tag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:/news-and-features50 Golden Years | News and Features2022-07-08T10:00:00-04:00tag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1466462022-07-08T10:00:00-04:002022-07-11T10:17:20-04:00Notre Dame to honor the pioneers of Irish women’s athletics<p>In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Notre Dame celebrates the women who paved the way for the success of the University’s current women’s varsity programs by awarding more than 250 honorary monograms.</p><p><a href="#honorees"><strong>The Honoree List</strong></a></p>
<p>In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the University of Notre Dame, its Athletics Department and the Notre Dame Monogram Club will celebrate the passionate group of women who paved the way for the success of the University’s current women’s varsity programs by awarding more than 250 honorary monograms.</p>
<p>Given that their contributions represent the product of a true pioneering effort, the honorees, including both the founders of the Women’s Athletic Association and the women who competed for Notre Dame during the first five years of coeducation (1972-77), will receive honorary monograms in a ceremony this fall.</p>
<p>“The women’s athletics programs at Notre Dame have enjoyed remarkable success over the years, but none of that would have been possible without the commitment, dedication and passion of the women who blazed the trail 50 years ago,” University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. “We are indebted to their pioneering efforts and are pleased to welcome them into the ranks of the Monogram Club.”</p>
<blockquote class="pull">
<p>“The women’s athletics programs at Notre Dame have enjoyed remarkable success over the years, but none of that would have been possible without the commitment, dedication and passion of the women who blazed the trail 50 years ago.” - University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On June 23, 1972, the Education Amendments of 1972 were enacted. Title IX of the amendments prohibited sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. Later that year, Notre Dame enrolled its first class of undergraduate women.</p>
<p>While athletics was not specifically mentioned in Title IX, the statute was soon applied to collegiate sports programs and, over the past half-century, played the primary role in opening up opportunities for women in athletics.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1972, a group of passionate female students formed the Women’s Athletic Association, and over the course of the next five years, this organization provided leadership to the many students who were interested in developing varsity teams. The association created a path to that status through the organization and promotion of interest groups, club teams and varsity programs.</p>
<p>“Many women who enrolled at Notre Dame during those first five years had opportunities to use their athletic talents at other schools,” Jack Swarbrick, vice president and the James E. Rohr Director of Athletics, said. “Instead, they chose to come to Notre Dame and build a rich coeducational environment that would ensure equitable opportunities for future students. Laying a strong foundation would be their measure of success, and their efforts cannot be overstated. Most importantly, they inspired others to follow their example, both in how to compete and how to build for the future.”</p>
<p>Kate Markgraf, Monogram Club president, decorated national and international soccer player and current general manager of the U.S. Women’s National team, added: “I am proud that we are recognizing this group for their sacrifices, and the contributions that live on today. Using ingenuity and their personal resources, they figured out a way to train, compete and navigate programs toward varsity status. I am among thousands of Notre Dame female student-athletes who benefited from their vision, drive and determination all those years ago.”</p>
<p>Notre Dame currently fields 26 varsity athletics programs, half of which are for women, beginning in 1976 with tennis and adding through the years fencing, field hockey, basketball, volleyball, swimming and diving, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, indoor and outdoor track and field, lacrosse and rowing. Irish women have won 14 national championships in fencing, soccer and basketball, as well as many individual national championships.</p>
<p>The University will invite the honorees back to campus for the UNLV football weekend Oct. 21-23. There will be a special recognition ceremony and the group will be recognized during the Notre Dame football game.</p>
<figure class="image-default"><img alt="A black and white photo of Notre Dame women tennis players with their rackets." height="800" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/477564/fullsize/tennis_1200.jpg" width="1200"></figure>
<h2>
<a id="honorees" name="honorees"></a>The Honorees</h2>
<p><strong>If you are an honoree, please complete <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyJgqWp0z4NFM4KSR816LP_1siGSeRrlLrZI867pophSmw9g/viewform">this form</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Anne Marie Adams</p>
<p>S. Ahoy</p>
<p>Kam Amato</p>
<p>Kathryn Anderson</p>
<p>Judy Arenson</p>
<p>Maria Arminio</p>
<p>Lorainne Armstrong</p>
<p>Susie Augustus</p>
<p>Cheryl Baggen</p>
<p>Bev Baginski</p>
<p>Kathleen Bailey</p>
<p>Sue Bailey</p>
<p>Becky Banasiak</p>
<p>Kathy Banbury</p>
<p>Leslie Barnes</p>
<p>Sarah Bartzen</p>
<p>Mary K. Baty</p>
<p>Jean Benedett</p>
<p>Anne Berges</p>
<p>Betsy Bernard</p>
<p>Liz Berry</p>
<p>Argery Bitchakas</p>
<p>Kim Bledsoe</p>
<p>Ann Bond</p>
<p>J. Bonifert</p>
<p>Lenore Bottino</p>
<p>Barb Boylan</p>
<p>Martha Boyle</p>
<p>Bonita Bradshaw</p>
<p>Mary Brady</p>
<p>Barb Breesmen</p>
<p>Nancy Brenner</p>
<p>Cindy Buescher</p>
<p>Mary C. Burke</p>
<p>Pat Burke</p>
<p>Erin Burns</p>
<p>Boni Burton</p>
<p>Shotsie Caine</p>
<p>Maria Calabrese</p>
<p>Ellen Callahan</p>
<p>Maura Carroll</p>
<p>Mary Champion</p>
<p>Mary Clemency</p>
<p>Ann Colbert</p>
<p>Cathy Comerford</p>
<p>Mary Conley</p>
<p>Beth Conlisk</p>
<p>Patty Coogan</p>
<p>Elizabeth Corbin</p>
<p>Kathy Cordes</p>
<p>Peg Crehan</p>
<p>Marilyn Crimmins</p>
<p>Nancy Cueroni</p>
<p>Peggy Curtin</p>
<p>MaryJo Cushing</p>
<p>Debbie Dean</p>
<p>Anne Deighen</p>
<p>Jill Delucia</p>
<p>Kate Dickinson</p>
<p>Anne Dilenschneider</p>
<p>Kathy Dilworth</p>
<p>Camille Doan</p>
<p>Laura Dodge</p>
<p>Betsy Dorzweiler</p>
<p>Kathy Downs</p>
<p>D. Dressler</p>
<p>Nora Duffy</p>
<p>Sally Duffy</p>
<p>Chris Dziwura</p>
<p>Margaret D’Aquila</p>
<p>Jeanne Earley</p>
<p>Robin Eresman</p>
<p>Jeanne Essling</p>
<p>Betsy Fallon</p>
<p>Kathy Farhart</p>
<p>Pat Farro</p>
<p>Sue Fitzpatrick</p>
<p>Mary Fitzsimons</p>
<p>Laura Flaherty</p>
<p>Sue Flanigan</p>
<p>Liz Flood</p>
<p>Maureen Flynn</p>
<p>Sue Fondi</p>
<p>Joan Fremeau</p>
<p>Barb Frey</p>
<p>Carole Froling</p>
<p>Fidele Galey</p>
<p>Christie Gallagher</p>
<p>Erin Gallagher</p>
<p>Kathy Gallogly</p>
<p>Libby Galloway</p>
<p>Ann Gardner</p>
<p>Jane Garland</p>
<p>Jody Gormley</p>
<p>Nora Grace</p>
<p>Sue Grace</p>
<p>Debbie Grady</p>
<p>Carol Guckert</p>
<p>Mary Gumble</p>
<p>Mary Kay Hanson</p>
<p>Meme Hanson</p>
<p>Anne Marie Hawkins</p>
<p>Mary Hayes</p>
<p>Peggy Hester</p>
<p>Mary Beth Hines</p>
<p>Astrid Hotvedt</p>
<p>Ellen Hughes</p>
<p>Mary Jaeger</p>
<p>Mary James</p>
<p>Diane Johnson</p>
<p>Kathleen Jones</p>
<p>Kathy Juba</p>
<p>Kathy Kane</p>
<p>Louise Karas</p>
<p>Veronica Keefe</p>
<p>Jennifer Kellow</p>
<p>Ann Kelly</p>
<p>Regina Kelso</p>
<p>Lory Kerger</p>
<p>Jay Kiley</p>
<p>Roberta Kilpatrick</p>
<p>Mary Koch</p>
<p>Sue Krakora</p>
<p>Judy Kseniak</p>
<p>Sue Kunkel</p>
<p>Cindy Labriola</p>
<p>Mary Lammers</p>
<p>Carol Latronica</p>
<p>Pam Leary</p>
<p>MaryBeth Leonard</p>
<p>Janet Longfellow</p>
<p>Geri Lopez</p>
<p>Donna Losurdo</p>
<p>Maria Losurdo</p>
<p>Adella Malvezzi</p>
<p>Mary Mannion</p>
<p>Kim Manzi</p>
<p>Melanie Marshall</p>
<p>Mary Marten</p>
<p>Molly Martin</p>
<p>Rita Martin</p>
<p>Anne Mattimore</p>
<p>Mary Beth Mazanec</p>
<p>Laurie McAllister</p>
<p>Kathy McCann</p>
<p>Marie McCarthy</p>
<p>Pam McGinley</p>
<p>Molly McGuire (Ohio)</p>
<p>Molly McGuire (Iowa)</p>
<p>Karen McKeon</p>
<p>Jean McQuillan</p>
<p>Kathy McRae</p>
<p>Lynn Mertensoto</p>
<p>Kristin Meyer</p>
<p>Coletta Miller</p>
<p>Nikki Miller</p>
<p>Terry Molony</p>
<p>JoAnn Mooney</p>
<p>Carole Moore</p>
<p>Meg Morgan</p>
<p>Mary Lou Mulvihill</p>
<p>Byrne Murphy</p>
<p>Marianne Murphy</p>
<p>Ellen Myler</p>
<p>Dana Nahlan</p>
<p>Lori Nolan</p>
<p>Margaret Noonan</p>
<p>Barb Norcross</p>
<p>Mairin North</p>
<p>Sue O’Brien</p>
<p>Kathy O’Connell</p>
<p>Eileen O’Grady</p>
<p>Michele O’Haren</p>
<p>Trish O’Donnell</p>
<p>Judith Offerle</p>
<p>Julianne Olech</p>
<p>Sharon Orbeson</p>
<p>Jayne O’Reilly</p>
<p>Charmaine Ortega</p>
<p>Ginny Ott</p>
<p>Brenda Pallone</p>
<p>Sandy Parnell</p>
<p>Joan Porter</p>
<p>Laure Prestine</p>
<p>Phyllis Provost</p>
<p>Joanne Prusiecki</p>
<p>Cindy Rebholz</p>
<p>Susan Reis</p>
<p>Joan Richtsmeier</p>
<p>Nancy Rickhoff</p>
<p>Maggy Rietman</p>
<p>Barb Riley</p>
<p>Kathleen Riordan</p>
<p>Janet Robert</p>
<p>Judy Robert</p>
<p>Gina Robillard</p>
<p>Ann Rockey</p>
<p>Laura Rohrbach</p>
<p>Melissa Roman</p>
<p>Diane Rortvedt</p>
<p>Gill Rose</p>
<p>Judy Rupprucht</p>
<p>Mary Ryan</p>
<p>Janet Scanlon</p>
<p>Gail Schahade</p>
<p>Janel Schliesman</p>
<p>C. Schoendienst</p>
<p>Margaret Schuler</p>
<p>Mary Setlock</p>
<p>Kathy Shanahan</p>
<p>Judy Shiely</p>
<p>Carolyn Shiffels</p>
<p>Elizabeth Short</p>
<p>Ginger Siefring</p>
<p>Sue Smiggen</p>
<p>Carol Simmons</p>
<p>Chris Simony</p>
<p>Mary Singer</p>
<p>Linda Sisson</p>
<p>Andrea Smith</p>
<p>Sally Smith</p>
<p>Mary Spalding</p>
<p>Brooks Stasse</p>
<p>Nancy Stoltz</p>
<p>Elizabeth Storey</p>
<p>Monica Stupke</p>
<p>Camille St. Hilaire</p>
<p>Eunice Sullivan</p>
<p>Kathy Sullivan</p>
<p>Sharon Sullivan</p>
<p>Judy Temple</p>
<p>Amy Thornton</p>
<p>Becky Thornton</p>
<p>Rosemary Tirinnanzi</p>
<p>Beth Towne</p>
<p>Nina Tressler</p>
<p>Debbie Valentino</p>
<p>Monica Vogel</p>
<p>Ellen Walsh</p>
<p>Mary Walsh</p>
<p>Vicki Warren</p>
<p>Helen Weber</p>
<p>Cindy Weidner</p>
<p>Jule Wetherbee</p>
<p>Mary White</p>
<p>Linda Wilber</p>
<p>Lisa Winkelman</p>
<p>Lauren Wood</p>
<p>Kathy Zablotney</p>
<p>Mary Ann Zdinak</p>
<p>Ruth Zurcher</p>
<p><strong>If you are an honoree, please complete <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyJgqWp0z4NFM4KSR816LP_1siGSeRrlLrZI867pophSmw9g/viewform">this form</a>.</strong></p>
<h2>Contact Info:</h2>
<p>If you have any questions, please contact the Monogram Club at <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=ndmonogram@gmail.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ndmonogram@gmail.com</a></p>Dennis Browntag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1460192022-06-02T15:30:00-04:002022-06-06T10:22:41-04:00A chance to change lives: How first-generation college student Natalie Hibshman ’17 built the skills to thrive in a medical career through psychology and studio art<p>As a plastic and reconstructive surgery resident at Duke University Medical Center, Natalie (Jackson) Hibshman ’17 applies what she learned at Notre Dame and in medical school to improve the lives of her patients. But there's always more to learn. With every physical problem someone encounters, she’s found there are complicated mental and emotional dynamics entwined with it — and her liberal arts education prepared her to take on the task of treating patients holistically.</p><style type="text/css">/* Create a parent div so we can position the child div within it at the smaller screen size */
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<figure class="image-default"><img alt="Natalie Hibshman" height="800" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/473745/fullsize/natalite_hibshman_thumbnail.jpg" width="1200">
<figcaption>Natalie Hibshman</figcaption>
</figure>
<div class="inset_box_placement inset_formatting">
<figure class="image-default"><img alt="50 Golden Years Logo" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/464227/golden_is_thy_fame_stacked_logo.png" width="100%"></figure>
<p>To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the co-education of women at Notre Dame, the College of Arts & Letters is publishing a series of features on alumnae who studied the arts, humanities, or social sciences, then followed a wide range of career paths after graduation. Each profile will detail how a liberal arts education helped these women discern not just what they wanted to do — but who they wanted to be.</p>
<figure class="image-default"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/careers/career-development-resources/"><img alt="Beyond the dome logo" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/400124/beyond_the_dome_logo_fc.png" width="100%"></a></figure>
<h4><strong>Also in this series</strong></h4>
<p>• 1980s: <a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/an-unpredictable-career-full-of-purpose-how-notre-dame-helped-mary-agnes-laguatan-85-find-her-place-in-the-world-through-languages-service-and-a-global-mindset/">Mary Agnes “M.A.” Laguatan</a>, economics and French</p>
<p>• 1990s: <a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/putting-learning-into-practice-how-notre-dame-laid-the-foundation-for-gina-prez-90-to-build-community-in-chile-earn-a-ph-d-in-anthropology-and-inspire-new-generations-of-liberal-arts-students/">Gina Pérez</a>, Program of Liberal Studies</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>As a plastic and reconstructive surgery resident at Duke University School of Medicine, Natalie (Jackson) Hibshman ’17 applies what she learned in medical school to improve the lives of her patients. But there’s always more to learn.</p>
<p>With every physical problem someone encounters, she’s found there are complicated mental and emotional dynamics entwined with it — and her Notre Dame liberal arts education prepared her to take on the task of treating patients holistically.</p>
<p>Medicine is not just clinical, but social, too. </p>
<p>“You’re of greater service to your patients if you understand how humans work,” said Hibshman, who majored in <a href="https://psychology.nd.edu/undergraduate-programs/psychology-major/">psychology</a> and <a href="https://prehealth.nd.edu/">Arts & Letters pre-health</a> with a minor in <a href="https://artdept.nd.edu/undergraduate-program/studio-art-minor/">studio art</a>. “The <a href="https://al.nd.edu/">College of Arts and Letters</a> compels you to accept the human condition.”</p>
<p>For Hibshman, every aspect of her academic experience helped paved the way for her success as a doctor. </p>
<p>In the operating room, she draws on her art background to look at tissue and visualize how it will best fit together to allow her patients to look and feel as normal as possible after a surgery. And what she learned in psychology courses helps her relate to and communicate with patients in a way that is human and genuine. </p>
<p>“Building relationships is what helps you even the social playing field between you and your patients, because not everybody that you care for is going to know or care about the medical jargon,” Hibshman said. “What they do care about is that when you’re there talking to them about their health and their choices, you can do so with some tact and adaptability.”</p>
<h3>A dream realized</h3>
<p>Hibshman was raised in Mishawaka, Indiana, just 20 minutes from Notre Dame, where her mother worked in <a href="https://dining.nd.edu/">Campus Dining</a>. The University always felt aspirational — “Really smart people come here,” her mom told her. Although Hibshman grew up in the shadow of the Golden Dome, she thought earning a Notre Dame degree would be impossible. As a teenager, she realized her single mother of four couldn’t afford to send her to such a school. </p>
<p>She applied anyway, curious to see if she could get in. She did — and after a spring visit weekend, she decided she would do everything in her power to find a way to attend. Hibshman applied to several scholarship programs, ultimately receiving a four-year award from the <a href="https://anbryce.nd.edu/">AnBryce Scholars Initiative</a>, which supports exceptional first-generation college students. </p>
