Christmas in McGinley

Some friends and I with Fordham's very own Santa

Today, Fordham's Campus Activities Board (better known as CAB) kicked off the holiday season with its annual Holiday Fair! The second floor of McGinley was magically transformed into a winter wonderland, complete with snow, candy canes, Santa, and even two elves à la Zooey Deschanel. Stations for making cups of good hot chocolatey holiday cheer and ginger bread men were offered to students for free, as were pictures taken with Santa. There were also a number of stalls dedicated to fundraising for groups such as Circle K, Walk for Life, and many Global Outreach projects.

Ugly Christmas sweaters!

While some offered items such as koozies, lanyards, and homemade jewelry, most stuck to the Christmas theme. There were stands where you could buy miniature Christmas trees, decorate ornaments, or pie Scrooge in the face. My favorite by far was (of course) my own stand which sold ugly Christmas sweaters as part of a fundraiser for GO! Glenmary. After weeks of gathering together our best Salvation Army finds, my teammates and I haggled with fellow Rams over the prices of our most atrocious pieces. In the end, we sold all and made a bundle to be put forward for our service trip's funding.

Such is an example of just one of the many events Fordham has to offer during the Christmas season. Whether you are looking to craft some decorations, support service teams, donate to the Coat Drive, or just in general spread the season's cheer, Fordham has the event for you! December is a great month to be a Ram as there is always something to do.

NYC: Live, Learn, Intern

At colleges across America, an internship is the prize goal of students to bridge the gap between their final two years of school, or even during their final semester. Many students aren't lucky enough to get an internship and are thrown into the "real world" after graduation. This isn't the case at Fordham, in fact it's quite the opposite. With over 93% of students completing an internship, Fordham is a leader in job placement and giving students "real world" experience in and outside of the classroom. After all, it's New York City, why not take advantage of it?

The view from my desk at my internship

This semester, I started my 3rd internship of my college career at a startup called The Vanity Project (TVP). Co-founded by a Fordham Law student, TVP specializes in creating high-quality clothing and merchandise for non-profit organizations, most of which are sponsored by headlining celebrities. Even with my heavy course-load this semester, I'm able to juggle working one full day a week (Wednesday, my day off from class) at our incredible office space in Chelsea, just a 25-30 minute ride on the D express subway train from Fordham's Rose Hill Campus. TVP is a great fit for me because it combines my past experience in retail with my studies of finance here at Gabelli, and it's also a place I feel proud working for because so much of our work goes to supporting nonprofit groups and charities like NoMore, Global Citizen, EQIL, and many more.

Coming into college, I was skeptical of Fordham's career services program, but I've been nothing but amazed with the office ever since I've been here. Going through the college search, all 20 (yes, 20) schools I visited claimed they had the best, but Fordham's landed me two internships in my three semesters here. Career services does everything from helping with résumé building, polishing up LinkedIn profiles, giving mock interviews, career fairs, and everything in between. Landing two internships before my Sophomore year did nothing but shock most of my friends from home, but then again, they don't all have the world's greatest city right at their fingertips.

A collage from the Global Citizen festival in central park.
Global Citizen is one of the many charities TVP makes merchandise for