Print Edition of The Observer for Friday, May 18, 2017 (pt. 1)

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Volume 52, Issue 126 | FRIDAY, May 18, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

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The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

University plans Commencement ndsmcobserver.com P.O. Box 779, Notre Dame, IN 46556 024 South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 Editor-in-Chief Allan Joseph Courtney Becker Managing Editor Business Manager Megan Doyle Managing EditorJeff Liptak Tobias Hoonhout

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By MARIAH RUSH News Writer

The University’s 173rd Commencement ceremony will take place in Notre Dame Stadium on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. with 16 other diploma ceremonies to follow that afternoon at 2 p.m.

Chuck Hurley, the University registrar, said there will be 20 different ceremonies this weekend between the undergraduate, graduate and University ceremonies along with the Commencement Mass.

“3,096 total diplomas will be awarded, with 2,066 undergraduates, and 1,030 graduate diplomas given,” Hurley said.

Commencement was first moved to the Notre Dame stadium in 2010, Hurley said.

“The ceremony was in the stadium in the 1950s and then for a couple years in the ’60s. .. in the late 1960s they moved it to the Joyce Center,” Hurley said. “It was in the Joyce Center from then until 2009, and after 2009 we moved to the stadium because it was just so many folks wanting to attend Commencement.”

Hurley said having the main

ceremony in the stadium allows students to invite as many family members and guests as needed.

“A couple of years ago we had a student who was the first person in her family to graduate from college and she brought 90 family members to Commencement. So that was wonderful to be able to accommodate people in that way,” Hurley said.

While hosting graduation in Notre Dame Stadium has its benefits, there are certain downsides to hosting commencement outside, Hurley said.

“The complexity of the stadium of course is that we are outdoors and we are subject to weather,” Hurley said.

“So, we can run into a situation where we have to move inside to Purcell Pavilion if severe weather approaches, and then we are limited again in tickets. We do have ponchos for our graduates if it’s raining and we do remain in the stadium if it’s a light to moderate rain … umbrellas are allowed for guests if needed, but it’s going to be a bright day.”

This year’s ceremonies will be the first to utilize the buildings from the Campus Crossroads project, which opened in January 2018.

“Some of the 2 p.m. diploma

ceremonies will take place in Crossroads facilities — one in Corbett Family Hall and two in Duncan Student Center,” Hurley said. “That’s a big advantage simply because we can keep people for those afternoon ceremonies close to the stadium. It really helps out with our guests in particular with mobility issues because we don’t have to have them go as far.”

This year, the Commencement address will be given by Brazilian judge Sérgio Moro.

Hurley said he advises guests to arrive at the stadium anytime between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., but preferably earlier.

“The last two years we had Secret Service because we had Vice President [Joe] Biden and then Vice President [Mike] Pence,” Hurley said. “There’s no secret service this year so we just don’t have that element. The gates open at 8 a.m. commencement morning, and we do show a number of videos in the stadium prior to the procession that feature our graduating students, so I think it’s best to arrive as early as possible because then you get to see all the videos and graduating seniors.”

Contact Mariah Rush at mrush@nd.edu

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ND awards honorary degrees Observer Staff Report

Notre Dame will award six honorary degrees at Commencement May 20, the University announced in a press release April 5.

Judge Sérgio Moro, this year’s Commencement speaker, will be recognized with an honorary doctor of laws degree, along with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, William M. Goodyear, Kamal Hossain and Louise Richardson. In addition, Margaret Murnane will receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

Ordained a priest in 1975, Cupich was appointed a Cardinal in 2016, two years after Pope Francis named him archbishop of Chicago. He serves on the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Catholic Education, the release said, and is also a member of three U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committees.

Goodyear, a Notre Dame graduate and a Board of Trustees member

since 1996, served as head of Navigant Consulting for 12 years as chairman and chief executive officer. The release said Goodyear also held positions as president of Bank of America’s Global Private Bank and chairman of Bank of America Illinois over the course of his nearly 30-year-long career in the banking industry.

A Notre Dame graduate, Hossain is recognized as “the father of the Bangladeshi constitution, which he drafted in 1972,” the release said.

In 1971, he was arrested during the Bangladeshi Liberation War and after being released founded the political party, the People’s Forum, in Bangladesh and has held Bangladeshi ministry positions in law, foreign affairs and petroleum and minerals, the release said. He has also been a member of multiple United Nations commissions.

The inventor of “what is regarded as the fastest laser ever created,”

Murnane has done extensive research in atomic, molecular and optical physics, the release said. She serves on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the National Academy of Sciences and currently teaches physics and engineering courses at the University of Colorado.

Murnane has been recognized for her research with a MacArthur Fellowship and the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, among other awards, the release said, and she has also authored or co-authored over “200 papers for peer-reviewed journals.”

In 2016, Richardson was appointed as Oxford’s first female vice-chancellor, after having previously served as vice-chancellor at the University of St. Andrew’s, the release said. A political scientist from Ireland, Richardson has conducted extensive research on international security and terrorist movements and was recognized with a Sumner Prize for her work.

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ndsmcobserver.com | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | The Observer

College survey describes post-graduate plans

Graduating seniors prepare for career paths

By NICOLE SIMON News Writer

DOMINIQUE DeMOE | The Observer

By SARA SCHLECHT News Writer

The annual Graduate Destination Survey administered by the Career Crossings Office at Saint Mary’s, in conjunction with the Office for Institutional Research, gave statistical data about the post-graduate plans for this year’s senior class. “[The survey] helps provide a ‘snapshot’ of where [graduating seniors] are at the time of graduation,” Stacie Jeffirs, director of the Career Crossings Office, said in an email.

The survey demonstrated that 62 percent of graduating seniors who responded plan to pursue employment, 43 percent plan to pursue postgraduate studies, 11 percent plan to pursue internships and externships, nine percent plan to pursue service and one percent will be pursuing military service. “[The percentages] do not Paid Advertisement

add up to 100 percent because graduates are pursuing more than one option—for example, grad school and employment,” Jeffirs said.

These options are the most common for graduates, Jeffirs said, but there are others, such as gap year opportunities.

“For most of our graduating seniors, they pursue employment and graduate [or] professional school,” Jeffirs said.

“Post-grad service programs also continue to be valued by our graduates.”

The Career Crossings Office conducts this survey of seniors’ plans to follow the guidance provided by the office throughout students’ years at the College, according to Jeffirs.

“We work with students from the moment they arrive on campus to help set a solid foundation for students to build upon during the four years they are at Saint Mary’s,” Jeffirs said. “We start by helping them explore and discern their interests and how these relate to academic majors and potential paths.”

From there, students can work with Career Crossings to create resumes and cover letters, and also use methods such as online resources and networking to help with preparations for their future plans, Jeffirs said. “[Career Crossings] assist[s] with the internship search process to help students gain

experience,” Jeffirs said. “We help them as they enter their senior year with the job search process, applying to graduate and professional schools, exploring post-grad service options and more.”

Jeffirs said Career Crossings aims to work with students as early as possible in order to provide guidance so students feel prepared for opportunities presented to them following graduation.

Senior Fiona Van Antwerp plans to continue to put her business administration major to work after graduation.

“I plan on going back to the Henry Ford Museum and continuing my hands on management experiences by being a food service supervisor,” Van Antwerp said. “I also have other opportunities I am exploring.”

Van Antwerp said she feels her time at Saint Mary’s has prepared her for any endeavors she faces after graduation.

“Saint Mary’s prepared me for graduation through the hands on projects my business professors gave me,” Van Antwerp said. “Saint Mary’s challenged me to think critically about problems which will allow me to come up with unique solutions. Saint Mary’s has made me a wellrounded individual and a strong, empowered woman.”

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The members of the class of 2018 plan to pursue a variety of career paths after graduation, whether it be through full time employment, graduate school or other occupations.

Although data on the senior’s post-graduation plans will not be available for another year, director of Undergraduate Career Services Bridget Kibbe said she expects the class of 2018 to be similar to the class of 2017.

Within six months of graduation, 65 percent of the class of 2017 found full time employment, up from the 64 percent of the class of 2016, according to an email from Kibbe. 22 percent were enrolled in graduate or professional school, 7 percent were involved in a service program and 2 percent were serving in the military, also up from 1 percent from the previous year. 2 percent reported other plans and 2 percent were still seeking employment.

“We can offer some of the organizations and company names that some members of the current class of 2018 have shared with us,” Kibbe said in an email.

“The small sampling ... certainly reflects the diverse interests and tremendous talents of our Notre Dame students.”

Kibbe said the graduates with full time jobs will work with a wide variety of corporations, including jobs designing for Newell Rubbermaid, consulting for McKinsey or working for “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert.

Kibbe said she believes the Center for Career Development has adapted to meet the needs of a diverse student body with a variety of interests.

“The new structure of our Employer Engagement team has allowed us to be much more intentional in locating new employers and organizations that match the diverse interests and talents of our students,” Kibbe said.

Graduating senior Jack Cahill, a Program of Liberal Studies major with a business and economics minor, will be completing a business rotational program before being formally employed by Anheuser-Busch, a position he first learned about through the

Center for Career Development.

“What sparked this whole interest in the business rotational program was the Career Center and a meeting that I had there,” he said. “I went in for the industry specific appointment, and that was with Ray Vander Heyden.

I can’t remember exactly what the industry I chose was, but it was sales, marketing, accounting, all that business stuff. He had direct experience working with business resumes, having connections with companies. It was more of a concrete, helpful discussion.”

Cahill said he’s excited for the upcoming year because it will provide him with a fun introduction to the business world.

“The first six weeks are going to be in St. Louis at their headquarters, and then there’s going to be a six-month rotation. There’s a capstone project that we present to some executives, and when that’s over, there’s a guaranteed offer at one of the offices,” he said. “It’s a general introduction to the company and what sales is.

I’m going to be working in teams of five or six people, with kids my age, for a beer company. You know, it’s not a bad thing.”

Graduating senior Paula Hastings, a neuroscience and behavior major with a minor in theology, is not planning on entering the work force just yet. Instead, she’s spending the next year volunteering with Bon Secours Volunteer Ministries, a Catholic volunteer network located in Baltimore, Maryland.

Hastings said she found the organization last semester through a post-grad fair put on by the Center for Social Concerns.

Though she met with many organizations and applied to three, she said she thought that Bon Secours Ministries was the right fit for her.

“I found out I got into the program over spring break, and I committed right away. I knew I was going to be doing a service year since freshman year,” Hastings said. “I knew I this is the time in my life when I can dedicate an entire year to service before I get roped into a job or something.”

Contact Nicole Simon at nsimon1@nd.edu

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The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

University valedictorian reflects on journey

By KELLI SMITH Associate News Editor

Senior Andrew Grose has always loved languages.

This love started in his hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he trained for the national spelling bee as a middle schooler.

After making it to the national stage twice, he discovered a newfound passion — studying language.

“The most I got out of that [spelling bee] experience was understanding how words come together to create a meaning that goes far beyond the language itself,” Grose said.

And now, as the class of 2018’s valedictorian, Grose will be employing his love of language in a new way to give the Notre Dame valedictory address May 20 at the commencement ceremony.

A double major in pre-professional studies and Spanish, Grose will be graduating with an overall GPA of 3.997. He was a member of the Glynn Family Honors Program, an early inductee into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, a four-year member of the Dean’s List and is the recipient of several service and pre-professional studies awards.

“I try not to think of [being valedictorian] as something that has a lot of pressure associated with it,” Grose said. “I think of it not so much as my telling my story, but rather an opportunity to tell the stories of other people I’ve engaged with over the past four years.”

Grose said he was drawn to Notre Dame because it was the only school that advertised “a social message” in terms of applying what was learned in the classroom.

“Ultimately here at Notre Dame it’s not about simply learning information, it’s about how you apply that information to help the neighbor,” Grose said. “That can seem like a very simple statement, but it’s not if you consider how committed to the concept of discipleship a school like Notre Dame really is.”

Grose said his professors helped him re-define his educational experience and put both of his pursuits under the Notre Dame vision of education and social justice.

“I certainly would not have the stance that I have now on how medicine can be an agent for social change if I had not taken Spanish here,” he said. “Because that was where I really learned to apply all facets of my education, through the department of romance languages

— it’s definitely I think one of the University’s best-kept secrets.”

Grose was also a four-year member in the Marching Band drumline and two-year member in the Liturgical Choir.

Grose’s band experience, he said, was the first activity that made him feel comfortable at Notre Dame. “[Band] made me an ambassador for the University without even knowing what the University stood for,” he said. “It gave me more confidence in representing a place, a culture like Notre Dame’s. ... It’s really cool to just see all of us going in defined directions, much more defined than we would’ve thought when we were having conversations about our education three years ago.”

A turning point in his college career, Grose said, was studying abroad in Toledo, Spain the summer after his sophomore year and doing an international summer service learning program in El Salvador after his junior year.

“Each of them was so important for me in terms of my educational and my personal formation,” he said. “I’d been studying [Spanish] since grade school, but I’d say here is where I really started to learn it and apply it.”

His El Salvadoran experience was much more than language immersion, Grose said, because of its medical and Catholic Social Teaching orientation. It also contributed to Grose’s senior thesis, which was a profile of El Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton.

“For me, [the Notre Dame experience has] really been finding a voice with which I can speak about, discuss, debate and further exploit issues that matter to me,” he said. “... The issues kind of fell in place for me in terms of Latin America, US-Latino experience, healthcare in general and public health.”

Grose was a volunteer at La Casa de Amistad, a South Bend Latino community center, and a mentor in ‘Bandlink,’ a band program that provides music lessons to kids in the South Bend area.

Valuable guidance he received, Grose said, was from the advising groups and professors in pre-professional studies and Spanish.

“All of them have given me so much to think about whenever I’ve come to them with a question on anything, really,” he said.

Being around a service-minded group of people who have “so much energy” in the undergraduate atmosphere is amongst the top

things Grose said he’ll miss.

“I think Notre Dame has a special kind of draw to people who are pulled by their desire to really put the information they’re learning in the context they’ve engaged in into action and ultimately for some higher purpose, whether it’s equity, justice, anything,” he said.

“That’s something that so many of my friends here really deeply care about and it’s something that really defines the student identity here.”

Grose said he will be returning next fall to pursue a master’s degree in Iberian and Latin American studies.

“My ultimate goal is to find some sort of role where I can balance public health, worker and physician roles and national and international roles,” he said. “If anything, though, the thing that’s been on my mind ever since I left my service-learning experience last year is finding a way to get back to Central America because that is where I met people who really moved with a purpose unlike anything I’d ever seen in any discipline I’ve explored throughout my time at Notre Dame.”

Contact Kelli Smith at ksmith67@nd.edu

SMC valedictorians recount time at College

By MARIA LEONTARAS, GINA TWARDOSZ, COLLEEN ZEWE, SARA SCHLECHT and ERIN GRIMES Associate Saint Mary’s Editor, News Writers

Editor’s note: A five-part series featuring the Saint Mary’s valedictorians ran during the week of April 23 and has been complied into a single story. The full features are available online.

For the first time in Saint Mary’s history, the College will bestow the honor of valedictorian onto five graduating seniors: Darya Bondarenko, Makenzie Duncan, Melissa Henry, Kristie LeBeau and Kathleen Price.

Bondarenko, a molecular biology major, said that while she was only slightly surprised to receive the valedictorian honor, but still felt proud nonetheless.

“I had a 4.0 [G.P.A.], so I kind of expected I would be somewhere high up,” she said “I knew I’d graduate with some kind of honors, but I did not know if that’d be valedictorian or not ... I wasn’t necessarily that surprised, but it was a very pleasant experience.”

Bondarenko said that though she has a high G.P.A., grades are not everything to her and the grades came naturally for her because of the passion she had for her courses.

“I don’t think grades were the most difficult part of college for me,” she said. “It was about finding what I’m passionate about, and once you find that, the grades kind of go away and you stop thinking about that. [Grades

were] never my goal. It was not something I was actively working towards.”

Integrative biology major Duncan also received the honor of valedictorian this year.

In pursuing a successful college career, Duncan encouraged students not to be too hard on themselves and to strike a balance.

“Give yourself credit,” Duncan said. “I think rewarding yourself is really important, making sure that you have a balance between your academic life and your personal life, so that one is not overpowering the other because both are important.”

Duncan said many of her fond memories of Saint Mary’s have been small moments, such as running into friends in the dining hall.

The third valedictorian, Henry, will graduate with majors in communicative sciences and disorders and psychology. She is also the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Senior Award.

Henry said she did not realize she could be a potential candidate for valedictorian until her sophomore year.

“With freshman year, everyone comes in just trying to get through it,” she said. “I got all A’s those first two semesters and I didn’t think much of it. And then fall semester of my sophomore year, I sat down with my advisor who looked at my transcript and said that I could be valedictorian — and I said, yeah, right.”

Diligent attendance and reaching out to professors are the keys to becoming a successful student, Henry said.

“Up until this year, I have never missed a college class,” she said.

“Some people call me crazy, but honestly, there were times when my grade was on the brink but it was the attendance, the participation that helped. As well, taking advantage of that professors has to offer you in terms of resources, assistance and guidance is really how I got to where I am.”

