The annual event celebrates the partnerships that are helping shape the future of the South Bend-Elkhart region and brings together leaders from education, healthcare, government, nonprofit organizations, and business.

This year’s program featured a panel discussion titled Building Bridges: Strengthening Our Community Through Partnerships, moderated by Tim Sexton, associate vice president for public affairs. Father Dowd, Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan, Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole, and Kristin Valentino, director of the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, explored how collaboration between the University and community partners is driving progress across the region.

Offering the opening prayer was Carl R. Buchanon, chief of the South Bend Fire Department. Following the panel, the benediction was offered by Jacqueline Barton, president and founder of Specialized Staffing Solutions.

Check out photos below from the event. Photos by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame.

This collaborative environment is the centerpiece of a significant initiative supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the Chair’s Extraordinary Action Award. As part of the NEA’s Celebrating America250 program, the Institute for Social Concerns launched the project “Cultivating Beauty through Printmaking.” The project puts the institute’s mission into practice, utilizing research and arts engagement to promote the dignity and wellbeing of populations often unseen or unheard.

By partnering with the St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker—a local community that runs the drop-in center—the institute has created an innovative story lab where academic inquiry meets community flourishing. The project honors the legacies of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, two American exemplars of mercy and hospitality, by using their writings to spark an embodied conversation between campus and city residents.

“I am a printmaker because of the Catholic Worker, which is to say: I am a printmaker because of Dorothy Day,” said Rachel Mills, a printmaker living and working at the St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House who created the portrait of Day for the project. “I began creating prints in dialogue with the tradition of printmaking in the movement and continue to find creativity in this lived conversation.”

Through the grant-supported workshops, participants conceptualized, designed, and carved linoleum blocks. The resulting works—on both paper and fabric—became a physical manifestation of the values Day and Merton held dear. The fabric prints were sewn into quilts, symbolizing the individual’s place within the larger community, while framed paper prints offered a striking, graphic testimony to the Gospel of Mercy.

“The slow and attentive process of printmaking shows the care all the creators have to put into their final product,” said Gia Villegas ’26, a science business major and student in the course, “and it has been an amazing and beautiful process doing it alongside others.”

Jon Schommer, executive director at Our Lady of the Road, stated, “It has been such a gift to have this printmaking workshop hosted at Our Lady of the Road drop-in center to empower our own community to participate in this tradition of beauty as healing.”

The portraits of Day and Merton found an audience on campus as they were featured at the Franco Institute’s inaugural Dorothy Day & Thomas Merton Culture and the Public Good Symposium in April. For the students in the Art and Social Change course, this was an opportunity to engage with conference attendees, sharing their creative process and the insights they gained from the literature. This fall, the works will be permanently installed at Our Lady of the Road to commemorate its 20th anniversary of providing care to the community.

This NEA grant–supported project is the latest initiative to emerge from the institute’s South Bend Citizens Collaboratory. By hosting creative projects in schools, neighborhoods, and community centers, the Collaboratory’s story lab creates a platform for people from different walks of life to tell their stories through art. These programs are designed to honor the dignity of all participants by providing the resources and space to express their own history, culture, and identity.

Originally posted May 14, 2026, at https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/news/

As it turns 25 (a celebration is planned for Wednesday, April 29), the Notre Dame Robinson Community Learning Center stands as a lasting symbol of trust and shared purpose between Notre Dame and its closest neighbors—the many and diverse residents of the Northeast Neighborhood—as well as a source of support and encouragement for those who have passed through its doors.

Starting from its original location in a former shopping center and continuing at Eddy Street Commons, the center, with support from Notre Dame and others, has served thousands of men, women, and children across generations, engaged hundreds of volunteers, and distributed tens of thousands of books, promoting service and learning throughout the community.

But the center is also a physical space, and in that capacity, it has served as a hub for events, celebrations, lectures, performances, competitions, and student- and community-organized service projects such as Back the Bend and Turning Over a New Leaf—always with a deep and abiding commitment to the underserved, particularly children, families, and the elderly.

“We have a mission and a passion to serve the breadth of the community; we make efforts to reach the under-resourced and the vulnerable,” said Susan Devetski, an educational consultant and former chief academic officer for the South Bend Community School Corp. who has served as director of the RCLC since 2023.

In that sense, the center’s impact is practically immeasurable.

Read the story

Originally published by Erin Blasko at news.nd.edu on April 27, 2026.

“Muko tayari, chefs?… Are we ready, chefs?”

Working in both Swahili and English, a group of South Bend students embarks on a culinary adventure combining literacy skill-building with multicultural understanding. This experience, led by a former undergraduate in an Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) academic program, paired with a member of the university’s dining hall staff, is part of a community tutoring program designed to deepen learning through experiential opportunities.

Research-practice partnerships are at the heart of the IEI’s work. The institute’s initiatives connect teachers and students with the research, resources, and ideas that serve as foundations for cultivating relationships and hands-on learning. The way these efforts build on one another, fostering inspiration and collaboration, is what makes the institute unique in the field of education. For Meg Beuter '24, this was integral to her formation, opening windows in her thinking that bridged an interest in education with service in action.

Beginning with an Interest in Education

The story begins with Meg Beuter, an AmeriCorps member serving at the Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC) in South Bend, an off-campus educational initiative of the University of Notre Dame that hosts programs and enrichment activities for all ages. Meg graduated from the university in 2024 and spent a year in Kenya as a Fulbright scholar teaching English. “I came to Notre Dame as a student interested in education,” said Meg, who majored in American Studies and English. This interest led her to minor in Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS), a program at the IEI designed to help undergraduates understand education systems through an interdisciplinary lens. Because ESS challenges students to examine education and ways to bridge gaps, they often find they can connect their learning to deeper societal problems. “ESS made me think about education as a means for justice and a way to empower youth,” said Meg.

Each ESS student completes either a semester-long capstone project or a year-long thesis. Working with Professor Mike Macaluso, Meg’s thesis analyzed transcripts from a Tutor-ND book club for middle school children that focused on the graphic novel When Stars Are Scattered. Recipient of the Alexandria Award, a literary prize recognizing literature for young people that reflects Catholic Social Teaching, When Stars Are Scattered follows Somali children growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya. Meg’s undergraduate research examined book clubs as a tool for literacy education and effectively connected several IEI initiatives: Service-focused Tutor-ND, which supports impactful tutoring with research-based practices, and the Alexandria Award, named for St. Catherine of Alexandria in honor of her brave and tenacious character. Both efforts call the institute home.

