Their paths to a Fordham degree were sometimes long and circuitous, marked by pauses and detours, daily juggling of work and family duties, or other challenges large and small. All of this made the cheers that much louder, the moment that much sweeter, when they walked across the stage during the diploma ceremony for Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) on May 16.
“Every ‘A’ we got, we pushed hard and we worked hard for,” said the student speaker, Camille Davina Dick, whose voice broke during her address to her fellow graduates. At PCS, she said, “we met some amazing, understanding professors and deans who pushed us to unlock our potential we didn’t realize we had.”
A single mother of three and grandmother of three, she first enrolled in 2013 at PCS, Fordham’s school for returning and nontraditional students, and graduated this year with a major in organizational leadership. Like many PCS graduates balancing life’s obligations, she took classes when she could, finishing her degree on a schedule that worked for her.
Balancing Acts
She told her story from the stage, speaking about the rigors of balancing family duties, her banking career, and school: at one point she would leave her office in lower Manhattan, pick up her son at day care in Brooklyn, take him to a friend’s home in Queens, then go to a night class at Fordham’s campus in the Bronx.
A “borough tour” is how a co-worker jokingly put it, she said. “Nights when I didn’t have class, I went to bed at 8 p.m. sharp,” she said.
Another challenge? Searing back pain during class, which led to spinal fusion surgery. But she returned to class and “pushed through.”
“We all pushed through,” she said. “We’re stronger than we think we are.”
In an interview, she said she pursued the degree mainly for personal fulfillment, although she expected it to help her career as well. “I like to learn,” she said. “I feel like learning is something that you should do every day of your life.”
She was excited to walk across the stage at the diploma ceremony. “I’ve been dreaming of this for so long,” she said.
Answering the Call to Serve
PCS Assistant Dean John Bach began the ceremony—where 108 bachelor’s degrees and 54 master’s degrees were awarded—by noting that it coincided with Armed Forces Day, and by hailing the more than two dozen service members and veterans in the graduating class. They all wore Yellow Ribbon medallions honoring their service, conferred by the University in an on-campus ceremony the evening before.
One of them, magna cum laude graduate Sixto Garcia, the PCS banner bearer, was completing a journey of self-discovery that began with six years in the U.S. Air Force. He was searching for direction when he joined the service, and the military’s emphasis on education spurred him to earn an associate degree from the Community College of the Air Force.
Discovering Fordham
Encouraged by this achievement, he returned to New York City, his hometown, and took college-level courses in computer science and completed a coding “boot camp.” But he found he needed a four-year degree for the jobs he wanted.
He came across an online ad for PCS while scrolling during a sleepless night, applied, and was excited to be admitted shortly after. “Fordham has a great reputation, and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said in an interview.
Starting in fall 2022, he began as a computer science major but switched to environmental science. He’ll spend the summer completing a research project at Fordham’s Louis Calder Center and then seek work in conservation and natural resource management—“something that will have some sort of positive impact on at least the earth, if not society as well,” he said.
He sought his Fordham degree, he said, to prove to himself that he could do it—and because a degree would help him find work that serves a greater cause, akin to his time in the military. “[You’re] part of something bigger than yourself,” he said, “and I wanted to do something eventually like that as well.”
