Impact of Giving
- Melanie Vrable (`06) - Of all the refugee children she encountered in her research, one little boy continues to inspire new grad Melanie Vrable.
- Brian Carlisle (`07) - The Notre Dame campus sits on 1,250 acres. But Brian Carlisle didn’t think it was big enough.
- Father John Jenkins - Charity isn’t an option. It’s a responsibility.
- Jeff Stephens (`07) - It’s just a 90-minute drive from Chicago’s South Side to Notre Dame, but in some respects, the two couldn’t be farther apart.
- Meg Towle (`07) - Meg Towle is a superstar.
- Jonathan Peach (`08 MBA) - How did a Protestant minister wind up in business school?
- Michael Rossmann (’07) - Notre Dame ruined Michael Rossmann.
- Burcu Munyas (’06) - How far can a Notre Dame degree take you?
- Laura Campochiaro, Jenny Enright, and Molly Harding - Undergraduate Researchers
- Maurice Crum (`08) - When Notre Dame football linebacker Maurice Crum visited campus for the first time, he noticed something different—snow.
- Evelyn and Everett Chu (`08) - You wouldn’t be the first to ask if they are twins.
- Graham Austin (`09) - For Notre Dame junior Graham Austin, having “Notre Dame junior” in front of his name hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
- Patrick Lopez (’07) - Newly minted Notre Dame graduate Patrick Lopez feels right at home in the third grade.
- Bonnie Fullard (’08) - “I wanted to go to a University rich in intellectual vigor and Catholic character,”
- Michael O’Connor (’08) - From taking up the bagpipes to taking an Urban Plunge
- Joseph Teller (PhD) - It was the myriad kinds of support Notre Dame offered that appealed so much to Joseph Teller.
- Andrea Laidman (’08) - She came to Notre Dame wanting to study theatre. But it is Andrea Laidman’s humanitarian work that has taken center stage.
Melanie Vrable (`06)
Of all the refugees she encountered in her research, one little boy continues to inspire new grad Melanie Vrable (’06).
She first met him in the Lansing, Michigan, refugee service agency where she interned through the Center for Social Concerns. His father and siblings had been killed in Somalia. He and his mother, alone and far from home, sought her help.
Despite his troubles, “he was the sweetest, most talented little boy,” says Melanie. “It was probably because of him that I pursued this project.”
That project is a research venture funded through Notre Dame’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Deeply affected by her experience in Lansing, Melanie created an ambitious, independent research inquiry that took her all the way to Brussels, Belgium, to compare refugee services and integration tactics in the U.S. and Europe.
Living and working among the large refugee population in Brussels “put the scope of this problem in human terms,” she says. “It allowed me to see that public policies have consequences for real people, a connection I don’t think I would have made otherwise.”
But Melanie might never have made it to Brussels without financial support.
“I know how important donors have been to my Notre Dame experience,” says Melanie. “Without the research grants they provided, I would have spent my college summers waitressing, instead of preparing for my career and serving those most in need.”
That career now centers in rural North Carolina, where Melanie is in her first of two years with Teach for America. Her research experience is definitely applicable, she says. “Many of my students are first-generation immigrants struggling to overcome the same obstacles and biases as that little boy in Lansing.”
Brian Carlisle (`07)
The Notre Dame campus sits on 1,250 acres. But Brian Carlisle didn’t think it was big enough.
So, for the last four years, this senior has turned the world—or, at least, Latin America—into his own personal campus.
He volunteered in Tijuana at a shelter for deported immigrants for a Summer Service Project. He spent a semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. And he has worked closely with Prof. Richard Jensen on a multi-year economics research project to valuate the Amazon rain forest.
Of his diverse experiences, Brian calls an internship with the U.S.-Mexico Ties program “one of the most eye-opening” parts of his education. This past summer, he and four MBA students traveled to Guadalajara to partner with local MBA students on a consulting project for Mexican agricultural producers.
Brian’s mission? To help a group of honey farmers establish a co-op and advise them on the viability of exporting their unique product.
“I got to apply my economics major to a project that had real impact,” he says, “and to see that the rules of the game are different down there.” That’s a lesson not as easily learned in a classroom setting.
This hands-on approach has “added depth to my education,” says Brian. “To say that these experiences [in Latin America] were life-transforming would be an understatement.”
Brian credits donor support with making such powerful learning opportunities affordable.
