Name: Erin Biggins
School & Year: FCRH’ 17
Major/Minor: Communications & Media Studies, concentration in Media, Culture & Society/Marketing
1) What’s your favorite thing about Fordham? I feel so accepted and loved here. Fordham is definitely a place that I call home and I attribute a lot of that to the people I met here.
2) Campus Involvement: President of the Special Olympics Club at Fordham (SO Fordham), Publicity Co-Chair of the Campus Activities Board (CAB), Vice President of Lambda Pi Eta (LPH), Global Outreach (GO!) participant (Ecuador, Cape Town, and India) and former GO! Board Member, New Student Orientation Leader, and member of Campus Ministry
Erin with CAB members and Matt and Kim, Fordham’s Spring Weekend 2016 performers
3) What was the process of starting your own club? Do you encourage others to do the same? I’ve worked with special needs individuals all throughout high school and wanted to foster a community here at Fordham because I’ve had really memorable and great experiences working with those individuals. It kind of happened serendipitously. I volunteered at the Special Olympics in New Jersey my summer after freshman year and got in touch with a representative at Special Olympics who ironically was also working with girls at Fordham. So we all came together and planned out what we wanted the club to look like. And on October 15th, 2015, the club got approved.
I definitely recommend it because it’s been a rewarding experience for me and has opened more doors for people to get involved on campus and with a worldwide organization.
Erin and Special Olympics Athletes at Fordham’s First Annual Red Out
4) Favorite college memory: So I love the Ramblers and always wanted to get a Rambler gram from them on Valentine’s Day. My sophomore year, all of my friends made it happen. As I was walking into the caf, one of my friends gave me a rose and the other gave me a sign that said “The Ramblers Love Erin” and at that point, the Ramblers had followed me into the caf. They sang “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye and it’s still one of the best Valentine’s Days to date.
5) Favorite TV Show? Oh My. Well I’m torn because I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV. (Author’s note: Duh, have you seen everything she’s involved in?) But I love The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
6) Guilty Pleasures: Back to back episodes of Family Fued/any game show
7) How do you balance interning with all of your school responsibilites? I am a firm believer in time management, so being able to understand how long things take to get done and planning my time around that really helps. If I know I need at least two hours for a class, I schedule my time to the minute. In all honesty, I would be lost without my Lilly Pulitzer planner and Google calendar. Being able to stay on top of all of my requirements, but also knowing myself and making time for my friends and family is important.
Erin as an intern at WABC-TV with Kelly Ripa from “Live with Michael & Kelly”
8) What are your plans for after graduation? Well, I’m still trying to figure that out. But I would like to work at a media company that allows me to utilize skills that I’ve learned from my academic and extracurricular backgrounds. So if there’s a job that can give me the best of both worlds, then that’s the one for me.
9) What’s your number one advice to Fordham collegiettes (especially freshmen)? Embrace every moment at Fordham as an opportunity to grow and meet new people. Fordham is a very special place and everybody has a place here. I came into Fordham thinking I wanted to be a doctor and realized that I was working too hard to develop skills that I didn’t possess and neglected the skills that I did have and was actually good at. So I stopped having a close minded view and started focusing on things I do love. It was a difficult decision to quit science, but I don’t regret it because now I’m in a field that’s given me really great opportunities and memories. Be open to the opportunities that Fordham can give you.