Keating Through the Seasons

If you've visited Fordham you know that no matter what time of year it is, the campus looks beautiful.  From summer nights to blustery winter days, students are always snapping photos of the most picturesque spots on campus, especially Keating Hall.

Home to the infamous bell tower, Keating is placed at the center of campus behind Edward's Parade (the old football field and popular spot for students to hang out on during warm days and during New Student Orientation).  Keating also houses academic classrooms, deans offices, dance studios, WFUV- Fordham's the student run radio network, a beautiful blue chapel, and so much more!  Odds are, as a Fordham student you will have a couple of classes in Keating during your years here.

Here are some pictures of Keating Hall through the seasons, just another reason why you should come to Fordham and check it out yourself!

Keating Hall during the January 2015 Snowstorm Juno

Keating Hall on a warm day in Spring 2015, featuring students enjoying the nice weather on Eddie's!

Keating Hall in the Summer of 2016, preparing to celebrate 175 Years of Fordham, the Dodransbicentenial

Keating Hall in the Fall of 2016 at sunset

Life is Good on Eddie's

Enjoying Fall at Fordham

It's a warm, sunny day on the Rose Hill Campus; golden leaves dance downwards to earth and rich rays of the setting sun illuminate the sky like watercolors. Laying on a blanket on Edward’s Parade (referred to by students as Eddie’s), surrounded by various textbooks and class notes, I can almost forget the impending stress of my midterms. During each season, Eddie’s large grass area features its boundless beauty. In the spring months, the lawn is peppered with hundreds of students, eating lunch, studying for class, or simply playing music and tossing around a frisbee. 

Eddie's blanketed in snow; Keating Hall in the background

When autumn comes, the fall photo shoots ensue; surrounded by trees that are turning their leaves, Eddie’s become a sight for all. Keating Hall, bathed in the afternoon sun and framed perfectly by trees with deep orange leaves, could not be more beautiful. Even in the winter, when the cold sets in, Eddie’s offers a playful snowfield. Coming from California, I had never woken up and walked out to see such a winter wonderland before me. The untouched, level snow blanketing Eddie’s provided a space for building snowmen and crafting the perfect snowball. As the seasons change, 
my love for Eddie’s stays unwavering.

The lush, green lawn of Eddie's during the spring

Eddie's in an essential part of Fordham's campus, providing a large healthy stretch of grass for all to enjoy. Although Fordham is situated close to the bustling city of Manhattan, we have our own growing, natural paradise just twenty minutes away from the concrete jungle. Seated on Eddie’s expansive green lawn, students have a prime location for watching the world go by and relaxing in one of the most beautiful spots on Fordham’s campus. 

Midterms: Keys to Success

You’re halfway through the semester and it’s going swimmingly so far. However, midterms are approaching and they are stressing you out. No matter how much they are worth towards your final grade for each respective class, midterms are extremely important. Not only do they count a lot towards your grade point average, but they are also an evaluation for how much you have learned so far in the course. Here are some good tips for keeping your composure and making sure you succeed on your exams.

First, you must plan ahead. This means looking at each of your midterms, evaluating how much studying is necessary for your success, and executing your plan. If you have an exam worth 40% of your final grade, it might be a good idea to study a week or two in advance, even if it is just for 30 minutes a day.

You also must try to find a study place that fits the way you learn. If you need quiet, go to the library and find a secluded spot. If you’re comfortable in your dorm room, make sure there are no distractions around to interrupt your studying. If you retain information well in a group sessions, find a partner or a group to study with and make sure to keep your focus the entire time.

Finally, keep a level head and try not to stress. If you put in the work correctly, there is no doubt you will ace your midterms. It may require more effort than you thought, but as long as you stick to your personalized plan you will succeed.

Finally Fall at Fordham!

Blog by Jane Mackowiak

There is always a moment about a month into the first semester when I walk outside my residence hall and I know it's finally Fall. The air smells crisper and the leaves start to accumulate on the sidewalks during my walks to class. As much as I love spending afternoons on Eddie’s in the hot sun, there is something about Autumn at Fordham that just feels right.

Central Park offers a peaceful escape from the city and a good opportunity to stroll and people watch.