“Grants and scholarship monies make these experiences possible for a lot of students,” he says. “And that’s a good deal for the communities and organizations that benefit when thousands of Notre Dame students are able to go out into the world to help. Donations make good things happen.”
Father John Jenkins - Confronting the Global Health Crisis
Charity isn’t an option. It’s a responsibility.
The Catholic Church is growing faster in Africa than in any other part of the world.
Still, millions of Africans face unthinkable poverty, disease, and malnutrition. As an international institution with a commitment to serving the Church, Notre Dame is taking important steps to stem the tide of suffering.
In early January 2007, Father John Jenkins, University president, (read his Ugandan blog) led a group of students, faculty, and staff to the East African nation of Uganda. Their visit was part of the Notre Dame Millennium Project.
The Millennium Project, an independent body commissioned by the United Nations, aims to reduce extreme poverty and disease in developing nations by 2015. Millennium partners such as Notre Dame will do so by collaborating with villagers to implement practical, science-based interventions to improve healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Notre Dame is the first university after Columbia, home of Millennium Project founder Jeffrey Sachs, to embrace the Project. The University has teamed up with Nyinde, a small village in southern Uganda, where it will begin concerted efforts in March.
“Our participation in this project,” says Father Jenkins, “grows out of our mission as a Catholic university … Practicing charity is not an option for us, but is as essential as celebrating the Mass or proclaiming the Gospel.”
In addition to helping create sustainable communities, the ND Millennium Project will provide faculty and students—like sophomore Tess Bone, who accompanied Father Jenkins to Uganda—with research opportunities that contribute to human welfare.
While centered in Uganda, the Project’s impact will be felt on campus, where faculty and students are pursuing a host of initiatives aimed at confronting the global health crisis. To name just a few: Father Tom Streit’s Haiti Project, which has had great success in eradicating lymphatic filariasis; research centers that are exploring the connections between ecology and disease; and local and global outreach efforts through the Center for Social Concerns.
Jeff Stephens (`07)
It’s just a 90-minute drive from Chicago’s South Side to Notre Dame, but in some respects, the two couldn’t be farther apart.
For many young black men, the path from projects to prestigious university is an unfathomable leap.
Senior Jeff Stephens wants to change their minds.
“It all comes back to one essential goal I have,” he says. “I want to change the archetype of African American males” from poor, inner-city neighborhoods like his, where the dominate stereotype is that the only way out is an NBA contract—or illicit activities.
Jeff is determined to show that there is another way: namely, getting a good education, then spreading good values through good works.
His good works come with a beat. A sociology and computer applications major with a self-described “minor in hip-hop,” Jeff writes and performs rap music with an uplifting message. He frequently performs on campus, including at Legends, Acousticafé, and the Keenan Review. All that in addition to participating in Notre Dame’s Washington Program, volunteering at the Center for the Homeless, and preparing for law school.
Last year, Jeff even became the object of a research project. Four students applied for and won an Undergraduate Research Opportunity grant to study the impact of Jeff’s music and message on the community. Likewise, a group of student volunteers known as Lead ND were so moved by Jeff’s music that they began using it in their outreach work to impoverished South Bend residents.
Like so many other Notre Dame students, Jeff’s impact on the University and the wider world has been enabled by scholarship benefactors. Their support comes as no surprise to Jeff, who says Notre Dame is “all about family.”
“I have never been surrounded by so many people pulling for me to be successful. In retrospect, my experience at Notre Dame has made me more humble and grateful for the things I have been blessed with. Now, I try to help people as much as I can in my own special way—a trait I inherited from my Notre Dame family.”
Meg Towle (`07)
Meg Towle is a superstar.
An academic superstar, that is. Recently, the Notre Dame senior from Leawood, Kansas, was named to the 2007 All-USA College Academic third team by USA Today. In the fall, she will begin graduate studies at Britain’s University of Liverpool as a recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship.
Only 40 or so students nationwide are selected for the Marshall Scholarship each year, but spend a few minutes talking with Meg and you quickly begin to understand why she was one of the chosen few.
An honors anthropology and international peace studies major, Meg has been named to the Dean’s List every semester. She has conceived of not one, but three, independent research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. But it’s more than simply her GPA that has earned Meg so many accolades. It’s the way she uses that God-given intellect to make the world a better place for those who are suffering.
