With the class of 2029 settling into campus, freshmen are amidst their third week of the Moreau First-Year Experience. The course has been a staple of Notre Dame’s curriculum for the past decade, although the course has undergone significant changes this year.
Last year, a portion of the class of 2028 was given a pilot Moreau curriculum. This school year, the pilot was fully adopted: Each freshman will take one semester of Moreau followed by a second semester their senior year.
Andrew Whittington, the program’s senior director, explained in a statement to The Observer that after the program’s initial creation in 2015 “to build upon Notre Dame’s aim to educate both the minds and hearts of her students,” an initiative was launched in 2022 to rethink the experience. In collaboration with the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research, a committee of faculty and staff leaders researched new approaches for the program.
According to Whittington, the new program maintains “fundamental principles” of the former rendition of the course, including a common syllabus, small class sizes and an overarching goal of building community.
Theology professor Bill Mattison, the faculty director of the Moreau program, shared that the process of creating this year’s rendition of the program was sparked when leaders in student affairs and the provost’s office came together two years ago to discuss how they “thought it could be more, particularly if campus-wide faculty and staff leaders were involved in redesigning it and teaching it,” Mattison wrote in a statement to The Observer.
Mattison later formed two committees to support the program’s creation, the curriculum committee, whose task according to Whittington was to “integrate intellectual reflection on ultimate questions about God, relationships, and the human person with practical applications of living well,” as well as the co-curricular committee, who oversaw the development of the co-curricular activities.
“Our team improved upon the pilot course by offering a clearer course description and consolidating the purpose of the course into two most fundamental learning goals,” Whittington wrote. He noted that the majority of required texts remain the same from the pilot.
The course is grounded in the work of program namesake Basil Moreau and that of other members of the Congregation of the Holy Cross who founded the University.
“Not only the content but also the shape of the course honors Father Moreau’s teachings on Christian education. Among the course topics are three placed at the beginning, middle, and end of the course to remind students of grace: gratitude, dignity, and rest,” professor Neil Arner, the associate faculty director for the program, wrote, adding that students will engage with five texts or videos prepared by members of the congregation throughout their time in the course.
One significant change to the course is the introduction of the Moreau Commonplace Book, which was provided to each freshman to write reflections in.
Along with the book, the course curriculum now includes videos from campus leaders who speak on “various aspects of a life well lived,” citing friendship, work, community, dignity and leisure as example themes which are explored in terms of how students can apply them at Notre Dame and beyond.
The course’s instructors have also been diversified to include faculty along with deans, department chairs, institute heads, provost John McGreevy, University President Emeritus Fr. John Jenkins and Notre Dame Law School dean Marcus Cole. Whittington shared that the new instructors’ addition to the program demonstrates “their commitment to serving and walking with our newest Notre Dame students.”
The most pronounced change to the program has been the introduction of Moreau peer leaders (MPL), which were incorporated after being tested and receiving positive reviews during the pilot. Upperclassmen peer leaders join the freshmen in the course each week, their main role during each class being to provide a 10-minute personal reflection to provide a starting point for connections from the texts and materials the freshmen will examine each week to their personal lives.
“Along with the Commonplace Book, the Moreau Peer Leaders might be the most popular and impactful feature of the First-Year Seminar,” Mattison wrote, “Since the seminar invites students to probe perennial questions as they relate to living at Notre Dame and beyond, upper-class students serving as peer leaders draw on their own experiences to help guide students in their own quest to thrive at Notre Dame.”
220 students applied for the 120 Moreau Peer Leader spots, a competitive cycle that Whittington wrote was “a sign of the strength of our community in its desire to serve first-year students and the trust in the new Moreau Program.”
Nate Moore, a sophomore in Duncan Hall who is a peer leader for professor Melissa Moschella’s section of the course, noted that peer leaders are encouraged to spend time with the students outside of class, so he took the freshmen in his section to Chipotle last Wednesday.
“Inside and outside the classroom, [the peer leaders] are like big brothers and sisters to the students,” Mattison wrote.
In one class session, Moore spoke on tradition at Notre Dame, sharing, “the students read these two articles and essentially what they were about was look, Notre Dame is ingrained in football traditions and we have tons of different dorm events that go on, but the root of what Notre Dame is really built on is the seeking for understanding and truth. So my role was trying to get the students to move away from football to start thinking about education beyond the future of positions and status holds.”
David Rae, a senior in Siegfried Hall, served as a peer leader for the program last year.
“I applied to be a Moreau Peer Leader because I was excited about the way that this version of Moreau connects with and ministers to first year students by tailoring the readings and discussions to promote conversations that are applicable to their everyday lives while also cultivating an attentiveness to those around them and God,” he wrote.
Rae discussed how valuable building a Moreau community is to him and added, “Being a MPL gives me the chance to walk with first year students on their journey to adjust to life at Notre Dame as I can try to be a friend and resource to them: sometimes offering advice through my testimonials but sometimes just an understanding ear to rant to about the many struggles that will come along the way.”
Additionally, students are expected to attend three of 26 offered “co-curricular learning opportunities” per semester, which Mattison shared include cultural events featuring theater, poetry, dance and music. The program’s signature co-curricular event will be an evening for freshmen in the program to spend with University President Fr. Robert Dowd on Oct. 7 at Notre Dame Stadium, where he will speak on hope.
Freshmen will also complete two co-curricular labs, interactive activities like interviewing a classmate in detail and writing a reflection on the interview.
This program is largely unique to Notre Dame due to it being “a common course across the entire student body, intellectually rich and nourishing, with a holistic focus on living well” according to Whittington.
Savannah Gurnsey, a freshman in Welsh Family Hall, shared her appreciation for the course.
“I think it’s really cool that we get to learn about what the school stands for and the goals they have for their students. It’s different than any other college that I’ve heard of. It feels like they really want me to actually become a better person,” Guernsey said.