<p>“Some of the most resilient, hard-working people you’ll ever find in your life are people who have grown up with fewer opportunities and had to create opportunities for themselves,” she said. “AnBryce allowed me to view my education as a gift, and my upbringing as a gift, because I think that it’s really hard to have both the opportunity to attend such a well-renowned university and the background of being from a family that doesn’t necessarily send kids to college.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Some of the most resilient, hard-working people you’ll ever find in your life are people who have grown up with fewer opportunities and had to create opportunities for themselves.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>At Notre Dame, she chose to major in psychology, motivated by the gaps in mental health care she saw her siblings and friends encounter. Her A&L pre-health major stemmed from a genuine interest in medicine, but also an aspirational idea that becoming a doctor was synonymous with success.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Natalie Hibshman Vanderbilt" height="488" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/473742/400x/natalie_hibshman_vanderbilt.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Hibshman at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over time, she realized that she could be a mental health advocate in any medical role, and her science classes and labs revealed that she loved the procedural component of dissections, so she began to consider becoming a surgeon.</p>
<p>Preparing for medical school through Arts & Letters gave her the flexibility to broaden her academic opportunities, including pursuing her passion for art. Having a creative outlet in the studio — and in singing with the a cappella group <a href="https://www.ndharmonia.com">Harmonia</a> — proved incredibly beneficial amidst the stress of her classes, labs, and exams and personal pressure to be successful.</p>
<p>“It was a way for me to just be me and do my own thing, and it didn’t matter what the product was as long as it was something that I was proud of,” she said. “It wasn’t for external validation, and I think that helped me a lot in college with perspective.”</p>
<h3>A chance to change lives</h3>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Natalie And Nicholas Hibshman" height="486" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/473743/400x/natalie_and_nicholas_hibshman.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Natalie Hibschman at Commencement with her husband, Nicholas, who graduated with an engineering degree.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After graduating, Hibshman received a full scholarship to attend the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. </p>
<p>She found her calling while doing a rotation with the plastic and reconstructive surgeons. While she had previously perceived the field of plastics to be mostly cosmetic, she quickly discovered that plastic and reconstructive surgeons play a role in almost any procedure and work with every surgical sub-specialty in the hospital. </p>
<p>She fell in love with the field as she witnessed tissue rearrangement surgeries that allowed cancer patients to receive radiation treatment and reconstructive surgeries that made it possible for children with paralyzed faces to smile for the first time.</p>
<p>“Every single day, you get to change a life, and that mission just resonated so heavily with me,” she said.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Artwork By Natalie Hibshman" height="284" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/474190/300x/artwork_by_natalie_hibshman_3_.jpg" width="300">
<figcaption>A portrait painted by Natalie Hipshman</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her experience in art also made her an easy fit for plastic and reconstructive procedures that require surgeons to visualize what will best fit together and adapt as they work. At Notre Dame, she explored different subjects and all mediums from ceramic sculpting to digital art. Her specialties include both charcoal and oil painting. Her focus, fittingly, is portrait painting. She has continued to create pieces in medical school and in residency when she finds the time.</p>
<p>“I think that my artistic interest actually supplements my career quite nicely,” said Hibshman, who noted the importance of spatial awareness in surgery and added that performing surgery reminds her of creating art.</p>
<p>More than just the scientific, creative, and communication skills she developed at Notre Dame, Hibshman developed a sense of mission and purpose that has guided her through the challenges of her undergraduate education, medical school, and residency.</p>
<p>Although not identifying as Catholic, she drew inspiration in caring for patients holistically from mentors who embodied the principles of Catholic social teaching. Notre Dame excels at cultivating servant leaders who want to do good in the world, Hibschman said, and she now hopes to inspire others who grew up in similar circumstances to follow a path like hers.</p>
<p>“That is rooted in the core values of what a Notre Dame Arts and Letters education teaches, and I have a unique opportunity to use that lesson in a really special way,” she said.</p>
<p>“That is probably the greatest asset from my education.”</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Sophia Lauber</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/a-chance-to-change-lives-how-first-generation-college-student-natalie-hibshman-17-built-the-skills-to-thrive-in-a-medical-career-through-psychology-and-studio-art/">al.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">June 02, 2022</span>.</p>Sophia Laubertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1461882022-06-02T15:18:00-04:002022-06-14T15:18:50-04:00On Aging by Amy Grant<p>It occurred to me this morning as I washed this face of mine, How quickly come the changes with a little passing time.</p> <p>A wrinkle here, a hair turned gray, a not so lilting step, I see me growing older, but I don’t quite feel it yet.</p> <p>At times I nearly feel my age, at others I’m sixteen,…</p><p>It occurred to me this morning as I washed this face of mine, How quickly come the changes with a little passing time.</p>
<p>A wrinkle here, a hair turned gray, a not so lilting step, I see me growing older, but I don’t quite feel it yet.</p>
<p>At times I nearly feel my age, at others I’m sixteen, So full am I of all the thoughts and feelings in between.</p>
<p>Who would have thought the road of life would twist and turn so much? The journey makes me strong and weak and tender to the touch.</p>
<p>And so this day I face the choice that I have faced each day, Will I be open? Teachable? Unafraid of change?</p>
<p>Yes. I will embrace this moment. Forgive my past mistakes, And remember that just showing up is sometimes all it takes.</p>
<p>I’ll see the kind of beauty that time cannot erase. Wisdom and experience resting on my face.</p>Taylor Johnsontag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1435522022-05-13T09:10:00-04:002022-05-18T14:32:37-04:00Selected Women's Firsts at Notre Dame<p>Over the past 50 years, women have succeeded at Notre Dame in every field and discipline. But to truly understand how women have impacted the University, you have to start at the beginning.</p><p>In the 50 years since Fr. Hesburgh made the historic decision to admit undergraduate women, women have been successful and contributed in important ways in every field and discipline. But to truly understand how women have impacted the University, it's important to consider the integral part they've played since the earliest days of the University.</p>
<p>Without intending to be an exhaustive list, this timeline shows some selected women's "firsts" at Notre Dame.</p>
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<span>1843</span>
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<p>Father Sorin recruits four Holy Cross sisters from France to care for students as well as chickens and dairy cows: <strong>Sr. Mary of the Heart of Jesus; Sr. Mary of Bethlehem; Sr. Mary of Calvary; and Sr. Mary of Nazareth</strong>. These women are the first of many Holy Cross sisters who would be part of Notre Dame, serving as teachers and leaders as well as assisting with domestic tasks.</p>
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<span>1885</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/462670/original/starr.jpg" alt="An old black and white photo of a woman wearing a head covering." width="800" height="538"></div>
<p>First woman to be awarded the Laetare Medal - <strong>Eliza Allen Starr</strong></p>
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<span>1917</span>
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<p>First women to graduate - <strong>Sr. M. Lucretia (Kearns), C.S.C. (MS in Domestic Chemistry) and Sr. M. Francis Jerome (O'Laughlin), C.S.C. (MA in Greek)</strong></p>
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<span>1922</span>
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<p>First women to receive undergraduate degrees from Notre Dame - <strong>Sr. M. Aloysi Kiener (Sisters of Notre Dame, Cleveland, Ohio); Sr. M. Mary (Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, Lakewood, Ohio); Sr. M. Josephine (Ursuline Sisters of Brown County, Ohio); Sr. M. Veronique (Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana); Antoinette Semortier (South Bend; Indiana)</strong></p>
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<span>1923</span>
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<p>First women to receive PhDs from Notre Dame - <strong>Sr. M. Lucretia (Kearns), C.S.C., (MS 1917) and Sr. M. Eleanore (Brosnahan), C.S.C. (MA 1918).</strong> They are also the first Double Domers.</p>
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<span>1925</span>
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<p>First woman to earn a bachelor of science degree - <strong>Sr. Mary Leona</strong></p>
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<span>1952</span>
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<p>First woman to earn a bachelor of science in commerce - <strong>Sr. Mary Laura Garstecki</strong></p>
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<span>1965</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/461456/original/gdom_08_05_01.jpg" alt="A group of students get on a bus." width="500" height="601"></div>
<p>A co-exchange program begins with Saint Mary’s College that allows Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students to take courses on either campus.</p>
<p>First women to join full-time faculty as assistant professors - <strong>Josephine Massyngbaerde Ford and Sr. Suzanne Kelly, OSB</strong></p>
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<span>1971</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/472590/original/rosemary_park_600.jpg" alt="A black and white portrait of a white woman with short dark hair." width="600" height="681"></div>
<p>First woman appointed to the Board of Trustees - <strong>Rosemary Park</strong></p>
<p>Notre Dame decides to become a fully coeducational institution</p>
<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/462652/original/band.jpg" alt="A marching band on a football field." width="800" height="376"></div>
<p>First women in marching band - <strong>Elizabeth Jaeger, Lucy Cannata, Susan Schoenherr, Susan Swiatek, Mary Beth Brungardt (SMC), Jean Ann Kaufman (SMC), Gail Spretnjak (SMC), Rosemary Crock (SMC)</strong></p>
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<span>1972</span>
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<p>First cohort of undergraduate women welcomed</p>
<p>First women to serve as rectors - <strong>Ms. Kathleen Cekanski; Sr. Maria Garlock; Sr. Jean Lenz, OSF; Sr. Karen Ann Paul, SC; and Ms. Joanne Szafran</strong></p>
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<span>1973</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/461836/original/1973_dean_arts_and_letters.jpg" alt="A woman with circle glasses works at a desk covered with papers." width="800" height="488"></div>
<p>First woman named dean of any college, dean of College of Arts and Letters - <strong>Isabel Charles</strong></p>
<p>First woman to receive a bachelor of science in engineering architecture degree - <strong>Mary Ann Proctor</strong></p>
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<span>1974</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463327/original/gphr_35m_03546_01_val.jpg" alt="A black and white photo of a woman with dark hair in a white sweater in front of curtained window." width="800" height="409"></div>
<p>First woman named valedictorian - <strong>Marianne O'Connor Price</strong></p>
<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463328/original/gphr_22_2556_03_candy.jpg" alt="Candy Kelly." width="656" height="649"></div>
<p>First woman commissioned in Navy ROTC - <strong>Candy Kelly</strong></p>
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<span>1976</span>
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<p>First woman appointed to full professor, first woman named endowed professor and founder of Gender Studies Program in 1988 - <strong>Joan Aldous</strong></p>
<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/461947/original/1976_tennis.jpg" alt="A group of women tennis players with their rackets." width="800" height="450"></div>
<p>Tennis and fencing become the first women’s varsity sports</p>
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<span>1977</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463332/original/gphr_22_4116_03.jpg" alt="Belinda White." width="649" height="800"></div>
<p>First woman commissioned in Army ROTC - <strong>Belinda White</strong></p>
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<span>1979</span>
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<p>First Notre Dame woman to serve as editor of the Observer - <strong>Rosemary Mills</strong></p>
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<span>1981</span>
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<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/461919/original/drum_major.jpg" alt="A woman in a white drum major outfit on the football field with the Irish Guard." width="800" height="715"></div>
<p>First woman to serve as marching band drum major - <strong>Toni Faini</strong></p>
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<span>1986</span>
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<p>First woman named a Rhodes Scholar - <strong>Teresa Doering</strong></p>
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<span>1987</span>
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<p>Women's fencing wins first national championship</p>
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<span>1990</span>
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<p>First woman named vice president for student affairs - <strong>Patricia O'Hara</strong></p>
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<span>1995</span>
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<p>Women's Soccer wins first national championship</p>
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<span>1996</span>
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<p>First woman elected as Fellow of the University - <strong>Kathleen Andrews</strong></p>
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<span>1997</span>
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<p>First woman named dean of the Mendoza College of Business - <strong>Carolyn Woo</strong></p>
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<span>1998</span>
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<p>First woman elected as president of the Alumni Association - <strong>Beth Toomey</strong></p>
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<span>1999</span>
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<p>First woman named dean of the Law School - <strong>Patricia O'Hara</strong></p>
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<span>2000</span>
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<p>First woman chosen for Irish Guard - <strong>Molly Kinder</strong></p>
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<span>2001</span>
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<p>First woman elected student body president - <strong>Brooke Norton</strong></p>
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<p>Women's Basketball wins first national championship</p>
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<span>2005</span>
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<p>First woman named as president of the Monogram Club - <strong>Julie Doyle</strong></p>
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<span>2007</span>
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<p>First all-women ticket for student body president - <strong>Elizabeth Brown and Maris Braun</strong></p>
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<span>2010</span>