Meg is the co-founder of Touching Tiny Lives Foundation (TTLF), a non-profit organization headed by Notre Dame alumni, parents, and faculty (and honorary chairman Father Ted Hesburgh) that helps to provide a safe home and medical outreach to children who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, Africa. The United Nations estimates that almost a third of Lesotho’s adult population is infected with HIV/AIDS.
As the only student on TTLF’s board of directors, Meg helped to develop the foundation’s strategic plan and mission. Now, when she’s not studying, Meg can likely be found raising money and awareness for the work being done to combat HIV/AIDS among Lesotho’s women and children.
It’s no surprise that Meg’s passion for learning and service has manifested itself so globally. It was, after all, Notre Dame’s “global scope” that initially drew her here as a participant in the University’s Global Issues Seminar for high school students.
“From that first visit,” says Meg, “I began to see that Notre Dame is all about the how. How the opportunities are endless, how the world is viewed, how your own perspective is challenged, and how you grow as a result of that.”
To learn more about Touching Tiny Lives Foundation and its involvement with the Notre Dame family, please visit the foundation’s website at www.touchingtinylives.org or contact Meg at mtowle@nd.edu.
Jonathan Peach (’08 MBA)
How did a Protestant minister wind up in business school?
For years, Jonathan Peach served as pastor to the largest Protestant congregation in Dubuque County, Iowa. In college, he studied theology and the Bible, certain that he was called to the ministry. So how did he end up studying finance and banking?
“I discovered that there are many ways to have an impact on this world,” explains Jon. “If you really think about what corporations are doing today, and about the role they play in our global society, you see what a tremendous opportunity there is to have an impact. The idea of that, the chance to enact change as an ethical business leader, became irresistible to me.”
But it was Karen, his wife and former high school sweetheart, who finally convinced him to check out Notre Dame. “She said, ‘Jon, this is a school that really stands for something.’ And she was right. I was sold the first time I visited.”
For this father of two young children, the deal was sealed when the business college offered him full fellowship support—an offer that made it possible for Jon to bring his family to South Bend and pursue an MBA degree. Today, he is the president of the MBA Student Association, and balances classes that he “loves, with students from all walks of life,” with time spent with Abby, 3, and Calel, 2.
“When I came to Notre Dame,” says Jon, “I knew that I had not stepped away from the ministry. I am just playing in a different ball field now. We have a responsibility, in whatever career we pursue, to be the arms and hands of Jesus. Notre Dame attracts a different kind of student: they understand that responsibility.”
Michael Rossmann (’07)
Notre Dame ruined Michael Rossmann.
Granted, an Honors Program student graduating with a 4.0 GPA as the valedictorian of the Class of 2007 might not seem “ruined.” But he is—ruined, he says, because he can no longer view the world with the same unquestioning eyes he once had.
“Notre Dame changed all of us,” he says of his classmates of the past four years. “It has ruined us in that our lives are so much more complicated now because here we have learned to engage the world with reason and faith.”
The first inklings of that tide change came as a freshman, when Michael watched friends rise early for daily Mass or devote entire evenings to service. “It was inspiring,” he says, “to see my peers living out their faith in such beautiful ways.”
Their example moved him to start asking questions “about what is my role in all of this”—questions that led him to explore issues of poverty and injustice through several Center for Social Concerns seminars, teach English in Uganda, and work with Tanzanian priests to understand how western clergy might best aid their African counterparts.
His understanding of these field experiences has been deepened by a double major in economics and theology—courses of study that Michael believes are truly complementary. “It’s my faith foundation that compels me to work for justice, but it’s my grounding in economics that enables me to understand how the world works and how to promote justice within that structure.”
It’s the kind of education he doesn’t think he could have received anywhere else. Yet, he cautions, “this distinctiveness has a purpose.”
“Our identity as a Catholic university will be measured by how we go from here and live our lives,” he says. “The ultimate goal of this place isn’t to produce good students; it’s to produce men and women of deep integrity, whose lives will be shaped by integrating faith and reason.”
It is a lesson well learned: Michael begins his studies for the priesthood this fall, joining the Jesuit novitiate.
Burcu Munyas (’06)
How far can a Notre Dame degree take you?
If you are Burcu Munyas, and your interest is international peace, it can take you around the world.
