This weekend parents and guardians of juniors made the trek to South Bend to celebrate their students’ time at Notre Dame.
The weekend’s keynote event was the President’s Dinner held Saturday night in the Joyce Center. University President Fr. John Jenkins spoke about his time as an undergraduate student at Notre Dame and compared it to current students’ experiences. This was Jenkins’ last Junior Parents Weekend (JPW) before he steps down as president.
In his speech, Jenkins said this is the second time the class of 2025 has gathered all together. The first was for drop-off in August 2021, when students and parents alike were nervous about what the future might hold. Jenkins looked back on parents’ stress about how their children would fit in at school and how students battled homesickness and adjusted to life on a college campus.
Jenkins said JPW is a special event that allows students to show their parents a glimpse into their lives at Notre Dame, meet their friends and their friends’ parents.
Junior Gabi Maletta said her favorite part of the event was the dessert, but she also enjoyed Jenkins’ speech.
“I was also really surprised at how much I loved Fr. Jenkins’ speech. It totally resonated with my JPW experience,” Maletta said. “I feel like everyone in the room was just silent listening to him almost in tears. It was amazing.”
Maletta also appreciated the opportunity to show her parents what her day-to-day life is like at school. She said they walked around to her classes and stopped by her favorite study spots.
“They also got a chance to meet some of my professors for both my majors, which was really fun and exciting,” she said.
Junior and President’s Dinner chair Derick Williams gave welcoming remarks to students and their families at the dinner. Following his introduction, junior class president Rose Nguyen spoke on behalf of the class of 2025.
Nguyen reflected on the importance of this milestone not only for the students but also for their parents and guardians who helped reach this stage of their lives. She said the college experience is part of a shared story between the parents and children and the experience has meaning for both.
JPW co-chairs Lauren Rivera and Lucas Chalfoun also spoke at the dinner and thanked their parents for their support. Rivera and Chalfoun led the committee responsible for planning the weekend’s events, which included academic workshops, campus tours, residence life open houses and the Class of 2025 Mass.
The events kicked off on Friday afternoon with the hospitality room in Duncan Student Center and ended with a continental breakfast in Dahnke Ballroom on Sunday morning.
The next time the class of 2025 and their families will meet is for graduation in May 2025.
Caroline Collins contributed to the reporting of this story.
