The “Profile of the Graduate at Graduation,” published first by
the Jesuit Secondary Education Association in 1980 and
recently revised by the Jesuit Schools Network, provides a
vision that unites Fordham Prep with our brother schools
throughout the United States and Canada. The introduction
of the Grad at Grad notes: “Fluctuating between highs and
lows of fear and confidence, love and loneliness, confusion
and success, the Jesuit student at graduation has negotiated
during these years many of the shoals of adolescence. … The
graduate looks out on the adult world with a sense of
wonderment, with a growing desire to enter that world, yet
not quite able to make sense out of it. … The graduate is still
a ‘threshold person,’ one who is entering cautiously; an
immigrant, eager to find the way.”
Over the course of four years at the Prep, our students
encounter the core values of the Grad at Grad in their
academic work, through ministry and service, on the athletic
field and by following their artistic passions. We strive to
educate young men who are open to growth, intellectually
accomplished, religious, loving and committed to doing
justice. As I called each of the graduates by name to cross the
stage and receive his diploma from Fr. Devron, my prayer for
each of them was, and continues to be, that his life be graced
by an encounter with the living God in the Catholic, Jesuit
education we provide. My hope, and the hope of our
dedicated faculty and staff, is that these core values of
the Prep continue to guide them as men of Fordham who
faithfully live as persons of character and conviction, as
scholars who seek critical engagement with the world of
intellectual ideas and academic dialogue, and as servant
leaders who boldly join in God’s dream for a world of peace,
justice and love.
Our student speaker at graduation was Reyd Williams-Pedro
’17, who will continue his undergraduate studies at the
University of Rochester. At the end of his remarks, Reyd
addressed his peers directly: “Brothers, Fordham Prep is like
a home. One of the hardest things about home, however, is
leaving it. But the amazing thing about our home, Fordham
Prep, is that we now get to show the world who we are. We
have been preparing for this moment right here. We have put
in so much work to reach the end, a diploma, right here right
now, but this is only the beginning. There is still a long road
ahead of us, but in this class I see: pilots, musicians, teachers,
doctors, engineers, basketball players, football players, track
stars, lawyers and accountants. I look at all of you and see
nothing but potential greatness.”
With the sun brightly shining on a beautiful spring afternoon,
the 213 members of the Class of 2017 processed proudly
from the Prep across the Rose Hill Campus to the steps of the
University Gym. As they ascended to the doorway with the
rising swell of celebratory music from inside, our young men
of Fordham were not only crossing through the threshold to
graduation. They also reflected the vision we have of every
Jesuit high school graduate: a threshold person on the way to
young adulthood. On May 31, 2017, the Fordham Prep
community gathered in gratitude to celebrate our 172nd
Commencement Exercises. With dignified tradition, pomp
and circumstance, administrators, faculty, staff, trustees,
alumni and families came together to recognize the many
accomplishments of this outstanding class.
Fordham Prep will always be a home to the young men of the
Class of 2017, just as it has been for me and my fellow alumni
united in generations of history and tradition. Yet now they
look ahead in confidence and excitement to forging new
paths at college. Thirty-one percent of our graduates will
attend Jesuit schools, including Boston College, Fairfield,
Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Le Moyne, Loyola Chicago,
Loyola Maryland, Loyola Marymount, Loyola New Orleans,
Scranton and St. Joseph’s. An additional 11% will matriculate
at Catholic colleges, including Manhattan, Notre Dame,
Providence and Villanova. We will have graduates in Ivy
League universities: Cornell and the University of
Pennsylvania. Others will attend excellent institutions such as
Johns Hopkins, NYU, UC Berkeley and Williams. We are proud
of our alumni beginning service to our nation in the United
States Military Academy and the United States Naval
Academy. To all our graduates, we send you off with our
prayers and best wishes for continued success.
As my first year as principal comes to a close, I would like to
take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all of
our alumni, benefactors, parents and friends for your
support, kind words and encouragement throughout this
year. I am most grateful for the opportunity to begin my
tenure with such a tremendous community committed to our
shared mission of faith, scholarship and service. May God
bless you and your families during these weeks of summer.
Joseph A. Petriello, PhD ‘98
Principal
S U M M E R 2017 | 5