When the temperatures start to drop, campus starts to buzz with excitement. You can see joy radiate from the faces of students wearing their Patagonias for the first time of the season. You feel more alert with all the caffeine from one too many pumpkin spice lattes. On the weekends, you join the migration of students outside the city for apple picking, pumpkin patches, and hayrides.

The trees change color and make Keating look even more gorgeous in the Fall

The excitement of the season cannot be ignored when you are in such a beautiful place like Fordham. The changing colors of the leaves and the sun beaming through the trees just can't be beat. When you're here, the thrill of sweater weather is infectious!

A Conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Fordham Law School

My ticket from the event! 

Blog by Julia D'Ambrosio

As part of Fordham Law School’s Robert L. Levine Distinguished Lecture Series, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was invited to the school to participate in a question and answer session with students and faculty. Being on the pre-law track at Rose Hill, I was ecstatic to be able to attend and learn as much as I could from such a distinguished woman.

Justice Ginsburg answered a wide array of questions, ranging from her thoughts about the iPhone to the importance of marriage equality. To me, the highlight of the discussion was Justice Ginsburg’s advice that “anger is a useless emotion.” The Justice explained that it should not be anger that fuels our passions, but our desire to affect positive change in frustrating situations. To me, this advice was very powerful because it is applicable to people from all backgrounds. Despite Justice Ginsburg’s politically liberal decisions, her advice to the students in the audience crossed party lines.

Overall, the night was incredibly informative and I feel honored to have been in the presence of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her advice and insight will remain in my thoughts for years to come.

Something that I have come to realize from my time here at Fordham is the wide array wonderful opportunities that are presented to students. Being able to attend such a lecture was an amazing experience that very few people have. 

How to Find Fresh Fruit (And Vegetables) at Fordham

One major cliché about college life is that everyone overdoes it on junk food, especially during the first year. Often foods that are unhealthy can be the quickest and cheapest options, and for busy college students on a budget, it is tempting to just grab some chicken fingers and fries whenever there’s a gap between various classes and club meetings. But recently I have made a discovery at Fordham that is helping me stay on the straight and narrow in terms of maintaining a healthy diet: the St. Rose’s Fall CSA.

The St. Rose’s Fall CSA is a community sponsored agriculture program (hence the initials – CSA) that, for a fee, sends fresh fruits and veggies from nearby Norwich Meadows Farm to Fordham’s campus for any student or administrator that wants to sign up for it. All the food is fresh, organic, and grown locally. This semester a few friends and I went in on a fruit share to cut down the cost and now for less than $30 per person, every week for nine weeks we get to pick up some delicious fresh fruits to enjoy.

There is a wide variety of vegetables to choose from

Last Thursday was our first delivery and we came home with three pears, a carton of grapes, and about two pounds of plums. What’s so great about the CSA is that not only am I staying on top of eating healthy, but I’m also helping support the local agricultural economy because we pay the farm directly, so there is no middleman. In fact, participating in the CSA ends up being a cheaper option than if I was to purchase my fruit from a regular grocery store.

Picking out some delicious plums

I’m sure that when you think of going to school in New York City, you don’t really think you’ll be getting the freshest fruits and vegetables around. However, Fordham’s sustainability efforts offer students an awesome way to stay healthy despite the temptation of eating a bag of chips for a snack in between classes everyday. I feel really fortunate that I can take advantage of it!

If you would like to know more about the CSA, this link explains everything in more detail: https://fordhamsustainability.wordpress.com/csa-faq/

The Fordham Foundry: The Heart of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Campus

The Fordham Foundry: home to some of the most insightful and creative spirits of the University. For Fordham students, the Foundry is an idea incubator, helping creative individuals develop their brainchildren into not only financially successful ventures, but also ones that contribute to the common good. One innovator in particular, Josh Choi FCLC ‘19, has been working with the Foundry to develop his social media application, Redplanet:

Large collaboration tables in the workspace

LJ: What are you developing?

JC: We're developing a way to re-architect social media. We wanted to solve a problem within the social media landscape, so we started by asking "Why the heck are there so many social media platforms? Why couldn't there be just one thing that does it all?"  We took the basic elements of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and consolidated it into one, stand alone platform. It's the first social media app that filters your newsfeeds by dividing them in two: one for your friends and one for the things you're following.

