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Clare Cullinan named valedictorian, Bennett Schmitt selected as salutatorian for the Class of 2025

2025-05-07T11:00:00-04:00

Clare Cullinan of South Bend, Indiana, has been named valedictorian and Bennett Schmitt from Jasper, Indiana, has been selected as salutatorian of the 2025 University of Notre Dame graduating class.

The 180th University Commencement Ceremony will be held May 18 (Sunday) in Notre Dame Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Cullinan will present the valedictory address, and as salutatorian, Schmitt will offer the invocation.

Valedictorian Clare Cullinan (photo by Michael Caterina/University of Notre Dame)

Cullinan, a global affairs major with a studio art minor, is in the first graduating undergraduate class of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. She will graduate summa cum laude with a cumulative 4.0 grade point average. She has been a member of the dean’s list every semester and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

As a research assistant in the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ, Cullinan worked with Professor Steve Reifenberg for three years, researching a range of topics including student and global health and well-being, team-based learning and the concept of accompaniment in international development work.

For her senior capstone, she completed a policy project through the organization Education Bridge. In collaboration with clients and teammates, she helped lay the groundwork for an alumni program ensuring access to further education for recent graduates of Greenbelt Academies, a secondary school in South Sudan.

Through her global affairs major, Cullinan has also collaborated with a variety of nonprofits, researching and launching a community gardens program in Argentina and working with entrepreneurs from low-income backgrounds in South Bend. A highlight of her Keough 91��Ƶ experience was serving as a student teaching assistant and a peer mentor for first-year students.

Cullinan was selected as an inaugural member of the student core team for the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good during her senior year. In that role, she helped create an undergraduate apprenticeship focused on virtue-rooted leadership and organized campus-wide events that explored ethical leadership and behavior, including Fr. TED Talks, a Notre Dame Forum event last fall that discussed ideas from the Catholic social tradition.

This summer, she will return to the institute as an intern coordinator with the Signature Course Fellowship program, where she will work with scholars and students from across higher education to launch courses addressing questions about human flourishing.

While studying abroad at Trinity College Dublin during the spring of her junior year, Cullinan served as a campus ministry intern. She has also held leadership positions in the Notre Dame Folk Choir, where she performed in domestic and international tours and recorded an album in Jerusalem.

In the South Bend community, she volunteered as an after-school caregiver and tutor at La Casa de Amistad and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northern Indiana.

Cullinan will begin a year of service at Amate House in Chicago this fall. There, she will work as a teacher and campus minister at Our Lady of Tepeyac High 91��Ƶ. Following her year of service, she plans to pursue a doctorate and to teach at the university level.

“What guides my work is the phrase ‘Lead, kindly light,’ which is the title of a hymn I sing with the folk choir,” Cullinan said. “How can I be a source of light for other people? How can I meet people right where they are and ensure they feel included and loved? Being a Christian to me means showing people the love of Christ — whether or not they are Catholic, whether or not they have a faith tradition — and Notre Dame has been an important starting place for that.”

Salutatorian Bennett Schmitt (photo by Michael Caterina/University of Notre Dame)

Schmitt, who has majors in environmental sciences and applied and computational mathematics and statistics and a minor in energy studies, will graduate summa cum laude from the College of Science with a 4.0 grade point average. He is a Sorin Scholar with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, a member of the dean’s list and a Phi Beta Kappa early inductee.

He participated in research on sustainability and clean energy all four years at Notre Dame in the Jaffe Solid-State Chemistry Laboratory under Assistant Professor Adam Jaffe, the High Temperature Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory under Associate Professor Antonio Simonetti and the Fire and Grazing Ecology Laboratory under Professor of the Practice Ryan Sensenig.

With Jaffe, Schmitt is a co-author of a paper published in the journal Chemical Science, focused on developing novel materials for clean energy storage technology.

In addition, Schmitt works as an agrivoltaics policy researcher in the University’s Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ, where he led the development of a policy brief to support combined agriculture and energy generation operations in the Midwest.

This spring, he was awarded the Nanovic Undergraduate Research Conference Silver Prize for his work on the policy brief, which will be presented to the Indiana state legislature. He has also presented his research at a number of conferences and workshops, both on and off campus.

Schmitt conducted research in the Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy Laboratory at University College Dublin while studying abroad during his junior year and is the lead author on a paper published on his work there exploring scalable green hydrogen production. In Dublin, he also served as a Nanovic Sustainability Fellow through Notre Dame Global and completed an energy audit on the Notre Dame Dublin building, presenting recommendations to decrease its environmental footprint.

He served in the Notre Dame Student Government throughout his time at the University, most recently as director of sustainability. Schmitt also worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Biological Sciences and a peer tutor for students in calculus and linear algebra.

One of Schmitt’s most impactful moments came during an ND Energy trip to Puerto Rico for a seminar on renewable energy last year. There, he had the opportunity to see firsthand the challenges of the island’s fragile electric grid and helped to install solar panels for vulnerable families. The experience led him to be a founding member of ND SunRISE, an organization that encourages students to engage with renewable energy through technical projects and professional development opportunities.

After graduation, Schmitt will spend eight weeks in Kenya, conducting research on carbon cycling in savanna grasslands with Sensenig. Afterward, he will begin a master’s program in urban sustainability at Trinity College Dublin as a Naughton Fellow, with a focus on energy access.

“My passion for sustainability and environmentalism is rooted in my upbringing on a family farm, but I had the opportunity to build upon it in so many ways at Notre Dame,” Schmitt said. “Notre Dame helped me put my passion for the environment into a social context and consider how environmental challenges like climate change impact people in really different ways. Because, often, the people who are most impacted are the ones who are most vulnerable.”

As salutatorian, Schmitt will be prepared to deliver a valedictory address should the valedictorian be unable to do so.

The Notre Dame valedictorian and salutatorian selection process begins with each college or school nominating its top students among those with the highest grade point averages. Those students are then invited to complete an application that includes a draft of their commencement speech. A faculty selection committee, whose members are appointed by each college and school, is convened by the Office of Undergraduate Education in the Office of the Provost. This committee interviews selected finalists and chooses a valedictorian and salutatorian. The choices are approved by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-631-4313

Pope Francis’s lasting impact on Notre Dame

2025-04-25T13:55:00-04:00

In February 2024, Pope Francis met with the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees at the Vatican for the final time.

During the meeting, he praised Notre Dame for dedicating itself to “advancing the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel through the formation of each person in all his or her dimensions” and shared what he saw as the “secret of education”—asking the University to continue to educate students in three languages: “the head, the heart, and the hands.”

“Always remember,” Pope Francis said, “this is the crux of the matter.”

A Catholic university must expand not only the mind, but also the heart, he said, helping its students to cultivate “an openness to all that is true, good, and beautiful.” And a Catholic education then commits us to building a better world with our own hands, he said, by teaching “mutual coexistence, fraternal solidarity, and peace.”

