PORTADA
UNIVERSITY OF
NOTRE DAME CHINA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 03 STUDENT PROFILES
08 ALUMNI PROFILES
NOTRE DAME | CHINA
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STUDENT PROFILES
Rongxin (Kelly) Wang
Shaoyu Liu
Xiaoyu (Lily) Yu
Enle Lien
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STUDENT PROFILES I chose Notre Dame for two main reasons: the liberal arts education that centers on serving the social good and the sense of community. It is hard to think of a better motivation for me to come to the Midwest. I am involved in multiple clubs and academic activities, which really reflects the variety of opportunities on campus. For community engagement, in my first year, I tutored former inmates to help with their transition back to society through a community service project with Circle K. In my junior year, I co-founded the Notre Dame chapter of Consult Your Community, which connects Notre Dame students with small businesses within the local community to leverage their diverse skill sets. My community of friends at Notre Dame encouraged me to gain confidence and better express myself in public. Given my interests in playing the harp and learning hip hop dances, I joined cultural performances on stage with the Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA), the Chinese Culture Society, and the Korean Students Association. At the end of my first year, I was nominated and selected to work at the University Writing Center, a place where I engaged students in conversations about ideas and writing and met fellow tutors who inspired me to deliver my first conference presentation at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW).
RONGXIN (KELLY) WANG SHANGHAI, CHINA CLASS OF 2019 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND FRENCH
Since I started at Notre Dame, my summer schedules have always been full and inspiring. After my first year, I participated in a volunteer program which empowers kids in rural China through reading programs and a pilot professional services internship in Los Angeles. For my sophomore year, I returned to the school I volunteered at the previous summer for independent research funded through the Liu Institute and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. I also continued my internship in Los Angeles, with my living expenses partly funded by the Career Center at Notre Dame. For this coming summer, after my semester abroad at Sciences Po., in Paris, France, I am planning to study abroad in Jerusalem and do an internship in San Francisco. One of my favorite experiences so far is my summer independent research in Guizhou, because the reality of the research contradicted every single piece of my initial design, assumptions, and expectations. There were frustrations, but the frustrations always led to an “aha moment� that turned them around. The research informed me of the nature of field research and prompted me to be more adaptive, spontaneous, and impact-driven. In a way, the experience mimics my journey here at Notre Dame. Apart from technical knowledge, I am acquiring life lessons and skills that carry me far into a promising future.
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STUDENT PROFILES
Notre Dame stands out among the top schools in the U.S. to me for a number of different reasons. One, I was raised with a Catholic background, which is not common in China. Secondly, its academic strength in various subjects is excellent.
SHAOYU LIU SHANGHAI, CHINA CLASS OF 2020 BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND ACMS
I thought about going to school in a larger city, but the Greater China Scholarship Program sort of sealed the deal for me. As one of the scholars, I feel privileged in terms of exposure to all kinds of events around the campus. I’m also an international ambassador with Notre Dame International as part of the International Student and Scholar Affairs department. I currently work as a cashier and stock clerk at the Huddle Mart. In addition, I am a member of the Student International Business Council (SIBC) and have accomplished some rewarding projects. At Notre Dame, International Student and Scholar Affairs is like a second home to me. I help organize a lot of great events every month (most of them offer free food and drinks), which gives me a different perspective to learn more about multiple cultures, as well as skills to be organized and thoughtful. It is not easy to keep an event running effectively and efficiently, but it is totally worth it when the event becomes an annual thing around the campus and everyone else is enjoying it. It has been a great experience, and I would like to pass it on to the next class.
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STUDENT PROFILES One of the best decisions I have made was to come to Notre Dame. Growing up in one of the biggest cities in the world, I find South Bend to be small, peaceful, and quiet. This provides me with an amazing environment to focus on schoolwork and engage in research and school activities. Moreover, I am really proud to be a member of the Notre Dame community. I appreciate that all professors are willing to make time for me whenever I need help, that I have met the best friends I could ever ask for, and that the school provided me with resources, opportunities, and support that were beyond my imagination. Extracurricular activities have been a crucial part of my Notre Dame experience. I have been working in a global health research lab since I was a first year student. Not only did I gain valuable experience doing lab work and data analysis, but I also learned how to interact with people in the field of science research and how to present my ideas. Last summer, I was given the opportunity to work in Kenya for six weeks on a malaria vector control project.
XIAOYU (LILY) YU BEIJING, CHINA CLASS OF 2018 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND LATINO STUDIES
Other than schoolwork and research, I spend a lot of time working out. I participated in the Notre Dame Women’s Boxing Club Baraka Bouts, and I made it to the semifinal round. Unfortunately, the fight was stopped after I dislocated my shoulder, but I enjoyed every second of it. One of the best experiences I had was to spend a semester in Puebla, Mexico. I lived with a local host family and developed a great relationship with them; I still talk to my host mom every week. I also got to meet and spend a lot of time with the other twenty-six students from Notre Dame who went with me. Some of them became my best friends. I had some wonderful adventures, including running a marathon and completing a Spartan Race in Mexico City, talking to and becoming friends with someone I met in an Uber pool, climbing up to La Malinche (one of the highest mountains in Mexico), and being assisted by a group of professional hikers. I was fully exposed to Mexican culture, my Spanish drastically improved, and I was encouraged to go on more adventures. After the semester ended in Mexico, I went to Panama and Cuba by myself, and I hope to explore more around the world.