LJ: How has The Foundry facilitated you in your work?

Use the chalkboard walls to brainstorm your thoughts

JC: First off, I'd like to note that there's no substitute for hard work. There is however a supplement to hard work and that is "smart work." The Fordham Foundry provides "smart work" chiefly by bringing together great minds within the same walls. Also, through the of the founders at the Foundry, we were able to meet an engineer who will leverage the NYTimes API to aggregate top stories onto Redplanet. Lastly, because of the Foundry, we are expecting interns this year!

LJ: What is your favorite part of the Foundry?
JC: My favorite part of the Fordham Foundry is the feeling I get when I walk in there. It's just this weird, exciting feeling of having your own place and working side by side with other startups. But most of all, it's nice to have a space dedicated to your startup and the Fordham community, so as our startup grows, and we're going to have new problems to solve internally, we're going to have to bring more people to work with us, and the foundry is the best place to do that.

Words of wisdom on your exit from The Foundry

Josh, like many of the others in The Foundry, are part of a unique community of innovators at Fordham. Particularly in the Gabelli School of Business, there has been a greater interest in majors such as Entrepreneurship. At current, there is one branch of The Foundry on the Rose Hill Campus; however, through a generous grant from NASDAQ, The Foundry will be expanding to Fordham Lincoln Center, set to open in the summer of 2017. 

If you want to be a part of "the new social media" and learn more about Josh's application, Redplanet, you can download it in the AppStore by clicking here .

Dodransbicentennial: A New Beginning for 1,192 Rams

This week marked a major milestone for the Fordham Family, not only for the 1,192 new students entering the class of 2020, but also as the University celebrated it's 175th birthday.

Yesterday marked 175 years to the date that Archbishop John Hughes (Dagger John) ushered in six students as the first class of St. John's College in the village of Fordham, Westchester County, New York. Since then a world of change has gone on in and around what was then just a small college eight miles north of New York City; from the city's own expansion in taking over the lower part of Westchester County, what we now know as The Bronx, to the group of Jesuits in Kentucky taking over St. John's College and transforming it into the world-renowned institution of higher education we now know as Fordham University, The Jesuit University of New York.

Father McShane entrusts six freshmen with the
Dodransbicentennial Banner

The Dodransbicentennial year gives Fordham more to be proud of than ever. Not only did the University welcome in it's most talented undergraduate class in history, but the accomplishments of Fordham students past present and future have given these new students something special to be extra proud of: joining in unity with a university known worldwide for creating intelligent, hardworking, and compassionate graduates who strive to leave the world and Fordham a better place than how they found it.

To celebrate the Dodransbicentennial, more than the usual festivities were in store for the class of 2020, who President Father Joseph McShane, S.J. dubbed as a "visionary" group of young minds. At the opening mass on Sunday when new students moved into their residence halls and kicked off orientation, Father McShane selected six new students and entrusted them with their class banner, a new tradition each graduating class from 2017 and on will carry from convocation to commencement, as well as the university's dodransbicentennial banner, which will be passed to the class of 2017 at the close of the dodransbicentennial year at commencement. And of course Father McShane ended this mass as he always does with students, by welcoming them "home" to Fordham.

Ally, FCRH '20 with her Orientation Leader and past
Ambassador/Tour Guide Teresa, FCRH '17

Apart from the dodransbicentennial festivities, Fordham welcomed in the class of 2020 in style as usual. New Student Orientation volunteers rolled out the maroon carpet for 1,192 freshmen and didn't allow them to lift a finger - more than 200 volunteers at both campuses unloaded cars, U-haul trailers and SUV's for the incoming class and moved all of their belongings into their dorm rooms - a tradition that has been centric to welcoming students to Fordham for years. This was followed by the yearly candle-lighting on the first night, encouraging the newest generation of the Fordham Family to live by the Jesuit values our university is grounded in, and to follow the words of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, to "Go forth and set the world on fire."

Now orientation has finally come to a close, and classes have begun at all 3 undergraduate colleges. These bright new students joining the university will only propel Fordham further upward from where we began 175 years ago, and on behalf the student admission ambassadors in Rose Hill Society and our counterparts in the Lincoln Center Society, welcome home.