Turning Research Into Practice

But what began as a research project became something more. After completing her Fulbright-funded teaching assignment, Meg found an opportunity to combine her experience in Kenya with her thesis work on literacy and adolescents. As part of her new work as an AmeriCorps member, she was tasked with enhancing students' reading experience. Meg began developing a new book club for students at the RCLC, utilizing Tutor-ND resources to support reader engagement and discussion around When Stars Are Scattered. The book club offered an additional opportunity to bring the novel to life for local children. To do this, she sought out someone who could demonstrate Kenyan life and culture: Elizabeth Ndani

Mama Elizabeth, as she is fondly called, has worked in North Dining Hall at the university for eight years. Originally from Kenya, she is always eager to share her culture with others. Meg met Elizabeth during her time as a student through Swahili Masses held on campus. “She cooked these amazing meals after Mass, feeding all of us,” said Meg. “When I was planning the enrichment activities for the book club, I knew that Mama Elizabeth needed to be part of it.”

Together, they planned an afternoon of cooking and Swahili culture. On her day off, Mama Elizabeth spent the entire morning at the center preparing the meal, including dishes such as pilau, kuku, and mandazi. The children could smell the aromas wafting from the small kitchen, waiting for the moment when they would don their chef hats and help prepare the food. “I enjoy cooking so much,” said Elizabeth. “My skills are a gift, and I feel so excited to share them with the kids. It will make the book more real and alive.” Using both English and her native Swahili, Elizabeth and the children created a Kenyan feast to help them connect with the book in a new and meaningful way.

Rooted in Care and Connection

Bringing the book to life is not just about making it exciting for the children; it is also about creating connections that deepen their lived experience. “Our students are learning about so much together,” said Meg. “They are making connections to what they know, while also being introduced to the unfamiliar through someone they would never have met otherwise.” This approach is central to the Robinson Community Learning Center, where care and connection create the conditions for meaningful learning.

Meg’s work with the center’s book club illustrates how those connections take shape. “She took the seeds of her time at the university to her work in Kenya,” said Clare Roach, associate director of the Robinson Community Learning Center. “Then she brought back what she learned and kept it growing, bringing in the children at the center and inviting Elizabeth to broaden understanding through her firsthand knowledge and expertise.”

Meg Beuter drew on her background as an ESS student, the resources of Tutor-ND, and ties at ND Dining to create a book club at the Robinson Community Learning Center that continues to build relationships through learning. “The Swahili word for community is ‘Jumuiya,’ and that is what we have here,” said Meg. “Through this book club, we are sharing thoughts, food, and fostering community. It has helped the kids understand how literature can connect them to a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.”

The Link Podcast pairs a Notre Dame faculty member, staff member, or student with a regional collaborator to discuss a shared project or initiative, with a focus on community partnerships, economic growth, and regional engagement. Conversations are recorded as the participants walk along the trail that physically connects the University with downtown South Bend.

Hosted by Tim Sexton, associate vice president for public affairs at Notre Dame, the podcast will be released every other month, with episodes running 15–30 minutes, roughly the length of a walk along the trail.

The first episode, “Let’s walk: The story behind the Link Trail,” looks at how the trail came together. Sexton is joined by Jeff Jarnecke of Visit South Bend Mishawaka and Jitin Kain of the City of South Bend to discuss the vision, planning, and collaboration that brought the project to life. The project represented a collaborative investment from the City of South Bend, Visit South Bend Mishawaka through the Hotel-Motel Tax Board, and Notre Dame.

The Link Podcast is an extension of the BeyoND platform, which highlights Notre Dame’s work across the region. Future episodes will feature partnerships connected to areas such as mental health, education, housing, and economic development.

Some of the music featured in the podcast is provided through a partnership with the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, including performances by Grand Prize and Senior String Division Gold Medal winners from the Katarina String Quartet. The artists are from the Juilliard School and include Jeanel Liang, Jérôme Chiasson, Celia Morin, and Maya Enstad.

Episodes are edited by Michael Wiens from the Office of Public Affairs and Communications and additional music is provided by Universal Production Music. 

The Link Podcast is available on the Public Affairs website, where episodes will be embedded alongside related stories and content.

Led by Notre Dame’s Student Government, the initiative connects students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College with community partners. About 500 students took part, supporting 25 nonprofits through a mix of indoor and outdoor spring projects.

For sophomore Owen McDonald, who served as Student Government’s director of community outreach during the 2025-26 academic year, Back the Bend was the culmination of months of preparation. He addressed his fellow students who assembled at Stepan Center before being dispatched into the community on 15 buses.

“Right now, there’s a lot of darkness and division in the world and it can be hard,” McDonald said. “We can feel hopeless, but as the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, said, ‘darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.’ Each of you has a light inside of you. As members of the Notre Dame community, we are called to go out and share that light with others and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

For students, Back the Bend also shed a light on the depth of engagement that exists between Notre Dame and the community.

Andee Huxhold, executive director of Dismas House, welcomed a crew of 12 Notre Dame students to the group home, where individuals find stability, support, and belonging after incarceration.

“Our relationship with Notre Dame has been dynamic,” Huxhold said after offering the students a tour of the historic house in South Bend’s Monroe Park neighborhood. “It was really neat to be able to share all the different ways Notre Dame has touched our home and program.”

The tour included a stop in the large, recently renovated kitchen that features a professional grade stove and granite countertops.

“The kitchen was designed by students in Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, and the Philanthropy and the Common Good class, over two years, donated $18,000 towards the kitchen project. Student groups also come out. Keenan Hall residents come here on Mondays and Mercy Works comes on Wednesdays, so we have Notre Dame students here every week,” Huxhold said, adding that the University has also contributed in a unique way to the new Dismas Hub, three blocks from the home.

“Through a partnership with the Institute for Social Concerns, we were able, over the course of 10 weeks, to sit with students who met with our residents, our alumni, and other justice-impacted individuals in the area. We talked about what re-entry really looks like here in South Bend and, with a muralist, they translated that dialogue into this beautiful 80 foot by 30 foot mural that is a joy to us and the whole neighborhood.”

