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SOUTH BEND — Boots will soon be on the ground to combat a problem with lead-poisoned kids on the city’s near northwest side, thanks to a $30,000 federal grant awarded to a local neighborhood group.

Two part-time community outreach workers will soon be hired by the Near Northwest Neighborhood Inc. for a yearlong project as a result of the grant, which was awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Small Grant Program.

The group also received a $16,500 grant earlier this year from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County for the outreach project, which will start in January.

Outreach workers will get the word out about the risks in old homes of lead, a toxic metal that can permanently damage the brains of young children. Efforts will be focused on helping families with children in a neighborhood with a history of lead problems. It is known as U.S. Census Tract 6.

Local health officials began focusing on the area’s problem after the state released testing data in late 2016 that showed an unusually high percentage of young children had elevated blood levels from 2005 through 2015 in Tract 6, along with other neighborhoods. Tract 6 stood out because it had the greatest percentage of kids with elevated levels in the state.

The new employees, who will be trained to become certified community health workers, will go door-knocking in Tract 6 to encourage families to get children tested and keep their homes lead-safe, said Kathy Schuth, executive director of the neighborhood group.

“We’ve found that families aren’t taking action unless they’re told about it by someone they trust,” she said, adding that workers will also organize community meetings and provide information to local schools and churches.

Grant money will also be used to hold a handful of free lead screenings to increase testing. State data show that from 2005 through 2010, less than 10 percent of children under age 7 were tested for lead in St. Joseph County.

“A huge win would be to increase the number of kids tested in Census Tract 6,” Schuth said.

Funding, meanwhile, has been committed from other sources to combat the area’s lead problem.

Earlier this year, the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns awarded a $7,000 grant toward an effort by faculty and students to test South Bend homes for lead. A portion of that grant allowed free blood lead testing to be done by the county’s Women, Infants and Children program.

The city of South Bend, meanwhile, has set aside money in its 2018 budget to tackle the problem.

To fund a variety of lead-related efforts, the city will redirect $100,000 it pledged for a failed grant application to launch a $100,000 “flexible fund.” And it will use another $100,000, from federal Community Block Grant money, to launch a fund managed by the Department of Community Investment.

Among other things, the Lead Exposure Affinity Group — composed of health officials, community advocates and university faculty members — has recommended that the $200,000 in new funding go toward the purchase of point-of-care analyzers to help the area’s busiest clinics test more kids for lead; the purchase of lead cleaning kits for families; and the launch of a mini-grant program to help families make lead-related repairs of up to $1,000.

The city’s Home Improvement Program, federally funded at $200,000, will help address lead issues in homes. Although the program isn’t entirely dedicated to lead-related repairs, it prioritizes them.

The city is also funding a $180,000 pilot program that will allow Department of Code Enforcement inspectors to assess rental units for lead and other problems.

Heidi Bedinger-Burnett, a faculty member at Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health and member of the St. Joseph County Board of Health, has been encouraged by efforts to combat the area’s problem. But she said the county health department needs more money to provide services for lead-poisoned kids.

“The county is the one holding the purse strings,” she said, “and officials have to get intimately involved.”

Originally published by Departmant of Romance Languages and Literatures

University of Notre Dame students Mary Kathryn Eilert, Andrew Stephen Grose,* and Lucy Xian Jones will receive state recognition. They have been selected as one of the recipients of the 2017 Indiana Outstanding College Student of Spanish/Portuguese Award by the Indiana Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). They really deserve this recognition. Their outstanding academic record, exceptional interest for the Iberoamerican/Brazilian culture, exemplary community service, remarkable overseas experience and astonishing passion for Spanish and Portuguese were evident in the nominations presented by professors Rachel Parroquin, Marisel Moreno, Tatiana Botero, Marcio Bahia, Sandra M Texeira, Maria Rosa Olivera-Williams, and Jimena Holguin.

