Peer Educators: We Save Lives!

As a sophomore, I became involved with a club on campus called Peer Educators, which has been an extremely rewarding experience. Peer Educators is a club that strives to improve the quality of student life at Fordham by encouraging positive behaviors on and off campus. Our goal is to decrease the harmful effects associated with the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Fordham's Peer Educators are advised and trained by the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and Student Support (OSAPSS). As a club, we provide accurate information to the student body so that students make informed and safe decisions. 

Peer Educators is split into three main committees: Substance and Alcohol Education (SAE), Marketing, and Passport. Each of these three committees plays a vital role in reaching out to the student body to provide accurate information and promote safe behaviors. 

We distributed water to Seniors for their first Senior Night

This year, I am a Co-Chairperson for the Substance and Alcohol Education Committee (SAE). As a committee, we have many important responsibilities. One of our biggest responsibilities is providing information on drugs and alcohol to freshmen for Core Programming, which is mandatory for all freshmen. We also have Student Awareness Days throughout the year to gauge student knowledge and usage of various substances, as well as to provide all students with information on the substance that we are focusing on for the particular Awareness Day. Additionally, we distribute water to students to encourage them to drink responsibly, which includes staying hydrated. This past Thursday, we handed out water to the Seniors who attended this semester's first Senior Night. We put labels with fun little phrases that encouraged safe drinking practices on every bottle of water.

The September poster this year

The Marketing Committee, like SAE, strives to spread knowledge to the student body about how to make safe and informed decisions. Each month, the Marketing Committee creates a poster that is posted in every building and all around campus. These posters give advice or facts to the students about a particular topic. We are usually able to determine the success of a particular poster campaign by seeing how many of the posters are taken by students. By the end of the month, there are usually very few posters still where they were posted because students take them and hang them in their dorm rooms. 

The Passport

Staten Island Ferry Excursion

Our third committee, the Passport Committee, plans free excursions for students. In September, I led an excursion to the Staten Island Ferry, which was a ton of fun. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty from the Ferry. The Passport Committee is also responsible for creating the Passport, which is a great resource for students. The Passport is a small booklet that easily fits in a purse or a pocket that is filled with restaurants, entertainment, sightseeing locations, museums, sporting events, and anything else that students should know about in the city. Even as a junior, I still refer to my Passport whenever I want to do something in the city. 

I really love being a Peer Educator. We are a student-run organization that is focused on helping our fellow students. We are all Fordham students who want to encourage our peers to make safe and informed decisions both on and off campus. At one of our induction ceremonies, a Fordham Dean told us that we save lives. I am not sure if we have actually saved any lives with our work as Peer Educators, but I certainly feel like we are making a difference on campus. By simply distributing accurate information to students, we are making sure that students are not ignorant about the consequences of their actions. We cannot force anyone to make safe decisions, but we are making sure that they are informed decisions, which I consider to be invaluable.

New York is full of the best surprises

One of my favorite things to do in New York is to walk around on sunny days and enjoy the incredible weather. This is especially enjoyable now, as the seasons begin to change and Fall starts to set in. It won't be long before these summery, lovely days are gone, and I like to make the most of them while they last. My favorite area of the city to wander is lower Manhattan. From the Village to SoHo to the Lower East Side, there is always something exciting waiting around every corner. These neighborhoods are perfect for a leisurely afternoon stroll, and there are always new cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, galleries, and other surprises waiting to be discovered.

The beginnings of a beautiful day

Yesterday was one of those days where the city demanded to be explored. The weather was perfect, and I had very little work to do. My dad also came to New York for a surprise visit. We headed downtown, no particular destination in mind. It was a gorgeous day in the city, quite possibly one of the last true summer days this year. After a quick brunch near Bryant Park, we headed down to the Village, with the intention of going to a few art galleries. On our way there, we walked through Washington Square Park, where we stopped to watch some street performers dance. They were incredibly talented and interspersed their performance with jokes. While we were enjoying their performance, I was pulled in to help with a stunt!

Performers in Washington Square Park

The dancers announced to the crowd that they would be jumping over the heads of the people they pulled from the crowd. I was, understandably, quite nervous. However, my nerves were quite unnecessary, as the trick was over before I even realized it had started. This is what I love about New York. Your day will always be filled with surprises, and you never know what lies around the next corner. We did wind up at the art galleries we intended to visit, where the art dealers tried to convince me I needed an original Picasso for my dorm room. I very rarely make plans when I decide to have a "City day" exploring downtown, as experiences like the ones I had this weekend may not happen otherwise.

Right after I found out people would be jumping over my head

Walking through the Village

Excursions and Auditions

It’s been a hectic first week to the start of my second year here at Fordham! Over the past week, classes have begun, clubs are holding their preliminary meetings, and everyone is settling into the routine of being back at Rose Hill. Personally as a sophomore,  I’m excited to get things going once again and get back into the groove now that I really know the ropes.

Jack Antonoff of fun. and Bleachers!

Over the past week, I’ve done a few fun things both off campus in Manhattan and here on campus in the Bronx! The first was last Thursday; I went with a group of my friends down to Webster Hall in the East Village to see Bleachers. (If you don’t know Bleachers, you should! It’s a side project of one of the members from

the band “fun.”) The concert was an absolute blast. Where I’m from in Louisville, Kentucky, we don’t tend to have many bands stop by us when they go on tours, so I love being in New York City where I can see nearly any band I want! Another awesome part of the concert was that when we looked up to the balcony, we could see Lena Dunham (of HBO’s Girls) enjoying the concert too! This made sense, as she’s dating the lead singer. Next to her, was Emma Myles (who played Leanne on Orange is the New Black) and Kimiko Glenn (who plays Soso also on Orange is the New Black). I’m not afraid to admit that casual celebrity sightings are among my favorite perks to living in New York City.

Five Honors freshmen at the Alice in Wonderland statue 

The following Saturday, I volunteered to help with our Honors Program Orientation. In this event, upperclassman Honors students take the freshman Honors students (of which there are about 35) to Central Park to let them get to know each other. We met up at Alpha House, the Honors Program building, where we ate breakfast and played an icebreaker game. We then headed out to take the D train down to Columbus Circle to let the freshmen begin their Scavenger Hunt through Central Park. My class, who participated in this event as freshman last year, still talks about our goofy antics, and we look back on it fondly as the first of many times that we all hung out together.

Finally, last Monday I auditioned for the Mimes and Mummers’ production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The Mimes and Mummers is a student-run theatre club on the Rose Hill campus that puts on four shows in our main auditorium in Collins Hall each year. This club is unique in two main aspects: first, they hire off-Broadway directors to direct each show, and second, no theatre majors are allowed to audition for their shows. This means that the shows are high quality, but the casts are filled with people who are just there for fun and because they truly enjoy acting. I got cast as Ophelia in the production, and I’m super excited to get rehearsals going. The show goes up the first weekend of October, so I’ve got a busy three weeks ahead of me!

The Mimes and Mummer' April 2014 production of A Streetcar Named Desire (I'm in the red dress!)

Blog by: Catherine Gallagher