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“There’s something students can now say like, ‘oh, I’m a part of the golden generation’, like when they go back home to their families. And that’s something really empowering to say and like to be a part of,” she said.
s chiederman also explains the positive change coming from this new initiative on campus.
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“We are trying to make it more of something to be proud of rather than something to be shameful of,” she said. “People don’t really talk about being first gen and so we’ve wanted to make it very visible — something that you wear on your sleeve very proudly rather than something that’s just like an aspect of you that you don’t really bring up with people.”
‘Golden Generation’ posts episodes every month, trying to bring light to a new aspect of campus each time. Although the podcast has the central goal of helping first generation students navigate college, the members feel that there is something for all students.
“There hasn’t really been a podcast like ours at n otre d ame,” s chiederman said.
Contact Emma Duffy at eduffy5@nd.edu freshman year. Peters has covered events on campus ranging from supreme court justice visits to the death of Quarter d ogs. A former Knott h all resident, Peters is from Lake Forest, Illinois, and is currently seeking his degree for the spring semester at John c abot University in r ome, Italy. b eechert, a junior at n otre d ame from r ye, n ew York, is a neuroscience and behavior major with a minor in Journalism, e thics and d emocracy. A resident of Pasquerilla e ast h all, she currently serves as one of two n ew Writer e ditors in the news department. s ince joining The o bserver at the beginning of her sophomore year, she has covered a variety of campus events, including those at the n otre d ame’s London Global Gateway program during her Fall 2022 semester abroad.
“I’m excited to help The o bserver continue to inform the tri-campus,” Peters said.
“When I walked into my first meeting my sophomore year, I had no idea The o bserver would come to mean so much to me,” b eechert said. “I have so much love for the people, the organization and the work that we do. As Assistant m anaging e ditor, I hope to honor them all.” h ebda, a junior at n otre d ame, hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but calls b reen-Phillips her home on campus. s tudying economics, with minors in real estate and c atholic s ocial Tradition, h ebda joined The o bserver her sophomore year. s he currently serves as the v iewpoint e ditor while also cheering on the Fighting Irish as a v arsity c heerleader.
“ b ecoming a part of The o bserver has been such a special, and unexpected, experience here at n otre d ame,” h ebda said. “The opportunity to help lead this publication alongside such motivated and passionate student journalists is an incredible privilege, and I am honored to help further its legacy this upcoming term.” s ánchez c órdova is a junior majoring in political science with minors in Journalism, e thics and d emocracy and French and Francophone s tudies. h e is currently a sportswriter nguyen said she joined clubs like vsA and the Asian American Association (AAA) her first year of college, in order to appease her father’s fears that she would not make any vietnamese friends on campus. and has written for the department since his sophomore year, covering mostly fencing, baseball and soccer. h e also worked as the fall intern at n otre d ame m agazine, covering campus events like m ilkshake m ass and the Thom b rowne shoot last o ctober. A former Knott h all resident, s ánchez c órdova was born and raised in Guaynabo, Puerto r ico and is currently studying abroad at s ciences Po in Paris.
The show will also open with a performance by vanessa vo, a composer who blends vietnamese and Western music genres in her work. vo won an emmy award for composing the soundtrack of “bolinao 52” (2008), a documentary and has worked on the score for the oscar nominated documentary, “daughter from danang” (2002).
Junior viet dang is president of vsA and is one of the directors of the show commented on the importance of inviting vo to notre dame.
“This year, we’re inviting an outside artist, vanessa vo, to campus … this our first year doing that and we really want to show vietnamese excellence,” she said.
Forsophomorerosenguyen,another director of the show, cultural events like ‘notre dame by night’ have been a way to make sure she doesn’t lose her vietnamese culture while at college.
“I’m from oklahoma city … which has a big vietnamese population specifically … because the catholic church in oklahoma was taking in refugees during the vietnam War … so I was always surrounded by my vietnamese community growing up, though I would say that I’m pretty … Westernized,” she said.
“The o bserver has taught me so much in so little time,” s ánchez c órdova said. “I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to keep learning and growing with this newspaper as an Assistant m anaging e ditor. I can’t wait to return and get back to work.” nguyen also talked about how cultural shows like ‘notre dame by night’ can help students understand different regions of the world more deeply.
“one day that year, my grandma who lives with us [at home] called me and normally I’m fluent in vietnamese, but since I only speak the language with my grandma, the fact that I’d been so far away from her, meant I was struggling to speak. I think that something in me changed then … not being able to communicate made me think ‘oh my gosh, I can’t lose my culture’,” nguyen said.
“For example, the significance behind our cultural dances is that we traditionally use hats while rice farming and these hats are what protects people from … Uv rays. Going beyond that though, the show’s theme, ‘Tune in 4 Love’, touches on how people here in America and the Western world perceive love differently than in more eastern cultures,” nguyen said.
The show’s name ‘notre dame by night’ is a pun on the longrunning vietnamese reality music show ‘Paris by night’, according to nguyen.
“… It’s an iconic vietnamese show and they do skits, they do singing. I grew up with my parents having it on dvd … and the fact that our show is called ‘notre dame by night’, like only we would understand but it’s so funny and it rings so well.”
Contact Angela Mathew at amathew3@nd.edu