Faith and Service

We dive into two quintessential aspects of life at Notre Dame this week: faith and service. Brian McGee ‘21 and Adeline Chappuis ‘23 join us to discuss their experiences with faith and service, on and off campus.

Transcript

Podcast 7: Faith & Service 

File Length: 00:13:43

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:03:10 - 00:00:31:01

Welcome to College Bound, Notre Dame Admissions' podcast. We're super excited to share what's unique about Notre Dame, give you a little more insight into the student experience, and also what the faith and service environment is like on campus. I'm Maria Finan, and I'm a Double Domer. I received my bachelor's and master's degrees at Notre Dame. I majored in English and graduated in 2014 and 2016. With me is my co-host, Matt, who will introduce today's topic and our special guests. 

00:00:32:03 - 00:00:55:15

With us today, we have special guests like in the past episode we had current students to give their perspectives on dorm life. So with us today we have Brian McGee and Adeline Chappuis, who will discuss their faith and service on campus and introduce themselves. So, Brian, if you would like to tell everybody, who you are or what you do on campus, that would be awesome. 

00:00:55:18 - 00:01:43:28

Thanks Matt. Matt said my name is Brian McGee, I'm a senior year here at Notre Dame. I live in Stanford Hall, originally from Los Alamitos California. This year I'm an R.A. in Stanford which means I kind of just do my best to help her out help out around the dorm and get to know guys and try to foster community the best I can. In the past I have worked in campus ministry a lot in my time at Notre Dame. In Stanford, I worked in the sacristy and am kind of spiritual commissioner, so I would help set up for Mass and I helped put on different events for guys to get more involved with their faith. This led me into Campus Ministry, where I worked last year as a junior in an internship program. But yeah it's a great opportunity just to see what it's like to work as a campus minister as well as just a great opportunity formation. And this year I'm working in RCIA and campus ministry, so a lot of great opportunities there and a lot of fun. 

00:01:45:02 - 00:01:46:21

Thanks Brian, and Adeline? 

00:01:46:27 - 00:02:23:04

Hi guys! I'm Adeline and I'm a sophomore studying Design, Theology and Digital Marketing. I'm a proud resident of Walsh Hall and I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana. On campus, I enjoy participating in student government with National Engagement and Sustainability, and I also really enjoy being a Media Intern for Admissions, it's been really fun making videos and taking over and getting to know you guys more. As far as faith and service goes, I'm involved in lecturing both in my hall, as well in as the Basilica a few times, and I also participate in Catechist Academy, where I teach catechism to seventh graders in the South Bend area. 

00:02:23:06 - 00:02:57:23

Thanks so much for that. So just a little bit of background for all of you. Notre Dame is a Catholic university, and even though we're Catholic, we are welcoming to students of all different religious backgrounds. We were founded in 1842 by Father Sorin, who is a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and about a month after he founded the University, Father Sorin actually wrote back to his superior in France, Father Basil Moreau and said that this college will be one of the most powerful means of doing good in this country. And that ideal has remained really kind of integral to Notre Dame's mission as a Catholic university. 

00:02:57:25 - 00:03:05:20

So, one of the topics that we really want to talk about today is faith life. Brian, could you tell us just a little bit about faith life on campus? 

00:03:06:05 - 00:03:34:15

Yeah, where to begin? There's a lot of opportunities for faith life on campus at Notre Dame. One of the biggest ones, I'd say, at least for Catholics and Christians alike is for dorm masses. Each dorm has a chapel, or in my case, shares a chapel with another dorm, where we have a communal mass at least every Sunday, if not during the week. Like Maria was saying, we are Catholic; we preserve our Catholic identity and invite everyone to join us for mass, but don't necessitate it at any point (it's completely optional).

00:03:34:18 - 00:04:17:24

There's a lot of other opportunities for faith engagement, mostly at the initiative of the students. I know in Lewis Hall they have a certain prayer service called Scenario on Monday nights, and in Keenan, they do nightly prayer after Mass, and Stanford has started its own bible study, so there's a lot of opportunities that are just within the dorms. Also like I said, Campus Ministry does a great job of allowing students to become more involved with their faith, whatever that faith might be. They're very much there to provide opportunities for students to just engage with their faith, so that comes out in both retreats that are based on class like senior, uniors like upper class tutors underclassmen retreats, to a different affinities. 