The committee was so impressed that seven professors were involved in all the nomination process what shows the great appreciation you all have for these students.

The Award Ceremony will take place on Saturday, November 4th at 10:00 a.m. at the Sheraton Hotel Indianapolis (Keystone Crossing, Suite 16, Second Floor) during the AATSP Business Meeting that is part of the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association Conference (www.iflta.org). 

Felicitaciones de nuevo! It is an honor for AATSP Indiana to have such brilliant students from University of Notre Dame in our ceremony where we recognize the best students and best Spanish/Portuguese teachers in the State of Indiana.

*Andrew Grose participated in the Center for Social Concerns' International Summer Service Learning Program. He spent an eight-week immersion in El Salvador working in a nutrition program called Libras de Amor with FUSAL (La Fundación salvadoreña para la salud y el desarollo humano). As part of the Libras de Amor team, Andrew was responsible for measuring children’s height and weight to track their monthly progress, conducting mental stimulation exercises with mothers and children, testing for anemia, and providing nutrition consultations for mothers whose children are at risk.

Andrew and his site partner were based in Arambala, Morazán Department, which was one of the regions in El Salvador most affected by the civil war. While working in Morazán, he became interested in mental health issues, in particular the relationship between war and mental health in a country like El Salvador where it has not been prioritized by the governments. Andrew started researching and writing a project proposal for Fulbright to come back to the country next year and carry a much deeper research on this topic.

Compiled September 28, 2017

In these days following multiple natural disasters, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered the following statement calling for solidarity and prayer.

"Just as we begin to assess the material and emotional damage of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the devastation of yet another storm, Hurricane Maria, has struck the U.S. Virgin Islands and Dominica, and has battered Puerto Rico with catastrophic effects unprecedented in the island's modern history. I exhort the faithful to solidarity in this time of great need for our brothers and sisters in harm's way—many of whom have been hit repeatedly by the successive hurricanes."

"Casting aside any temptation to despair, and full of hope in the loving Providence of God, we pray that our Father may receive unto his loving presence those who have lost their lives, may he comfort the grieving, and may he fortify the courage and resilience of those whose lives have been uprooted by these disasters. May he extend the might of his right hand and bid the sea be 'quiet' and 'still' (Mark 4:39)."

In dynamic emergency situations often the best way to offer assistance is by making financial donations to organizations with skilled teams in the location. 

The University of Notre Dame is not formally endorsing any of these organizations listed. You are free to donate to any charity you choose. This listing is a partial listing of the many organizations accepting contributions to relief and assistance with regards to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Catholic Charities USA is the official domestic relief agency of the U.S. Catholic Church. Catholic Charities supports disaster response and recovery efforts including direct assistance, home repair, home rebuilding, health care services and other programs. Catholic Charities uses case management that enables long-term disaster recovery.

The American Red Cross relief effort stretches across multiple states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In Florida, Red Cross workers are providing food, shelter, relief supplies, health services and emotional support in the hardest hit areas. Getting relief materials to the islands is difficult, but the Red Cross is working with federal, corporate and community partners to get supplies to the region by both sea and air.

Americares, has emergency teams in locations affected by hurricane Maria and Harvey they work with local authorities to stock emergency shelters with medical equipment and supplies.

Save the Children is currently on the ground in Puerto Rico responding to the needs of children. Save the Children works closely with other nonprofit and federal agencies, and local partners to assess the specific needs of children and families amid reports of massive damage.

The Salvation Army has a long-term presence on both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, which meant it was able to respond quickly once the hurricanes had passed, meeting essential needs and offering support. With a permanent footprint in the affected communities, The Salvation Army's Disaster Services will continue to provide assistance throughout the urgent response and into the future, as the battered territories rebuild.

World Vision is responding by equipping local partners in Puerto Rico to distribute emergency supplies and is responding to the needs in the Dominican Republic where thousands of people have been displaced from their homes due to flooding from Maria. 