On Saturday, the Back the Bend students removed a deck from the back of Dismas House. The demolition was necessary to make room for a handicap-accessible back entrance and more green space.

“It is important to address residents’ mental health and well-being, and we know one of the things that is important is to have green space. We have a decent-sized backyard for being in the city and there’s so much we can do with it. We’re hoping to put in a patio here and some flower gardens and a fire pit.”

A couple neighborhoods away, another Back the Bend group of volunteers spread mulch at Kelly Park in the Northeast Neighborhood. Up the street at the Robinson Community Learning Center, meanwhile, students were paired with senior citizens for a bus trip to two new centers operated by South Bend’s Venues Parks & Arts.

“We’re going to go see the new Martin Luther King Dream Center and the Raclin Murphy Encore Center, which is the new extension of the Morris Performing Arts Center.” said Lu Ella Webster, RCLC’s adult programs coordinator. “The students will learn a little bit about the city, the neighborhood, and RCLC and they can meet some of our senior citizens who have been participating in programs at RCLC for many, many years. It’s a good intergenerational activity and perhaps we can get some pen pals out of this.”

At the opening of Back the Bend, Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame, prayed with students, “We pray that we might deepen our connection to people in and beyond the city of South Bend…” By day’s end—no matter the service assignment or location—students could confidently say, mission accomplished.

The evening marked the second installment of the Letras Latinas Community Reading Series, led by Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, and was designed to bring people together through conversation, storytelling, and shared experience.

The audience reflected exactly what the series is building: a stronger community between local residents and Notre Dame faculty, staff, students.

For Professor Francisco Aragón, that mix is intentional and rooted in a larger goal.

“The Letras Latinas Community Reading Series is a direct response to the University’s Strategic Framework, which calls upon the University to have more meaningful engagement with the city of South Bend,” said Aragón, director of Letras Latinas and professor of the practice for the Institute for Latino Studies.

This is only the second installment of the series, but the intention is already clear: bring powerful Latino voices into a shared community space. That’s exactly why Aragón invited Reyes to South Bend.

Reyes shared excerpts from his work before joining a public discussion led by Notre Dame English Ph.D. student Paulina Hernández-Trejo. The dialogue carried into the reception, where attendees stayed, asked questions, and continued the conversation.

By the end of the night, a line formed for book signings.

It was a special event for all, but especially for Reyes, who was impressed with the moderator’s questions and the audience’s deep engagement about the book during the reception.

“Not every book event feels as intimate and substantive as this one did,” says Reyes. “At a time when Central American politics and immigration are top of mind, it was particularly invigorating to explore how storytelling intersects with the defining social and political issues of our day.”

Work that reflects the moment

Reyes is part of a new wave of Latino writers who are gaining national attention. As the son of Salvadoran immigrants, much of his work centers on identity, migration, and the lasting impact of political conflict, often blending realism with more speculative storytelling.

He trained at Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and his writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. His debut collection, There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, has already earned strong national recognition. His debut novel, Archives of Unknown Universes was released in 2025.

In 2026, he was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” a reflection of how quickly his work is reaching a broader audience.

For Aragón, bringing a writer like Reyes to South Bend is not accidental. It is the kind of work he has been building toward for years.

The son of Nicaraguan immigrants, Aragón joined Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies in 2003 and launched Letras Latinas the following year, creating a platform to elevate Latino voices and connect them with broader audiences.

He sees events like this as an opportunity to do both at once. To bring nationally recognized voices into the community, while also creating space for stories that feel more personal and real.

Partnerships that open doors

The series is a collaboration between Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies and the St. Joseph County Public Library. It is rooted in a shared goal to bring meaningful programming into the heart of the community.

“We are honored to partner with Letras Latinas to connect award-winning authors and Notre Dame scholars with the greater South Bend community,” said Mel Lutz, community services senior manager at the St. Joe County Public Library.

“Our partnership supports the library’s mission to connect members of our diverse community to learning, resources and each other.”

There is also a strong connection back to the classroom on Notre Dame’s campus.

Each visiting writer spends time with Notre Dame students, offering a chance to engage directly with authors whose work they are studying. It adds a layer to their education that can’t be replicated on the page. It’s why Reyes was invited to serve as a writer-in-residence at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art the day after his library event. The writing he produced at the Museum, in response to its permanent collection, is part of a multi-year initiative and partnership between the ILS and the Museum, one which involves poets and writers creating art-inspired writings.

Building something that lasts

The Letras Latinas Community Reading Series is still in its early stages. This was just the second installment. The response to this year’s event suggests real momentum. Aragón’s vision is to make this an annual spring tradition. Each year, he wants to introduce a new prose writer and a new set of conversations.

Plans are already in motion for next spring’s author and more importantly, more opportunities for students to create deeper connections with the community.

The line up for the 2027 Letras Latinas Community Reading Series will be available on the Institute for Latino Studies’ website.

Photos provided by Michael Caterina, University photographer. 

The University’s Facilities Design & Operations team hosted the third annual BLDG Trades Day in partnership with MACIAF, St. Joseph Valley Building Trades, and the South Bend Regional Chamber. The goal was simple: give students a chance to see what a career in the trades actually looks like.

Throughout the day, students connected directly with contractors, union representatives, and trades professionals, asking questions and learning about different career paths. For many, it was their first time seeing the range of opportunities available—from electrical and plumbing to carpentry and construction.

BLDG Trades Day continues to grow each year, creating more opportunities for connection and helping students across the region see a future they may not have considered before.

Check out photos below from the event. Photos by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame.

What brings out an architecture major, an elementary school teacher, a nursing mother, a realtor, and a pastor to gather around a community room table in South Bend, Indiana, during the dead of winter?

For forty community members, it was the opportunity to deepen their understanding of Catholic social tradition (CST) and learn ways to put it into practice. This microcosm of the city is learning to build a more just and thriving community through the three-part workshop “Evangelized by Christ in the City.”

By creating these spaces of encounter, the Institute for Social Concerns bridges the gap between campus and community, transforming CST principles into a shared power for local change.

The series brought together parishioners from across the city of South Bend—as well as Holy Cross and Dominican sisters—to learn alongside Notre Dame theologians and community organizer Rev. André Stoner of We Make Indiana(link is external), a non-partisan organization that helps move ordinary people from being spectators to agents in the work for justice in Indiana.