“We cannot stay within the walls or boundaries of our institutions, but must strive to go out to the peripheries and meet and serve Christ in our neighbor,” Pope Francis said. “In this regard, I encourage the University’s continuing efforts to foster in its students zeal for meeting the needs of underprivileged communities.”

It is one of many lessons from the late pontiff that the University has taken to heart.

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Notre Dame faculty experts reflect on life and legacy of Pope Francis

2025-04-21T07:16:00-04:00

On April 21, Pope Francis died at the age of 88. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Argentina, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1958, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969 and became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. In 2001, Pope John Paul II named him a cardinal. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis was elected as his successor on March 13, 2013.

As the University of Notre Dame joins the Church and the world in mourning Pope Francis’ death, the University’s faculty experts reflect on his papacy, life and legacy.

“Pope Francis was the first pope from the Global South, now Catholicism’s demographic center, and that has been hugely meaningful,” said John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History. “This is reflected in his focus on the poor — a core theme of Latin American theology since the 1970s — and on migrants and the environment. It is also reflected in his commitment to ‘inculturation’ of the liturgy and Catholic life into local, often Indigenous cultures.”

According to McGreevy, Pope Francis also did more than any predecessor to “diminish the monarchical dimensions of the papacy.”

“His informal personal style, the willingness to carry his own luggage and live in Santa Marta, all reflected a caution about the idea of the pope as a prince of sorts,” McGreevy said. “He is continuing the legacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI here, but in a much more pronounced way.”

In contemplating Pope Francis’ legacy, Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., vice president and associate provost, turned to the pope’s own words: “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s Mercy,” wrote Pope Francis in Misericordiae Vultus. “These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith.”

“Pope Francis has reminded us throughout his life and through his words, gestures and actions that the Gospel message is fundamentally about God’s mercy,” Father Groody said. “For this reason, he chose as his motto ‘Miserando atque eligendo,’ which means, ‘The Lord looked on him with merciful love and called him.’ While alluding to Matthew’s call, he makes these words his own when he becomes a priest. This vision has always been at the core of his pastoral work, and it took on a global significance when he was elected pope.”

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home, was also “one of the most profound and enduring” gifts he gave to the Church and the world, said R. Scott Appleby, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Global Affairs at Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs.

“The letter’s exhortation to transform our relationship to nature and to one another by ‘heeding the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ is a clarion call to end wasteful habits and selfish practices that exploit our planet’s resources and leave the poor to pick up the tab,” Appleby said.

Appleby said the pope’s words inspire Notre Dame’s work in poverty, peace, sustainability and environmental justice — all of which are key elements of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s strategic focus. Those important pillars, as well as the University’s new initiative on a just transformation to a sustainable environment, are “directly inspired by Laudato si’ and by the teaching and example of Pope Francis,” he said.

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history, concurred, saying, “For evidence of the impact Pope Francis has had on the global Church, we have to look no further than our own University.

“The late pope’s priorities have shaped Notre Dame’s strategic initiatives in profound ways,” she added. “Through its commitments to alleviating poverty and fostering health and well-being, Notre Dame has joined Pope Francis as a champion of human flourishing, especially within vulnerable populations. It would be impossible to conceptualize research on global Catholicism without reference to the first pope from the Americas, and what his life and legacy teach us about the church in the Global South.”

The bells in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart tolled to mourn the death of the Holy Father at 9 a.m. EDT today (Apr. 21). The doors have been draped in black bunting, and a photo of Pope Francis has been placed in the sanctuary.

Additional comments by Notre Dame faculty and a statement from University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., are available.

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

ND Expert David Lantigua: The Pope of many firsts

2025-04-21T06:47:00-04:00

David Lantigua, associate professor of theology and the William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director of Cushwa Center for the Study of America Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, researches Catholicism's role in the Americas, social justice and human rights issues. Lantigua shares his thoughts on how Pope Francis led the papacy with humility and determination:

"Francis is the pope of many firsts: he is the first Jesuit pope, the first South American pope, and the first pope to write a social encyclical on the environment. He is also the first pope of the twenty-first century who did not attend and participate in the momentous global meeting of over 2,000 bishops known as the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). With nearly sixty percent of those bishops at Vatican II coming from outside Europe, and nearly half of those outside Europe from Latin America, the papacy of Francis appears to be a sign of the times for a religion that comprises one-fifth of the world’s population, most of which resides outside of Western Europe and in the global South.

"Like Pope Benedict XVI before him, Francis has interpreted Vatican II as a much-needed reform of the modern Catholic Church to authentically proclaim the gospel to a world starving for hope after the tremendous loss of moral credibility due to the clergy sex abuse scandal. To pursue this Herculean task of rebuilding the Church in the third millennium, Francis has followed in the radical footsteps of his medieval namesake from 12th-century Assisi. He has vividly embraced the poor and the planet, and advocated for peace and nonviolence without ignoring conflict and a convergent polycrisis—ecological, political, economic and epidemiological. His resolute, sometimes stinging, stances on specific pastoral and moral issues have generated outspoken critics and declared enemies both inside and outside the Church.

"True reform, according to Pope Francis, is an antidote to clericalism, which he has consistently identified as the greatest internal threat to a self-enclosed Church departing from the mission of love and mercy. Reform neither ditches tradition nor conforms to the Zeitgeist of Western cultural progress. Rather, it relies on the apostolic tradition and the sense of the faithful as authentic sources for renewing ecclesial faith on the journey through history. Respectively, evangelical poverty and popular piety, a mainstay of Francis’s papal writings from Evangelii gaudium (2013) to Dilexit nos (2024), open the life of God’s Spirit for the authentic reform of the Church. Francis has challenged the whole Church, beginning with bishops and priests, to imitate Jesus Christ and be among the people they serve, especially in the trenches and margins. His preamble to the 2022 constitution reforming the Roman Curia (Praedicate Evangelium), a centuries-old governing body often depicted with the sterile bureaucratic secrecy of the recent Conclave film, identifies the role of the Church as bearing “witness to the mercy that she herself has graciously received.”

"When asked who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio in an interview after becoming pope in 2013, Francis began by saying in humility, “I am a sinner.” The experience of receiving God’s mercy of forgiveness as a sinner or God’s healing touch as a neighbor in need are catalysts for Christian discipleship, biblically portrayed in Francis’s favorite gospel stories like the conversion of St. Matthew the tax collector or the parable of the compassionate Samaritan. The act of divine mercy toward human frailty, miserando (mercy or “mercy-ing”), belongs at the center of the Church’s ministry and Francis has made it the motto of both his episcopal and papal coat of arms during the last three decades.

