A Fordham student veteran received a White House honor for his many efforts to serve others and contribute to the University’s supportive climate for veterans.
On Jan. 4, Rico Lucenti became one of the few student vets to receive the President’s Volunteer Service Award, administered by AmeriCorps and presented at the Student Veterans of America (SVA) annual convention in Colorado Springs.
He said the award reflects well on Fordham, which he said has “some of the most talented student veterans in the entire country.”
“My accomplishments are one of many stories that are found on campus,” he said.
‘An Example for Others’
Lucenti spent more than two decades serving his country in the military—but launched into a whole new career of service when he came to Fordham.
He was a constant presence in the University’s Office of Military and Veterans Services, volunteering at events and helping other student vets. Last May, he took part in Fordham’s Global Outreach program, chaperoning a trip to El Paso, Texas, where he and other students learned about immigration issues. He was active in Fordham’s SVA chapter, and plans to stay involved as an adviser to future student vets—even though he finished his political science degree at Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies in December.
Matthew Butler, PCS ’17, Fordham’s senior director of military and veterans’ services, said Lucenti “exemplifies the best of our student veterans and is an example for others to follow” because of his leadership and dedication.
‘Never More Nervous’
Lucenti is a New York City native whose mother, then named Larnice Thompson—his “greatest drill instructor,” he said—was an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Education in the 1990s.
He roamed the hallways at the Lincoln Center campus as a teenager, and Fordham was his “dream school,” but he still felt trepidation upon entering its classrooms for the first time a few decades later.
He had spent 24 years in the Navy, serving in combat zones, working at the Pentagon, rising high in the enlisted ranks, but was “never more nervous” than when he first entered a Fordham classroom, worrying about being “the old guy” in class.
But instead, “I felt like my experiences were appreciated and celebrated by many of the professors,” as well as students, he said. “A lot of the public policy that we were studying—I actually lived that history.”
‘The Dream College Experience’
His academic achievements and SVA involvement “put me in circles with people who were like-minded, but very driven, very focused, and very much engaged in the Fordham community,” he said. “At 44 years old, I had the dream college experience.”
Last year, he was selected as an SVA Leadership Institute Fellow and traveled to Washington, D.C., where he and other fellows got to meet with the secretaries of defense, education, and veterans affairs, as well as First Lady Jill Biden. It was a great opportunity, he said, to advocate for support for veterans and military-connected families. “This isn’t just about veterans, it’s also the spouses and the children, especially children of the fallen,” he said.
A former cybersecurity manager in the Navy, Lucenti has moved on to a master’s degree program at New York University in cybersecurity risk and strategy.
He praised Fordham’s SVA chapter and the Office of Military and Veterans’ Services for how they help student veterans make the transition to Fordham and harness new opportunities. “Fordham really opened my eyes,” he said.
