Go be justice

Sending off graduates to work for the common good

June 18, 2025

The proud daughter of immigrants from the Philippines, Notre Dame science preprofessional studies major Leah Brucal dreamed about one day becoming a physician to serve others in need. “I think that’s what drew me to the Institute for Social Concerns,” she says.

For her interdisciplinary minor at the institute, Leah researched how the Family Medicine Center in Mishawaka, Indiana, approaches encounters with patients experiencing poverty. Using an appreciative inquiry approach, Leah interviewed clinicians about their patient encounters. Through a qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts, she found that the clinicians interactions with patients were rooted in compassion. Her research revealed the power of partnerships and proximity in healthcare settings and physician training.

Suzanne Shanahan, left, presents Leah Brucal with the Sister Thea Bowman Award

On Friday, May 16, Leah joined nearly 70 of her fellow graduating seniors for the institute’s annual Senior Send-Off at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Leighton Concert Hall as part of Notre Dame’s Commencement Weekend. In recognition of her work at the institute and in the community, Leah received the Sister Thea Bowman Award, which is given annually to a student who exemplifies a commitment to justice and dignity through active engagement within and outside the campus community and who demonstrates a sense of vocation dedicated to the common good in the spirit of Sister Bowman.

Faculty nominating Leah for the award wrote that Leah’s “volunteer and academic work reflect a deep dedication to compassion and justice.” Next year, Leah will take her research, experiences, and dedication to compassionate justice with her to Cambridge, where she will pursue an M.Phil. degree in health medicine and society as a further step toward fulfilling her dream to become a physician to serve others in need. 

Joining Leah on stage at the ceremony was Elaine Carroll, an economics major who wrote her capstone thesis on the viability of social impact bonds as a housing intervention in the United States. Elaine’s project arose from her research in the Housing for the Common Good Research Lab at the institute.

Jay Brandenberger presents Elaine Carroll the Jay Brandenberger Research Award for the Common Good

At the send-off, Elaine received the Jay Brandenberger Research Award for the Common Good, newly named in honor of Jay Brandenberger, director for assessment and engaged scholarship, who is retiring this December after 36 years at the institute. Elaine shared that her time at the institute taught her that “truly effective solutions to poverty are the result of communal engagement and standing in solidarity with those you plan to serve.” She plans to apply this learning toward a master of public policy degree after spending this upcoming year working as an analyst in technology consulting. 

Two of the graduating seniors, Wonu Fasasi and Hayden Kirwan, are returning to the institute next year as inaugural post-baccalaureate fellows. Wonu and Hayden will work in the space of mass incarceration and re-entry in the South Bend community while engaging in research in the service of justice. In addition to working with local prison and nonprofit agencies, they will conduct supervised research and develop evidence-based programming to support returning citizens. 

“My time at the institute has taught me that the pursuit of justice in our world is inseparable from the pursuit of academic and accurate research,” Hayden shared at the ceremony—a lesson he will apply toward his fellowship.

Graduating seniors were sent-off with words of encouragement and exhortation from the institute’s Felicia Johnson O’Brien, program director of justice education, and Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director. Special guests included University President Rev. Bob Dowd, C.S.C., and South Bend oncologist and hematologist Dr. Rafat Ansari, a 2025 Notre Dame honorary doctorate recipient, who also addressed the graduating seniors. Rev. Hugh R. Page, Jr., vice president for institutional transformation and advisor to the president, sent the graduating seniors off with a prayer of blessing before the Notre Dame Glee Club led attendees in the hymn “Go Be Justice,” a fitting charge to the change makers of the class of 2025.

Hayden Kirwan describes his time at the institute and future plans

The highlight of the ceremony was when each student crossed the stage, receiving a book from the institute and stopping at the podium to briefly describe what they learned at the institute and how they will apply it to their future career. “What I’ve learned from the Institute for Social Concerns is that there is a cure for injustice,” Leah shared. “It requires being proximate, being compassionate, and also practicing accompaniment.”  

Father Dowd congratulated each student as they crossed the stage. In his remarks, he shared the story of Pope Leo XIV’s years of service in Peru as an example of learning through service to others, even at the expense of personal comforts. “You all have moved beyond your comfort zones as well,” he told the graduates. “Really, it’s the only way we learn—the only way we learn is when we move beyond the familiar.”

Shanahan quoted Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ in her charge to students: “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others in the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.” She added, “If nothing else, this is what we hope you have gleaned from your time with the Institute for Social Concerns.”

Watch a YouTube video of the Senior Send-Off Ceremony. Photos by Peter Ringenberg for the University of Notre Dame.

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