PORTADA
UNIVERSITY OF
NOTRE DAME BRAZIL
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 03 STUDENT PROFILES
10 ALUMNI PROFILES
NOTRE DAME | BRAZIL
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STUDENT PROFILES
André Meneghetti
Federico Ivanissevich
Guilherme Cunha Lima
Daniel Galvão
Luisa Andrade
Nabila Mourad
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STUDENT PROFILES
I was studying at the University of São Paulo for about three months when I was admitted to Notre Dame. At first, I was a bit hesitant because coming to Notre Dame would imply moving to a new country–away from my family and friends– and leaving one of the best universities in Brazil. All these hesitations vanished immediately when I visited Notre Dame and witnessed the beautiful campus and the warm, welcoming community. Right away, I became excited about being part of Notre Dame and knew that it would become a second home to me.
ANDRÉ MENEGHETTI SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2020 AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
It is incredibly easy to get involved with extracurricular activities. In my first year, I co-founded the College Libertarians of Notre Dame, where we hold weekly political debates among students with a wide range of views. I have also been involved with the Rocketry Club, where we design rockets and travel to compete with teams from other schools. Lastly, I have enjoyed being a part of the Student International Business Council (SIBC), a business organization where we work on semester-long case studies with partner companies. All these experiences have made Notre Dame a very comprehensive learning experience. My favorite experience was my summer internship working as a software developer for Gaveteiro, a Brazilian retail start-up. I was connected to the startup by alumni at the Notre Dame Brazil Club. At Gaveteiro, I got to design and develop a new portal for the company’s suppliers. I had full autonomy regarding this project, so it was a great way to put my technical skills to use and learn new things on the go. At the end of the summer, it was very fulfilling to see my new portal being implemented and adding real value to the company.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I chose Notre Dame for several reasons. First, being part of a Domer family, I was aware of the tight community at Notre Dame and was excited about becoming part of it. Second, I really liked that Notre Dame provides students with a holistic education where they learn about a myriad of subjects from the liberal arts curriculum, extracurricular activities, and a range of other available opportunities outside of the classroom.
FEDERICO IVANISSEVICH RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2020 FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
Since my first semester at Notre Dame, I decided to get involved in the Student International Business Council (SIBC) to get more exposure to the world of business. I was involved in several projects where I got to analyze cases and develop new solutions with groups of around 15 students. Currently, I am the director of the Marketing Division for SIBC; in this role, I supervise all the projects and develop strategies to increase students’ engagement in this division. I am excited about continuing to learn through my involvement in SIBC in the next two years. One of my favorite things about Notre Dame is its faculty. Throughout my first two years, I have had professors in a range of classes–from philosophy to finance–who are really passionate about their subjects and extremely willing to go out of their way to create the best possible learning environment for students. I love that, despite the relatively large size of the student body, professors always take time to have one-on-one conversations with students and manage to instill an intellectual curiosity in them.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I chose Notre Dame primarily because it values education for its original purpose: to serve others. At Notre Dame, students are taught to use their educations as a means to further their communities and help those around them. I knew that I would get the opportunity to meet new people and embrace opportunities that would enable me to grow as a person and develop the tools to make an impact.
GUILHERME CUNHA LIMA RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2020 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND RUSSIAN
At Notre Dame, I joined politically-oriented student groups such as College Republicans and Bridge ND, where we discuss political trends, and the Election Committee, where we oversee the election process of Notre Dame’s student officers. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to conduct research with world-renowned professors and further my passion for governance and policy creation. Last summer I interned for the president of Brazil’s Federal Senate, Eunício Oliveira, working as a personal assistant to his chief legislative advisor. My favorite experience at Notre Dame was watching U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg engage in a fascinating dialogue on a wide range of issues with U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Ann Claire Williams, a Notre Dame alumna and trustee. While my ideology largely conflicts with Ginsburg’s, challenging one’s own beliefs against a strong opposition is the missing component in the modern political arena. This experience showed me the importance of this, helped me to strengthen my own arguments, and allowed me to become more accepting of other people’s opinions.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I chose Notre Dame because it has the perfect combination of academics, social life, and spirituality. It was the only school where I felt that I could grow not only as a student or a professional, but also as a person. It made me really excited to be part of a supportive and dynamic community where I could learn in many different ways, not only in the classroom.