Sociology major LeBeau said her discovery of the news was “a super weird accident,” finding out after emailing senior academic advisor Tracy White a question about her education, schooling and society minor at Notre Dame.

“She replied and said, ‘I want to talk to you about the valedictorian speech,’” LeBeau said.

Allowing for there to be five valedictorians — all of whom will share the valedictory address — also represents the diversity of Saint Mary’s, LeBeau said.

“I really love that all of us represent a very diverse background of majors, too,” she said. “I know that some universities [and] larger colleges, they make people compete based on speeches in terms of who’s going to be valedictorian or who’s going to give the speech, but I think it’s really great that Saint Mary’s doesn’t make us compete and allows all of us to share that title.”

When asked to describe her experience at Saint Mary’s College in one word, valedictorian and elementary education major Kathleen Price chose “inspiring.”

“To have five of us is unbelievable,” Price said. “Congrats to the other four, and I know they’ve worked extremely hard to get

where they’re at. That’s truly a testimony to this college and the endurance of the women here. I truly think it’s unbelievable.”

Price said she will always appreciate what Saint Mary’s has helped her learn about herself.

“I’ve learned so much about myself and about my faith and how I want to serve in the future,” Price said. “I think it’s helped me a lot in seeing what kind of direction I want to take in my life, which has been amazing. I’ve met some amazing,

incredible people, people I never would’ve thought I’d meet in a million years. To sum it up, it’s a blessing.”

Contact Maria Leontaras at mleontaras01@saintmarys.edu, Gina Twardosz at gtwardoz01@saintmarys.edu, Colleen Zewe at czewe01@saintmarys.edu, Sara Schlecht at sschlecht01@saintmarys.edu, and Erin Grimes at egrimes01@saintmarys.edu

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ndsmcobserver.com | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | The Observer

University salutatorian discusses keys to success

By TOM NAATZ Associate News Editor

When she was first accepted to Notre Dame, class of 2018 salutatorian Harisa Spahic wasn’t sure she wanted to come to the University. During the spring of her senior year of high school, the self-described “townie”, who was born in Germany to a Bosnian family and lived in Idaho before her family relocated to northern Indiana, was harboring some doubts about Notre Dame — namely its proximity to her home.

“I didn’t want to go to a school that was very close to my home,” Spahic said. “I’m also not Catholic nor religious so I was hesitant about that just because I went to public school. I didn’t know what it was going to be like. So, it was just the unknown.

And then also I’m not the biggest fan of football.”

Still, Spahic eventually decided to come to Notre Dame.

Four years later, she will graduate with a 4.0 cumulative GPA, having completed a major in biochemistry and minors in anthropology and science, technology and values. She will also graduate as an early inductee into Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, a Marshall Scholar finalist, a four year member of the Dean’s List and a recipient of the 2018 Daniel and Anne Crossen Pre-Medical Student Award.

Spahic said her decision to come was largely due to her participation in the QuestBridge program, a scholarship program for low-income students, coupled with a visit to campus.

“I came on that spring visit weekend in the spring, and I think it was being able to actually experience academic, social and spiritual life on campus that really kind of took away a lot of that mystery and unknown,” she said. “I found out that Notre Dame is a fantastic place, and I do want to go there and I do fit in.”

Spahic said her decision to pursue a degree in biochemistry was a result of her interest in both biology and chemistry,

and she chose her two minors because they helped expand her perspective on the sciences.

“I like biochemistry because … it gets the right level of what I like. So, it worked out for me,” she said. “Anthropology I picked because it was interesting. I took one anthropology class in my freshman year and I really liked it, so I just picked up the minor because it was easy and those have also been some of my favorite classes. It really kind of directed my interest in medicine.

“And the science, technology and values was primarily because of the interesting classes they offer and the perspective on science it offers … I think a lot of scientists sometimes get too dead set in their ways, and science is absolute, but when you actually start looking at science and the history of it and everything it’s not as absolute.”

Beyond the classroom, Spahic has been involved in two research labs — the Cancer Neurocognitive Translational Research Lab (CNTRL) and the Clark research lab. In addition to a job in the admissions office, she has also volunteered with a range of organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, the Center for Hospice Care, Social Justice in American Medicine Club and the Notre Dame chapter of Timmy Global Health.

Through her various activities, Spahic has traveled throughout the world. She went to Copenhagen to present research from the CNTRL and traveled to Ecuador to volunteer in a health clinic with Timmy Global Health. In addition, she participated in academic study abroad programs in Ireland and Greece.

Spahic said her engagement was sparked by a desire to interact with the world beyond Notre Dame.

“Notre Dame can be a bit of a bubble sometimes,” she said.

“I think leaving the bubble was very important, especially because academics and things like that are so ingrained, but with community service and other outreach opportunities, getting

to know other people that don’t necessarily go to Notre Dame, so exposing myself to people with different ways of thinking, backgrounds, was really important and what I wanted to do,” Spahic said the key to balancing her many activities with her academics was prioritization.

She also used yoga to help her de-stress during busy periods and said balance was important to healthy life.

“The thing I’ve taken most away from Notre Dame is having a balance of things,” she said. “And I think that comes into like academics, spiritually and socially, but then also family. So, having a great life doesn’t mean just being the best student you could possibly be, the best athlete you could possibly be, being the best anything you could possibly be — it’s just being the best person you could possibly be.”

In the fall, Spahic will enroll at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

She is interested in studying women’s health, and currently plans to become an OBGYN. In offering advice for the community she is preparing to leave, she said students should have some direction but be willing to change their plans.

“Something I like to tell prospective students is draw your plan in pencil. Just so you have a plan, like it’s always good to have direction in life,” she said.

“But always be open to new opportunities. So that’s the pencil part, be willing to erase thing and make a new plan. I think that was very important in my experience during Notre Dame. ”I didn’t expect to study abroad in all of the places I did, I didn’t expect to do all the research I did, I didn’t expect to join all the clubs I did. But it was just as the opportunities arose and my interests were piqued, I chose to do those. Definitely having flexibility with that regard would be my biggest piece of advice.”

Contact Tom Naatz at tnaatz@nd.edu

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College presents 2018 Outstanding Senior Award

By COLLEEN ZEWE News Writer

During her four years at Saint Mary’s, senior Melissa Henry served the College community as a volunteer in Circle K International (CKI), a Resident Advisor and as copresident of the college’s National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA).

In April, Henry received a pleasant surprise in the mail — a letter informing her that she received the 2018 Outstanding Senior Award.

The award, presented by the Saint Mary’s Alumnae Association, is given to a senior who “exemplifies the spirit and values of her school and is distinguished by scholarship, leadership, and outstanding dedication to Saint Mary’s,” according to a press release.

Henry, who is also one of five covaledictorians, was nominated by Jennifer Essig, clinical assistant director and professional specialist in the department of communicative sciences and disorders, and Lee Ann Moore, volunteer coordinator for the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

“It was such an honor [to be nominated],” Henry said. “I was very surprised, but to know that both Lee Ann and Jen Essig both nominated me was an incredible feeling.”

Henry volunteers at the Sisters of the Holy Cross convent through CKI and established “Dining Divas,” a program in which students can volunteer to feed the Sisters. In addition to attending social events at the convent, Henry works in the activity office there and assists individual Sisters.

“It started out as going there once a week to spend time with the Sisters and forget the stresses of the day and they were always welcoming and kind,” Henry said. “I really found a community there in addition to the college community, and it helped me grow as an individual.”

Henry was honored Monday at the alumnae champagne brunch for seniors with her family.

Henry said she did not tell many of her friends about the award, as she believed that while she received the honor, the class of 2018 has many

seniors who are worthy of praise.

“It is an incredible honor, but there are so many amazing graduates this year that we as a class the heart of Saint Mary’s,” she said. “I don’t think of myself as the one individual outstanding senior.”

Henry will give two speeches at Commencement, and one at the champagne brunch.

“The champagne brunch is a great opportunity to speak in front of my classmates and get ready to become more comfortable with the speeches at graduation,” Henry said. “It’s a great learning experience to have this speech writing and public speaking experience.”

Henry said that volunteering shaped her college career, and it is a way students can anchor themselves in the community.

“When you come to a totally new place, and there’s this thing available to you that you can grab onto to have connections with people …

While volunteering, I never felt like I don’t belong there,” Henry said. “It’s been a great way to connect. The college community is amazing, but we’re preparing to go into the real world, and volunteering allows you to work with a variety of people.”

After graduation, Henry will pursue a doctorate of audiology degree at Vanderbilt University.

“I knew I wanted to go into a profession where I serve others,” Henry said. “I’m bringing hearing to people who may otherwise not have it, and hearing, speaking and communicating is how we connect with people.”

Henry said volunteer work inspired her to focus on impacting individuals and making a difference in her community.

“Working in the convent as taught me that the elderly don’t always have the best hearing healthcare, and it can be isolating,” she said. “If you focus on impacting the lives of individual people, it can turn into more of a community impact. One person can’t do everything, but everyone can do something.”

Contact Colleen Zewe at czewe01@saintmarys.edu

Judge to speak at University Commencement Observer Staff Report

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the print edition of The Observer on Oct. 29.

Judge Sergio Moro will deliver the 2018 Commencement address at the May 20 ceremony, according to an email sent to the Notre Dame student body Sunday night.

Moro is a Brazilian jurist who has worked to combat corruption in his country, University

President Fr. John Jenkins said in the email.

“Earlier this month in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I presented Judge Moro with the Notre Dame Award, and found him a courageous, conscientious, humble public servant dedicated to justice and the common good,” Jenkins said in the email. “I asked him if he would come to address the graduates of 2018 at our Commencement, and he generously agreed.”

Jenkins said in the email he encourages members of the

Notre Dame community to inform themselves of Moro’s achievements.

“Because his work has not been extensively reported in the media in this country, his is less a household name here than it is in Brazil,” he said in the email.

Moro’s work — dedicated to exposing political corruption within Brazil — earned the name Operation Car Wash, according a Time magazine report.

His contributions to a number of high profile cases revealed

that lawmakers were accepting money in exchange for contracts with the state-run oil company, Petrobras, the report said, and as a result, hundreds of politicians were subjected to further investigation.

Moro became a federal judge in 1995, one year after he earned his bachelor of law degree at the Maringa State University in his home state of Parana. He then enhanced his legal knowledge by studying abroad at Harvard Law School, and he received a

Juris Doctor from the Federal University of Parana in 2002.

When Jenkins presented the Notre Dame Award in Brazil, he said Moro exhibits exemplary behavior and showcases how to effectively promote justice, according to an National Public Radio transcript.

“As a result of Dr. Moro and his team’s good work, Brazil, instead of being infamous for corruption, has become a beacon for the rest of the hemisphere on how to fight it,” Jenkins said in the transcript.

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Division of Student Affairs honors seniors

By ALEXANDRA MUCK News Writer

At the 32nd annual Student Leadership Awards Banquet on April 10, seven graduating seniors were recognized for their contributions to the campus community, a University press release on April 18 said.

Flora Tang received the Rev. A. Leonard Collins, C.S.C. Award, which is given to a “senior who has made substantial personal efforts to advance the interests of students at Notre Dame,” the press release said.

Tang received the award specifically for her work with Campus Ministry, where she served as a senior intern and co-led the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program, the process for people looking to become Catholic, and founded a group for Chinese Catholic students on campus her junior year.

“For me, what I love about Campus Ministry is more than just my job,” Tang said. “It’s just being with people in a very welcoming space and a very diverse environment and seeing how my own faith and my own diversity could bring hope to people who might not be included on this campus.”

Tang said she feels blessed to have received the award.

“I was on a school visit when I saw the email,” she said. “I moved a lot growing up, and I never really had a home home, like a place that I can call home even though I have different places I’ve lived at. Notre Dame has been the longest place I’ve ever been at, which is four years, so this place means a lot

to me. Getting the award is a really beautiful reminder that this is home for me.”

Gregory Jenn was awarded the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Award to recognize his efforts toward promoting inclusion on campus, especially for Latino and Latina students and students who are undocumented, the press release said.

“I got this overwhelming sense of excitement,” he said of the moment he received the award. “Everything that I did, I did because I wanted to or just because I enjoyed doing [it]. I never expected anything for what I was doing.”

Jenn said he was involved with the Latino community on campus since his freshman year in a variety of roles, including being a member of Mariachi ND, the director of the Dia De Los Muertos altar and the president of Latino Student Alliance. He also served as the director for the St. Anthony’s Initiative for the Institute of Latino Studies, which invites high school students from St. Anthony’s to campus and pairs them with Notre Dame students.

Majak Anyieth received the John W. Gardner Student Leadership Award, the press release said, which is given for “outstanding community service beyond the University community.”

“In his time at Notre Dame, he founded the nonprofit organization Education bridge with the purpose of building schools in [his home country of] South Sudan and educating children in the hopes of becoming leaders and proponents of peace,”

the press release said. “Last spring, the organization opened its first school and welcomed more than 200 students.”

The Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., Leadership Award was given to Liam Maher for “embodying Blessed Father Moreau’s vision of educating heart and mind,” the press release said.

“I was really humbled because I didn’t think anything I had done was necessarily awardworthy or anything,” Maher said. “I was just doing what I always do.”

Maher served in a variety of organizations, including the Folk Choir, where he was president, and PrismND where he was the spirituality commissioner.

“I got to occupy this really unique intersectional space between really practicing my faith and really being a proponent for creating an inclusive society on campus and helping LGBTQ Catholics reconcile their identity with their faith,” he said. “It was really neat to get to do that work. I got to meet a lot of great people and have a lot of great conversations about it.”

Chris Dethlefs, a four-year participant in the men’s boxing club, was recognized with the Ray Siegfried Award for Leadership Excellence, which is awarded to a senior who is devoted to the Catholic faith and athletics. The press release said Dethlefs raised over $17,000 through Bengal Bouts, a boxing tournament that raises money for the Holy Cross missions in Bangladesh.

Dethlefs said he participated

in an international summer service learning program to Bangladesh after his freshman year and served as a captain of Bengal Bouts for two years. “[Bengal Bouts is] a real brotherhood,” he said. “I met a lot of really amazing guys through it, and it’s an awesome way to learn an amazing sport.

[It’s] highly competitive, takes a ton of training and work ethic and really forms you as a person I think, but also having it devoted to a mission that’s other centered is the biggest part of it for me.

“Having experienced going to Bangladesh right after my freshman year and kind of getting a better appreciation for what the Bengal Bouts has been able to do over there has really inspired me to give my full heart and effort to the program ever since then.”

Maxwell Ujdak received the Mike Russo Spirit Award for his work with the Notre Dame Band. The first student band manager to join the Irish Guard, Ujdak said he didn’t think about the influence he was having while going through his band experience.

“Being able to [become a member of the Irish Guard] in the marching band without playing an instrument is pretty phenomenal, and I guess I never gauged the impact of that,” he said. “And then I got that award and it kind of put everything in perspective for me.”

Selena Ponio received the Denny Moore Award for Excellence in Journalism for her work with journalism on and off campus, including writing

for the The Observer and The South Bend Tribune and interning with CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Editor’s note: Selena Ponio is a former Associate News Editor for The Observer.

Ponio said she felt more excited about the nomination than she did about receiving the award during the awards ceremony.

“I was more so moved by the fact that one of my professors that I really looked up to and whose writing I tried to emulate in mine and use his own tips and styles and incorporate them into my writing … thought I was deserving enough to nominate me,” she said.

As an intern with The South Bend Tribune the summer after her sophomore year, Ponio said she wrote a front-page column about the shooting in her hometown of Dallas in 2016, when five police officers were killed during a protest march.

“I think that was something I wrote for the Tribune that mattered the most to me because it was my hometown,” she said. “ … It was the first time I that I was away from Dallas, so I felt very removed from this very important event that just happened, this tragic event in my hometown. The fact that the Tribune gave me this platform to channel my anger and sadness and being so far away from home during this important time was very rewarding and that they cared that I had something to say about that was kind of surreal.”

Contact Alexandra Muck at amuck@nd.edu

ND students prepare to enter religious life

By MARY STEURER News Writer

Senior Tyler Duffy, an aerospace engineering major, said he hadn’t given much thought to the priesthood before his junior year.

Now, he plans to enter Moreau Seminary as a postulant in the fall.

Duffy said he became interested in religious life when he began diving deeper into his faith.

“I’m a firm believer that as you start praying more, God reveals your vocation for you,” he said.

“I’m an engineering student — I never really thought I’d be going down this path, but here I am.”

When Duffy first considered entering the seminary, he reached out to trusted friends and local religious figures for advice.

“It was a long discernment process,” he said.

Duffy said attending Notre Dame played a significant role in his decision to join the Congregation of the Holy Cross. “[The Congregation of the]

Holy Cross has really formed me spiritually,” he said. “I’ve really grown in my faith during my time here.”

Senior Matthew Gambetta will also be entering Moreau Seminary this fall.

Gambetta said he came to Notre Dame already considering the priesthood and hopes seminary life will help him continue the discernment process.

“It’s always been one of those things in the back of my mind,” he said. “If priesthood is my true vocation, I want to dedicate as much of my life as possible constructing that vocation.”

The lifestyle of the Holy Cross priests resonated with Gambetta and led him to join the religious order.

