Koch forges ahead in her Fordham career with kindness and sincerity. (Courtesy of Emily Koch for The Fordham Ram)

Emily Koch, GSB ’25, originally thought business school was lame. Koch, a Michigan native, came to a school she had never visited, in a city she had never been to, but a place filled with the most impressive people. She was only lacking one thing: a major.

She first came to Fordham for New York City-related reasons. “It was a place I could explore,” Koch explained. She is one of the few people I know who would tag along to any event, activity or watch party of a silly show. She’s someone who’s willing to not only dip her toe into something but will go for a full-on swim. 

Koch said her parents told her to go into business “for a long, long time,” but she wasn’t convinced it would be right for her. She’s a very creative person, and on the long list of possible majors (visual arts, psychology and communications among them), a business major barely made the cut. However, like most things, Koch decided to give it a try. 

Koch joined the Gabelli School of Business in the second semester of freshman year, and stuck with it through all the strenuous Ground Floor tasks. Now, whenever someone in our friend group needs help wording a career-related email, we know who to ask: our very own in-person ChatGPT, Emily Koch.

This past summer, Koch completed an internship at Ernst & Young as a Technology Risk Consultant. Her great success isn’t shocking in the slightest. For every interview, even if it was over the phone, Koch got out of bed, put on her business attire and rented out a room in Walsh Library. And they weren’t even going to see her! I once slept through an interview I had already rescheduled (thankfully, Koch was there to help me craft my apology). 

Koch is an information systems major, most easily explained as a mix of business, information technology and computer science. She explained the coding as a puzzle: “It’s satisfying when you’re finally able to understand it, everything eventually fits together.”

We decided it shares similarities with the other, less Advanced Placement-esque role she’s taken on since coming to Fordham: layout director of Really Magazine. 

“Making a magazine spread and programming kind of work in a similar way,” Koch said. “If I’m asked to do something, there are a million ways to do that with code. It’s up to me to find the way that makes the most sense to me, but I also have to consider that if other people are reading the code, it has to make sense to them, too.”

“And layouts need to look good to other people, too! Not just Emily,” I joked. 

Koch added, “Exactly, and layouts need to deliver to the readers, too!”

And deliver, they do! Koch toyed around with graphic design for the first time in high school during Yearbook Club, but it wasn’t inherently creative. She decided the proposed designs were boring and worked to make them more fun. 

In the first semester of freshman year, Koch decided, right away, to make time for graphic design in her life at Fordham. She worked on the layout team at MODE Magazine for two years, tossing away her limited yearbook design program in favor of using Adobe InDesign.

In the winter of her sophomore year, she joined Really Mag, her friend Grace Livecchi’s, GSB ’25, startup fashion and lifestyle magazine. 

Koch was one of the first people Livecchi reached out to when planning to launch Really. 

“I saw how easy layout came to her [Koch]… She had an amazing creative vision,” Livecchi said. “When I had the idea to start Really, it was a no-brainer for Emily to be my Layout Director.”  

Not only is she the person I ask for opinions on internship matters, but if I was starting a creative endeavor, Koch would also be the first person I’d run to. It doesn’t even have to be an endeavor of my own; she’s someone I call if I want a partner in enjoying someone else’s. Whenever I hear a cool song or want to go to a concert I’d have to pay anyone else to accompany me to, Koch is there to listen and attend. As always, she throws herself into whatever it is and becomes as excited about it as I am. She just gets it.

I asked her if New York City has lived up to her expectation of always being something to do. She said yes, and I know it’s true because today I watched her lookup which concerts were in NY tonight. “But mostly,” she said, “I love it so much because of the people I’ve met here.” 

As I watched her click on the Terminal 5 website, the closest concert venue to our beloved Ram Van route, I thought the feeling was absolutely mutual.