Senior Nights at Rose Hill!

My past three years at Fordham have flown by, and it is crazy to think that I will be graduating in a matter of months. As scary as that thought can be, there are certainly some huge perks that come with senior year at Fordham.  In my opinion, one of the best things about senior year here at Fordham is the opportunity to attend Senior Nights! 

Senior Nights are events that happen once every month, the senior class gathers in the McGinley Ballroom to enjoy music, snacks, dancing and more! Each Senior Night has a different theme. The first occurred in October and the theme was childhood dream job. Classmates dressed up as everything from ballerinas, to doctors and vets, basketball players, astronauts and just about everything in between! The second night recently took place in November with the theme of Party in the USA! There was red, white and blue in abundance, with special guest appearances from Abe Lincoln and friends! 

Making our childhood dreams a reality! 

Party in the USA!

Senior Nights are organized by the Campus Activities Board (CAB). They do an amazing job of putting everything together and making sure the seniors can have an amazing time with their class before graduation! These nights are definitely something that I have looked forward to since freshman year at Fordham and I can't to see what next month's theme will be because I know it is bound to be a great time! 

A Yankees Game Adventure

I’m a huge baseball fan and have spent most of my summers at the ballpark watching a game. So when CAB was offering $10 tickets to see the Yankees take on the Red Sox over at Yankee Stadium, I was absolutely thrilled.

Yankee Stadium

My friends and I were fortunate enough to win tickets to one of the two games CAB offered to see baseball’s most legendary rivalry. It was a cold, Friday night in early April. Since it was my first time at the new Yankee Stadium, we explored the ballpark and its upgraded amenities for a while before getting some food and taking our seats in the bleachers in the outfield. All Fordham students in attendance got FREE Yankees hats as well, which was a great treat.

The game was really exciting; in fact, there was a problem with the lights in the middle of the game, causing a fifteen-minute delay while the issue got resolved, and the game even went into extra innings – twenty innings in total compared to the typical nine. Unfortunately, my friends and I opted to leave around the thirteenth inning as the night was only getting later and colder, and, since it’s only about a fifteen-minute ride on the D train back to Fordham Road, it was easy getting back to campus. The Red Sox ended up winning, so it was probably better we didn’t stick around anyway.

Our view from the bleachers!

Though I am a big fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, it was a lot of fun getting to see two of baseball’s biggest team go head-to-head in a seemingly never-ending game. I have one more year left living in the Bronx, so I hope I get to attend more Yankees games in the future.

Enjoying the game!

Finding Cleveland in NYC

One of the main reasons I decided to attend Fordham was because of its prime location.  Living in NYC for the past three years has been an incredible experience, and I would not trade it for anything, but that doesn't mean I don't get homesick from time to time.  Because I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, I only get the chance to go home during longer school breaks, so I've found some in things in New York that remind me of back home.  

Luckily, Fordham has a way of bringing a bit of Cleveland to me here.  Last month I attended the Cultural Affairs Raffle.  These raffles happen each month, and students have the chance to purchase discounted tickets to events around the city, usually Broadway shows or sporting events.  When I went, I had the option of getting tickets to Finding Neverland, an opera, or a Brooklyn Nets game.  I chose the basketball game because the opponent for the night of the game was the Cleveland Cavaliers! I was so excited that I would get to cheer on my team even though I was 500 miles away from the Cavaliers' home court.  

Barclays Center where the Nets play 

Great seats for only $20

I was able to bring my friend to the game, and even though the Cavs couldn't manage a win that night, we still had a great time.  Getting to the Barclays Center was a simple as walking up Fordham Road and taking the 4 Train, and on the way back we took the D train and road back to campus from the subway station in the Fordham security shuttle that waits at the station for students every night. 

Trying to enjoy being a college student in NYC while maintaining a budget may seem like a daunting task, but Fordham works to give all students the opportunities to experience the best of what the city has to offer.  Each of the tickets I got for the game had a face value of $115 (yikes!) but I only had to pay $20 for each (score!).  As a Fordham student, I am able to take full advantage of living in NYC, and even though I miss Ohio at times, I can always find ways to bring a little bit of home here. 

The Cavs warming up

Time for tip-off

LeBron James shooting free throws  

Kickin' Off Spring Weekend 2015

Spring Weekend is one of the most anticipated events for students at Fordham. It is scheduled for the last weekend before the end of classes, as a final celebration before finals. The programming starts Monday and continues through Sunday. This year’s main events consist of:

Thursday:

Speaker

Brandon Stanton, founder of HONY

Each Thursday night of Spring Weekend, CAB (Campus Activities Board) brings in a speaker for students. This year, Campus Activities Board has gotten Brandon Stanton, founder of the famous social media project, Humans of New York.