"Pope Francis has taught us that "mercy-ing" is not just an individual action but a great social virtue that takes political form through a solidarity desperately needed in today’s polarization, social isolation, cancel culture and bullyism. He teaches and lives out his deep conviction that mercy is not about paternalism over the needy, but about humble solidarity shared among friends, sometimes even enemies, as Christ taught his disciples. Media images throughout Francis’s papacy show him touching and kissing the severely handicapped, the disfigured, the imprisoned, beginning with stateless migrants in Lampedusa in his first visit as pope outside of Rome. From choosing not to wear a jeweled pectoral cross and requesting a simple wooden casket for burial, Francis has symbolized his accompaniment of simple and poor peoples from the world’s peripheries by making their wisdom and faith in the living God an essential part of proclaiming the gospel today."

ND Expert Khaled Anatolios: Pope Francis’ most constructive and enduring legacy will be his efforts to articulate a hermeneutics of mercy

2025-04-21T06:42:00-04:00

Khaled Anatolios, the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology and chair of the department, researches the history of Christianity. A particular focus of his work is the engagement between early Christian theological reflection and contemporary theological concerns.

In Catholic ecclesiology, Anatolios noted, the most fundamental task of the pope is to manifest and nurture the unity of the Church.

“From one point of view, one can say that Pope Francis did not attain much success in that regard, putting aside the question of whether that lack of success was due to a fault on his part or the intransigence of some,” he said. “Indeed, while some Catholics have been alarmed at what they perceive to be his wavering on some matters of doctrine, others have also been frustrated at his seeming to fall short of advancing genuine doctrinal change.”

In the longer view, however, Anatolios said, “Pope Francis’ most constructive and enduring legacy will be his efforts to articulate a hermeneutics of mercy that affirms fundamental Church teaching in principle while also striving to interpret and apply this doctrine with pastoral compassion.

“Francis was surely right in believing that such a hermeneutic of mercy is indispensable to the integrity and credibility of the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel,” he said. “Even those who would fault him for what they consider to be misapplications of this hermeneutic should give him credit for his passionate articulation of it.”

ND Expert Kathleen Sprows Cummings: Pope Francis ‘changed the modern Catholic landscape in ways that will endure long after his death’

2025-04-21T06:42:00-04:00

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history, focuses her research on Catholicism in the United States, as well as the history of women and American religion. Her latest book is “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American.”

Cummings noted that in March 2013, while addressing his brother Cardinals in the days before the papal conclave, Jorge Bergoglio reimagined the passage from the Book of Revelation that references Jesus saying, “I stand at the door and knock.”

“‘What if,’ Bergoglio posited, ‘Jesus is asking not to be let in, but is instead knocking from inside the Church, urging that he be let out?’ Many, including Bergoglio himself, believe it was this speech that led to his elevation to the papacy a few days later,” Cummings said.

“Certainly this evocative metaphor offers one way to understand how Pope Francis led the Church over the last dozen years. Through his insistence on mercy, his global vision and his renewed commitment to evangelization, the first pontiff from the Americas undoubtedly created a more outward-oriented Catholic Church.

“This endeared him to many and alienated some, but above all, changed the modern Catholic landscape in ways that will endure long after his death.”

ND Expert Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C.: Pope Francis ‘constantly reminded us that God’s love is boundless and knows no limits’

2025-04-21T06:41:00-04:00

Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., vice president, associate provost and a professor of theology and global affairs, is an expert on Catholic social teaching and migration. His most recent book, “A Theology of Migration: The Bodies of Refugees and the Body of Christ,” features a foreword by Pope Francis.

In reflecting on Pope Francis’ legacy, Father Groody turned to the pope’s own words: “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s Mercy,” wrote Pope Francis in Misericordiae Vultus. “These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith.”

Father Groody stated that as Pope Francis internalized this mercy, it also shaped his social vision.

“He knew this mercy is an unmerited gift, but it also requires a response from us — one that calls us to live in God’s image and likeness as agents of the resurrection in the renewal of all of creation,” Father Groody said. “He knows that his life of faith is not only about his personal relationship with Jesus, but also his social connection to everyone he meets, beginning with the most vulnerable. This vision has led him to care for people experiencing poverty, migrants, refugees and the Earth.”

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has shown how God cares about everyone, “especially those discarded and ignored by society,” Father Groody continued, noting that Pope Francis spoke frequently about the “globalization of indifference” and the call to solidarity with the poor and marginalized.

“He put great emphasis on remembering those cut off from the body of society,” Father Groody said. “Whether it be washing the feet of prisoners, migrants and non-Christians during the Holy Thursday exercises or stopping his papal motorcade to embrace the most disfigured and disenfranchised of the human family, he constantly reminded us that God’s love is boundless and knows no limits.”

Amid a world that increasingly demeans and dehumanizes migrants, Father Groody said, Pope Francis has repeatedly highlighted the dignity of the human person and our interconnection as a human family. He challenged us to see that migration is not the main problem but a symptom of a more profound global and systemic imbalance that displaces people and pushes them to seek more dignified lives.

According to Father Groody, Pope Francis’ first trip to Lampedusa was one of his most defining trips. After hearing of the plight of 360 refugees who died at sea in October 2013, Pope Francis visited the Italian island to call attention to the plight of migrants.

“While the world frequently ignores them and regards them as ‘nobodies,’ Pope Francis called us to see they are not only ‘somebody’ but connected to everybody and even the body of Christ,” Father Groody said.

In Pope Francis’ encyclical on fraternity and social friendship, Fratelli Tutti, the pope offered “a vision of building a more just, humane and peaceful world that unites everyone regardless of nationality, culture or religion,” Father Groody said. “He promoted a vision of faith that speaks to our common fraternal bonds, irrespective of nationality, culture or religion.”

At its core, Father Groody said, Pope Francis’ vision of faith has been a relational vision, one attuned especially to our integral connection to all creation.

“In Ladauto si’, his encyclical on the environment, he critiqued unbridled consumerism,” Father Groody said. “He illuminated how the care of creation is a moral and spiritual responsibility that calls forth a collective response to our times’ social and environmental crises.”

As the first pope elected from Latin America, his vision has been genuinely Catholic, Father Groody said.

“In his appointments, he sought to promote the universal message of the Gospel by concretizing a global vision for the Church,” Father Groody said. “While he started with the College of Cardinals, primarily comprised of people from Europe, he has appointed 176 cardinals from 76 countries since his election.

“Francis’ relational vision has been a fresh presentation of an age-old calling. It taps into a deep spiritual journey that transforms our hearts, communities and world. Ultimately, he has called us to live in a way that reflects the God of Life and to build a civilization of love.”

ND Expert John McGreevy: Pope Francis, as first pope from Global South, was ‘hugely meaningful’

2025-04-21T06:40:00-04:00

John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, is an expert on the history of Catholicism. He focuses his research on both American and global religion and politics and has authored four books and numerous articles on religious and political history. His most recent work is “Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis.”

