“The advantage for the selected Ph.D. students is that the fellowship allows for them to focus on their research without the distraction of administrative duties,” said Marian Botchway, assistant director of training and educational programs at the Eck Institute for Global Health. “These Ph.D. students can immerse themselves in their data collection, analysis, and writing.”

Prakash B K

“My area of study is ‘caste,’” said Prakash B K, a Ph.D. student in anthropology. “In South Asian scholarship, caste has long been interpreted and understood as a primarily social and cultural phenomenon — a system of hierarchy reproduced through notions of purity and pollution, marriage within one's caste, kinship-based occupational segregation, and everyday practices of touchability and untouchability.”

He further explains, “Caste is also becoming a burgeoning health issue—one that has been overlooked in academia, particularly in the fields of global health and global mental health. Much like racial inequities in Western societies, caste functions as a deeply entrenched structure of power that organizes social life. Its effects are not merely social but profoundly embodied, shaping who is exposed to suffering, whose pain is recognized, and who receives care. Caste is a central axis of health inequality affecting more than 260 million Dalits worldwide.”

Prakash B K is mentored by Aidan Seale-Feldman, assistant professor, and Vania Smith-Oka, professor, both in the Department of Anthropology.

“With their expertise in medical and psychological anthropology, they helped me refine my research questions, pushing me to think more critically about how caste operates within clinical spaces. They also offered detailed feedback on my preliminary findings and emerging analysis, especially around the concepts of microaggression and structural violence,” he said.

This fellowship allowed B K to immerse himself in a psychiatric hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, for 12 months.

“As an anthropologist, I know that trust, rapport, and deep understanding cannot be rushed," he said. "The fellowship gave me the time I needed to observe seasonal changes in patient intake, to witness the same patients across multiple consultations, and to build genuine relationships with Dalit patients who had every reason to be wary of a researcher.”

Through his interactions with the Eck Institute, B K learned to translate his anthropological insights into a language that could engage global health practitioners.

“I learned to explain why caste matters for health outcomes, not just for social structure. It required me to speak outside my disciplinary comfort zone, and that stretching has made my research stronger,” he said. “Before the Eck Fellowship, I wanted to be a good anthropologist. Now, I want to be an anthropologist who makes caste impossible to ignore in global health. The fellowship gave me that vision, and I am now actively looking for a postdoctoral scholarship position in order to pursue it.”

Read more Ph.D. student stories whose studies intersect in global health in different ways and locations.

Global Health Fellowship

Every other year, the Eck Institute awards a limited number of graduate fellowships that provide additional financial support for outstanding students. Fellowship recipients benefit from resources and formal affiliation with the Institute while continuing to advance their disciplinary research that addresses global health challenges.

The Eck Institute’s Ph.D. Fellowship program includes opportunities to make important connections to global health resources, which include support from the vast network of the Eck Institute’s core and affiliated faculty, periodic check-in meetings with Eck Institute directors, lunches with peer Ph.D. fellowship students for sharing research challenges and insights, research presentation opportunities for valuable feedback, as well as attendance at the Eck Institute’s Global Health Speaker Series events.

Botchway said, “Anyone who is working on dissertation research that's linked to health can apply to this funding program. We welcome applications from across the entire university, and I encourage any interested candidates to reach out to me to learn more.”

To learn more about the Eck Institute’s Ph.D. Fellowship program, please visit: https://globalhealth.nd.edu/education/PhD/. The next application cycle will begin in spring 2027.

Contact:
Damienne Jugovic, Research Communications Specialist
Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame
djugovic@nd.edu
research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch

About the Eck Institute for Global Health
The Eck Institute for Global Health, an integral part of Notre Dame Research, builds on the University’s historical strength in infectious disease research, including vector-borne diseases, while broadening the interdisciplinary expertise into other key global health areas including non-communicable diseases; maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH); and global health security. The Eck Institute recognizes health as a fundamental human right and promotes research, training, and service to advance health standards and reduce health disparities, especially for those who are disproportionately impacted by preventable diseases. The Eck Institute is training the next generation of global health researchers and leaders through undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs.

Originally published by Damienne Jugovic at globalhealth.nd.edu on June 08, 2026.

The five-course, 15-credit minor will allow students to explore an array of subjects related to space exploration, as well as prepare them for employment in the space industry.

Clive Neal, professor of civil and environmental engineering and Earth sciences, led the cross-college faculty committee that designed the curriculum.

“The space industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy,” Neal said. “The last 10 years have seen rapid growth in commercial space companies focused on low Earth orbit, and now the moon.”

Students with an EPS minor could pursue roles in areas such as space policy, mission engineering, or the commercial space sector. The capstone course Living and Working on the Moon is designed to integrate the multidisciplinary nature of space exploration. It will cover such subjects as the politics and policy of space exploration, exploration architectures, and the ethics of sending humans to live and work away from Earth.

The EPS minor fosters interdisciplinary expertise across science, engineering, politics, policy, business, the economy, and law. Neal noted that the new minor aligns with the University’s recent strategic framework, Notre Dame 2033, encouraging curricula that address questions of national and international concern.

Ethics play a critical role in the EPS minor. In courses such as Space Ethics: Creation, Commerce, Colonization, students will examine how different religious traditions understand the origin and meaning of the cosmos, the value of human presence in space, and the ethical issues associated with space commerce and colonization.

Students interested in pursuing the EPS minor can begin the application process during the fall 2026 semester.

In addition to Neal, engineering faculty participating in the design and approval of the minor include Meenal Datta, Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; William Goodwine, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering; Matthew Morrison, associate teaching professor of computer science and engineering; and Hirotaka Sakaue, associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering.

Participating faculty from the College of Arts & Letters are David Clairmont, associate professor in the Department of Theology, and Heather Foucault-Kamm, program director in the McGrath Institute for Church Life; Lauren Weiss, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is in the College of Science.

Originally published at engineering.nd.edu on June 1, 2026.

University of Notre Dame rising senior Katharine Steffes has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship worth $35,000 in support of her graduate education. She is Notre Dame’s 11th Beinecke Scholar overall and third since 2023.

Steffes worked closely with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) in applying for the award, which is available to juniors at participating institutions in the U.S.

“At Notre Dame, students within the College of Arts & Letters have access to top-tier faculty mentorship as well as research and co-curricular opportunities, allowing them to develop into promising young scholars who are competitive among the finest undergraduate students in the country,” said Emily Buika Hunt, assistant director of scholarly development at CUSE. “Throughout her time here, Katharine has made the most of these resources as she has pursued enriching experiences in her studies.”

An anthropology and supplementary French major from Los Angeles, Steffes is a member of the Anthropology Club, Lewis Hall Council, and Tutor ND. She is an Ethics Research Fellow with the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.

With Rahul Oka, research associate professor of anthropology, she researches transactional networks in vulnerable communities and their relationship to societal cohesion and conflict. She’s also conducted research with Rev. Aaron Michka, C.S.C., assistant professor of anthropology.

She previously served as an art advisory intern with Filimonov Art Advisory in Los Angeles, and as an undergraduate research intern with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., where, alongside Joshua Bell, chair of the Department of Anthropology, she contributed to the creation of the National Museum of Natural History’s first comprehensive catalog guide to collections associated with the U.S. military occupations between 1898 and 1934.

As an anthropologist, she is interested in provenance research and the politics of cataloging — particularly, how Catholic missions contributed to anthropological knowledge and how museums continue to shape the historical narrative of missionary activity.

“I am incredibly honored to be named a 2026 Beinecke Scholar,” Steffes said. “I’m especially grateful to the anthropology department at the University of Notre Dame, as well as my professors and mentors, for their support and encouragement throughout my academic journey.”

Established in 1971, the Beinecke Scholarship seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students to “be courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.”

For more on this and other scholarship opportunities, visit cuse.nd.edu.

Originally published by Erin Blasko at news.nd.edu on June 04, 2026.

In 1970, nearly half of all Black individuals in the U.S. resided in a large city. Over the past 50 years, that number has fallen to merely 25%, while the share living in the suburbs of large cities rose from 16% to 36%.

This demographic shift is as large as the post-World War II wave of the Great Migration, according to economists Evan Mast of the University of Notre Dame and Alexander Bartik of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mast and Bartik thought that for the size of this trend, there had been remarkably little recent research on it, especially in economics.“This seemed like an area that no one had really examined with an economics lens before,” Mast said of his and his co-author’s work.

“What we really wanted to know was whether suburbanization affected Black households’ neighborhood quality, schools, public services and intergenerational mobility,” they wrote.

Their forthcoming study in The Review of Economics and Statistics journal found that while Black population growth has been rapid and widespread across various types and locations of suburban neighborhoods, Black population has also drastically declined in city neighborhoods that were initially predominantly Black and lower income. For example, census data indicated that majority-Black neighborhoods with a poverty rate above 20% in 1970 have since lost 60% of their Black population and 40% of their total population.

