Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) hosted two receptions in September to welcome a pair of unique groups that make up part of the freshman class—Jesuit high school graduates and honor students.

Graduates of Jesuit high schools gathered on Sept. 8 at Dagger John’s in the basement of the McGinley Center to hear from Dean Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., and members of the University’s Jesuit community.

“This is the largest group of graduates from Jesuit high schools that we’ve had here in quite some time,” O’Donnell said of the 114 students who make up 12 percent of the 962 freshmen at FCRH. “One of the ways that we pass on our identity as a Jesuit school is to recruit a critical mass of students who know what that means coming in, so we welcome you.”

The group included increased representation from Jesuit schools on the West Coast and in the South, including four from Loyola High School in Los Angeles and five from Belen Prep in Miami. Out of 56 Jesuit high schools worldwide, the Class of 2012 features graduates from 30 of them, O’Donnell said.

The students heard presentations from the University’s Ignatian Society, among other groups.

In a reception on Sept. 24, also at Dagger John’s, FCRH welcomed its Presidential, Merit and Dean’s Scholars to campus. There are 113 students with those distinctions in the freshman class.

“Fordham College at Rose Hill is really a place that nurtures students who take responsibility for their own educations,” O’Donnell told the group. “You are at Fordham because you have excelled academically in high school and we expect that to continue here.”

The honor students heard presentations from representatives of Phi Beta Kappa, the Saint Edmund Campion Institute and Office of International and Study Abroad Programs.

“Last year, we were the only Catholic university to win the Gates Cambridge, and we won not one, but two,” said John Kezel, Ph.D., director of the Campion Institute. “Columbia, one of our major competitors, has yet to win one.”