“Pope Francis was the first pope from the Global South, now Catholicism’s demographic center, and that has been hugely meaningful,” McGreevy said. “This is reflected in his focus on the poor — a core theme of Latin American theology since the 1970s — and on migrants and the environment. It is also reflected in his commitment to ‘inculturation’ of the liturgy and Catholic life into local, often Indigenous cultures, as well as his restrictions on the use of the Latin Mass.”

According to McGreevy, Pope Francis also did more than any predecessor to “diminish the monarchical dimensions of the papacy.”

“His informal personal style, the willingness to carry his own luggage and live in Santa Marta, all reflected a caution about the idea of the pope as a prince of sorts,” McGreevy stated. “He is continuing the legacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI here, but in a much more pronounced way.

“Finally, he began through the process of synodality a new way for Catholics to talk about the issues that divide them or new challenges. The impact of this mechanism is uncertain; but it seems unlikely to be stopped entirely.”

CANCELED: University to host Cardinal Pedro Barreto of Peru and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana as part of Notre Dame Forum

2025-04-17T15:30:00-04:00

Leer en español

DUE TO THE PASSING OF POPE FRANCIS, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

As part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, S.J., of Peru and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana will visit the University of Notre Dame to participate in a conversation with President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., at 11:30 a.m. April 25 in the Smith Ballroom of the Morris Inn. The conversation is open to the public and will also be livestreamed for both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking audiences.

Titled “10 Years After Laudato si’: Faith, Anthropocene, and Justice in the Global South,” the event will reflect on Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on care for our common home in the context of this year’s Notre Dame Forum theme, “What do we owe each other?” In recent years, during speeches and in Laudate Deum, a 2023 addendum to Laudato si’, Pope Francis has discussed a growing concern about the increasing impact of human activities on God’s creation and the climate, signs of what some earth system scientists have described as a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

Cardinal Barreto and Cardinal Turkson will discuss the outsized impact of climate change on communities in the Global South, how those communities are developing strategies for resilience and how the Anthropocene epoch affects the way we think about justice, the planet and the Church.

Cardinal Barreto, the archbishop emeritus of Huancayo, Peru, currently serves as president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, a new international body linked to the Holy See. In this role, he promotes the recognition and appreciation of the charisms of all members of the people of God with an Amazonian identity, fostering a more participatory and synodal Church. He was named a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2018, after serving as archbishop of Huancayo since 2004. A Jesuit priest since his ordination in 1971, Cardinal Barreto has dedicated his life to pastoral care, promotion of integral ecology and protection of Indigenous communities.

Cardinal Turkson has served as the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences since 2022. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated as archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, who also made him the first cardinal archbishop of Ghana in 2003. The Holy Father has appointed him to numerous roles, including president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 2009 to 2017 and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development from 2017 to 2021. Cardinal Turkson, a champion of human rights and sustainable human development, has served as a religious peacebuilder in numerous politically volatile situations on the African continent.

The event will also serve as the culmination of a conference titled “Anthropocene ND conference,” organized by Julia Adeney Thomas, a professor of history, and Brad Gregory, the Henkels Family College Professor of History.

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

CANCELADO: La Universidad recibirá al cardenal Pedro Barreto de Perú y al cardenal Peter Turkson de Ghana en el marco del Foro de Notre Dame

2025-04-17T15:30:00-04:00

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ESTE EVENTO HA SIDO CANCELADO DEBIDO AL FALLECIMIENTO DE SU SANTIDAD EL PAPA FRANCISCO.

Como parte del Foro de Notre Dame 2024-25, el cardenal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, SJ, del Perú y el cardenal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, de Ghana, visitarán la Universidad de Notre Dame para participar en una conversación con el rector, Reverendo Robert A. Dowd, CSC, el 25 de abril a las 11:30 am, en el salón Smith Ballroom del Morris Inn. La conversación está abierta al público y también se transmitirá en vivo para el público tanto hispanohablante como anglófono.

Titulado “10 años después del Laudato si': Fe, antropoceno y justicia en el Sur Global”, el evento reflexionará sobre la encíclica de 2015 del Papa Francisco sobre el cuidado de nuestro hogar común en el contexto del tema del Foro de Notre Dame de este año, “¿Qué nos debemos unos a otros?”. En los últimos años, durante sus discursos y en el Laudate Deum, una adenda de 2023 al Laudato si', el Papa Francisco ha abordado una creciente preocupación por el impacto cada vez mayor de las actividades humanas en la creación de Dios y el clima, signos de lo que algunos científicos del sistema terrestre han descrito como una nueva era geológica: el Antropoceno.

El Cardenal Barreto y el Cardenal Turkson discutirán el impacto descomunal del cambio climático en las comunidades del Sur Global, la manera en que esas comunidades están desarrollando estrategias de resiliencia y cómo la era del Antropoceno afecta la forma en que pensamos sobre la justicia, el planeta y la Iglesia.

El cardenal Barreto, arzobispo emérito de Huancayo, Perú, se desempeña actualmente como presidente de la Conferencia Eclesial de la Amazonía, un nuevo organismo internacional vinculado a la Santa Sede. En esta función, promueve el reconocimiento y apreciación de los caracteres de todos los miembros del pueblo de Dios con identidad amazónica, fomentando una Iglesia más participativa y sinodal. Fue nombrado cardenal por el Papa Francisco en 2018, luego de servir como arzobispo de Huancayo desde 2004. Sacerdote jesuita desde su ordenación en 1971, el cardenal Barreto ha dedicado su vida al cuidado pastoral, a la promoción de la ecología integral y a la protección de las comunidades indígenas.

El cardenal Turkson se desempeña como canciller de la Academia Pontificia de Ciencias y de la Academia Pontificia de Ciencias Sociales desde 2022. Fue ordenado sacerdote en 1975 y consagrado arzobispo de Cape Coast en 1992 por el Papa Juan Pablo II, quien también lo convirtió en el primer cardenal arzobispo de Ghana en 2003. El Santo Padre lo ha nombrado para numerosos cargos, entre ellos, presidente del Pontificio Consejo para la Justicia y la Paz de 2009 a 2017 y prefecto del Dicasterio para el Servicio del Desarrollo Humano Integral de 2017 a 2021. El cardenal Turkson, defensor de los derechos humanos y del desarrollo humano sostenible, ha actuado como constructor de paz religioso en numerosas situaciones políticamente volátiles en el continente africano.

El evento también servirá como culminación de una conferencia titulada “Conferencia de ND sobre el Antropoceno”, organizada por Julia Adeney Thomas, profesora de historia, y Brad Gregory, profesor de historia del Henkels Family College.