“That really high concentration of Black families in those central cities has been unwinding since 1970, and we’re seeing people spread out to the suburbs — including to higher-income suburban neighborhoods and more mixed-race suburban neighborhoods,” said Mast, an urban economist who studies public finance, housing markets, and place-based policies in Notre Dame’s Department of Economics.

The researchers examined the reasons behind this shift and found evidence that individuals and families have been drawn to the suburbs by improved amenities and better quality of life as well as falling housing prices and decreased housing discrimination. The study relied on a panel of census tract characteristics spanning 1970 to 2016 to show that changes in relative suburban amenities accounted for 60% of Black suburbanization, while housing prices explained 30%.

Less influential were the effects of suburban decline, gentrification of Black city neighborhoods, and rising levels of income and education. Increased educational attainment and regional reallocation together accounted for only 10% of suburbanization.

“One outcome is that the suburbs look a little bit more diverse and are more representative of the country than they used to be,” Mast said.

But the study also indicated that suburbanization plays a role in creating disparities within the Black population itself in regard to household location and income. “We see a growing divergence in neighborhood quality of Black suburbanites and city dwellers — where conditions are improving in the suburbs while stagnating in the cities,” the co-authors explained.

Suburbanization has highlighted a divergence in income as well. The median income of the average Black individual living in the suburbs modestly improved from 61% to 66% of the average white individual’s income, while the figure for Black city dwellers has fallen from 58% to 50%.

The economists argued that both a lack of low-cost suburban housing and relatively low white flight have played important roles in generating this stratification between Black households in cities and suburbs.

Unlike the Great Migration, where Black families moved from the rural South to the urban North between 1910 and 1970 and ensuing white flight caused housing prices to fall and racial segregation to increase, this current demographic shift looks quite different.

“We show that white flight is significantly lower in our context,” the co-authors wrote. “This reduces downward pressure on housing prices, preventing suburban neighborhoods from becoming affordable for lower-income Black households and helping to sustain income segregation.”

Similarly, the authors found large differences in the cost of living in the cities and suburbs throughout their sample period — particularly at the lower end of the price spectrum — likely making it easier for Black households with more resources to move to the suburbs than it was for households with fewer resources.

“One outcome is that the suburbs look a little bit more diverse and are more representative of the country than they used to be.”

And it’s not just that initial generation growing up in the 1970s who is making these migration choices and moving out, according to the co-authors. The number of Black children living in cities has shrunk particularly rapidly, with their numbers falling by 30% since 2000.

“Now it tends to be the young people who are settling down in the suburbs, rather than in the city where they might have grown up,” said Mast. “So the trend is also about the next generation making different decisions about where to start.”

Sharp population decline can create policy concerns, the co-authors pointed out, as they can increase the chances for school closures, reduce retail or grocery options, and jeopardize tax revenue.

The economists acknowledged that there is room for further research related to Black suburbanization. One question they feel could be explored is how suburbanization affects the economic and social outcomes of Black individuals.

Furthermore, they feel that there could be financial and political impacts from these shifts. For example, it would be helpful to understand whether changing racial composition in suburban jurisdictions and electoral districts has any impact on municipal finances and political representation.

This research is indicative of the type of work being conducted through the Notre Dame Population Analytics (ND Pop), a data-focused research effort fostering and advancing multidisciplinary work on a wide range of pressing demographic issues facing society. Mast is a faculty affiliate of ND Pop, which is facilitated by a partnership between the University’s Poverty Initiative and the College of Arts & Letters.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Originally published by Tracy DeStazio at news.nd.edu on June 04, 2026.

One of 35 fellows selected from nearly 500 applicants, this award will allow Vidal-Menezes to continue research exploring the impacts of expanding educational access in low- and middle-income countries.

“The resources of the Spencer Fellowship will give Virna the opportunity to hone her dissertation work within a fantastic community of scholars who are passionate about educational research,” said Taryn Dinkelman, associate professor of economics and Vidal-Menezes’ advisor.

Vidal-Menezes’ dual enrollment in the economics department and ND PIER is an opportunity to study education through a multidisciplinary lens. Students in this program pursue graduate studies within their home departments while participating in interdisciplinary educational research training.

“I'm always very happy when work on education in development/low- and middle-income contexts enters spaces that are mostly U.S. or generally education-focused,” said Vidal-Menezes. “Even though developing and developed countries face very different barriers in education, there are many shared challenges and solutions. Amazing work is being done in both of these contexts, and I think we can learn a lot from each other.”

These types of connections are an important part of ND PIER. The experience challenges students to communicate effectively with those who view education from different perspectives, and to provide feedback from multiple points of view.

“Different perspectives are so helpful,” said Vidal-Menezes. “This type of exchange pushes us to deeper thinking, helping inform research and interpretation. Working in PIER was one of the reasons I chose Notre Dame for graduate studies.”

The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship is a highly competitive award that encourages a new generation of scholars from various disciplines to undertake research relevant to improving education. It supports candidates whose dissertation projects bring innovative and insightful approaches to the history, theory, analysis, or application of formal and informal education.

“I couldn’t be prouder or happier for Virna receiving the prestigious 2026 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship,” said Mark Berends, director of PIER and professor of sociology. “This honor reflects the extraordinary quality and promise of her scholarship. It’s an impressive award, and we look forward to seeing Virna’s research make significant international contributions to education research and policy.”

The encyclical was officially signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical responding to the industrial revolution, Rerum novarum.

Below, University of Notre Dame faculty experts from the College of Arts & Letters offer their insights into the document.

Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C.

Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., serves as vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs. In addition to his role at Notre Dame, Father Groody is a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and plays a key role in Notre Dame’s partnership with the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center on issues of integral ecology and global sustainability. His research focuses primarily on migration, theology, refugees, and human displacement.

“Pope Leo’s Magnifica humanitas calls us to continually discern what it means to be human before God in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence,” Father Groody said. “While this new digital age offers unprecedented possibilities for development, it simultaneously demands that we rediscover the true contours of our humanity. This authentic identity — rooted in an interior life, a moral conscience, human connections, and a transcendent relationship to divine love — can never be quantified, modeled or replicated by machine learning. Against the technocratic impulse to reduce the human person to a mere data point, the encyclical boldly reasserts that we cannot be measured solely by technological acceleration but by holistic human development, human dignity, and our commitment to the common good.

“Alongside new innovations, artificial intelligence reveals ancient temptations of radical self-sufficiency and idolatry. Warning against the modern temptation to construct a digital Tower of Babel in the pursuit of technological mastery, Pope Leo calls us instead to channel our energies into building the Kingdom of God and animating a ‘Civilization of Love.’ This sacred task requires an unwavering willingness to denounce the false forms of power that isolate us in algorithmic silos and blind us to our neighbors. In their place, Magnifica humanitas proposes a vision of life firmly anchored in justice, ultimately steering humanity toward the right ordering of our relationships with one another, with technology and with the Creator.”

Meghan Sullivan

Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. She leads a national research and public engagement initiative on AI and human dignity and meets regularly with tech leaders and AI developers in Silicon Valley. In March, Sullivan attended an Anthropic summit to discuss how to guide the moral development of the corporation’s chatbot, Claude.

“Magnifica humanitas is one of the most compelling and comprehensive treatments of AI ethics I have ever read — and I say that as someone who has spent the past few years immersed in this literature from both philosophical and policy perspectives,” Sullivan said. “Pope Leo XIV grounds AI ethics in the Church’s long-standing social doctrine, which has consistently offered a profound vision of human dignity.

“Christian tradition has never grounded human dignity in cognitive performance or economic productivity. It has never said: You matter because of what you can do. It says: You matter because of who you are. Someone with a body, mind, and soul. Someone built for love. Someone with a mind oriented toward truth, accountable for our choices. We’re vulnerable in a way that these AI models are not. And Pope Leo argues that this special belovedness — made in God’s own image — makes us magnificent.

“What strikes me most is how practical this document is. It gives concrete guidance to corporate leaders, to policymakers, to educators, to everyday people navigating this technology. For those of us at Notre Dame, the pope’s charge to educational institutions is especially urgent. He argues that schools must resist the pressure to simply accelerate alongside the digital world and instead become irreplaceable centers of human formation — places where knowledge is integrated, where real relationships are built, where students discover the meaning of human dignity.

“This is exactly the work that Notre Dame’s DELTA network exists to do. With a generous $50.8 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., we are going to put this teaching on human dignity and AI into action — across K-12 schools, universities, churches, and the public square. Today’s encyclical gives us both the theological framework and the moral insight we need. Notre Dame is ready to help the Church and the world answer Pope Leo’s call.”

Kathleen Sprows Cummings

Kathleen Sprows Cummings is a professor of American studies and history and director of the Global Catholic Research Initiative. A papal analyst for NBC/MSNBC, she offered expert commentary during the 2014 canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, Pope Francis’ U.S. visit in 2015, Pope Francis’ funeral in 2025, and the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

“‘Age gives way to age,’ wrote Pope Leo XIII in Rerum novarum, ‘but the events of one century are wonderfully like those of another, for they are directed by the Providence of God.’ In Magnifica humanitas, an encyclical dated exactly 135 years after Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIV also invokes God’s invisible work in history,” Cummings said. “And, like his namesake, he considers the central challenge of the age — in this case, the advent of artificial intelligence — in light of the Church’s timeless principles.