Friday:

Rose Hill Rush

Peer Educators hosts a 5K run around campus. Students are invited to run 3 laps around campus to start off Spring Weekend.

Some friends and I after last year's Rose Hill Rush.

DJ

Solidisco

The fun continues Friday night with a selected DJ who performs in the large open parking lot on campus. This performance resembles a rave/club feel. This year's selected DJ is Solidisco.


Saturday:

Concert

Concert on Martyr's Lawn

Saturday afternoon, there is a big concert on Martyr's lawn. It starts with a student opener and then follows with a band Campus Activities Board hires. This year's band is 21 pilots. My freshman year, we had Grouplove and Andy Grammer and my sophomore year we had Cartel, Cold War Kids, and Melker Project.

RHA Under the Tent Dance

Last year's Under the Tent-Kentucky Derby

Saturday night is the annual RHA (Residence Halls Association) Under the Tent Dance. This year's theme is The Last Illusion; Magic & Mystery. The tradition of the dance is that students wait on line outside McGinley about a week before to purchase tickets for the event. The wait can sometimes be long, but the sun is usually shining, so it gets students excited for the weekend!


Sunday:

Comedian

Every Sunday night, Campus Activities Board brings in a comedian to finish off the weekend with some laughs! This year's comedian is Jamie Lee, famous from MTV's girl code.

Jamie Lee

Here's the full week's lineup of this year's events:

Making the Most Out of Fordham's 135 Clubs

Are you the kind of high school student who is an all-season varsity athlete, NHS scholar, after school volunteer at a local nursing home, school newspaper editor-in-chief, president of both French Club and Painting With Watercolors Club, and an active member of the Chess Club and Grecian Club even though you’re 100% Irish?

If you can relate, have no fear, most Fordham students were also stupidly over-committed in high school too.

Being involved in so much isn’t necessarily a bad thing- it usually means that you’re passionate about a lot of things and have a wide array of interests, which is an extremely respectable quality to have. It also helps you master the art of time management, and allows you to meet new people with similar interests as you.

However, being over-committed, especially in college, can also be a curse. If you take on too much, you not only overwhelm yourself, but also lose the opportunity to really immerse yourself in what you’re involved in. College can be a big adjustment for some people, so between classes, homework, internships, having fun with friends, exploring New York City, and getting enough sleep, it’s important to remember to only join things you think you will have time for.

That being said, I will now tell you that Fordham has 135 clubs and organizations for undergrads. That’s everything ranging from the Finance Society, to club sports teams, to Fordham Experimental Theatre Group to the Paranormal Society. You can pretty much find an organization geared toward anything you’re interested in; but if not, you can always submit a proposal to start something new!

At the beginning of every semester Fordham hosts a fair (in the fall around Eddies and in the spring in McGinley 2nd) to showcase all of the different clubs. It’s literally like a scene out of Pitch Perfect- the performance groups are singing and dancing at you, and every group in between is offering you candy and trying to get you to sign up for their organizations. 

Fall Club Fair Around Eddies

My advice to freshmen would be to get a feel for all of the clubs first. Talk to the people representing the club at the fair, take tons of brochures and flyers and free food, and do a little bit of research. Whatever you do, don’t sign up for a club right on the spot because if you end up not joining, you’ll still get tons of emails from them until you graduate anyway. After you’ve thought about it and figured out which clubs’ schedules fit into your schedule, join one to four of them. Join some that you know you’re passionate about, and maybe one that you’re curious about. You might learn something new, and meet different people. Also, be active in your clubs! Attend meetings, volunteer to work events, and maybe even run for an e-board position. Getting involved is such a great way to meet great people and truly feel like a part of the Fordham community. 

Expressions Dance Alliance at the Fall 2014 Club Fair

For a full list of the clubs and organizations offered on campus, click here!

Weekend Update

Caroline Lebranti

Keating Hall on a bright and sunny day

This weekend at Fordham was pretty exciting since it was the first couple of days where it was super sunny and nice enough to be outside without bundling up! On Saturday CAB hosted a County Fair around Eddies where students could play carnival games and get free popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream. After hanging out there for a while some friends and I hopped on the D train and made our way to Brooklyn where we basked in the glorious weather, played bocce in Park Slope, and got ice cream at Ample Hills Creamery (highly recommended... try their Mexican hot chocolate flavor!). Sunday was also great because not only was everyone out on Eddies playing Frisbee and sunbathing, but it was also the President’s Spring Preview! Campus was buzzing with current and prospective students and families which made for quite a lively afternoon.