Born and raised in Turkey, Burcu came to Notre Dame to earn a master’s degree at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. All Kroc graduate students spend one semester working as peacebuilding interns at field sites in Israel, Palestine, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, or the United States. Burcu interned with Catholic Relief Services in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, conducting research to understand how that country’s genocide had affected young people. The results of her study were used to design a new educational program for Cambodian youth.
“My internship was a great stretch and very formative for me,” Burcu said. “At the Kroc Institute, we were encouraged to be scholar-practitioners. The fieldwork gave me the opportunity to put that into practice, which shaped my aspirations and my career.”
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2006, Burcu accepted her current position as a project manager with Catholic Relief Services in Israel/Palestine. She now works to explore strategic partnerships between CRS and Palestinian civil society and to build support among CRS constituents in the U.S. and the Holy Land. “People working to build peace must have hope,” Burcu said. “Hope for me was generated at the Kroc Institute, when I met people who were both idealistic and realistic in looking for alternatives to conflict.”
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies is dedicated to understanding the causes of violent conflict and to identifying and promoting the conditions for sustainable peace. Through the Spirit of Notre Dame campaign, the Institute seeks $5 million to endow student internships and a faculty chair in peacebuilding, as well as to strengthen the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and support its public outreach efforts.
Laura Campochiaro, Jenny Enright, and Molly Harding (Undergraduate Researchers)
Biology majors Laura Campochiaro, Jenny Enright, and Molly Harding are all looking forward to careers in science research—a path that has been solidified this summer during their time at Notre Dame’s Center for Zebrafish Research.
“It made me feel a lot more confident about the direction I’m choosing,” says Enright. “Research is definitely something I can be happy doing as a career.”
The women also feel more confident about their abilities.
“Working in a lab makes it so real,” says Campochiaro. “We can do this, and it can be fun.”
Thanks to scholarship dollars, the three undergraduates are spending this summer working alongside graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty. They say the enthusiastic atmosphere has been great and gives them a good idea of what their future will look like at every stage.
“I think that a lot of people have the impression that science is a solitary task, but it’s not that way at all,” says Harding. “And Dr. Hyde really values the undergraduate learning process and puts undergrads on projects they can really be part of and learn from.”
Dr. David Hyde is a professor of biological sciences and the Rev. H.J. Kenna, C.S.C., Memorial Director of the Center for Zebrafish Research.
“These three young ladies will be applying to the top graduate and medical schools in the country, and this experience will provide them with cutting-edge techniques in an extremely ‘hot’ research field [neuronal regeneration], which will make them highly sought-after,” he says. “I think these women will become excellent scientists. They are bright, perceptive, and genuinely excited about scientific research.”
They say it’s easy to be excited about a field that helps and serves others. We can all be excited that there are talented young people, rising to the challenge.
Maurice Crum (’08)
When Notre Dame football linebacker Maurice Crum visited campus for the first time, he noticed something different—snow.
“Growing up in Florida, you don’t see that,” he says with a laugh. Crum, a sociology major, hails from Tampa.
Of course, something else about Notre Dame was different, too.
“I wanted to go to a great academic school that at the same time has a great football atmosphere,” he recalls. As it turns out, his decision was right on.
“I love every aspect,” he says. “I’ll never forget my Notre Dame experience, being able to see the seasons change, football, a top-notch education, the people: everything just fits together here.”
As a senior, Crum is in his final season of college football. He plays a variety of roles on the team and says it’s exciting to move back and forth between them. In fact, he’s thrilled just to be able to play football every day.
“It’s the greatest experience ever,” he says. “Football isn’t promised to everyone. And you could get hurt, so every day you have to enjoy it. I know I do.”
Not only is Crum able to play football, but he has received an athletic grant-in- aid (i.e., a scholarship for student-athletes), which he says has been a blessing to him and his parents.
“It humbles you to have that opportunity, because everyone doesn’t get it,” he says, adding that if he met his scholarship benefactor face-to-face, he would say thank you with a “big smile and a hug. You can’t really put a thank you like that into words.”
Such generosity has made Crum want to give back and continue the cycle. He plans to play football as long as possible and, after that, maybe go into marriage or family counseling or help underprivileged kids.
No matter what the future holds for Crum, he is sure to be a success both on and off the field.
