Lanka, and Matteo Torres, a first-year student from San Francisco who is studying at the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center. They sat down with Fordham News to share some insights from their first few months and how they’ve come to find a second home here.

Additional reporting by Kelly Prinz.

“They get the summer to actually focus on their research, instead of having classes or jobs or other things going on,” explained Christopher Aubin, Ph.D., Fordham College at Rose Hill faculty director for undergraduate research. “And they get to interact with other students outside of their disciplines, in a way where they’re watching each other generate knowledge.”

Students in the program worked closely with faculty to pursue topics that they find interesting.

“Everyone was very very helpful, and there were workshops if you didn’t know what you were doing, or if you needed help,” said Diana Paradise, a rising junior who worked on a psychology research project this summer. “It was a really great experience. I wouldn’t have been able to find what I found or learn what I learned without this program.”

Maura B. Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, attended the presentations, and spoke to the students on day two.

“This program is amazing. I’m so excited that you all get to learn from each other and that we get to learn from you,” Mast said. “And I’m really grateful for [our donors’]  support. We are able to fund this because we get amazing support from our alumni; they’re the ones who gave the money so that you could have this incredible experience.”

Hear from four of our summer scholars in in this video series, including the video below:

“They’re writing for the academic audience, but what about us high school students?” asked Suvanni Oates, a high schooler from Bronxdale High School who is an intern for the project. “What about us students who can’t receive that message that they’re trying to send in that way?” 

From June 14 through 16, Fordham welcomed 12 scholar-authors from multiple universities alongside local New York City high school students and Fordham undergraduates for a writing workshop where they could all learn from each other. 

Creating New Articles—and TikTok Videos

“High school students were introduced to undergraduates [and they are]working with linguistic anthropologists, our authors. We prepared student teams to each read one author’s paper and give feedback on what they understood, what they didn’t understand, what spoke to them,” said Ayala Fader, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at Fordham and founding director of both the Demystifying Language Project and Fordham’s New York Center for Public Anthropology, which is launching next year. 

During the workshop, held at the Lincoln Center campus, teams of undergrads and high school students worked with their author to “transpose” previously published articles into two-page digital pieces in language teens can understand. Students even spent a day making TikToks that conveyed the main messages of the articles.

“To hear [the authors’]perspective and actually work with them in person, that was the cool part,” said one of the Bronxdale high schoolers, Athalia McCormack.

The resulting 12 papers will be published as a multimedia open educational resource on the website for Fordham’s New York Center for Public Anthropology.

“Our long-term goals include housing these 12 digital pieces on an interactive website that will be free to use,” said Fader. “We hope that this is going to be a resource for high school teachers to use in existing curricula and also for high school students to experiment with social science, especially linguistic anthropology, which is not part of most curricula in NYC public schools.” 

Fordham Students See the Impact

Sitara Vaidy, who graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in May with a psychology and sociology major, was one of the Fordham students working on the project. She said the workshop “allowed the high school students to better understand the significance of fields such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, etc., and the interesting and important work that they produce.”

Theater and anthropology major Ashira Fischer-Wachspress, FCLC ’23, who also worked with the teams, said she appreciated the justice aspect of the work.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to have met so many fascinating, driven people working for social justice,” she said. 

Expanding into Communities

The DLP is also planning to use the short articles in a summer institute for high school students, where they will study language and power in their own communities. The following summer they plan to host a teacher-training institute. 

“By demystifying students’ own experiences with language, the DLP strives to create a grounded, hands-on, potentially life-changing set of social justice tools for high school students and teachers and the faculty and undergraduates who collaborate with them,” Fader said.  

The DLP has been externally supported by a Spencer Conference Grant and a Wenner-Gren Workshop Grant. Internal support comes from an Arts and Sciences Dean’s Challenge Grant and Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, who hosted the pilot project in 2019, and will be collaborating on future programs. Fordham members of the organizing committee include Johanna Quinn, Ph.D. (sociology); Britta Ingebretson, Ph.D. (MLL); and Crystal Colombini, Ph.D. (the Writing Center), who were joined by Mike Mena, Ph.D. (Brooklyn College); Justin Coles, Ph.D. (UMass); Lynnette Arnold, Ph.D. (UMass); Bambi Schieffelin, Ph.D. (NYU), and high school teacher Scott Storm (Harvest Collegiate). 

On June 1, the three parts of the team gathered in person for the first time at Fordham’s LITE Center at Rose Hill to show off their work and speak more about the exciting new app that they are hoping to complete.

The app will allow users to walk around New York City and use their phones to pull up 3D models, images, and information about medieval-inspired structures that once stood where they are standing. It will also show viewers medieval-inspired elements that still exist in the city today.  

“We have [created] these … walking tours … that showcase points [around the city] that aren’t medieval, but are medieval in a way that’s understood very broadly,” explained Christina Bruno, Ph.D., co-director of the project and associate director of the Center for Medieval Studies. 

These points include examples of medievalism in architecture around the city, like coats of arms, statues and monuments that depict medieval figures, and places that have collections of medieval objects (like the Met Cloisters). In addition, they have included spots that speak to what New York itself looked like during what we think of as the medieval period, between 500 and 1500 CE, before contact with Europeans.

“[This] will hopefully be supported by a mobile application with audio guides, AR/VR content; and that is how we got involved with the New Rochelle High School students,” Bruno said.

Katherina Fostano, visual and digital resources director at the Center for Medieval Studies, happens to be friends with the chair of the math department at New Rochelle High School.  

“She connected us with a class of architecture students who went on to become very interested in the project and [began] to build 3D models of structures around the city that no longer exist,” said Bruno.  

Building Castles in 3D

One student in particular was especially interested in working on the project: New Rochelle senior Maximiliano Aguilar.  

The Center for Medieval Studies gave Aguilar incomplete pictures and drawings of medieval-style castles built during the 19th century that used to exist in New York City. Using only the pictures, Aguilar was able to construct 3D scale models of these formally impressive structures. In the year he’s been working on the project, he has been able to build two castles, Libbey Castle and Paterno Castle, fully, and plans to finish a third model that he has started over the summer.

“[The coolest thing] was the introduction to a new type of architecture,” said Aguilar, who will start at Fordham this fall. “In class, it was just simple house designs, and when I got introduced to this, I got introduced to castles … which was definitely something new to me.”

The castles that Aguilar has built and is building are the AR/VR element of the Medieval New York Project. When a user opens the app near where the castle once stood, they will be able to see through the camera a 3D model of what the castle would have looked like.

“We realized that we have a valuable opportunity to leverage emerging technologies and capture and share medievalism throughout New York City,” said Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D., assistant director, emerging educational technology and learning space design at Fordham.