Fordham talks a lot about being a welcoming place where students find friends and foster community. And as many graduates know: It delivers. Inspired by the “Fordham Boys” who went viral over the holidays—and looking ahead to this year’s Jubilee and Block Party alumni reunions—we caught up with three groups of Rams who met “back in the day” and have been friends ever since.
The One Where They All Worked Together
Anne Yost Offer, Alexandra Manos, and Steve Bartomioli weren’t a tight group as students, but upon graduating in 1978, each of them went to work for IBM as systems engineers. Their roles changed, but they each worked at the company for more than 30 years. And for a while, they even commuted as a group, all doing the New York Times crossword puzzle together on the subway.
Though IBM could be a bit competitive, Manos said that their friendship was “always a safe place. … I think we were always supportive of each other. It’s almost like, I guess more like family, right?”
“And you can go long periods of time without seeing or even talking to each other, but then it just, it’s right back the same,” Offer added.
That was true recently: When Manos was in town from Atlanta, the trio made a special trip to Enzo’s on Arthur Avenue.
“When we get together, you remember your roots, you remember how things started, you remember that era in your career or your life or whatever before kids, before being married,” Bartomioli said. “Going through all that together makes it kind of special.”
The One Where They All Became Roommates
Ali Bernstein, Aitana Jordan, Finley Peay, and Margot Reid met as orientation leaders, and now they all share an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, not far from where it all started six years ago. They weren’t all in the same class: Peay graduated in 2020 and Bernstein in 2022, both from Fordham College at Lincoln Center; Reid in 2021 from the Gabelli School of Business; and Jordan in 2022 from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program.
The four of them are part of a bigger Fordham friend group who “had this shared experience,” Peay said. “It’s nice to know that we are still part of this larger community of that shared interest in Fordham and passion and can trace it all back to that really interesting few days before the start of the fall 2019 semester.”
Jordan, who just moved back to the city following a dance injury, said being able to “reinvest” in the friendship has been great. “It really has felt like coming home, and I have these people to thank for that.”
The One Where They All … Got Married
Kathleen Biemer, John Tully Gordon, and Nick Passantino were close as students, and later, Kathleen’s sister, Colleen, joined the group. Eventually, two couples formed: Kathleen and Nick, and Colleen and John.
“We were friends right away, I think,” Kathleen said of Nick, describing the weekend they first met: volunteering to help with move-in day as members of the Campus Activities Board. “We spent a ton of time together that week, and then from there we were just together every weekend, I think, and a lot of the time during the week, too.”
Over the years, the group of friends became family when each couple got married.
“Nick and Kathleen kind of showed a lot of our friends, I think, how to do it,” Gordon said. “They had a pretty remarkable wedding, and it was a really good example of a celebratory event in individual lives being a moment for an entire community to celebrate. It brought a lot of groups together, which was pretty awesome.”
Asked about some of the lessons they’ve learned along the way, Gordon said, “Distance is only as much of an obstacle to good relationships and good friendships as you allow it to be.”
“You can kind of make your campus at Fordham wherever you are in the world, as long as you have a connection and strong ties to the people.”
In the spirit of renewing those connections—and making new ones—registration is now open for this year’s Jubilee Weekend (May 30 to June 1) and Block Party (June 20). Join fellow Rams from all over next month as they converge on the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses.
