Navigating new environments and new people are some of the most daunting aspects of college. However, these didn’t phase Caroline Nolan, GSB ’26, as she started her first year at Fordham University. Rather, they were what she was looking forward to.
Nolan believes in the importance of trying new things. This is inspired by the idea that you will never know if you will like a new food, hobby or even person unless you take a chance. She has personally found new aspects of her life she loves due to living this mentality out. The most harrowing one for Nolan was the gym.
Ram Fit is populated at all hours of the day as a method of stress relief and fitness, but it took Nolan a while to venture to the McShane Student Center basement. “I grew up playing sports, so I never went to the gym,” she said. “I didn’t want to be judged by all these guys. It has happened before; some guy was trying to help me lift.” She knew her friends were going to the gym, but was nervous to breach unfamiliar territory and start lifting weights. But once she finally went, she became more confident to go and do whatever she wanted there, regardless of who was watching or potentially judging her. Going to the gym is now one of her favorite parts of her regimen.
Nolan wanted her college experience to mimic this as well, which pointed her toward Fordham. “When I first started looking at schools, I really liked the idea of having a completely different experience from high school,” Nolan said. She first dipped her toe into southern schools, thinking it would be the complete opposite of her hometown of Middletown, New Jersey. She soon realized these state schools were too condensed compared to her need for more stimulating environments, saying, “It felt like it would be going from one bubble to another.”
Her intentionality in choosing a roommate helped expose her to a new side of the world. Her roommate, Sol Canova, GSB ’26, is from Argentina. “I had a sense of ease with her over Instagram and knew we would be a good match, even though we are from opposite sides of the Earth,” Nolan remarked. Nolan visited Canova in Argentina, an experience she never would have embarked upon without branching out to an international student in the roommate process.
She decided on Fordham for its proximity to New York City and the well-known business schools she thought would bolster her future career. With a marketing major and a concentration in global business administration, she plans to stay in the city after graduation to “live her Carrie Bradshaw life.” But first, she needs to find a job that models her core values and goals.
“I want to be with a company that doesn’t hold their employees back and is open to allowing them to be creative,” she stated. Nolan has a very clear set of what she believes to be right and wrong. “If I feel passionately about something, I will speak about it,” Nolan said. She wants her personal values to be something she can reflect on in her future career and hopes to have a hands-on role where she can make an impact.
Outside of school, she is a part of both the Fordham Marketing Association and the Marketing Scholars. For fun, she joined the club tennis team during her first year and has been a dedicated team member ever since. In all her extracurricular activities and hobbies, she does not lose the desire to always expand her experiences and outlook at Fordham. Nolan reflected, “I look at life in chapters, and I am really enjoying my chapter at Fordham.”