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<p>Selected as the first Black valedictorian - <strong>Katie Washington</strong></p>
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<span>2011</span>
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<p>First woman appointed to Executive Director of the Alumni Association - <strong>Dolly Duffy</strong></p>
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<span>2013</span>
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<p>First woman named dean of the Graduate School - <strong>Laura Carlson</strong></p>
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<span>2014</span>
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<p>First Notre Dame student-athlete to be honored as NCAA Woman of the Year - <strong>Elizabeth Tucker</strong></p>
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<span>2015</span>
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<p>First woman named dean of the College of Science - <strong>Mary Galvin</strong></p>
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<span>2019</span>
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<p>First woman selected as leprechaun - <strong>Lynette Wukie</strong></p>
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<span>2020</span>
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<p>First woman named provost - <strong>Marie Lynn Miranda</strong></p>
<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/472508/original/niele_ivey.jpg" alt="A portrait of a Black woman, Niele Ivey, against a gray backdrop wearing a pink blouse." width="800" height="600"></div>
<p>First Black woman appointed head coach - <strong>Niele Ivey</strong></p>
<div class="timeline-img"><img loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/461935/original/patricia_culligan.jpg" alt="A moody side portrait of a woman." width="800" height="533"></div>
<p>First woman named dean of the College of Engineering - <strong>Patricia Culligan</strong></p>
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</div></p>Othertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1452342022-05-02T08:20:00-04:002022-05-04T12:47:41-04:00Condoleezza Rice shares thoughts on Russia, college athletics in campus talk<p>Speaking on a broad array of topics — from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to political polarization, the United States’ founding fathers, her professional mentors, women as leaders, the state of college athletics, her time on campus and more — the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, 66th U.S. secretary of state and Notre Dame alumna Condoleezza Rice captivated an overflow crowd at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday (April 28) during an hour-long conversation moderated by University President <a href="https://president.nd.edu/about/">Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. </a></p><p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Speaking on a broad array of topics — from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to political polarization, the United States’ founding fathers, her professional mentors, women as leaders, the state of college athletics,</span></span><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal"> her time on campus and more — the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, 66th U.S. secretary of state and Notre Dame alumna Condoleezza Rice captivated an overflow crowd at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday</span></span><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal"> (April 28) during an hour-long conversation moderated by University President <a href="https://president.nd.edu/about/">Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. </a></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Members of the campus and broader South Bend area communities began lining up for a seat in the Jordan Auditorium more than an hour in advance of the engagement. After a long and rousing welcome from the full house of 350 attendees, Father Jenkins welcomed Rice with a smile, saying, “I think we can say we’re glad to have you back at Notre Dame.”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">An expert on Soviet/Russian and Eastern European affairs, Rice offered insights on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his influences, aspirations and strategies related to the war in Ukraine. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">When asked about her level of surprise about the invasion, she said: “I knew he had this aspiration for the restoration of the Russian empire. This (the war) is not really about Russian security interests, not about NATO expansion, it really is this nostalgia for empire. It’s hard for us to understand. The part that is surprising to me is I knew he had the aspiration … but what turned that aspiration into an operational plan, that’s what we really have to ask.” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Rice described what she believes are three important components to Putin’s perspective on the war and the overall response of Russia’s invasion. “First, I think he (Putin) certainly miscalculated who the Ukrainians are. He has said that Ukraine is not a real country; he believed that somehow the Russians would be seen as liberators. He didn’t know they (Ukrainians) see themselves as a separate people, that they resent the ‘Little Russia’ moniker. Secondly, serious miscalculation about what the West — broadly defined, democratic states like Japan and others — would do. He believed the propaganda that the West was done (with war). And third, most importantly, he actually thought his military was good and they are not. But to be clear, what the Russian military lacks in competence, it makes up for in brutality.”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">When asked how she would advise the U.S. administration on the war, she agreed with President Joe Biden that the future of Ukraine’s response to the war has to be Ukraine’s decision. “And right now, I don’t see any appetite among the Ukrainians for a settlement. They are in no mood to negotiate,” she said. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Rice offered comments on the spread of Russian attacks to NATO and non-NATO countries. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">“I’m worried about the spread (of Russian attacks) … but I don’t think Putin wants a fight with NATO or any part of a conflict with the United States,” she said. “He has united NATO in a way that was unimaginable a year ago. A friend of mine said, ‘He has managed to end Swiss neutrality and German pacifism in a matter of a month.’”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">When asked about the grim possibility of seeing the use of chemical or nuclear weapons, she said, “I’m not that worried about escalation to nuclear weapons. I don’t think we should be deterred by this kind of nuclear talk.” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">The conversation shifted gears to other topics, including what led Rice to Notre Dame and memories of her time on campus. She cited stories about her long and special relationship with the late University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., and other mentors in her life and professional career. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Rice, who made several remarks about her love of sports, and football in particular, during the conversation, also commented on the state of college athletics. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">As the chair of the Commission on College Basketball in 2017-18, she was joined by Father Jenkins and a dozen others who examined all aspects of Division I men’s basketball in the wake of FBI investigations into the sport. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">She noted how the commission warned NCAA administrators then about what they saw on the horizon over what would become known as the name, image and likeness (NIL) policy, which allows college athletes to monetize their notoriety, and that they suggested putting “guardrails in place” around such policies. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">“NIL now is the wild west,” Rice said. “I think there are all kinds of abuses taking place, but they are not abuses because there are no rules (governing NIL). I think we have to get back to the first principles of academic and athletic experiences.” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">Father Jenkins offered Rice questions submitted by audience members and those watching the event livestream. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">He concluded the program by saying, “Condi, you have embodied the values we espouse at Notre Dame — service to the common good, scholarly excellence, a magnanimity that allows you to embrace different viewpoints to find what’s best among us all. We couldn’t be more proud to say that you’re an alumna of Notre Dame, and we thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and talk to us. God bless you.” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-variant:normal; font-weight:400; white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="font-style:normal">The two exited the stage to a long and spirited standing ovation from the audience.</span></span></p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Sue Ryan</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://news.nd.edu/news/condoleezza-rice-shares-thoughts-on-russia-college-athletics-in-campus-talk/">news.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">April 29, 2022</span>.</p>Sue Ryantag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1451082022-04-26T12:00:00-04:002022-04-26T12:32:48-04:00Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak at Notre Dame<p>“A Conversation With: Condoleezza Rice,” hosted by University of Notre Dame President <a href="https://president.nd.edu/about/">Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.</a>, and featuring the 66th U.S. Secretary of State and Notre Dame alumna discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, women’s leadership, the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of women undergraduates at Notre Dame and collegiate athletics, will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday (April 28) in the Jordan Auditorium of the Mendoza College of Business.</p><p>“A Conversation With: Condoleezza Rice,” hosted by University of Notre Dame President <a href="https://president.nd.edu/about/">Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.</a>, and featuring the 66th U.S. Secretary of State and Notre Dame alumna discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, women’s leadership, the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of women undergraduates at Notre Dame and collegiate athletics, will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday (April 28) in the Jordan Auditorium of the Mendoza College of Business.</p>
<p>The event is free and open to the campus and broader communities on a first-come-first-served basis. It will be live-streamed at <a href="https://president.nd.edu/news/former-secretary-of-state-condoleezza-rice-to-speak-at-notre-dame/">go.nd.edu/RiceEvent</a>.</p>
<p>Rice was a member of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2001 before stepping down when she was <span style="background:white">appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush. She served in that role for four years before becoming </span>secretary of state in 2005. She was the first Black woman to serve as the nation’s top diplomat and remained in that position throughout President Bush’s second term.</p>
<p>An expert on Soviet/Russian and Eastern European affairs, Rice has spoken forcefully in recent weeks on Russia’s war on Ukraine.</p>
<p>“It’s disastrous for the liberal world order,” she told NPR shortly after the war began. “It's disastrous for Europe. It’s disastrous for all the values that we hold dear. And that’s why we can’t let Ukraine lose. Ukraine is the last defensible territory between the Russian military and our (NATO) Article 5 (security) commitments to the Baltic states and Poland and Romania, and so I think we have to throw everything at it that we can that the (Biden) administration believes will not widen the war, do it as quickly as we can.”</p>
<p>Rice earned her master’s degree from Notre Dame in government and international studies in 1975. Prior to her service on the University’s Board, she was a member of the advisory council for Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree and was the principal speaker at Notre Dame’s 1995 University Commencement Ceremony, and she joined President Bush on the platform during the May 2001 Commencement, when the president received an honorary degree and delivered the principal address.</p>
<p>Rice was a featured speaker at the tribute to the late Notre Dame President, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., following his funeral Mass on March 4, 2015. She also spoke at the unveiling in 2017 of a U.S. Postal Service stamp in honor of Father Hesburgh, and in 2019 in a newsmaker conversation with John Kerry, secretary of state in the Obama administration. She is the recipient of an honorary Notre Dame monogram.</p>
<p>Father Jenkins served from 2017 to 2018 on the Commission on College Basketball, a 14-member body chaired by Rice that examined all aspects of Division I men’s basketball in the wake of FBI investigations into the sport.</p>
<p>Rice earned her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Denver. She is a member of the Stanford University political science faculty and served as the university’s provost for six years in the 1990s. She is now the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of Stanford’s Hoover Institution.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Dennis Brown</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://news.nd.edu/news/former-secretary-of-state-condoleezza-rice-to-speak-at-notre-dame/">news.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">April 26, 2022</span>.</p>Dennis Browntag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1452412022-04-25T09:00:00-04:002022-05-02T09:21:19-04:00'The Shirt' 2022 celebrates 50 years of women at Notre Dame<p><a href="https://ndsmcobserver.com/2022/04/the-shirt-2022-celebrates-50-years-of-women-at-notre-dame/">'The Shirt' 2022 </a>celebrates 50 years of women at Notre Dame. The Shirt committee unveiled the design for the <a href="https://theshirt.nd.edu/">2022 Shirt</a> at the Hammes Bookstore Friday.…</p><p><a href="https://ndsmcobserver.com/2022/04/the-shirt-2022-celebrates-50-years-of-women-at-notre-dame/">'The Shirt' 2022 </a>celebrates 50 years of women at Notre Dame. The Shirt committee unveiled the design for the <a href="https://theshirt.nd.edu/">2022 Shirt</a> at the Hammes Bookstore Friday. The navy shirt is the first design to feature a woman, celebrating the 50th anniversary of women attending Notre Dame. </p>Kathryn Muchnicktag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1449282022-04-20T14:35:00-04:002022-05-04T15:53:06-04:00Amy Grant, Grammy Award–winning singer and songwriter to speak and perform at Golden is Thy Fame<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Amy Grant" height="401" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/468641/101220_amygrant_powell0293_te.jpg" width="600"> <figcaption>Amy Grant</figcaption> </figure> <p>The June 2 celebration of Golden is Thy Fame: Celebrating 50 Years of Undergraduate Women<em> </em>will feature Grammy Award-winning…</p><figure class="image-right"><img alt="Amy Grant" height="401" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/468641/101220_amygrant_powell0293_te.jpg" width="600">
<figcaption>Amy Grant</figcaption>
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<p>The June 2 celebration of Golden is Thy Fame: Celebrating 50 Years of Undergraduate Women<em> </em>will feature Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Amy Grant. In addition to speaking in the afternoon, Grant will perform at the Golden Gala Dinner on Thursday evening.</p>
<p>Grant's career spans more than 40 years and stretches from her roots in gospel into becoming an iconic pop star, songwriter, television personality and philantrhopist. With three mmulti-platinum albums, six platinum albums and four gold albums, her total career album sales have exceeded 30 million and more than 1 billion global streams. Grant's chart success has been consistent throughout her career with six No. 1 hits, 10 Top 40 pop singles, 17 Top 40 adult contemporary tracks and multiple contemporary Christian chart-toppers. In addition to her six Grammy Awards, Grant has earned 26 Dove Awards (including four Artist of the Year awards) and has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as the Music City Walk of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. </p>