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STUDENT PROFILES
I was attracted to Notre Dame because of its emphasis on community and faith. Father Theodore (Ted) Hesburgh, C.S.C. was a great inspiration to me as he was a genuine, moral leader serving the nation while maintaining a strong presence in the University community. His profound spirituality, along with the support of the Notre Dame family, made his achievements possible. I continue to see how students at Notre Dame embody these two aspects of Fr. Ted’s legacy. I have participated in Women’s Liturgical Choir since my first year, producing beautiful, sacred music every Saturday, including after football games. I participate regularly in cultural club events, including those organized by the Italian Club, Japan Club, Taiwanese Student Association, Russian Club, etc. Now in my senior year, I am taking up leadership roles for the Taiwanese Student Association and the Russian Club. To
ENLE LIEN GUANGZHOU, CHINA
pursue my interest in visual arts, I lead Italian classes in the Snite Museum Gallery Teaching Program. Apart from these extracurricular activities, I also work as a Russian language tutor at the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures, as well as serve as a research assistant and social media manager for the Russian department. While studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, I had the opportunity to intern at the Hermitage Museum, a museum of art and culture. It is actually the second largest
CLASS OF 2018 RUSSIAN AND ITALIAN; PHILOSOPHY, RELGION AND LITERATURE MINOR
museum in the world. During my internship, I worked with volunteers from all over the world on a myriad of different tasks, including updating the official website, translating Russian articles, and volunteering at the cinema festival. The experience not only helped sharpen my language skills, but it also allowed me to develop vital social skills through constant teamwork.
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ALUMNI PROFILES
ZHIXING (GEORGE) ZHANG
WEIYI ZHAO
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ZHIXING (GEORGE) ZHANG BEIJING, CHINA
ALUMNI PROFILES
CLASS OF 2017 MATHEMATICS AND HISTORY
WORK EXPERIENCE
I graduated from Notre Dame this past May and enrolled at Stanford Law School in the fall to pursue a J.D. degree. I am still broadly exploring different practice areas, though I am certain that I would like to become an attorney who advises cross-border legal matters in the future. I feel blessed to have been supported by the academic resources and alumni networks that Notre Dame has to offer. In my first year, I was contacted by a partner at a law firm in Beijing about an internship opportunity at his firm. He received my contact information because I had uploaded my resume to GoIRISH, an online database within our Career Center for internships and jobs. I had also noted in my file that I was interested in law.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT NOTRE DAME
My favorite thing about Notre Dame is the history department. I had the honor to meet and get to know several amazing professors who not only fundamentally shaped the way I look at the world and its histories with their knowledge and pedagogy, but also taught me to be a better person by pursuing causes that I care about deeply. I would recommend the history department and the history courses to anyone. Take a class and go chat with the professor. You won’t ever regret it.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES & INTERNSHIPS
During my junior year, I applied for and received three undergraduate research grants totaling $6,700 from the Liu Institute, the Kellogg Institute, and the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement. I would never have been able to travel to Japan and Korea to conduct archival and field research towards my senior honors thesis had it not been for their generosity. When it comes to the alumni network and undergraduate academic resources, Notre Dame is truly in a league of its own.
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WEIYI ZHAO NANJING, CHINA
ALUMNI PROFILES
CLASS OF 2017 ACCOUNTING
WORK EXPERIENCE
After my recent graduation from Notre Dame, I joined the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Houston office as a tax associate. I specialize in indirect tax consulting, assisting clients with state-managed audits, and refund audits. In addition, I have conducted tax research and provided consulting services related to state-level sales and use tax and excise tax.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES & INTERNSHIPS
During my four years at Notre Dame, I actively participated in the Student International Business Council (SIBC). I was a travel team member for various accounting projects and partnered with the “Big 4� accounting firms: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. Through these projects, I was given several opportunities to network with talented people from the various firms. I landed my summer internship with PwC through their National Elevate Program designed for sophomore accounting majors. Constantly seeking to grow and give back to the Notre Dame community, I worked as a teaching assistant for two different professors throughout my junior and senior year.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT NOTRE DAME
Ever since I graduated, one thing about Notre Dame that I have missed the most, ironically, is the University requirements I used to complain about when I was a student. The theology, philosophy, fine art, literature, and political science classes are the best opportunities Notre Dame could offer for a student to explore the past and the present. I developed my interest and passion in classical music after taking two music classes at Notre Dame. These liberal arts classes inspired me to explore the unknown and allowed me to step out of my comfort zone.
HOW NOTRE DAME CHANGED ME
As an international student, Notre Dame was and will always be home for me. The values instilled in me during my education at Notre Dame strengthened my belief and determination to be a person that shows care and love to others, stays true to myself, and brings value to the world. Every second I spent at Notre Dame and every person I met colored my life and prepared me for the journey ahead.
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