Our delicious brunch

Caroline McCue

This past weekend, I had a great time celebrating my friend Rachael’s birthday with a delicious Sunday Brunch.  We went to the Gansevoort Hotel which has a delicious menu. Although it is a little pricey, I would highly recommend going for a special treat! Afterwards, we walked around the Meatpacking District for a little and enjoyed the crisp spring day.  I got the eggs Benedict which was to die for!  Although I have a lot of papers and assignments to finish up before the end of the year, I am glad I got to spend an afternoon relaxing and celebrating with my friends in such an amazing city!

Lake Michigan

Megan McLaughlin

This weekend, besides chatting with some prospective students about Fordham and the best places to eat on Arthur Ave, I visited Chicago. The weather was great, but this view of Lake Michigan doesn't quite beat the view of Central Park stretched out below you at Top of the Rock (30 Rockefeller Center's rooftop).

Great night for baseball

Madeline McDermott

On Friday night, I went to the Yankee vs. Red Sock game. I got $10 tickets through the CAB raffle and the game wound up being the longest game in the history of Yankee Stadium.

Another lovely shot of Keating

Claire McGonigle

This past Sunday was Admitted Students Day here at Fordham! It was great to talk

to prospective students and give them a chance to talk to current Fordham students

along with administrators to give them a better sense of what life at Fordham is like.

Fordham's Campus MovieFest!

With Spring Weekend only a few weeks away, students on campus are buzzing with excitement about who will perform on Martyr's lawn and what the "Under the Tent" theme will be. Other students have been preparing for spring weekend this week by brain storming script ideas, running around campus with cameras, and staying up late editing.

These students are (most likely) participants in this year’s Campus MovieFest. While not technically on the weekend (the event occurs the Wednesday night before Spring Weekend) Campus MovieFest is an annual event students anticipate and plan for all year. Though their excitement and planning may start months in advance, the real grunt work is limited to just one week. 

The film The Translator from last year's festival

Campus MovieFest challenges students to make a movie, with a run time of 5 minutes or less, in just one week. Films include a variety of genres from Comedy to Drama. Last year included a few high action Matrix-style thrillers as well as silent films. Students tap into all of their creative outlets sometimes composing their own scores or special effects.

Hans Lueders's crew produced a sci-fi thriller for last year's CMF

The competition attracts 500,000 global college student participants. The Campus MovieFest complies a judge panel comprised of students, faculty and partners unique to each school. The winners are not disclosed until they appear on the screen at the event itself. 16 films premiere and the top 4 films are sent to Hollywood for CMF national competition.

The crowd favorite duo known as "The Part Time Hooligans"

Come out to Fordham’s Campus MovieFest at 7pm on Wednesday, April 22 in Keating first floor auditorium!

Also Check out all of last year's films here! 

In NYC, the Oscars Come to Us

Getting ready for the show!

This weekend, I braved the frigid temperatures to attend an only-in-New-York sort of event—and I loved it. With a group of my friends, I went downtown to the School of Visual Arts in Chelsea and watched all of this year’s Oscar-nominated shorts. Most people use the short film acceptance speeches as time to get up and stretch because so few people go to the film festivals where most of the movies play. The quick movies ran the gamut from animated to live action and from tragic to uproariously funny. In between, directors from some of the shorts spoke about their inspirational process, animation, casting, and the difficulties of filming.

Feast Poster

We listened to Patrick Osborne, the director of Disney’s entry Feast, explain that the animators had spent a full day doing “research” (actually watching coworkers dogs romping around the office) on how dogs moved before they began animating the canine protagonist of the short film. The French producer and Chinese director of Butter Lamp, a movie exploring the question of identity through Tibetan nomad families, detailed the immense difficulty of shooting film at 15,000 feet high with a reluctant Chinese government. The effort that goes into the films is incredible despite their short length--Israeli creators of Aya spent a full 6 months in post-production for a total of 3 years working on the film. 

A scene from Butter Lamp

This isn't an activity that I would normally do—I don't watch a ton of movies and knew absolutely nothing about short films. But when you go to Fordham, opportunities to do things like this literally come knocking. Last week, CAB (Campus Activities Board) raffled off tickets to watch every single Best Picture nominee, back-to-back. If my luck were better, I would be doing that, too. When Fordham makes it so easy to explore the city and learn new things, you just can't say no.