United Steelworkers (USW) International Vice President Fred Redmond will present this year’s McBride Lecture, “Today’s Struggle for Racial and Economic Justice,” at the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 21 (Thursday) at 6 p.m. The lecture will be held in the Eck Visitors Center Auditorium and is free and open to the public; a reception will immediately follow.

Redmond is co-chair of the AFL-CIO’s Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice, which was created in 2015 to “facilitate a broad conversation with local labor leaders around racial and economic disparities and institutional biases and identifies ways to become more inclusive as the new entrants to the labor force diversify.” His lecture will address that committee’s conclusions, just published as the Racial and Economic Justice Report.

A leader in the wide labor movement, Redmond holds leadership positions in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the AFL-CIO Executive Council and Working America, and he is chairman of the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
“While Americans have made strides in the past few decades at reducing racial discrimination in the labor market, workers of color continue to earn less than their white counterparts, and a majority toil in low-paying jobs with limited opportunities,” commented history professor Dan Graff, director of the Higgins Labor Program at Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. “We look forward to hearing what Mr. Redmond, an experienced labor leader with long experience fighting for workplace inclusion, will say on the intertwined subjects of economic justice and racial equality, as well as the role unions might play here.”

The McBride Lecture was established in 1977 by the United Steelworkers (USW) “to better understand the principles of unionism and our economy.” It honors the USW’s fourth international president, Lloyd McBride, who served from 1977 to 1983.

The lecture is cosponsored by the USW and the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns. Mr. Redmond will be available for media interviews during his visit to Notre Dame.

Originally published by Katie McCauley at conductorshare.nd.edu on September 15, 2017.

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Scott Alexander, Ph.D. and Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini will be discussing how peace and justice can be achieved through interfaith dialogue between two of the world's leading faith traditions at 7:00 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 14). The lecture will be held in the Andrews Auditorium of Geddes Hall and is open to the public.

Alexander is an associate professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Imam Qazwini is a scholar, educator, and advocate for Islam in America and in 2015 founded the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

“Christians believe in dialogue. That dialogue is modeled by God's dialogue with humanity. Indeed, the dialogue in which Alexander and Imam Al-Qazwini are engaged is a critical part of each of our religious experience,” commented Fr. Kevin Sandberg, acting executive director of the Center for Social Concerns. “Pope Benedict XVI said, "Interreligious and intercultural dialogue between Christians and Muslims cannot be reduced to an optional extra. It is in fact a vital necessity, on which in large measure our future depends." The Center for Social Concerns has long cultivated dialogue as a critical methodology in the discovery of truth and the common good on which justice and peace are predicated.”

This year’s lecture aligns with the Center’s Catholic social tradition theme for the year, “Living the Challenge of Peace,” which derives from a pastoral letter issued by the U.S. Bishops in 1983. Though the main emphasis in 1983 was on the just-war tradition, pacifism, and nuclear arms, the message is still relevant 35 years later on how people of faith can address the many tensions in our world from race, labor, and religion, to technology, the environment, and the arms trade.

The Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture on Catholic Social Tradition was created in 2009 to serve as an annual reminder of Father Clark’s deep and enduring commitment to social justice in the Catholic social tradition. This year’s lecture marks the beginning of a yearlong series of justice education events at the Center for Social Concerns focused on the theme of Living the Challenge of Peace.

Contact: Katie McCauley, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-8823,​ kwmccauley@nd.edu

Originally published in The Observer.

As part of the Higgins Labor Program’s Research and Policy Series (RAPS), president of the North Central Indiana chapter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Tony Flora and executive director of La Casa de Amistad, Sam Centellas, delivered a lecture about immigration and labor reform at Geddes Hall on Friday.

Flora said the importance of community efforts cannot be underestimated.

“Most of [our] work is around effecting law and regulation and that realm of politics,” Flora said. “The AFL-CIO has been very vigorous about developing community relationships and coalitions.”

