PCS Student Honored by Women’s Forum Education Fund

Mayra Aviles
Contributed Photo

Mayra Aviles, a junior at Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), has been honored as one of 15 Women’s Forum Education Fund Fellows.

Aviles was lauded by the fund for her "superior qualifications, accomplishments and commitment to education after overcoming many of life’s adversities."

The award comes with a $10,000 prize, split into two payments, with the second half delivered in January 2015.

She will be honored at a reception at the offices of Random House on October 6, and will be invited to attend a luncheon in the spring of 2015. The award, which is in its 26th year, honors mature women who strive to complete undergraduate education after a hiatus in their academic lives.

The oldest of five, Aviles was about to begin college and pursue dreams of a legal career when her parents divorced and her father disappeared from the scene, leaving her the breadwinner for her mother and siblings. 

She found work in a manufacturing company, but the company went bankrupt ten years later, and she found herself supporting a child on her own.

She enrolled at PCS at the Rose Hill campus in the summer of 2012, and expects to graduate with a degree in political science in 2015. Upon graduation, she hopes to enroll in law school. 

“I know that at this stage of my life, I plan on doing something that I enjoy, instead of something that I need to do,” she said.

This year Women’s Forum is awarding over $150,000 to qualified women over the age of 35 who need an added incentive to complete their education. Applications for 2015 are now available at www.womensforumny.org.

—Patrick Verel

New Coordinator and New Space Greet Incoming Vets

Vets take in the information at the orientation.

In an effort to coordinate disparate veteran groups from across the University, the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) has hired a Veterans Coordinator and has set aside space for the vets to meet, hang out, study, and organize events. The space will be staffed with student vets hired through the Veterans Administration’s work-study program.

The initiatives were announced last Thursday when Fordham welcomed dozens of veterans to an orientation at the Law School’s sleek new mock courtroom.

For several years, the Fordham vet community has been nurtured by Michael Gillan, Ph.D., and James Hennessey, Ph.D., through the Fordham Veterans Initiative. But with Gillan recently retired as associate vice president of Fordham Westchester, the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) Dean Isabelle Frank, Ph.D., has assumed the role of co-chair alongside Hennessy, who is dean at the Graduate School of Education.

Fordham Student Veterans Association President Pat Hackett and B-Vets President Chris Maloney give vets the lowdown. 

“We have the largest number of vets by far at PCS, so it was a very natural transition for us,” said Frank. “We have great hopes that the school will be able to help vets University wide.”

The need for coordination is clear. Each school at Fordham has its own veterans group; PCS’s Armed Forces of Fordham is the largest with 300 members. Then there’s Graduate School of Business Administration’s B-Vets, and the Graduate School of Social Services’ GSSVets, with about 30 members each. SERV, at the Law School group, has 15 members. The University is also affiliated nationally through the Student Veteran’s Association; there are at least 1,000 members of Fordham Veteran Alumni; and several veteran organizations partner with Fordham.

Luis Garcia and fellow vets met up at the Law School's new digs.

“This is something we started talking about last year,” said Pat Hacket, a PCS senior and president of Student Veteran’s Association at Fordham. “We figured we could tackle multiple issues, multiple problems, from multiple venues, with everyone coming to one place.”

Mike Abrams, who teaches a seminar to the vets on career transition leadership at PCS, has assumed the role of coordinator.

The new veterans space is in Room 839 at the Lowenstein Center.

Several events have already been planned for the school year, some in coordination with other veteran groups and schools, like tonight’s Ruck March at Merchants' Gate Plaza, the entrance to Central Park at Columbus Circle at 6:30 p.m. The Fordham Vets will meet with vets from around the city in an effort to raise consciousness of veteran suicide.

Other events on the docket include the 9/11 Heroes Run on Randall’s Island on September 6, the Veterans Day Parade on November 11, and a gala benefiting Toys for Tots on December 13.

-Tom Stoelker

Alumna Tapped to Lead Westchester County Association

Marissa Brett, PCS ’04, has attracted several new businesses to Westchester, ranging from a mobile health company to a granola producer.

“We run the gamut,” says Brett, newly appointed president of the Westchester County Association (WCA). For the last three years, she served as executive director of economic development for the business development group, which aims to bring new companies to the region and make Westchester a dynamic hub in New York’s changing industry landscape.