“More humble in tone than Rerum novarum, Magnifica humanitas is a far more capacious document that operates on several levels at once: an explanation of Catholic social teaching as it has developed since Rerum novarum; an affirmation of the intrinsic, God-given value of each person, which is not tied to what they achieve or produce; a rumination on the wonder and limitations of being human; a meditation on history, including an unflinching acknowledgement of the Church’s complicity in its darker moments; and an invitation to individuals and institutions to think creatively and collaboratively about how to ‘disarm’ new technologies and harness them for good.

“In his powerful conclusion, Pope Leo entrusts this endeavor to Mary, quoting from the Magnificat, her revolutionary ‘song of hope’ which glorifies the God who delivers the humble and oppressed, dislodges the privileged from their positions of power, and continues to make all things new in this and in every age. In that sense, Magnifica humanitas ultimately offers consolation to a world in desperate need of it.”

Additional Notre Dame experts on the AI encyclical and a statement from University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., are available.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

Originally published by Notre Dame News at news.nd.edu on May 25, 2026.

For students in the Institute for Latino Studies, learning extends far beyond the classroom. This summer, 18 undergraduates will take part in the Cross Cultural Leadership Program (CCLP), an immersive internship experience that places them in Latino communities across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, El Paso, and South Bend.

Since its launch in 2005, CCLP has served as a cornerstone of the Latino Studies curriculum at Notre Dame, offering students the opportunity to apply their academic learning in real-world settings. Through partnerships with community-based and national organizations, the program equips students with the tools to engage meaningfully with the communities they study.

“Latino Studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic teaching, research and scholarship engaged in understanding the past, present, and future of the youngest and fastest-growing population in the United States,” said Karen Richman, professor of practice and director of undergraduate studies. “Our academic program offers a minor and supplemental/second major in Latino Studies to approximately 100 students. CCLP has been a key component of the Latino Studies curriculum since it was launched in 2005. The internship provides a means for our students to apply what they have learned in Latino Studies classes at Notre Dame to the real world in service to Latino communities.”

The program’s emphasis on experiential learning allows students to engage directly with issues such as immigration, education, public health, and legal advocacy. By working alongside organizations embedded in Latino communities, students gain a deeper understanding of the structural challenges and lived experiences that shape these spaces.

For sophomore Paola Salazar, this summer represents both a professional and personal opportunity for growth.

“This summer, I was placed in Los Angeles, California, where I’m interning with Community Lawyers Inc. I look forward to engaging with a community that differs greatly from my Midwestern hometown and to be working at an immigration firm, where I will witness firsthand how new policies are impacting the legal sector and the communities it serves,” she said. “I am grateful to the Cross Cultural Leaders Program for providing me with the opportunity to connect with my culture in a new setting, recognizing our differences while appreciating our similarities.”

Programs like CCLP reflect the broader mission of Latino Studies at Notre Dame: to connect academic inquiry with community engagement. As students step into new cities and unfamiliar environments, they carry with them not only the knowledge gained in the classroom, but also a commitment to service, cultural understanding, and leadership.

Through this immersive experience, participants are not only observing communities, but becoming active contributors within them — an approach that underscores the transformative potential of Latino Studies both on campus and beyond.

Originally published by Grecia Alcantar at latinostudies.nd.edu on March 31, 2026.

Chicago

Abraham Claudio, '29

Leslie Rodriguez, '27

Annika Fernandez, '27

Guadalupe Dolan, '27

Parker Gaines, '27

Ian Moore, '29

Lindsey Jimenez Salazar, '28

Diego Cubillo, '27 (not pictured)

South Bend

Angela Calva, '27

Benny Ortega, '29

Mario Carmona, '29

Austlynn Quiroz, '29

Los Angeles

Quinlen Schachle, '28

Paola Salazar, '28

Erik Aviles, '28

Becky Island, '28

New York City

Jonathan Calixto, '28

Jianni Ortiz, '29

Joshua Silva, '28

Around the turn of the fifth century, Hypatia was a prominent philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician living in the Roman Empire.

Today, she’s the figurehead of the Hypatia Scholars Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Housed in the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, the Hypatia Scholars Program is a yearlong experience that offers first-year science and engineering students a unique opportunity to explore big ideas about humanity and technology. With a close-knit cohort of other curious students, scholars enjoy stimulating discussions and cultural experiences in and out of the classroom.

While the program was established in 2025, it was a passion project years in the making.

Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Teagle Foundation, Reilly Center leaders worked with faculty to figure out how they could get STEM students more engaged with the liberal arts. They explored different models of core education and teaching strategies, and the Hypatia Scholars Program was the final product.

“The arts and literature should be part of any well-rounded person’s life. When the students leave this University, I hope they are the kinds of scientists and engineers who go to the opera and the theater and read a novel — who do all these things that they did in Hypatia Scholars.”

— Robert Goulding, Reilly Center director and associate professor in the Program of Liberal Studies

“Science students sometimes see Arts & Letters core courses as a series of boxes they can check off to fulfill their requirements,” said Robert Goulding, an associate professor in the Program of Liberal Studies and director of the Reilly Center. “We wanted to give them a yearlong experience that would be transformative — that they’ll continue to think back on when they’re juniors or seniors doing their science and engineering research.”

The foundation of the program is two related humanities courses — one each semester of a scholar’s freshman year — that fulfill several University Core requirements, including the University Seminar. The class of 40 students meets twice a week, first for a lecture, then split into three groups for a discussion session.

Each semester, the class has a different theme. For the Fall 2025, students examined “Artificial Intelligence and the Soul,” and in the spring, it was “The Costs of Technology.”

The program doesn’t teach students how to use technology, but rather asks how it might change them. With the help of classic books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Hypatia Scholars learn and discuss the nature of the mind and the origins of AI. In one assignment, students wrote an autobiographical essay and gave it to a chatbot to see how much it could and could not understand.

“They really began to see that there’s a difference in the way we tell our own stories versus what an AI agent is able to generate out of a statistical average of texts,” Goulding said. “We’re not saying that technology’s a bad thing, but we have to understand that every new technical breakthrough in some way changes what it is to be human. We have to keep in mind: What are we willing to lose? What are we willing to augment and gain from technology?”

These questions are increasingly difficult to answer, but scholars are encouraged to meet the challenge head-on.

They’re reading complex texts by Plato and Saint Augustine, as well as key articles in the modern philosophy of mind. They’re running experiments with their own technology use. And they’re already debating how the philosophical and ethical concepts they’re learning will impact the decisions they make as future scientists, engineers, and doctors.

“The amount of reading we’re doing — I’m learning to love it,” said Duncan Lefever, a first-year student majoring in civil engineering. “It’s important that I establish that love now because at the end of the day, my technical education is only four years, but a love of this style of learning is forever.”

Lefever applied for the program because, while he wants to be an engineer, he’s interested in everything in the liberal arts. Hypatia classmate Sissy Page said she applied knowing she wanted to study more humanities than she could get in her neuroscience major.

“A lot of my science classes are big lectures — just the professor giving information,” she said. “This class is more focused on what your opinion is and how we can look at life seeing the big picture, coming at it from different perspectives.”

Page is helping plan a Hypatia Scholars formal for the inaugural cohort, one of many cultural experiences that have been built into the program. Other opportunities include film screenings at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Browning Cinema and trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and an opera.

While the formal isn’t an official piece of the program’s curriculum, it is evidence of how students have made their cohort into a community. Goulding said discussion groups bonded so much that, when given the opportunity to switch to a different group in the second semester, nobody opted to.

“I turned up on the first day of the spring semester with the same 14 faces in front of me,” he said. “They were so excited to be back together.”

While Hypatia Scholars are classmates only during their first year at Notre Dame, the personal connections they make will last far longer. The program offers older Hypatia Scholars opportunities to attend ongoing events and take additional classes with their professors. And while the program is still in its early stages, the program’s leaders are continually brainstorming new ways for students to stay involved.

Goulding said that studying the humanities turns Hypatia Scholars into strong writers, but he notes there are many ways to learn to write. The true value of engaging with the humanities, he said, is how courses open and stretch the mind.

Bringing that to more students is why the Reilly Center is committed to making the program the best it can be.

“The arts and literature should be part of any well-rounded person’s life,” Goulding said. “When the students leave this University, I hope they are the kinds of scientists and engineers who go to the opera and the theater and read a novel — who do all these things that they did in Hypatia Scholars.”

First-year students interested in the Hypatia Scholars program can visit reilly.nd.edu/undergraduate/hypatia-scholars.

A team of four University of Notre Dame undergraduate students won the national competition America’s Startup with their pitch for a data security company, alongside nine other teams from universities across the country.

