Wake Up and Smell the Rodrigue's

As it is now officially COLD outside and coffee consumption is at its peak, the time has come for me to dedicate a post to the most post-worthy club on campus: Rodrigue's Coffee House.

In 1840, when the Jesuit college of New York was just an idea, architect and brother-in-law to John Hughes William Rodrigue built a house on Rose Hill Manor next to where he would build the University Church and St. John's Hall, which is now part of Queen's Court.

In the 1990s, Fordham students paid homage to the great Billy Rodrigue by turning his humble abode into the only student-run coffee house that sells fair trade organic tea and coffee, hot cocoa, and delicious specialty drinks.

On any given day at Rod's, student can be found chillin', caffeinatin', studyin' and philsophizin'. Rodrigues also hosts a number of $$$FREE MUSIC$$$ events throughout the year. From indie/alternative concerts to Fordham Battle of the Bands and Open Mic Nights, Rodrigue's has seen the likes of Matt and Kim, The Fiery Furnaces, and Sharon van Etten, not to mention all the Fordham student talent

PLUS, they just got these rad eco-friendly coffee cups:

In short, Rodrigue's saves lives. Friend Rod's on facebook.

Marketing Practitioner Sessions at Fordham

Fordham University hosts several marketing practitioner sessions each semester in Keating Hall. At these sessions, a small group of students work on a business challenge presented by a guest employee who works in marketing. The guess employee also gives advise to the students as well as insight to his or her career. Last week, I attended a marketing practitioner session with Cherie Corso, co-founder of G2 Organics.

G2 Organics sells organic, odorless, and environmentally friendly products with reiki crystals. Cherie assigned the students at the practitioner session to discuss ways to overcome her three business challenges: ways to improve online advertising, make products more appealing to he 40+ age group, and how to increase overall awareness of her company. The students in the room shared their ideas with Cherie, who was very open to our thoughts and ideas.

Cherie also presented a paid internship opportunity to marketing majors. She is looking for someone to help her and her partner overcome the company's business challenges. Interns will have the opportunity to travel with her to meet buyers as well as create YouTube videos and other promotions for the products. As an intern, one of the company's nail polish color could even be named after you!

As mentioned, the marketing practitioner sessions are great ways for students to interact with successful businessmen and women in the marketing industry. Most marketing classes require students to attend at least one session.

PWC's xTax xTREME Case Competition

A map of the imaginary country the case is set in.

Every year, PWC runs a case competition on campus. At Fordham, we participate in xTax, where groups of 5 and are given a case to analyze over the course of 2 weeks. At the end of those two weeks, each group gives a live presentation of their results to a panel of judges, including partners of the accounting firm.

You don't have to know a lot about tax or even accounting to participate--most of the analysis comes from figuring out a unique suggestion to address the case presented. You get to choose your own team, work in the mode you choose, and it doesn't even affect your coursework grades (well, not negatively, at least).

While this competition is entirely voluntary (although some accounting professors will give you extra credit for participating), 20 teams competed this year. This year, the topic was eCommerce and the taxation issues that follow close behind it.

As a participant, I found xTax to be something very different from normal coursework. It fosters a unique environment of both competition and cooperation. Despite the hard work (living and breathing the case for almost 2 weeks), I found it to be a great challenge and worthwhile learning experience. Plus, if you win, you are given ample awards. In fact, just for participating, all teams were generously given an Amazon Gift Card. Apropos, no?

There were two winners this year: Team Omada and Team eXemptions. (I was lucky enough to be on the latter team.)

Mary Schapiro Speaks on the SEC at Fordham Law

Last month I got a chance to attend a panel discussion addressing the past, present, and future of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Richard Walker moderated the panel with current SEC Chair Mary Schapiro and former SEC Chairs Richard Breeden and Harvey Pitt.

I originally learned about the opportunity through my accounting professor and subsequently signed up online. The process was surprisingly easy to do, as the event, sponsored by the Fordham Corporate Law Center, was open to the general public. The Center actually holds regular events like the SEC panel at the Lincoln Center campus, just a ride away on the Ram Van, Fordham's inter-campus transportation. This makes this readily and easily accessible for students at either campus, undergraduate or not.

The panel began slowly, starting with an overview of the creation of of the SEC, followed by a loose discussion of its history. However, the dialog didn't get notably interesting until the topic of the future for the SEC was broached. You can see the panel for yourself below:




Charting the Future of the SEC: Protecting Investors for the Next 75 Years from Fordham Law School on Vimeo.

Living and Learning with Business

ILC-GB Classroom where residents take Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting together.

As of this year, sophomores majoring or minoring in business had the residential life option of applying to live in an Integrated Learning Community - Global Business or ILC-GB. Students in this program live in a designated wing in O'Hare Hall and participate in various activities aimed at advancing the students in the business profession. Residents can attend a monthly lecture series where Fordham Alumni come to talk to the members of ILC-GB. They give advice on how to advance yourself in the business world and they tell their story of how they got to where they are today.

Other programs include resume workshops and a monthly book club, where everyone reads a book related to business and they discuss it. Members of this ILC also split into two teams and over the course of the year, create a business. Each team is given $500 to use towards the business. Hopefully the two teams this year create prosperous businesses!

