EXCEL Student Earns Top Ranking in Liberal Studies

Gabrielle Barth
Photo by Janet Sassi

By Janet Sassi

Gabrielle Barth carried a 4.0 grade point average throughout much of her undergraduate coursework at Fordham College of Liberal Studies (FCLS). That is, until the momentous day when she received her first—and only—A minus.

“When I see the professor, I think, ‘oh, it was you that did it,’” she says jokingly. “Sometimes I wonder, can’t we change it for the cosmetics of it all—but of course, I wouldn’t do that!”

Barth, a comparative literature major, had the distinction of being the symbolic degree recipient in this year’s commencement ceremony for FCLS, having graduated summa cum laude with a grade point average of 3.99. The native of Dusseldorf, Germany, began her studies at Fordham in 1980 through the EXCEL Program for adult students. Barth grew up in a household where “books were always part of the furniture.”
“Comparative literature had the sound of something I knew I would enjoy and want to sink my teeth in,” she said.

With nearly three-fourths of her degree work finished, however, Barth left the program in 1983 to take a lucrative job as a European liaison on a top national magazine. Once in the workplace, Barth also began her own freelance business, American Desk, an office services business for overseas clients.

“I was suddenly in a job where I arrived at 9 and didn’t leave until after 6, and there was no lunch hour,” she said. “It became a time thing; I just didn’t have the hours to study anymore.”

Finishing her degree was always in the back of her mind, she said. When her magazine offices moved to Broadway, just around the corner from the Lincoln Center campus, she said she would “nip at” the idea of going back to EXCEL, founded in 1969 to provide adult learners with a supportive and challenging environment in which to work toward a bachelor’s degree.

Following the downturn in business after September 11, Barth’s international client work slowed considerably. She was a final candidate for a job position that she wanted, when the subject of a college degree came up.

“They told me ‘you’ve got to have a B.A.,” said Barth, who did not get the position. “This was a great boost for me to go back to school.”

In 2004 Barth returned to the Fordham program in comparative literature; but the program had changed.

“When you stay away for 20 years, a lot happens,” she said. “Comp lit used to be, very simplistically, the reading, comparing and discussion of literature. Now, in 2004, it was largely literary theory. That was the new thing.”

Barth persevered through difficult material, reading and rereading the dense texts, experiencing doubts that students have, regardless of age: “I’m not saying it was difficult all the time, but there were moments of reading, and reading, wondering what does it say? Am I dense? Do 20-year-olds grasp the material quicker? I didn’t know, but I know I had to do it.”

She completed her degree in February, 2007, with the highest total “quality points” for her class (quality points are based on a combination of class grade and total credit load). Her ranking has earned her the school’s Charles O’Neill S.J. award, named after the school’s former dean.

Barth credits her will to achieve the degree to “the love of the subject matter, the will to really want to do it and not just get by.”

“This is where being a bit older is a plus,” she said. “You ask yourself, ‘why am I sitting here?’ and the answer is to learn something. So let’s do it right.”

Following graduation, she is considering returning to school for an advanced degree, and she is also looking at other job options.

“[Comp lit] is not a professional degree that points you in one particular direction, like, say engineering,” she said. “So, I’ll see what I can make happen.”