For Julia Hawthorne ’23, helping people—especially women—reach their full potential and access new opportunities is critically important. She now uses her majors in biology and philosophy to help people across the world.
Continuing a Tradition
Since her freshman year, Julia has worked to make her South Bend community a better place by continuing her own family tradition of “adopting a family” over the holidays.
This entails Christmas shopping for essential items, such as clothes and food, to non-essential items, like children's toys, for families who are unable to afford them.
This year, Julia has taken on the role of president of the Adopt-a-Family Christmas Initiative at Notre Dame, leading students to create beautiful holiday memories for local families in need. The student members fundraise throughout the year and then personally bring Thanksgiving meals and Christmas presents to the families.
“We're able to give back to the South Bend community that gives so much to our Notre Dame community, and I'm able to help Notre Dame students create new traditions and develop their own Notre Dame Family through participation in the club.”
In the past year, Julia has helped the club to raise more than $8,000 for this goal through a variety of fundraisers that will benefit about 15 families in need this holiday season.
"The Adopt-a-Family Christmas Initiative gives students the opportunity to continue a tradition that many of them have at home, which is shopping for a family in need. I believe it means a lot to our Notre Dame Family, and I think that we're responsible for giving back to them.”
The system is more than a simple drop-off. Julia recounts the connections that she has made with the families she serves. According to her, her favorite moment was when she was invited into the home of a family after dropping off a Thanksgiving meal.
She used this time to foster a relationship with the family and play with the children. That Christmas, she was able to hand-pick gifts that she knew they would enjoy.
"I think that getting to build a relationship with the people we're helping makes our work so much more impactful. It makes it so much more rewarding to pick out Christmas presents for little kids that we've played with.”
Julia’s service reaches far beyond the city lines of South Bend. She is also working hard to improve the lives of women across the world.
From South Bend to Uganda
For many, writing a senior thesis is a chore—the final time-consuming and difficult task before graduation. But for Julia, it has the potential to radically change the lives of women across the world.
Julia believes that two of the most pressing issues keeping women from the opportunities they deserve are the lack of accessibility to health care and education.
To help combat this where it’s needed most, Julia spent a summer in Uganda working at an all-girls vocational school, St. Bakhita. The goal of the two-month-long trip was to help St. Bakhita become more financially independent and self-sustaining, and Julia put her biology degree to use by working specifically with health care.
"I spent the summer at St. Bakhita’s working on my senior thesis, which is on women's health, particularly health management. While I was there, I worked with the school nurse and the secretary of education for the region to develop a women's health curriculum."
She also helped to distribute menstrual cups and teach the women how to use and properly sterilize them.
"Educating girls and women has been shown to significantly uplift communities, but girls and women often don't have access to education in Uganda, especially in the northern region. Even when they do, a lack of resources for menstruation can negatively impact their education.”
In the future, Julia wants to continue to take what she has learned at Notre Dame to find new ways to improve access to health care and education to further uplift, serve, and empower women.
Thank you for your monthly loyalty to current Notre Dame students through For Good. Because of your generosity, students like Julia continue to shape Notre Dame and the world into a better place. To read, listen to, or watch more stories, visit givemonthly.nd.edu.