Moreau First Year Seminar
Megan Leis
December 3, 2021

Integration 2
     What Have I Encountered and How Will I Respond?
     So far I have loved my experience at Notre Dame and have learned so much about myself and others just from being on campus for one semester. I wrote an essay on the homeless population in South Bend for my Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric class and came up with very thoughtful realizations about myself. The essay was 9 pages long and required extensive amounts of research, forcing me to engulf myself into this topic. The first realization that I had was realizing how lucky and fortunate I am to live the life that I live and obtain all the luxuries that I possess. I went to a private high school where so many kids were just as fortunate as me. Writing the longest essay I have ever written on the homeless in South Bend made me realize the bubble that I’ve lived in for the majority of my life. Writing this essay was something that I will always be grateful for because of how much knowledge I gained regarding the shell that I’m so used to living in. I have already reached out to homeless shelters here in South Bend and I intend to construct plans on how to lower the number of homeless people in South Bend.
     For the week 9 QQC I asked,  “Do you ever feel like you don’t belong at Notre Dame due to academic achievement?” It was very interesting to learn from the Ted Talk video that imposter syndrome is common in anyone despite their background and is very common. It occurs so often that people feel as though they should be a part of something even when they completely deserve to be a part of it. This results in a lack of confidence and can cause people to decide not to apply to jobs in which they would thrive. I’ve seen this very syndrome in myself and others that I surround myself with. People don’t recognize the severity of it and it for sure is a very underrated topic. I personally related to the topic question for this week because I felt feelings of misplacement when I got into the University of Notre Dame. I was a son of two parents that attended the university which made me feel like that was the ultimate reason for my acceptance. While you can’t ignore this, you also can’t ignore my high school resume which was highly impressive. I took and succeeded in 7 AP classes throughout high school and did lots of sports while starting my own club. I also did a ton of service and had remarkable grades. When you combine my total package I think it’s fair that I got into Notre Dame. My accomplishments sometimes get forgotten by me and I often think that “I only got into this school because of my parents.” It’s important to reflect on your hard work in the past so that you realize why you deserve what you have accomplished. 
     The week 10 QQC focus question asked “What are the central challenges of my community and how do I respond?” It was fascinating to read about how a school got criticized for not including an extracurricular activity that all people would feel safe going to regarding their identity. “They demand that their schools implement curriculum, student formation, hiring and programmatic measures to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion (D.E.I.). They want to see accountability and progress in meeting measurable goals in these areas. In response to these grievances and claims, school leaders have adopted and announced various new D.E.I. measures and resources during this school year” (Devron 3). People were obviously unhappy with the school's way of including diversity and equity inclusion. Whether or not you agree or disagree with what is being criticised by other people regarding your school, it is always important to listen and take action. The leaders of the school (faculty and student leaders) are responsible for ensuring that the school operates at a level that everyone is comfortable with. When people criticize the safety of the school in terms of inclusion, action is needed as soon as possible. The fact that student leaders immediately implemented D.E.I. into the school curriculum shows how good the student leaders are. They listened to what people were saying and helped make their school a better place and safer zone for other students. This story relates to me because I consider myself a leader in school, and I feel as though this was especially the case in high school. While I succeeded in being a good athlete at high school, I was different from a lot of the talented athletes. I treated everyone with respect and the same way I treated my friends on the football and basketball teams. This gave me a good reputation and made me an unspoken leader which a lot of my friends were not seen as. I always ensured that our school was a place of inclusion because there was never a reason not to include everyone. Our school never received criticism with regards to inclusion, but we received criticism in other areas. When we received criticism I felt as though I had a responsibility to ensure that our school changed its habits in order to eliminate those criticisms. That’s what being a leader is all about.
I chose to write about these specific QQCs in my integration paper because these were the two that left the greatest impact on me during my time and experience with Moreau. I think the biggest thing for me is reflection because once I begin to reflect, I start learning so much about myself and others. Moreau was such a great class for me to utilize transitioning into college because it provided clarity about my identity and ambitions. I felt as though I could be a free spirit in Moreau class and when doing assignments for Moreau. That’s the exact quality that makes Moreau priceless for any student at Notre Dame. I was extremely blessed to have Megan as a teacher and I will never forget the impact that she (you) left on my life. I can’t wait to take Moreau next semester and use it to help me spread my wings and fly.