America’s Startup is a collegiate competition created to highlight and support young entrepreneurs. It’s part of the America Innovates initiative run by America250, a Congress-created organization leading the nation’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Student teams submitted their startup ideas earlier this year, and the selected semifinalists were invited to Draper University in California for the final competition. They pitched their ideas to and networked with America’s Startup Investor Council, a group of prominent Silicon Valley business leaders and investors.

The Notre Dame team drew interdisciplinary expertise from across campus: sophomore Peter Bae, a computer science and economics major in the College of Arts & Letters; junior Kamsi Ejike, biochemistry major in the College of Science; junior Rodrigo Fernandez, finance major in the Mendoza College of Business; and sophomore Lucky Borlongan, computer science major in the College of Engineering.

The startup, KorGuard LLC, provides compliance infrastructure for organizations that use artificial intelligence tools like Gemini and ChatGPT, employing real-time scanning to ensure sensitive information is protected.

“KorGuard is built on the belief that if AI is going to serve the human good, we must fundamentally reimagine how institutions approach privacy, data security, and data loss prevention,” Ejike said. “Our vision for security in the AI adoption era is to unite ingenuity with human agency, helping users identify sensitive information in real time, recognize risk, and exercise responsible judgment.”

Other winning ideas addressed real-world issues ranging from accessible gaming to breast cancer treatment, and explored several emerging themes in the future of American business and technology. Each team will receive $25,000 in nondilutive funding for their projects, as well as mentorship and opportunities for further investment.

“When I heard our name called on stage, it was hard to contain my happiness,” Bae said. “It felt great to see our hard work pay off after putting so much time and effort into this company. Beyond the funding, we are extremely grateful for the publicity and the chance to connect with like-minded individuals, influential investors, and mentors.”

The society, based at Columbia University, was founded in 1939 to promote literary distinction in the writing of history and biography. Members are elected based on achievement in “the vivid and compelling presentation of history and biography in a variety of forms.” The society’s 450 current members include prominent academics, public historians, and professional writers working on topics in American history. They include Notre Dame history professor emeritus Mark Noll; award-winning biographers Robert Caro and Ron Chernow, and scholars such as Jill Lepore, the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a New Yorker staff writer.

“This is an unexpected honor,” said McGreevy, “and I am grateful to the members of the Society of American Historians for electing me. I’m also grateful to friends and colleagues at Notre Dame for supporting my scholarship over many years. The most compelling historical writing is at once rigorous and accessible, and I’ve tried to the best of my ability to reach that standard in my books and essays.”

McGreevy’s historical scholarship focuses on both American and global religion and politics. He is the author of four books that explore the people and the impact of the Catholic Church—the most recent of which, Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, was published by W.W. Norton and released in September 2022. A French translation was published by Desclée de Brouwer in 2025. His other books include Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth Century Urban North (University of Chicago Press, 1996), Catholicism and American Freedom: A History (W.W. Norton, 2003), and American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global (Princeton University Press, 2016).

He has received major fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louisville Institute, and the Erasmus Institute, and he served on the Pulitzer Prize jury for History in 2010. McGreevy has published articles and reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, Journal of American History, New York Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Commonweal, The New Republic, Chicago Tribune, and other venues. His essays have been translated into Italian, French, and Spanish.

McGreevy has served as Notre Dame’s provost since July 1, 2022, and was recently elected to a second five-year term beginning July 1, 2027. Previously, he was the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters from 2008 to 2018 and chair of the Department of History from 2002 to 2008.

He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Notre Dame and his master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Stanford University. McGreevy was the Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History and History and Literature at Harvard before joining Notre Dame’s faculty.

“This year’s faculty award recipients represent the very best of Notre Dame through their outstanding achievements in teaching, scholarship, and service,” McGreevy said. “Their work strengthens our academic community and furthers the University’s mission as a leading global Catholic research institution.”

Ernest Davis Morrell, the Coyle Professor of Literacy Education and professor of English and Africana studies, was posthumously awarded the 2026 President's Award. The award recognizes pioneering and visionary achievements in research, public impact, and/or creative endeavors that advance University goals. 

Throughout his career, Morrell led intellectually ambitious, socially consequential work centered on a humanistic vision of education. He was a titan in the fields of literacy education, critical media literacy, and youth participatory action research. His work offered a liberatory vision of literacy, one rooted in the dignity of the human person and committed to reimagining the relationship between students and texts. Professor Morrell consistently situated literacy as a vehicle for expanded agency and quality of life. In his scholarship, literacy was a matter of social justice, essential to individuals’ ability to access information, exercise informed citizenship, and participate fully in civic and cultural life; and as a means through which young people’s voices are made powerful.

He was recognized at the highest levels of scholarly distinction, including as a member of the National Academy of Education, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and as past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. His impact was also powerfully witnessed by the “family tree” of scholars he cultivated. Embracing the fundamental responsibility that lies at the heart of all scholarship–advancing knowledge in the search for truth–his work transformed the classroom into a site of profound formation, preparing the next generation to lead with both intellectual rigor and a steadfast commitment to the common good. 

Morrell died Feb. 4 after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.

Karen Richman, professor of the practice and director of undergraduate studies at the Institute for Latino Studies, was awarded the  Dockweiler Award for Excellence in Advising.

The Dockweiler Awards recognize excellence in academic advising as a vital component of the Notre Dame student experience. Richman was honored for her outstanding mentorship of students and colleagues, her contributions to Latino studies, and her leadership in building academic programs that advance the University’s mission and enrich students’ education.

Since becoming director of undergraduate studies in 2010, Richman has expanded the Institute for Latino Studies’ programs from 17 students to more than 100, including the institute’s largest graduating class to date in 2025. She has directed 28 senior theses and helped establish an annual senior thesis presentation event for students and faculty.  She has also been a faculty fellow with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies since 2002.

Students praised Richman as “an invaluable mentor” whose teaching and advising inspire them “to pursue my passions and fascinations.” She also serves as faculty advisor to student organizations including the Student Coalition for Immigration Advocacy and the Caribbean Student Association.

Notre Dame recognized Richman as a scholar whose teaching, mentorship, and research “mutually enrich one another” and whose work exemplifies “the power of real-world application from academic knowledge.”

Other 2026 University faculty award winners are:

• Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Awards for Excellence in Teaching: Badih Assaf (Department of Physics and Astronomy), Juan Del Valle (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry), and Roya Ghiaseddin (Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics)
• Research Achievement Award: Peter Garnavich (Department of Physics and Astronomy), Eric Jumper (Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering), and Jennifer Tank (Department of Biological Sciences)
• Hesburgh Legacy Award: Gerard F. Powers (Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies)
• Dockweiler Awards for Excellence in Advising: Maria Holland (Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering), and Gina V. Shropshire (Mendoza College of Business)
• Faculty Award: Christopher Kolda (Department of Physics and Astronomy)
• Rev. Paul J. Foik, C.S.C., Award: Mark Robison (Hesburgh Libraries)
• Thomas P. Madden Award: Giuseppe Mazzone (School of Architecture)

Coordinated by the Office of the Provost, the annual University faculty awards recognize excellence in research, teaching, and service to the University; signal milestone accomplishments and contributions across the disciplines; and celebrate outstanding members of the Notre Dame community.

Learn more about the awards and read the citations for this year's winners at provost.nd.edu/awards.

Originally published by Emily Monacelli Guzman at provost.nd.edu on May 12, 2026.

The University of Notre Dame celebrated its 181st Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 17, at Notre Dame Stadium. An audience of more than 20,000 family members, friends, faculty, and graduates were in attendance as 2,120 degrees were conferred on undergraduate students.

Over the course of Commencement Weekend, the University conferred a total of 3,335 degrees.

University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., and John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, introduced the speakers and welcomed the guests. The ceremony opened with the singing of “America the Beautiful,” led by Rev. Kevin Grove, C.S.C., an associate professor of theology.

Salutatorian Allison Elshoff, a business analytics major from Valencia, California, offered an invocation. On behalf of the graduating class, she expressed gratitude for Christ’s love, for family and friends, for teachers and mentors, and for the University of Notre Dame. Elshoff also prayed for God’s guidance and asked that the graduates “leave these halls eager to enter the world as instruments of your peace.”

In his valedictory address, Martin Soros, from Bethesda, Maryland, considered the journey that each graduate took to Notre Dame, which he noted was not so different from that of its founder, Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., who arrived on the frozen grounds in late November 1842 with a vision for what the University could become.

“We all came to create something, just like Father Sorin,” he said. “What did he see in that frozen landscape? He saw you, and he saw me. He saw researchers fighting to end disease. He saw students tutoring at a local middle school. He saw members of a choir sharing their gifts, and he saw neighbors cracking jokes in a dorm hallway. Over these last four years, at every turn, we cultivated warmth for others.”

Soros, a civil engineering major who is perhaps best known as co-creator of St. Olaf’s ice chapel on campus this winter, said that warmth is something the world desperately needs.

“Like Father Sorin, we stand before a world that has grown cold,” Soros said. “And though the people we encounter may know nothing about Notre Dame, we can leave its mark on their hearts with the warmth we have cultivated here. This may seem daunting. But we’ve been doing it for four years, and we are just getting started.”