<p>More information about events scheduled for the June 2 celebration of Golden is Thy Fame: Celebrating 50 Years of Undergraduate Women can be <a href="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/events/2022/06/02/reunion-2022-golden-is-thy-fame-celebration/">found here</a>.</p>Othertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1447492022-04-12T10:00:00-04:002022-04-12T10:14:59-04:00Putting learning into practice: How Notre Dame laid the foundation for Gina Pérez ’90 to build community in Chile, earn a Ph.D. in anthropology, and inspire new generations of liberal arts students<p>Now a cultural anthropologist and professor of comparative American studies at Oberlin College, Gina Pérez ’90 strives to foster that same love of ideas among her students that she discovered in the Program of Liberal Studies at Notre Dame, encouraging them to take fresh looks at topics people have contemplated for centuries. Driven by her faith, Pérez's has spent her post-Notre Dame career engaging with communities both in the U.S. and Latin America through service, activism, and research. “I believe that ideas and conversations can change the world for the better — because they lead to informed and thoughtful action and engagement with the world,” she said. </p><style type="text/css">/* Create a parent div so we can position the child div within it at the smaller screen size */
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<figure class="image-default"><img alt="Gina Perez Feature" height="800" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/468084/fullsize/gina_perez_feature.jpg" width="1200">
<figcaption>Gina Pérez</figcaption>
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<p>To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the co-education of women at Notre Dame, the College of Arts & Letters is publishing a series of features on alumnae who studied the arts, humanities, or social sciences, then followed a wide range of career paths after graduation. Each profile will detail how a liberal arts education helped these women discern not just what they wanted to do — but who they wanted to be.</p>
<figure class="image-default"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/careers/career-development-resources/"><img alt="Beyond the dome logo" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/400124/beyond_the_dome_logo_fc.png" width="100%"></a></figure>
<h4><strong>Also in this series</strong></h4>
<p>• 1980s: <a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/an-unpredictable-career-full-of-purpose-how-notre-dame-helped-mary-agnes-laguatan-85-find-her-place-in-the-world-through-languages-service-and-a-global-mindset/">Mary Agnes “M.A.” Laguatan</a>, economics and French</p>
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<p>Gina Pérez ’90 still reads a book the same way she was taught to do in her <a href="https://pls.nd.edu/">Program of Liberal Studies</a> (PLS) classes. She doesn’t look at the preface, the back cover, or anything else — she just jumps right into the text.</p>
<p>“There’s something of value about coming fresh to something,” Pérez said. “My Arts and Letters education taught me that, and it has made me a lifelong learner. It made me excited about ideas.”</p>
<p>Now a cultural anthropologist and <a href="https://www.oberlin.edu/gina-perez">professor of comparative American studies</a> at Oberlin College, Pérez tries to foster that same love of ideas among her students, encouraging them to take fresh looks at topics people have contemplated for centuries. </p>
<p>“The power of an Arts and Letters education is inviting students into conversations that have been going on for a very long time around some of the most enduring questions — justice, love, forgiveness, morality — and creating a space to both recognize that we’re not the first to think about these questions and invite them to write, think, and reflect on them,” Pérez said.</p>
<p>And for Pérez, there’s more to these conversations than just contemplation — she believes they can actually make a difference, something she’s experienced throughout her own life. Driven by her faith, Pérez has spent her post-Notre Dame career engaging with communities both in the U.S. and Latin America through service, activism, and research.</p>
<p>“I believe that ideas and conversations can change the world for the better — because they lead to informed and thoughtful action and engagement with the world,” Pérez said. </p>
<h3>‘PLS was the perfect home’</h3>
<p>Pérez arrived at Notre Dame intending to study pre-health and theology, but the only thing she knew for certain by the end of her first week was that she wanted to study abroad.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Gina Perez 1990" height="709" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/467622/300x/gina_perez_1990.jpg" width="600">
<figcaption>Gina Pérez, in the 1990 Dome yearbook</figcaption>
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<p>The cancellation of Pérez’s first choice program in Jerusalem led her to spend her sophomore year in Mexico City, an experience that felt both exciting and familiar, as she had grown up speaking Spanish and English in a Puerto Rican family in California.</p>
<p>At the Ibero-Americana University, Pérez took classes about U.S. intervention in Latin American and liberation theology, sparking her interest in minoring in Latin American studies. </p>
<p>“There was a lot going on, so the courses that I was taking helped provide me with the political and economic context for understanding U.S. intervention in Latin America, and so my interest in these topics grew,” Pérez said.</p>
<p>In her second semester in Mexico, however, everything changed. John Ruhlin, a junior PLS major, arrived to live with Pérez’s host family. She admired how Ruhlin thought deeply about ideas, and the two had many long conversations about classes, injustice, and current events. </p>
<p>The more she learned about PLS, the more she felt that it would be the best way to pursue her interests.</p>
<p>“I pictured what I wanted my life to be like when I returned to Notre Dame, and it just seemed that PLS was the perfect home for me,” she said. “The people who seemed to want to think deeply and to question the order of things but who were also involved in trying to make the world and university a better place in concrete ways just so happened to be PLS majors.” </p>
<h3>‘The perfect combination of all the things I loved’</h3>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Gina Perez House Pocuro" height="625" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/467620/gina_perez_house_pocuro.jpg" width="407">
<figcaption>Jean Lammers, Liesl Haas, David Carey, and Gina Perez with their dog, Naylleli, in front of an adobe house they helped build in Pocuro, Chile, during their time in the Holy Cross Associates global ministry program.</figcaption>
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<p>Pérez switched to PLS with just two years left to complete what is typically a four-year program. Her junior and senior years were spent almost entirely in PLS classes, but she still found time to engage in political activism around issues related to Central America.</p>
<p>Her time in Mexico had also solidified her interest in joining the <a href="https://www.cscsisters.org/associates/">Holy Cross Associates</a> global ministry after graduation. Pérez had learned of a two-year program during her first year at Notre Dame and had immediately felt called to it. </p>
<p>She joined the program and moved to Chile after graduation with three other alumni — David Carey, Liesl Haas, and Jean Lammers — as well as David Morales from Arizona State University. Once in Chile, Pérez, Carey and Haas were sent to the rural town of Pocuro to establish a new Holy Cross community there. Their primary instruction was to accompany the people who lived there — and while they were challenged by that lack of structure, it also freed them to discover and serve the true needs of the community.</p>
<p>Pérez and Haas spent time with women's groups and learned to simply listen to what the women were saying. Many were interested in learning more about democratic participation, so they organized educational presentations and took a group of women, many of whom had never left their community before, to the port city of Valparaíso to visit the congressional building there.</p>
<p>“That’s the thing about putting into practice what you learned in books,” Pérez said. “This idea of accompaniment is very beautiful, but what does it mean to actually accompany someone? It means you have to learn how to knit and how to make bread. You talk about animals, and you go to rodeos. It’s not very glamorous to accompany people in their daily lives, but that’s really the work of revolution and of social justice and of trying to support people and transform their lives in meaningful ways.”</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Gina Perez Santiago" height="417" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/467621/350x/gina_perez_santiago.jpg" width="535">
<figcaption>Liesl Haas, David Carey, and Gina Perez in Santiago, Chile.</figcaption>
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<p>While unaware of it at the time, Pérez had started to develop the anthropological skill of participant observation through her work in Pocuro, but it wasn’t until she decided to apply to graduate school during her second year in Chile that she began to think about that field.</p>
<p>At the guidance of a Holy Cross priest who believed anthropology fit her interests in politics and faith-based organizing, Pérez discovered the curiosity and analytical skills she had developed through PLS perfectly prepared her for a graduate degree in anthropology. </p>
<p>“The great thing about anthropology is that you’re talking to people and spending time with people through participant observation methods,” Pérez said. “It just seemed like the perfect combination of all the things I loved about Notre Dame — thinking and writing about ideas but also engaging with communities.”</p>
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<p>“I believe that ideas and conversations can change the world for the better — because they lead to informed and thoughtful action and engagement with the world.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>‘Notre Dame has been the key’</h3>
<p>Pérez earned her Ph.D. in anthropology in 2000 at Northwestern University, where her research focused on gentrification and migration as a survival strategy for Puerto Rican families in Humboldt Park, Chicago, and Puerto Rico. She then worked as a researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York City.</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Gina Perez Hesburgh" height="325" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/467618/gina_perez_hesburgh.jpg" width="486">
<figcaption>While studying abroad in 1987, Perez (center) and other Notre Dame students attended a reception at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City honoring Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., and Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C.</figcaption>
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<p>Soon, though, she felt the calling to teach.</p>
<p><strong>“</strong>I wanted to have an impact by doing the very thing that changed my life — which is to sit with students and talk about things that could change how they think about the world and how they think about their efficacy in the world,” she said. </p>
<p>Those are lessons she learned both through her experiences at Notre Dame and from her husband and fellow anthropologist, Baron Pineda. In 2003, Pérez and Pineda joined the faculty at Oberlin College, where she continues to teach courses in American studies and Latinx studies that involve community-based learning and research methods and practice. </p>
<p>She’s the author of two books — <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520233683/the-near-northwest-side-story"><em>The Near Northwest Side Story: Gender, Migration and Puerto Rican Families</em></a> (University of California Press, 2004) and <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479807802/citizen-student-soldier/"><em>Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC and the American Dream</em></a> (New York University Press, 2015) — and is currently working on a third, which will focus on the sanctuary movement among Latino communities in Ohio during the years of the Trump administration.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Gina Perez Football" height="436" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/467619/400x/gina_perez_football.jpg" width="573">
<figcaption>Diane Alvarez and Perez at a home football game in 1989.</figcaption>
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<p>In the classroom, she continues to draw inspiration from her time at Notre Dame — aspiring to be like those who were gracious to her as she strove to complete PLS in two years and who pushed her to be better. She also draws inspiration from her late father, Felix Pérez, who always instilled in her and her siblings the value of education and giving back to others.</p>
<p>“In my teaching, I try to give students critical-thinking tools and writing skills and to get them to read deeply and have conversations,” Pérez said. “Working with 18- to 22-year-olds has definitely been my calling, because they give me hope and remind me of just what a special time my four years were in college.”</p>
<p>Over the years, Pérez has often found her way back to Notre Dame to present her research and to collaborate with faculty. She recently co-edited the book <em><a href="https://unmpress.com/books/ethnographic-refusals-unruly-latinidades/9780826363565">Ethnographic Refusals, Unruly Latinidades</a> </em>(University of New Mexico Press, 2022) with <a href="https://anthropology.nd.edu/people/faculty/alex-e-chavez/">Alex Chávez</a>, the Nancy O’Neill Associate Professor of Anthropology at Notre Dame and a faculty fellow of the <a href="https://latinostudies.nd.edu/">Institute for Latino Studies</a> and <a href="https://raceandresilience.nd.edu/">Initiative on Race and Resilience</a>, that features the work of Latino and Latina anthropologists. </p>
<p>In working with Chávez to develop that book, she said, she sees echoes of conversations, topics, and interests that she had back in South Bend in the 1980s.</p>
<p>“Notre Dame has been the key to what I’ve been able to achieve in my life,” she said. “My whole life has been built on a foundation that was cultivated through my years at Notre Dame as an undergraduate.”</p>
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<p>“Notre Dame has been the key to what I’ve been able to achieve in my life. My whole life has been built on a foundation that was cultivated through my years at Notre Dame as an undergraduate.”</p>
</blockquote>
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<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Sophia Lauber</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/putting-learning-into-practice-how-notre-dame-laid-the-foundation-for-gina-prez-90-to-build-community-in-chile-earn-a-ph-d-in-anthropology-and-inspire-new-generations-of-liberal-arts-students/">al.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">April 12, 2022</span>.</p>Sophia Laubertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1447452022-04-12T09:00:00-04:002022-04-12T09:49:13-04:00Undergraduate Women's Success<p>Over 50 years, undergraduate women have left an indelible imprint on Our Lady's University. With each new achievement reached and each new milestone passed, women have helped to build a legacy that all future Notre Dame students aspire to and cherish. </p><p>Over 50 years, undergraduate women have left an indelible imprint on Our Lady's University. With each new achievement reached and each new milestone passed, women have helped to build a legacy that all future Notre Dame students aspire to and cherish. </p>Othertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1450472022-03-28T12:00:00-04:002022-04-25T14:34:38-04:00Alumni Spotlight: Catherine Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. ’83)<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Dr Catherine Tkacz Photo Opt" height="366" src="https://medieval.nd.edu/assets/384688/dr_catherine_tkacz_photo_opt.jpg" width="400"> <figcaption>Professor Catherine Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. '83)</figcaption> </figure> <p>The Medieval Institute is pleased to present our…</p><figure class="image-right"><img alt="Dr Catherine Tkacz Photo Opt" height="366" src="https://medieval.nd.edu/assets/384688/dr_catherine_tkacz_photo_opt.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Professor Catherine Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. '83)</figcaption>
