From choir to social work to being one of the best RA’s ( and best cooks) on campus, ladies and gentlemen, Michelle Mowry!
Name: Michelle Mowry
Year: Senior (2014)
Dorm: PE (the hottest, of course!)
Hometown: Reno, NV
Major: Sociology and French
Extracurricular activities: Liturgical Choir and Professional RA-ing
Use three words to describe yourself.Bold, caring and radiant.
Describe ND in three words.A loving, honest community.
Favorite place on campus and why: I absolutely adore God Quad. No matter what the weather is like, the dome is always shining. It reminds me of the first time I drove up Notre Dame Ave as a prospie and how lucky I am to call Notre Dame my home.
What extracurricular activity do you treasure the most and why?I enjoy singing in the Liturgical Choir and being an RA equally. Lit Choir lets me give back to the Notre Dame community with my voice and allows me to pray in a very unique way. Knowing that I may help someone someday become closer to God through music is an amazing feeling.
Being an RA is a wonderful way to care for others. I truly enjoy baking treats for my section every Tuesday, supporting them in their various activities and being a willing listener. I think these are the small things that can make a big difference in everyone’s college experience, and I want to make sure that my girls have the best.
What’s it like being an RA?Being an RA is such a multidimensional job. It revolves entirely around self-gift: doing whatever you can to help your residents succeed and mature as individuals throughout their four years. A lot of these things are really small, like fixing an overflowing toilet, or difficult, such as enforcing policy, but ultimately, these all help create a good community to live in.
Whats your favorite part of being an RA?My favorite part of being an RA is hosting Tuesday Treat Time every Tuesday in my room. After Hall Council, I invite everyone from the section to join me for some good food and great conversation. I truly look forward to this time every week. Whether my young women stay for five minutes or a couple of hours, it makes my day to see them and hear about how things are going.
Least favorite?Staying up until parietals to do rounds can be really difficult sometimes, but I enjoy knowing that I am doing it to make sure that everyone is safe before I go to bed.
If you could go back in time to freshmen year, what would you tell yourself?I would tell myself that grades can’t measure what you learn here. Notre Dame prides itself on educating the mind and the heart, and I encourage everyone reading this to give your heart the time it needs to grow.
What’s your favorite part of senior year? My favorite part of senior year is being an RA. Hands down, it is the greatest opportunity I could have ever asked for. I truly believe that I have the best job in the world.
Why do you love your major?I like Sociology because it has taught me to question causality and to dig deeper into the things humans do habitually. It has given me a critical eye that I really value.
You were recently at a Gender Studies conference presenting your thesis, what was your thesis about?I wrote my senior thesis on the hookup culture. I designed an online survey to see whether or not academic and extracurricular commitment and religiosity were correlated with hookup behavior.
Why did you decide to investigate this topic?I decided to investigate this topic because the hookup culture has always been a mystery to me. I really wanted to dig into this subject and see what useful information I could find to give back to my peers.
What was the presentation like?The presentation was wonderful! I was very excited to share my findings with the other students at the conference and to answer their questions about it.
If you could have any job in the world, what would it be and why?I would be (and will be!) a social worker. I think the work social workers do is incredibly important. Like an RA, social workers do the little things for marginalized populations, and they work to create effective social change. I can’t wait to be a part of it!
What would you say is your motto in life?“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Thanks Michelle!!!
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