“The initial reason I picked Holy Cross was because of the men who serve in the order,” he said.“They’re young men who are truly passionate about their faith, but at the same time they’re ordinary guys.”

Gambetta said he also identified strongly with the Holy Cross mission.

“The other thing I appreciate

about [the Congregation of the] Holy Cross is the educational mission,” he said. “[Blessed Basil Moreau] was very conscious of providing catechesis to ordinary folk in the French countryside and it’s a mission that still carries a great deal of weight today.”

Gambetta said those interested in seminary life must undergo an extensive application process.

“It’s the seminary itself that extends the application to you,” he said. “Usually they won’t offer it to you until you’ve done your informal visit and gotten to familiarize yourself with the community.”

Fr. Neil Wack, director of vocations for the US province of the Congregation of Holy Cross and resident of Moreau Seminary, said the intent of the application process is to encourage individuals to explore their faith journey.

The application includes several short-answer questions as well as the opportunity for applicants to write their “spiritual biography,” Wack said.

“We give them five or six very

broad questions to just go back over their life and figure out where God has been in their life,” he said.

Applicants must also complete a series of interviews with Holy Cross priests and lay people, Wack said.

The interviews help ensure prospective members are a good fit for life at the seminary, Gambetta said.

“The [application] process is a very rigorous vetting process,” he said. “They want to be absolutely sure that this is an individual who cares about the Holy Cross community and the Holy Cross mission.”

Gambetta said he anticipates his first year as a postulant will be “a bit of a change.”

“I’ll still be taking classes here, but beyond that, my entire life will be focusing around time at the seminary as well as ministry placements,” he said.

During their first year at the seminary, Wack said, postulants typically study philosophy in pursuit of their Master of Divinity degree and begin local volunteer work.

“They’re starting to get involved in ministry,” he said.

Seminarians are often placed in local Catholic communities, such as in Campus Ministry or nearby parishes.

Wack said he advises those considering the priesthood to be active in their faith.

“Pray every day, go to Mass,” he said. “Kinda dip your toe in the water as far as ministry goes. Make sure you have a spiritual director, someone you can talk with about discernment.”

Duffy said he encourages others to be open about the discernment process with friends and family.

“Talk about it with as many people as you can,” he said.

He added that for those who feel called to religious life, pursuing the vocation wholeheartedly is key.

“The most comforting thing for me was knowing that God has our ultimate happiness in mind, and he’s planted that in our vocation,” Duffy said.

Contact Mary Steurer at msteure1@nd.edu

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SMC seniors receive service awards

By MAEVE FILBIN and JULIANNA MCKENNA News Writers

On April 24, 12 Saint Mary’s students received awards in the fields of ministry and service at the Sister Rose Anne Schultz, CSC Mission Awards and Appreciation Dinner.

Seniors Jessica McCartney and Veronika Hanks received special recognition for the Jane O’Rourke Bender Award. For consideration, students were asked to submit a form of artistic expression that reflected spiritual themes such as forgiveness, service, compassion, social justice, love or option for the poor.

McCartney said in an email these themes embody the life of Jane O’Rourke Bender, who dedicated much of her life to the service of others.

“Jane O’Rourke Bender graduated Saint Mary’s in 1967 after studying political science,” McCartney said. “She later went on to graduate school for social work, becoming both a social justice advocate and prolific writer.”

McCartney said she embodies both of these themes through her devotion to faith and service at Saint Mary’s.

“I received this award for my written submissions — an essay and a poem, each focused on the concept of faith and my involvement in service activities on campus,” McCartney said.

This is the first year the Jane O’Rourke Bender Award has been given out. McCartney said this honor has inspired her to continue living out Bender’s mission.

“It is both exciting and humbling to be recognized for my writing and this award was made especially meaningful knowing that Jane was an active writer herself,” she said. “Learning about Jane’s life inspires me to continue writing about subjects that hold meaning for both myself and others.”

As graduation approaches, McCartney’s commitment to service has prompted her to think about the legacy she wants to leave behind at Saint Mary’s.

“I would like to think that I’ve shared words that have impacted and inspired others both verbal and written,” she said. “I’d like to think that I’ve shown compassion and lived out my faith, and that, like Jane, I used the time I had here at Saint Mary’s to make a difference for the better.”

Sophomore Carey Dwyer received the Patricia Arch Green Award for her service in the South Bend community.

“I received this is award through CAT [College Academy of Tutoring], which works with some South Bend schools and provides additional help for teachers and students,” Dwyer said in an email.

Patricia Green left behind a legacy of activism in the community and Dwyer said she continues this legacy through her efforts in the classroom.

“Patricia Arch Green is an alumna of Saint Mary’s who was very involved in community service,” she said. “My goal is to become a school social worker, so I volunteered as a teacher assistant in kindergarten and first grade at Coquillard [Traditional School], a Title I elementary school in South Bend.”

While this experience provided many highs and lows, Dwyer said she believes it helped her grow both as an individual and in her major.

“I got to help students with assignments, reading, artwork and other projects,” Dwyer said.

“Working with kids can be challenging sometimes, but I loved having the opportunity to connect with and help them, especially because I want to go into a career in this area.”

The award was a humbling experience for Dwyer because she was unaware she was nominated for it, she said.

“I feel really honored to receive this award,” Dwyer said. “When I started CAT, I didn’t know about this award, so receiving it was a big surprise,” she said. “I’m really glad Saint Mary’s has so many opportunities for community service and that I can be part of it. I look forward to continuing to do more service in the future.”

Dwyer said she wants to continue her involvement on campus and helping others in the future.

“I’m not exactly sure what kind of legacy I want to leave at Saint Mary’s, but I love how dedicated and involved Saint Mary’s is within the South Bend community,” she said. “I want to continue to help underrepresented children and their families, and I’m looking forward to being involved in more service opportunities next year.”

Senior nursing major Madison Carmichael received the Sister Olivia Marie Hutchenson, CSC Award for Service in the Health Field. This award recognizes compassionate service in the nursing field.

“Sister Olivia Marie Hutcheson, CSC was a compassionate nurse, talented hospital administrator, builder and spiritual guide,” Carmichael said in an email. “She responded to the need of the time and sent fellow Sister nurses to help the people of Cambodia in efforts to rebuild their lives after suffering from the Khmer Rouge regime.”

Carmichael said recipients of this award must be involved as a health care provider or advocate and represent the dedication of Sister Oliva Maria Hutchenson.

“I was nominated by the nursing department for my work in Uganda with the Sisters of the Holy Cross,” Carmichael said.

“Along with a few other students, I worked in a clinic for six weeks and lived with the Sisters in the community.”

Carmichael said she worked on ways to improve patient care in Uganda and participated in research that gained recognition

from the National Student Nurses’ Association.

“I initiated classes for the staff at the clinic on how to improve patient care. My main focus was on pain assessment, which was previously absent from the clinic,” she said. “After the classes, I followed the charting in the clinic as part of a research project in the success of the classes, and presented the research under [associate professor] Dr. Tracy Anderson at the National Student Nurses Association Midyear Conference.”

This award is particularly meaningful for Carmichael because she said the Uganda experience had a profound influence on her life.

“This award is so special to me,” she said. “I will never forget my time in Uganda. I can’t wait to see what the next group experiences and accomplishes. Saint Mary’s has been such an empowering environment for me, and I hope the next generation of Belles will see that their opportunities are endless.”

Senior Katherine Soper, an elementary education major and mild intervention minor, is the recipient of the Sister Maria Concepta McDermott, CSC Award for Service in Education. Sister McDermott instituted an interdisciplinary approach to teachers’ education at Saint Mary’s College and spent time teaching in Uganda, Brazil and China.

“Sister Maria Concepta McDermott — a dynamic, determined young woman — was known by her students and within education circles for her work in multicultural education and among troubled youths,” Soper said in an email. “Sister Maria was a woman ahead of her time and an outspoken voice for the rights of the poor.”

Education department chair Dr. Nancy Turner nominated Soper for the Sister Maria Concepta McDermott award on behalf of the Saint Mary’s department of education. Soper said serving as a part of the education department has given her the opportunity to observe and teach in six public and Catholic schools in the South Bend community. Saint Mary’s also sent Soper to Uganda in the summer of 2017 to teach at Moreau Nursery and Primary School.

“While there, I lived, prayed and worked with the Sisters of the Holy Cross,” Soper said, “These opportunities have prepared me to educate students hearts, minds and souls.”

This award is in remembrance of Sister McDermott’s devotion to education, and Soper said she is honored to have received acknowledgment in the name of someone whose passion for educating students from all walks of life inspires her to be a better teacher.

“I hope to emulate her passion in my future classrooms … and leave a legacy of faith, fellowship and perseverance [at Saint

Mary’s],” Soper said.

After graduation, Soper will be returning to Uganda to teach for seven weeks. Upon returning, she will teach a second-grade class at Saint Joseph’s Grade School in South Bend.

Sophomores Anne Maguire, Jessy Nguyen, Chiara Smorada and Yufei Zhang were nominated by the Saint Mary’s department of campus ministry to receive the Sister Olivette Whalen, CSC Award for General Service. Sister Whalen dedicated her time to serving the needs of the poor, promoting the ministry of education and responding specifically to unmet needs in India. While traveling to India in 1941, Sister Whalen was captured and imprisoned for four years, according to the division for mission.

Zhang, a statistical and actuarial math major, said that this award is given to students who serve the community and the college with the same spirit of Sister Whalen’s devoted advocacy and fight for human rights. While she said she did not expect to receive this award, Zhang was honored to be acknowledged alongside her friends. Together, the group started a student club called “Project S.H.E.,” or “Project Spreading Hope through Education,” through which they visited and worked with girls from Coquillard Traditional School, Robinson Community Learning Center and La Casa de Amistad.

“We mainly work with girls from elementary schools to empower them to become future leaders through weekly organizing workshops at local schools,” Zhang said in an email. “Besides our own club, we are also interested and involved in interfaith, intercultural and other events and clubs on campus.”

The group of friends was surprised by their nomination, as they consider their work to be a passion project, not anything outstanding or special, Zhang said.

“This award is such an honor and a recognition of my work,” she said. “It definitely motivates me to work harder and do more good things to return to the College and to the community.”

Zhang said she considers women’s educational rights to be fundamental.

“I hope there will be people continuing Project S.H.E. works to empower young women and help them realize their potentials,” she said.

In addition, seniors Katherine Dunn and Julia Sturges were awarded the Sister Christine Healy Award for Service with Women. Senior Colleen Zewe won the Sister Kathleen Anne Nelligan Award for Ministry.

Editor’s note: Colleen Zewe is a News Writer for The Observer.

Contact Maeve Filbin at mfilbin01@saintmarys.edu and Julianna McKenna at jmckenna01@saintmarys.edu

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Woo to address seniors Observer Staff Report

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the print edition of The Observer on March 28.

Carolyn Woo, the former chief executive officer of Catholic Relief Services, will address the Saint Mary’s class of 2018 at its Commencement ceremony on May 19, according to a College press release.

Woo will be awarded the College’s highest honor, an Honorary Doctor of Humanities, at the ceremony, according to the release.

Woo immigrated to the United States for her studies after being born and raised in Hong Kong. She returned to her alma mater, Purdue University, as an associate professor in 1981 and as a full-time professor in 1991. According to the release, she served in several leadership roles at Purdue, as both the director of professional master’s programs in the Krannert School of Management and associate executive vice president for academic affairs.

In 1997, Woo took on the role of Martin J. Gillen Dean of the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, which she held until 2011. In 2012, she began her time as the chief executive officer of Catholic Relief Services, where she served until 2016, according to the release.

“Carolyn Woo embodies the spirit we strive to instill in our students: She is a woman of action,” College President Jan Cervelli said in the release. “Her career is a testament to the power of leadership that serves the greater good.”

The College will also award an additional honorary degree to Sister Margaret “Peggy” O’Neill, according to the release.

O’Neill has spent her life advocating for peace, according to the release. In her time working in the Diocese of San Salvador, she has promoted peace through her work with Salvadoran refugees during the civil war and creating an educational and cultural center in El Salvador that emphasized the importance of art and spiritual reflection.

According to the release, she currently serves as a faculty member of Santa Clara University’s Casa de la Solidaridad in El Salvador.

O’Neill has received several honors for her work, including the 2008 Peacemaker Award of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and the 2008 Ciudadana Ilustre Award, according to the press release.

“Sister Peggy O’Neill enriches the lives of those around her with her buoyant spirit and unflagging commitment to service,” Cervelli said in the release. “Her accompaniment of people in need serves as a shining light through darkness.”

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ROTC to name new officers

By ANDREW CAMERON News Writer

The culmination of four years of classes, training exercise and tireless dedication, 43 senior cadets from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) — including officers from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, Holy Cross College, Valparaiso University and Bethel College — will receive their commissions Saturday.

Colonel Jim Bowen, Air Force ROTC commander, said the success of the graduating Air Force cadets is due to both their passion to serve their country and their dedication to the ROTC program.

“They’ve all grown from freshman to lieutenants and leaders in our Air Force,” he said. “In four years, they’ve gone from young kids fresh out of high school to real, true servant leaders, and I’m excited to serve beside them.

I’m really excited to be walking around in our Air Force and see these young officers from Notre Dame, and know that they’re peers now.”

Voluntary service in ROTC and the armed forces is crucial for providing the United States the “blanket of freedom we all take for granted,” Bowen said.

“This program is how you harness the talent and the energy and the drive of this nation’s youth,” he said. “It’s an all-volunteer force, and the only way that that survives is by young men and women standing up and agreeing to be a part of military service — to stand in harm’s way and protect their fellow citizens.”

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Pratt, professor of military science for Army ROTC, said despite the relatively small size of Notre Dame’s Army ROTC program with 15 senior cadets, nine received the distinguished military graduate designation based on their grades, physical fitness and leadership ability — more than any other program in the Midwest.

“We’ve never had near this many — It’s really just a testament to their hard work and the effort they’ve put in over the years,” he said.

Pratt said the mission of ROTC

is uniquely aligned with Notre Dame’s mission.

“The values, the character and the morals that Notre Dame looks for in its students marries up very well with what the army and the armed services are looking for,” he said. “Service manifests itself in numerous ways — there is service to your community and service to your country, but all of them represent being part of something bigger than yourself, which is really what Notre Dame is about: going off, doing good in the world and contributing and being part of something that’s not just about you, but about giving back, at whatever level. I think that relationship with the University has always been there, and it’s why the students who are part of the program and part of the University do so well.”

The Air Force ROTC will commission six officers, the Army will commission 15 and the Navy will commission 22 officers Saturday.

Contact Andrew Cameron at acamero2@nd.edu

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SMC senior to enter Navy school

By GINA TWARDOSZ News Writer

As the only Saint Mary’s graduating member of Notre Dame’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), senior Kayla Savage will continue the College’s legacy of service through her long-term goal of becoming a naval pilot.

Savage said in an email that after graduation she will pursue an education at a California naval school.

“I will have the opportunity of spending 12 to 18 months at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California earning my master’s degree in regional and security studies [for the Western Hemisphere],” she said. “Following my education, I will spend two years as a student naval aviator in Pensacola, Florida, and, God willing, will be winged as a Navy pilot. As a pilot, I’ll be spending at least eight more years in the Navy.”

Savage said she will miss the encouragement and spirituality the College and ROTC provided.

“During my hunt for colleges, I prioritized an environment that would encourage my spiritual and intellectual growth,” she said. “Saint Mary’s has absolutely been an amazing place for these goals, and ROTC has only helped.

Between school and my ROTC events, spirituality has been at the center of everything I do. We are given countless options and opportunities to speak with religious leaders, and we are encouraged to find some sort of spiritual center to ground ourselves in. I have learned to maintain that while pushing myself intellectually. It’s been so difficult, but so rewarding.”

Savage said she has always wanted to be part of an institution that challenged her to be better.

“I’ve always thought I wanted something that constantly challenged me to be better and to do better, not just for my own sake but also for others,” she said. “I wanted to help make our world a better and safer place. The Navy seemed, to me, the best way to accomplish the type of lifestyle I was looking for … the opportunity to travel and see the world was also a little enticing.”

Throughout her time at Saint Mary’s, Savage said the hardest part was balancing the time commitments the College and ROTC required.

“Depending on the job you hold in ROTC that semester, it can be almost like a full-time job on top of school,” she said. “Especially as a [Saint Mary’s student], I had to organize myself to block out extra time to drive over to ND for all the ROTC events. But, once I finally learned clear and consistent organization, I learned that there is so much more you can accomplish in a day.”

Savage said Saint Mary’s and ROTC have taught her life skills that will benefit her after graduation.

“I’ve learned selflessness, diligence, cooperation, understanding, patience, prioritization and the importance of supportive and healthy relationships,” she said.

Success is persistence in the face of adversity, Savage said.

“To me, success is never giving up,” she said. “Sometimes it requires a little creativity and a lot of resilience, but success is when you just don’t give up in the fight for something better.”

Savage said her responses do not reflect the views of the Naval ROTC or of the larger Navy.