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<p>The Medieval Institute is pleased to present our Spring 2022 Graduate Alumni Spotlight. In this series we feature the career paths of Institute alumni. Look for a new installment each semester.</p>
<p>This academic year, as the Medieval Institute celebrates <a href="https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/75th-anniversary/">75 years</a> and the University of Notre Dame marks <a href="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/">50 years</a> since the admission of women undergraduates, we want to lift up the impressive contributions of women scholars to the field of Medieval Studies. Catherine Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. ’83), the first woman to earn her doctorate from the Medieval Institute, is currently a Research Professor of Theology at the <a href="https://ucu.edu.ua/en/">Ukrainian Catholic University</a>. She was recently appointed to a <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-commission-women-deacons.html">new papal commission to study women deacons</a>. Her career shows how rigorous historical inquiry can promote the equal dignity of women and be of service to the church.</p>
<p>In honor of Professor Tkacz, the Medieval Institute stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.</p>
<h2>What sparked your interest in medieval studies?</h2>
<p>Chaucer’s <em>Parson’s Tale</em> introduced me to the synergy of faith and reason, an understanding quite different from what I’d encountered in my Baptist upbringing. Moreover, the medieval engagement with Scripture and indeed all of reality, recognizing it as rich and multivalent and coherent—this rang true to me. Everything is literally what it is, and at the same time it is potentially a real metaphor for other meanings. This fascination, sparked when I was a sophomore, kindled my interest in medieval studies and also led to my becoming a Catholic.</p>
<h2>What led you to the graduate program at Notre Dame?</h2>
<p>My B.A. and M.A. work in English at the University of Iowa included an excellent two-year sequence in medieval Latin; likewise, I had a year or two there in other medieval languages and medieval theology and a summer course at Harvard in reading medieval manuscripts. Notre Dame’s breadth of faculty in the languages I wanted to pursue drew me, and I wound up doing several tutorials: e.g., medieval Italian with Paul Bosco and Dino Cervigni, Old French with Robert Nuner, as well as palaeography with Christine Eder. Jeffrey Burton Russell was Director of the Medieval Institute then, and his strongly interdisciplinary work, studying the history of ideas as expressed through all aspects of a culture, appealed to me. Also, although Princeton offered me a half-fellowship with the prospect of it becoming a full fellowship in a year, Notre Dame offered me full support from the start.</p>
<h2>How has women’s history featured in your scholarship?</h2>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Catherine In Lviv" height="265" src="https://medieval.nd.edu/assets/463681/400x/catherine_in_lviv.jpg" width="400"></figure>
<p>Years ago when I asked the late Fr. Paul E. Beichner, C.S.C., how he had happened to do such varied things—e.g., being Dean of the Graduate School and at the same time editing Peter Riga’s verse commentary of the Bible from well over a hundred manuscripts—he simply replied that he did what came to hand. My first position after finishing the Ph.D. at the Medieval Institute was as assistant editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium project at Dumbarton Oaks, and one of the entries assigned to me was on a fourth-century ivorywork, the Brescia Casket. Its iconography had eluded modern explanation. I realized that its program wrapped around corners and that, stunningly, on the front a woman (Susanna of the book of Daniel) was depicted, twice, parallel to two depictions of Christ on the cover. At this time no one was saying a woman could prefigure Christ; au contraire, feminist scholars were stating that it wasn’t possible. It took me a year and a half of snatches of research during lunch hours in the excellent Dumbarton Oaks library to find patristic texts that explicitly treated Susanna in relation to Christ in exactly the scenes depicted on the ivory: the arrest in the garden, the trial before a judge who declared, “I am innocent of the blood of this one.” This is in my first book, <em>The Key to the Brescia Casket: Typology </em><em>and the Early Christian Imagination </em>(Brepols, with the University of Notre Dame Press, 2001).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"What we may call pastoral concerns set the priorities of my work [...] An event took me into the Carpathian Mountains to the village of Kryvoryvnia [in Ukraine] to lecture to a parish. Teens, adults, and the elderly took part; farmers and a lawyer. Moving to me was that another pastor, from a neighboring village, walked twenty miles to hear my talk. I set forth the parallels between Susanna’s history and the Passion narrative, which the priests discussed with me. I understand that they now preach on this exegesis."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since then, my main scholarly work has been recovering positive traditions about women that have been largely forgotten since what Brad Gregory aptly calls the <em>Unintended Reformation</em> (2015), namely the secularizing that came with Protestantism. At least eleven biblical women have been recognized as prefiguring Christ in his passion, a dynamic way of emphasizing that everyone, male and female, is called to be holy. My work has been wide-ranging, including biblical studies, the history of deaconesses, and consideration of the Incarnation in the light of genetics, embryology and reproductive science. Most of this research has been presented in the U.S., Oxford and Ukraine. In 2015 I taught the first course on “Women as Types of Christ,” at the Ukrainian Catholic University, for instance. For my work on that exegesis, the training I received in palaeography at the Medieval Institute was invaluable for my transcribing unpublished texts in manuscripts in repositories throughout Europe.</p>
<h2>How does your academic background intersect with your record of service to the church?</h2>
<p>My work has turned out to focus on the incarnation, both the fact of it and the implications of it. Because Jesus was not only the Messiah but, beyond expectation, God incarnate, he embodied the human potential for theosis. This is basic to the heritage of all Christians. Therefore, I deliberately place my articles with scholarly journals of various churches, such as <em>Catholic Biblical Quarterly </em>and <em>St. Vladimir’s </em><em>Theological Quarterly</em>. I have lectured and given conferences to diocesan priests, deacons and seminarians, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Orthodox, as well as Catholic students in grade schools, high schools, and universities. I have served Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox seminaries on their advisory boards. To my delight, I was the first woman and the first member of the laity to give conferences and classes within the cloister of the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, in 1995. For them repeatedly I have given such presentations, and, through the grill, for the cloistered Norbertines in California.</p>
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<figcaption>
<p> </p></figcaption>
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<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Brown Tkacz Wooden Church" src="https://medieval.nd.edu/assets/463683/x600/brown_tkasz_wooden_church.png">
<figcaption>Tkacz stands in front of a historic wooden church in Kryvoryvnia, Ukraine, a village in the Carpathian Mountains</figcaption>
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<p>What we may call pastoral concerns set the priorities of my work. For instance, when I discussed with a friend who is a secretary how Jesus gave an unprecedented emphasis to the spiritual equality of the sexes, she recognized every parable and prophecy and event I mentioned but said she’d never heard these Gospel passages interpreted to point out the role of the women. That prompted me to do my first article in biblical studies, “Jesus and the Spiritual Equality of Women” (2001). With insight and knowledge come responsibility. For instance, when I realized that the synoptic Gospels drew on the Old Testament history of Susanna as nothing less than the narrative template for the passion of Christ, that required rigorous examination of the evidence and scholarship, to do justice to the finding. Notably, seventeen verbal parallels, including two six-word clauses, comprise fifty-two words of Matthew 26-27 (<em>Gregorianum, </em>2006).</p>
<p>In one case, a discovery took me far outside my usual range: the oldest Native American songs extant with both words and music in North America are in a handwritten hymnal in Nez Perce, prepared by Fr. Joseph Cataldo, S.J. When I discussed this with Elders of the tribe, they sang a few hymns passed down to them through memory, which turned out to be the original ones from 1909. So, to make the whole collection with all verses available for education and worship, I edited that hymnal (2010). My linguistic training at Notre Dame helped me study this language so new to me.</p>
<p>Another event took me into the Carpathian Mountains to the village of Kryvoryvnia. When I was teaching at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv in 2015, the pastor of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Ivan Rubarek, heard about my work on Susanna and invited me to Kryvoryvnia to lecture to his parish. Teens, adults, and the elderly took part; farmers and a lawyer. Moving to me was that another pastor, from a neighboring village, walked twenty miles to hear my talk. I set forth the parallels between Susanna’s history and the Passion narrative, which the priests discussed with me. I understand that they now preach on this exegesis. Certainly, my parish priest in Spokane does!</p>
<h2>Congratulations on your appointment to the papal commission! Could you tell us what that appointment will involve?</h2>
<p>While the Commission is covered by papal secrecy, so that its meetings and deliberations are confidential and only the Holy Father can publish its eventual report, each member is to continue private research, and I have already been presenting that in Lviv, Oxford, and elsewhere. The first of my five publications on the history of deaconesses in the early Church was in 2013 in <em>Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique</em> and currently a new one is in progress. To show the larger context, I’ve also begun work on a new book, <em>Female Autonomy and Christianity.</em></p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Annie Killian</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/news/alumni-spotlight-catherine-a-brown-tkacz-ph-d-83/">medieval.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">March 28, 2022</span>.</p>Annie Killiantag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1440202022-03-15T14:00:00-04:002022-04-18T13:51:19-04:00An unpredictable career, full of purpose: How Notre Dame helped Mary Agnes Laguatan ’85 find her place in the world through languages, service, and a global mindset<p>A love of language led Mary Agnes “M.A.” Laguatan ’85 to Notre Dame. Four years later, that interest had blossomed into a curiosity about the rest of the world — and a calling to live out her values in the service of others. Now an executive with the global office of Ronald McDonald House Charities, Laguatan’s time at Notre Dame allowed her to discover her place and purpose in the world, one defined by helping others and offering dignity to those in need at home and abroad.</p><style type="text/css">/* Create a parent div so we can position the child div within it at the smaller screen size */
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<figcaption>Mary Agnes Laguatan</figcaption>
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<p>To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the co-education of women at Notre Dame, the College of Arts & Letters is publishing a series of features on alumnae who studied the arts, humanities, or social sciences, then followed a wide range of career paths after graduation. Look for more profiles soon on how a liberal arts education helped these women discern not just what they wanted to do — but who they wanted to be.</p>
<figure class="image-default"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/careers/career-development-resources/"><img alt="Beyond the dome logo" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/400124/beyond_the_dome_logo_fc.png" width="100%"></a></figure>
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<p>A love of language led Mary Agnes “M.A.” Laguatan ’85 to Notre Dame. </p>
<p>Four years later, that interest had blossomed into a curiosity about the rest of the world — and a calling to live out her values in the service of others.</p>
<p>Now an executive with the global office of Ronald McDonald House Charities, Laguatan’s time at Notre Dame allowed her to discover her place and purpose in the world, one defined by helping others and offering dignity to those in need at home and abroad.</p>
<p>“A global mindset is really something I cultivated and felt affirmed in at Notre Dame,” said Laguatan, who majored in <a href="http://economics.nd.edu/">economics</a> and <a href="https://romancelanguages.nd.edu/undergraduate/french/">French</a>. “It was such an amazing experience to come from a small Catholic high school to Notre Dame at age 18 and meet people from all over and be exposed to all kinds of people and thoughts. For me, the Notre Dame experience was really about opening up to the world.”</p>
<h3>‘You learn to love learning’</h3>
<p>A native of Flint, Michigan, Laguatan had studied French in high school, and when looking at colleges, Notre Dame’s yearlong <a href="http://international.nd.edu/">study abroad program</a> in France caught her attention. </p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Mary Agnes Murphy '85" height="359" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/464093/200x/ma_l_2.jpg" width="300">
<figcaption>M.A. Murphy, in the 1985 Dome yearbook</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once admitted, she declared a French major and then spent the entirety of her sophomore year studying and living with a host family in Angers. Being immersed in a foreign country and traveling around Europe sparked her interest in other cultures and ways of living.</p>
<p>Wanting to expand her studies beyond French, Laguatan explored a range of classes within Arts and Letters. She was drawn toward the field of business but was passionate about the reading, writing, and speaking skills associated with liberal arts programs. Laguatan decided to pursue a second major in economics and immediately saw many ways in which her two interests overlapped.</p>
<p>“For me, developing a global mindset included the French language and living in France, but also taking classes about modern political theory and macroeconomics and issues of justice,” said Laguatan, whose maiden name is Murphy. “You start putting those pieces together, and it makes you even more interested in the rest of the world and how we interact and how we treat one another. I really feel like Arts and Letters was all about teaching you to be a thinker and reflector.” </p>
<p>After graduating, she had a brief stint working for General Motors in her hometown, then took a position teaching French and government at her high school alma mater. Three years later, she decided being in the classroom wasn’t the career she wanted, so she enrolled in a political science master’s degree program at Marquette University. </p>
