Sophomore Secures National Title in Taekwondo and Heads to World Championship

Alexandra Cinque (in blue) faces off in a taekwondo fight.
Photo courtesy of Alex Cinque

Alexandra Cinque might seem like a typical college student, battling schoolwork and conquering exams—but there’s a lot more fight to her than meets the eye.

Cinque, a sophomore at Rose Hill and a third degree black belt, recently competed against athletes from over 100 colleges at the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She secured the gold medal and, with it, the national title.

In May, Cinque will travel to Pocheon, South Korea to represent the United States in the World University Taekwondo Championships.

“I’m so excited about this win at collegiate nationals,” said Cinque, who has been practicing taekwondo since she was 5 years old. “I’ve won other national titles before, but this great because I actually get to represent Fordham, too.”

Her latest title joins a long list of achievements in taekwondo. Cinque, who hails from Ossining, N.Y., has been on the U.S. national team twice and in 2009 won the Pan American championships, held in El Salvador. She has also won several state, regional, national, and international competitions.

“I love taekwondo because it teaches me discipline and a great work ethic,” she said. “And although athletes compete in events individually, I love the team camaraderie and visiting new places.”

Victory, though, does not come without hard work. Cinque typically trains up to four days per week, and when a major competition is approaching, she increases her training regimen to six days per week.

“One of the most challenging parts of doing taekwondo is the sacrifice and the time needed to reach my goals,” she said. “My taekwondo school, Kixx Martial Arts, is all the way in Little Falls, N.J., and I go three days during the week and on weekends, too. It takes a huge chunk out of my day, so it’s hard to manage that plus schoolwork, a job, clubs, and a social life.”

Cinque said she also must always be mindful of her physical fitness, since competing in the middleweight group requires her to maintain a certain weight.

“It’s really hard to be in the cafeteria, on Arthur Avenue, or at Pugsley’s and not eat everything in sight,” she said.

Nevertheless, the strain and sacrifice of intense training are worth the ultimate goal.

“Besides hopefully winning… I really hope [this experience] will be another positive step toward my goal of eventually going to the Olympics,” she said.

— Joanna Klimaski

Sophomore Alex Cinque is a gold medalist in taekwondo.
Photo courtesy of Alex Cinque

Three Fordham Students Win Major Research Fellowships

Three Rose Hill students have achieved a distinction coveted by science students across the country.

Stacey Barnaby, FCRH ’11, Julianne Troiano, FCRH ’11, and current senior Rebecca Triano recently won National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. These prestigious fellowships are awarded annually to foster scientific research and support outstanding graduate students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Fellows are awarded a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with $10,500 in education allowance toward the graduation institution of their choice. The allowance funds fellows’ tuition and fees, opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research.

Since its creation in 1952, the highly competitive fellowship has been awarded to less than 9 percent of more than 500,000 applicants.

"The fellowship award is based on intellectual merit, but also the broader impact of your research," said Triano, a chemistry major. "They place emphasis on what you can do beyond the scientific community."

For Triano, that broader impact is targeted toward helping the environment. As part of her application, Triano submitted a research proposal that combined research she conducted at Fordham and the University of California, Berkeley. Working with Amy Balija, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, Triano performed organic synthesis research on molecules that remove pollutants from water. Her research at UC Berkeley, meanwhile, focused on developing certain catalysts that help to convert methane into usable energy.

In her application, Triano proposed to use the molecules she develops in Balija's lab to transform methane.

“For three students to win this prestigious award from the same, small undergraduate department in a single year is truly remarkable,” said Michael Latham, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “It also speaks to the great generosity of our faculty in supporting students in undergraduate research.”

Both Barnaby and Troiano are currently pursuing their doctorate degrees at Northwestern University. Barnaby primarily researches macromolecular, supramolecular, and nanochemistry, while Troiano researches sustainable chemistry.

Triano will begin a doctoral program in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley in the fall.

— Joanna Klimaski

Gabelli Dean Honored by National Italian American Foundation

Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., Dean of the Gabelli School of Business and Dean of the Fordham Business Faculty, was honored by the National Italian American Foundation in a ceremony on Thursday, April 12 at Cipriani restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.

Dean Rapaccioli was honored along with Art Certosimo, senior executive vice president, Bank of New York Mellon, Maria Bartiromo, Emmy-Award winning journalist and CNBC anchor, Chazz Palminteri, writer, director, producer and Academy Award-nominated actor, and Frank D’Amelio executive vice president, business operations and chief financial officer of Pfizer.