Many companies, Flora said, hire undocumented workers because they are aware of their undocumented status and therefore do not have to treat them according to labor laws and standards.

Centellas said bankrupt companies often involve CEOs who still make millions of dollars, and unemployment has nothing to do with undocumented workers taking jobs.

“If you’re unemployed, an undocumented Mexican worker is not oppressing you, the CEO’s of companies are the ones oppressing you, but they have convinced you that you’re being oppressed because of these Mexican immigrants coming to your town,” Centellas said. 

“Our goal is to achieve a society through shared prosperity, and we cannot have that shared prosperity when 11 million people in our country are in a below ground economy,” he said. “If you’re undocumented, you can’t go to your boss and say, “You didn’t pay me the overtime,” and the boss can say, “What are you going to do about it?” if they know you are undocumented. They can claim that they are being very generous, but the truth is, the undocumented workforce represents a drag on the economy — not because they are here being employed, but because they do not have full civil and labor rights.”

Flora said undocumented workers often receive no attention or remedy if they raise awareness about their unfair treatment.

“It seems like the ability to reform immigration law in America has hit a brick wall,” Flora said. “On the other hand, I’m going to be a little optimistic. I think we have a wonderful opportunity right now. Sometimes when a bad thing happens, it opens up an awful lot of doors, but there is going to be an ensuing crisis created by what the Trump administration has just done.”

Although Flora describes the current immigration climate as a “climate of terror,” he said coalitions serve as major proponents for immigration reform.

As executive director of La Casa de Amistad, Centellas helps many families with undocumented immigrants. Centellas said the Latino population is often misrepresented.

“They don’t want free,” Centellas said. “They want to pay for a service. They want to contribute.”

Centellas said controversy surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program affects his clients.

“You see it where a lot of people have read the stuff about DACA, and say ‘They are giving them six months, or they are rolling it out,” but no,” he said. “It’s garbage. It’s something they didn’t have to do. They could have put pressure on Congress to get this done without that happening.”

Centellas said many undocumented immigrants’ best chance at earning documentation may be to go back to Mexico and wait there for around 20 years before coming into the country legally. Undocumented labor and the associated abuse and low wages adversely affect the economy.

“A lot of times people think about immigration or immigration reform, and they forget that all of those problems impact everything,” Centellas said. “They say, ‘Oh, I hope those immigrants figure it out,’ but undocumented labor impacts everything. It impacts your family, your uncle’s company.” 

“That’s why we all have to care, not just because helping other people is fantastic and it’s what we should do,” he said. “But we also need to get people to understand that they are impacted by this, and so that’s why it’s important for people to get involved and to understand what is happening. That’s what is killing our labor market right now: this black market of labor with people who cannot advocate for themselves and move out of that position because of their documentation status.”

We urge the president to continue to give status to young people who have done nothing wrong, most of whom have only known life in the United States and who will make important contributions to it. Notre Dame intends to support these students and asks the administration to do the same. —Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame

STATEMENT BY REV. JOHN I. JENKINS, C.S.C.

The Catholic Bishops have long supported DACA youth and continue to do so. DACA youth are contributors to our economy, veterans of our military, academic standouts in our universities, and leaders in our parishes. These young people entered the U.S. as children and know America as their only home. The dignity of every human being, particularly that of our children and youth, must be protected. —USCCB

​STATEMENT BY U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS

Dr. Tara D. Hudson is joining the Higher Education Administration program at Kent State University's School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration this fall as an assistant professor. Tara was previously the postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Social Concerns at Notre Dame from 2015–2017. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Research and Policy Analysis with a concentration in higher education from North Carolina State University.

Her dissertation research, which received the 2015 Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), examined how college students develop and sustain interracial friendships, with the aim of informing educational practice to better support students' achievement of the critical learning and development outcomes that result from diverse peer interactions and relationships. Her research focuses on two broad areas: (1) college students' prosocial development, particularly resulting from community engagement and interactional diversity; and (2) the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized populations along their educational and career trajectories. 