<p>“I’ve always had a love of learning, which was also a big part of my Notre Dame experience,” Laguatan said. “At Notre Dame, you learn to love learning and always learning more. I had decided that I would love to learn more about the bigger picture, and political science seemed like a great fit.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A global mindset is really something I cultivated and felt affirmed in at Notre Dame. ... For me, the Notre Dame experience was really about opening up to the world.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Ma Laguatan Peru" height="421" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/463410/350x/ma_laguatan_peru.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Laguatan at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Peru to do staff and board training in January 2020.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, Laguatan kept feeling a call toward service. She had been a part of service experiences through the <a href="https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/">Center for Social Concerns</a>, and the possibility of pursuing a mission had been on her mind since graduation. Visiting her college roommate, a Holy Cross associate in Chile at the time, gave her the final push she needed. </p>
<p>She joined the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and after six months of training that included a two-month stay in Bolivia to learn Spanish, Laguatan moved to a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile. There, she worked with a parish community for four years organizing and supporting educational opportunities for women in the parish.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of isolation and machismo, and women have a hard life there, so the classes were a way for them to get out, to connect with others, to learn a different trade, and earn money,” Laguatan said. “I was able to use my background to train the women to be teachers and, in doing so, helped create a community for them. It was an amazing time in my life.”</p>
<h3>‘Life is a great little story’</h3>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Ma Laguatan Oaklawn Opening" height="681" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/463413/350x/ma_laguatan_oaklawn_opening.jpg" width="492">
<figcaption>Laguatan at the ribbon-cutting day for the Ronald McDonald House near Hope Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, for which she was the project lead — and brought her then-6-week-old son to the ceremony.</figcaption>
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<p>Her years in Chile affirmed her desire to continue her career in the nonprofit sector, and after returning to the United States, she began working for Ronald McDonald House Charities, an organization that supports families with ill or injured children, primarily by providing housing to the parents and relatives of children who are in the hospital or outpatient treatment.</p>
<p>Laguatan credits her Spanish skills with helping her land a job as a house administrator in Cleveland, where she worked for four years before moving to Chicago in 1999 to run a Ronald McDonald House in Hyde Park.</p>
<p>“It’s a community effort trying to advocate for people who are vulnerable and provide a great home away from home,” she said. “It’s a family-like environment filled with volunteers, and I just find it really inspiring. Anyone with a sick child is welcome at a Ronald McDonald House — it’s the way I wished the world worked everywhere, and it inspires me everyday.”</p>
<p>Laguatan — who now lives in Lisle, Illinois, with her husband, Richard, and 13-year-old son, Daniel — has now been with Ronald McDonald House Charities for about 25 years, moving up to senior director and vice president positions in the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana region before starting her current role directing field operations across the Americas in May 2021. She oversees nearly 160 sites throughout North and South America, ensuring they are getting the support and resources necessary to be successful charities helping children and families in need.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Ma Laguatan Winfield Keys" height="485" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/463411/300x/ma_laguatan_winfield_keys.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Laguatan receiving the keys from the contractor to a new Ronald McDonald House near Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her daily communications with the many chapters around the world, Laguatan regularly relies on the abilities she developed at Notre Dame.</p>
<p>“Arts and Letters was so great at teaching writing, communication, and analytical skills,” she said. “With any topic, you end up having to communicate and analyze and put together an argument, and I felt really well guided in that area. I firmly believe I have really strong writing and communication skills because of that.”</p>
<p>Time and time again, Laguatan found that her liberal arts education had also helped her hone a mentality that prepared her for the twists and turns of a career that was unpredictable, but always full of purpose.</p>
<p>“Life is a great little story,” Laguatan said. “Notre Dame teaches you to have this reflective nature about where you fit into the world. Trying to figure out where that was for me took a while, but then I fell into it — the French, the service, and living by my values. </p>
<p>“My years at Notre Dame helped me formulate that bigger picture, and it has guided my career ever since.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Notre Dame teaches you to have this reflective nature about where you fit into the world. Trying to figure out where that was for me took a while, but then I fell into it. ... My years at Notre Dame helped me formulate that bigger picture, and it has guided my career ever since.”</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Sophia Lauber</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/an-unpredictable-career-full-of-purpose-how-notre-dame-helped-mary-agnes-laguatan-85-find-her-place-in-the-world-through-languages-service-and-a-global-mindset/">al.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">March 15, 2022</span>.</p>Sophia Laubertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1437762022-03-01T15:45:00-05:002022-03-02T13:37:26-05:00Statement: Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., on Women’s History Month<p class="BasicParagraph">“The observance of Women’s History Month each March is an opportunity to recognize the many contributions and achievements past and present of women on our campus, in our nation and around the world. This is especially important at Notre Dame this year as we reflect on and celebrate…</p><p class="BasicParagraph">“The observance of Women’s History Month each March is an opportunity to recognize the many contributions and achievements past and present of women on our campus, in our nation and around the world. This is especially important at Notre Dame this year as we reflect on and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the enrollment of undergraduate women at our University. It is also the 50th anniversary of Title IX legislation that has played a significant role in the advances of women across society. I encourage all members of the Notre Dame community to take advantage of the many opportunities this month and throughout the year to recognize and celebrate women’s leadership.”</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Notre Dame News</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://news.nd.edu/news/statement-rev-john-i-jenkins-c-s-c-on-womens-history-month/">news.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">March 01, 2022</span>.</p>Notre Dame Newstag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1434892022-03-01T12:10:00-05:002022-04-20T12:56:29-04:00How Notre Dame admitted undergraduate women 50 years ago<p>Former Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., never one for drawn-out group decisions, decided that “the time was ripe to take a historical step.”</p><p class="lede">Former Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., never one for drawn-out group decisions, decided that “the time was ripe to take a historical step.”</p>
<p>“It was the mid-sixties and the sentiment on campus was overwhelmingly in favor of admitting women to Notre Dame,” Father Hesburgh wrote in his 1999 autobiography, “God, Country, Notre Dame.” “That was a pivotal change from when I became president of the university in 1952.”</p>
<blockquote class="pull">
<p>“Because of the success of Co-Ex and of our 125-year association with Saint Mary’s and the Sisters of the Holy Cross, we thought the most logical and correct way to go co-ed would simply be to merge the two schools.”</p>
<cite>– Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C.</cite>
</blockquote>
<p>In his recent <a href="https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268108212/the-university-of-notre-dame/">history</a> of the University, Rev. Thomas E. Blantz, C.S.C., lists several reasons that Father Hesburgh and other administrators had become convinced of the benefits of coeducation after more than a century of exclusively male tradition. They included attracting better students and faculty by recruiting from the other half of the human race; changes in Catholic high schools as single-sex parish schools merged into coed central schools; and financial pressures closing many small Catholic women’s colleges that couldn’t attract funding without graduate research, leaving those women in need of new options.</p>
<p>The most obvious solution sat right across the street.</p>
<p>The Sisters of the Holy Cross founded Saint Mary’s College two years after Notre Dame and had by then built an enrollment of 1,800 women. Students from the two campuses had long associated with each other, though the social mores of earlier times placed strict limits that were under stress in the hippie era.</p>
<p>To encourage more interaction, a formal co-exchange program had been instituted in 1965. Saint Mary’s students could take classes at Notre Dame, chiefly in languages and sciences. Notre Dame students interested mainly in education courses could take them at Saint Mary’s. A bus shuttle service began, and the co-ex students could eat lunch on the opposite campus. The co-exchange program started with 200 students and expanded to 2,000 by 1971.</p>
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<figure><img alt="Women students exit a school bus on Notre Dame's campus." height="627" loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463294/original/gndl_13_14_02r.jpg" width="800">
<figcaption>Female students getting off of a bus outside of the Fieldhouse, c. 1966. Source: <em>University of Notre Dame Archives</em>.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure><img alt="Male and female students wait to get on a bus." height="889" loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463292/original/gdom_008_05_01r.jpg" width="800">
<figcaption>Students getting on the coexchange program bus between Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College, 1969-1970. Source: <em>University of Notre Dame Archives</em>.</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>“Because of the success of Co-Ex and of our 125-year association with Saint Mary’s and the Sisters of the Holy Cross, we thought the most logical and correct way to go co-ed would simply be to merge the two schools,” Hesburgh wrote in his autobiography.</p>
<p>Combining the schools would create cost savings, especially in areas like admissions, public relations and the fire department. Father Hesburgh envisioned integrating the two campuses with “a common board of trustees, a common budget, a common everything.”</p>
<p>A committee was appointed in 1966 to gauge faculty sentiment on both campuses. There should have been early warning signs when many of the Saint Mary’s faculty raised concerns that decisions already made would lead to the college losing its identity. Still, change kept happening. The speech and drama clubs combined. The Observer newspaper listed Saint Mary’s students on staff, and four became Notre Dame cheerleaders.</p>
<p>On May 2, 1969, the two schools released a joint “Statement of Principles” announcing “initial steps which will eventually make them co-educational with each other.” Notre Dame would limit freshman enrollment to 1,500 men and Saint Mary’s College would admit about 500 women the next fall. The first-year students would share four classes, dining halls and game seating. Sister Alma Peter, the acting Saint Mary’s president, supported the change and became their liaison.</p>
<p>The following spring, the schools hired two outside consultants: Rosemary Park, a UCLA education professor and former president of Barnard College, and Louis Mayhew, professor of education at Stanford University. Their report in late 1970 recommended that the two schools “function cooperatively while still retaining separate corporate identity and … separate interests.”</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Fr. Hesburgh signs a document at a table, with 3 others." height="673" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463295/original/gphr_22_1118_03.jpg" width="800">
<figcaption>Officials from Saint Mary's College and Notre Dame sign the documents to complete the merger of the two schools, May 14, 1971. Left to right: Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Sister M. Olivette Whelan, C.S.C. (superior-general of the Sisters of the Holy Cross), Edmund Stephan (chairman of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees), and Sister M. Alma Peter, C.S.C. (acting president of Saint Mary's). Source: <em>University of Notre Dame Archives</em>.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Negotiations continued until an agreement was signed on May 14, 1971, to fully unify in the next four years. Sister Alma was made a vice president at Notre Dame. Men and women would be housed on both campuses, and women would still graduate through Saint Mary’s. Left unresolved were the complex financial issues.</p>
<p>“We got so close we signed a letter of intent to merge,” Father Hesburgh wrote. “There is a picture of that signing, taken in that big lounge at Saint Mary’s where our students used to meet theirs on Sunday afternoons.”</p>
<p>Two weeks later, Father Hesburgh said, the negotiations “crashed in flames.”</p>
<p>“The main difficulty was tied up with the problem of identity,” he wrote. “It was very much their own. You could not blame them. For more than a century, talented and heroic Holy Cross women had devoted their lives to achieving that identity.”</p>
<p>Father Hesburgh reports that he brought the differences to a head at a meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. It wasn’t until Nov. 30 of that year that the board chairs of the two schools announced the termination of talks, saying “it is not possible to accomplish complete unification at this time.” The only explanation: “We are unable to solve financial and administrative problems.”</p>
<p>The thorny issues were believed to be the division of property on Saint Mary’s campus between the college and the sisters, the different financial situations and the inability to figure out how to preserve the name and identity of Saint Mary’s College. The co-exchange program would continue, but Notre Dame abruptly announced that it would admit women, both first-year and transfer students, in the fall of 1972.</p>
<p>Student reaction was predictably mixed. There were angry students at Saint Mary’s who felt the college had breached its promises. Father Blantz notes that the decision to admit undergraduate women had happened quickly, “and some would say too quickly.”</p>
<figure class="image-default"><img alt="Female students unload boxes from a car on move in day." height="530" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463296/original/gphr_35m_02633_05.jpg" width="800">
<figcaption>The first female students move in to the dorms on South Quad in front of the Hammes Bookstore, September 2, 1972. Source: University of Notre Dame Archives.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The preparation for 325 women was put on overdrive. Student Affairs had to figure out how to house the women and quickly settled on single-sex dorms. Walsh Hall, as the only hall with built-in closets and ample common areas, was chosen first. Badin Hall became the second. There were $150,000 in renovations: new locks inside and outside, laundry rooms, renovated bathrooms, new dressers and more. Plans to hire more women faculty advanced more slowly.</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Female students walk on campus." height="745" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463299/original/gpub_13_46_04r.jpg" width="500">
<figcaption>Male and female students walking on campus, c. 1970s.Photo by J.J. Cottrell. Source: <em>University of Notre Dame Archives</em>.</figcaption>
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<p>“The university community in general welcomed the young women with open arms, although not universally,” Father Blantz writes. “Some professors preferred not to have women in their classes, others occasionally called on them ‘for the women’s point of view,’ and it could be uncomfortable to find oneself the only woman in a class.”</p>