Another feature about ILC-GB is that all of the members take Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting together. The class takes place in a classroom (see picture above) located on the wing of the students' dorm rooms. The classroom is even equipped with Smart Board technology and is only for members of ILC-GB to use!

The ILC- GB brings new meaning to the phrase live and learn!

A New Name for CBA

There was a whisper around campus about it today. I was told that the Wall Street Journal wrote up a piece about it. In retrospect, I suppose I first heard about it when it was alluded to by a visiting alum giving a lecture series to a roomful of students on the Integrated Learning Community for Global Business, henceforth ILC-GB, because that's a handful to type. (Now you know why here at Fordham, we live and swear by acronyms.) But I suppose it was only when, after a long morning of classes and an early lunch, that I opened my inbox and finally discovered the official news: the College of Business Administration is going to be renamed the Gabelli School of Business.

Now, just who is Mr. Gabelli, and why does he get an entire college named after him? Mario J. Gabelli was born and raised in the Bronx. He attended both Fordham Prep and Fordham University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1965. He founded various asset managing funds, and was named in Barron's All-Century Mutual Fund Team. You can see him on CNBC and CNN, or read about him in Forbes, Fortune, and Business Week. And just this month, Mr. Gabelli has donated $25 million dollars to Fordham.

Excited? Yes! So here's an early eulogy to a well-used and well-served acronym: CBA. Now that the college of business administration is the Gabelli School of Business, we, the Fordham community, are going to miss you very much. Even so, we know that sooner than later, we are going to have a new acronym in our midst.

(The formal announcement will be given during Homecoming this Friday, September 25th. Enjoy your weekend, everybody!)

CBA Video Contest

The College of Business Administration held a video contest last year for current student to answer the question, " What does your business school have to offer?"

Here are the results!

Student Profile // Lucy Curran

Allow Me To Introduce Myself:

 I am currently a Junior in the College of Business Administration majoring in Marketing with a minor in Economics. Also, I am a member of the Global Business Honors Program or GBHP, which I highly recommend anyone interested in the College of Business Administration check out. GBHP has provided me with many invaluable opportunities, but my most memorable experiences have been on our trips abroad. With GBHP, I have travelled to London, Dublin, Paris, and Buenos Aires and Beijing over Spring Break.

In addition to academics, campus activities have been a great aspect of my life at Fordham. Since my sophomore year, I have been a member of Rose Hill Society, which gives tours to prospective students. I continued being a tour guide this past summer when I worked in the Admissions Department, where I gave a tour each day! Also, I have tutored student athletes in Economics and participated in a variety of community outreach programs.
Apart from activities on campus at Fordham, I have also had the valuable experience of interning at different companies. During the Spring semester of my sophomore year, I interned in the News department at NBC Universal. Working in the 30 Rock building was as exciting as the work that I got to do for MSNBC.com. The best part of my internship was working on the Cause Celeb section of the MSNBC.com website, which highlights different celebrities and charities that they promote. I worked with publicists to arrange interviews, researched the charities, transcribed interviews, and even got to interview Pete Wentz, from Fall Out Boy about his work with the Invisible Children Charity. You can check out the link to the interview here.


For my Junior year, I decided to switch industries and get some real world experience in the area of Economics, which is my minor field of study. In my current internship, I work down by Wall Street at a Repurchase Broker-Dealer firm. This atmosphere is very different from NBC, but I have found it very valuable to be surrounded by people in the finance industry. It is fascinating to see how industry professionals in the real world deal with the market conditions that are talked about in my classes or are all over the news.


Now that you know about some of my interests and experiences, I hope you can use this blog to get a glimpse into the life of Fordham students in the College of Business Administration. Check back weekly for updates and feel free post any comments or questions that you would like me to address.

Academics // Global Business Honors

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Ni Hao, peng you!


That’s “hello friend” in Mandarin Chinese, which should be a useful phrase for me when I arrive in Beijing for Spring Break. I leave for the trip at 8:30 in the morning Friday March 12th and I figured I would write about it now, since I will probably be too busy with packing during the week!

Beijing Skyline

I am going to China with the Global Business Honors Program that I talked about in my second post. Both my class and the class of 2012 GBHPers will be making the 14 hour plane ride to what will most likely be everyone’s most memorable spring break to date. The trips abroad are definitely one of my most favorite aspects of GBHP. Having traveled to London, Dublin, Paris, and Buenos Aires (where the photo at the top of this page was taken) with the program in the past, I cannot wait to experience China.


We received our itinerary last week and our schedule is packed with both business and cultural outings. We will be visiting to the Mutianyu Great Wall and touring locations such as Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Drum Tower, and the Houhai Lake Area. There are also several business visits to My Decker Capital, The Nielsen Company, and the China Vocational Training Holdings Co., Ltd as well as lectures at The Beijing Center focused on Chinese history, politics, and the private vs. state sectors of the Chinese economy.


To prepare for the trip, our GBHP director organized several hours of Chinese language and culture lessons. However, it seems like no amount of guide books or language tapes can really prepare you for visiting a place like China. It will be an eye opening experience to visit a place that is different from the US in so many ways. I am sure that I will have plenty to say about it when I return, and I will be sure to update with highlights of the trips (and hopefully some pictures!).


Now I am off to look for a map and a Chinese to English dictionary! Have a great Spring Break everyone!


Zai jian!


--Post by Lucy Curran, CBA, '11