Fairfield Bellarmine and Albertus Magnus College Form Alliance
On Tuesday, Sept. 12, Fairfield University’s Office of Media Relations shared a news release entitled “Partnership between Fairfield University and Albertus Magnus College Extends Educational Access in Connecticut”. The release outlines the two institutions’ shared plan to create new and valuable educational opportunities for students enrolled in the Fairfield Bellarmine program.
With this new venture, Bellarmine students pursuing a two-year associate’s degree will be able to secure scholarships at Albertus Magnus College, a Catholic university in New Haven, Conn. founded in Dominican tradition.
Bellarmine’s Executive Director, Rev. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., acknowledged the value of their newfound partnership.
“While we look forward to students enrolling in Fairfield’s four-year degree programs, it is important to develop partnerships with other schools like Albertus Magnus whose mission and values align with Fairfield’s,” O’Brien stated in the press release.
Additionally, Albertus Magnus College’s Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Rosa E. Rivera-Hainaj, Ph.D. reiterated the importance of their collective mission, which is to provide access to higher education to underrepresented students. As she shared in the press release, this “contribute[s] to the betterment of their families and their communities.”
Andrea Kovacs, Albertus Magnus College’s Vice President for Marketing and Community Relations, promoted her support for the new collaboration and shared a powerful message in a LinkedIn post: “If you want to change the world, you have to do things differently.”
Bellarmine Officially Opens For New Cohort
On Sept. 19, 2023, the Fairfield Bellarmine program ushered in a new era for their campus community with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event. This event featured the likes of Fairfield University President Mark R. Nemec, Ph.D., as well as other community leaders like the Most Reverend Frank Caggiano, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
The press release features a video of the official ribbon cutting, in which students and leaders at Bellarmine spoke about the excitement they feel around the new opportunity.
Freshman Jaheim Mckie, a member of Bellarmine’s inaugural student class, mentioned in the video that comes from Kingston, Jamaica, “Education is the only thing to break down barriers”. By enrolling in the Bellarmine program in its very first year, he considered it a “breaking-barriers moment”.
“We’ve been able to cultivate a space where students really can learn and feel as if they belong,” Bellarmine’s Assistant Dean for Student Success Pejay Lucky stated in the video.
Ana Aguirre, another student in Bellarmine’s class of 2025, spoke at the ribbon-cutting event, stating that “this campus is dear to me because it represents progress, education and opportunity.” The aim of the Bellarmine program is just that: “ […] opening access to education for all,” according to the homepage of their official website.
Additionally, in the video, leaders of the Bellarmine program spoke to the audience about the meaning and importance of this new initiative. O’Brien alluded to the fact that the Jesuits sought to create a higher education institution right on the land of the new Bellarmine Campus back in the 1940s; he noted that Fairfield University is going back to its original roots with the location of the campus, which occupies the former St. Ambrose Parish.
Fairfield Bellarmine’s campus finds its home at 460 Mill Hill Ave in Bridgeport, Conn. For more information on the academic programs offered through Bellarmine, visit their official website.
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