Undergraduate education

Opportunities from Admission to Beyond Graduation

Wherever you are on your academic journey, we invite you to participate in the institute’s offerings tailored to your educational experience, interests, and goals throughout your time at Notre Dame. Click on a program name to learn more!

Undergraduate opportunities on a painted green map

Your Journey to Justice Begins Here

As a distinctive element of Notre Dame’s commitment to offer an unsurpassed undergraduate education, the Institute for Social Concerns offers justice education courses, programs, and minors grounded in Catholic social tradition that develop students’ moral imagination, practical wisdom, and courage to act.

COURSES

The institute offers dozens of 1-credit and 3-credit courses (course code: SOCO), many which fulfill Notre Dame’s Core Requirements. Dig into questions of the environment, labor, mass incarceration, migration, poverty, technology, and more. Participate in an immersive experience during fall, winter, spring, or summer break.

PROGRAMS

The institute offers a variety of signature programs for students to engage more deeply with and in proximity to issues of justice. There are possibilities at each stage of the academic journey, from pre-enrollment to after graduation. Opportunities range from week-long seminars over semester breaks to fully funded immersive summer research experiences to multi-year fellowships. 

MINORS

In addition to courses and programs, the institute offers two minors: the Catholic Social Tradition Minor and Poverty Studies Interdisciplinary Minor. Each provides an excellent complement to any major by drawing from the expertise of our world-class, interdisciplinary faculty to explore how scholarship informs and intersects with the most pressing signs of the times.