Uniting these two areas is her desire to inform educational practice that advances higher education's role in promoting social justice and equity within U.S. society. In researching these topics, she employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. Dr. Hudson's research has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Journal of College and Character, and she is co-author of a forthcoming chapter in the book The Landscape of Postdoctoral Fellows: The Invisible Scholars (eds. A. J. Jaeger & A. J. Dinin, Elsevier Academic Press).

Originally published by National Catholic Reporter

Founding director of Notre Dame's Center for Social Concerns remembered

Mary Monnat was planning to go to law school after her graduation from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 1980. But she was having second thoughts, so she turned to her teacher and mentor, Holy Cross Fr. Donald McNeill.

The priest helped Monnat decide to delay her admission to law school and instead spend a year with the Holy Cross Associates program, a year of service and living in community. While volunteering at an alcohol treatment center in Portland, Oregon, she acknowledged her own addiction and got into recovery — and discovered her vocation to work in alcohol and drug addiction.

"I credit him with, frankly, changing my life," said Monnat, now CEO of Lifeworks Northwest, a mental health and treatment center in Portland. "He had a way of having you take your faith and put it into action. That's who he was."

Monnat is one of thousands of students who have been inspired by McNeill and the Center for Social Concerns he co-founded 34 years ago. Those students, many of whom have gone on to full-time work in social justice or service like Monnat, have benefited countless other lives.

McNeill died Aug. 24 at the University of Notre Dame. He was 81.

"The extent of [McNeill's] ministry is pretty profound," said Margaret Pfeil, who, inspired by the priest, got involved in the Catholic Worker movement and now teaches theology at her alma mater.

"No one — other than [former Notre Dame president Fr. Theodore] Hesburgh — has had a bigger impact on the modern Notre Dame," said Melinda Henneberger, who graduated in 1980 and studied with McNeill.

"Social justice was Don's life's work," Henneberger said. "He really made that an important part of life at Notre Dame."

McNeill was the founding director of the Center for Social Concerns, which in 1983 combined the university's volunteer programs, headed by Holy Cross Sr. Judith Anne Beattie, and its experiential learning programs, headed by McNeill. Today, the center provides service opportunities around the world, as well as courses that take students into poor communities. Some estimates by the university say 80 percent of students do some sort of volunteer work.

The center's current acting director, Holy Cross Fr. Kevin Sandberg, says at least 12,000 students have been involved in the center over the years.

Sandberg recalls McNeill as a leader in bringing the message of Catholic action to the campus. McNeill stressed "that justice is constitutive of the Gospel," which challenged students who saw the church as focused only on charity or interior spirituality, said Sandberg, who graduated in 1988.

In co-founding the Center for Social Concerns (a deliberate move so its acronym would mirror the Holy Cross order's initials), McNeill wanted to create a culture of not only service, but justice, said Sandberg. "Our slogan now is 'Where understanding becomes responsibility,' which supports our vision to engage in social justice and advance the common good everywhere."

Although McNeill is remembered for co-founding the center, much of his influence was on individual students — especially women.

Pfeil hung out at the Center for Social Concerns, located in the former television station building near the library, and was involved with the Council for the International Lay Apostolate group.

She spent her summers working with the poor in Tijuana, Mexico, and after graduating in 1987, traveled to Chile through the Holy Cross Associates program, where she helped document the stories of those who had been detained and disappeared while the country was under military rule.

Those experiences prompted theological questions, so she pursued graduate studies, eventually back at Notre Dame, where she assisted McNeill with community-based courses. She co-authored, with McNeill, a book of reflections by people who had been shaped by their experiences at the center. Its title, Act Justly, Love Mercifully, and Walk Humbly with Your God, comes from one of McNeill's favorite scriptures in the Book of Micah.