00:04:17:26 - 00:04:46:00

We try to bring our faith, as unique as it is to each person, so appealing to a lot of different facets of each person's identity. So whether that be your cultural identity, with Latino retreats or Asian retreats, or just like your class identity with the upperclassmen vs. underclassmen. But yes, there's a lot of different faith opportunities on campus, whether in the dorms or in Campus Ministry, or within personal clubs or private clubs on campus, if you want to call them private, I guess. 

00:04:46:02 - 00:05:00:14

Thanks, Brian, for all those. There are of course going to be so many opportunities for students to find faith and resources on campus. But Adeline, I was wondering if you could touch upon any religious requirements there are for students. 

00:05:00:27 - 00:05:47:15

Sure, like Brian said, there aren't any mass requirements-- you don't have to go to Mass. The only requirement we have is academically you have to take two theology classes. One is foundational, which you will basically cover a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament and learn about the Christian Bible, and kind of the theology of that, and then you also have to choose a developmental theology, which is more geared toward whatever topic you're interested in. It can go from anywhere to talking about Mary and her and art and things like that, and then it can also be talking about kind of more like theology and sustainability and things like that. So, the developmental theology class really can speak to whatever you are interested in in studying. 

00:05:47:18 - 00:06:11:03

I am a theology major, and part of the reason why I chose to do that was, so I went to a Catholic school for high school, and I loved the faith so much that I was seeking understanding, which is kind of our big phrase that we use in the Theology Department-- "faith seeking understanding," and that's really what it is is being inspired by the faith to just learn more about what what's the nature of God. 

00:06:11:05 - 00:06:47:13

So you don't always have to be Catholic to study theology; in fact, there are ways that you can concentrate in world religions in the theology department. There are also a lot of faith-based clubs that are not religious requirements but can supplement those academic pursuits. There's that Theology Club, which is talking about theology. They have like a round table every Thursday where they just eat together and talk about different theology topics. There's also Iron Sharpens Iron, which is an interfaith type group to just talk about the faith, and then there's so many other ones like Delight, for the women of campus, and things like that. There's so many faith-based clubs, I could not name them all. 

00:06:47:22 - 00:07:23:27

Because I'm a theology major, I have the chance to do theology research, which I've been really excited to do this semester. Right now, I'm helping a professor write a book. It's so fun being able to be on the edge of like seeking more understanding than what's already out there and trying to figure that out. It's so much fun. It's taking my faith into my academics, which has really been really rewarding, and to know that I can do research on top of my classes is super super fun and I'm doing it with a whole team of professors and students that we get to just talk about and continue working on this professor's project. 

00:07:24:09 - 00:07:55:09

And there are a lot of opportunities at Notre Dame to get involved in different things like research. We will talk about that in a future episode but I think Adeline has done a great job sharing a lot of the different faith opportunities that exist. I do want to emphasize that for students who are non-Catholic, we do have a lot of resources for you as well. Whether that's a ride to off campus services, the Jewish Club, the Muslim Student Association-- we have celebrations for other religions' major holidays that are open to all members of the campus community. 

00:07:55:11 - 00:08:11:07

I was fortunate enough to attend my first Passover Seder on campus as a senior, and that's a tradition that still continues. Approximately 80 percent of students choose to live out, not as a faith, but Father Sorin's mission and that ideal of being a force for good through service. 

00:08:11:09 - 00:08:31:01

And in my head, faith and service are two things that really kind of go together. They're two different sides of the same coin. For students who are interested in getting involved at Notre Dame there are a lot of different opportunities. So, Brian, would you mind talking about service on campus, and any personal service experiences you've had while at Notre Dame. 

00:08:32:05 - 00:09:03:02

I'll start with the dorms. The dorms, again, great community, great basis for a lot of faith and a lot of service. The dorms give you opportunities and just a foundation to work from. Some examples I know of, Siegfried Hall has a really famous one, called the "Dayof Man" in the middle of January. Everywhere they go, they are dressed like they're going to the beach and like swim trunks and they got flip flops on and stuff like that, and tank tops when it's freezing cold, and they're just trying to raise money for the Center of the Homeless and so a lot of different just kind of fun ways to get involved. 