—Patrick Verel

Gabelli School of Business Launches Undergraduate Research Journal

When the Gabelli School of Business holds its first undergraduate research conference on April 20 and 21st, the centerpiece of the event will be Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Fordham Business Student Research Journal.

The journal is published jointly by the deans of the Gabelli School of Business and the Graduate School of Business.

It features three articles by Gabelli students: “Countering Counterfeits: An Investigation of Message Frame and Message Focus Effects on Persuasion,” by Caroline Dahlgren; “Fund-Management-Gender Composition: The Impact on Risk & Performance of Mutual Funds and Hedge Funds” by Angela Luongo, and “The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Emotional Gratification for Consumers who Purchase Overtly Branded (Overtly Designer) Goods” by Sarah Siracusa.

It also contains lists and abstracts of previously published Gabelli students’ theses, to give a broader sense of the research being done at the college. The best papers submitted to the April conference will be featured in a future issue.

Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., Dean of the Gabelli School of Business and Dean of the Fordham business faculty, said the impetus for the journal came last year, when several students’ research was selected for publication in academic journals that typically carry the work of full-time professors.

“This inspired us to think about how we could further extend the reach of out students’ work and share it with the wider academic community,” she said.

“I hope you find our students work as enlightening and impressive as I have.”

—Patrick Verel

Rose Hill Dorms Dominate Second Annual RecycleMania

The second annual RecycleMania challenge ended on March 31 with three residence halls at Rose Hill taking top honors.

According to results released by consultant Wake Forest, Rose Hill’s Walsh Hall and Salice-Conley Hall finished the ten-week challenge in the top of the categories of most paper and cardboard, and most glass, metal and plastic, respectively. Both were in the lead on March 4, when data was last reported.

Likewise, Rose Hill’s Alumni South held on to win the title for the least amount of trash generated per person. The residents of Lincoln Center’s McMahon Hall won this category in last years’ challenge, but were out shined this year by Alumni South’s 3.29 pounds per person count. Tierney Hall generated the most trash per person, 5.61 pounds per person.

When it came to glass, metal and plastic, Salice-Conley Hall blew away the competition, recycling 1.04 pounds per person. Walsh Hall, which came in second place, recycled a mere 0.67 pounds per person. At the other end of the spectrum, Alumni South finished last, with 0.18 pounds per person.

On the south side of campus, Walsh Hall was victorious in the paper and cardboard category, managing to keep an average of a whole pound per resident out of the garbage stream. Alumni South was last in that category too, recycling 0.23 pounds per person.

This was the second year Fordham participated in RecycleMania, in the “benchmark” division of the competition, where the University did not compete with other schools, but rather pitted individual dorms against each other in a friendly competition to see who is the greenest of them all.

—Patrick Verel

Fordham Faculty Share Inspiration for Research

It’s a question that academics get asked over and over: What do you research?

Six Fordham professors recently took that question and answered it in video form. Working with Fordham’s OpEd Public Voices project, they recorded themselves talking about the spark that lit the proverbial flames fanning their research and submitted them to the Huffington Posts’ “The Moment I Knew” series.

The feature is a collection of user-submitted videos where readers tell the stories of life-changing moments they have experienced. And while we’d love to explain how say, Peggy Andover, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, discovered her passion for studying non-suicidal self injury, or why Christina Greer, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science decided to write a book about black ethnic identity, perhaps it’d be best if we let them do the talking.

For their stories and those of Kristen Swinth, Ph.D., associate professor of history, Daniella Jopp, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, Oneka LaBennett, Ph.D., assistant professor of African and African American studies and women's studies, and Susan Greenfield, Ph.D., associate professor of English, check out the “The Moment I Knew."

—Patrick Verel

FUA Makes Easter Magic

The Fordham University Association (FUA) held its annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 31 in O’Keefe Commons at the Rose Hill campus. Approximately 160 people were in attendance, 90 of whom were children. This year’s hunt featured board member Georgi Arendacs as the Easter Bunny and John “the Magician” Turdo, who preformed an hour-long interactive magic show. Grant Grastorf, academic operational administrator at the Westchester campus and co-president of FUA, welcomed the families that attended and introduced John the Magician. All the children received gift bags containing Easter-themed crafts and gift bags containing ten colorful Easter Eggs, plus a Gold Egg with a quarter inside. A continental breakfast was donated to the hunt by Sodexo.