DANIEL GALVÃO SALVADOR, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2019 COMPUTER SCIENCE
Some of the activities I’ve been involved in at Notre Dame include playing sports for my residence hall and being a part of the Bengal Bouts, a boxing program where students compete and raise money for Catholic missions in Bangladesh. I’ve also enjoyed being a part of the Computer Science and Engineering Clubs, as well as the App Club, where we collaborate with other students to improve our coding skills. These clubs gave me a lot of realworld exposure by bringing guest speakers from companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft–where I will be working next summer. My favorite thing about Notre Dame is the residence hall community. In my two-and-a-half years at Notre Dame, I’ve had great experiences with my friends in the hall. Every day, I look forward to coming back and interacting with my hall mates, be it doing homework together, playing video games, or watching a movie. Participating in the Bengal Bouts was also truly amazing. The program has been going on for 87 years, and every year raises hundreds of thousands of dollars that go into feeding and housing children, as well as building schools and hospitals for local communities. It was really motivating to know that I was really creating change by being part of this program.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I was initially drawn to Notre Dame because of its unparalleled philosophy program and its deep Catholic identity. When I arrived, I realized the academics were indeed as wonderful as I had imagined, and I was completely enamored with my classes and all the lectures I went to.
LUISA ANDRADE RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2020 THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY
At Notre Dame, I have had the opportunity to get involved with the community via a myriad of extracurricular activities. Once a week, I teach Catechesis to seventh-graders and visit nursing homes with other students. I also enjoyed going to March for Life in D.C., where I got to meet some wonderful students and get involved in a cause that is very important to me. I recently received a grant to study German in Munich for five weeks, so I am really excited about that. I have really enjoyed getting involved with student groups–especially the Militia of the Immaculata, the Children of Mary, and the Theology Club–that have really made Notre Dame a second home for me. With a most loving group of friends, I have had some of the most beautiful conversations, prayed the Rosary around the lake as the sun was setting, and had three-hour-long philosophical discussions that allowed me to extend my learning experience beyond the classroom.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I chose Notre Dame because it best represented the three features that I wanted in college: rigorous academics, close-knit community, and a range of extracurricular activities (sports, clubs, and student government). After first visiting Notre Dame and interacting with fellow students, I immediately felt part of a larger family and was excited about spending the next four years here.
NABILA MOURAD SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL CLASS OF 2019 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND ARABIC AND PEACE STUDIES MINOR
I am part of the political science department’s research apprenticeship program, where I got to research international law in Muslim-majority states with a very talented professor. Last year, I was part of the Student Government Executive Cabinet, where I prepared weekly meetings to discuss projects related to the first-year class. Last summer, I received funding to work for Assemblyman Michael Blake in NYC, where I got involved in a variety of activities, from conducting research to scheduling community events. My favorite experience at Notre Dame has been studying abroad at Notre Dame’s program in London. Notre Dame’s facilities and access to amazing professors and opportunities helped me explore another region of the world and become a more critical thinker. It was amazing to see how, even thousands of miles away, we gathered around to cheer for the Fighting Irish, met other Notre Dame students abroad in Rome and Dublin, and invited each other to discover Europe together. We had the opportunity to meet Notre Dame alumni abroad and travel, as a class, to Brussels to witness a session of the European Parliament.
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ALUMNI PROFILES
FLAVIO GREGORIO
GISELLE TEIXEIRA
MARCEL FENKEL
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FLAVIO GREGORIO CLASS OF 2013 FINANCE
ALUMNI PROFILES
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
WORK EXPERIENCE
Following graduation, I worked for Bain & Company in Chicago where I consulted for companies across technology, healthcare, industrial, and private equity sectors on a broad range of topics including growth strategy, M&A due diligence, and post-merger integration. I now live in New York where I work with AEA Investors in the industrial practice. We focus primarily on investments across manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and industrial technology sectors. This autumn, I will be heading to Boston to pursue my MBA at Harvard Business School.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND INTERNSHIPS Notre Dame’s extracurricular activities are a truly unique offering. Career-wise, I served as president of the Student International Business Council (SIBC). SIBC allowed me to practice many of the things I was learning in class while also giving me tangible leadership experience. This opened many doors for me, and I was fortunate to gain internships with Dow Chemical in Switzerland, Goldman Sachs in New York, and Bain & Company in Chicago over my summers. In terms of social impact, I served as a mentor at the Juvenile Correctional Facility in South Bend, helping kids prepare for re-entry into society.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT NOTRE DAME
The people. Notre Dame’s sense of community resonates with me to this day. My roommates and I remain extremely close, getting together at least four times a year despite living on different continents. Furthermore, the connections I formed while at school continue to be major assets professionally, as Notre Dame alums provide a strong support system wherever I go.
