Destination New York | Always Open, Not Just for Business
Welcome to New York City. The City, to some, and the "city that never sleeps" to all. New York dominates the culture of business. Because of its unique position as a nexus of finance, media, and all things corporate, students in New York not only receive unprecedented exposure to the business world's best and brightest, but they also explore a diversity of opportunities unmatched by other destination cities.
In many ways, the events of September 11 reinforced New York’s position at the heart of global finance by demonstrating the integrity and stability of New York’s infrastructure and individuals. Home to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ as well as a who's who of the world’s premier investment banks, financial institutions, private equity firms and brokerage houses, New York continues to draw top financial talent from around the globe.
New York is equally preeminent in the media sector. Many of the major domestic networks and cable channels have headquarters in New York, such as NBC, CBS and MTV. The world’s largest media companies, such as AOL Time Warner and Viacom, advertising titans such as Young & Rubicam, and publishing giants such as The New York Times Company maintain their headquarters here.
The city remains the proving ground for many other businesses as well. An address in New York is still a symbol of success and legitimacy. The latest and greatest retail shops compete to open their flagship stores on Fifth or Madison Avenues in the heart of the city, or in the downtown area of SoHo. But it is also the place where smaller trends are discovered, packaged and disseminated to the rest of the country. Hundreds of small business owners chasing their own great ideas set up shop on Smith Street or Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, on Orchard and Ludlow on the Lower East Side, and throughout the five boroughs.
High and Low
Like other great cities, New York is renowned for the quality and variety of its arts, culture, and entertainment scene. But this town generates an extra frisson in the way it seamlessly combines and supports the best of the past with what will likely become the best of the future. In the art world, for example, New York’s storied institutions, such the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which houses over 2 million works of art spanning 5,000 years of history), the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney represent a dazzling array of art past and present. But it is in the Chelsea galleries, the artists' studios in Williamsburg, and the underground scene in the East Village that tomorrow’s headliners are mounting their first exhibitions.
The cafe filled with poets and novelists, the crooning of a yet-to-be-famous singer, and the young film student you just saw shooting footage with what looks like your mom’s old camcorder on St. Mark’s Place -- this is the New York that produced Woody Allen, Dorothy Parker, Neil Simon, and Mae West. The city has long been an incubator for aspiring artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers looking to catalyze the next cultural renaissance.
Scott Silver, Fordham '02, enjoys going both uptown and downtown. "I often see shows at Lincoln Center or on Broadway, especially taking advantage of the student discount," he notes. "But I also enjoy exploring different neighborhoods, like the West Village, for jazz."
The World in Your Hands
When Ellis Island closed in 1957, more than 12 million immigrants had passed through to the city beyond. These newcomers didn’t just assimilate; they preserved their own cultures, rebuilding them on the streets of Greenpoint's Little Poland, Queens' Jackson Heights, and Manhattan's Chinatown. And though immigration laws have tightened since Ellis Island shut its doors, New York remains a magnet for those looking to start anew.
Without leaving Manhattan, you can sip Turkish coffee at an East Village Egyptian café, bask under jalapeno pepper-shaped lights while listening to Bollywood classics at an Indian restaurant on 6th Street, dance to Eastern bloc techno at a SoHo Bulgarian disco, or enter a cannoli-eating contest at Little Italy’s annual Feast of San Gennaro.
New York’s ethnic communities allow residents to be transported to entirely different parts of the world without going anywhere and makes everyone feel like they are in their own hometowns. “New York is a very hospitable place,” says Fordham Business second-year student Liz Smith. “People come to New York and feel welcome.”
Gilberto Diaz, a second-year student and president of the Black and Hispanic MBA Association at Fordham, enjoys sampling the variety of different cuisines in the city. "You have everything here; I especially enjoy going to various ethnic restaurants in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The students here are very diverse, and that's how we get to know each other – learning about each other's cultures."
Second-year Philippe Saint-Cyr, president of the Finance Society, agrees. "Every ethnic group has its own festival in New York, so there's always something going on."
If only there were enough time to do it all.
Fordham Business is located at 113 West 60th Street, with a view of Lincoln Center directly to its north.
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