Stories

“I consider all my students young intellectuals. The arts are impactful and can create social awareness, foster the social and emotional needs of students, and assist in academic achievement as a cross-curricular activity,” she said. “My classroom art studio is a place of rigor, growth, and empowerment for all my students.” Camille, who teaches at Golden Ring Middle School and leads the art department, was named the NAEA’s Eastern Region Middle Level Art Educator of the Year.

Jolisse combined her love of service and politics in an eight-week summer leadership program, Leadership + American Presidency, through The Fund for American Studies (TFAS). She had the opportunity to live in Washington, D.C. while immersing herself in hands-on simulations and case studies that examined some of the greatest leadership challenges in history.

Before coming to Notre Dame, I knew I had potential, but I was lacking the confidence to go after what I wanted. In every course here, my instructors challenged me to get better and better. By the time I graduated, my self-esteem improved a lot, and I think that is one of the most valuable things I gained from NDMU.

Patient care is my number one priority. Before I came to pharmacy school, I wanted to help patients in need. Notre Dame was the right choice for me because they offer various community outreach opportunities. We went to communities in downtown Baltimore and helped patients in need at women’s health centers. Our instructors were always right there with us, advising us to do better.

Notre Dame has truly helped me become a leader. I’ve had so many opportunities to grow beyond my comfort zone. As an Elementary Special Ed major, I’ve been able to work in multiple schools already, even before starting my student teaching. Overall, I’ve been able to become the best version of me.

Being an adult learner and coming back to school after many years, I found the faculty at Notre Dame to be so accommodating and understanding. It always felt like there was an open door policy here. You could come to a faculty member with any concern, and they would help you sort it out.

One of the unique aspects of the nursing program at Notre Dame is that we learn about caring science. It’s a term I was not familiar with before coming here. The faculty emphasize that we as nurses need to take care of ourselves before we treat our patients. We ourselves need to be ok in order to treat someone who’s not ok. I’ve carried that with me throughout my work experiences so far, and I know it will stick with me in the future.

The small classroom environment at Notre Dame has really helped my confidence. I feel comfortable taking risks, which has translated into my profession at school with my students and also with my teammates. I feel like I’m taking on more leadership opportunities because I have that confidence. Notre Dame was a safe place to foster that, and I’m very thankful.

Every single professor that I had at Notre Dame seemed very concerned with keeping a personal connection. The interactions that we had, even virtually, felt friendly and not distant whatsoever. The professors found a way to put you at ease when it came to assignments and studying. Everyone in my cohort was a full time teacher, which in my opinion is one of the most time-consuming jobs that exists. We were able to do our jobs very well and also succeed in our studies because of the flexibility. I was very grateful to be able to put 100% of my effort into both.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Notre Dame is that when you are put in a class that you would normally run away from, this school is uniquely designed to help you through it. When you take a class like data analysis or something mathematically driven, and you go to Notre Dame, you can guarantee that you are not going to fail because your teachers are going to support you through it, your fellow students are going to support you through it, and you’re going to come out on top every time.