In her new post, Brett will build on what she and her colleagues have accomplished and continue to focus on emerging fields.

“I want to capitalize on the momentum that we already have and I want to take it to the next step,” she says.

Before becoming president on June 2, Brett headed a multi-million-dollar effort for the association known as Blueprint for Westchester that brought several new early-stage companies to the county.

“Through the private sector we were able to create a great package for them,” she says. Established local businesses donated 100 billable hours each to the Blueprint initiative, providing these new companies with legal services, IT support, marketing help, and more. The newcomers also received a break on rent for the first few years.

As the leader of the approximately 600-member association, Brett’s future plans include increased focus on a very hot sector: health tech.

“It’s a $15 billion industry in Westchester,” she says, fueled not only by hospitals and doctors groups, but also by biotech companies, research and development companies, digital entrepreneurs who are developing healthcare apps, and others. The WCA held a two-day health-tech conference in May that brought together key players in the field, including venture capitalists.

One big-name medical center that has recently expanded its Westchester presence is Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which took over an old office building in West Harrison, N.Y., very close to Fordham’s Westchester campus, which opened in 2008. Both sites, says Brett, are a perfect example of reclaiming vacant commercial properties.

“We’ve been huge advocates for the repurposing of existing space,” says Brett, who completed a bachelor’s degree in business at the Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies in Westchester. She’d earned a two-year degree and was working at a real estate firm when she started at the adult undergraduate college.

“I was working full time, I was planning a wedding, and I was buying a house. And I was trying to finish my degree,” says Brett, who took classes at night and on weekends.

“The flexibility was great. I never had to wait for a class. All of my educational experience [at Fordham] has been excellent.”

Brett quickly moved up at the real estate firm, and soon joined the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation, where she was vice president. When the WCA opportunity came about, the Yonkers native felt it was a perfect fit. “That’s where my roots are,” she says.

Brett attends events at Fordham's Westchester campus and recently participated in the Fordham Forum on Leadership and Growth, an executive education program run by Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration, which she says helped her rethink some of the WCA’s programs.

“I’m a big fan,” she says. “Huge. Look, I went to the forum, I came out, I got a promotion.”

--Nicole LaRosa

Lauren Carter, PCS '12, "Blends" Learning

Lauren Carter attended three Fordham campuses and took online classes to get her degree.

When Lauren Carter, PCS '12, graduated from high school, she was accepted at New York University. She spent two years in college, but then life happened. She gave birth to twin girls. For a moment she tried to return to school, but she quickly realized that working, raising toddlers, and taking classes was too much.

"I don’t regret my decision, it shaped me into the person I am today," she said.

She carried on with her career, eventually rising to the position of deputy city clerk with the City of Mount Vernon's planning office. It was only after her girls approached middle school age that she decided to go back.

She went to Fordham's new Westchester campus in West Harrison through the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), majoring in English.

Carter's degree exemplifies Fordham's approach to blended learning, which brings together the three New York area campuses and online coursework to help students achieve their goals in a rich and timely manner.

"The campuses have three personalities," she said, describing Westchester as perfect for adult learners, in contrast to Rose Hill's vibrant student life and Lincoln Center's urban pace. But it was the online campus that touched her in surprising ways.

"I took a philosophical ethics class online, and I was so fascinated by the subject matter that I even thought about getting my master's in philosophy," she said.

Carter said the online version of common core courses like Faith and Critical Reasoning required intense concentration. 

"You absolutely have to be focused and you have to use the discussion board," she said. "You get to see other peoples' views--not necessarily in the classroom--but you are in on the conversation."

As she neared the end of her degree, professors and professionals, on- and off-campus, began to tell her that she had "lawyer potential." Initially she shrugged it off. She debated getting a master's degree in public administration (MPA), in urban planning, economic development, and, of course, philosophy.

"I really vacillated between an MPA and a master's in philosophy, but I decided on law," she said. "You can do anything when you go to law school."

With her twins now 14 years old, she said she's trying to keep her law school options local. There is one Jesuit institution that tops her list . . . but for now, she's concentrating on the LSATs.

—Tom Stoelker