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Volume 53, Issue 32 | tuesday, october 2, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com
Respect Life Week begins on campus Notre Dame Right to Life club sponsors annual events to engage community with club mission By ALEX PARK News Writer
The Notre Dame Right to Life club kicked off its annual Respect Life Week on Monday with apparel sales on South Quad, a blood drive outside Duncan Student Center and Respect Life Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Respect Life Week is held every October, which has been designated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as Respect Life Month. This year, the weeklong occasion will consist of 16 events promoting a prolife message from Oct. 1 to 7. Senior Sadie Facile, president of Notre Dame Right to Life, said Respect Life Week is designed to expose the campus community
to the club’s work. “[It’s] a week centered around witnessing the beauty and goodness of human dignity, and proactively inviting the community to engage with the mission of Right to Life,” Facile said in an email. The club’s mission, as stated on its website, is to “uphold the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death through prayer, service and education, and to help women in unplanned pregnancies find alternatives to abortion through service and support in the spirit of the Catholic Church.” Events throughout the week include a film screening, educational lectures, service events see RTL WEEK PAGE 4
Photo courtesy of Matthew Connell
Members of Notre Dame’s Right to Life club pose on God Quad. The group sponsors events during Respect Life Week that include educational lectures, a film screening, prayer services and a Rose Garden memorial.
SMC investment club hosts Active Minds financial advisor speaker aims at mental health awareness By MAEVE FILBIN
News Writer
By NICOLE SIMON News Writer
The first week of October is Mental Health Awareness Week, an effort intended to recognize mental health issues across the country. Hoping to bring this awareness to Notre Dame’s campus is Active Minds, a chapter of the nation-wide organization with over 400 collegiate branches and has become “the voice of young adult mental health advocacy nationwide,” according to Notre Dame Active Minds’ website. Senior Delaney Schrenk, president of Active Minds, said she is excited for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week because of the current climate surrounding mental health issues. “I think right now is a really unique time to be on college campuses and interested in mental health because there’s enough news and press about it that people recognize it,” she said. “But, specifically at Notre Dame, I don’t think there’s
News PAGE 2
enough conversation to support any change about it. We certainly have something to work on, and we have sort of a template that’s already on the consciousness of students here.” Schrenk said she views her club’s motto as “starting the conversation.” “It’s hard to start a conversation about it if you don’t know that other people are thinking the same things to back it up. We really try to be visible with events and just in our day-today conversations with other people,” she said. “If you know that there are other people that feel the same that way you do, then it becomes much easier to talk to other people. And I think that’s really where the conversation starts.” Senior David May, vice president of Active Minds, said having these conversations about mental health would make a big difference for a large number of students. see ACTIVE MINDS PAGE 4
Scene PAGE 5
On Monday, the Saint Mary’s Investment Club hosted Megan Hamand, a 1st Source Bank financial advisor, to discuss female empowerment in business and her experiences as a woman in finance. Hamand said she never planned on entering the financial world. She graduated from
college with a bachelor’s degree in English and went on to receive a master’s degree in business administration. “I was going to be a journalist, I was going to work for a newspaper, I was going to write the next great American novel,” Hamand said. “Well, I didn’t write the novel, but I worked for a newspaper right out of school.” After moving back home and reviewing haunted houses for a
local magazine, Hamand said, a non-compete clause prevented her from writing for any other local publications, forcing her to consider any other options she could find. Hamand’s husband, also a financial advisor, was enrolled at Indiana University South Bend at the time, and applied for a banker’s position at Key Bank. see FINANCE PAGE 3
Interactive events hope to educate about diversity By ASHANTI LEACH News Writer
This week, Saint Mary’s will be hosting “The Defamation Experience”, a three-phase interactive event that aims to promote diversity in various settings. There are three phrases to the diversity program: the play, the deliberation and the post-show discussion. It is sponsored by the
VIEWPOINT PAGE 7
Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership (CWIL), Multicultural Services and Campus and Community Events. “The Defamation Experience” was created and written by award-winning playwright Todd Logan. It premiered in November 2010. Logan wanted to write a play that encourages greater tolerance and understanding by spurring self-examination and promoting
compelling civil discourse. According to “The Defamation Experience” website, the experience was first performed at DePaul University for an audience of 12, soon after President Barack Obama took office. “[It was] just a few months into the Obama Administration. It was an interesting time for
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see DIVERSITY PAGE 3