Who's Speaking at YOUR Graduation?

Cheer up, John Brennan!
You're comin' to speak at Fordham!

The Fordham community received news recently that John Brennan, the Obama administration’s deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, will give the commencement speech at graduation this year. Apparently, this is especially awesome since he works with Obama. That, and he graduated from Fordham in 1977.

We like to keep it "in the family" over here.

Personally, I was routing for Alan Alda, also a Fordham grad, to speak, because he rocks. He gave an insightful and all-around beautiful speech to Connecticut College in 1980. And he starred in M*A*S*H, which I'm too young to appreciate, but still. Who wouldn't want this shining face delivering a commencement speech!?

Alan Alda is not speaking at Fordham's
graduation this year, but he's still happy!

We may have scored Brennan, but we haven't lost our bragging rights. Alas, what our commencement speaker lacks in awesomeness our baccalaureate mass celebrator makes up for tenfold. Because he's not just a priest. He's not even just a Bishop. He's a stinkin' CARDINAL.

CARDINAL Tim Dolan

And, like the rest of us, he's pretty darn excited about it.

GO-ing

I learned this weekend that I got accepted onto Fordham's GO Adirondacks trip!! Before I continue, I guess I should explain that GO stands for Global Outreach, a student-started student-run cultural immersion and service program. GO sends groups of approximately ten students to over thirty international and domestic locations each year, for anywhere from one to three weeks.

Having said that, I know very little about the Adirondacks trip, except that we're working with Native Americans and that we'll be in the Adirondacks. The website says that we will "learn about the culture and history of the Native American tribes, namely the Mohawk and Abenaki tribes, and...focus on issues of the environment and sustainability through their work with various grass-roots organizations." Sounds good to me.

Happy Halloween!

I already knew that I live with a bunch of hooligans. Halloween just served as confirmation.

But they're cute hooligans, which makes all the difference.

Over the Weekend

Over the weekend, campus went from this:

Photo c/o Clare Gray Lewis

to this:

This is a blizzard aggressively attacking NYC, for those who
may be confused by/too stunned to process this image

It was the most prolific October snowfall since before the Civil War (meaning that the most snow stuck). Needless to say, we're all like, "What the Whaaaaaaaaaa?"

Also, I would like to award the Best Snow-Related Facebook Status award to Ms. Audrey Perez, who so eloquently wrote, "Just woke up and am realtime upset that it's snowing. How am I supposed to dress like a ho in the snow?"

Genius.