Evelyn and Everett Chu (’08)
You wouldn’t be the first to ask if they are twins
They get that a lot, both beings seniors at the University of Notre Dame. But while Evelyn and Everett Chu will march side-by-side during spring commencement, they walked different paths to Notre Dame.
“I’m actually two years older than him,” says Evelyn, a music performance and preprofessional studies major who plays with Notre Dame’s concert band and symphony orchestra. A two-year volunteer stint after high school, mentoring youth offenders in the Indianapolis juvenile justice system, postponed her enrollment, making the Chus not just siblings, but classmates.
They are, indeed, a close-knit family. A third sibling—younger sister, Eva—is a sophomore across the street at Saint Mary’s College. Remaining close was part of Notre Dame’s appeal for these South Bend natives. But that wasn’t all.
Evelyn and Everett both aspire to be physicians, even serving together on the student-run First Aid Services Team. They knew from the start that rigorous academic training would be critical to their successful application to medical school. Devout Christians, they were also compelled by the University’s religious heritage.
Says biochemistry major Everett: “Even though I am not Catholic, I was attracted by this atmosphere that promises the pursuit of academic excellence while also cultivating and challenging personal faith.” Here, he finds it easy to combine both: as an undergraduate researcher, he has co-authored a published paper on “Electronic Dissymmetry in Chiral Recognition” with Professor Seth Brown and serves with the University’s Baptist Collegiate Ministers.
With three siblings in college, financial aid also played a major role in their selection process. “Of the colleges I applied to,” says Evelyn, “Notre Dame was the only one to offer a complete financial aid package.” In the end, she adds, “After much prayer, Notre Dame seemed to be where God was leading me.”
Graham Austin (’09)
For Notre Dame junior Graham Austin, having “Notre Dame junior” in front of his name hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
Graham has been at the University for only a semester, but the Tennessee native has been seeking admission to Notre Dame since high school. (That’s four applications if you’re counting, and he is.)
A fan since childhood, Graham first visited campus as a teenager.
“I wasn’t sure if Heaven existed on Earth, but my trip to Notre Dame, Indiana, answered that question with a strong yes,” he recalls.
When he wasn’t accepted as a freshman at Notre Dame, Graham was happy to attend nearby Holy Cross College and work toward transferring. But three rejected applications later, he had only once chance left.
He then began to work “freakishly hard,” meeting with the dean of the College of Arts and Letters and the dean of admissions at Notre Dame. He received his associate of arts from Holy Cross with highest honors.
“The beginning of summer was pretty nerve-racking for me and my household,” says Graham. “Every afternoon I sat by the window waiting for the mailman to come, and when he did, I made the short walk to the mailbox praying that there would be a big envelope.”
One day (June 11th) Graham finally did get that big envelope. Yet, looking back, he says that day didn’t have near the significance of the combined days leading up to it.
“I learned a lot about adversity and who I am as a person,” he says. “I feel like my experience proves that anything is possible; you just have to try.”
Patrick Lopez (’07)
Newly minted Notre Dame graduate Patrick Lopez feels right at home in the third grade.
But it certainly isn’t where he expected to be. “I wasn’t thinking about a career in education when I came to Notre Dame,” says the San Antonio native. “But somewhere along the way, it became something I just had to do.”
Patrick, who graduated in May with a major in political science and Latino studies and a minor in the Hesburgh Program for Public Service, teaches with the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), a two-year service program offering college grads the opportunity to teach in under-resourced Catholic schools while earning a master of education degree from Notre Dame.
After a few months at St. Gertrude’s in Los Angeles, Patrick confirms that teaching is an adventure unlike any he’s ever known. “But it’s extremely rewarding,” he says, “to see the fruits of my labor, to watch the kids becoming more independent, thinking for themselves, acquiring new skills.”
His commitment to service was forged by the example of his parents: his dad worked with migrant farm laborers, and his mom served 20 years with healthcare programs for indigent populations. Both are now retired, which meant financial aid played a decisive role in Patrick’s attending Notre Dame.
“My parents always emphasized the need to give back,” says Patrick. “And having been given the opportunity to go to Notre Dame, teaching is my way of giving back and saying thanks.”
Bonnie Fullard (’08)
“I wanted to go to a University rich in intellectual vigor and Catholic character,” says senior scholarship recipient Bonnie Fullard.
“Like a lot of students,” she adds, “I was drawn by the spirit of the school. I was amazed at the character, accomplishments, and intelligence of the students I met on my first visit. I knew that if those were the kinds of people Notre Dame attracts, then this is the place I want to be.”