Contact Gina Twardosz at gtwardosz01@saintmarys.edu

ACE accepts forty-nine ND, SMC graduates

By LUCY LYNCH News Writer

Of the members of the Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s class of 2018 who will be working full-time or attending graduate school after graduation, 49 graduates will start careers with the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) and teach at Catholic schools around the country.

According to the ACE Notre Dame website, the organization serves over 13,500 students at over 120 Catholic schools in 35 communities. Included in this year’s Notre Dame graduating class who will

teach with ACE next year is senior Colin Riley. Early on in his undergraduate career at Notre Dame, Riley wanted to work with ACE. “The most important one was all of the incredible people I had met that were involved in the program,” Riley said. “I knew that those were the people I really wanted to surround myself with to grow into the person that I wanted to be two years from now and that any program that attracted such amazing people must be doing some really fantastic work.”

Riley will be teaching high school math at Academy of Our Lady in New Orleans next year. He chose

to teach due in part to his appreciation for the education he received.

“I saw ACE as a great way to use the gifts I’ve been given to give back to the education system that did so much for me and to those who were less fortunate than I was,” Riley said. “Given that I am interested in a long-term career in education, ACE is also a great way to get some experience in education right away out of college. It doesn’t hurt that I get to stay a Notre Dame student for two more years.”

Riley said he is looking forward to getting to know the community of five other ACE teachers who he will be living with in New Orleans.

Another soon-to-be Notre Dame graduate, Hannah Beighle, will be teaching elementary school language arts for ACE at a Catholic school in Santa Ana, California.

Because Notre Dame doesn’t have an education major, Beighle decided to minor in education, schooling and society.

“I loved all the classes I took through this minor and was so inspired by the professors and their commitment to education,” Beighle said. “As I was finishing up my junior year, I realized that I wanted to do something after I graduated that I loved and was really fulfilled by. I knew deep down

that I wanted to be a teacher and loved the mission of ACE, so it was a great fit for me.”

For Beighle, her career after Notre Dame is more than educating children — it’s a mission of love.

“Being a good teacher is all about loving your students,” Beighle said.

“I am so excited to give my students a lot of love and see them as the unique and amazing kids God made them to be. I look forward to waking up every morning and knowing that the work I do that day will be valuable and meaningful.”

Contact Lucy Lynch at llynch1@nd.edu

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DOMINIQUE DeMOE | The Observer

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NEWS

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Oppman, Lorenc reflect on tenure, achievements

By JORDAN COCKRUM Saint Mary’s Editor

Bailey Oppman and Lydia Lorenc, Saint Mary’s student body president and vice president emeritus, set out to use their term to make several changes to the Saint Mary’s community.

“One of the things I was most excited to accomplish was the student 5k fun run/walk to promote a healthy lifestyle,” Lorenc said in an email. “With the new Angela [Athletic and Wellness] facility opening, we wanted to emphasize the importance of wellness in a way that incorporated our favorite spots on campus. This is was something new on our platform that hadn’t really been done in the SMC community before.”

Oppman and Lorenc had several goals they wished to accomplish over the year. These goals included organizing the Sister Sprint 5k, continuing Monthly Mingle events, updating Student Government Association (SGA)’s policies and promoting sustainability.

“I think one of my proudest accomplishments as student body president and vice president has been our ability to work diligently to accomplish some of our biggest goals on our platform,” Oppman said in an email. “This included … partnering with BAVO to educate students on sexual assault and violence.”

Reflecting upon her year in office, Lorenc said one aspect of the vice presidency she liked the most was representing Saint Mary’s in various capacities.

“One of my favorite parts of being vice president was being able to represent our school at the Notre Dame football game,” Lorenc said. “Being on the field presenting the flag was such a surreal moment. And I really enjoyed wearing my Saint Mary’s College sweater with pride.”

Oppman said for her, the best part of the job was the chance to interact with the college community.

“My favorite part of being student body president was the privilege I had to work alongside so many talented individuals,” Oppman said. “From planning student events to giving input for the college’s strategic plan, I have met and collaborated with so many incredible and dedicated people.”

Being student body president allowed Oppman the opportunity to practice patience even when it was difficult for her, she said.

“I think I learned the power of patience,” Oppman said. “I am a natural ‘go-getter’ and I like things to be done quickly and efficiently. However, my role as student body president taught me to be more patient especially when working with others. Patience is key … and I think my experiences throughout the last year taught me that.”

While Oppman and Lorenc said they had a great experience over the past year, they also said they learned a lot through the job. Oppman and Lorenc hope to pass on these lessons with the 2018-2019 student body president and vice president, juniors Madeleine Corcoran and Kathy Ogden.

“One of the biggest pieces of advice I want to pass on to Madeleine and Kathy for next year is to just breathe and enjoy the ride,” Lorenc said. “Time flies so fast, and there are so many things to take in. From sitting on seven committees, to representing the student body with the Board of Trustees, serving as student leaders is very rewarding. Try not to get caught up in the endless to-do list, but sit back and take in the impact you are making as a student leader.”

Contact Jordan Cockrum at jcockrum01@saintmarys.edu

ND student government leaders share insights

By TOM NAATZ Associate News Editor

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the print edition of The Observer on April 6.

When outgoing student body president Becca Blais and outgoing vice president Sibonay Shewit, both seniors, ran for office a year ago, their slogan was “Reach, Reinvent, Represent.” Reflecting on their year in office as their term draws to a close, Blais and Shewit agreed they succeeded in reforming the way student government operated as well as made it more accessible for students.

“I would say I feel really fulfilled,” Blais said. “When I think about the past year, the moments that have been standing out to me the most are the conversations and the meetings with people who I had never encountered before, but they brought something forward and we were able to start working on it right away. We didn’t do things traditionally, and it was definitely a risk, but it worked.”

Shewit said she was proud of their year in office.

“Student government is totally different than it’s been past years, and I think it’s made it more effective,” Shewit said. “Just looking at the group of students that we’ve worked with, both individuals and clubs, too, I would say that more students feel that student government is a place they can go to have their issues represented.”

A change implemented in the past year, Blais said, was a restructuring of the executive cabinet — now, every department has a commissioner between the directors and members. Blais said this created a “structure of accountability” because it means more people have responsibility and projects get spread out.

Junior Prathm Juneja, the outgoing student government chief of staff, said this spirit of inclusivity has defined the efforts of the administration.

“Student government is now a place for everyone,” he said.

“Probably the most important thing to the three of us during this year was including every voice.

So, when I kind of reflect and think about our time as well as the University moving forward, what I’m thinking about is ‘Have we made Notre Dame a more inclusive place?’ I think we have.”

Shewit said one of her proudest accomplishments was the advocacy done on behalf of DACA recipients.

“This wasn’t a platform goal of ours, but everything that we did surrounding DACA, I think that’s probably what I’m most proud of, just because it was something we didn’t expect to be such a big part of our year,” Shewit said. “Kind of what Prathm was saying about how representing every student was so important. And I think that was our first opportunity to really stand by those words.”

Blais acknowledged some policies discussed on the ticket’s platform were not implemented because the policies were not necessary or could be approached in a more effective way. She said some successful programs, such as “town hall on the go,” in which Blais and Shewit visited every dorm on campus and gathered feedback, were formulated later.

“While we didn’t accomplish every single item we sought out to do, we found a better way to do it,” Blais said.

In addition to concrete policy accomplishments, Shewit said she was proud of the work the administration did to start conversations on campus.

“We had conversations surrounding sexual assault, DACA, the murals, representation,” Shewit said. “In the past, I feel like the biggest time for these conversations were through the board reports, but now I feel like they are almost every day.”

Juneja said that he thinks that this principle can also be applied to the issue of inclusion.

“I think conversations about inclusion were, at least during my first two years at Notre Dame, very much isolated into the groups that felt like we didn’t belong,” he said. “To see that conversations of inclusion are happening with a bunch of students who aren’t falling into the category who would be personally affected by that

issue and continuously having hard conversations about that is definitely something I take a lot of happiness and a lot of pride in.”

An email was sent to the student body with a list of policies and accomplishments of the administration. Blais said the positive reaction to the email made her reflect on the ability of people to make changes.

“The response that I got from [the email] is exactly what I want people to remember: the idea that you can make a difference,” she said. “Any student can come to this University and make a change in what they care about or on behalf of others. And that, I think, has fueled us in our time in student government and I hope it’s a wave that continues and I hope it’s something that people remember this term for.”

Blais, Shewit and Juneja expressed gratitude for the opportunity to lead the student body over the past year and build a more inclusive campus community.

“The biggest thing I think I’ve taken away from these past four years, but especially this year in office, is that it’s very OK to not be OK with things,” Shewit said. “I love Notre Dame, but that doesn’t mean I have to be OK with every aspect of Notre Dame. Instead of sitting on that anger, I think I found an avenue to work on those issues. I’m so amazed at how many students care at this school.

We love Notre Dame, and people dedicate so much time to making this a better place.”

Blais said she is thankful for her time as student body president.

“I’m just so incredibly grateful for this experience and for the people who believed in us last year and elected us, and for everyone in the student body who has played a role and just everyone who is a student here,” Blais said. “... Everybody at this University is the core of why it works and why it functions so I’m just really thankful for the opportunity to serve this University and to get to know so many of its wonderful members.”

Contact Tom Naatz at tnaatz@nd.edu

Norma Pimentel receives Laetare Medal Observer Staff Report

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the print edition of The Observer on March 20.

Notre Dame will award Sister Norma Pimentel — head of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley — the 2018 Laetare Medal, the University announced in a press release March 11.

Each year, Notre Dame awards the Laetare Medal to an American Catholic “whose genius has

ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

The release said both of Pimentel’s parents immigrated from Mexico to the United States and she spent much of her childhood traveling between the two countries. After completing her final vows and entering the Missionaries of Jesus, she worked closely with immigrants, who were often brought to the sisters’ convent.

Pimentel said this experience

shaped her understanding of her faith in concrete ways.

“Scripture comes to life and our faith becomes flesh,” she said in the release. “It is not until you find yourself in front of the face of the immigrant child or mother that you will understand this. It is a moment of realizing we are all one human family.”

Since 2008, Pimentel has directed charitable programs for the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, including “emergency food and shelter, housing assistance, clinical counseling and pregnancy care to

all four counties in the Rio Grande Valley.”

University President Fr. John Jenkins said Pimentel has lived out the call to recognize Christ in the marginalized through her work with refugees and migrants.

“Jesus said, ‘when I was a stranger, you invited me in.’ Sister Norma Pimentel has given her life to welcoming Christ in the immigrant and refugee,” Jenkins said in the release. “In awarding her the Laetare Medal, Notre Dame celebrates her witness of seeking and generously serving Christ in the most

vulnerable.”

Pimentel said in the release that she was grateful to receive the 2018 Laetare Medal.

“I am truly honored to receive this award,” she said. “This year’s Laetare Medal brings forth the cries of the suffering for the world to hear. I would like to thank the University of Notre Dame for this recognition and for being a voice for immigrants in our midst.”

Pimentel will be awarded the medal on May 20 at commencement.

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Seniors receive Fulbright fellowships, grants

By CIARA HOPKINSON News Writer

Fourteen members of the class of 2018 will be heading off this fall to conduct research, attend graduate school or teach English with the aid of national and international fellowships and grants. The majority of those students are Fulbright grant recipients.

Jeffrey Thibert, director of the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE), said Fulbright grants have become increasingly popular over the past few years, with each year’s finalists fueling more applications.

“I think what’s happening is that, as students receive some of these, they then get publicized more and more which then leads more students to hear about them and apply for them, which then leads to more success, which then leads to more publicity,” Thibert said. “We had a couple really good years with Fulbright and now we’ve seen that become a pretty consistent thing because people are hearing about them.”

Fulbright awards take two forms: the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) and the Study/Research Grant, the Fulbright website said.

Fulbright ETA finalists live in the country of their choice for one year and teach English at the elementary, high school or university level, while Study/Research Grant finalists conduct research, receive a master’s degree or a combination of the two. Thibert said Notre Dame’s class of 2018 has 11 students who have accepted Fulbright grants.

“Everybody has a plan B set up and what typically happens is people will, if they find out they receive the Fulbright, they will then go back to whatever the plan B was and see if they can defer, so people can defer graduate school admissions, medical school admissions — often employers are willing to defer job starts for a year to do something like the Fulbright,” Thibert said.

Thibert said ETA applicants usually have some experience teaching English, whether in the community or abroad, and study/research applicants have usually conducted research abroad or at Notre Dame.

The third category of applicants fall somewhere in the middle.

“Maybe they were abroad for a semester, maybe they just went abroad for a limited amount of time, but they like the idea of having an immersive cultural experience for a year while teaching English or conducting some kind of project,” Thibert said. “In some countries, the English Teaching Assistantship doesn’t require previous English teaching experience … but they do need you to be open to this immersive year abroad.”

Senior Nadia Braun said she knew she was going to apply for the ETA grant by the time she reached her sophomore year. Braun, whose mother taught Russian before she was born, had been considering a Fulbright grant in Russia for years.

“I talked to CUSE and asked

what the process was like, and then it sort of is the perfect marriage of my Russian major and education, schooling and society minor,” Braun said. “So I was like, ‘This is really what I want to do.’ CUSE was great, they helped me with the entire application process and really directed me so it worked out.”

Braun’s back-up plan was participating in ’Teach for America,’ a non-profit organization that provides the opportunity to teach in low-income schools, which she deferred for a year. Braun’s interest in higher education and her previous experiences in Russia and English tutoring strengthened her application, Braun and Thibert said.

She said she is excited to return to Russia, where she studied abroad and also visited in high school.

“Russia’s been a really big part of my life since I was small, so I’m really excited to go back and have the opportunity to travel more,” Braun said. “I’m excited to meet new people because you’re so invested in the community you’re going to be living in — you’re working at a university, you’re not only teaching, but a lot of the Fulbrighters end up teaching other English classes or running an English Club or volunteering and teaching elementary students, so you really get to be a part of that world and I’m really excited to do that.”

Though she doesn’t know what city she’ll be placed in, Braun said she predicts it will be an area lacking many English speakers. While other Russian-speaking countries had plenty of opportunities for teaching English at the elementary and high school level, Braun chose Russia because she is guaranteed to be teaching at a university, reflecting her desire to work in higher education.

“Even in high school, looking at different colleges and doing the whole college search thing was really fascinating to me,” Braun said. “Then once I got to college, I realized that a thing I could actually pursue as a career was being involved in that structure. When I started the education, schooling and society minor, I realized how much inequity there is in higher ed and so I really wanted to work to help people who don’t necessarily have the same opportunities that I’ve had to be able to succeed in the higher education system.”

Senior Jeremy Cappello-Lee will travel to South Korea for a two year master’s degree program at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, South Korea through the Study/ Research grant. His program focuses on global affairs with an emphasis on Korean studies, he said.

“This particular program, since it’s a graduate program, offered a way to transition from my major being philosophy here to a more business-focused and applied course of study,” he said. “I’ll be taking courses in economics, management, politics, so it’s a way of transitioning into diplomacy, international trade — those types of sectors afterwards.”

Cappello-Lee, who is half

DOMINIQUE DeMOE | The Observer

Korean, coupled his major in philosophy with Asian studies and said he believes the Asia region, which is already receiving a lot of attention, will only continue to grow more influential on the world stage.

“My interest stemmed after high school, when I took a sort of gap year in South Korea and I studied the language there and traveled and volunteered and stuff,” CappelloLee said. “That kind of sparked my interest in the region and then I continued that thread at Notre Dame and combined it with a focus in China — so China, Korea, U.S. relations.“ CUSE was extremely helpful, he said, in creating a grant proposal that was relevant, personal and convincing within two pages, integrating both his past experiences and future goals.

“CUSE is a great asset and I can’t stress enough how helpful they have been in my application process. They really make a seemingly daunting process much more manageable,” Cappello-Lee said.

Like Braun, Cappello-Lee said he was excited about returning to the cities he visited in the year before college.

“Having had these four years of university, I think I’ve grown as a person and I’m really excited to see how that’s changed my perspective on Seoul,” Cappello-Lee said.

A number of grants also focus on continuing education in the United States. Senior Michael Foley was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics, but ultimately declined the grant in favor of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSFGRF), which funds students for three years of research in a STEM field.

“The idea is just that you can ignore any other financial strains you may have and just be purely funded and not have to answer to a single advisor either,” Foley said.

“You have the freedom to kind of work with whoever you want and not be financially tied to a single person.”

Foley said since the money comes from the government and does not have specific requirements, he will have the freedom to study whatever he is most

interested in without the pressure of an outside source of funding.

“It’s a little hard to develop your scientific abilities if you’re only doing what someone else is telling you to do,” Foley said. “If you don’t have the freedom to explore your own ideas it’s a little bit more restrictive. A lot of times mentors are really good about that, but sometimes you may get a mentor that isn’t so great so if you can say, ‘I have my own funding,’ that’s a really big thing and CUSE seems to really understand that.”

Foley hopes to become a professor and conduct research after receiving his doctorate from Harvard, but he said he could also pursue a career in the technology sector. His experiences doing research and his previous work with CUSE have opened him up to multiple possibilities, he said.

“I’ve always loved space, and I didn’t realize I could research it as a career until I got here,” Foley said.

