Rose Hill English Major in Baseball Hall of Fame

Nicholas Brennan, a sophomore at Fordham College at Rose Hill, is one of only 21 students selected for the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Youth Leadership Development at Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Brennan an English major, began his 10-week internship on June 1 in the Hall of Fame’s public programs department. The program, which began in 2001, offers college undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to work alongside museum and library staff to gain hands-on professional training in a field that closely matches the student’s major.

“When I was growing up, baseball brought my family together and working at the Baseball Hall of Fame is a way to visually reconnect with the past,” Brennan said.

This year, students from 20 universities received internships in Museum departments, including collections, communications, curatorial, education, membership, multi-media, photo archives, public programming, library research and library archives. The 21 interns were selected from more than 500 applicants nationally.

2009 Humanitarian Assistance Class Underway

IDHA 2009 kicked off last week at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus. The monthlong International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance program for humanitarian workers and administrators is run by the University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA), headed by Kevin M. Cahill, M.D. (FCRH ’57).

Humanitarian work is changing quickly, requiring a greater level of professionalism and accountability. Practitioners work in increasingly complex situations that require a multidisciplinary approach. The intensive four-week IDHA program enables aid workers to receive training with a minimal disruption of their field responsibility, and reproduces some of the complexity and intensity of conditions faced normally in a field situation. The course includes lectures, case studies, practical exercises and scenarios. A wide range of disciplines involved in humanitarian programs are studied, including management, logistics, health, psychology, social sciences, anthropology, engineering, communication, agriculture, environment, education, conflict resolution, international law, civil/military relations, security, media, politics and economics.

(For an overview of the program, see: IDHA: Building the Profession of Humanitarian Aid.)

This year's program ends June 26, and is directed by Dr. Cahill and Larry Hollingworth, CBE. The course participants will learn firsthand from UN, International Red Cross/Red Crescent and non-governmental organization officials as well as political, diplomatic and academic figures.

IPED Students Claim Prestigious Fellowships

Several students in the International Political Economy and Development program (IPED) will take prestigious positions with aid groups this fall, according to Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., IPED's director.

Bridget Bucardo Rivera, who will receive her master's degree in August, has been named an International Development Fellow by Catholic Relief Services, and will be assigned to Nicaragua in the fall. Through an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship, Rivera is currently working in El Salvador with Catholic Relief Services on a four-country initiative that assists 7,100 small holder coffee producers in Central American and Mexico.

John Briggs, also an August graduate, has been named an International Development Fellow by Catholic Relief Services, and in the fall will be assigned to Uganda. He is currently working in Honduras with Catholic Relief Services on a project that will offer at-risk and gang-involved youth with options for meaningful and sustainable livelihoods through vocational training. Briggs is also an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship recipient.

Catholic Relief services uses their International Development Fellows Program to recruit the best and brightest from among the graduates of the leading graduate programs in international development, according to Schwalbenberg, who says out of a thousand applications, only about 20 are chosen. The majority of the applicants come from large elite schools such as Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, the Fletcher School of Diplomacy and International Law and John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. Given the small size of the IPED program, Schwalbenberg said he is very pleased to account for about 10 percent of all successful applicants.

Chengguang Zhao, although not officially selected as an International Fellow, has been offered a contract to continue his work with Catholic Relief Services in Sierra Leone. Through an IPED International Peace and Development Travel Fellowship, Zhao has helped to implement a U.S. Department of Agriculture school feeding program. Zhao, also an August graduate, is currently involved with coordinating a grant proposal to USAID to help address Sierra Leone's extremely high child mortality rate: roughly 20 percent of all children in that country die before the age of 5.

Fordham Westchester a Sponsor of Leadership Summit

Fordham Westchester was a participant and sponsor of the Not-For-Profit Leadership Summit VII, held in Tarrytown, New York, in May.

