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 200 alumni, family, and friends from celebrating well into the evening. We commemorated classes with years ending in 2s and 7s for their milestone reunions and the class of 1971 for their belated 50th celebration. 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.
We have kicked off our Class Leaders program, where each class member will send out a quarterly newsletter just to their classmates to share updates and gather stories. We are thankful for the 12 alums launching this program with us this fall.
The 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 3 or an 8, 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
Alumnae and Alumni Weekend 2022 Recap
Thank you to all alumni who joined us on September 30 - October 2 for Alumnae and Alumni Weekend! We had over 170 alums come back to campus from the Class of 1952 to the Class of 2022. It was a great weekend of learning from our faculty and alumni presenters, participating in craft sessions, eating good food, dancing the night away to Mood Swings, and most importantly, reuniting with old friends.
View Photos from A&AW 2022
A special congratulations is in order for our Alumni Award Winners and Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees. The winners and their awards can be found below, in order of their picture from left to right.
- Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee, Kimberly Myers '09, Volleyball
- Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee, Qiana Smith-Gabriel '06, Volleyball
- Alumnae and Alumni Engagement Award: Chrissy Bolmarcich ’97
- Service to Society Award: Dorothy Pula Strohecker ’52
- The Elizabeth P. Hoisington '40 Distinguished Alumna Award: La Vida Cooper ’03
- Regina Russo Hammel '41 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award: Lyndsay Wright ’19, M’22
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On Sept. 12, 2022, the NDMU Board of Trustees voted unanimously that the University become gender inclusive and enroll men into the traditional undergraduate program starting in fall 2023. The decision came nearly a year after the Board formed an Enrollment Task Force to review the enrollment trends of women’s colleges, as well as undergraduate data nationally and statewide. By becoming gender inclusive, NDMU is honoring and expanding its historical mission to educate leaders to transform the world. This decision will allow NDMU to provide its distinctive model of inclusive transformational education to more women and men.
Several factors informed the Board’s decision. NDMU has historically gone where the need is. NDMU has an opportunity to expand access to its inclusive and transformational education to more women and men. NDMU’s foundresses, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, support the decision to become gender inclusive. President Emerita Kathleen Feeley, SSND Offers Her Reflection on the Board's gender inclusive Decision below.
With a deep sense of responsibility for both the legacy and the future of NDMU, I believe that we should offer our transformative education to everyone who seeks it — women and men alike. I urge all those who value this university as I do to embrace our decision to transition Notre Dame of Maryland University to become a wholly coeducational institution.
Read Sr. Feeley's Full Statement
If you have any feedback to give to the University regarding this announcement, please email coedtransition@ndm.edu.
How Notre Dame Has Helped Alumna Author
Bonnie Tarbert M'12 is from Baltimore, Maryland and earned her Master of Art in Teaching (MAT) Degree from Notre Dame of Maryland University. Prior to this education she had extensively studied the Arts, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Towson University and also studying Interior Design and Floral Design. Bonnie was an Art Educator for the Baltimore City and Baltimore County school systems, and she incorporated the building blocks to reading throughout her lessons.
Bonnie has used the reading strategy tools that she studied at NDMU to create silly and sweet stories, hoping that they will reach many children. You may find scaffolding, rhythm, rhyme, pitch, high order questioning, and integrating listening skills with fine motor activities in her books. She had studied scholarly articles on how ebooks can help children acquire reading skills at a quicker pace during her coursework. Bonnie currently has seven children’s books published: City Mouse Hop, Ice Cream Bop, Snow Friend Jingle, Daddy’s Blues Moon, Momma’s Wings, Little Chef Bop, and The Mermaid Flop! Be on the lookout for more stories to come.
You can read Bonnie’s stories in Baltimore City’s Enoch Pratt Free Library system. Her books are also entering other library databases across the United States. Companies such as Target, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, the world-wide market, and small businesses have picked up her books. She uses her experiences from working with children, as well as her lovely child, to bring inspiration and life to her stories. Bonnie hopes that her publications will touch many hearts, enhance linguistic skills, and enlighten creativity in children worldwide.
Field Hockey- Alyson Geckle '25 was added to the CSAC Honor Roll after factoring in both goals for the Gators in September. She assisted on a Jaime Ballard '23 strike Sept. 13 night at Neumann University, and recorded her second collegiate goal during NDMU's home opener against Ferrum College on Sept. 16.
Soccer- Mackenzie Lookingland '25 scored the game's only goal through a 72nd minute penalty kick, and Makaylah Reyes '26 made 10 saves to secure a 1-0 victory for NDMU over Saint Elizabeth University on Oct. 1. The women's soccer program is 3-5 through its first eight games this fall, with a 2-3 mark against Colonial States Athletic Conference opponents. The Gators are looking to advance to the CSAC tournament for a second-consecutive season.
Volleyball- Ciarra Bockstie '25 and Rosemary O'Brien '26 totaled eight kills apiece, leading the NDMU offense in a 3-0 sweep over Keystone College on Oct. 8. NDMU is now the lone remaining unbeaten team in Colonial States Athletic Conference and currently has an eight-match winning streak. They are 10-6 through their first sixteen games this fall, with a 4-0 mark against Colonial States Athletic Conference opponents.
Want more NDMU Stories? Read the Bulletin, a bi-weekly newsletter with more student, staff, and faculty updates!
