By Diana Nelson 

To kick off Ignatian Week at Fordham, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, president of the university, told students 20 things he said they should do before they graduate.

The first item on the list, which he called “corny and obvious,” is for students to thank their parents before graduation. “You have no idea how much your parents want to hear that,” McShane said. “They have given up things so that you could have the education and life that you have,” he said.
McShane told students to appreciate their friends, too. The second task on the bucket list is to take your best friend out to dinner and pick up the tab. “At this stage in your life, friendship is a large part of your existence,” he said. “Take them out.”
McShane suggested trying an ethnic restaurant that serves food a student has never eaten. “You’re in New York, with thousands of restaurants…eat something that’s different from what you were brought up with,” he said. “Take a walk on the culinary wild side.”
McShane recommended going to Staten Island before graduation, adding that there was only one correct mode of transportation to get there: The Staten Island Ferry.
“When you do this, you finally get a sense of what made New York great,” he said. “When you come back, you experience the Statue of Liberty the way it was intended to be experienced.”
“Go twice. Once during the day with a bunch of friends. Eat a dirty-water dog when you get off. It’s horrible and great at the same time. Go out at sunset and come back at night. It’s one of the most romantic things you could possibly do. It’s a cheap date, but it’s a great date,” he added.
McShane also recommended visiting Yankee Stadium. “It throbs with history and greatness. It’s our cathedral,” he said. Roosevelt Island, McShane said, is “cheap and romantic…and an exciting place to be.”
McShane also advised students to visit the financial district on Sunday mornings to avoid tourists. “And then go to Times Square around 10 at night when it’s all lit up and bright as day. Then you have a sense—this is the crossroads of the world,” said McShane.
Also included on his list was Ground Zero, where he recommended Fordham students pray. “We had 39 members of our family who died that day,” said McShane.
McShane advised visiting Harlem to see the “extraordinary beauty and to be in a community that’s filled with faith.” Outside the city, McShane said students must see the Atlantic, the Hudson Valley and the Bronx Zoo.
McShane recommended getting involved on campus by doing volunteer work. He said, “If you graduate from Fordham without doing volunteer work, you’re not Fordham,” he said. “Service is the rent you pay for living on the earth. Make it a habit.”
He also advised attending a Fordham basketball game and making the rafters shake. “Go to a women’s game. Go to a men’s game. Make the place really rock,” he said.
McShane recommended students who want to connect more closely to God visit the Goshen retreat house in downstate New York. “You can grow in your relationship with God,” he said. “It’s one of the greatest things that Jesuits can offer the world,” said McShane.
McShane ended his list with two things he thought Fordham students should learn before they leave: To give and to give thanks. “Train your heart to be open, to be vulnerable, to listen to the needs and the cries of other human hearts,” said McShane. “[Gratitude] defines a person of character and a person of quality. One that understands that when he or she receives… it’s an act of grace.”