News and Stories
May 9, 2008
Stories of distinction: Class of 2008
The University of Notre Dame's 2008 graduating class is noteworthy for its accomplishments both as a whole, through a variety of numerical and statistical observations, and individually, through the stories of students with memorable tales to tell.
Some of the numbers are:
- About 95 percent of the 1,980 undergraduates who enrolled at Notre Dame in the fall of 2004 will receive a diploma May 18 (Sunday) - a graduation rate exceeded only by Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities.
- Some 80 percent of the graduates participated in volunteer and service-learning programs in the greater South Bend area, nationwide and around the world.
- About 10 percent of this year's seniors will continue in volunteer service to society, engaging in a year or more of work in programs such as the Peace Corps, Teach for America, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education. Another 3 percent will go on to serve in our nation's military.
- All 50 of the United States are represented in the senior class, making Notre Dame among the nation's most geographically diverse universities.
Beyond the numbers, here are a few individual student stories of distinction:
Adam Boocher, South Bend - As president of the math club, tutor and director of an undergraduate reading seminar in algebraic geometry, Boocher has shared his love of mathematics by mentoring numerous undergraduate students. He was the only first-year student ever invited into the Seminar for Undergraduate Mathematical Research at Notre Dame, a program for the most gifted junior and senior mathematics students. Beginning in his sophomore year, Boocher started taking graduate-level mathematics courses. His love of the challenge of Scrabble led him to co-found the Notre Dame Scrabble Club and as president, organize competitive tournaments - the latest of which benefited the Literacy Council of St. Joseph County. While at Notre Dame, Boocher conducted research through Research Experience for Undergraduates programs at Williams College, Claremont Colleges, and Notre Dame and presented at six undergraduate research seminars including an invited talk at Purdue University and a seminar he organized at Notre Dame titled "Undergraduate Work in Mathematics." One of only 26 recipients in the nation in the field of mathematics to receive the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Boocher received the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in his sophomore year, when he also received the G.E. Prize for Honors Mathematics Majors and the Kolettis Award in Mathematics. This summer, he will guide high school mathematics teachers through the Research Experience for Teachers program. Boocher has chosen to pursue his doctorate in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on algebra or number theory.
Boocher can be contacted at aboocher@nd.edu
Bob Costa, Yardley, Pa. - One of the founding members of Notre Dame's student-produced television network, NDtv, Costa is the host of "Office Hours with Bob Costa," an interview-format program that he describes as "Meet the Press" meets "Charlie Rose." Among his big "gets," Costa has interviewed such big names as musicians Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, and Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Notre Dame's president and president emeritus, respectively. An American studies major and reporter for Notre Dame's student newspaper, the Observer, Costa received Notre Dame's 2008 James E.Murphy Award for Exceptional Journalism and this summer is heading to New York City to cover the 2008 presidential campaign and House and Senate races as the Wall Street Journal's Robert L. Bartley Fellow. Next year he will begin a master's degree program at the University of Cambridge in England, where he will study at Queens' College, Cambridge, with a main research focus on the modern state and Anglo-American relations.
Costa can be reached at rcosta1@nd.edu
Adam Gadzinski, Ludington, Mich. - A senior physics-in-medicine major, Gadzinski completed his studies with a 4.0 GPA and was a candidate for valedictorian of his graduating class. For the past two summers, he received a fellowship to conduct clinical research at the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis under Dr. David Gutmann and his research has been published in the journal Experimental Neurology. A four-year participant in the marching band, hockey band and the Notre Dame drumline, he also was a resident assistant and academic and multicultural commissioner on Hall Council for Morrissey Manor. In the community, he was a team leader for the National Youth Sports Program and volunteered through the Center for Social Concerns Appalachia Program. Gadzinski, who plans on specializing in pediatric oncology, was accepted to a number of medical schools, including Harvard's, and has chosen to attend the University of Michigan Medical School as the dean's scholarship recipient and specialize in either pediatric oncology or orthpaedic surgery.