This year's gathering, "Navigating Through the Crisis," featured keynote speakers David A. Patterson, governor of New York, and Thomas A. McLaughlin, director of consulting services for the Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Pictured at right is Ron Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of academic programs at Fordham Westchester, with Governor Patterson.

Fordham’s Barnum Twins Are Blogging

Fordham College Rose Hill twins April (left, wearing a Fordham visor) and Kimberly Barnum, both rising juniors majoring in biology, have been selected from among the DAAD RISE U.S. scholarship recipients to blog about their upcoming summer research experience in Germany (the only other U.S. blogger chosen is a student from Yale.)

DAAD, a German academic exchange service, sponsors Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE) students each summer in biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences and engineering. April, a chemistry minor, will be working in a University of Bayreuth lab studying chemical formations from arsenic-sulfur minerals. Kim will be in a nearby lab, working in the area of biogeography.

The twins, who will alternate blog entries, leave in late May for Germany. The Campion Institute plans to maintain a link to the twins’ blog on its site.

- JS

GBA Grad Student Wins Entrepreneurship Competition

A team led by Amanda Allen (GBA ‘10) has been selected as the first place winner in the Traditional Track of the 2008-2009 Baruch College and Merrill Lynch Invitational Entrepreneurship Competition. The team won for Pandora’s Wish, a New York City-based online bridal registry.

The award comes with a $10,000 prize, which Allen accepted on May 19. That award capped a grueling process that started in September with 102 submissions. Over three rounds, the entries were narrowed to three in each of the Traditional and Social Entrepreneurship tracks.

Allen conceived the idea for Pandora’s Wish during her own engagement, during which she discovered that stores with which she wished to register lacked online registries. After leaving her job as a federal bank examiner in January 2008, she enrolled at GBA with the express purpose of starting her own business. She continued to refine the idea throughout the course of her studies.

“There are four parts to this,” she says. “Brides create a wedding registry that reflects their style and personal taste; merchants gain an additional stream of revenue, access to an online marketing channel and a new set of customers; gift givers will have a more memorable impact on the bride with their unique gift; and (the business) is great for our local economy by keeping money local and supporting the city’s rich array of independent, brick-and-mortar retail and service providers.”

In addition to the first prize award, the judges have allocated $20,000 in seed money for the business. Allen said that she plans to launch the site in November.

This year’s Competition was the first in its 10-year history that was open to other schools than Baruch. In addition to Fordham, students from all the CUNY senior colleges, Columbia, Cooper Union, Manhattan College, NYIT, NYU, Pace, SVA and Yeshiva were invited to compete.

Commencement Coverage Roundup

Below are the links to all of our commencement coverage: speeches, news coverage, photos and video.

Fordham University 164th Commencement

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., President, Remarks

Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg Remarks

Tom Brokaw Commencement Address

News: One Hundred Sixty Fourth Annual Commencement

Video Coverage

News Blog Coverage

The Calm Before Commencement

Commencement Day

Staff Outnumber Guests at This Point

Commencement Before the Ceremony

Legacy Parents Gather at Pre-Commencement Breakfast

Commencement Excitement Builds at Honorary Degree Breakfast

Rain? Bah!

Commencement Photos

Commencement Photos

The photos in this entry were all taken by Bill Denison

Rain? Bah!

A brief rain shower sent people running for cover but it soon stopped . . . and gave way to the procession of graduates.

Commencement Excitement Builds at Honorary-Degree Breakfast

In Duane Library, Fordham’s honorary degree recipients gathered for a pre-commencement breakfast with Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and trustees. Above, honorees Tom Brokaw and Mayor Michael Bloomberg paused to sign Fordham’s honorary degree guest book. The signing tradition dates back to 1930, and the book includes the signatures of past recipients such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. and Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon, actors Helen Hayes, Bill Cosby and Liam Neeson, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Muppets creator Jim Henson, soprano Leontyne Price, and sports legend Willie Randolph, among others.