Honorary degrees were conferred upon Marguerite Barankitse, a humanitarian leader, teacher and founder of the education, development and relief organization Maison Shalom (House of Peace); Mary Boyce, provost emerita and professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University; Eamon Duffy, emeritus professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Cambridge and former president and fellow of Magdalene College at Cambridge; Christopher J. Murphy III, executive chairman of 1st Source Corporation; J. Christopher Reyes, co-founder and chair of Reyes Holdings LLC; and Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., the sixth archbishop of Newark.

Father Dowd then introduced the principal speaker, Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., who also received an honorary degree. Sister Petrini is president of the Pontifical Commission and Governorate of Vatican City State, serving at the invitation of both the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, and becoming the first woman to hold these positions.

“Sister Petrini speaks to us today at a historic time in the Church, as we embrace the first American-born pope, Pope Leo. It is clear that Pope Leo is a pope for all, as he has centered his papacy on unity, charity, and ‘crossing borders in order to announce the Gospel,’” Father Dowd said. “In many ways, our speaker today has embodied these ideals throughout her ministry, as an Italian-born member of an American-based religious community who is tireless in her service to the Church and to all of God’s people around the world.”

In her address, Sister Petrini built on the recent Jubilee year theme chosen by Pope Francis, “Pilgrims of Hope,” inviting the graduates to become “leaders of hope.”

“You will be people of hope if, centered in Christ, the Principle of Communion, you embark on your new beginning, driven by a sincere desire to build bridges: bridges between humanity and God; bridges between those you meet; bridges between those who are the main players and those who are left behind; bridges between cultures, languages and personal histories; and bridges between individuals and generations,” she said.

Sister Petrini also called upon the graduates to “dream, make choices and set priorities” and to “continue to search for more.”

“I pray that you will march on and contribute to the common good, that you will move forward strong of heart and remain true to your faith, with kindness and courage,” she said. “May you take responsibility for others with loyalty and integrity, and be our hope.”

The University presented the 2026 Laetare Medal — the most prestigious award given exclusively to American Catholics, and Notre Dame’s highest honor — to Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics.

Shriver, who began his career as an educator, described his decision to lead Special Olympics, which was founded by his mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Special Olympics, he said, is “a global witness to the truth that every human being is a sacred creation, with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God — and should be treated that way.

“The precious occasions when we gather and see this truth together are moments of lasting grace.”

Shriver, who also co-founded UNITE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people bridge political divides, said that the need to make dignity the standard for how we treat each other is both an ancient call — and “the most urgent call of our times.”

“In answering the call, you here at Notre Dame have an extraordinary advantage,” Shriver said. “You will walk out of here with the advantage of having been schooled here — on this campus, in this special place — and your university was blessed for this calling even before Father Sorin baked the first brick to build Notre Dame.

“So as you leave the home field of the Fighting Irish to launch the next chapter of your lives, what would you fight for? What were you born to fight for? I pray you will fight to honor the inherent dignity in every human being — and renew the face of the earth.”

Following the conferral of all baccalaureate degrees, Father Dowd offered a charge to the graduates.

“Never forget that your charge as a Notre Dame graduate is to be a force for good in the world. And as you go out into the world, to build your careers and communities and deepen your awareness of God’s mysterious presence and action in your lives, I hope you will rely on the moral, intellectual, and ethical foundation you’ve cultivated here,” he said. “Class of 2026, as you go forth from here, be assured of our gratitude for you — and be assured of our prayers for you. I hope you will come back to Notre Dame often, because it is and always will be your home.”

The ceremony closed with a benediction by Cardinal Tobin, followed by a special performance by Irish folk band The High Kings.

“Send [these graduates] forth as bearers of light where there is darkness, hope where there is despair, and unity where there is division,” Cardinal Tobin said. “May their lives reflect the values they have learned here — a commitment to truth, a heart for service, and a faith that seeks understanding.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

Originally published by Carrie Gates at news.nd.edu on May 17, 2026.

“Don’t be intimidated. All of the resources are there for students — take advantage of them.”

As the first-place winner of the 2026 Library Research Award in the Capstone or Thesis Research category, Sierocka says she remembers her own trepidation as a freshman, particularly when it came to Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC).

But after the computer science major added an Italian minor, emboldened by her semester abroad, she found her class visiting RBSC. There, she discovered the Zahm Dante Collection, which inspired her thesis, “Visions of Judgment: Reimagining Dante’s Inferno in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art,” advised by Theodore Cachey, the Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies and Ravarino Family Director of Italian and Dante Studies Center for Italian Studies/ Devers Family Program in Dante Studies.

“My senior honors thesis began with a question about seeing,” she said. “How do four artists across two centuries look at the same poem and find something entirely different in it?”

To answer that question, Sierocka began her research in RBSC. There, she explored depictions of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy using the Zahm Dante Collection and medieval manuscript facsimiles.

When Sierocka couldn’t find what she needed in RBSC about a particular artist, she turned to the library’s catalog. The resource pointed her toward an oversized volume of the artist’s work located in the library’s stacks. The book’s size revealed illustration details that proved essential for Sierocka’s research.

“I needed not just books but objects: the kind of primary materials that ask you to slow down, that resist the speed of digital research and that insist on being read with attention,” she said. “The Hesburgh Libraries provided that, repeatedly and generously, in ways I could not have anticipated when I began.”

Sierocka also embraced the Libraries’ digital resources, such as JSTOR Image Search and Marble — a cross-institutional research tool that allows users to discover materials from the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, RBSC, and the University Archives – to supplement her research.

“What I learned through this process is that library resources do not merely support an argument — at their best, they change one,” Sierocka said. “The Hesburgh Libraries did not provide a backdrop for this thesis. They were the condition that made it possible.”

Going forward, the research skills Sierocka developed at the Hesburgh Libraries will guide her as she pursues a master’s degree in applied digital health at Oxford University.

“The master’s program is very focused on writing papers and interacting with scientific research,” she said. “I will definitely take my experiences here at the Libraries and in the computer science department and apply them in the future.”

Sierocka was not the only student recognized in this year’s Capstone or Thesis Research category.

Senior Kate Rafford, who placed second in the Capstone or Thesis Research category, also credits the Hesburgh Libraries for inspiring her project, “Magic in the Sound of Her Name: Remembering the Female Faculty at Notre Dame 1970–1981,” advised by professor Kathleen Cummings.

For her thesis, Rafford examined the coeducational experience of women who served as Notre Dame faculty members between 1970 and 1981 — a topic she discovered in the Archives while seeking resources for her original research idea.

“Those resources piqued my interest,” she said. “Without the help of library staff and resources, I would not have discovered this fascinating research topic, nor would I have been able to learn so much about Notre Dame’s history.”

“I definitely could not have even started my project without the Library,” she said. “I took a thesis class in the fall that required us to attend some of the Library’s workshops. One of them introduced us to the University Archives. That is where the most important sources for my research came from.”

Like Sierocka in RBSC, Rafford, an American studies and economics major, initially felt intimidated by the University Archives.

“There’s so much there. I initially felt overwhelmed, but I worked with experts in the Archives, and they helped guide me to the resources that I needed,” she said.

In addition to the Archives, Rafford utilized Zotero, a program she was introduced to in a library workshop, to organize and manage all of her citations. She also took advantage of the Libraries’ search tools, print materials and databases. Through one of those databases — the South Bend Tribune archive — she found news stories from outside the University that helped her gain insight for her thesis.

“My thesis would not have been possible without the sources I found in the University Archives collection, further supported by library workshops, databases, search tools, print and digital resources and study spaces,” she said. “I am very thankful to the library staff for guiding me through this journey and consistently supporting the resources that enable student success.”

Before starting the process, Rafford was intimidated by the prospect of writing a 40-page thesis. In the end, she wrote more than double that. But finishing her nearly 100-page thesis doesn’t mean the end of the graduating senior’s research journey.

“The research skills that I have developed this year will be helpful in my future pursuits, as I will be pursuing a master’s in education with the Alliance for Catholic Education,” she said. “I’ll be teaching third grade in Northern California, and also taking master’s in education classes here at Notre Dame. So I’ll certainly be spending more time in the Library for at least the next two summers.”

And like Sierocka, she has advice for incoming students who may feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the Libraries or just research in general.

“Seek out the librarians’ help and take workshops,” she said. “There’s so much to discover in the Library, and it is fun exploring all of the possibilities.”

Program of Liberal Studies major Quinn McKenna ’23 knows that even the “great books” are built one line, one chapter at a time.

The best career advice she got from her professors was to do exactly that: focus on just the next chapter.

“If you let your interests and your passion guide this next chapter, everything will unfold as it should,” she said.

Since graduating, the south Florida native has worked at a South Bend non-profit, taught in Panama on a Fulbright scholarship, and worked in marketing consulting for purpose-driven clients that include Notre Dame.

Her liberal arts education empowered her with the writing and critical thinking skills to thrive across all of these unique chapters.

