The Impact of Giving

David Nemer counts his blessings every day.

For a teenager embarking on the college search, it took only one visit to Notre Dame to leave Nemer with a “gut feeling” that this was the place for him. And, yet, the elation he felt upon being accepted to the University was countered by a more practical consideration: how he and his family would pay for it.

The day his financial aid letter arrived in the mail stands out as one of the most memorable days of his young life. “It was just my brother and me at home when the letter came,” he says. >> more

She came to Notre Dame wanting to study theatre. But it is Andrea Laidman’s humanitarian work that has taken center stage.

"I planned to pursue theatre, but I also had this interest in journalism,” she explains. “After a year here, I realized that what I really wanted was not to write about the issues, but to actually work on them.”

And so she has. Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), Laidman traveled to South Africa, where she got a firsthand look at the ongoing conflict over gender inequality. >> more

It was the myriad kinds of support Notre Dame offered that appealed so much to Joseph Teller.

When he and his wife, Marianna, made the decision to move their new family from California to Indiana, they had turned down four other English doctoral programs. The distinction of Notre Dame’s faculty and curriculum played a large role in their choice, but there was something more.

First of all, Joseph was offered the Joseph L. Gaia Distinguished Fellowship, which provided the monetary aid he needed to support his family while pursuing his education. >> more