Pfeil recalled McNeill's "profound spirit of gratitude" and his fondness for the people and cultures of Latin America. "He could really draw joy out of people," she said. "Don had a gift for identifying people's passions and forming people to live out those passions."

Henneberger learned from McNeill and Beattie that "God will want you to go to uncomfortable places." In one class, her project involved visiting people in a nursing home; she later did an "Urban Plunge" to Puerto Rico.

"I still draw on that class today. It was one of the best things I ever did," said Henneberger, an opinion writer for the Kansas City Star. (She has also written for NCR.) "It was all about accompanying people on their journey."

Sandberg said he learned how to do theological reflection while listening to McNeill's homilies as an undergraduate. "His was a 'theology of encounter' before Pope Francis popularized it," he said.

Others recalled his magnetic personality. "He really captivated people and won people over," remembers Joseph Mulligan, who graduated a year behind McNeill and later worked in the university's development office, where he encouraged alumni to support the center's programs.

McNeill was born in a wealthy Chicago suburb. His father and namesake was a radio personality, whose "Breakfast Club" show was the longest-running program in network radio history.

As an undergraduate, McNeill played basketball for Notre Dame and was senior class president, graduating in 1958. He was ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1965, after studying theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

McNeill became friends with Fr. Henri Nouwen, who taught briefly at Notre Dame and encouraged McNeill to pursue doctoral studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.

When he returned to Notre Dame, McNeill met and worked with Chicago activists Peggy Roach and Msgr. Jack Egan, who served as assistant to Hesburgh and directed the university's Institute for Pastoral and Social Ministry. 

At his funeral Mass, held Aug. 30 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus, homilist Holy Cross Fr. Claude Pomerleau said McNeill's reach went far beyond the campus. Among his contributions "was his focus on the need for the church and for our ministries to listen to those with little power and limited formal roles in the Catholic Church, especially women and young people," he said.

McNeill even argued for co-ed dorms at Notre Dame, to which Hesburgh responded, "Over my dead body," Pomerleau said.

At the beginning of this fall semester, Pfeil took her Notre Dame students to a local community garden, where they picked tomatoes and read Thomas Merton while reflecting on their work with the residents who benefit from the garden. She told the students about McNeill, whom they would never meet.

Later that day, she visited McNeill at Holy Cross House and told him about the students. Although he could not speak after suffering a stroke, he smiled when he heard about the class, Pfeil said.

"Nothing would make him happier than knowing that students are entering into relationships with people with whom they would otherwise have very little contact," she said, "and using all their gifts and talents to make the world a more just and loving place."

Walking down California Avenue, past a patchwork of neat, brightly painted homes, neglected and abandoned houses, urban gardens and empty, overgrown lots, Patrick Paulsen, an intended economics and film, television and theatre major from Seattle, admitted to knowing little about South Bend before arriving at Notre Dame.

“I thought it was just cornfields out in Indiana,” said Paulsen. “So it’s nice to discover there’s more than that.”

Lined with old oaks and maples, California Avenue passes through the Near Northwest Neighborhood, which is among the oldest and most diverse in the city, populated by old Victorian mansions, sturdy “prairie boxes” and cozy bungalows, and home to a diverse mix of renters and homeowners, from aging widows on fixed incomes to low-wage factory workers, young professionals and tenured professors.

Led by Kathy Schuth, a 1999 Notre Dame graduate and executive director of the Near Northwest Neighborhood Inc., and Michael Hebbeler, NNN board president and director of discernment and advocacy for the Center for Social Concerns at Notre Dame, Paulsen and about two dozen other students toured the neighborhood Monday, Aug. 21, as part of Day of Community, a Welcome Weekend event aimed to exposing new and transfer students to the broader South Bend community.

Now in its second year, the event, led by the Division of Student Affairs in collaboration with the Center for Social Concerns and the Office of Public Affairs, introduces students to an assortment of businesses and nonprofits in the South Bend area, emphasizing service, education, arts and culture.