“The liberal arts open doors and possibilities,” she said. “And prepare you well for whichever path you decide to take.”

A time of growth

As a self-proclaimed “book nerd,” McKenna was immediately drawn to the Program of Liberal Studies’ promise of the opportunity to analyze foundational texts in small, intimate class settings.

“The primary thing I wanted out of my education was growth, immersion, and excitement,” she said. “I wanted to go to class excited about what I was going to learn.”

In the major and in the College of Arts & Letters as a whole, she found a community of students with this same desire.

“Arts & Letters students have this insatiable curiosity about the world that is not easily quenched,” she said.

McKenna and her classmates — representing a wide range of interests, backgrounds, and beliefs — were all discerning their career paths. Going through this process brought them closer together and even provided a means of clarity.

“I have friends who are Montessori school teachers. I have friends who are in venture capital, in finance. One joined the priesthood,” McKenna said. “That gave us all a really good opportunity to bounce ideas off of each other and figure out for ourselves what we felt called to do.”

McKenna’s first chapter after graduation was with the nonprofit Downtown South Bend — a natural extension of her role as director of South Bend engagement in student government. She helped plan community engagement events like First Fridays, creating opportunities for local businesses and community members to connect and thrive.

Then McKenna followed her passions to something — and somewhere — new.

“I made a promise to myself that I would try to do a postgrad program or other form of extended international experience because I wanted to open my mind to the global sphere and experience true cross-cultural immersion,” she said.

With support from the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, McKenna applied for and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Chiriqui, Panama.

This chapter allowed McKenna to further explore her interest in teaching. While at Notre Dame, she worked with TutorND, volunteered with the Take 10 Violence Prevention Program in South Bend schools, and worked at the Early Childhood Development Center on campus. She was also an Education, Schooling, and Society minor.

McKenna had also taught English to sixth-grade students in Panama through the Institute for Social Concerns, though it was on Zoom due to the pandemic.

This in-person Fulbright experience offered a new form of personal and professional growth. McKenna taught English classes across multiple levels, even designing curriculum and teaching a university-level English literature course.

“Teaching and speaking a different language is another incredible way to improve communication and critical thinking skills,” she said.

Everything from renting a car in Spanish, to standing in front of a classroom, to presenting in an auditorium of hundreds of TESOL teachers, made her a stronger, more independent thinker — and even helped prepare her for her next chapter in the private sector.

Bringing curiosity to consulting

As her Fulbright ended, McKenna wanted to lean further into the communication skills she gained teaching abroad.

“It's all about knowing your audience and gearing what you're saying to resonate with that audience,” she said. “By teaching and speaking in another language, you learn how to break the same idea into different pieces based on your audience, finding ways to change wording but still articulate the same meaning.”

This directly influenced her decision to pursue a career in marketing consulting.

McKenna was drawn to firm Global Prairie’s mission-driven clients, including university health systems, nonprofits, and even college athletics departments.

Global Prairie’s founder — Anne St. Peter, the parent of a Notre Dame graduate — recognized the value liberal arts majors bring to business.

“She believes liberal arts students bring a curiosity and quickness that are incredibly valuable,” McKenna said.

Today, McKenna enjoys helping brands figure out who they are — a question that is familiar to the Program of Liberal Studies.

One of her current clients is Hesburgh Women of Impact. McKenna and her colleagues worked with program director Kari Tarman and Sara Liebscher, associate vice president of development, on a refreshed brand identity. They used it to develop their new website and the design themes and materials for the Women for Good Annual Weekend, and HWOI’s marquee event.

“I will always be grateful for my liberal arts education,” McKenna said. “I’ve not had a single regret in terms of what I studied and what direction I ended up taking.”

McKenna’s favorite text from the Program of Liberal Studies is The Way Things Are by the ancient Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius. In it, Lucretius describes life not as something with an end to fear, but as a great feast for one to enjoy and leave satisfied and grateful.

“That is the approach to life I want to take,” McKenna said. “I want to be present, be grateful for where I am, and let that gratitude satiate me.”

Grace Leeson wasn’t accustomed to being behind the pack.

But here she was in Puebla, Mexico — for a whole semester her junior year — and out of everyone in her cohort, she was the only one who was not either a Spanish major or a native speaker.

Most of her classes were entirely in Spanish, she was living with a Spanish-speaking host family, and she’d be shadowing Spanish-speaking doctors. Though she’d taken enough Spanish classes to meet her program’s prerequisites, Leeson wasn’t fluent.

“I was super stressed out, like, ‘Am I going to be able to do this? Is this OK?’” she said.

In her moment of doubt, she called her parents for advice, and they reminded her why she’d gone to Puebla: not to be the best in Spanish, but to learn — to trust the process and immerse herself.

So that’s what Leeson did. She chatted with her host family. She picked up Spanish medical terms from labmates. She even joined a local tennis club. By the end of the fall semester, Leeson was presenting medical research she’d translated from Spanish herself.

“Embracing that uncertainty and opportunity for learning and growth was the best thing I could’ve done for myself,” she said.

Puebla was one of many adventures for Leeson. In her time at the University of Notre Dame, the 2026 graduate — majoring in English and Arts & Letters pre-health with a minor in compassionate care in medicine — has traveled to several Latin American countries, taken up Latin dance, joined a cooking club, and performed pop-up concerts.

All of this has led to her eventual goals of becoming a doctor while keeping her passions at the forefront.

“I’ve had the opportunity to bounce around and do a bunch of different things and be in different places,” she said. “It’s just part of my nature to be adventurous.”

Bringing creativity to medicine

Leeson’s original college plan was more of a straight shot, with less room for bouncing.

She applied to Notre Dame as a biology major, thinking that would be the best way to prepare for medical school. But after some soul-searching, she switched to English, with Arts & Letters pre-health covering the MCAT prep and medical school prerequisites.

“An undergraduate education is a great opportunity to pursue the things you won’t get to later,” she said. “I’ll have plenty of science in medical school, so I wanted to study something I really enjoy.”

As an English major, Leeson dove into topics that pique her interest, like Afro-Latin American literature or wartime Ukrainian poetry. While her motivation for picking the major was primarily passion, she was also hopeful that becoming a better communicator will make her a better doctor. After all, even the smartest doctor can only do so much if they can’t communicate with their patients, she said.

“There’s no doubt that I’ve always loved the science aspect of medicine. But I’ve also always loved music and reading and English and dancing and sports, too, and I don’t have any regrets about sacrificing anything in any direction.”

Her minor helps put that idea into practice.

The compassionate care in medicine program is based on research showing that being a compassionate physician, one who engages with their patients personally and processes their emotions, is more rewarding for patients and the physicians. Leeson learned the details of that research and explored topics including cultural competency, patient advocacy, and strategies to combat physician burnout.

In her medical counseling class, she took her first steps in a doctor’s shoes. Each session, a different student took a turn being the doctor, reviewing simulated medical sheets, and talking to faux patients. Leeson practiced articulating medical information so any patient could process it, translating her English skills into medical ones.

She’s taken patient communication to the next level for her capstone project. But instead of English or Spanish, she used a universal language: art.

During a summer fellowship, Leeson learned to illustrate various anatomical structures and medical procedures, and for her capstone, she researched how live medical illustration can help bridge the knowledge gap between doctors and patients.

“When a physician draws for you, specifically, it’s more personalized than just an infographic they can pull up online,” she said.

Drawing for a patient on a tablet or a sticky note can help them understand their condition and ask better questions about it, she said. Leeson researched the role medical illustration already plays in medicine and how it could be incorporated into the medical curriculum, hoping future physicians can hone the technique to better educate their patients.

And, as she nears medical school, Leeson is glad to have a wide variety of skills and experiences in her toolbox.

“There’s no doubt that I’ve always loved the science aspect of medicine,” she said. “But I’ve also always loved music and reading and English and dancing and sports, too, and I don’t have any regrets about sacrificing anything in any direction.”

Dedicated to service

Leeson has wanted to be a physician for as long as she can remember. But on a Campus Ministry trip to Honduras during her first year, in which she served poor rural communities, completely changed her perspective — about her life and her future career.

“Why am I complaining about getting up for an 8:20 a.m. when some people don’t have water for half the day?” she said. “I felt like I should be doing more for others.”

The experience motivated Leeson to find more opportunities for service, especially abroad. She joined Notre Dame’s chapter of MEDLIFE — Medicine, Education, and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere — a nonprofit organization that sends pre-health students on service-learning trips to low-income communities in Latin America and East Africa. The trip gives students hands-on medical experience while improving communities’ long-term access to healthcare, education, and safe housing. Students distribute medicine, restock medical supplies, and run education campaigns alongside physicians, often serving people who’ve never met doctors before.

When Leeson joined MEDLIFE, the club had been hit hard by the pandemic and international travel restrictions. As a result, there were only three members, and Leeson worked to grow the club's membership and planned trips to Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, and Guatemala. The club has also started serving the South Bend community, making blankets for Beacon Memorial Hospital patients and running a winter clothes drive.

Once Leeson completes her medical training, she doesn’t plan to take her skills abroad; she’s going home to South Texas.