Contacto de prensa: Carrie Gates, Directora Asociada de Relaciones con los Medios, C.Gates@nd.edu, +1-574-993-9220

Notre Dame to confer six honorary degrees at Commencement

2025-04-10T10:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame will confer honorary degrees on five distinguished leaders in science, business, literature and media at its 180th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18. A sixth honorary degree will be bestowed on Adm. Christopher Grady, the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will deliver the principal Commencement address.

The honorees are:

Dr. Rafat Ansari

Dr. Rafat Ansari (doctor of science)

Dr. Rafat Ansari, a South Bend oncologist and hematologist, has been an extraordinary community leader for more than four decades. Ansari, who grew up in Pakistan, attended medical school at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences before coming to the U.S. to complete his medical residency. In 1984, Ansari helped found the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, a research nonprofit that streamlines the clinical trials process for cancer patients. Inspired by their daughter, Ansari and his wife, Dr. Zoreen Ansari, funded the launch of the Sonya Ansari Center for Autism in 2008, which supports the flourishing of those with autism and their families through a wide range of services. Ansari was also instrumental in the creation of the center at Notre Dame that bears his family’s name, the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, dedicated to studying, learning from and collaborating with religious communities worldwide. In recognition of his many contributions to the community, he was inducted in the South Bend Community Hall of Fame.

Stephen Brogan

Stephen Brogan (doctor of laws)

Stephen Brogan is the former managing partner of Jones Day, an international law firm with a broad and extensive law practice in complex litigation, including securities, banking, contests for corporate control, corporate criminal investigations and product liability matters. During his tenure as managing partner, Brogan was instrumental in expanding the firm’s commitment to pro bono work. Prior to becoming partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Washington, D.C., office, he served as deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice for two years. He returned to the firm and was named managing partner in 2002. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law 91��Ƶ. Brogan has served as a member of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees since 2007, and was a member of the University’s Board of Fellows, its highest governing body, from 2020 to 2024.

David Brooks

David Brooks (doctor of laws)

Renowned author and political and cultural commentator David Brooks was born in Toronto and raised in New York City. Brooks began his career as a police reporter in Chicago and, in 1986, joined The Wall Street Journal, rising to become an editor of the paper’s opinion page. He joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in 2003, where he has written about politics, culture and the social sciences and has been a prominent voice advocating for democracy, civility and strategies for helping all people to be deeply seen and known. He has been a frequent commentator on “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (later called “PBS News Hour”) and has written six nonfiction books. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves as senior adviser at the Leadership and Society Initiative at the University of Chicago, where he was previously a member of the school’s board of trustees. When he was a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, he taught courses in philosophical humility. Brooks graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Teresa Lambe

Teresa Lambe (doctor of science)

Teresa Lambe played a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 as a principal investigator in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine program. She codesigned the vaccine, led preclinical studies and spearheaded the research required for regulatory approval. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is estimated to have saved more than 6 million lives in 2021 alone. Lambe, the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford, currently focuses her research on developing and testing vaccines against a number of outbreak pathogens, including Ebola virus, Marburg virus disease and coronaviruses. A passionate advocate for women in STEM fields, Lambe has sought to support future leaders through the Teresa Lambe Bursary Fund established in her hometown of Kilcullen, Ireland. Her scientific excellence has been recognized with numerous honors, including an honorary appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her service to sciences and public health in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honors and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2022. In 2024, she was named a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Lambe completed a joint honors bachelor’s degree in pharmacology and genetics and a doctoral degree at University College Dublin.

Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott (doctor of letters)

Alice McDermott, born in Brooklyn, New York, to first-generation Irish American parents, is the author of nine critically acclaimed and New York Times-bestselling novels and a collection of essays. She received the National Book Award for her 1998 novel “Charming Billy” and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times, for her books “That Night,” “At Weddings and Wakes” and “After This.” In 2013, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and in 2024, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among numerous prizes, McDermott is the recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters and the Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award from Irish American Writers & Artists Inc. Her latest novel, “Absolution,” received the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. She served for many years as the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University before stepping down in 2019. McDermott received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master’s of arts from the University of New Hampshire.

Editor's note: This article has been updated. Sister Rafaella Petrini, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Governorate of Vatican City State, was also scheduled to receive an honorary degree but, due to the passing of Pope Francis, Sr. Petrini has elected to defer the honor until May 2026.

Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, to receive 2025 Laetare Medal

2025-03-30T09:00:00-04:00

Kerry Alys Robinson, the president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities USA, has been selected to receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2025 Laetare Medal — the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics — at Notre Dame’s 180th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18 (Sunday).

Founded in 1910, CCUSA is a national membership organization that supports and represents 168 Catholic Charities agencies across the United States. Collectively, the Catholic Charities network each year serves more than 15 million vulnerable people, regardless of their faith or background, through food and nutrition programs, affordable housing, disaster relief and a variety of other humanitarian services.

“Kerry Alys Robinson has dedicated her career to serving the Church, standing in solidarity with those on the margins so that they may experience the abundant love of God,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “In awarding her the Laetare Medal, the University celebrates her boundless compassion, visionary leadership and inspiring example of faith-filled service. By her example, Kerry inspires us all to dedicate our lives more fully to answering the Gospel call.”

Prior to joining CCUSA in 2023, Robinson spent nearly two decades at Leadership Roundtable, a nonprofit organization that brings laity, religious and clergy together to help the Church heal and move forward in the wake of the abuse crisis.

She served as founding executive director when the organization was formed in 2005 and later as its global ambassador and executive partner. Leadership Roundtable, which seeks to build a leadership culture that is responsible, transparent and accountable, has impacted more than 75 percent of dioceses across the U.S. and influenced actions at the Holy See, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other bishops’ conferences abroad.

“I have always loved the Church and held its potential in the highest esteem,” Robinson said. “The Church’s explicit religious mission has formed the person I am. That it is the largest humanitarian network in the world renders me forever committed to its health and vitality.”

Robinson is also a lifelong advocate for women, youth and laity to take on greater leadership roles in the Church. In 2012, she was invited by the Vatican to advise on how to empower and engage women leaders.

“I have worked to strengthen the Church and its myriad apostolates and ministries all of my adult life, from the age of 14,” Robinson said. “Promoting the role of women in positions of meaningful leadership in the Church and at the tables of decision-making, as well as being an advocate for young adults, has been a consistent commitment of mine. We are all myopic in our own narrowly defined groups. We need a diversity of perspectives and experiences to be healthy, whole and better informed.”

The great-granddaughter of renowned philanthropists John and Helena Raskob, Robinson was born to a family with an 80-year history of serving the Church at the local, national and international levels. She became a member of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities as a teen.

“Five generations of our family have served as volunteers in the foundation, and through that experience, we are exposed to the very best of what the Church does through the example of our applicants who are women and men, ordained, religious and laypeople,” she said. “Their commitment to helping, healing and caring for those in need rendered them compelling role models whose example deepened my faith and inspired me to study theology and Catholic social teaching. I am grateful for so much of what our faith offers.”

