Welcome
Challenge Yourself to Learn More About Poverty
The Poverty Studies Interdisciplinary Minor (PSIM) contributes to Notre Dame's mission by requiring its students to examine poverty, social injustice, and oppression from the perspectives of multiple disciplines and through experiential learning. It features a gateway course that introduces students to the nature, causes, and consequences of poverty. Students also complete two elective courses, drawn from a wide range of subjects, complete 3 or 4 credits of experiential learning, and synthesize their study with a capstone course that addresses solutions to critical problems of interest to the student.
The poverty studies minor is truly interdisciplinary. Its faculty hail from the Departments of Africana Studies, American Studies, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, and Theology in the College of Arts & Letters, from the Center for Social Concerns, from the Mendoza College of Business, and from the College of Science, among others.
Integrate Classroom Knowledge with Real World Experience
Poverty Studies is designed to be experiential, enabling students to synthesize intellectual learning and practical experiences in the "real world." The minor requires students to complete at least three experiential learning credits as well as a senior capstone experience, allowing ample opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom to the world around them.
Congratulations to Our Graduates in the Class of 2012
Thanks to those of you who were able to share your plans with us. If you weren't able to do so, we would still love to hear from you. Please know that you remain in our hearts and minds. We wish you all the best!
Elizabeth Balderrama
Paula Goldman, MD/MPH Program, University of Michigan
Christine Hamma
Jillian Kapturowski, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Kristin Mannion, GE Healthcare IT Leadership Program
Allison Marchesani, Teach for America
Joseph Paik
Theresa Relation
Gabrielle Rex, Jesuit Volunteer Corps
Brianna Sammons, JD/MSW Program
Molly Siguler, Teach for America
Adrianne Tsen
Jennifer Van Trieste
Poverty Studies Students: Making a Difference This Summer
Colleen Boyle, Center for Social Concerns Summer Service Learning Project (SSLP)
Adele Bruggeman, UROP/CUSE, Kampala Uganda, research and coaching
Lisa Chin, Kellogg Summer Internship, Namibia, teaching
Kathleen Clark, SSLP
K.C. Conley, UROP
Catherine Dickerson, SSLP
Carolyn Green, SSLP, Utah, teaching and mentoring
Yuko Gruber, SSLP, Washington, D.C.
Ryan Lion
Jennifer Markowski, SSLP
Brigid McCloskey, SSLP
Catherine McDonough, Shepherd Internship
Annie O'Brien, Kellogg Summer Internship, Ghana, business planning
Andjela Pehar, SSLP
Jaime Pfaff, ISSLP, India
Joseph Robinson, UROP
Michael Robinson, UROP
Madeline Schneeman, SSLP
Michelle Young, SSLP
Joseph Wegener, Shepherd Internship
Catherine McDonough Wins Cabell Brand Scholarship Award
Junior Catherine McDonough, pyschology major and poverty studies minor, has recently been named a recipient of the Cabell Brand Center Scholarship. The Cabell Brand Center for Global Poverty and Resource Sustainability Studies is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 that provides fellowships to well-deserving students from across the country who are engaged in work that promotes the common good of all peoples.
Catherine has been awarded this scholarship in commendation of her internship this summer with The Family Center of Helena, Arkansas, where she will spend the summer working as an advocate for the homeless. The Family Center is a non-for-profit domestic shelter that focuses on prevention, rehabilitation, and advocacy work for victims of domestic violence. As a student intern, Catherine will spend her time working in both the administrative side of the non-profit and also in direct service in the shelter. In addition, through her role as a student intern through the Shepherd Alliance program, Catherine will be living and working in community with three other undergraduates from other Shepherd Consortium schools who will also be engaged in direct service this summer. To learn more about Catherine and her great work, please visit her PSIM Student Profile page.
