When Lizbeth Cordova Lopez looked over a list of colleges from her high school counselor, a crooked stroke of a highlighter drew her attention to one school: the University of Notre Dame.
At the time, Cordova Lopez, who is from Sylmar, California, thought she would go to nearby UCLA. But her counselor had encouraged her to consider colleges outside her home state as well and highlighted various schools.
“I don’t know if her marker ran out or if the paper shifted, but the highlighting was jagged,” she said. “And, I just impulsively thought, ‘Oh, I’ll apply to that school — maybe there’s a reason this one stands out from the rest.’”
That one stray mark became the start of Cordova Lopez’s Notre Dame journey.
As Cordova Lopez learned more about the University, she was drawn to its Catholic identity and values — but it was her first visit to campus for admitted students day that helped her finalize the decision.
“Stepping onto this campus for the first time was the most magical feeling,” she said. “Everyone was so welcoming, and everyone we met was doing such incredible things. After you experience Notre Dame, it’s hard to go back because it shows you there’s so much more.”
That fall, she and 12 members of her family — grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins — drove in two cars from Southern California to campus to help her move in.
Four years later, her family will return, even larger in number, to cheer her on at Commencement.
Cordova Lopez, a major with a supplemental major in , has made the most of those four years. But now, as a mentor to first-year students at Notre Dame through the , she has one key piece of advice for them: Trust that the things you’re passionate about will lead you somewhere meaningful.
“Once you start doing that, it opens doors that you can’t even imagine,” she said. “So, take the classes that seem interesting, follow your passions and then build from there.”
For Cordova Lopez, that meant starting from a personal experience that shaped her childhood: When she was 3 years old, her father was incarcerated and spent the next 13 years in prison.
“I wanted to understand more about how the system works and why — as well as what happens to the children of those who are incarcerated,” she said. “Those children are at a much higher risk of dropping out of school and are much less likely to attend college. And that’s something I’d like to change.”
Cordova Lopez, a first-generation college student and , began researching incarceration the summer after her first year, as she worked with women in a correctional facility in Ohio and in transitional housing. The internship, offered by the University’s , allowed her to gain hands-on experience in reentry programming and inspired her to delve deeper.
As a sophomore, she took a class called Mass Incarceration Research Lab and began conducting research in the and then the . The following summer, she traveled to Norway with funding from the to explore the country’s unique approach to incarceration that focuses on rehabilitation and reintegration.
Her research experiences culminated in this year on the joint impact of parental and school involvement on children’s academic resilience, particularly in the context of economic hardship.
The summer after her junior year, Cordova Lopez studied abroad in South Africa, where she explored themes of apartheid and othering, and in China, examining the philosophy of science.
She has also been deeply involved in the local community, working with children in South Bend schools through the , volunteering at the and engaging with Campus Ministry’s . Her involvement began at Dismas House — a home for those in transition after prison — and has since grown into a role as an anchor intern, where she helps lead orientations that send students to service sites across the community.
After graduation, she will attend Stanford University to complete a master’s in policy, organization and leadership studies, through their graduate school of education, before pursuing a graduate program in clinical psychology.
“My goals in life are to start a nonprofit focused on children of incarcerated parents to help them gain access to equitable education and to help children navigate trauma and adversity,” she said. “Having one less parent always leaves some type of void, but I was lucky enough to have a lot of extra support from my family, and that helped so much. I want to focus my career on helping children who may not have that support system.”
The Notre Dame community has not only prepared her to reach those goals, she said, but — more importantly — has become a second family to her along the way.
“Notre Dame does a beautiful job of just being there for one another,” she said. “I’ve felt this overwhelming sense of love and support from everyone here from the beginning. And now, I want to take that feeling with me and help spread it wherever I go.
“Notre Dame has given me a sense of hope for my future — and for the future of the children I hope to serve someday.”