Four years later, Bonnie has become the sort of student she once admired: inquisitive, accomplished, and compassionate. An anthropology and psychology major in the Glynn Family Honors Program, she is driven by a desire to see the world and understand what makes people—and even monkeys—behave as they do.
An anthropology field school experience in Gibraltar allowed her to explore her interest in primatology. There she worked with Prof. Agustin Fuentes to study the macaque population.
Another field school experience took her to the coastal region of Kenya twice, where she immersed herself in the culture, learning Swahili and undertaking an investigation of the cultural mores that influence public access to HIV/AIDS drugs.
Asked what she learned while in Kenya, Bonnie says with a laugh, “I learned that a summer isn’t nearly long enough!” Next fall, she will continue her academic pursuits by enrolling in a graduate program in medical anthropology. Already, she is applying to some of the most prestigious universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
“My professors at Notre Dame have always encouraged me to get as much practical experience as possible to discover my interests and passions,” says Bonnie. “Having their encouragement, and being surrounded by so many academically motivated students, has really moved me to work hard and excel.”
Michael O'Connor(’08)
From taking up the bagpipes to taking an Urban Plunge
through the Center for Social Concerns (CSC), senior Michael O’Connor is taking advantage of all that Notre Dame has to offer.
“Every student has a different story,” he says, “but my story has been incredibly lucky, and it’s one that involves all aspects of university life.”
Michael is an English major with minors in Irish studies and theology, but his learning goes far beyond the classroom. To enhance his English studies, he writes for Scholastic Magazine. And to fully appreciate the Irish, he moved to Dublin for seven months, first during a semester abroad, and then through the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies summer internship program.A devout Catholic, Michael delights in studying theology and has enriched his understanding of Catholic social tradition through service-learning seminars in the Appalachian region and on a Pima Indian Reservation. He is a Eucharistic minister for his dorm, Carroll Hall, where he also serves as a resident assistant and member of the interhall football team.
One might notice that while he is taking it all in, Michael is also giving a whole lot back. A recipient of the Regis Philbin Scholarship, he acknowledges that it is the generosity of others that has allowed him to so actively pursue his interests and ambitions. Through his service activities now, and in the future, he says, he will joyfully perpetuate this goodwill.
“I value service,” says Michael, who hopes to join the Alliance for Catholic Education or Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduation. “Whatever career I have, and in my family life, I definitely want service to be linked.”
Joseph Teller(PhD)
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. And then there was another kind of support—the feeling of acceptance and community that Joseph experienced when he visited campus. It was the crucial selling point.“Notre Dame’s generosity, the feeling of collegiality and personal support I find in the faculty and students here, have all been very special to me and my family,” Joseph says, “not only in my own professional development, but in the personal challenges my wife and two young sons have faced.”
Those challenges have proved immense but, thankfully, not insurmountable. Just before coming to South Bend, Marianna nearly died giving birth to the couple’s first son, Andrew. Since then, Andrew has been diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. Joseph says that it is only because of the Notre Dame community that he has been able to pursue his dream.
“That sense of family and community we felt on our first visit continued from the moment we moved here,” he says. “The people of Notre Dame supported me as a whole person, with an intellect and a soul, as a father and a husband who was also a scholar. They were nothing short of incredible during that first difficult year. I found that this holy place and its people would not leave us orphans.”
Andrea Laidman (’08)
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.
Soon thereafter, she took part in a Gospel of Life Seminar—a Center for Social Concerns program that helps students to understand the moral framework surrounding such issues as the death penalty, unborn children, death and dying, bioethics, and more.
She calls the experience a “seminal” part of her interest in human rights. That interest led her to co-found ND ASK, a political action group created to inspire dialogue about the death penalty in light of Catholic teachings.
“The University’s emphasis on Catholic social teaching has become the most important part of my time here,” she says. “Notre Dame offers so many opportunities to really live the commitment our faith demands of us.”
Laidman, who will graduate next month with a major in political science and international peace studies, says her work won’t end at commencement. This fall, she will enroll at the National University of Ireland under the auspices of the prestigious George J. Mitchell Scholarship. There, she will continue her studies with the hope of one day tackling humanitarian issues from an international law perspective.
See the full press release on Laidman’s accomplishments.