Each session combines theological reflections with training on community-building practices to demonstrate how CST can address the most pressing issues within the community—from poverty to immigration.

The workshop is the latest initiative to emerge from the Leadership Forum, a component of the institute’s South Bend Citizens Collaboratory. Fostering civic leaders across various sectors—academia, government, industry, faith communities, and neighborhood associations—the Leadership Forum equips them with tools that promote human flourishing.

In the January session, Notre Dame theologian David Lantigua, the William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, described how the theme of the series is inspired by recent papal teaching that the vulnerable are not only recipients but also agents of evangelism.

Participants read and discussed sections of Pope Leo XIV’s Dilexi Te (On Love for the Poor), where Leo describes how “lives can actually be turned around” by the realization that people who are poor “have much to teach us about the Gospel and its demands.” The workshops, Lantigua explained, are designed to provide training on how to do such listening and learning with marginalized people in the city.

“I’ve been energized by the way this series is putting Catholic social tradition into practice,” said Lantigua. “So often we can make theology into an abstract academic discipline, but this series demonstrates the desire and pressing need to open theology to the Gospel by addressing the needs of our community.”

At the February session, Notre Dame theologian Todd Walatka described how St. Oscar Romero’s encounter with poor Salvadorans transformed his faith. The core of Romero’s theology, Walatka said, was the central insight of CST that every human has dignity as a creature of God. The struggle of the Christian life, according to Romero, is to see that dignity in oneself and others and to respond accordingly.

“Christian life is an exercise in holy seeing,” Walatka said. “We don’t yet see the splendid beauty in every person, but we should long to. Life’s a journey of learning to see and respond to humanity—our own and that of those around us.”

“One of the strongest ideas I am gleaning from this series is the importance of relational ministry–of encounter,” said Fr. Jim Fenstermaker, C.S.C., pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Parish(link is external), which co-sponsored the institute’s series along with the Cushwa Center.

Fr. Fenstermaker described the institute’s community partnerships as the embodiment of CST’s principle of subsidiarity, which teaches that social issues should be dealt with at the most local level possible and the highest level necessary. The local community brings its experiences of listening to the needs around them, and the institute partners with the community, recognizing that community members bring their own expertise on the work of justice at the local level.

For participants like Heidi Witte ’09, a graduate of the institute’s Catholic Social Tradition Minor and director of children’s catechesis at Holy Cross Parish, the workshop bridges the theology she learned in the classroom with the realities she encounters in the community. As part of a nationwide group of Catholic women seeking to educate the public on the principles of CST, Witte described the way the workshop animates CST through one-on-one relational meetings as “eye-opening.”

“It was powerful,” Witte said. “I will carry that with me—trying to hear someone’s ‘why’ in a non-judgmental way.”

By bringing this workshop to local parishes, the institute ensures that the principles of CST are not kept to the academy but are embodied in the city through the concrete work of justice.

In the final session on March 26, Notre Dame theologian and St. Adalbert parishioner Rebecca Ruvalcaba will present on CST and immigration. All are welcome. Contact Michael Hebbeler, assistant director of community partnerships and programs, for details.

Originally published March 17, 2026, at https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/happenings/institute-stories/.

The entry, created by students from the Robinson Community Learning Center, featured fourth-grader Siya as Tubman and fifth-grader Dante as God, joined by more than a dozen participants in the Afterschool Theatre Lab. Ranging from first to eighth grade, half of the students took turns narrating an adapted version of the book “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” while the other half sang along to an early recording of the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

“I was really impressed by their creativity,” Gillaspy said. “They took music from the public domain and a story that they had been learning about, and incorporated them all together with sound effects. They weren’t just reading the words; they were reinterpreting them. It was a comprehensive way of engaging with the story.”

The music contest, in its fourth year, serves as a staple of the Hesburgh Libraries’ annual Public Domain Day slate of events. It invites members of the campus community to create original compilations using sound recordings and samples that have recently entered the public domain.

“The exciting thing about this contest is that you don’t need fancy equipment; you can do it with a computer,” Gillaspy said. “I just love that there are so many opportunities available to take public domain music and create something new.”

Creating the entry

In early January, after spotting an article about the annual contest in a campus publication, Robinson Center staff saw an opportunity.

“Part of our mission at the Robinson Center is to leverage all the expertise and the innovation at Notre Dame in the service of the community,” Clare Roach, associate director, said. “This competition was an authentic opportunity for kids to showcase their talent.”

The contest was just another reason to get excited about the readers’ theatre project Robinson had already planned for Black History Month. Readers’ theatre is a strategy that helps students improve their reading skills by working together to read a script while focusing on their vocal expressions.

“Our program strategy interweaves fun, engaging enrichment opportunities,” Roach said. “One of the big challenges of tutoring programs is retention. Kids go to school for a long day, and adding even more school support can be exhausting, but when you add in fun opportunities, our students want to come back. Readers’ theatre isn’t just fun theatre; it’s helping children become stronger readers by practicing again and again.”

Jennifer Jermano Miller, theatre and fine arts program director, who adapted the original book into parts, worked with the students to decide who would take each part.

“We sat them all down and asked, ‘Who wants to be a narrator or who wants to be Harriet?’” she said. “I don’t want to ask a student to do something they’re not comfortable with, so I really try to give them a lot of choices.”

On the musical side, AmeriCorps member and music teacher Emma Connors worked to teach the students the words to “Swing Low.”

“I just taught it one sentence at a time,” she said. “We do a lot of repeating. So, I’ll sing it, then they repeat it, and then I’ll speak the words so they can really internalize them. We just went back and forth until they were independently singing it.”

Repetition also helped students’ reading.

“We kept going again and again, but we got through it,” Dante said. “I was really happy because I didn’t think I could keep remembering the voice.”

Throughout the process, instructors worked with students to help them understand and use inflection as they spoke into the microphone.

“Jennifer will teach things that are absolutely integral to reading, like ‘when you see a question mark at the end of a sentence, your voice tends to do what?’ Or what word in this sentence do you pause on? What word do you emphasize?” Roach said. “Strong readers have intuited a lot of these things; they can read out loud the way we talk.”