<p>Father Hesburgh chose to look on the positive side, noting that the women broadened Notre Dame’s commitment to educating students for leadership and created a “healthier atmosphere” on campus.</p>
<p>He compared the transition to places like Yale and Princeton that encountered more resistance, and said the male alumni took solace in the fact that their daughters could now get in. Still, he did note that some of the first women felt more like visitors: “You cannot take an all-male tradition that is well over a century old and make it disappear overnight. I doubt if that feeling still exists among the women.”</p>
<p>In fact, there were several female firsts before 1972. The first graduate degrees were awarded to two sisters of the Holy Cross in 1917. Four more religious sisters and Antoinette Semortier of South Bend earned the first female undergraduate degrees in 1922. Sister Suzanne Kelly, O.S.B., and Josephine Massyngbaerde Ford became the first full-time female faculty member and lay woman faculty member in 1965.</p>
<p>Student newspaper articles from the fall of 1972 record the immediate reactions to coeducation on campus. Notre Dame ended up enrolling 265 transfers, 211 of them from Saint Mary’s College, along with the planned 125 first-year students.</p>
<p>Kathy Cekanski, a third-year law student who became Badin Hall’s first female rector, said coeducation would improve the campus culture. “It will make the University much more humanized,” she told The Observer. “It’s always been seen as a rah-rah, football school, and now it’s getting with it. It’s more of a realistic living situation. An all-male institution is totally unrealistic.” </p>
<p>Jerry Lutkus, an Observer writer forced out of Badin Hall, wrote that it was time for Notre Dame to be updated. The world beyond Notre Dame campus is “not the exclusive domain of those males we see around us” and the male-centric traditions were “ghosts of the past.”</p>
<figure class="image-default"><img alt="A banner hangs from a dorm reading We're Glad You're Here with female and male students out front." height="584" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/463300/original/gtjs_06_15_01r.jpg" width="800">
<figcaption>Coeducation Picnic on South Quad outside of South Dining Hall, with a banner that reads "We're Glad You're Here," September 14, 1972. Source: <em>University of Notre Dame Archives</em>.</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote class="pull">
<p>“It’s not that women need Notre Dame, but that Notre Dame needs women.”</p>
<cite>– Sister Jane Pitz, C.S.J.</cite>
</blockquote>
<p>“But give it time because soon there will be new ghosts,” he wrote. “New ghosts created by tradition present, no longer by tradition past. There will be new residents of the beams and attics and corners of Badin Hall.”</p>
<p>On Sept. 8, 1972, The Observer published an eight-page insert titled “The Era of Coeducation.” It introduced the new female administrators and rectors and their viewpoints but somehow failed to quote any of the new undergraduate women.</p>
<p>Sister John Miriam Jones, S.C., was hired as assistant to the provost with the task of easing the transition for the women. “The girls coming are pioneer women in a sense,” Sister Jones told The Observer. “They are coming with a challenge in mind.” </p>
<p>In one major sense at least, the new women met that challenge. The first class of undergraduate women at Notre Dame averaged a higher GPA than the men.</p>
<p>Sister Jane Pitz, C.S.J, a Campus Ministry employee and first assistant rector of Walsh Hall, said women made the campus a better place.</p>
<p>“It is not that women need Notre Dame,” said Sister Pitz, “but that Notre Dame needs women.”</p>Othertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1435682022-03-01T12:00:00-05:002022-03-15T10:24:52-04:0050 Golden Years: Then and Now<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TJFJ2qsbeVA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p> <p>One of the special parts of the University's anniversary celebration is the chance for the early classes of undergraduate women to reflect on how much has changed…</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TJFJ2qsbeVA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p>One of the special parts of the University's anniversary celebration is the chance for the early classes of undergraduate women to reflect on how much has changed on campus. In this video, Carol Latronica '77, the rector of Welsh Family Hall, offers her insights as a student admitted in just the second class of undergraduate women. Latronica then compares that experience to the life of women on campus today.</p>Othertag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1437092022-03-01T10:20:00-05:002022-05-04T11:19:16-04:00Photo Essay: 50 Golden Years<p>The University is proud to celebrate the contributions of women throughout its history, particularly the transformational change ushered in with the admittance of undergraduate women in 1972.</p><p>The University is proud to celebrate the contributions of women throughout its history, particularly the transformational change ushered in with the admittance of undergraduate women in 1972.</p>Taylor Packettag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1440242022-01-10T10:40:00-05:002022-03-15T10:40:39-04:00Through research and service, history and neuroscience major examines the past and prepares for a future focused on helping communities build resilience<p>The image of Black inmates working in fields where enslaved African Americans once toiled has been seared into Notre Dame senior Aysha Gibson’s mind since she went on a high school field trip to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Gibson, a history and neuroscience and behavior major, is now writing her senior thesis about the prison to provide a deeper understanding of America’s penal system. The independent research project, advised by associate professor Rebecca McKenna, considers race, morality, state law, labor, and geography — and is the culmination of an undergraduate career full of academic and service experiences that helped her consider how to support communities experiencing hardship. </p><figure class="image-default"><img alt="Aysha Gibson Featured" height="800" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/455922/fullsize/aysha_gibson_featured.jpg" width="1200"></figure>
<p>The image of Black inmates working in fields where enslaved African Americans once toiled has been seared into Notre Dame senior Aysha Gibson’s mind since she went on a high school field trip to the Louisiana State Penitentiary.</p>
<p>Gibson, a <a href="https://history.nd.edu/major-minor/">history</a> and <a href="https://neuroscienceandbehavior.nd.edu/about/">neuroscience and behavior</a> major, is now writing her senior thesis about the prison to provide a deeper understanding of America’s penal system. </p>
<p>The independent research project, advised by associate professor <a href="https://history.nd.edu/people/rebecca-tinio-mckenna/">Rebecca McKenna</a>, considers race, morality, state law, labor, and geography — and is the culmination of an undergraduate career full of academic and service experiences that helped her consider how to support communities experiencing hardship. </p>
<p>Gibson, from New Orleans, came to South Bend intent on earning a bachelor of science in neuroscience and behavior to prepare for medical school. She was inspired to add a history major after taking a debate-style first-year seminar taught by <a href="https://history.nd.edu/people/richard-pierce/">Richard Pierce</a>. The associate professor encouraged students to approach topics from multiple disciplines for more inclusive comprehension.</p>
<p>The class reignited Gibson’s passion for history. She values interdisciplinary educational opportunities, so adding a second major was a logical step. When considering whether to do a senior thesis, the field trip experience was still vivid in her mind, so she decided to take the plunge on examining a specific, narrow topic over a long period of time.<strong> </strong></p>
<p>“This would be the first time I would undertake such an extensive research project, and I saw it as an opportunity to grow in my historical writing and analytical skills,” said Gibson, who credits her <a href="http://al.nd.edu/">College of Arts & Letters</a> courses with “exercising different brain muscles,” encouraging her to think broadly, and enhancing her ability to articulate clearly.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“History allows us to think critically about individuals and communities in various contexts and affords us the opportunity to shed light on the lived experiences of individuals who are typically not centered in conversations.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The penitentiary is still called Angola — the home country of people who were once enslaved on the plantation. After the Civil War, a former major in the Confederate Army leased convicts from the state of Louisiana to do the labor. The state took control of the facility in 1901, and in 2010, 76 percent of its 5,100 inmates were Black.</p>
<p>Gibson said her research indicates that not a lot has changed at the “Alcatraz of the South” — the largest maximum-security prison in the United States — since the state assumed control. It’s still rife with reports of abuse, neglect, and inhumane conditions. Her archival research has included trips to Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge, where she examined penitentiary expenditures in the 1900s, and to the New Orleans City Archives, where she reviewed a record book of inmates placed in the penitentiary by the Orleans Parish Sheriff. </p>
<p>“The prison population is so segregated and shuttered from the public eye,” she said. Penal history is an important topic to study, she argues, because “these are lived experiences of marginalized people.”</p>
<h3>Finding commonalities</h3>
<p>History and neuroscience have much in common, Gibson has found, especially the ways in which they explore people through evidence-based methodologies and provide insight into how best to move forward.</p>
<p>“Neuroscience and history uniquely connect us to individuals, even if we are distant in time and place, and can make compelling cases for seeking positive change,” she said. “Both fields call for us to respect humanity.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Aysha Gibson Covenant House" height="450" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/455921/aysha_gibson_covenant_house.jpg" width="600">
<figcaption>Gibson outside Covenant House in New Orleans, where through a Summer Service Learning Program experience she helped young people experiencing homelessness.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“History allows us to think critically about individuals and communities in various contexts and affords us the opportunity to shed light on the lived experiences of individuals who are typically not centered in conversations.”</p>
<p>Neuroscience and brain health, in turn, ask us to think differently about how we care for ourselves and others. </p>
<p>“Our nervous system expects to be nurtured in the context of compassion and community, and the field of brain science gives us evidence for making change through building relationships,” she said. </p>
<p>Studying neuroscience has shown Gibson the importance of support systems and the ways in which strong communities build resilience — and she’s sought to learn how organizations do so during two <a href="https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/sslp">Summer Service Learning Program</a> experiences through the <a href="https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/sslp">Center for Social Concerns</a>. </p>
<p>Last summer, she served as a development and wellness intern at <a href="https://www.covenanthousenola.org/">Covenant House</a> in New Orleans, which annually cares for 900 young people experiencing homelessness, 85 percent of whom are survivors of physical abuse and/or sexual abuse, assault, or rape.</p>
<p>Gibson’s interest in working with children on the margins stems, in part, from her early life experiences. </p>
<p>“I was raised in an inner-city neighborhood that was disadvantaged in terms of socioeconomic resources,” she said. “So I have felt a responsibility to respond to the needs of communities like my own and to help foster better opportunities for the next generation.”</p>
<h3>Contributing positively</h3>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Aysha Gibson Dc" height="488" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/455920/400x/aysha_gibson_dc.jpg" width="400">
<figcaption>Gibson in Washington, D.C., during her Center for Social Concerns fall break immersion trip this year.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gibson balances her classes and three-hour labs with walks around the lake and meals with friends, Bible study, naps, and <a href="https://recsports.nd.edu/intramural-sports/athletic-commissioner/">interhall sports</a>, especially basketball, which has been a constant for her since third grade. </p>
<p>This fall, she co-led the Center for Social Concerns’ <a href="https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/content/us-health-care-policy-and-poverty-seminar">U.S. Healthcare: Poverty and Policy Seminar</a>’s immersion trip to Washington, D.C., over fall break. She said it was enlightening to view the health care system from within the Catholic social tradition and its emphasis on a commitment to the common good and centering marginalized populations. </p>
<p>Throughout her time at Notre Dame, Gibson’s research, community engagement, and studies have steeled her desire to be a primary care provider and helped her think deeply about her values and the type of person and professional she wants to become. She’s applied to medical schools and found the amount of writing she did in A&L courses helped her immensely in that process. Currently, she is considering pediatrics, emergency medicine, and neurology as specialties.</p>
<p>“I want to contribute to the positive development of the next generation,” Gibson said when describing her potential impact on future patients. “I want them to know I care deeply about them and their health, beyond the physical diagnosis. I want to leave a smile on their face and make them laugh when they’re anxious.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I want to contribute to the positive development of the next generation. I want (my future patients) to know I care deeply about them and their health, beyond the physical diagnosis. I want to leave a smile on their face and make them laugh when they’re anxious.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Beth Staples</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/through-research-and-service-history-and-neuroscience-major-examines-the-past-and-prepares-for-a-future-focused-on-helping-communities-build-resilience/">al.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">January 10, 2022</span>.</p>Beth Staplestag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1435122021-11-02T11:00:00-04:002022-04-18T13:53:35-04:00Announcement regarding 50th anniversary of undergraduate women at Notre Dame<p>Dear Members of the Notre Dame Community,</p> <p>Nearly fifty years ago, in the fall of 1972, Notre Dame welcomed the first undergraduate class of women. Since the University’s founding, women have played an integral part in the history and success of Notre Dame, from the arrival of four Holy Cross…</p><p>Dear Members of the Notre Dame Community,</p>
<p>Nearly fifty years ago, in the fall of 1972, Notre Dame welcomed the first undergraduate class of women. Since the University’s founding, women have played an integral part in the history and success of Notre Dame, from the arrival of four Holy Cross Sisters in 1843 from Le Mans, France, to the present day. While women served on the faculty, were admitted as graduate students, and performed many essential roles at the University prior to 1972, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh’s decision to admit women as undergraduates was transformational for Notre Dame.</p>
<p>The 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of this momentous decision coincides with the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities. These twin anniversaries provide us an opportunity to celebrate the invaluable contributions of our women students and graduates, both at Notre Dame and beyond, in their communities, our nation, the Church and the world. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the path ahead, as we seek to become an ever more welcoming, inclusive, and diverse community and extend our reach to be a force for good.</p>