Emma Donovan and Easter Bunny Georgie Arendacs


Vito Terzulli


John Terzulli


Kids on Stage with magic wands


Matthew Casey


Kevin Zhai


Asia Maria Pomia


Cindy Zhou (Photos by Tom Stoelker)

The FUA executive board members who volunteered their time included:
Eileen Burchell, Co-President
Grant Grastorf, Co-President
Maureen Topf
Carol Gibney
Francoisline Joy Freeman
Carol Murabito
Georgi Arendacs (as the Easter Bunny)
Laura Risimini
Stacey Vasquez
Marilyn Force

--Jenny Hirsch

Sociology Professor Outlines Decrease in Homeownership

Not everyone benefitted from the housing boom ten years ago.

That was the conclusion of research by Emily Rosenbaum, Ph.D., professor of sociology, whose report on home ownership was published in March by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University as part of the US2010 project.

Homeownership, in fact, saw a dramatic decrease for certain groups, between 2001 and 2011, according to Rosenbaum’s report, “Home Ownership’s Wild Ride, 2001-2011.

Between the housing-market collapse and the Great Recession, Rosenbaum found that Generations X and Y are homeowners at a lower rate than their older cohorts were at the same stage of life. In addition, Black households experienced lower rates of homeownership than their White counterparts.

Homeownership among lower income and less educated households also experienced a hit, widening the gap between the high and low socioeconomic households.

“We haven’t seen a drop in the overall home ownership rate this large since the Great Depression,” Rosenbaum wrote. “Losses were particularly large among black households, less-educated households, and households in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution. The unequal pattern of loss considerably widened the ownership gaps between black and white households, highly educated and less-educated, and high- and low-income households.”

It was also noteworthy, Rosenbaum said, that those same groups did not participate in the surge in home ownership during the first half of the decade. Low-income households, black households and non-college-degree households saw “little change” in ownership between 2001 and 2005.

“In contrast, increases of two, three, or four points typified the experience of households headed by college graduates, non-black households, and households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution,” Rosenbaum wrote.

Rosenbaum’s findings are based on six years of data from the March Current Population Survey (CPS; 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011), capturing the periods immediately before and after the housing bubble’s burst. The full US2010 policy brief can be downloaded here: http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Projects/Reports.htm

– Jenny Hirsch

New University Church Organ Taking Shape

While the current organ at Rose Hill's University Church puts in one last season of musical performances during Holy Week, its replacement is coming together in a factory 2,886 miles away.

Glen Basel, design director for Schoenstein & Co., sends us these pictures from Benicia, CA, where the of the custom-made instrument is being assembled. Installation of the organ is scheduled to begin in August.

—Patrick Verel

GSE Co-Hosts Early Childhood Extravaganza

The Graduate School of Education’s (GSE) Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education teamed up with Catholic School Support Services of the Diocese of Brooklyn to host the 20th Annual Early Childhood Extravaganza.

Presented March 30 in Douglaston, Queens, the event drew more than 200 teachers and administrators.

“There’s an increasing understanding of the importance of early childhood education as foundational to the growth and development of the student,” said Patricia Kelly-Stiles, Ed.D., associate director for the center and a co-organizer of the event. “The diocese was most grateful that members of the GSE community were wiling to share their insights and expertise with early childhood educators.”

Kathleen Cashin, Ed.D., a clinical professor at GSE and a member of the New York State Board of Regents, gave the keynote address, “Healthy Growth of the Young Child.” In it, she emphasized the importance of helping children develop key qualities that will equip them for healthy, productive lives. She also noted how early childhood educators can nurture these qualities in children early on.

Several members of the GSE faculty and staff also presented at the event. Workshops were offered by Vincent Alfonso, Ph.D., a professor and former associate dean for academic affairs; Marilyn Bisberg, adjunct professor in GSE; Joseph Porzio, a team associate for GSE’s Partnership Support Organization; and Chun Zhang, Ph.D., a professor in GSE’s division of Curriculum and Teaching.

“Part of our work here at the University is to support the educational activities in the non-public school community, whether it be in a leadership capacity or in other areas,” Kelly-Stiles said. “[Here] we were able to share research and information on topics that were of particular interest to the early childhood educators in the Brooklyn Diocese.”

— Joanna Klimaski