00:09:03:07 - 00:09:17:07

And Stanford does a lot of work with the Center of the Homelesss, where it's not like a one day event, but it's a weekly thing as it has been in the past and hopefully we'll be after COVID, where we go and we get to work with kids as their parents are at the Center for the Homeless 

00:09:17:18 - 00:09:38:22

Outside the dorms, I'd say Notre Dame itself does devotes a lot of resources to service. A testament to that is the Center for Social Concerns. They do a lot in educating you, preparing you with different programs and stuff like that, and they give you the opportunities to serve through different programs and courses that they provide for people to engage in service. 

00:09:39:07 - 00:10:16:01

Other than the Center for Social Concerns, there are a lot of courses that allow people to engage in service. Speaking from engineering, I've known of courses that actually give engineering students projects to help find solutions to real world problems that people are struggling with on the day-to-day basis. So, they'll look at some situation, typically in like a third world country where people are in very dire need and ask Notre Dame students to come up with a project actually to find a solution to that problem. For the resources on campus and opportunities on campus. There's this a lot. It's very multifaceted in whatever way that you want to get involved, I'm sure you can find a way to get involved.

00:10:16:27 - 00:10:40:02

Personally, you know, I've done some service. I've had a lot of friends that have actually worked for Hope Ministries, which is a place in town in South Bend that affords parents the opportunity to get education. On Wednesday nights, they attend classes and then we come and babysit their kids. And so I've done that a couple of times, but I have friends who go do that every week. And it's just a really beautiful ministry. 

00:10:40:04 - 00:11:10:18

And also I'd say another service thing which is kind of Campus Ministry, too, is working in RCIA this year, which is, if you don't know, the program in which people who are seeking to become Catholic become Catholic. And so it's great just kind of give up my time and help out those people in any way that I can to become Catholic. So I found a lot of service in ministry. It's both been very engaging and very helpful in forming for me in my faith. So I think if you have a desire for service, or you want desire to get to know service, you can find that Notre Dame. 

00:11:10:20 - 00:11:30:29

Thanks, Brian, for all of your perspective and all of the great things you've accomplished with service and talking about all those opportunities available to Notre Dame students. Adeline, what about you? Could you describe a little bit about your experience with any service at Notre Dame, and maybe other resources for students that might involve off campus service? 

00:11:32:05 - 00:12:08:05

Not only are there off-campus service opportunities in South Bend, but we also have Summer Service Learning Programs both domestically and internationally. And that takes place obviously over the summer and you can get placed anywhere from your home city to places like Jerusalem, and different places in Europe. In fact, the Center for Social Concerns will help you find full time service after graduation if you so chose. There are actually quite a few students that do choose to do this and entering into that studying something and really giving back to our world and communities

00:12:08:17 - 00:12:44:00

Personally, on campus, my favorite service thing that I do is something called Catechist Academy through the McGrath Institute for Church Life. What I do is I go every weekend (now on Zoom for this year) to a local parish in South Bend and teach kids in preparation for confirmation. You can also prep kids for their first communion and reconciliation and things like that, but I chose confirmation to explain some of the complexities to that where they are ready to say that final yes and confirmation of their baptismal promises. 

00:12:44:03 - 00:12:55:12

And the kids are so good, they're so sweet. They really are eager to learn. And it's been my favorite service thing I've ever done. I think it's so fun. Those kids they are so sweet, like I said. 

00:12:56:17 - 00:13:19:08

Well, thanks so much for sharing a little bit about faith and service, Adeline and Brian. We're really grateful just for your insight and your willingness to share your experiences. I know service was something that both Matt and I really enjoyed doing at Notre Dame, I think we both completed Summer Service Learning Programs in different locations tied to our interests, so, if that's something that's meaningful to you, there are definitely some great opportunities for that. 

00:13:19:11 - 00:13:35:22

And as I mentioned, Matt and I are really excited to talk to you about research in next week's episode. In the meantime, you can visit our website or if you'd like to connect with us, feel free to send us a message on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat @NDAdmissions. You can also follow Notre Dame Admissions on Facebook.