“I’m going back to the place where I started, but I feel like there’s been so much growth between now and then,” she said. “I’ll be able to actually bring more back to my home state because of my experiences at Notre Dame.”

Leeson’s already had a few opportunities to give back to Texas during her summers at home by shadowing doctors and conducting research at hospitals. For one project, she researched the effects of food insecurity on Hispanic patients with diabetes, practicing her paper writing and Spanish skills.

Her desire to heal in Texas, home to millions of Spanish speakers, is a major reason Leeson chose to study and serve abroad. She’s hopeful that the language she worked so hard to learn will make her a more effective physician. And she’s especially enjoying one extra benefit of Spanish fluency — she can now talk to her Cuban grandmother in her native language.

While most future physicians take a gap year before medical school, Leeson is going full steam ahead — she’s already received a few acceptances from Texas medical schools. But no matter where she goes, Leeson knows her priorities.

“I can’t say for certain where I’ll end up after medical school,” she said, “but I want to go where people really need it.”

Graduating senior Eva Romero knows her facts.

“Fewer than 60 percent of students in the United States who enroll full-time at a four-year school will graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years,” she said, “and the challenge is even greater for low-income students.”

According to research from Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), where Romero served as a research operations intern, only 26 percent of students in the lowest quarter of incomes will complete their bachelor’s degree within six years.

“How do we help increase that number, especially for first-generation, low-income students of color?” Romero asked.

The question is something that Romero, a first-generation student herself and daughter of parents who immigrated to Chicago from Guadalajara, Mexico, holds near and dear to her heart.

“My parents have always instilled in me that education is your way out of poverty,” Romero said. “It’s the only way to break the generational cycle.”

This belief led her to major in economics and minor in accountancy and data science. From there, Romero worked with LEO on a variety of projects, including a nonprofit organization in California called 10,000 Degrees College Success program, which helps low-income students find scholarships and the necessary tools to complete their bachelor’s degrees.

During the summer between her junior and senior years, Romero became a Poverty Research Fellow, a student formation program through the University’s Poverty Initiative that allows students from all academic disciplines to participate in anti-poverty work.

This particular work resonated with her own experience growing up and solidified her desire to explore developmental economics and data science to better understand how poverty occurs and how to mitigate it, especially through policy impact.

Romero, who grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago, transferred out of her neighborhood school system to a different elementary school in second grade and eventually moved to a college preparatory school — both in a farther-away part of the city — in order to gain access to better educational opportunities. These decisions required commitment and sacrifice on Romero’s part, meaning long daily commutes by bus and train and even longer days, but proved to make all the difference in her educational trajectory.

“This story is common in schools within low-income neighborhoods, with limited resources, high student-teacher ratios, lack of enrichment programs, etc., and is a stark example of the socioeconomic disparities in public school education within large cities like Chicago,” Romero said.

“I wanted to get out of my neighborhood to find the best education I could in the city, and I don’t know if I would have made it into Notre Dame without that extra rigor, motivation and competition. It definitely prepared me for what I was going to experience here.”

In addition to being selected for two cohort-based programs, the AnBryce Scholars Initiative and the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society, Romero is a Cavanaugh Council and President’s Circle Scholar, a Chicago Scholar, and a QuestBridge match.

But Romero’s Notre Dame career was not all number-crunching and data analytics — she spent many memorable moments on stage performing with several campus dance troupes. She started dancing at age 4 in various styles, including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, Mexican folklórico, hip-hop, pom, and others, and she continued this passion through TroopND Dance Team, RitmoND, and Ballet Folklórico Azúl y Oro.

“I love that Notre Dame has given me this space to keep pursuing the hobbies that’ve been a part of my whole life,” she said, “especially being able to tap into my cultural roots with Mexican folklore and Latin dancing and to be able to showcase that aspect.”

After graduation, Romero plans to work at a boutique wealth management firm back in Chicago. She said what matters most to her for the future is to find a career that aligns with her values and allows her to help the same community from where she came.

“I always have in the back of my mind — how will my career fulfill me and how will it help other people?” Romero said.

“This institution has provided me with so many opportunities that I don’t think I would have received anywhere else,” Romero said. “The University’s mission is to be a force for good — and Notre Dame really wants to do that for its students of low income and students of color.

“I hope others can see from my example that they are not limited by their resources or their beginnings — that they can go to a good college, have a great job and be successful.”

Originally published by Tracy DeStazio at news.nd.edu on May 08, 2026.

In his four years at the University of Notre Dame, Cade Czarnecki ’26 has majored in political science and economics, studied for a semester each in Washington, D.C., and Greece, served as president of the multi-partisan BridgeND club, earned a spot as an inaugural undergraduate fellow with the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, and worked as a research operations analyst for the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO).

And if that weren’t enough, he’s also fast. Czarnecki won the 2026 Holy Half Marathon with a time of 1:16:30.

“Having the latitude to do so much in a short period of time while still feeling that I am committing myself to these efforts is something uniquely Notre Dame,” Czarnecki said.

The graduating senior from Cincinnati says his College of Arts & Letters education has given him the space and support to pursue all of these passions and more, both in and outside of the classroom.

As an admissions tour guide, Czarnecki said prospective students and families often ask how he manages to balance so many endeavors.

“I credit Arts and Letters with giving me the flexibility within the official program of study to really pursue the things I care about,” he said. “One of the cool things about Notre Dame, and Arts and Letters specifically, is how many students do so many things.”

Just four years ago, Czarnecki was on the other side of a campus tour as an admitted student. Community and student club involvement ended up being the deciding factor in Czarnecki choosing Notre Dame, and it became a hallmark of his experience.

As a freshman, Czarnecki joined BridgeND, a chapter of a national student-led organization, which has been his most significant extracurricular activity. He served as president in his junior year and then as senior advisor.

“The whole point of the club is to foster political conversation across party lines,” he said. “To bring students of different affiliations to a room, to sit down together, and to afford legitimacy to the beliefs of their peers through meaningful conversations.”

The club has about 30 active members and hosts campus-wide events, such as a debate between College Democrats and College Republicans. Czarnecki has also served in student government all four years, spending his later years working in sustainability.

And as a sophomore, Czarnecki participated in the Notre Dame Washington Program, where he worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce, helping coordinate policy memos for the Secretary of Commerce. The following year, he spent the fall semester in Greece and was amazed by its rich historical and cultural traditions, especially as the birthplace of democracy.

His interest in politics and government stems from his upbringing in Ohio, which was a presidential swing state for most of his formative years. By the time he was on the cusp of voting age in 2020, though, his home state turned solidly red, which drove his curiosity to study political science in college.

These shifting political dynamics in Ohio and nationwide also informed Czarnecki’s senior thesis in economics, “Granting an Edge: The Employment Effects of Politically Driven Federal Dollars,” which examines how disproportionate federal government project grant spending in presidential battleground states influences employment in those places.

“It’s established in economics literature that swing states — states of more electoral importance — get disproportionately more federal project grant dollars,” he said. “And in the end, I find that a 10% increase in such discretionary funding, given specifically to states because of their electoral significance, results in about a 7% increase in employment.”

The project, Czarnecki said, tied together his economics and political science majors, each of which nourishes a different aspect of his academic interests.

“Political science is really what’s interesting to me; it’s the conversations I like to have. It’s the theory that’s interesting,” he said. “But it lacks a definitive tool by which to actually analyze and have these conversations. I think that’s where economics complements it nicely — it helps understand the world around you, it is a way of quantifying what you observe, of bringing some kind of metric or comparison into those conversations.”

Czarnecki received funding from the University’s Democracy Initiative for his thesis and was able to take advantage of his time last summer while working with LEO to get a head start on the project, by meeting periodically with his thesis advisor, economics professor and LEO co-founder James Sullivan.

As a research operations analyst with LEO, Czarnecki conducted statistical analyses across several projects, ranging from evaluating the impact of a girls’ empowerment initiative in Indianapolis public schools to studying the effects of different support methods at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Northern Indiana Corridor.

Czarnecki was also a part of the inaugural cohort of Democracy Fellows, during which he workshopped research ideas with peers during a weekly class and had the opportunity to meet with former Department of Justice prosecutors.

After graduation, Czarnecki will start his career as an economic consulting analyst at Chicago-based Compass Lexecon, the leading competition and antitrust economic consulting firm.

“Economic consulting is very different than your typical consulting that a lot of business students go into,” he said. “It’s driven by litigation.”

For instance, if two companies try to merge, the government can sue them, alleging anti-competitive or monopolistic practices or arguing that the merger would raise prices on consumers or give the merged entity an outsized market share. In that case, attorneys hire economic consultants to help build the quantitative evidence for their case.

“The role I’m going to be in is one where we’re doing economic modeling to show, in the world in which these two companies merge, do prices in fact go up for consumers? And so we’ll actually be taking the data, building models, and creating quantitative evidence for these lawsuits,” he said.

Czarnecki said he eventually wants to continue this sort of work as an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions and competition law. But before law school, his Notre Dame experience inspired him to first follow his passions.