Father Phil's Bucket List

There are always tons of things going on around Fordham, several which are organized by the Campus Activities Board (CAB).  Last night in Keating 1^st Auditorium, CAB hosted an event called “Father Phil’s Bucket List.”  He gave the students some inspiration about how to best spend their time in college, and how to take advantage of all that Fordham has to offer.  Father Phil started off with a quote from Howard Thurman:  “Ask yourself what makes you come alive and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  He spoke about the importance of discovering our personal mission and delving deep into all that we do.  He also said we should expand our minds by learning another language and reading more, both for school and leisure.  He discussed how following the news will help us to formulate our own opinions on current issues, giving us the tools to engage in critical thinking and meaningful discourse.

The view on my way home from studying abroad!

Father Phil also encouraged the students to go out and see the world in whatever way they can.  He talked about how much travel can broaden our horizons and change the way we see the world.  Through visiting other countries and continents, we can immerse ourselves into other cultures and learn not only about these people, but also learn more about ourselves in the process.  Here at Fordham there are countless study abroad programs available to students in various locations and for different lengths of time.  Whether it is a weeklong study tour, a month in the summer, or a whole semester, you can find a program that best suits you and your academic career path.  Father Phil also spoke about the importance of serving those in need, following in the Jesuit tradition.  Fordham has endless opportunities to help others not only in the local community, but also across the country and beyond through programs like Global Outreach.

Eddie's Parade at sunset

Another point that Father Phil spoke about was appreciation for nature.  He discussed the beauty that surrounds us here at Fordham, both on and off campus.  Just across the street from our main entrance is the New York Botanical Garden, where students can enter for free simply by showing their Fordham ID.  He also encouraged students to eat well, especially since just outside campus is Arthur Avenue, the heart of the Bronx’s “Little Italy.”  This area is lined with delicious Italian restaurants, pizzerias, and bakeries to explore.  Students can even visit Manhattan by the Ram Van, Metro-North, or subway.  Father Phil talked about the importance of exercise and, fortunately, Fordham has great gym facilities and even intramurals for students who want to participate in sports on a recreational level.  He ended with an old Italian proverb:  “With hard work and determination one can climb a mountain.  With Faith and imagination, one can move it!”

My intramural flag football team

It's Christmas time in the City

It's that time of year again - Christmas at Fordham!  Here at our Rose Hill campus, there are so many different ways to get into the holiday spirit. Here's a list of how the Fordham community is celebrating the holidays and giving thanks for our #Ramily this season.

Peer Educators is an on-campus group
that provides festivities for health and good cheer!

1. Holiday Fair

Every year, Fordham's Campus Activities Board puts on a Holiday Fair where students can take pictures with Santa and his elves, share some free treats, and even do a little gift-shopping.  This year, I helped table for Fashion for Philanthropy selling Candy-Cane Grams and painting festive nails - all proceeds went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Students look forward to seeing the horse-drawn sleigh that rides throughout campus for several hours during class-time the day of the fair.  I remember the first time I saw the sleigh, I could not believe my eyes - it was a Christmas miracle!

Even the rain and gray skies can't stop the annual horse and carriage rides!

2. Volunteering

What better way to truly keep the joy in the Christmas season than to give back to the community?  Every year, Fordham sponsors toy/food/coat drives for those who are in most need during the chilly season.  I have already received so many emails about different different drives occurring on campus.  I think this not only retains the true value of the season, but also highlight's Fordham's Jesuit mission of men and women for others.  

My residence hall, Walsh, is having it's own Toy and Coat drive,
sponsored by the Residence Hall Association.

3. Arthur Avenue's "Little Italy"

Student's who are in need of a home-cooked hearty holiday meal will venture to Arthur Avenue, the "Little Italy" section of the Bronx.  Arthur Avenue is a tight-knit community with its own unique charm that is a mixture of the old and the new - it still has most of its original storefronts that have been passed down from generation to generation, while also attracting students, families, and tourists alike who want the best Italian food in NYC!  Also, every year, the Belmont community (where Arthur Ave is situated) has their own tree lighting and caroling that always is sure to put a smile on any passer-by's face!  I always look forward to having a Christmas dinner with friends to unwind during finals and prep for the next semester. 

Annual lights on Arthur Avenue to welcome all who visit!

4. NYC

Or if you want to experience some of the magic of Manhattan that occurs during this time, Fordham LC is just a quick 30 minute Ram Van ride away!  This will take students right to Columbus Circle where there are holiday lights that are like magic at each change of color.  This sophisticated yet quaint area of the NYC is sure to bring the Christmas spirit to full force with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts just a short distance away where holiday-enthusiasts can see the Nutcracker!

These are just a few ways to partake in the holiday cheer, which there is certainly an abundance of here at Fordham.  Happy holidays to all!

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.