Siya, who described her character, Tubman, as “passionate, strong and fearless,” said she tried to portray that in her voice.

“I tried to be strong and ready to go and loud,” she said. “You could hear me all through your ears.”

And the winner is…

In the end, the three minutes of audio capturing the voices of students at the Robinson Center titled “Harriet Tubman Leads Her People To Freedom,” with a fourth-grader as Tubman and a fifth-grader as the voice of God, was one of five entries chosen as a 2026 contest winner.

“People choose where to put their time,” Gillaspy said. “It’s exciting that they chose us, and they did such a good job. I have shared the entry with several people, and they have all been so inspired by it. In the past, we have only had faculty, staff, and students enter; the kids had a certain way of viewing the world that is different from the others, and their entry was fantastic and lovely.”

To learn more and listen to all of this year’s contest winners, visit the 2026 contest page.

A collaborative project between the University of Notre Dame and the City of South Bend was recently awarded $1 million to support improvements to the city’s 311 Call Center through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge.

Partnering with the University’s Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, the City of South Bend will use the award to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to identify emerging service needs and develop innovative human‑centered technologies to proactively deliver essential services.

By developing and testing a predictive model — a tool that uses past data to identify patterns and forecast future needs — the city hopes to be able to reach out to residents with targeted support, transforming the 311 service center from a reactive system into a data-driven proactive service that anticipates and addresses community needs before a request is made.

“The University of Notre Dame is committed to advancing data and AI for the social good,” said Nitesh Chawla, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame and Lucy Family Director for Data & AI Academic Strategy, who leads the University’s Data, AI and Computing Initiative. “Through Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute, and in partnership with the City of South Bend, we are developing responsible, human-centered technologies that help anticipate community needs, strengthen how essential services are delivered, and empower communities, organizations and individuals.”

South Bend was among 24 city halls from 20 countries to receive the award. More than 600 ideas were submitted to the Mayor’s Challenge to address public service challenges, including housing, waste management, clean water, infrastructure and social inclusion.

In the city’s press release to announce the award, Mayor James Mueller emphasized how partnerships are transforming the local community. “In partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and community partners, we are changing the way we deliver city services in South Bend,” he said. “By integrating new technologies with our frontline teams, we can spot problems earlier, act sooner and achieve better outcomes that will build greater trust with our residents.”

In 2018, South Bend received its first Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge award to support the creation of Commuters Trust, a transportation-as-a-benefit program designed to expand access to reliable commuting options.

To learn more about the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, visit mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org.

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of media relations, 574-631-2632, brandiwampler@nd.edu

Originally published by Grashorn, Christine at news.nd.edu on February 25, 2026.

More than 350 students gathered on January 24 to sort and assemble donated supplies collected through a campus-wide drive launched in January. Donations were tailored to meet the needs of after-school programs and distributed to La Casa de Amistad, the Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Cooridor, the Robinson Community Learning Center, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center.

The service project highlighted the role after-school programs play in providing stability, enrichment, and connection for children and teens across the region. In addition to assembling supplies, students included personal notes and activity materials to support learning beyond the classroom.

This initiative is co-sponsored by Notre Dame Student Government, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, and Procurement Services in partnership with the Office of the President.

Walk the Walk Week is a week-long series of University, department, and student-sponsored events that invite members of the Notre Dame community to reflect on how to foster a deeper sense of belonging and inclusion, and build the Beloved Community—referencing the words of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. —on campus and beyond. This year's events took place from January 24-31. 

Check out the photo gallery below (provided by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame).

The cornerstone of that work is the physical clinic nearing completion at the site of the former Psychological Services Center at 501 N. Hill Street. Strategically located within a mental health campus near Downtown South Bend, the 35,000-square-foot facility clinic will act as a centralized hub for faculty and student collaboration, as well as an easily accessible location for community members to receive services.

The facility will also include a neuroimaging center with an fMRI machine, a piece of technology Burke Lefever describes as critical for bridging clinical care with innovative research. The fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) will be the only one of its kind in the South Bend area. Another distinctive feature for work of this nature: collaborative spaces designed to facilitate spontaneous innovation between researchers.

"We’re going to use a shared space model, which opens up possibilities for faculty to expand the work that they're doing and make collaboration easier. Our staff will help facilitate work in those shared spaces, including faculty and graduate students, as well as clinicians.”

As the physical spaces continue to take shape, Burke Lefever remains as connected to the mission—and her passion—as ever.

“I've always felt my goal in life is to try to make the world a better place for children. One of the core pieces of Catholic social teaching is treating people—especially the most vulnerable—with dignity. By supporting someone’s mental health, you help restore their felt sense of dignity.”

Get involved 

Learn more about the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic

Learn more about the Mental Health Initiative

Learn more about the University's strategic initiatives

Connect with the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic on April 27

Additional features

Arnie Phifer, Bioengineering & Life Sciences Initiative

Angie Appleby Purcell, Ethics Initiative

Joel Day, Democracy Initiative

Kevin Fink, Just Transformations to Sustainability

Rebecca Struch, Arts Initiative

Originally published by Jenna Liberto at ndworks.nd.edu on January 20, 2026.

The annual observance of Walk the Walk Week is rooted in Notre Dame’s mission as a Catholic university and in the principles of Catholic social teaching, which call us to live in solidarity with all people, particularly the most vulnerable, and to honor the God-given dignity of every person.

Among the week’s events is a keynote conversation titled “Champions of Hope” at 4 p.m. Monday (Jan. 26) in the Reyes Family Board Room (215/216 McKenna Hall). The talk, which will focus on what it means to lead with integrity, moral courage and hope, will feature two distinguished business leaders, both of whom are members of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees and former Notre Dame football student-athletes — Tracy Graham ’95 and Byron Spruell ’87, MBA ’89 — in conversation with University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. This event is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed.

Graham is the founder and managing principal of Graham Allen Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in technology and tech-enabled businesses across the U.S. He is currently focused on leveraging data and artificial intelligence to help companies evolve via digital transformation.

Graham began his career by founding Internet Services Management Group, which became one of the largest privately held ISPs in the United States. He then went on to co-found GramTel Inc., a managed data center provider, in partnership with The Jordan Company. As CEO of GramTel, he led the company to become the largest provider of managed data center services in Indiana and the largest privately held provider in the Midwest. He successfully sold GramTel to Cincinnati Bell in 2007.