“I came in expecting to study physics and computer science and just be interested in space but go and work at a tech company or something, but I jumped into research my freshman year and I absolutely loved it — it showed me that there were actually opportunities to study something I love.”

Foley also received the Goldwater Scholarship during his junior year and the application process and award served as a step toward subsequent awards, Thibert said.

“It’s sort of meant to recognize outstanding student researchers who are on track to becoming outstanding faculty researchers typically, so I think that was a pretty big stepping stone for him to some of these other fellowships,” Thibert said.

The application to both the Gates Scholarship and NSFGRF were time consuming, Foley said, but necessary to his future success.

“I think it ultimately made me a lot more clear in the things I’d like to pursue in grad school, not so much academically but how I’d like to use the knowledge and the skills I’m gaining to teach others, to help other people figure out what they want to do,” Foley said. “It was a very informative process.”

This learning, Thibert said, is one

of the main focuses of CUSE. With hundreds of Notre Dame students and alumni applying for grants every year, CUSE has to be prepared for the majority to be rejected.

“I don’t know if I would say it’s the biggest challenge, but it’s the thing that I see as our number one task, which is to ensure that whether or not a student receives a fellowship they’re applying for, they get value from the application process,” Thibert said. “It’s of course worth trying to apply to the great opportunities, but I think it’s really important that as advisors, we make sure that they are really getting something of value from the process.”

While getting the word out about grants and fellowships continues to be CUSE’s greatest challenge, Thibert said, he has seen the number of applicants and recipients grow year after year. He said an emerging global perspective was one of the greatest factors in this increase.

“Every year, I think I see students becoming more and more internationally engaged and I think the University has put a real priority on internationalization and I think that I really see that impact,” Thibert said. “The students are more in-tune with what is going on around the world, more and more students seem to be studying abroad and more and more students are interested in having these experiences that allow them to engage globally.”

Thibert said he hopes to see more students apply and dreads students might regret missing an opportunity. Success builds on success, he said, which is evident in the number of Fulbright applicants.

“I hope students would see what some of these graduating seniors have been able to achieve during their time here and recognize that they too might be able to achieve some of these same things,” Thibert said. “There is this sort of culture of fellowships developing here where I think people are talking about these things, people do know about them. I would like to see that culture expand a little.”

Contact Ciara Hopkinson at chopkin1@nd.edu

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SMC announces commencement attire change

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Observer Staff Report

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the print edition of The Observer on April 11.

President Jan Cervelli announced a change to the Commencement stole policy April 11. The revised policy will begin with the 2018 Commencement, according to a press release.

Previously, the College allowed graduates to wear honors cords and medals at Commencement but did not allow stoles to be worn at the ceremony. Stoles, honors cords and medals were all allowed at the Baccalaureate Mass and Honors Convocation, however.

The previous policy only allowed exceptions recommended by an academic department with approval from the President. This revision to the permitted attire for the commencement ceremony will allow for approved stoles to be worn at graduation, according to the release.

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Several members of the class of 2018 presented letters to President Cervelli requesting a change to the policy.

“I was moved by thoughtful letters from members of the class of 2018 saying that stoles represent the community they’ve found during their years at Saint Mary’s,” President Jan Cervelli said in the release. “They have shown themselves to be Women of Action in this effort, as well as in their involvement with the groups that have meant so much to them as students.

Symbols of those experiences deserve to be worn during Commencement.”

The Office of Student Affairs will be responsible for approving graduation stoles if a student wants to wear a stole that is not on the list of approved stoles.

The release said organizations with approved stoles are the education department, multiethnic clubs and organizations, Notre Dame band and STEM programs.

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Grateful for my role models

Thanks to Notre Dame’s finest

Ben Padanilam

Chris Collins

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

Photo Editor Emeritus

I can’t believe how quickly these four years have flown by.

With graduation set for Sunday, I — like just about every other senior — have been doing a lot of thinking about that time. I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about the future.

When I first got to Notre Dame, I remember feeling a lot of pressure to do something “great” with my life. We’re told early on that we have a sort of responsibility to do something “great” and make a difference in the world.

And we’re told that there’s a path to follow, a resume that needs to be built in order to accomplish it.

Well, I didn’t exactly follow that path. I spent most of my summers caddying and at home with family instead of pursuing a big internship. I didn’t pursue a significant research opportunity academically, despite that being the norm for the programs I was in.

For a long time, I felt like I was squandering the opportunity of being here.

But now, when I look back on my time here, I no longer feel like that’s the case. And I feel like that’s largely because of the lesson I’ve learned since then.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the people who have had the greatest impact on my life — the people I consider heroes who have achieved “greatness.”

And frankly, the people I think about aren’t the ones who filled out the most impressive resume. They aren’t the ones who “changed the world” in a traditional, big-picture sense. That’s not to say those people don’t have an impact or go on to do great things, but it does mean they’re not the only ones.

I think of my parents. I don’t know if I will have ever better role models in my life than them. They help people every day with their jobs, but it’s the things they’ve done and don’t get recognized for which I’m in awe of. They’ve sacrificed so much in the last two years for my youngest brother, helping him through the toughest time of his life. There have been so many challenges along the way for them — most of which they wouldn’t want me writing about in detail — but they’ve never given up. And because of that, my brother will graduate from high school this Sunday, a reality which seemed like an improbability not too long ago.

I think of my roommate of three years, Tommy Clarke. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone as selfless and as good-hearted as he is. He taught me that simply bringing a smile to someone’s face when you see them can change someone’s day, making a difference. He taught me that “changing the world” can be as simple as bringing someone stuck in the library with you at 3 a.m. a piece of candy to show them they’re not alone.

Hoping to be more like those role models, I’ve tried to emulate their example. I can think of countless others who have similarly changed the way I define being great — the way I’ve been told to think of it — and I’ve tried to follow their lead, too.

And for me, The Observer was always the one place where I could do take those lessons and try to be great in my own way.

I was lucky enough to be surrounded by journalists way more talented than myself — on my Ed Board alone this past year, our Managing Editor will be interning at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Chicago Tribune this summer and fall, respectively; one of our Assistant Managing Editors will be with the Boston Globe; and our News Editor — who I would say has become my best friend and deserves a special shoutout for everything I’ve learned from her — will be with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Every day, they and so many others impressed me with their dedication and ability. Not a journalist by nature or in the program, I was able to learn from the best.

Most of all, they allowed me to just be myself instead of someone I wasn’t. I made my contributions through enthusiasm and selfless dedication because that was how I thought I could make a difference. I certainly wasn’t perfect in that, but I wanted to lead by example the same way my role models have.

Because I firmly believe now that this is how I can make a difference in this world. In fact, it’s one way I think anyone can really make a difference and change the world; because having an impact can be as simple as bringing a smile to someone’s face on a difficult day.

And now that my time at The Observer is over, I can look back on it and say I had an impact. I just hope that I’ve had as great an impact as so many people have had on me.

Ben Padanilam is graduating with a degree from the Program of Liberal Studies with minors in business economics, philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) and the Glynn Family honors program. He will spend the summer interning with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, writing for the Sports desk. Then, he will be returning to Notre Dame to attend the law school. He’ll miss the countless hours and friendships made working in the basement of South Dining Hall, but he’s thankful for the time he had. He can be contacted at bpadanil@gmail.com The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

I fell into The Observer freshman year after hearing of a friend who worked for them and got paid to go to the Florida State game to take photos. This sounded too cool to be true. I decided to meagerly reach out and apply for a position in the photo department, hoping that my hobby since high school would let me get my foot in the door. I was so ecstatic when I was told, “Of course! Just come to the next meeting.”

I didn’t know it then but The Observer would become one of the defining factors of my college career. Taking an occasional photo assignment would soon turn into devoting hours every week to my passion. The strangers that I worked with once a week would become some of my best friends. The dark and dingy office in the basement of South Dining Hall would become my second home.

I never would have guessed how much time I would eventually commit to The Observer but looking back on it, I wouldn’t change a single thing. From the late nights in the office to traveling across the country to take football photos, The Observer has given me memories I’ll never forget.

I was lucky enough to be the Photo Editor for two different stints in college.

I’d be lying if I said it was the easiest job in the world, but the experiences and people that I’ve met along the way have made everything worth it. It’s hard to describe exactly what The Observer means to me, but writing this is really making me realize that it’s all over. Graduating is a surreal feeling and I just keep thinking I’ll be back at it again next fall with the same people. While I’d love this to be true it’s time to move on.

I’d like to thank every person I’ve ever worked with at The Observer. Every member of staff puts in more work than the rest of the student body understands.

You’re all amazing people and I’m honored to say that I’ve spent my four years working with some of Notre Dame’s finest.

Chris Collins is a graduating senior majoring in Marketing and Applied & Computational Mathematics and Statistics. He’ll be working in New York City after graduation and is excited to be returning for football games next year.

Contact him if your family is throwing a nice tailgate at ccolli13@alumni.nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

A real ending Megan Valley Assistant Managing Editor Emeritus

I am not a sentimental person, which makes attending a school like Notre Dame, whose entire identity and tradition is built on a profound sense of sentiment, a little strange at times.

As second semester began to wind down, a lot of “lasts” started to be commemorated, continuing all the way up until graduation.

I’m not always a participant in the nostalgia, but I think that shows how well I’ve been prepared for what comes next.

With each “last” there is a gut reaction that a lot of people have to refuse to admit defeat: this will not be the last time, this is not the end, it’s not over yet, there’s still time.

But for most of these occasions, it very much is the end, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Endings don’t have to be inherently tragic, or even sad. There’s only time up until there isn’t.

College may be an extremely formative four years, but it’s only four years and, without the convenience of place, there are a lot of people you’ll never talk to after graduation, classrooms you’ll never revisit and dorm rooms you’ll never hang out in again.

Just because something is definitively over doesn’t mean it wasn’t important or isn’t worth celebrating. After all, these four years have been incredibly important for everyone graduating, for better or for worse.

It’s not that I won’t miss my friends — I will.

But sometimes, the best thing for your relationships is to allow each other to grow in a way that wouldn’t be possible if you stayed at college forever. I may not be able to see every

moment of growth for my friends the way I could when we lived in the same hallway, or when the walk from Mod Quad to South Quad was the greatest distance we ever had to worry about, but I can still celebrate that growth.

Leaving doesn’t mean there isn’t room for each other as you move forward, just that the space you previously took up might be differently occupied, moved and changed.

The Observer has occupied a lot of my space the past few years, despite the fact that I never really planned to join. I started writing the second semester of my freshman year for no real reason other than that I hadn’t done any extracurriculars the first semester and they were the people I received the most emails from. I had never written for a newspaper before and, after I submit this column, it’s unlikely that I ever will again.

This column is a real ending, one that’s more definite, easier to pin to an exact moment than some of the other endings that will be passing — some unnoticed — in the coming weeks. If I were to get sentimental about something, it would be The Observer; I’ve invested far too much time to be indifferent to the end of its place in my life, but it’s in the hands of friends, and I have no qualms or regrets about leaving.

Megan Valley is graduating with degrees in the Program of Liberal Studies and English. She will be moving to New York after graduation to attend NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute, which will hopefully lead her to a job she doesn’t hate. You can contact her at meganevalley@gmail.com The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

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Leaving behind an identity Marek Mazurek Assistant Managing Editor Emeritus

So often end-of-the-year columns talk about what a special place Notre Dame is.

But it’s not.

It’s a beautiful place for sure, but there are lots of beautiful campuses in the country.

As an institution Notre Dame isn’t special either. It’s great academically and I will be extremely proud to receive my degree, but there are lots of other schools as good or better.

The administration has often made decisions I oppose strongly and hasn’t done much in my four years here to help the marginalized (low-income students and the LGBTQ community, for example) like its Catholic mission statement claims.

Heck, the football team isn’t even that special, as I found out covering the 4-8 season my junior year.

But despite all that, my four years here have been nothing short of amazing. Not because of the Dome or the

football games, but because of the people.

As I look back on my four years here, it was the people, not the aura of Notre Dame, that got me through the late nights and the rough times.

I didn’t find my peace of mind at the Grotto, I found it talking to my classmates who became friends and my friends who became like family.

While I had great times at football games, it wasn’t because of the (often disappointing) team or the amazingly comfortable wooden bleachers. Games were another opportunity to make memories with your friends.

The vast majority of my classes were extremely rich and meaningful, not because of the magical aura of Notre Dame, but because each individual professor cared about us inside and outside of the classroom.

And though my niche at Notre Dame was undoubtedly the basement of South Dining Hall, it wasn’t the windowless office itself, but the amazing people at The Observer that made late nights and the stress not only bearable, but unforgettable.

This weekend, feel free to go to the Grotto and take pictures by the Dome. But make sure to spend time with

the people who truly made Notre Dame unique. Hang out with the friends you may not see for a year or more because they’re going overseas or across the country.

In just a week, you’ll be surprised how much you’ll miss them. Be nice to your parents and let them know you appreciate the sacrifices they made and the support they’ve given.

I’ve tried to do that this past week, but there just isn’t enough time. But I know that when I look back on my college years, it won’t be the football stadium or the library that I picture.

It’ll be the people — the friends and family I made along the way.

Marek is graduating with a degree in history and minors in journalism and medieval studies. Marek will be in Boston this summer writing for the Boston Globe and after that, it’s anybody’s guess. He would like to thank everyone who has read his work in The Observer for the past four years.

The views expressed in the column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Why I am ready to leave Sarah Olson Photographer Emeritus

1. Tried all the coffee flavors at Waddick’s (blueberry coffee is still the best!)

2. South Bend 3. More variety of age groups (cute babies) 4. Full-time salary 5. Tired of seeing my ex across the quad 6. New bars each week with new people 7. No more physics homework that does not coincide with my major, but still is supposed to change my “way of thinking about a solution” 8. Freedom on the weekends and in the evenings 9. Work that addresses my specific interests 10. No more paying $300 for a book I think every stage in life serves a purpose. That purpose differs from person to person. I am not necessarily ready to leave college solely because of my eagerness to branch out, or lack of coffee options. I am ready to leave because my college experience has served its role in my life.

I entered college with high hopes. I would become a president for a club or start my own company. I would get high honors and go to some prestigious grad school.

I didn’t do any of that.

My college experience was no greater than any one else’s. If anything, it was normal and unremarkable. Not one thing I did was not done by someone else before me, or would not be repeated by someone after me.

And I do not regret any of that. I did not get any awards, but I realized that true friends get you a bunch of roses and cheese for Valentine’s Day. I am not going to grad school, but I realized that staying up late talking with a friend is more valuable and memorable than studying for your 8 a.m. exam the next day.

I realized that I entered college confident of the direction for my life. Many people said I would discover the person I am in college. And that did happen to an extent, and I learned a million things about myself during my four years. But at the same time, I have five million more things I have to learn.

Each year of college I grew more and more unaware of how lost I maybe was in my self-discovery process. I still

can’t exactly pinpoint why I make some actions or decisions. That’s all still to come, and think I need a different environment to better understand myself.

Now what I learned, how I grew and my initial dreams for college are not the same as everyone else’s. But that’s the point. Everyone has different goals for college and different ways to reflect about those goals. And that’s just that.

Some people are meant to be in your life for a short period of time, and that’s ok. College can also be meant for a short — wonderful and valuable — period of your life, and that’s OK. There can be beautiful things in your life that you don’t want to end. But you can’t stay stagnant forever.

Sarah Olson is graduating with a degree in computer studies and a minor in philosophy, science and mathematics. After graduation, she will be moving to D.C. to work in data science and machine intelligence for Booz Allen Hamilton (not building crazy robots that will take over the world). Her alumni email is solson3@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Thank you, Observer Rosie LoVoi Photographer Emeritus

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “what has my Notre Dame experience meant to me?” And that question is full of many pieces: Breen-Phillips hall, the Program of Liberal Studies, football games, South Bend, working at the library and, of course, The Observer.

I started photographing for The Observer the second semester of my freshman year, and while there have been times when I’ve been ridiculously frustrated with the job, I wouldn’t go back and change it because it has in many ways shaped college for me. I made friends while working long nights at the paper, and spent hours in the basement of South Dining Hall sorting through

random but fascinating events.

I got to shoot on the sidelines of Notre Dame football games, an experience that nothing can really compare to. I spent so many evenings laughing with classmates and strangers over the stupid question of the day that I’d come up with on the spot (my personal favorite will always be “what was your last google search?”).

There were also the times I was denied by four people in a row for the question of the day — those are the lessthan-good memories that taught me to keep going until the job got done.

The photo department is an interesting one to be part of, because it’s less integrated into the paper as a whole.

Although those of us in the photo crew stick together, I loved getting to know people in other departments during nightly production. You come to recognize the

silliness that sets in around midnight, and the exhaustion at about 2 a.m. when you know it’ll be a long night.

The Observer is a huge operation. The people that make it run smoothly every day of the week impress me to no end. I’m grateful to have worked with them and learned from their professionalism and dedication. I’ve always known that Notre Dame is a unique and special place, but being part of The Observer convinced me of it.

Rosie LoVoi is graduating with a degree in the Program of Liberal Studies. She is attending the Columbia Publishing Course this summer and can be reached at rlovoi@alumni.nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

Where you end up Rachel O’Grady Assistant Managing Editor Emeritus

It’s not true that you won’t regret things in college.