HOW NOTRE DAME CHANGED ME
Attending Notre Dame allowed me to dream bigger than I previously thought possible. Through my experiences, I gained a deep sense of belonging which strengthened my sense of identity and gave me the confidence to pursue my personal, academic and, professional ambitions.
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GISELLE TEIXEIRA CLASS OF 2013
ALUMNI PROFILES
FINANCE
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
WORK EXPERIENCE
I started my career at Deloitte Consulting doing technology strategy. I went from implementing business intelligence systems to developing analytics and machine learning strategies for my clients, and eventually joined the Deloitte Greenhouse corporate innovation center to work with clients in rapidly evolving industries. In 2016, I moved to Google to help scale the early Google Cloud business in APAC. Since then, I have moved to the Go-to-Market Strategy team and am now working with the Product and Engineering teams to launch new products and develop the sales strategy for these.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND INTERNSHIPS When I was at Notre Dame, I founded the Consulting Consortium Projects Division, which offered pro-bono consulting services to local businesses in the South Bend and Chicago areas. I also did consulting projects with the Student International Business Council (SIBC) and was part of the Brazil Club of Notre Dame. I worked as a Portuguese and Italian tutor at the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures and interned for a year as an operations intern at the Notre Dame Investment Office.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT NOTRE DAME
My favorite memories of Notre Dame are the amazing friends I made, the football games, tailgates, and hanging out on the quad. I also enjoyed the flexibility of the curriculum and being able to take classes (in subjects such as anthropology, psychology, and Italian) which had no direct relation to my field of study.
HOW NOTRE DAME CHANGED ME
Coming to Notre Dame meant that I had to adapt to a completely new culture, language, and way of thinking than I was used to in Brazil. This was challenging at first, but it ultimately shaped my ability to adapt to new situations and keep an open mind at all times. At Google, one of the most valued attributes is being “comfortable with ambiguity,” so I think Notre Dame really set me up for success here by teaching me to be open and adaptable.
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MARCEL FENKEL CLASS OF 2012
ALUMNI PROFILES
BIOCHEMISTRY
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
WORK EXPERIENCE
I am currently in the tail end of my Ph.D. in biochemistry at Duke University. My thesis focuses on using Computational Protein and Drug Design (CPDD) to develop new inhibitors to a class of medically relevant targets known as undruggable proteins. These proteins are validated and important targets for many diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s but have proven to be very difficult to inhibit using conventional means. CPDD offers us a new avenue of attack that we believe will change this paradigm and potentially lead to breakthroughs and much-needed therapies. In the case of my research I am specifically focused on pancreatic cancer, an incredibly lethal disease and one I have a personal history with that motivates my work and efforts to develop a cure.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND INTERNSHIPS At Notre Dame, I was part of the varsity Fencing Team. Having been part of the Brazilian national team, I was joined at Notre Dame by athletes from the national teams of the U.S. and Poland. Notre Dame’s varsity squad included multiple world champions and Olympic athletes and was undoubtedly one of the strongest fencing teams in the world. It was an amazing experience and an honor to fence on this amazing team and help make some school history when we won the NCAA tournament in 2011.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT NOTRE DAME
The atmosphere at Notre Dame is really special. When you are at Notre Dame, there is a sense of belonging among all the students that I have never found anywhere else. I think it’s the shared experience of being somewhere that expects great things of its students and at the same time offers the tools for students to achieve great things, all while surrounding the students in an environment that treats everyone as a family and an athletic fan club. It’s a hard feeling to explain and it is unique to Notre Dame. Lou Holtz said it best, “For those who know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t, no explanation will suffice”.
HOW NOTRE DAME CHANGED ME
Notre Dame changed me the most by challenging my beliefs. Being an atheist Jew, you wouldn’t think that I would be comfortable in the world’s premier Catholic university. However, never have I been able to so openly discuss theology and philosophy than at Notre Dame. These discussions helped me develop and shape my own understanding of myself while allowing me to gain an appreciation for other points of view.
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