Tower Talk - October 2023

Message from the Alumnae and Alumni Engagement Team

Greetings Alumnae and Alumni,

The leaves are beginning to change, and the campus air has a bit of a chill. Still, if you were on campus for Alumnae and Alumni Weekend, the cool and rainy weather couldn’t stop nearly 300 alumni, family, and friends from celebrating well into the evening. We commemorated classes with years ending in 3s and 8s for their milestone reunions and celebrated the 10th anniversary of our School of Pharmacy's inaugural graduating class and the 100th anniversary of Damozel. It was a weekend full of joy, reconnection, and reminiscing. Members of our Student Alumni Leadership Council (SALC) had the chance to participate in some of our programs, and they had the most fantastic time talking with alums and learning from each of you.

Campus is busy with the semester ramping up for our students. Your Alumni Engagement team is taking this time to focus on planning new volunteer engagement opportunities, recruiting reunion committee members from classes ending in a 4 or a 9, and crafting exciting social, professional, and student-focused events for the spring semester. If you would like to get involved, please reach out to us at ndmalum@ndm.edu.

Warmly,
Alex & Rose
Your Alumni Engagement Team

Interview with Micah Castelo '18

Micah Castelo '18 was one of the recipients of the Regina Russo Hammel '41 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award during Alumnae and Alumni Weekend 2023. Castelo also serves as the alumna editor of the literary magazine, Damozel. She currently works at Fearless as a content designer, and has experience in journalism, content marketing, and UX content design.

What is one of your favorite memories from your time as a student?

One of my favorite memories was being part of the Morrissy Honors Program. As an undergraduate student, I was able to submit a few of my papers and present them at an honors conference. I personally learned how to prepare for a talk and be ready to answer questions about my research. We also got to explore a lot of cool cities like Cambridge, Chicago, and Atlanta.

As an honors student, I was able to go to Japan through a type of cultural exchange program with Aoyama Gakuin University. A group of students from Aoyama would visit Baltimore, learn about American culture, and meet with Morrissy students, and then the following year they would host a select group of Morrissy students. It was such a good memory because it was a lot of fun sharing our culture with them, and obviously to learn about Japanese culture and to travel in Japan.

How did Notre Dame prepare you for your life after college?

Notre Dame really instilled in me a sense of confidence I feel throughout my professional life. Notre Dame has a really good environment to cultivate the self assurance you need to be confident in your ideas. It wasn't as scary to raise your hand or to share your opinion in a classroom. The classroom environment was definitely a safe space. The professors created that space to be very open, welcoming, and respective of everybody's thoughts, ideas, and opinions. I'm really grateful for the professors I had at Notre Dame. We have the best professors that really care about you.

I would also add that the sisterhood was really there. When I was at Notre Dame, I became friends with people who were older than me, who mentored me and got me interested in leadership positions. I became president of the Morrissy Honors Program and co-editor of Damozel because I really looked up to these people. They showed me the way.

How has it been being the alumna editor for Damozel? What did it mean to you to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year?

I became the alumna editor around October 2020 when the previous editor approached me to do it. It was a really cool moment since she was the alumna editor when I was a student. It's been a lot of fun working with the students. It has been challenging at times with moving to remote and student transitions, but it's been so rewarding to see them push through that and dedicate their time sharing ideas, and taking initiative with planning our launch. It's also been really great to stay connected with the English department and Notre Dame as a whole.

It meant a lot to celebrate Damozel's 100th anniversary. The publication had its ups and downs – going on a hiatus and also dealing with Covid-19. To see it rise above those transitions and challenges, and still exist to this day is really amazing. I think it just shows the dedication and interest of our students in the arts and keeping that up. It's really cool to see this as a campus-wide effort that's still going after all these years. I really hope that that it continues on for 100 more years

How did it feel when you found out you received the Regina Russo Hammel '41 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award?

At first, I was shocked and thinking, "this is crazy!" but then I was deeply humbled that I was considered. Receiving the award really reminded me that there's so much that I can still do to give back to my University, to really help nurture the community that nurtured me. I think that was my most important takeaway when I when I found out that I received the award.

The Recent Graduate Award is for alumni who demonstrate outstanding professional achievement and/or contributions to community life. Describe some of those achievements you’ve made since your graduation.

My current work is very focused on impact and improving people's lives. My company only takes on contracts that have a positive contribution on people's lives, and that's something that I'm really passionate about. For instance, the project that I have been assigned to is working with the State of New Jersey to create a one-stop shop for business owners in the state to make it easier for them to find all the information that they need to plan, start, operate, and grow their business. I wanted to really play a role in building a direct contribution to the community and making sure our government is efficient.

During Covid-19, I was writing a lot of articles that helped guide K-12 educators who had to quickly move to remote learning. I was able to conduct a lot of research and interview experts to offer helpful information about remote learning strategies. I even wrote articles about digital equity and cyber security. It was so cool to see teachers on Twitter, and also other smaller publications and education-related websites, quoting and sharing my articles.

During my time in journalism, I did a lot of reporting projects through Syracuse University, with one of them being an international reporting project where I went to the Philippines. One article in particular was about an environmental issue with the government in the Philippines that involved cleaning up the Manila Bay and the communities that had been built around it. It was a controversial issue because of pollution coming from those communities, but at the same time, there wasn't enough housing for people. This project brought to light a lot of these other issues, and it ended up getting published through the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It's been published in Mongabay, an international reporting publication for environmental issues

What advice do you have for any young alums?

Don't take on too much. When I was an undergrad I tended to say yes to everything, and it definitely led to some burnout. I think it's so easy for us to say yes to everything, because we want to grow and we want to help people and we have all these goals and achievements in mind. I think saying no is such an important skill that I'm still learning as I'm getting older. I think it's really important to think about what your values are, what's important to you, and constantly check on yourself so that you don't get burned out, but also so that whatever you're working on is truly your best work. 

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