Robinson, who began her career as director of development for the Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University, is also the author of “Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy, and A Spiritual Call to Service.” She earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and theology from Georgetown University and a master of arts in religion with a concentration in ethics from Yale Divinity 91��Ƶ.

In recognition of her servant leadership and impact on the Catholic Church in the United States, she has received 10 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the 2024 Spirit of Saint Francis Award from Catholic Extension Society and the Cardinal Bernardin Award from Catholic Common Ground Initiative at Catholic Theological Union.

The Laetare (pronounced lay-TAH-ray) Medal is so named because its recipient is announced each year in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent on the Church calendar. “Laetare,” the Latin word for “rejoice,” is the first word in the entrance antiphon of the Mass that Sunday, which ritually anticipates the celebration of Easter. The medal bears the Latin inscription, “Magna est veritas et praevalebit” (“Truth is mighty, and it shall prevail”).

Established at Notre Dame in 1883, the Laetare Medal was conceived as an American counterpart of the Golden Rose, a papal honor that antedates the 11th century. The medal has been awarded annually at Notre Dame to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Previous recipients of the Laetare Medal include Civil War Gen. William Rosecrans, Governor of New York Alfred Smith, operatic tenor John McCormack, President John F. Kennedy, Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, novelist Walker Percy, Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner (awarded jointly), Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, labor activist Monsignor George G. Higgins, jazz composer Dave Brubeck, singer Aaron Neville and actor Martin Sheen.

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

Acclaimed scholar and author Danielle Allen to speak at Notre Dame Forum event

2025-03-20T14:30:00-04:00

Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard University, will deliver a public talk as part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum at 4 p.m. March 27 in McKenna Hall, Rooms 215/216, and via livestream.

The lecture, titled “Bringing Democracy Back from the Brink: A Strategic Vision and a Call to Action,” is co-sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ, part of the University’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, and will also serve as the 31st annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy.

Allen will reflect on this year’s Notre Dame Forum theme, “What do we owe each other?” as she explores ways to revitalize democracy in the United States. She will also discuss why she believes the path to health lies in rebuilding a supermajority of people from all political ideologies who are ready to work together to support constitutional democracy.

University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., will offer words of welcome, and Asher Kaufman, the John M. Regan, Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute, will introduce Allen and the Hesburgh Lecture series. Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ, will facilitate a discussion after the lecture, followed by a reception and book signing.

A professor of political philosophy, ethics and public policy, Allen is also a renowned author and advocate. In addition to writing and editing numerous books on democracy, she is a contributing columnist at The Atlantic and wrote a column on constitutional democracy for the Washington Post from 2008 to 2024.

In 2020, Allen was awarded the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which rewards scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. The Library of Congress recognized Allen for “her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

Allen is the founder and chairperson of the board for the nonprofit organization Partners in Democracy, which seeks to scale up civic education curricula and democracy renovation policies. She served as chair of the Mellon Foundation from 2015 to 2019, and currently she chairs the board of the nonprofit FairVote and co-chairs the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her team’s policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order. Allen was also a lead author on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a framework for securing excellence in history and civic education for all learners in grades K-12. Released in 2021, the framework was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education.

Since its establishment in 2005, each year the Notre Dame Forum invites campus-wide dialogue about issues of importance to the University, the nation and the larger world.

Allen’s lecture is also the 2025 Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy. This annual lecture was established by the Kroc Institute in 1995 to honor the late Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame, a global champion of peace and justice and the founder of the Kroc Institute. Each year a distinguished scholar, policymaker and/or peace advocate is invited by the Kroc Institute director to deliver a major lecture on an issue related to ethics and public policy in the context of peace and justice.

Adm. Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to deliver Notre Dame’s 2025 Commencement address

2025-03-18T11:00:00-04:00

Adm. Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Adm. Christopher Grady, the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be the principal speaker and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 180th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18, Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., announced today.

Grady, currently serving as the 12th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s second-highest-ranking military officer, graduated from Notre Dame in 1984 and received his commission through Notre Dame’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. Since Feb. 21, he has also served as the Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. In May 2021, he was named the Navy’s “Old Salt,” an award that recognizes the extensive knowledge and expertise of the longest-serving surface warfare officer on active duty.

“A true American hero, Admiral Grady has demonstrated tremendous courage, visionary leadership and outstanding dedication to public service over his distinguished career, which spans more than 40 years,” Father Dowd said. “It is a privilege to have him address our graduates who will, no doubt, be inspired both by his words and by his example.”

Prior to his current appointment, Grady served as Commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the naval component commander to both U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Strategic Command. His military career also includes service in command of the USS Chief, USS Ardent, USS Cole, Destroyer Squadron 22, Carrier Strike Group One, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, the U.S. Sixth Fleet, and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO.

On shore, he has served in policy and strategy positions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations staff, Chief of Legislative Affairs, and National Security Council.

A native of Newport, Rhode Island, Grady also holds master’s degrees from Georgetown University, where he participated as a fellow in foreign service at the Edmund A. Walsh 91��Ƶ of Foreign Service, and the National War College.

Grady has received many awards for his service, among them the Distinguished Service Medal; Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit and Meritorious Service Medal, both with four gold stars; Joint Service Commendation Medal; Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with three gold stars and with Combat Valor; and the Joint Service Achievement Medal.

Despite his demanding schedule, Grady continues to give back to his alma mater, supporting Notre Dame’s fencing team (Grady was a three-time monogram winner and captain of the fencing team as an undergraduate student), mentoring the University’s Naval ROTC unit, and serving as a guest speaker for Notre Dame’s International Security Center. He is the 2019 recipient of the Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award from the Notre Dame Alumni Association, conferred annually on a graduate who has distinguished themselves in military service.

Most recently, Grady returned to campus in September, in connection with Father Dowd’s inauguration as the University’s 18th president, to serve as a featured speaker in the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, which explores the question “What do we owe each other?” He discussed peacebuilding and diplomacy in a fractured world with former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican and former U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly.

When asked in that conversation what gives him hope, Grady said, “It has to be a pursuit of truth.

“And I think what Notre Dame does better than anybody else is it enables our students to get after the truth, to be a discerning consumer of all of the various things that are out there.”

Grady and his wife, Christine, are the parents of three children, two of whom are Notre Dame graduates. One of his sons is a U.S. Navy veteran, representing the fifth generation of naval officers in the Grady family.

The 2025 University Commencement Ceremony on May 18 will be held in Notre Dame Stadium beginning at 9 a.m. with the academic procession.

University of Notre Dame wins award for excellence in campus internationalization

2025-02-12T15:30:00-05:00

In recognition of its outstanding commitment to internationalization both on campus and across the globe, the University of Notre Dame has been selected to receive the 2025 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization.

