Dear first years,After an unprecedented spring and summer, we are overjoyed to have the opportunity to welcome you all home and foster community under the Dome once again. To introduce ourselves, our names are Rachel and Sarah, and we are humbled to serve as your student body president and vice president this year. If there is anything that we have learned about the Notre Dame family during our three years here, it is that we are resilient. In times of adversity, we step up to adapt to challenges and support one another. We are grounded by our friendships and our faith in our community to overcome. Undoubtedly, this isn’t how you all expected to begin your college experience, and it isn’t quite how we expected to end ours either. However, instead of dwelling on what we may have envisioned, we encourage you to focus instead on the tremendous opportunity we all are presented with. We look forward to the new traditions that will be born out of our adapted campus activities, the new perspectives that we will gain and the chance we have to rise to the occasion. As we know, the world is watching, and it’s time to show them that Notre Dame is a community that deeply cares. The University’s health and safety protocols are rooted in both science and love of one’s neighbor, and we call on each of you to abide by them out of respect for our beloved community.Over the next four years, you will make memories to last a lifetime. You will challenge yourselves like never before in the classroom, learn about yourselves in new ways through your campus involvement and dig into life’s greatest questions. You will find joy in all of the little things — Southwest Salads on Thursdays at NDH, late-night conversations in your residence halls, sunny days on South Quad, quiet moments in the library and loud ones in the stadium. And most of all, you will feel known and loved by some of the best friends you could ever hope for. Finally, we encourage you all to visit us in the student government office in 203 LaFortune! It would be our sincere pleasure to get to learn more about your passions and work hand-in-hand to make our University a more welcoming and inclusive place for all. Once again, welcome home.
Rachel Ingal
student body president, Notre Dame
senior
Sarah Galbenski
student body vice president, Notre Dame
senior
Aug. 2