You will regret not studying harder for one more test, or not taking one more class, or not joining one more club or even not going out one more night. I would bet that over the course of your four years, you will most definitely regret all of those things.

But life presents you with so many, often hard, choices.

Ultimately, you will pick one thing over another, and those choices might lead to feelings of regret.

But if you can square these choices with all of the things you gained in exchange — the late nights in the office, or staying on campus instead of going abroad, or meeting a whole new group of friends — you’ll be able to do things that you couldn’t imagine. And you’ll be a better person because of it.

Of the infinite number of paths I could have taken to get to graduation this Sunday, I certainly chose one with some regrets — though, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, perhaps too few to mention — but I would not have done it any other way. Each choice had its reason, and I have to believe there’s meaning behind where I ended up. *** I’ve slept through my fair share of classes. Working until 3 in the morning multiple nights a week will do that to you.

But I wouldn’t trade all of the insanely late nights spent in The Observer offices for a couple of extra early-morning classes. It was in that poorly-lit basement newsroom on Wednesday nights that I made some of my best friends and found out what real dedication looked like.

Without the Insider nights, I would have never pestered Katie, Greg, Margaret, Zach and Catherine to come hang out in my double in Ryan Hall, affectionately known as Club 206 by those who came to huddle on my broken futon to watch March Madness games or the movie of the week. When we packed everything up to go home at the

end of my sophomore year, they still came over and played board games with me on a bare mattress in a de-lofted bed.

It was late nights in the office sending down the paper that led to later nights in the office trying to study for finals, but ultimately watching “Legally Blonde” for a study break.

And none of those memories — staying up too late to perfect an edition of The Observer, or singing Whitney Houston on top of desks, or taking an unnecessary office poll — are worth losing to always wake up for your 9:30 a.m. class. *** I knew I didn’t want to study abroad. I loved going here so much — the dorm life, the professors, the classes, my friends — and it made no sense in my mind to ever leave.

That was, of course, until almost all of my friends left for their various adventures in foreign countries. Even now, it makes me a bit sad to think about what I missed out on.

But if I had gone abroad, I would’ve missed meeting some of my closest friends.

When you’re the leftover juniors, you’re forced to at least be friendly to everyone you meet. So when Olivia invited me over to meet this “great girl, Mary, you’ll love her!” I had to say yes. That led to meeting Brody and Steven and Dan and Bobbie and so many others who I will painfully miss next year. Without them, I would have never been exposed to the merits of Greek over Latin, or learned what to do if you’re stranded in Kentucky, or hiked up dunes in the winter on a sprained ankle, or how many pull ups is an acceptable amount. *** I missed almost every single Tuesday night trivia first semester of my senior year. The dumb, small tradition of going to Danny Boy’s on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. was something I often had to forgo in favor of a class I took with Fr. Scully from 7-9 p.m., and I was initially upset. Class over hanging out with my group of friends? It didn’t even sound like something I would do.

But if I hadn’t, I would have never gone to Washington, D.C. or read David Brooks. I would have never met friends who cared about the true meaning of happiness enough to get drinks once a week to discuss it.

That group of people from class — known as “Slug Club” — will all indubitably make a lasting impact on society as we know it. They’re the kind of people that you go to Notre Dame to meet; their caring personalities and cunning minds are unique amongst their peers.

While they will go on to change the world throughout the rest of their lives, I have certainly been changed by having them in my life. *** I didn’t take a typical route to get here. I did the Gateway program, which meant I went to Holy Cross freshman year and transferred my sophomore year.

It was certainly a difficult, but ultimately incredibly worthwhile, path to take. I have no regrets about it now, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel major pangs of regret during that first year.

My parents were adamant and consistent with their advice: It’s not about where you start, but about where you end up. No one ever told me I needed to end up at Notre Dame, or that I even should go to Notre Dame. I didn’t need the Notre Dame onesie, or the Grotto trips before football games as a kid, or the tour, or the brochure or the alumni pushing me to do it. No one had to tell me. I wanted to graduate from Notre Dame. I just knew.

On Sunday, I’ll do just that.

That’s one hell of a place to end up.

Rachel O’Grady is graduating with a degree in political science. She’s headed to Detroit next year to do marketing at General Motors. You can contact her at rogrady596@gmail.com with any tips on how to drive a car, Mitt Romney insights, hot takes and if you’re ever even vaguely in the state of Michigan.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

That first meeting Michael Ivey Sports Writer Emeritus

I remember it like it was yesterday.

I had just arrived at Holy Cross College for my freshman year in late August 2014. My older brother Cameron, who attended Notre Dame, urged me to go to the extracurricular fair the University holds at the beginning of every year to see if there was anything I found interesting.

I walked around the Joyce Center, going from table to table trying to find something that peaked my interest. I eventually came across The Observer’s table, and the people working there urged me to sign up.

I had written for my high school newspaper and enjoyed that experience. I decided “Why not?” So I put my email down on the form and signed up for the sports department.

I had no idea at that moment I had made one of the best decisions in my life.

On Sunday, September 14, 2014, I went to my first ever Observer sports department staff meeting.

Being a Holy Cross student, I didn’t really know anyone else there, but I was welcomed with open arms by the staff and the other new writers. It was at this meeting I would meet Marek Mazurek, a fellow freshman who would become one of my closest friends during my four years at The Observer.

So many memories began with that one meeting.

I remember the first beat I worked at The Observer, covering interhall football with Marek.

I also remember covering Saint Mary’s tennis, golf and basketball my freshman year.

I recall the night of Thursday, February 26, 2015, which was the annual Bruno’s Restaurant Night

where The Observer staff goes in South Bend. That night was memorable for a number of reasons. I got to meet many writers who worked in the other departments at the paper, and that was also the night the infamous “The Dress” meme took the social media world by storm. There were so many arguments I was a part of that night (it was blue and black).

A couple of hours later, it was announced that Fr. Theodore Hesburgh had died.

I remember reading the special issue the paper printed the following day, and the one the following Monday. I was amazed by the in-depth coverage and careful attention to detail of each paper.

It was then I realized just how talented my fellow writers were and how special this paper was.

I’ll never forget the experiences I’ve had because of The Observer, covering a multitude of sports from Notre Dame men’s and women’s tennis, swimming and diving and softball, to writing about the Baraka Bouts and individual football player profiles for the senior edition. I also had the opportunity to cover three Notre Dame football games on behalf of the paper: the Duke game in 2016, and the Georgia and Wake Forest games in 2017.

Perhaps my most memorable year on staff was this past year, when I received the honor of covering the men’s soccer, hockey and lacrosse beats.

It was a privilege to work alongside my fellow beat members and cover the men’s soccer team during legendary head coach Bobby Clark’s last season, the hockey team on their way to an appearance in the national championship game and the men’s lacrosse team who recently won the ACC championship.

Most importantly, I want to thank everyone at

The Observer for all the hard work they put into making each paper. I want to thank the editors and the people who worked in the office late at night for fixing my grammar mistakes and making me look smarter than I actually am. I want to thank everyone in the sports department for a memorable and unforgettable four years, especially Marek, Tobias Hoonhout, Ben Padanilam, Joe Everett, Meagan Bens, Connor Mulvena and Elizabeth Greason for working with me and entrusting me with writing stories for some of the major sports beats this past year. I also want to thank Mary Green, Zach Klonsinski and Greg Hadley for helping me become involved with The Observer during my freshman year. I want to thank the Notre Dame men’s tennis head coach Ryan Sachire, who I’ve worked with the past two years and who has been nothing but kind and welcoming to me every time we talk. Last but not least, I also want to thank the people who work in the news, scene, viewpoint, photo and graphics departments of the paper for helping to create outstanding papers each and every day.

My time at Holy Cross is coming to an end, and because of my time at The Observer, I want more than ever to go into sports journalism after I graduate. One last time, thank you to The Observer for helping me grow as a writer and a journalist.

Michael Ivey will be graduating from Holy Cross College with a degree in communications along with a minor in sports management. He is planning on returning home to live with his family and two pet bulldogs in Tinley Park, Illinois and is currently jobhunting. He can be contacted at mivey@alumni.hcc-nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

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Graduation extravaganza Katie Galioto Managing Editor Emeritus

The sign is pretty wrinkled, and it’s starting to tear a little in the top right corner. Otherwise, it’s held up remarkably well over the past four years.

It’s on the type of paper all elementary schools have in their art rooms, the kind that comes in big rolls. The lettering was done in red acrylic paint with blue and gold accents, the work of Emmy’s expert hand. Each word looks like a slightly different font, but all the fonts somehow manage to go together.

We have to pin up the top left corner of the sign extra times because that’s where we tape on the names of the occasions, one on top of the other.

It’s a convenient fill-in-the-blank that makes even the smallest celebration sound legit: [insert event here] Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure.

We’ve had “Secret Santa Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure.” We’ve had “Emily’s 22nd Birthday Fiesta Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure.” We’ve had “Dome Dance Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure.”

You could probably fill a small scrapbook with the photos we’ve taken standing under the sign. The Wild Women of Walsh Hall, huddled close together as another partygoer (often a patient boyfriend) takes pictures with and without the flash.

This weekend, our final one before becoming alumnae of Notre Dame, the sign will bear the name of the day I’ve been anticipating and dreading all year. The day that seemed eons and eons away, and the day that arrived in the blink of an eye.

Graduation Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure. ***

Who could forget Quintmas Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure? Meghan, Jaclyn and I spent all day decorating our third-floor quint with Christmas lights and streamers and paper snowflakes. We flipped Jaclyn’s twin bed on its side to clear space in our tiny, tiny side bedroom. We played Christmas music and drank festive drinks and danced in our ugly holiday sweaters for hours until the party got shut down.

And then there was the Jaclyn’s Birthday Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure series — we’ve had a version of that sign three times. Jaclyn has the first birthday of the school year out of the Walsh girls, in early October. Junior year, she thought we were all bad friends because we were acting so apathetic about her 21st birthday. We redeemed ourselves by throwing her a surprise gathering, complete with a delicious birthday cake baked by Kari’s mom.

At the original event — Wine Night Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure — the sign didn’t even exist yet. (It debuted at a BBQ a few weeks later).

We scribbled the name on printer paper with highlighters and taped it to the closet door as we all hung out, squished together on the floor of a small Walsh Hall double. Somewhere, there’s a Polaroid of Erin, Meghan and I to commemorate the night. We ate lots of microwave popcorn and gossiped — a regular occurrence throughout the rest of our college career.

This isn’t supposed to be a metaphor, a “my college experience was like one big party” type of thing. That’s not what I’m trying to say!

It’s really just me reflecting on a tradition, on memories, on friendships. It’s me trying to sort out in my mind what exactly Graduation Extravaganza Super Party Blowout Race for a Cure is celebrating — because it’s a long list. *** How do you celebrate the time you met your best

friends and the time you spent hours studying the effects of foreign aid and the time you got lost in Berlin and the time you learned to do laundry all at once?

Because all of that happened at college — four years of learning and loving and failing and figuring it out.

I spent hours in the newsroom, telling the stories of this campus with a staff of fellow students. I fell in love with journalism and set up the start of my career in the industry.

I lived with an Italian host family for four months and often had no idea what was going on in our dinner table discussions. I still cried when I had to say goodbye.

I went to school with my brother and cousin. We see each other every Sunday night at Dawg Mass and lots of other times, too.

I played flag football games in the freezing cold and the pouring rain. I ate so many Sunday morning brunches in South Dining Hall, the only day they consistently offered those little cubed seasoned breakfast potatoes. I had picnics by the lakes, with Rocco’s pizza and friends I met on my first day in South Bend.

Graduation Extravaganza Super Party Blowout is a celebration of all these things.

But it’s not an end. We are so young. There will be weddings and reunions and birthdays and who knows what else.

The sign still has years of use ahead of it.

Katie Galioto is graduating with a degree in political science and minors in business economics and journalism, ethics and democracy. She’ll be working as a reporting intern at the metro desks of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Chicago Tribune for the next six months. She welcomes visitors at both locations, just email her at katiegalioto@gmail.com The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Belle Yeah Nicole Caratas Saint Mary’s Editor Emeritus

When I was looking for which college to go to, my dream schools were Kenyon College and Boston College. I ended up at Saint Mary’s as a compromise.

I loved the College, and my parents loved that it had connections with Notre Dame. The deal was I would major in engineering and get a degree from both Saint Mary’s and Notre Dame.

That didn’t last long. By the time my deposit was down, I was set on doing anything except for engineering.

When I was a first year, I found the English writing department. I took a poetry writing class because writing had been something I turned to since I was little. I thought it would be a for-fun class, but two weeks in, I decided this was my major.

During my sophomore year, I took a humanistic studies class that focused on the high society of Great Britain, and within a few weeks, I declared humanistic studies as my second major.

As for The Observer, I joined my freshman year to force myself to write more. I had never worked in journalism before, but I quickly grew to love it and thought this was my life’s path. I took too many stories every week, and by my sophomore year, I was made Saint Mary’s editor.

While I loved serving Saint Mary’s, I quickly realized that journalism was not where my passion was. I thought I loved The Observer because of what we did, but really, the only part I cared about was the way we brought Saint Mary’s stories into the spotlight.

This College has done nothing but change my life for the better. I know everyone loves their schools, but Saint Mary’s is different. It doesn’t have quite the worldwide name recognition that Notre Dame appears to have, but that didn’t stop me from finding a recent Saint Mary’s graduate when I went to Singapore. When I saw the Lumineers in concert, a Saint Mary’s alumna was sitting behind me and my friends, and recognized us by our class rings; to say we instantly

connected with her was an understatement.

The Saint Mary’s community is crazy. I’m a writing major, and I have no words to describe this kind of community. I didn’t think I’d be able to care about strangers this much, but the love between Saint Mary’s Belles is something completely unique.

This College is incredible, but I cannot even attempt to explain what it feels like to be part of a department here.

The English writing department made me realize I was not as good of a writer as I thought, and then built me up to be a better writer than I could have ever been. They made me realize writing is not something to be done alone. You need fellow writers to critique your work, build you up when you get discouraged and share a bottle of wine every now and then. Dr. Bremyer encouraged me to go to graduate school for creative writing, and because this woman genuinely cares about each and every student, I found the strength to follow my dreams even though what I want is not exactly a conventional, money-making path. Even though the future for writers is never secure, Dr. B made me realize you have to do what your soul tells you to do.

Because of her passion for our craft and her dedication to the writing students, I am genuinely happy about my future plans.

The humanistic studies department is a monster. These professors expect more from their students than should even be legal, but they do it because they know we can do better each time. Even though I have shed my body weight in tears over these classes, the Humanistic Studies department transformed me. Between Dr. Shinners, Dr. Ambrose, Dr. Hicks and Dr. Bird, this department has no shortage of brilliant minds. These four professors also liked to take the “tear you down before we build you up” approach, but let me tell you: they churned out some of the strongest students in the college. Not only that, but I was able to find my best friends through this major. Plus, they let me interview Margaret Atwood, so that’s pretty neat.

While I’m sad that I’m leaving this place, I know the Avenue will always lead me home (yes it’s cheesy — let me live my life). I don’t know how to thank the people who got

be to this point, so I’m going to just call them out by name.

Martha Reilly, Stefanie Dyga, Kaylie Johnson and Courtney Weston: thank you for putting up with me, supporting me and being the best human beings I could have possibly found in this crazy world. I want to take you with me to Scotland, so please don’t fight me when I try to shove you all into my suitcase.

To the professors I named earlier, and every other professor I’ve had in my time here (especially Dr. Haigwood), thank you for truly being incredible. I don’t think many people can graduate college and honestly say that every professor they have had has been life changing, but I sure can. It meant the world to me to learn from you and with you, and it’s that much harder to leave this place knowing I won’t see these people every day.

To my parents, sister and brother-in-law: thank you. I don’t know how to summarize everything you people put up with, so I’ll just leave it at the thank you. Also, sorry for getting a tattoo, but not sorry because it’s a Saint Mary’s one.

Finally, to Saint Mary’s in general: I know I sound cheesy, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was totally emotional through this whole column. But this school seriously has made me into the [hopefully awesome] woman that I am today. I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I had gone anywhere else, and I’m glad I don’t have to find out. I don’t want to think about driving away from this campus for the last time, but I know that once a Belle, always a Belle. So thank you to everyone here. I thank you. I love you. I will never forget these four years. #BelleYeah.

Nicole Caratas is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English writing and humanistic studies. She will be moving to Scotland in the fall, where she will be pursuing a Master’s in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh. You can contact her at ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu, which she will still obsessively check because it has not quite hit her that she is graduating yet.

The views in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

LETTERs TO THE EDITOR: FOUR YEARS IN REVIEW

Notre Dame family

On Fr. Hesburgh Dear Fr. Ted, It is with gratitude and deep devotion that I write to reflect on your legacy at Notre Dame and your lasting gift to the women of Our Lady. Forty-plus years later, we women of ND are the proud legacy of your having the vision and the courage many years ago to break the mold and allow us to attend this great university. The Notre Dame community fostered and grew under your good guidance, and the men and women that now serve as Our Lady’s ambassadors are positive proof that co-education is the best environment for men and women to learn how to live and work together. We women of Notre Dame are blessed and thankful for having been given this opportunity to grow and serve in the spirit of Our Lady.