Named for the late Sen. Paul Simon, a longtime proponent of international education, the award is given by NAFSA: Association of International Educators to honor excellence in integrating international education throughout all facets of university and college campuses.

Notre Dame — which has 12 global locations, 92 study abroad programs, and active research projects in 67 countries — was one of only five universities to receive the award this year.

“At Notre Dame, our global engagement strengthens our research programs, prepares our students to be capable and compassionate leaders, and enhances our Catholic mission,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “ Since its founding, Notre Dame has been committed to being a great force for good in the world.”

Notre Dame Global leads the University’s internationalization efforts, which are focused on fostering an inclusive global community throughout campus, in addition to offering integrative learning experiences, collaborative global research and equitable international partnerships, said Michael Pippenger, vice president and associate provost for internationalization.

“This award is a testament to the time, talent, energy and passion contributed over many years by our colleagues on campus and across Notre Dame’s global network,” Pippenger said. “This work will continue to propel the University into becoming an ever more global institution, and reinforce our shared belief that at Notre Dame, everyone has a role to play in creating a welcoming community that allows all to flourish.”

From 1998 to 2023, Notre Dame increased its percentage of international students in the first-year class from 1 percent to 8 percent, and as part of its new strategic framework, the University has committed to continuing to raise that percentage. To that end, the University announced its Pathways to Notre Dame program last fall. The program expands Notre Dame’s need-blind policy to include both domestic and international students — making the University one of only nine institutions in the U.S. to do so.

The University has also received national recognition for its commitment to internationalization and global education from the Institute of International Education, consistently appearing in the institute’s top 10 rankings for study abroad participation for more than two decades. For the 2022-23 academic year, study abroad participation among Notre Dame undergraduates increased by more than 10 percentage points from the previous year — from 77 to 87.5 percent.

Additional recipients of the 2025 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization include Pennsylvania State University, San Diego State University, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia. Awardees will be honored during NAFSA’s annual conference this spring. With more than 10,000 members and international educators worldwide, NAFSA is the largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education and exchange.

Empowering through education: A pathway out of poverty for children in India

2025-02-03T13:25:00-05:00

When Anaya was in third grade in a primary school outside Hyderabad, India, she was told she would have to arrive an hour before the other students each day to clean the classrooms and toilets. Once she reached her class, she was often isolated, bullied, and overlooked.

Because she was born into a tribal community, Anaya was defined as a second-class student who would never rise above manual labor status.

Although the caste system in India was formally abolished in 1950, the effects of a hierarchy that was in place for more than 3,000 years are still evident today. Many people in India still adhere to the view that those born into the impoverished lower castes and tribal groups are not equal and can never achieve upward mobility.

After years of isolation and mistreatment at school, Anaya entered a residential school specifically for girls from vulnerable groups in fifth grade. Her first semester was difficult. Four hours away from home and feeling homesick, she often cried at night and had trouble concentrating in the classroom. When her father visited, she begged to go home.

But all that changed for Anaya in sixth grade—when Project Sampoorna was implemented in her school.

Read the story

Editor’s note: The names of the Indian students throughout this story have been changed to protect their privacy.

Notre Dame to celebrate 10th annual Walk the Walk Week

2025-01-22T13:30:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame’s 10th annual Walk the Walk Week, planned each year around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, will take place Jan. 27 (Monday) through Feb. 1 (Saturday). The week will feature a series of events, exhibits and discussions designed to invite members of the Notre Dame community to reflect — both individually and collectively — on how they can take an active role in making the University more welcoming and participate in building the Beloved Community at Notre Dame and beyond.

The week’s events will begin with an annual Candlelight Prayer Service at 7 p.m. Monday in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, with University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., presiding. The service, which is open to the public and will be livestreamed, will feature a keynote reflection from 2024 Laetare Medalist Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, chief executive officer of Feeding America.

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America

Babineaux-Fontenot, a leader and advocate dedicated to combating hunger and strengthening communities, has led Feeding America — now the nation’s largest charity — since 2018. She previously served on Walmart’s leadership team, most recently as executive vice president and global treasurer.

The prayer service will be followed by a candlelight march to the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue and a dessert reception in the Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the LaFortune Student Center.

A campus-wide donation drive is also part of this year’s Walk the Walk Week. Notre Dame faculty, staff and students are encouraged to donate new supplies including personal hygiene items, diapers, socks, and winter hats and gloves to support individuals in the South Bend community facing hardship and housing insecurity. Dropboxes have been placed around campus, and donations will be accepted until Tuesday.

On Feb. 1 (Saturday), all students — undergraduate and graduate — are invited to gather in Duncan Student Center to sort the donations and package care kits for four local organizations: The Center for the Homeless, Hope Ministries, Our Lady of the Road and St. Margaret’s House. 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.

The week will include more than 20 additional campus events sponsored by various University departments and student organizations. A full list is available at walkthewalk.nd.edu.

Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture hosts annual summit for 100-Mile Coalition

2024-12-04T11:00:00-05:00

Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, presents during a charrette in downtown Elkhart (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

On Saturday (Dec. 7), the University of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture will host its second annual summit for the 100-Mile Coalition. Created by the school’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, the coalition comprises community leaders from cities within a 100-mile radius of the University.

The 100-Mile Coalition seeks to bring together city and nonprofit organization leaders who are working toward solutions related to housing shortages, disinvested communities, failed infrastructure and stagnant economic growth, as well as talent and workforce retention.

“We are living in a unique time where cities with place-based visions are able to unlock millions of dollars in grant funding,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the 91��Ƶ of Architecture. “The goal of this event is to assist communities in learning how to implement projects that drive catalytic development, attract investment and serve as models of positive growth.”

The 91��Ƶ of Architecture launched the coalition last year with participants from the cities of South Bend, Gary and La Porte in Indiana, as well as representatives from the Health Foundation of La Porte, the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County and the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The summit has expanded this year to include representatives of regional housing nonprofits, community foundations and county representatives.

“The coalition has formed a network to share knowledge and solutions for common planning and development issues,” said Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative. “The case studies and research generated will offer support to communities both nationally and globally.”

The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative began in 2021 and has since conducted eight Dean’s Charrettes throughout northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. It seeks to provide ideas and opportunities for partnership among participating municipalities. Each charrette comprises a series of community listening sessions followed by a weeklong public planning and design session. It results in a final report with recommendations and action items for community leaders to begin to rebuild and revitalize their city’s downtown and neighborhoods.

With the goal of growing the network of participants, the summit will include keynote addresses and roundtable discussions post-charrette on key topics that include next steps, creating action plans, overcoming barriers and economic and physical changes.