In doing so, it exposes them to life beyond campus and to opportunities for meaningful engagement with the community, from volunteer work to research and internships — both pre- and post-graduation.

The NNN’s mission involves improving access to affordable housing on the near northwest side through the rehabilitation of older homes, which it accomplishes in partnership with the city and federal government.

It’s also working with The Eck Institute for Global Health at Notre Dame, and a number of student volunteers, to quantify the lead problem in the neighborhood, where as many as 1 in 3 children have tested positive for lead at elevated levels in recent years because of contaminated paint and soil.

In addition to the Near Northwest Neighborhood itself, students toured the NNN’s offices on Portage Avenue, including The Local Cup, a volunteer-run coffee shop that operates on a “pay-it-forward” model that lets patrons decide how much to pay for things.

Speaking afterward, Hebbeler, who lives down the street from the NNN, invited the students to return to the neighborhood, about 15 minutes from campus by bike, for Arts Café, an annual open house in October, or Adopt-a-Block, an annual clean-up event in April — or just for coffee.

“We definitely want you to consider this as a place to dive back into South Bend in terms of your community life,” said Hebbeler, who moved to South Bend in 2008.

Julie Rosta, an intended biology major from Indianapolis, welcomed the opportunity to explore the South Bend community.

“I don’t know much about downtown South Bend,” said Rosta, “so I’m really excited that we got to come and look around.”

And that’s the point, according to Paul Manrique, director of new student engagement in the Division of Student Affairs.

“The original purpose of Day of Community was to break down barriers between Notre Dame and the city of South Bend,” said Manrique.

“As the newest members to this community, first-year Notre Dame students now have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the city, learn about the wonderful things happening around town, and find out ways to stay connected during their years at the University,” he said. “Feedback from students has been outstanding, and our 25 community partners have loved this chance to engage with Notre Dame in a new way.” 

In addition to the Near Northwest Neighborhood, students visited Downtown South Bend Inc., the Center for the Homeless, the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, St. Vincent de Paul, La Casa de Amistad, the South Bend Cubs and the city’s Venues Parks & Arts department, among other community partners.

A total of 1,200 students participated in the event, which coincided with the solar eclipse.

Paulsen and others stopped to view the rare event near the end of their tour, gazing skyward as a temporary dusk settled on the city, setting crickets to chirping in the underbrush.

Earlier in the day, residents of Sorin and Knott halls toured the former Studebaker complex on the southern edge of downtown.

Working with the city and the state, Notre Dame graduate Kevin Smith, CEO of Global Access Point, is transforming the sprawling former auto assembly plant, the last remnant of the former Studebaker campus, into a mixed-use technology center.

Led by Notre Dame graduates Shane Fimbel, chief operating officer of Global Access Point, and Andrew Wiand, executive director of enFocus, students toured Building 113, one of three buildings that comprise the nearly 1 million-square-foot complex. They also visited with Alex Liggins, a 2014 Notre Dame graduate, and Alex Sejdinaj, co-founders of South Bend Code School.

A long two-story building, Building 113 remains under renovation but already houses four startups — all with ties to Notre Dame.

“What we would like to see in the next 10 years is this become the largest mixed-use technology center in the Midwest,” said Wiand, a 2012 graduate of Notre Dame’s ESTEEM entrepreneurship program.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toured the complex during a recent visit to South Bend, Wiand noted, meeting with Smith and others. He also visited the Local Cup.

Alex Goskowicz, of San Diego, was impressed.

“My dad went (to Notre Dame) and told me about the Studebaker factory, and I assumed there wasn’t really anything going on here at all,” said Goskowicz, an intended mechanical engineering major. “So it was cool to find out there were some tech startups and someone trying to rebuild stuff.”

Sejdinaj, with South Bend Code School, invited the students to engage with the local tech community.

“Everyone here will go have coffee with you,” he said, describing the friendly atmosphere within the community. “Everyone here is willing to connect you with other people.”

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