You have set an example for all of us, the men and women of Notre Dame, of the importance of service to God and others above self. Your legacy will live on in all of us who were made to feel as equals on this campus, whether in the classroom or the athletic arena. You inspired us to strive toward excellence, to challenge the status quo, to break barriers in our careers and our

lives and to look to Our Lady for guidance and support.

Your dedication to God, to Country and to Notre Dame (to paraphrase from a “best-seller”), has given us the moral compass to live by. Whether in our professional lives, or more importantly in raising our families and within our communities, the lessons you helped impart while we were at Notre Dame have shaped who we are. We are the women of Notre Dame, and we are a powerful, spiritual and responsible group who cherish life and seek justice and truth.

We thank you for your influence in our lives, which will live on in eternity. Your work on this earth is now complete; may you rest in peace in the comfort of your Lord.

We are Notre Dame.

Yours in Our Lady,

We recently attended the memorial Mass for our son, Jake, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Notre Dame has always been a very special place for us. After learning of our son’s passing, we were concerned that returning there now and in the future would bring us sadness. That concern was alleviated for us during our recent visit. The Notre Dame family has gone above and beyond to help us get through this. From the arrangement of our trip, the Mass and the assembly at the Grotto with the men of Siegfried, we felt not only the presence of God, but also that of the Notre Dame family. Mere words cannot describe our appreciation for the prayers, love and support. We love Jake and know a lot of you do too. We are humbled to know he touched so many lives in his short 20 years on this earth. Now, we all take that experience and continue our journey to heaven. May God bless and keep us all the days of our lives.

Love thee Notre Dame.

Tara C. Kenney class of 1982 first woman student body vice president March 1, 2015

Jerry and Janet Scanlan class of 1982 Nov. 13, 2015

Don’t invite Donald Trump to Commencement Fr. Jenkins, It has been years since I last read an Observer article, and even longer since I wrote a letter to the editor, but today I found myself, drawn back, through social media: Friends had shared an article about whether Donald Trump would be invited to speak at the 2017 Commencement. As a student and as an alumnus (and, in fact, until the results of this election), I was proud of the University’s tradition of inviting the sitting president, regardless of party, to speak. Now, I am terrified of associating Donald Trump with the best traditions, let alone the intellectual and moral life, of our University.

There is so much to say about the reasons not to pick Trump — much of it said during the course of the presidential campaign. Rather than repeat the innumerable scandals and embarrassments, I want to focus on three things which I’m sure you look for in a Commencement speaker: inspiring Notre Dame’s newest alumni, commending the value of higher education and furthering the unique mission of Notre Dame.

First, and most basic, can you imagine Trump

inspiring the class of 2017? Can you even imagine him saying anything of value, at all, to a graduate? When you ask students, faculty, staff, trustees, Holy Cross priests or other trusted friends, can they imagine it?

He speaks at a lowest common denominator level, playing to fear and insecurity, trading on innuendo and conspiracy theories.

Second, Trump may be among the worst people to uphold the value of higher education among our recent graduates. That may sound hyperbolic, but this man has utter distain for any sort of learning or expertise, as he demonstrated by claiming to “know more about ISIS than the generals do,” and that that his “primary foreign policy consultant is myself” because “I have a very good brain.” Learning should inspire humility about the limits of one’s own knowledge; as Socrates reflected: “The ancient Oracle said that I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.” Who can picture Trump ever betraying a hint of ignorance about anything? That, after all, would be a sign of weakness.

Third, and finally, Trump’s words and conduct are antithetical to Notre Dame’s unique mission. As a

student, I was inspired by the University’s commitment to teaching the whole person, to promoting a moral and spiritual, as well as intellectual, education. Trump represents no kind of moral or spiritual life. Everything that Trump says, everything that he does, is in service of himself and his ego. The things he likes, the things he does, are the best; he says kind words about those who support him or treat him well, and no one else. Those who oppose him are liars, failures or losers. I am not saying that our Commencement speaker must be Catholic, or even Christian, but Trump’s conduct provides no evidence of any guiding moral principle, beyond pride.

Fr. Jenkins, I can think of no worse Commencement speaker than Donald Trump. It is prestigious for the University to have presidents speak at Commencement, but surely prestige alone cannot drive this decision. What shall it profit the University to have Donald Trump as a speaker?

Mike Romano class of 2004 Dec. 7, 2016

We live in hope On Wednesday, Sister Mary McNamara — the rector of Breen-Phillips (BP) Hall — was called home to our Lord.

This loss is devastating to all who loved this incredible woman –– her community of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word; her BP residents, past and present, whom she shepherded fearlessly and tenderly for the past six years; her family and loved ones; and the entire Notre Dame community.

Sister Mary came to Breen-Phillips during my sophomore year at Notre Dame. We connected instantly as born-and-raised Clevelanders with a mutual love for our city. At the beginning of that school year, I began experiencing frequent panic attacks, the latest development in my experience with anxiety, depression and OCD. Despite only knowing me for a few weeks, Sister Mary accompanied me through this difficult time with grace; when I decided to take a medical withdrawal to address my mental health, she organized a short prayer service with the hall staff. She prayed for my healing and safe return to Notre Dame, and she was instrumental in ensuring I would be able to live in BP upon my return a year later.

Over the next few years, I had the great pleasure of working with Sister Mary as the liturgical music commissioner

for the hall and as a Resident Assistant in my senior year.

Last year, she invited me to serve as the piano accompanist and vocalist at her golden jubilee, a celebration of her 50th anniversary as a Sister of the Incarnate Word, and I visited with her when I returned to campus.

Sister Mary was all that I aspire to be and more –– a strong, proud woman of God, compassionate to the most vulnerable among us and feisty as hell. She delighted in the daily joys, which she saw better than most of us. She was a no-nonsense leader who earned the respect of all she encountered by simply living her vocation. She had a giggle that spilled out whenever something tickled her funny bone, and her sense of humor was unmatched (for example, she informed our hall staff that the initials of her order, the “Sister of the Incarnate Word” (SIW), really stood for “Send Irish Whiskey”). She was the quintessential rector, pouring out her gifts in the service of the community.

Perhaps it is cliche to say, but Sister Mary was like a mother to me. She accompanied me through the most challenging time of my life, sharing in my grief and pain.

She welcomed me home with open arms. She encouraged me to share my gifts with my community and invited me

to share them with hers. When I returned to Notre Dame after my medical withdrawal, my mom told me to remember that I would always have a mother looking out for me from atop the Golden Dome. Really, I (and all of the members of the BP community) had a sassy, smiling nun caring for me and the entire community with tough love and a heart of gold.

Sister Mary frequently stated, “We live in hope.”

Sometimes, this comment came after a resident had lost their keys for the 10th time or the kitchen was left in disarray yet again. But this is how Sister Mary lived, and it is how she will be remembered –– a woman of hope who placed her trust in the Lord.

I am confident that Sister Mary is at peace with God in heaven. Somewhere, a prayer is ending, and as a chorus of “Amen” rings out, Sister Mary is smiling slyly as she adds, “and A-Woman.”

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.

Maggie Skoch class of 2016 Feb. 7

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The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

nd women’s BASKETBALL | 35-3, 15-1 ACC

fENCING

Notre Dame overcomes all ND earns secondodds, wins NCAA crown consecutive title

By ELIZABETH GREASON

By CHARLOTTE EDMONDS

Assistant Managing Editor

Associate Sports Editor

It started out as unlikely.

Then it became improbable.

And it began to look impossible.

And soon the idea that Notre Dame could win, or even compete for a national championship became outrageous for much of the world.

And then the Irish (35-3, 15-1 ACC) pulled off a miracle.

Notre Dame’s season was a narrative of two extremes — both of which were played out on the national stage — but it ended on the highest note possible: the program’s second national championship, a 61-58 last-second win over Mississippi State, in what was Irish head coach Muffet McGraw’s 800th career win at Notre Dame.

However, the path to the title was about as far from smooth as imaginable, beginning with the loss of All-American senior forward Brianna Turner, who tore her ACL in March 2017, and

Winning one national championship is difficult enough.

Two-straight moves you into elite company. Notre Dame’s joined Columbia-Barnard and Penn State as one of three schools to repeat on the national stage with their second-straight title, cementing itself in the history books as one of the top programs.

Despite coming into the season with a target on its back as the No. 1 ranked team, the road to the title was not without its obstacles. Since the NCAA’s adoption of a combined men’s and women’s format with all three weapons in 2000, the Irish had been unable to repeat as champions. Additionally, all four of their national titles since 2000 came in years when the women’s field closed the competition.

Irish head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia said heading into the season his coaching staff challenged the team to accept these historical obstacles and

see W BBALL PAGE 30

MICHELLE MEHELAS | The Observer

Junior guard Arike Ogunbowale drives to the basket during Notre Dame’s 84-74 victory over Oregon in the Elite Eight on March 26.

the loss of several key leaders from last year’s team to rise to the occasion.

A relatively light first half of the season that included only one team dual, during which the women swept the field and the men defeated all opponents except Ohio State, was followed by a string of tough matchups throughout January and February. During this stretch of the regular season, the women went 22-1, picking up 11 top-10 wins, with their only loss coming at the hands No. 2 Columbia.

Meanwhile, the men earned a 16-5 record, resulting in a drop from their top ranking.

Kvaratskhelia said regardless of the outcome of the regular season meets, his team never got rattled.

“We only focused on the day, whether it came to competitions or practice,” he said. “We never talked about down the road. Sometimes it felt like we weren’t celebrating those small wins enough but the real focus see FENCING PAGE 34

outstanding senior athletes

Irish seniors leave lasting impact on programs As ‘the glue’ of the team, Kathryn Westbeld leads by example, pushes through pain to national title

By ELIZABETH GREASON Assistant Managing Editor

The first time Kathryn Westbeld donned her No. 33 jersey and tied her hair up in its now-signature top-knot to take to court at Purcell Pavilion, her attitude was one of pride and excitement for what was to come.

When she stepped off that same hardwood flooring for the final time four years later, now as a senior captain, during Notre Dame’s 98-72 win over Villanova, the veteran and her coach embraced on the sideline, as both struggled to choke back tears, not knowing that the highlight of Westbeld’s career was still to come.

And while her career may come to be defined by the 134 minutes she played after that hug, that final net she cut and that trophy she carried victoriously, even heroically, over her head, beaming from ear to ear from the national champions bus at Main Circle through the crowd of fans waiting to welcome she and her teammates home from Columbus, Ohio, it’s all the minutes in between those two moments in time at Purcell Pavilion that make Kathryn Westbeld the leader and athlete she is today. “[Attending Notre Dame] actually wasn’t [an easy choice]. It was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve made to date.

Looking back now, it obviously is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life,” Westbeld said. “My other top school was

Ohio State. Being from [Kettering] Ohio, I had a lot of friends who were going to Ohio State. … I just kind of asked myself ‘Why wouldn’t I choose Notre Dame?’ And I just remember I couldn’t really answer that question, but I could answer that question for any other school that I had chosen. It never really put a limit on anything that I could do, whether it was something I wanted to do with my career or even basketball.”

Once Westbeld had made her mind up about where she would be going to school, there was no looking back for the former Irish forward. She began to make an impact her freshman year, seeing significant playing time against South Carolina in the Final Four and taking the court against UConn in the national championship game — playing time that would prove extremely valuable when the Irish returned to the same position for the first time since Westbeld’s freshman year this spring. Irish head coach Muffet McGraw described her as “the glue of the team” due to her selflessness on the court.

“She was always looking to help everyone else,” McGraw said. “ … What do I have to do to help us win? I don’t care if it means points. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

Selflessness has not exactly proven costly for Westbeld’s career totals either. She joined the 1,000-point club in February, scoring her 1,000th career point against see WESTBELD PAGE 34

Captain Jake Evans helps squad gain national recognition, leads team back to Frozen Four

By CONNOR MULVENA Associate Sports Editor

Any program looking to break through the top ranks and solidify itself as a force to be reckoned with needs key pieces. It needs a core group of leaders to elevate the team from a good program to a national powerhouse. For Notre Dame, Jake Evans was that guy.

In Evans’ four-year tenure at Notre Dame, he was an integral force in solidifying the program as amongst the best in the nation.

From a quarterfinal loss in the 2015 Hockey East tournament and a missed chance at the NCAA championships, Evans lifted the Irish to a Big Ten title and an NCAA championship berth in his senior year.

It is difficult to imagine where the Irish would be without Evans at the forefront in these past two seasons, but for the center from Toronto, the choice to attend Notre Dame was an easy one.

“I didn’t really know much about college hockey,” Evans said. “And then I just went to a few schools this one weekend and Notre Dame just stood out from the rest with their relatively-new rink and obviously the academics here. It’s just such a great school and such a cool campus that it definitely stood out above the rest when I actually got to visit here.”

From there, Evans dove into college hockey, and although now it is easy to look back on the illustrious career he built at Notre

Dame, it wasn’t all that easy for Evans from the beginning. Evans played a solid year of hockey as a freshman, playing in 41 of Notre Dame’s 42 games and recording seven goals and 10 assists for a season total of 17 points.

Evans went on to skate in all six of the squad’s playoff games, but still, these accolades pale in comparison to his later achievements.

For Evans, freshman year was all about patience and learning from the older leaders on the team.

“When you’re coming in as a freshman, you just have to be patient and be open to learning from all the older guys,” Evans said. “Those are the biggest things that I was focusing on when I was coming in as a freshman, and try not to put too much expectations of pressure on yourself and just realize you’re there for a reason. Coaches have belief in you, and it may not be that first year you perform that well, but just be patient and eventually it’ll come.”

Evans’ patience paid off handsomely, both for him and the program as a whole. In his sophomore year, Evans showed the first glimpses of the type of player he would become to leave his mark on the Notre Dame hockey program. He tallied 25 assists and eight goals for a total of 33 points, nearly doubling his freshman season point total.

This astronomical rise in assists was key for Evans’ game, as his selfless style of play is what would lead the Irish to two-conecutive see EVANS PAGE 35

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W Bball Continued from page 27

redshirted her senior season, making a national championship look unlikely.

The Irish took their next hit before the season started when senior guard Mychal Johnson tore her ACL in practice. Improbable.

And once freshman center Mikayla Vaughn tore her ACL in practice in November, it began to look impossible, as the team was down to eight healthy scholarship players.

But outrageous happened when graduate student guard Lili Thompson tore her ACL — Notre Dame’s fourth of the year — on Dec. 31, leaving the Irish without a point guard, no scholarship guards on the bench and only 10 players on the roster, including walk-ons Maureen Butler and Kaitlin Cole, who joined the squad in September, and freshman guard Nicole Benz, who was brought on before winter break so that the squad would be able to play five-on-five without the men’s practice squad. The fourth tear even prompted Turner to tweet that it would be worth bringing in ESPN’s Sport Science to examine how one team could possibly lose four players to season-ending ACL tears in one year.

“I’ve asked myself that question … how did we ever get there after — you know the beginning of the year we had high hopes and then Brianna Turner was not ready and we were OK. We got [junior forward] Jessica Shepard and we have Mikayla Vaughn, we’re good,” McGraw said. “And then Mikayla went down and then Mychal Johnson and then when Lili went down, that was hard. Because Mychal Johnson was going to help at the point guard position. She’s our best defender. Lili took over as a very good point guard who led us in assists and steals and was a great defender, so we had to rely on — of course [junior guard Marina Mabrey] was going to do some of it, but we didn’t think she’d have to do all of it — and in January we were trying to make [sophomore guard Jackie Young] the backup point guard.

“So, it was difficult, but I think the thing that with this team, what we talked about as people would go down was that our goals haven’t changed. Nothing’s changed. Our goal is still going back to the Final Four, to win a national championship, but man it was hard. This season was hard with everything, with the ACLs of course, but then with [senior forward] Kathryn Westbeld getting the eye, the giant black eye, and wondering if she’s going to play the next game, and Jackie breaking her nose and Kat spraining her ankle. It just seemed like it was a constant stream of knockdowns. We’re getting a knockout punch and are we going to get back up?”

McGraw said the attributes of the squad this year were atypical of years past, but its ability to rally together in times of hardship was what allowed it to succeed against the odds.

“That was the resilience of this

team to show they just kept getting back up and they wouldn’t be denied, which was kind of unusual for us. We’re not really a team that’s been a come-from-behind kind of team,” she said. “We usually handle a lead pretty well, but we were a very different kind of team. We went to the two-three zone, but it was all them. They just fought and battled and a lot of it was Marina Mabrey. She had that fight in her that was really contagious to the rest of the team.”

There were points in the season when, in retrospect, McGraw said she thought the team might not even make the NCAA tournament.

But it the team’s fighting spirit and determination that McGraw said allowed it to make a midseason turnaround after the Irish were routed by Louisville, 100-67, in January.

“We got embarrassed at Louisville and that was the wakeup call. We had to look in the mirror and say, ‘Is this us? Is this where we’re heading?’ It was humiliating to lose that way on national TV. Worst loss in program history,” McGraw said. “And just really a gut check in a lot of ways and to come out the very next game at home and we’re down 23 to Tennessee.

