Get Involved
Want to know more about how you can become involved in improving the education of our nation’s youth? Notre Dame offers an array of opportunities for you to connect in various service and experiential learning experiences through collaborative efforts with academic departments and initiatives throughout the University.
Alliance for Catholic Education. ACE is a two-year service program offering college graduates the opportunity to serve as full-time teachers in under-resourced Catholic schools across the southern United States.
Center for Social Concerns. The Center for Social Concerns provides numerous opportunities to get involved with K-12 initiatives locally and nationally through community-based learning, research, and service, informed by Catholic Social Tradition.
Director for Community Outreach, Office of Public Affairs. Contact Jay Caponigro to see how your interests could fill an educational need in the community, especially regarding new K–12 mentor/tutor initiatives in area schools.
Domers Mentoring Kids. Established in the fall of 2004, Domers Mentoring serves as a means of creating effective responses to some of the most prevailing challenges to K–12 education today.
Education Collaborative Council. The ECC is comprised of administrators, faculty, and staff from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend Community School Corporation, Saint Mary’s College, Holy Cross College, Indiana University South Bend, and Ivy Tech Community College. ECC guides and measures strategic efforts to improve student performance and provides professional development opportunities for educators in South Bend. Faculty and staff are encouraged to contact Jay Caponigro or visit the ECC website.
Education for Schooling and Society. The primary goal of ESS is to help students develop wider, diverse perspectives on important questions in education.
Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics Career Conference for Middle School Girls (EYHND): The EYHND conference is held annually at the end of April in Jordan Hall of Science. The purpose is to expose girls in grades 6–8 to women who use math and science in their everyday careers in a small workshop format. Volunteers are needed to help the nearly 30 workshop presenters as well as run the “learn about college” conference workshops for the girls. We request only women volunteers for this event.
2012 Date: April (exact date TBD)
Location: Jordan Hall of Science
Times: One volunteer meeting held the week of EYHND (in the evening—includes pizza dinner!)
PLUS 8:00 a.m.—3:30 p.m. during the EYH day (includes lunch and a T-shirt for all volunteers)
To volunteer, contact Karen Morris; (574)631-6945; you will then be assigned to the volunteer coordinators.
Institute for Educational Initiatives. Through teaching, research, and outreach, the IEI is dedicated to improving the education of all youth, particularly the disadvantaged, with a special call to sustain and strengthen Catholic schools.
The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics has an extensive outreach program including (but not limited to) summer camps and hands-on activities at libraries, after-school centers and community science events. Volunteers are often needed for the summer camps, especially Art to Science, and to guide students and the general public through these hands-on activities. To volunteer, contact Micha Kilburn.
LEAD-ND. The purpose of LEAD-ND is to foster a mutually open and effective leadership development network of the ND student leaders of all academic, extracurricular, and athletic disciplines and emerging student leaders of the South Bend public school community.
Literacy Awareness Notre Dame (LAND). The purpose of LAND is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.
Kellogg Institute Outreach Program. This multicultural outreach educational program enhances the research and educational mission of the University of Notre Dame by engaging faculty, students, and visiting scholars in a supportive intellectual community.
Ms. Wizard Day Program. The purpose of the Ms. Wizard Day program team is to provide elementary girls the chance to experience a post-secondary educational setting and explore the wide variety of options possible with a high school and college education; to encourage them to take academic risks and gain confidence; and to increase their interest and involvement in the sciences.
Neighborhood Study Help Program. Neighborhood Study Help Program supplies volunteer tutors to local schools and community centers with children in need of academic assistance.
Northern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NIRSEF) is affiliated with the Intel Science and Engineering Fair and is held annually during the spring. It attracts nearly 300 students in grades 3–12 from public, private, and home schools representing the counties of St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, and Fulton. Students exhibit their science, engineering, or math projects and are judged to determine which represent our region in the Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair, held annually in April. The NIRSEF needs numerous volunteers interested in judging projects and helping run the fair.
Spring 2012 Dates
Friday, March 2 (set-up); and Saturday, March 3 (judging and awards ceremony)
Location: Stepan Center
Times: Friday: 1:00–5:00 p.m. (to help set up)
Saturday (judging 9:00 a.m. –1:00 p.m.
Awards set-up 1:00–3:00 p.m.
Awards ceremony 3:15–4:30 p.m.
Tear down 4:30–5:30 p.m.
To volunteer, contact Karen Morris; (574)631-6945
The Notre Dame QuarkNet Center incorporates high school physics teachers and students in the high energy physics community through summer research, weekly meetings during the academic year, and ongoing development of online resources for student research using data from the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. To get involved, please contact Anne Zakas or (574) 631-2789.
The Notre Dame extended Research Community (NDeRC) fosters integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) community with summer institutes for teachers and week-long classroom activity suites in nanotechnology, genetics, environmental science, developmental biology, astrophysics, and particle physics, strengthening with MichianaSTEM wikis and blogs the bonds forged through these activities. To get involved, please contact Therese Blacketor or (574) 631-1264.
Notre Dame’s TRiO Programs. Through tutoring, academic counseling, mentoring, career exploration, cultural enrichment and community service, Notre Dame’s TRiO Programs (Talent Search and Upward Bound) provide opportunities that prepare local middle and high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed in higher education.
Robinson Community Learning Center. Located in the heart of South Bend’s northeast neighborhood, Notre Dame’s RCLC provides area children grades one through 12 with after-school programs, tutoring by University students, a technology center/computer lab, entrepreneurship classes, and recreational sports. There’s even a Robinson Shakespeare Company and Lego Robotics Club.
Slice of Life ND. The mission of Slice of Life ND is to bring Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students and underprivileged children in the South Bend area together in order to help these children improve their academic performance and build self esteem, self-confidence, and respect for themselves and others.