Stories

Notre Dame fostered my abilities to research, network, and connect with others—skills I had not had an opportunity to develop before. I’m also grateful for the chance to meet new people and experience new cultures.

When I first came to Notre Dame, I was a little shy and I was not accustomed to serving in leadership roles. Here, I found many leadership opportunities and a close-knit community that helped me grow into a more confident leader.

“Notre Dame has definitely helped me to become an advocate for myself. Being here has made me a stronger leader as I pursue internship opportunities.” Ashley is a 2021-22 scholar in the Sr. Alma Science Year program that places top NDMU students in research internships in labs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The NDMU School of Pharmacy has a great balance between didactics and leadership/extracurricular opportunities, which has prepared me to enter the real world and impact patients’ lives. The thing I love most about NDMU is the culture and environment the school sets for its students. As a class, we came here as strangers and now we are parting ways as one big family.

Notre Dame saw the potential in me as a whole person, when other schools didn’t. The SSND were a sort of secret force for good, helping me build confidence that I didn’t even realize I needed. The advocacy of Sister Eileen Eppig and Dr. DiRienzi, in particular, strengthened my efforts as I laid out a path to eventually becoming an enterprise level Technology Manager within the civil space and aerospace field.

NDMU’s community of students and faculty have helped me gain confidence both in and out of the classroom. The small campus has helped me find my voice and my leadership positions on campus have given me skills to use in my professional career. The tight-knit community helps me feel supported and cared for even when I’m far away from home.

I would not be leading my organization today, and I would not be leading it nearly as well, if not for my Notre Dame education. What I learned was practical, it was insightful, and it was exactly what I needed.”

Notre Dame has allowed me to become my best self. First, my professors and others helped me to recognize that I indeed had a voice to share with the world. Next, NDMU helped me to deepen the knowledge and skills I needed to speak my mind and heart and to impact the lives of others.

Notre Dame is a rigorous academic environment that allows you to grow in the classroom as well as in the world beyond campus. While you are pushed academically you are never alone; the close-knit community rallies around you to help you achieve more then you ever believed possible.”

Thanks to NDMU, I was able to go abroad for a year in Spain and participate in a summer abroad in Peru. I was given the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone, both personally and academically."