Graham completed a bachelor of arts degree from Notre Dame, where he was a member of the Fighting Irish football team from 1992-95. He is also a dedicated public servant, philanthropist and community advocate who serves on the boards of Lippert Components and 1st Source Bank, in addition to his role on the University’s Board of Trustees.

Spruell serves as president of league operations for the National Basketball Association, where he oversees critical league operations. In that role, he effectively integrates the departments of domestic and international basketball operations, referee operations and basketball strategy and analytics.

Spruell also collaborates with USA Basketball and the International Basketball Federation to promote the global growth of the game and development of players worldwide. He joined the NBA in 2016 from Deloitte where he last served as a managing principal and marketplace leader.

He has served on several charitable boards and committees, and is currently on the boards of Metropolitan Family Services in Chicago, the Jackie Robinson Foundation in New York and Aon, a leading global professional services firm. He is also on the board of governors of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Spruell earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA in finance from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a member of the football team from 1984-87, serving as co-captain in 1987. On the University’s Board of Trustees, he chairs the Undergraduate Education and Student Life Committee.

An annual Candlelight Prayer Service for members of the Notre Dame community will also take place at 8 p.m. Jan. 26 in the Main Building Rotunda, with Father Dowd presiding and a keynote reflection from Rev. Hugh R. Page Jr., vice president for belonging, engagement and mission and advisor to the president.

The prayer service will be followed by a candlelight procession to the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue and a dessert reception in the Sister Thea Bowman Center in the LaFortune Student Center.

Other Walk the Walk Week events include a campus-wide donation drive for classroom, cleaning and art project supplies for local organizations working with children and teens, as well as a student service project on Saturday (Jan. 24) packaging after-school kits for local youth.

A complete list of events is available at walkthewalk.nd.edu.

Contact: Carrie Gates, Associate Director of Media Relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

Originally published by Carrie Gates at news.nd.edu on January 20, 2026.

Rooted in the creative spirit, intellectual energy, and iconic traditions of Notre Dame and our region, the six-month festival will present an unprecedented roster of world-class performances, exhibitions, courses, and convenings on Notre Dame’s campus, in and around South Bend, and across Notre Dame’s global network.

“Biennial programming isn't just about entertainment; it's also about creating shared experiences that build bridges in our community,” says Arts Initiative director Michael Schreffler. “By embracing every art form — from dance to design, sculpture to song — the biennial brings people together to celebrate, and be inspired by, human creativity.”

In addition to signature programming led by the Notre Dame Arts Initiative, the biennial will include featured programming led by campus and community partners and supported by the initiative. Those interested in organizing performances, exhibitions, screenings, lectures, workshops, courses, visiting artist engagements, conferences, and other arts activations as part of the Arts Biennial are invited to submit proposals for up to $20,000 of funding toward co-produced projects.

Individuals, organizations, and businesses both based in and serving communities in St. Joseph County and its six surrounding counties (Elkhart, Marshall, Starke, and LaPorte in Indiana and Berrien and Cass in Michigan) as well as Notre Dame faculty, staff, and students (including those at its 12 global locations) are eligible to apply.

“Biennial programming isn't just about entertainment; it's also about creating shared experiences that build bridges in our community. By embracing every art form — from dance to design, sculpture to song — the biennial brings people together to celebrate, and be inspired by, human creativity.”

“People often ask me what I think makes a biennial successful,” reflects Arts Initiative managing director Rebecca Struch. “To me, it’s one that energizes artists, audiences, and advocates to come together around a shared vision for our creative and communal futures. This means that regional and global collaboration are absolutely essential.”

Regional venues, including campus locations at Notre Dame and other schools, are also invited to join the Venue Activation List, an ongoing roster of venues interested in providing in-kind use of their space for public arts programming connected to the biennial.

A third opportunity invites groups with relevant programming that will occur between January 2027 and June 2027 to apply for their event to become part of a larger Biennial Network.

Community members and campus affiliates are encouraged to learn more about all three opportunities at artsbiennial.nd.edu. Project funding submissions are due February 16, 2026. The Venue Activation List and Biennial Network application will remain open and will be reviewed on a rolling basis through April 30, 2027. Questions may be emailed to arts@nd.edu.

The Arts Biennial is organized and produced by the Notre Dame Arts Initiative, which mobilizes the transformative power of the arts to advance knowledge, invigorate learning, and foster human solidarity by transcending boundaries between art forms and across disciplines. The Arts Initiative is a key priority of Notre Dame’s strategic framework. It champions interdisciplinary research and teaching in the arts, enhances opportunities for students to engage with the arts on and beyond campus, and deepens artistic collaboration in our community.

Originally published by Laura Winkle at arts.nd.edu on January 13, 2026.

Buck, a Golden Retriever and certified therapy dog, is the newest addition to RCLC’s after-school programming. His weekly visits are quickly becoming a highlight for the nearly 100 students who take part in tutoring and enrichment activities. For many students, a few quiet minutes with Buck offer a chance to relax and decompress from their busy day at school.

“We’ve tried different approaches to help them reset, including mindfulness practices, but Buck has shifted the entire atmosphere,” said Susan Devetski, RCLC’s director. “He brings a level of calm that is hard to describe.”

Devetski says research shows that therapy dogs can help reduce stress and anxiety in children, lower cortisol levels, and support emotional regulation, especially for young people who have experienced trauma or chronic stress. Those benefits have become visible almost immediately at RCLC.

Buck visits the center for several hours each Wednesday, and students take turns spending time with him, whether that means running a brush through his thick coat, reading aloud, or simply sitting quietly nearby. Devetski said his presence changes the tone of the space almost instantly.

“When Buck is here, everything slows down,” she said. “The kids have learned that he responds to gentle voices and calm bodies. Without being told, they begin to regulate themselves, and it has been incredible to watch.”

Trina Barlow, Buck’s handler, rescued and trained him and recognized early on that his temperament made him a natural fit for therapeutic work.

“Buck has always had a steady, gentle energy,” Barlow said. “He seems to sense when someone needs comfort or reassurance. Watching kids feel safe around him and seeing their stress melt away has been really meaningful.”

Barlow recalled that Buck settled in quickly during his first visit to the center.