<p>Last summer I appointed a steering committee led by Ann Firth, vice president and chief of staff, and Micki Kidder, vice president for university events and enterprises to help us consider how to mark this anniversary. The steering committee has begun to formulate plans for the celebration, choosing “<em>Golden is Thy Fame: 50 Years of Undergraduate Women</em>” as its theme.</p>
<p>As the University marks these important milestones, my office will host several keynote events during the 2022 Spring Semester celebrating the impact that undergraduate women have had on the University. More information about these events will be forthcoming. In addition, we invite the campus community—the colleges and schools, departments and campus units, as well as student and alumni groups—to join us in commemorating the anniversary by hosting events that recognize the impact women have had.</p>
<p>Our celebration will culminate with the 2022 Alumni Reunion in early June. In addition to those class years that would normally be invited to attend Reunion next summer—namely, those class years ending in 2 and 7—undergraduate alumnae of all class years are invited to return to campus for the weekend, with special events in honor of the anniversary on Thursday, June 2 and throughout Reunion weekend, June 3-5. As part of the Reunion celebration, we will recognize in a special way the first cohort of undergraduate women. The Alumni Association will provide additional information later this month about Reunion 2022.</p>
<p>I hope you will join me in the months ahead as we celebrate these historic milestones.</p>
<p>In Notre Dame,</p>
<p><img alt="Fr John Sig" height="42" loading="lazy" src="https://50goldenyears.nd.edu/assets/448253/150x/fr_john_sig.png" width="150"></p>
<p>Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.<br>
President</p>Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.tag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1460792021-08-02T15:33:00-04:002022-06-07T15:33:26-04:00Women Who Empower: Regina Castro Traulsen <figure class="image-default"><img alt="International Womens Day Graphics" src="https://international.nd.edu/assets/422052/950x/international_womens_day_graphics.jpg"></figure> <p><em>This story is part of Notre Dame International's series titled "<a href="https://international.nd.edu/news-stories/news/notre-dame-international-features-stories-of-women-who-empower/">Women</a></em>…</p><figure class="image-default"><img alt="International Womens Day Graphics" src="https://international.nd.edu/assets/422052/950x/international_womens_day_graphics.jpg"></figure>
<p><em>This story is part of Notre Dame International's series titled "<a href="https://international.nd.edu/news-stories/news/notre-dame-international-features-stories-of-women-who-empower/">Women Who Empower.</a>"</em><br>
</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Screen Shot 2021 08 02 At 12" src="https://international.nd.edu/assets/437924/450x/screen_shot_2021_08_02_at_12.40.53_pm.png"></figure>
<p>Born and raised in Mexico, Regina Castro Traulsen is the current General Director of the Mexican Supreme Court’s Human Rights Office.</p>
<p>Castro Traulsen started her career working on civil litigation. She always had a strong desire to help people through her education. Civil litigation was, in her opinion, the best way to address and solve people's problems.</p>
<p>In 2010, Mexico went through an important constitutional human rights reformation that established human rights as the structural foundation of the entire Mexican legal system. Since then, judges are required to exercise not only a constitutional control of the Mexican legislation, but also an international control, which means they have the obligation to review in each case that no human right either recognize by the Mexican constitution or by any international treaty signed by Mexico is being violated.</p>
<p>When this restoration happened, Castro Traulsen was working at the Supreme Court of Justice and decided to specialize in the field of human rights. She applied and was the recipient of the 2015-2016 Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship. Together with her husband, they both completed the LL.M. in <a href="https://law.nd.edu/academics/degrees/ll-m-degree/ll-m-in-international-human-rights-law/">International Human Rights Law</a> at the University of Notre Dame.</p>
<p>The program gave Castro Traulsen the skills to understand the foundations of human rights. It broadened her perspective of the world and how human rights are handled globally thanks to the academic programming and classmates who were human rights lawyers coming from more than 18 countries.</p>
<p>Through Notre Dame, she won a fellowship at the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, which enabled her to apply the knowledge she academically gained in her LLM.</p>
<p>When she moved back to Mexico, the unique opportunity to work in the Office of Human Rights at the Court of Justice opened up for her. Castro Traulsen worked her way up and eventually became the head of the Office.</p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<h4>“In Mexico, there are still many internal and external barriers for women in their professional life,” says Castro Traulsen. “Some are more evident while others are subtler. Step-by-step we are tearing them down, even if we still live in a very patriarchal society.”</h4>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Even though women often encounter obstacles in their professional lives, the environment in which Castro Traulsen works is very special; her office is composed of 48 people, more than 65% of whom are women. The four area directors and three advisory positions that exist on the Office are occupied by 7 brilliant women.</p>
<p>At the Office of Human Rights, Castro Traulsen and her team work together to disseminates and encourage the implementations of the Supreme Court’s most relevant human rights decisions, as well as international human rights standards through public events, permanent programs, summaries, compilations, online courses, and national competitions, amongst others. In addition, the Human Rights Office is renewing the human rights Protocols issued by the Mexican Supreme Court that are aimed to provide federal judges with a compendium of the national and international standards on different human rights topics such as migrant rights, torture, children’s rights, people with disabilities rights, and indigenous people’s rights.</p>
<div>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Rcastro Story Pic" src="https://international.nd.edu/assets/437932/600x/rcastro_story_pic.jpg"></figure>
</div>
<p>On November 25th, 2020, on the international day for the elimination of violence against women, Castro Traulsen and her team published the first new Protocol that is entitled Protocolo para juzgar con perspectiva de género and is focused on gender equality.</p>
<p>“Two of my teammates worked on the writing of this protocol, while I took care of revising it,” she says. “Being such a touching subject and being a woman myself, it was very complex to work on it. I remember reading it, revising it, having to take a walk around or a little cry out before going back at it.”</p>
<p>As Castro Traulsen says, “Sometimes some of us can take for granted how privileged we are, while most women still have to face too many gender inequalities in their lives.”</p>
<p>The work that she and her colleagues have completed to publish this protocol pays off as it can make a difference in how women’s rights are judged in Mexico.</p>
<p>During her childhood, Castro Traulsen's parents taught her about the value of compassion and caring for her country and her people. Aware of her privilege, Castro Traulsen felt obliged to educate herself and give back to her country in exchange for what her country does for her every day.</p>
<p>Castro Traulsen made a choice to serve the Mexican people, committing her life and her education to making Mexico a better, more just, and more equal country.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Costanza Montanari</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://international.nd.edu/news-stories/news/women-who-empower-regina-castro-traulsen/">international.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">August 02, 2021</span>.</p>Costanza Montanaritag:50goldenyears.nd.edu,2005:News/1440252021-05-18T10:00:00-04:002022-03-15T10:57:43-04:00Economics major’s senior thesis develops an integrated approach to analyzing groundwater markets and depletion — drawing from research in engineering, law, and math <p>In California, the land is sinking because the groundwater reservoirs have become so depleted; in Florida, groundwater overuse has led to the development of sinkholes, and in Louisiana, groundwater declined 200 feet between the 1930s and the 1970s. Groundwater overuse is nothing new. But in her senior thesis, Notre Dame senior Mika Inoue is taking a new approach. Drawn to major in economics and applied and computational mathematics and statistics based on her interest in the intersection of qualitative and quantitative analysis, Inoue is working with a committee of interdisciplinary professors and researchers to develop a model for integrating real-life scenarios into groundwater pumping models. </p><figure class="image-right"><img alt="Mike Inoue Headshot" height="427" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/430146/350x/mike_inoue_headshot.jpg" width="350">
<figcaption>Mika Inoue</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/08/groundwater-loss-prompts-more-california-land-sinking">California</a>, the land is sinking because the groundwater reservoirs have become so depleted; in <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-103-03/">Florida</a>, groundwater overuse has led to the development of sinkholes, and in <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-103-03/">Louisiana</a>, groundwater declined 200 feet between the 1930s and the 1970s.</p>
<p>Groundwater overuse is nothing new. But in her senior thesis, Notre Dame senior Mika Inoue is taking a new approach. Drawn to major in <a href="http://economics.nd.edu/">economics</a> and <a href="https://acms.nd.edu/">applied and computational mathematics and statistics</a> based on her interest in the intersection of qualitative and quantitative analysis, Inoue is working with a committee of interdisciplinary professors and researchers to develop a model for integrating real-life scenarios into groundwater pumping models. </p>
<p>Her thesis analyzing groundwater markets and the overpumping of groundwater synthesizes many commonly overlooked factors into a model that she hopes can be applied to the development of future markets.</p>
<p>“I'm trying to ease the tension between the math and the real world,” she said. “It doesn't really just become this quantitative thing where you just spit out numbers and spit out conclusions and you say, that's it. I think it's also about trying to figure out ways to apply what you're finding.”</p>
<p>While her thesis includes quantitative aspects through the theoretical model she has developed, it also remains qualitative in that it focuses on policies and laws and tries to examine the impact that these groundwater markets have on real people. Because prior research on the topic didn’t integrate these perspectives, it underestimated the impact of excessive groundwater pumping.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Mika Inoue Groundwater Figure" height="193" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/430140/350x/mika_inoue_groundwater_figure.jpg" width="350">
<figcaption>This chart demonstrates an externality of groundwater pumping — overpumping in one area lowers the water table for others as well.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“What happens when you pump groundwater is that you impose a cost both on yourself and also on the other people who are pumping where you are, because you keep lowering the water table as you pump,” she said. “But it doesn't just lower the water table for you, it lowers the water table for everyone. And so what happens when you have a situation like that is that you create kind of an externality — you're imposing a cost on the other player that you never factor in when making your own pumping decisions.”</p>
<p>Her model provides context for how the groundwater market may behave in more complex scenarios and may be impacted by real-life circumstances. She hopes that market designers and governments can use this model to consider the issues in a more nuanced way.</p>
<p>“Given how dire the situation of unsustainable groundwater abstractions is becoming, it's a really pressing issue that more areas develop a market that's adaptable to both the hydrological parameters, as well as the unique legislative conditions of the area,” she said.</p>
<p>Inoue’s research focuses predominantly on the U.S. but also internationally on places such as Australia. To examine this interaction, she used Mathematica — a computer program she was unfamiliar with and had to teach herself.</p>
<p>Although she has had a consistent interest in developmental and environmental economics, her initial thesis proposal had nothing to do with groundwater — she planned to explore behavioral economics. But because of a pandemic-induced funding freeze, she was unable to obtain the resources necessary to run her experiments for this initial proposal, so she chose instead to focus on groundwater with support from a pre-established team of researchers at Notre Dame— engineers, lawyers, and economists — to ensure her research was thorough and comprehensive.</p>
<p>“I was really, really lost in the beginning,” she said, since she had never worked with a theoretical model before.</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Mika Inoue In Oxford" height="675" src="https://al.nd.edu/assets/430141/mika_inoue_in_oxford.jpg" width="450">
<figcaption>Inoue near Bridge of Sighs in Oxford, England, during her semester studying abroad.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She did, however, have extensive experience with research on pre-existing data sets. For the past three years, Inoue has been involved in research with <a href="http://economics.nd.edu/faculty/a-nilesh-fernando/">A. Nilesh Fernando</a>, an assistant professor of economics, investigating labor economics and outcomes for migrants from places including Sri Lanka and India through writing, coding and data analysis.</p>
<p>Working with her advisor, <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/mmulleritten/">Michèle Müller-Itten</a>, and the team of Notre Dame faculty, Inoue went from a model whose output was incorrect and returning impossible negative prices to a thesis that was 38 pages long. She had weekly meetings with Müller-Itten — which continued without pause through winter break — and attended meetings hosted by the Notre Dame groundwater research group.</p>
<p>One particular area that these researchers encouraged her to explore further was the impact of restrictions on pumping. Prior to meeting with the group, Inoue assumed that once a pumper had rights to an area, they could pump anywhere in it.</p>
<p>“I found out that actually a lot of areas had some kind of restrictions to it,” she said. “There were certain areas where you could buy the right, but you couldn't actually pump in that area, or things like that. And so it kind of added another kind of layer to my model, which was helpful.”</p>
<p>Her interest in environmental economics came, in part, from having grown up in the Philippines and seeing firsthand the impact groundwater supply can have on a developing country. After graduation, she will be working full time as a research analyst at Northwestern’s Global Poverty Research Lab.</p>
<p>Her thesis serves as the culmination of her academic interests and has prepared her for her post-graduation career.</p>
<p>“It's just been a great opportunity,” she said. “I've come out of it learning so much more about this field, and it's been really interesting to see that I can explore beyond things that I was used to.”</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Kate Flanagan</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://al.nd.edu/news/latest-news/economics-majors-senior-thesis-develops-an-integrated-approach-to-analyzing-groundwater-markets-and-depletion-drawing-from-research-in-engineering-law-and-math/">al.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">May 18, 2021</span>.</p>Kate Flanagan