“I came into college thinking I would probably go straight through undergrad and go to law school immediately after,” he said. “And at some point, it became clear to me that I have these other interests that Notre Dame has allowed me to explore and encouraged me to dig into.”

University of Notre Dame alumnus Paul Popiel, D.M.A., will return to his alma mater to lead the oldest continuously operating collegiate band in the country as Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands. In this role, Popiel will oversee the University’s band program through the Division of Student Affairs, and serve as a faculty member in the Department of Music through the College of Arts & Letters. His appointment begins July 1.

Since 2023, Popiel has served as the dean of the School of Music at the University of Kansas (KU), where he led efforts to better align academic goals with university initiatives and actively pursued the integration of emerging technology into course curricula. Previously, Popiel worked at KU for 13 years as a professor of music and director of bands. He also served as an assistant director of bands and senior lecturer at Indiana University and as an assistant professor and associate director of bands at Oklahoma State University.

“For more than 20 years, Paul has worked to build collegiate music programs that value tradition and excellence, and that encourage innovation and leadership among students,” said Rev. Gerry Olinger, C.S.C., vice president for student affairs. “I look forward to Paul returning to Notre Dame to share his gifts with our students and our historic band program.”

At Notre Dame, Popiel succeeds a legacy of leadership, including longtime band director Ken Dye, Ed.D., who will formally retire at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

Popiel will direct the entirety of the band program, which includes the Band of the Fighting Irish, athletic bands, concert bands and jazz bands, and features more than 500 students from every academic discipline. The all-volunteer organization provides music for a variety of University events throughout the academic year, including liturgies, sporting events and the annual Commencement Ceremony.

“Paul Popiel will bring a distinguished record of pedagogical excellence, dedicated mentorship and a spirit of artistic collaboration to the growing performance program of the Notre Dame Department of Music,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “We are pleased to welcome him back to his alma mater in this important role.”

“Returning to Notre Dame is a profound homecoming to a place that shaped my vocation and values,” Popiel said. “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve an institution with such a rich musical and educational tradition, and I look forward to leading a band program whose legacy continues to inspire through artistic excellence, thoughtful engagement with the world and the formation of students as musicians, leaders and servants of the common good.”

Popiel earned his master’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Notre Dame and bachelor’s degrees in instrumental music education and trumpet performance from Truman State University. He holds a doctorate in musical arts in wind conducting from Michigan State University and an arts diploma in 20th Century Music from the University of Bristol, where he served as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the American Bandmasters Association.

Originally published by Kate Morgan at news.nd.edu on May 12, 2026.

Xavier Navarro Aquino, assistant professor of English, unexpectedly passed away Wednesday (May 6). He was 36.

An acclaimed novelist and beloved teacher, mentor, and colleague, Navarro Aquino was a member of the Creative Writing Program and a faculty fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies and the Initiative on Race and Resilience.

“Xavier's writing and artwork communicate with absolute clarity his humane and painterly care for the world in all its damage and beauty,” said Joyelle McSweeney, chair of the Department of English and former director of the Creative Writing Program. “His evident joy and commitment as a teacher inspired joy and commitment in his students, and his immediate legacy will be as an artist whose sense of beauty will be carried outwards to his readers, and to his students, and to their future readers. His loss is immeasurable.”

Navarro Aquino’s debut novel, Velorio (HarperCollins, 2022), takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation in Puerto Rico. The novel earned high praise from a range of media outlets, with the New York Times Book Review calling Aquino “an incredibly talented young writer,” and the Chicago Review of Books describing it as a “complex, politically engaged work and deeply human story.”

“Velorio is a beautiful, poetic novel — reminiscent of William Faulkner's classic The Sound and the Fury,” said Johannes Göransson, a professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program. “His attention to language is the kind of writing we might associate with a poet.”

Navarro Aquino was awarded a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, a Tennessee Williams scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a MacDowell Fellowship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship at Dartmouth College. He was named a Fall 2021 Writer to Watch by Publishers Weekly. His fiction also appeared in Tin House magazine, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and Guernica.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Navarro Aquino earned his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, a master’s degree in English and Caribbean studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and his Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2021.

“Despite all of the early acclaim, Xavier was very humble and self-effacing. Our conversations were more often about soccer, or running, or tattoos than his writing,” said Mark Sanders, a professor of English, professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies, and director of IRR at the time Navarro Aquino was hired. “Xavier was a dedicated teacher, an enormously talented writer, and a warm and caring human being. His fiction reflected his care for the world, as Velorio can be read as a cautionary tale about how not to treat one another under the most trying conditions. He was dedicated to representing Puerto Rico and to supporting universal human rights.”

A devoted and enthusiastic presence in the classroom, Navarro Aquino taught courses on fiction writing, the American short story, literary debuts, and the role of storytelling in addressing modern, pressing issues. He directed both MFA and undergraduate honors theses. In recent years, he had become exceptionally passionate about painting.

Jason Ruiz, a professor of American studies and director of the Institute for Latino Studies, fondly recalls a visit Navarro Aquino made this semester to his course, The Cutting Edge in Latino Studies Research. Amidst a lively conversation about his life and work, Navarro Aquino also shared his short story, “Two Young Kings,” which Ruiz described as “brilliant and devastating.”

“I already admired Xavier as a writer and teacher, but the class session really floored me, as he showed a wonderfully open, honest, and intelligent approach to his work and his vision for Latino literature,” Ruiz said. “He was the kind of professor who elevated our ongoing conversations around Latinidad and inspired the students and me to be ever more thoughtful in our approach to a complex subject matter that touches the very cores of our identities.

“He was not in any way precious about his work but embraced just about anything that we, the readers, could find in it. Xavier was an irreplaceable member of our community and his loss will be felt for a long time to come.”

Navarro Aquino is survived by his wife, Jayleen Santiago Diaz.

A memorial Mass will be held at 9:30 a.m. Monday, May 18, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, with University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., presiding.

Condolences may be sent to the Department of English, 233 Decio Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

Four years later, my Notre Dame experience has been less like a straight line and more like a curved and branching path, complete with loops that landed me in the same place I started and unexpected turns that took me places I never thought I’d go. It’s often been improvised and unsure, but I have stayed always in motion, always learning, taking advantage of every opportunity Notre Dame can offer.

In a lot of ways, things have come full circle for me.

As a freshman, I took an introductory American politics course, Keeping the Republic, which I now serve as a teaching assistant for with David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy and a prominent scholar I never thought I’d get the chance to get to know. I found my first extracurricular in the Notre Dame Ballet Club, but was disappointed that they did not put on a showcase. This year, as co-President of the club, we were able to put on our very first showcase, “The Fairy Garden,” at Washington Hall. It was by no means easy, with no road map to follow and a long to-do list of logistics, costumes, and contracts. Yet it is also the achievement I am most proud of, merging my creativity, love for dance, and leadership skills that grew so much over these four years.

I might have been able to predict those accomplishments, but there were also many adventures I never would’ve imagined.

I took Japanese as a freshman, seeking a completely unfamiliar language (and to fill my language requirement) and ended up spending a semester abroad in Nagoya, seeing Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and many beautiful towns in between. I learned Japanese dance, saw shows, ate a lot of conveyor belt sushi with my Notre Dame cohort, and became semi-fluent in the language. I also took a creative writing summer course in Kylemore Abbey, Ireland. The beautiful place, the supportive professors and friendly peers, and the way it all just felt right made me realize that no matter how difficult it will be, I need to pursue a creative life.

Changing my mind about law was difficult and painful. I constantly second-guessed myself and doubted my aptitude, wanting to turn back to the more stable path of a lawyer. But every time I faltered, I remembered the most important lesson I learned at Notre Dame— to be my most authentic self.

Somewhat problematically for me (and my parents, who wanted a lawyer daughter), my most true self is an undeniable creative. As a program assistant at the Gender Relations Center, my favorite part of the job was thinking up event ideas and making graphics for the Instagram. My favorite course was Introductory Poetry.

Though I’m making a risky switch, I gained the confidence at Notre Dame — through all the people who gave me a chance as a student, a choreographer, a leader — to give myself a chance as a creative writer.

As I get ready to graduate, I don’t have a perfectly mapped-out future. I’ll be pursuing an editorial internship with a small publication while expanding my creative portfolio and preparing to apply for a Master of Fine Arts in poetry. Fingers crossed!

Yet if my time at Notre Dame has taught me anything, it’s that the most meaningful and true parts of your story often come from the things you could never have planned — passing conversations in dorm hallways that leave you thinking, elective courses you take on a whim, the professor who invites you for coffee, and the unexpected support of strangers.

I think maybe that’s the point. Not to arrive exactly as you imagined, but to leave changed in unanticipated ways. I am proud of the person I have become, other-centered with a deep respect for the dignity of all people, honest with not only others, but myself, and with a radical belief that I can be someone, even in a rapidly changing world.

Originally published by Ava Hyde at admissions.nd.edu on May 12, 2026.