So, it was really a time for us to decide at that moment, what does our future look like. And fortunately, we came together in that game.

“And we weren’t committed to defense. We really weren’t. We were like, eh, we’re gonna outscore people. And then suddenly that wasn’t working anymore. So, I think they made the commitment to defend and that was what turned our season around.”

While the team sits down at the start of each season and set their goals for the year — a process the players complete on their own, in which McGraw has no input — she said she gauges the success of each season based on whether or not she, personally, feels the team has met its potential at the end of the year.

“For me, every season is

different and the success, to me, is determined by, did you reach your potential,” she said. “There are some years when we don’t get to the Final Four but we played really well, but we played a little over our heads. And then there are years when you get to the Final Four and you lose, but that was the best that team could have done. But each year’s different. This year we overachieved.

“I mean, to get where we got — I thought this was, we have to get to the Sweet 16, that’s kind of an expectation level for this program.

You’re going to get to the Sweet 16 and then see what happens with your bracket. So, for this team to win it all, what a phenomenal accomplishment and definitely really overachieved.”

The 2018 Final Four has been lauded as one of the best of all time with two overtime wins in the Final Four and junior guard Arike Ogunbowale’s two game-winning shots. The entire Irish squad rose to celebrity status overnight, but looking to next season, McGraw thinks the team will be prepared to handle being the team to beat.

“I think they’re going to handle it well because I think our leadership will be strong. We’ll have four seniors. They’ve been there before and Bri, even though she wasn’t there this year, she’s been to the Final Four, so they’ve all been there and I think they know what it takes,” she said. “I think we’ve got to embrace the target on our back, which I think they’ll do a lot better than I will. They’re much better at that than I am and there’s pressure, but I think a lot of it’s self-imposed. You can’t think about that, you have to think about, really the journey, not the outcome.”

However, next season, the Irish will find themselves without four graduating players in Westbeld, Johnson, Thompson and graduate student forward Kristina Nelson.

“Kathryn, she’s a huge loss just because she was a really good leader for us and she’s the kind of player that was going to fill up the stat sheet with a lot of other things.

She was a team player who takes charges. She would get the big rebound. She was really smart. We called her the glue of the team,” McGraw said. “ … So you have to have somebody like that on the court when you have a lot of people that can score, you need somebody that’s not thinking about I need to score, so we’re really going to miss her.

“And then, Kristina Nelson, fantastic senior year. What a way to go out. She played great basketball.

She was really instrumental in the Tennessee game to turn the season around and throughout the tournament. She had so many big games. And same as Kat, just so unselfish, just take the charge, get the rebound, play good defense, be a good passer. How can I contribute to the team? I think those two are huge losses in our team chemistry in the way our offense works.

Not having Mychal Johnson all year was just hard, but she did a really good job on the bench, helped us a lot and Lili made a great contribution for the 15 games that she was here, but it’s hard to lose so many.”

The Irish will not take much time to rest on their laurels, though. They will be taking a European tour this summer,

which McGraw believes will give the team a chance to try out some new schemes, since it will hopefully be playing at full strength for the first time in a year.

“I’m looking forward to figuring out our offense. I’m already starting to look ahead and say should we run the same kind of things,” she said. “We have a different team. We’ve got four freshmen, one of them’s a point guard who needs a lot of experience, so to be able to have games, practices where we can get her indoctrinated to the offense, but also to look at running some different things. We only had seven people last year, so we weren’t pressing. We weren’t trapping. We played all zone, so now’s a chance to experiment and see what’s going to be good and do we want to press and do some different things. It gives us a great opportunity to just try some things and see is this going to be good for this team.”

So, while McGraw already looks forward to next season and defending the title, the Irish and their fans are able to look back on arguably the program’s most successful and impressive season to date.

Contact Elizabeth Greason at egreason@nd.edu

MICHELLE MEHELAS | The Observer

Junior guard Arike Ogunbowale, left, and head coach Muffet McGraw, right, celebrate with their team after advancing to the Final Four.

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31

hockey | 28-10-2, 17-6-1 BIG TEN

Notre Dame falls just short of national title

By TOBIAS HOONHOUT Managing Editor

After losing their two most important players from last year’s Frozen Four run and joining the Big Ten, the Irish had plenty of question marks entering the season. But after the program’s longest ever win streak, an inaugural sweep of the Big Ten regular season and playoffs and a trip to the national championship game, Notre Dame answered all of its doubters and then some.

“You go into every season with the idea that you’re trying to play to get into the NCA A tournament, trying to play to do well in your conference games, but going into the year we didn’t have a big senior class, and those two losses were going to be impactful, and we didn’t know to what degree because there were some unknowns,” Irish head coach Jeff Jackson said on his expectations heading into the season. “… It was probably less of a concern for me to lose [former Irish forward Anders Bjork], just in the fact that we had enough good offensive players to maybe not individually score like Bjork but to certainly make up for the loss of his 52 points, so for me it was more of a matter of finding that goaltender for a guy that has been the iron man here for us for three years. …

We were going into the year with high expectations, but I’m always a little guarded until I see which young guys are going to step up, how the freshmen are going to impact things and if there’s any returning players that can take another step.”

To replace captain Cal Petersen, who signed with the Los Angeles Kings after starting 90 consecutive games for the Irish over three seasons, the Irish turned to sophomore Cale Morris and freshman Dylan St. Cyr to ascertain who would emerge as the starting net-minder. After going back and forth over Notre Dame’s non conference game, Morris started the opening conference series at Ohio State and never looked back, capping off his incredible season with the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s top goaltender.

“Well we went into the year — we had a good young goaltender coming in too in Dylan St. Cyr, so my plan was through the non-conference games was to rotate them to try and identify which guy could potentially be a number one guy or potentially rotate the two further,” Jackson said. “I went through those first five to six weeks rotating the goaltenders, there were some points where Dylan

looked really good and there were some points where Cale looked really good, and then the last couple weekends before we started conference play Cale was better than Dylan, and that earned him the opportunity to play in those two conference games on the road against Ohio State, which started our winning streak and he never looked back.

“He was phenomenal that weekend and at that point it was going to be hard for me to take him out until he struggled or he had an off game, and he didn’t for 16 games.

So that certainly had a huge impact on our season and really solidified him as our number one goaltender for the season.”

Notre Dame’s improbable run of 16 straight wins, including a 13-0-0 record in conference play, saw the program set a record for consecutive wins and helped set up the team to claim the Big Ten title in its first season in the conference.

“There were a number of times when our team scored timely goals, late goals even overtime goals to win a game.

We were getting great goaltending, and we were probably averaging about three goals a game, so Cale was lights out,” Jackson said on the streak. “He was keeping teams to one or two goals, or even less with a few shutouts.

I’d say that certainly that Ohio State weekend was a big weekend for us for the first conference weekend, especially on the road, and for us to have some success against the team that won the playoffs last year in the Big Ten — Penn State — here at home, I think that series certainly showed that we were capable of competing against the best teams in the conference, and the same thing would apply to the Minnesota series that we had early in the year. “… To win both games against Penn State and Minnesota, the playoff champion and the regular season champion from last year, both of those series were probably indicators that we were going to be pretty good.”

Perhaps even more impressive about the streak was the fact that the Big Ten was one of the strongest conferences in the country this season. The conference had five teams in the top 20 of the final season rankings, and three Big Ten teams made it to the Frozen Four — Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State. Jackson said his team’s preparation for the run that it made stemmed directly from the level of competition the team faced for the majority of

ANN CURTIS | The Observer

Irish senior forward and captain Jake Evans reaches for the puck during Notre Dame’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth on April 7 at the Xcel Energy Center. Evans assisted on the lone Irish goal in the game.

the season.

“There was no easy weekends, every weekend was a challenge, especially in the second half when some of those teams started getting better,” he said. “If you’ve got four or five of the Big Ten teams that are in the top 10 or 15 in the country, that’s the level of teams you’re playing on a nightly basis so when you get to the tournament especially after having gone through the two games, the semifinal and finals in the Big Ten playoffs, those games are at such a high pace and high stakes that it really allows your team to develop confidence and also play at a high level versus very good teams.

They certainly helped prepare us to go into the playoffs on a positive note.”

Besides Morris, the Irish relied heavily on the contributions of its senior class, including captain Jake Evans and assistant captain Jordan Gross. Jackson said the leadership both on and off the ice was paramount for the team and its success this season.

“The seniors are a large reason of why we had the year we had, and for different reasons,” he said. “You had guys that were very impactful players on the ice like Jake Evans and Jordan Gross, but [defenseman] Justin Wade returning for his senior year, he had a huge inf luence on our team as well in a different way. Guys like [forward] Dawson Cook and [forward] Bo Brauer, they had probably their best year in their time here, and most importantly is the leadership that they provided. I think especially that Jordan and Jake, but even with help from guys like Bo Brauer, I think the

leadership was strong, they held our standards high, they held everybody to account, and I thought we had a good year off the ice as much as we had on the ice.”

While the Irish were incredibly solid in the back, the offense benefited both on and off the ice from Evans, who led the team with 46 points, including a team-high 33 assists, and the game winning goal to send the Irish to the national championship.

Jackson said Evans’ growth as a player and leader was a real benefit to the program.

“Jake, he’s grown over four years. He came in here as a true freshman, a young kid, and he left as a 21-year old senior and was younger than a lot of freshman in the country, so his maturity really developed over the last four years,” Jackson said. “He’s a guy that always did things right and he did things right on and off the ice, but also I think he was a leader by doing a good job of making sure the team was on the same page, and I give the seniors a lot of credit for that but Jake was the leader of that group and certainly did a tremendous job for us.”

While the Irish eventually fell agonizingly short of the program’s first national title, and are losing the senior class to graduation and juniors Dennis Gilbert and Andrew Oglevie to the NHL, Jackson said the program will be primed to succeed next season with more depth.

“We’ll have a solid group coming back,” Jackson said. “ … Going into this year we’re going to have four returnees on the blue line and four freshmen defensemen, so it’ll be a matter of how fast a

couple those defensemen acclimate, we have some talent back there, a couple of guys that are going to be good offensive guys to help replace a guy like Jordan, we’ll probably not have an answer for the loss of Justin Wade, so that’s something that’s going to be a question mark going into the season, with the physicality and the defensive play of a guy like Justin.

“Up front I think we’re going to be better with our depth, it’ll just be dependent upon which freshmen step up offensively to really give us an answer to what our scoring depth is going to be like with the loss of our top three scorers. But I like our freshmen class — it’s a nine-man class and it’ll certainly give us a little bit more depth up front, it will give us more speed up front and it will probably give us a little more grit up front.

“Right now, we go into the season the same way, we know we have a great goaltender coming back, actually a couple great goaltenders, and we have a really sound core of defensemen and it will be a matter of those younger guys elevating, see which guys step up early, and then it will just be a matter of putting everything in the right place up front as far as which forwards will be able to contribute more offensively, and which guys can grind it out.

It’s always a work in progress and you never really know until you get here but it’ll be a good group again and we’ll be excited to see if we can try and get back to the same place we were a year ago.”

Contact Tobias Hoonhout at thoonhou@nd.edu

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Sports

The observer | FRIDAY, May 18, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

Football | 10-3

Irish record 10-win season, bowl victory

By TOBIAS HOONHOUT Managing Editor

After a disappointing campaign in 2016 that saw Notre Dame suffer its first losing season under Brian Kelly, the Irish came out in the fall with a lot to prove.

Brian Kelly made a host of changes over the offseason with the additions of eight new coaches, including offensive coordinator Chip Long and defensive coordinator Mike Elko. There was also a new signal caller under center, as junior Brandon Wimbush was set to take the reins of the Irish offense after two seasons of waiting in the wings.

And with all the upheaval were the added expectations that Notre Dame (10-3) would once again be competing for a national championship.

“It’s God, country and Notre Dame. That’s a pretty high bar.

You should live up to that bar,” Brian Kelly said in a press conference before the season opener against Temple. “I didn’t live up to that bar, so I think as the head coach at Notre Dame, every year is the same way: You’ve got to live up to that high bar, and this year is no different. “ … We come into this year, our mission is to win the national championship. That’s a pretty high bar. I think you feel that every single year.”

In the end, the Irish failed to accomplish their mission. But with all its ups and downs, the season proved that Notre Dame football was back and primed for future success.

In the season opener against Temple, Notre Dame steamrolled to a 49-16 win behind what became a staple of the Irish offense — the run game. The Irish recorded three 100-yard rushers in a single game for the first time since 1954, as Wimbush, junior running back Josh Adams and junior running back Dexter Williams combined for almost 400 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

“The offensive line is pretty special and I don’t know how many offensive lines have been like this one at this University,” Wimbush said postgame. “There have been some great ones and great guys. But this unit is really special, they have worked their tails off. And then you have three of the best backs in the country to me. If Josh goes down and he is hurting, you bring Dexter, you bring in [sophomore] Tony [Jones, Jr.] and he will have the same production; there’s no falling back. All those guys have been great up front.”

But next up for the Irish was No. 15 — and eventual national runner up — Georgia, as Notre Dame hosted the Bulldogs (13-2, 7-1 SEC) for the first time ever.

For 58 minutes, it seemed like Notre Dame was up to the task.

The new-look Irish defense was stellar, holding the Bulldogs to a

mere 185 rushing yards and 20 points. And after forcing Georgia to punt with 1:57 left in a onepoint game, the Irish held destiny in their own hands. But on the ensuing Irish drive, Wimbush was sacked off the edge and fumbled, coughing up both the football and a chance to win.

“Well, they are a team that battles,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said postgame. “I thought that, first of all, our defense, other than a couple of missed hits on plays, was, you know, the type of defense that can continue to go out there week-after-week and give you the kind of effort necessary to win football games. I think that we were able to, from an offensive standpoint — 19 points wasn’t enough tonight. We put ourselves in some tough situations, but I just liked their grit and resolve and going out there and competing for four quarters and having the chance to win a football game against a quality opponent in the University of Georgia.”

After such a crushing loss, Notre Dame answered its critics by rattling off four-straight blowout wins, as the Irish beat Boston College, Michigan State and North Carolina on the road all by at least 20 points, along with a 52-17 dismantling of Miami (OH) in South Bend. At 5-1 and No. 13 in the polls, the Irish then welcomed No. 11 USC to town with a chance to prove that Notre Dame football was back.

In a dominant 49-14 win, the Irish made a statement in front of the 1977 national championship team, the only other Notre Dame team to put up 49 points against the Trojans (11-3, 8-1 Pac12). The Irish ground game was once again a focal point, as the Irish rushed for 377 yards, led by Adams with 191 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns.

“Josh isn’t going to do the talking for himself, but Josh Adams is one of the best — if not the best — running back in the country, and he’s the engine that’s been making our team go,” Irish captain and graduate student offensive lineman Mike McGlinchey said postgame. “There’s no doubt about it that he should be talked about for the best player in the country.”

“I’m really proud of all the young players who impacted the game,” Kelly said postgame. “I’m really proud of them, because they were part of the challenge that we had last year after the USC game when we challenged our players to come back and get our program back to where it needed to be.”

The win vaulted the Irish back into the national conversation, although the team had a tough stretch ahead of four ranked opponents over their final five games. Notre Dame next hosted No. 14 North Carolina State, and once again pulled away to a 35-14 win thanks to a complete team

performance. The Irish defense continued to show its dominance, holding the Wolfpack (94, 6-2 ACC) to only 50 yards on the ground, while on the flip side Adams and the offense recorded over 300 rushing yards against the nation’s sixth-best rushing defense.

The win pushed Notre Dame up to third in the first CFP rankings, and the Irish maintained their position with a 48-37 win over Wake Forest that saw the Irish rake up over 700 yards on offense.

Next up for the Irish was a top-10 matchup in South Beach against undefeated Miami (FL) — a game that many were calling a return of “Catholics vs.

Convicts.” But facing a hostile environment and the infamous “Turnover Chain,” the Irish imploded in a 41-8 loss. Miami (10-3, 7-2 ACC) forced four Notre Dame turnovers which lead to 24 points.

“It started when we threw our first interception,” Kelly said postgame. “The makeup of Miami is built on turnovers, and one thing that we couldn’t do is turn the ball over, and what did we do is turn the football over.

‘Getting away from us’ and ‘turning it over’ can be characterized as the same thing — we just couldn’t turn the football over, and when we started turning the football over, we put ourselves in

CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer

Irish sophomore quarterback Ian Book drops back to throw a pass during Notre Dame’s 21-17 win over LSU in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1.

a tough spot.”

Notre Dame bounced back with a 24-17 win over Navy on Senior Day to set up a chance at an 11-win season and a New Year’s Six bowl game with a the season finale at Stanford, where the Irish hadn’t won since 2007.

“We’re very confident in our team’s football ability and have a great opportunity to go win our 10th game against a really, really good Stanford football Paid Advertisement

team,” McGlinchey said in the week leading up to the game. “ … It starts with me as a twotime captain and a leader of this football team, and how do I help that mindset for the rest of the football team, and that’s something that high-character, high-quality guys in our locker room all responded to, and it’s just about being a man and taking see FOOTBALL PAGE 34