By Anthony Pucik
Rebecca Sutcliffe was unsure of what she was going to do when she came to Fordham, but she’s certainly making the most of her opportunities.
The junior from Chicago started in the Gabelli School of Business as a freshman, but wasn’t set on a major path at that point. She knew she wanted to get involved, so she ended up going to the club fair and signing up for the Fordham Marketing Association. “I had zero interest in marketing coming into freshman year,” Rebecca said, but that didn’t stop her from signing up for the club.
“I just stuck around, the meetings were interesting and I felt like I was learning stuff that I could use,” she said. “It was kind of unexpected.”
She ended up becoming the Vice President of Development for FMA as a sophomore and traveled with the club to the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans. They have received awards each of the past two years. Now, as the current president of the club this year, Rebecca is looking to win again. “I’m used to being in positions where I can hopefully make a difference,” she said. “Fordham used to be known for marketing. It was ranked third at one point and that’s fallen, so I feel like I’m just bringing more attention to the marketing field of study.”
Rebecca hasn’t just taken leadership roles in clubs at Fordham. She is also a first-year Resident Assistant in Tierney Hall. After attendinng a small all-girls high school, and then spending her freshman year in Queen’s Court and sophomore year in Tierney, she wanted to stay within tight-knit communities. “I was used to having a good community around me,” she said. “I really wanted to be able to give that back, because I would love for people to have the great experience that I had.”
Rebecca has also made the most of Fordham’s study abroad program, spending the past two summers in London. But, similar to her experience with FMA, she had no intention of studying abroad before coming to the Bronx. “London is amazing,” she said. “It really just makes you consider things you didn’t before.”
She’s also said she’s even considered working there long term. “It’s made me really think about all my options,” she said. “It opens up your mind to all the availability or all the options that Fordham gives us. It’s nice to be able to consider all of them.”
With all of these options, Rebecca has gone from a woman with tons of questions to one who has a concrete plan, all thanks to her experiences here at Fordham. She is a business administration major in the Gabelli School of Business with a primary concentration in marketing and a secondary concentration in management, and has a very good idea of what she wants to do.
“I want to get my MBA in the five year program here,” she said. “After that, I want to work for Disney. Hopefully get into the corporate side of things with them and hopefully do that through their marketing department.”