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

‘Show kindness and compassion’: In Fr. TED Talks, Notre Dame community explores what we owe each other

2024-11-05T15:00:00-05:00

University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., speaks at the Fr. TED Talks event on Oct. 29. (Photo by Matt Cashore / University of Notre Dame)

Last Monday and Tuesday evenings (Oct. 28 and 29), hundreds gathered under a tent on the Library Lawn to attend a Notre Dame Forum event titled “Fr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find Inspiring.”

The event featured a series of eight speakers from the Notre Dame community, culminating in a talk by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. Each explored the question at the heart of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum: “What Do We Owe Each Other?”

The two-night festival, co-sponsored by the Office of the President in partnership with the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, was named in honor of legendary University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. The idea for the talks originated with the institute’s undergraduate core team.

“Father Bob has asked us to spend this year thinking as a campus community about what we owe each other — a question that is at the very heart of the Catholic social tradition,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, who introduced the event.

“While many of the Forum events feature speakers from outside of our community, with this event, we want to shine the spotlight on all of the incredible insights we have right here within our Notre Dame family. So tonight, all of you, our whole community, you are the stars of the Forum. Fr. TED Talks are a chance for us to ask the question of what we owe each other a little bit more personally and a little bit more face to face.”

The event was emceed by Iliana Contreras, the young alumni/student program director in Notre Dame’s Alumni Association. Each night included four 10-minute talks touching on common themes and values including dignity, responsibility, community, solidarity, home, family and love.

Featured speakers included Notre Dame alumni Nathaniel “Nano” Burke, who spoke about an 80-day, coast-to-coast bicycle trip he took with a friend and the “radical generosity” they received from strangers along the way; Alex Sejdinaj, whose encounter with a Notre Dame adviser encouraged her to pursue her passions and ultimately led her to found South Bend Code 91��Ƶ — an organization dedicated to making technology education accessible to learners of all ages; and Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

O’Connell spoke about his work with the homeless population, particularly one man named Michael, whom he had helped to care for for decades. “I think we owe each other to stick with each other,” O’Connell said. “It’s walking with people through the thick and the thin, the bad and the good, but being there with them.

“We used to think it was the outcomes we were looking for, and we stopped thinking like that. We’re in it to take care of people and take care of each other — no matter what happens — because standing with each other is what it’s all about.”

Three Notre Dame undergraduate students also shared insights related to their research and personal experiences. Toni Akintola, a junior majoring in computer science and economics, focused on using technology to transform the world and uplift the vulnerable. Artificial intelligence, in particular, he said, has the potential to eradicate institutional instabilities, raise the standard of health care and end educational inequity globally. Junior Meera Bhakta, a science preprofessional studies major, shared her experience conducting research in Ethiopia on the decision-making factors behind women seeking treatment for breast cancer and how it helped her to understand that “being fully known and truly loved is a fundamental human need.” Monica Caponigro, a senior majoring in film, television and theater, explored how an improvisational theater technique called “yes, and” can be used to demonstrate the power of active listening to cultivate deeper relationships.

And Cecilia Lucero, director of the Balfour-Hesburgh Scholars program and an advising professor, centered her talk on the healing power of storytelling. She spoke of seeing firsthand the power of sharing one’s experiences — through an oral history project she encountered while volunteering, where refugees were able to process trauma by sharing their stories, and through the annual student-produced “Show Some Skin” monologues at Notre Dame, for which she is a faculty adviser.

Father Dowd concluded the event by reflecting on two interrelated crises the world faces today — a crisis of civility and a crisis of sustainability — and proposing action steps to address both issues. He encouraged the audience to take four key actions: to develop a greater awareness of the problems, to take time to reflect and be in touch with the spiritual, to align actions with intentions and to promote change in positive ways.

In his talk, Father Dowd cited two of his personal heroes, Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., noting that both helped to create a more civil, humane and just society.

“So how do we do this? Show kindness and compassion, making sure that we’re not engaged in self-righteous behavior that demonizes others,” Father Dowd said. “Collaborate. Be willing to work together and even find common cause with those with whom you don’t agree. Take the long view. Don’t be hoodwinked by short-term objectives.

“Notre Dame is a place where we hope that all of our research and all the teaching and learning that goes on here makes the world more humane and just, more civil and sustainable. Notre Dame is a place where we believe that spirituality is important, and hopefully, everyone here at Notre Dame feels an invitation to get in touch with the spiritual — that deepest part of ourselves that calls us to turn outward in service of others.”

A reception on the lawn followed the talks on both evenings, with performances by student bands Block 250 on Monday and the Mourning Doves on Tuesday.

Recordings of the talks are available at forum.nd.edu.

Notre Dame Forum to present ‘Fr. TED Talks’ on Catholic social tradition, featuring President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., and Dr. Jim O’Connell

2024-10-17T13:15:00-04:00

The Hesburgh Library (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

Honoring the legacy of legendary University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum will host “Fr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find Inspiring,” a two-night festival on Oct. 28 and 29.

The event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. both days on the Library Lawn and will feature a series of short talks exploring how the pillars of Catholic social tradition animate our lives together, as part of this year’s Notre Dame Forum theme, “What Do We Owe Each Other?”

“Catholic social thought gives us robust tools to think about how to engage with people whose perspectives are different from our own, and how we might promote healing in the midst of suffering, division and injustice,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “I look forward to hearing the various talks as we reflect on our responsibilities to one another as individuals and as part of the Notre Dame community.”

Co-sponsored by the Office of the President, in partnership with the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, the talks are free and open to the public.

“The Catholic social tradition is the beating heart of Notre Dame’s community, and we’re thrilled to partner with Fr. Dowd and the Notre Dame Forum on a two-day festival to celebrate all of the ways this spirit inspires us,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative.

“We hope that this will become another chapter in Notre Dame’s tradition of building up our hearts alongside our minds.”

The idea for the event originated with the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good’s undergraduate core team, explained Adam Gustine, associate director of signature course fellowships, education and formation. “I was impressed with the students’ commitment to highlighting voices from every corner of campus, bringing unique perspectives to the question of what we owe each other.”

Each night will feature four 10-minute Fr. TED Talks, ending with addresses by Notre Dame alumnus Dr. Jim O’Connell on Monday and Father Dowd on Tuesday.

O’Connell, the president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical 91��Ƶ, has dedicated his career to caring for the homeless population. He has served as the national program director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is the editor of “The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets.”

In addition to Father Dowd and O’Connell, six speakers were selected through an application process open to all members of the Notre Dame community. The speakers include alumni Nathaniel “Nano” Burke and Alex Sedinaj; undergraduate students Toni Akintola, Meera Bhakta and Monica Caponigro; and Cecilia Lucero, director of the University’s Balfour-Hesburgh Scholars Program.

The event will be emceed by Iliana Contreras, the young alumni/student program director in Notre Dame’s Alumni Association. A short reception will follow on both nights, including refreshments and performances by student bands.

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