Gadzinski can be reached at agadzins@nd.edu
Saderia Nicole Hooks, Miami, Fla. - An Africana studies major with a minor in theology, Hooks is the only student on campus with that unique academic combination and is the first person in her family and from her high school to attend Notre Dame. She serves as the program director for Lead ND, which works to curb educational inequity by facilitating a weekly after-school program for 7th and 8th grade "non-traditional" leaders in South Bend schools. She has worked for the last three years with a team of students hoping to establish a Black Student Association on campus, and, beginning in August, she will teach 4th grade in Jacksonville, Fla., at St. Pius V, a predominantly and traditionally black Catholic elementary school, as part of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education program. Ultimately, Hooks says she wants to design curricula for students that teach them how to think, not simply memorize, and someday work in policymaking for the U.S. Department of Education.
Hooks can be reached at shooks@nd.edu
Jennifer Korzan, Granger, Ind. - Shortly after collecting her arts and letters diploma, Korzan will be running off. Rather a long way off--in fact, to Tanzania, where she will volunteer at an orphanage on the outskirts of Dar-es-Salaam. An avid runner, Korzan has competed in the Boston and Chicago marathons, and one in Dublin, Ireland, and will almost certainly compete in the Mount Kenya marathon in Tanzania this summer, where she will be working for Hope Runs, a non-profit organization that uses athletics, education and social entrepreneurship to help AIDS orphans. Korzan intends to bring with her at least 1,000 donated pairs of running shoes (she is collecting new or gently used shoes appropriate for children ages five to 18) for the children who run daily, with several of the older ones competing in the Mount Kenya marathon. As Korzan recently told insidegranger46350 magazine, she chose Hope Runs because she "identified with its mission to use running to empower orphaned AIDS children."
Korzan can be reached at jkorzan@nd.edu
Mallory McMorrow, Whitehouse, N.J. - A senior industrial design major who was dubbed the "car girl" by classmates, McMorrow was the winner of this year's Mazda Design Challenge. The competition drew more than 400 college student design entries and the selection process involved both the Mazda Design Team of North America and online voting on the social networking site Facebook. McMorrow emerged victorious in a landslide in the final voting and earned the opportunity to work with Franz von Holzhausen, director of design for Mazda's North American Operations, to carve a full-size prototype of her concept car from a lump of clay live at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Her performance at the auto show led to a coveted Mazda internship, an important step toward her goal of becoming a car designer.
McMorrow can be reached at mcmorrow.4@nd.edu
Erin Mulholland, Nahsotah, Wis. - A senior in aerospace and mechanical engineering, Mulholland received the Steiner Award as one of the College of Engineering's outstanding students and was named recipient of the Sigma Gamma Tau Regional Honor Award, which recognizes the top aerospace engineering honors undergraduate in the Midwest region. She is now eligible for the honor society's top U.S. aerospace engineering undergraduate student honor. She also was selected to participate last summer in a highly competitive internship program at NASA's Ames Academy for Space Exploration. Mulholland served in Notre Dame Student Government, as a student representative for the inauguration of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and in the student section of the Society of Women Engineers. Her community activities included participation in the Turning Over a New Leaf Project, in a service learning effort at the St. Joseph County Public Library that focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder, and as a volunteer at the University's Robinson Community Learning Center.
Mulholland can be reached at mullholand.2@nd.edu
Pablo Nava, Bedford, Texas - As a member of the winning team in the 2007 Notre Dame Social Venture Business Plan Competition through the University's Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nava is one of the driving forces behind Por Fin, Nuestra Casa (Finally, a Home of our Own), an enterprise aimed at providing Mexican workers living in substandard conditions with an affordable and secure housing alternative. With the $10,000 prize money from the competition, the team launched its plan to convert surplus shipping containers into individual residences for workers in some 3,000 factories in the Mexican city of Juarez. The homes, which are made from reused steel shipping containers that are wind and water tight and measure 40 feet in length, will offer a desperately needed "ultra-low-cost housing" at approximately $8,000 per unit.
Nava can be reached at pnava@nd.edu