The Impact of Giving

Growing up in South Bend, Alkeyna Aldridge never set foot on Notre Dame’s campus.

In fact, it was only at her mother’s urging that she applied to the University. Good thing she did, for two important reasons: it turned out to be the only school she could afford, and it has been a life-changing experience she treasures above all others.

Unlike the other schools to which the junior applied, Notre Dame offered her need-based financial aid -- a package including the Eileen and John O’Shaughnessy Scholarship, the Charity Begins at Home Scholarship, the LaPhonso D. Ellis Scholarship, and >> more

Growing up, it seemed like Josh Eckert was always building something.

He and his family spent eight years building their home in Huntington, Ind. Then there was the barn, and, when they weren’t working on their own projects, they were busy helping one of their many relatives—including two cousins who presently live in Keough Hall.

“The Eckerts have always just worked hard, and that is kind of a staple of what we enjoy,” Josh explains. “We get the job done, but at the end of the day we do celebrate.”

Eckert credits his upbringing, filled with family and construction, for shaping him into the man he is today. >> more

Like so many Notre Dame students, Brennan Bollman’s first real encounter with service came through the Center for Social Concerns (CSC).

A CSC summer service project at a Catholic Worker House in Rochester, New York, put the then-rising sophomore face-to-face with women fresh from drug treatment programs, prison, and domestic violence situations. She loved every minute of it.

“It was the first time service really awakened something in me,” she says. “I began to see it as more than devoting two hours to a food drive. It became a way of life, of living in solidarity with people facing very different circumstances.” >> more