“He walked right into a group of students and made himself at home,” she said. “It was clear he felt comfortable and the students did too.”

Devetski said the RCLC team intentionally explored the use of therapy dogs after learning more about their proven impact on children’s mental health. Many students arrive carrying the weight of daily stressors that make emotional regulation difficult, and Buck has become a powerful, nonverbal way to help them feel safe, grounded, and ready to engage.

“Our kids deserve tools that help them feel supported in a real and meaningful way,” Devetski said. “Buck offers that without expectations or pressure. He meets them exactly where they are.”

RCLC plans to continue Buck’s visits throughout the academic year, and his role has quickly become more than symbolic. With his own presence on the RCLC website, Buck is officially recognized as part of the team.

“Buck has truly become part of our community,” Devetski said. “He helps our students slow down, find calm, and feel more prepared to learn. We are incredibly grateful for the sense of comfort and connection he brings to this space.”

The new three-year program, called the St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project, aims to help bridge the gap in local mental health care for young people through in-person or digital single-session interventions — evidence-based approaches that can make a meaningful difference in mental health in a short amount of time.

The program will train 75 local providers to offer a one-time, solution-focused meeting with youth in need of mental health support. It will also offer local youth access to an online platform that provides a self-directed experience, using videos, tips and suggestions on available resources to help create a plan for improving their mental health.

“We are taking evidence-based methods developed through rigorous research and creating a way to scale them so they reach the people who need them most,” said Kristin Valentino, a Notre Dame professor of psychology and director of the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, which will lead the project locally. “In addition to giving local youth free and anonymous mental health support tools, we believe this project will strengthen our community and serve as a national model for scaling county-level interventions.”

Developed by Jessica Schleider — a Northwestern associate professor of medical social sciences and founding director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health — and her team, the digital and provider-delivered single-session intervention programs have shown through dozens of clinical trials to reduce youth depression and anxiety symptoms for up to 12 months and increase motivation to seek further care. Collectively, these brief, barrier-free programs have helped more than 100,000 individuals and families improve their coping abilities and have proven effective across a diverse range of youth populations.

Schleider’s free digital intervention platform, Project YES, will be adapted for St. Joseph County youth by the Veldman Clinic and community partners, and its clinical and implementation effectiveness will be evaluated over the course of a year.

“This is a dream project for me, and precisely the sort of work I’m in this field to push forward,” Schleider said. “Single-session interventions, because of how scalable they are, really fill these untouched gaps in the mental health care system that high-intensity treatments like weekly psychotherapy delivered by professionals were never built to address.”

The Veldman Clinic, opening this spring at 501 N. Hill St. in South Bend’s East Bank neighborhood, will significantly enhance the research of faculty in Notre Dame’s Department of Psychology and offer immersive training for clinical psychology graduate students, who will be empowered to share pioneering evidence-based mental health practices with communities across the country. It is a key component of the Health and Well-Being Initiative in the University’s strategic framework, which emphasizes a commitment to addressing the nationwide mental health crisis.

Schleider’s approach has already been effectively deployed through a program in Montana, and serves as an example of the effectiveness of implementation science — taking evidence-based methods developed through research and developing means of scaling them to maximize their reach and effectiveness.

“The St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project is an incredible opportunity for the Veldman Clinic to implement evidence-based interventions and build strong community partnerships as it opens its doors,” said Kenneth Scheve, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “Dissemination work of this caliber will be a core component of the clinic’s efforts to enhance mental health care throughout the region and nationwide, and I can’t wait to see the transformative impact this program has for youth in our area.”

To tailor the program to the needs of the community and ensure its tools are accessible to and meet the needs of local populations, the Veldman Clinic will recruit four community advisory boards comprised of providers and leaders of local schools, community organizations, health care providers, parents and youth.

The program is actively seeking members for one-year terms on its community advisory boards. Nominations are welcome from individuals with lived, professional or community experience relevant to youth mental health — especially those connected to schools, pediatric/behavioral health, youth services and parent/caregiver networks.

Founded by Anita and Tom Veldman, the Valinhos Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to improving the mental health and overall well-being landscape for youth, families and communities across Indiana.

Originally published by Josh Weinhold at al.nd.edu on Dec. 22.

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

ND-SCAN is led by Nosang Myung, the Bernard Keating-Crawford Endowed Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Marya Lieberman, the Nancy Dee Professor of Cancer Research in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. It is a critical part of the Notre Dame Sensor Initiative (NDSI) and the 2033 Strategic Framework’s health and well-being investment. ND-SCAN focuses on developing sensor technologies that can efficiently and effectively detect psychoactive substances present in compounds, such as illicit drugs. This sensing technology will allow community stakeholders, including healthcare providers and harm reduction groups, to quickly identify and respond to changes in illicit drug supplies by collecting and submitting samples of substances found locally for testing.

"As a force for good, NDSI helps to empower first responders who are on the front lines of the opioid crisis. We provide our community partners with vital data on illicit drug trends, enabling them to make informed, life-saving decisions for patient care," said Myung, highlighting the close connection between researchers and community partners that this initiative requires.

Through ND-SCAN’s expanding abilities to test the composition of drugs, including opioids, Notre Dame researchers aim to provide community-relevant information and resources to support the efforts of regional organizations. This workshop aimed to pool existing community knowledge to guide ND-SCAN activities to support research outcomes that align with community needs and are most useful to community stakeholders in their on-the-ground work.

“Understanding what is in the local, unregulated drug supply is a critical and yet enormous task. People's lives depend on our community understanding the risks of these constantly changing contaminants. ND-SCAN is bringing the right people together with the right tools to develop a knowledge network that can help to stop overdoses before they happen,” said Joanne Cogdell, CEO of Naxos Neighbors.

The meeting began with an overview of the ND-SCAN vision and capabilities, followed by a guided group discussion. Group discussion question topics included what information about the local drug supply would be most useful or actionable, what substances are of the greatest concern and should be tested for, and what logistical concerns participants had regarding sample collection, storage, shipment, and follow-up. After a lunch break, meeting attendees toured multiple labs on campus where ND-SCAN and NDSI research is being completed. Myung and Lieberman offered closing remarks to wrap up the meeting.

NDSI and the participating community organizations plan to continue and expand their collaboration by holding another meeting in six months. Additional community organizations will be invited to engage as well so that Notre Dame researchers can gather even more insight into on-the-ground priorities, needs, and knowledge. In the meantime, logistics and information sharing procedures will be explored.

To learn more about NDSI and ND-SCAN, please visit the NDSI website.

Originally published by Stephanie Loney at chcp.nd.edu on November 25, 2025.

The new three-year program, called the St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project, aims to help bridge the gap in local mental health care for young people through in-person or digital single-session interventions — evidence-based approaches that can make a meaningful difference in mental health in a short amount of time.

The program will train 75 local providers to offer a one-time, solution-focused meeting with youth in need of mental health support. It will also offer local youth access to an online platform that provides a self-directed experience, utilizing videos, tips, and suggestions on available resources to help create a plan for improving their mental health.

“We are taking evidence-based methods developed through rigorous research and creating a way to scale them so they reach the people who need them most,” said Kristin Valentino, a Notre Dame professor of psychology and director of the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, which will lead the project locally. “In addition to giving local youth free and anonymous mental health support tools, we believe this project will strengthen our community and serve as a national model for scaling county-level interventions."

Developed by Jessica Schleider — a Northwestern associate professor of medical social sciences and founding director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health — and her team, the digital and provider-delivered single-session intervention programs have shown through dozens of clinical trials to reduce youth depression and anxiety symptoms for up to 12 months and increase motivation to seek further care. Collectively, these brief, barrier-free

programs have helped more than 100,000 individuals and families improve their coping abilities and have proven effective across a diverse range of youth populations.

Schleider’s free digital intervention platform, Project YES, will be adapted for St. Joseph County youth by the Veldman Clinic and community partners, and its clinical and implementation effectiveness will be evaluated over the course of a year.

“This is a dream project for me, and precisely the sort of work I’m in this field to push forward,” Schleider said. “Single-session interventions, because of how scalable they are, really fill these untouched gaps in the mental healthcare system that high-intensity treatments like weekly psychotherapy delivered by professionals were never built to address.”

The Veldman Clinic, opening this spring at 501 N. Hill St. in South Bend’s East Bank neighborhood, will significantly enhance the research of faculty in Notre Dame’s Department of Psychology and offer immersive training for clinical psychology graduate students, who will be empowered to share pioneering evidence-based mental health practices with communities across the country. It is a key component of the Health and Well-Being Initiative in the University’s strategic framework, which emphasizes a commitment to addressing the nationwide mental health crisis.

Schleider’s approach has already been effectively deployed through a program in Montana, and serves as an example of the effectiveness of implementation science — taking evidence-based methods developed through research and developing means of scaling them to maximize their reach and effectiveness.

“The St. Joseph County Universal Wellness Project is an incredible opportunity for the Veldman Clinic to implement evidence-based interventions and build strong community partnerships as it opens its doors,” said Kenneth Scheve, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “Dissemination work of this caliber will be a core component of the clinic’s efforts to enhance mental health care throughout the region and nationwide, and I can’t wait to see the transformative impact this program has for youth in our area.”

To tailor the program to the needs of the community and ensure its tools are accessible to and meet the needs of local populations, the Veldman Clinic will recruit four community advisory boards comprised of providers and leaders of local schools, community organizations, healthcare providers, parents, and youth.

The program is actively seeking members for one-year terms on its community advisory boards. Nominations are welcome from individuals with lived, professional, or community experience relevant to youth mental health — especially those connected to schools, pediatric/behavioral health, youth services, and parent/caregiver networks.

Founded by Anita and Tom Veldman, the Valinhos Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to improving the mental health and overall well-being landscape for youth, families, and communities across Indiana.

Originally published by Josh Weinhold at al.nd.edu on December 22, 2025.

The award ceremony was led by Jonathan Hannah, term assistant teaching professor of Political Science and assistant director for strategic partnerships of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Philanthropy and the Common Good is an experiential learning course offered through the Hesburgh Program in Public Service and cross-listed with political science and the Constitutional Studies Minor. The primary sponsor, The Philanthropy Lab, helps fund similar courses around the country.

This year, students awarded $10,000 grants to the following nonprofits that are making significant strides in addressing critical community needs:

• Camp Kesem Notre Dame

• Green Bridge Growers

• A Rosie Place for Children

• Hannah’s House

• Corvilla

At the award ceremony, students presented the checks alongside Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., who offered remarks after the awards were presented.

“This course shows the difference students can make when they engage directly with the community,” Father Dowd reflected. “They learn how to serve with humility, how to understand the challenges our neighbors face, and how thoughtful giving can strengthen the region in very real ways.”

A Rosie Place for Children, one of the recipients this year, expressed deep gratitude for the support and talked about how the funds will be utilized.

“This is a tremendous blessing for us,” said Sherina Gonzalez, director of advancement. “These funds allow us to reach more families across all 92 counties and ensure that no family ever pays for the care their child receives.”

Gonzalez shared that the organization is preparing to launch its new Heartworks Art Studio in the spring. The studio will offer medically fragile children the chance to create artwork using both traditional supplies and AI-supported tools. The goal is to give every child, including those who cannot speak or use conventional art materials, a meaningful way to express themselves.

One of this year’s student presenters was Kyle Lauckner, a sophomore majoring in economics and political science. Lauckner introduced the first grant recipient, Camp Kesem Notre Dame, and spoke about the organization’s long history of bringing comfort and connection to children who have a parent affected by cancer. He shared that during the review process, Camp Kesem consistently resonated with students.

“We were really moved by how this grant will help them welcome nearly one hundred campers, which will be the largest group in their history,” said Lauckner. “Knowing that our support can help them grow and invest in the long term made this decision especially meaningful for our class.”

The class has continued to grow over the past several years. Students are introduced early on to the process of evaluating community needs, reviewing proposals, and making real funding decisions. With this year’s awards now complete, the program is on track to cross the $500,000 mark before the end of the academic year.

For the first time, the University will offer the philanthropy course again in the upcoming spring semester, giving a second group of students the opportunity to distribute an additional $50,000. The University has also approved a new section for Fall 2026, which reflects continued support for the course and its mission.

The course received support from several University offices, including the Office of Public Affairs, de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, Department of Political Science, Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise and Society and Brian Hegarty ‘76.