First Lecture Series
The First Lecture Series, a partnership between the Center for University Advising and colleges and schools at Notre Dame, invites first-year students to engage with the scholarly life of our distinct university community, integrating intellectual passion and a keenly developed moral responsibility.
Each Welcome Weekend, Notre Dame faculty join you in your first moments on campus to thoughtfully consider a response to two fundamental questions of a life well-lived. While offering a glimpse into their own journeys, these expert scholars will also challenge you to begin to form your own unique response to these questions:
What matters?
What should we do about it?
This Welcome Weekend, engage with your faculty members as they give witness to a passion for discovery, beauty, innovation, justice, and the possibilities of human achievement. In turn, ignite a search for your own answers - a search that might inform your entire undergraduate educational experience.
Watch the First Lecture Series Video Overview
Registration has closed.
Beginning July 26, you can browse the Fall 2023 First Lecture Series and register for one First Lecture. All lectures take place simultaneously and each lecture is limited according to space capacities. Since registration is on a first-come basis, we encourage you to explore options and register as soon as possible. Registration closed on August 9, 2023.
If you did not register for a First Lecture, you will be automatically assigned a First Lecture. All students can view their First Lecture registration, along with First Lecture locations, below.
Explore all Lectures
All students have the ability to register for any lecture across any and all colleges/schools. We encourage you to embrace your sense of curiosity and discovery as you step into this new community of scholars. What sparks your interest? What have you never heard of before? How will you best utilize this chance to explore?
Connect with Others
Since the First Lecture Series invites you to register for a preferred lecture based on your curiosity, this registration process presents an opportunity for you to connect with classmates of similar academic and intellectual interests. When you registered, you had the option of indicating your interest in connecting with other first-year students who register for the same lecture. Here, we hope to help you initiate formative relationships with not only faculty, but also with each other.
Check your email!
Students who opted into connecting with others from their First Lecture received an email from Welcome Weekend on Aug. 19 with a unique link to join a First Lecture-based GroupMe. Students who did not originally indicate an interest, but now wish to join their First Lecture's GroupMe can email whittington@nd.edu to request access.
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Accounting for Success
This First Lecture will discuss adjustments to college life at Notre Dame, and how you define "success" at Notre Dame and in your business career.
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Art as Evidence
How learning to think about art (and more broadly about things made by human beings) can make you a better thinker and a stronger researcher no matter what your academic interests are.
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Avoiding 'Bullshit,' Burnout, and Alienation: A Philosophical Guide to Purposeful Work
In this lecture, we will shed light on three primary barriers to flourishing at work: "bullshit" tasks, burnout, and alienation.
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Bandaids on bullet wounds? Providing effective, dignified, and ethical mental health care in conflict-affected settings
Using examples from our team's work in Egypt, Palestine, and Peru, we will discuss questions regarding the contextual and cultural adaptation of mental health care and next steps towards providing ethical and dignified care for those affected by violence.
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Become the Architect of Your Own Future: Tips for Designing for Your Academic Career, Professional Interests, and Life in General
Explore and build a plan for your undergraduate experience.
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Be Good and Do Good: The Role of Marketing in Making a Difference
Join Susan Kleiser, Teaching Professor of Marketing, to discuss making a positive impact on the Notre Dame community, the field of marketing, and beyond.
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Breaking the Rules to Make the Rules: Poverty, Pragmatism & Legal Compliance in South Asia and Beyond
In this lecture, we will consider why we engage in rule-following behavior, both individually and collectively, and see how poverty can complicate this process and think through ways to facilitate legal compliance for the poor.
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Chemical Engineering Past and Future
Humankind has reached the point of changing our environment on a global scale. How did we get here? How will we (you!) address the consequences?
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Chemistry and the Opioid Crisis
During the lecture there will be a hands-on activity where we will use lateral flow immunoassay strips to test samples for fentanyl, and I’ll describe how undergraduates can get involved in research projects and community service.
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Confronting the Global Ecological Crisis Together at ND
Learn about the biggest global ecological threats of our time, some of the exciting environmental research at ND, and opportunities for you to grow your passion for sustainability on campus.
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From Curiosity to Discovery: A Guide to Engaging with the Research Mission of the University
Notre Dame encourages students to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, develop critical thinking skills, and make meaningful contributions to your respective fields of interest. So let’s get started down that path.
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Life as an Engineer
This will be a story of the life an engineer - sharing common experiences and helping students identify some of the professional and personal challenges and opportunities that may come their way.
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Making a Difference through Social Entrepreneurship
This session will introduce social entrepreneurship as means for producing innovative solutions to big challenges such as poverty, human trafficking, literacy gaps, or environmental degradation.
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Navigating University Life and How to Make the Most of the Next Four Years
Philippe Collon, Associate Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics, will offer a First Lecture on the transition to Notre Dame and the preciousness of this undergraduate opportunity.
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No Pressure Or Anything . . . But the Future of American Democracy Is In Your Hands: How Young People Can Reinvent Politics As We Know It
The good news is that my time teaching at Notre Dame has shown me that young people--just like you--can help to turn things around. Come and find out how you can be part of the solution.
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Powerful Means: Finding and living your purpose through academic engagement
We will explore what it means to serve as a Powerful Means, by identifying ways you can live your values and purpose through intentional academic engagement, while addressing complex problems facing the world.
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Question Everything: Paradoxes, Surprises and Counterintuitive Truths
In this First Lecture, we'll explore some counterintuitive facts - some of which have serious implications. By the end, you should see that it is a wise strategy to take nothing for granted, and to question everything.
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Set yourself up to change the world for the better through technology, data, and business
Many young people want to make a positive impact on the world, but are not sure how.
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The Craft of Computing, the Beauty of Physics and the Joy of Music and a Few Other Things I Learned in College
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To the EXTREMES! What humans pushing their limits in extreme environments can teach us about health and athletic performance
Mount Everest, the Sahara Desert, the Arctic Circle, ultramarathons…outer space - these are just some of the extremes humans experience. But, how do humans cope with such a broad range of environments?
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Want to Earn Better Grades and Retain Your Learning While Also Having More Free Time?
Earn better grades and learn more effectively while spending less time studying than with your present approach to your classwork.” Sound too good to be true?
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Welcome to "Knowledge Disney World"
There are as many opportunities for learning and growth here as there are rides at Disney World. In this lecture, we'll collect your fast pass and skip the lines to access these resources and opportunities more expediently.
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What does Mendoza offer to Undergraduates Interested in Finance?
What does finance have to do with "growing the good?"
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Witnessing Climate Change
How is climate change transforming our lives? How do we live ethically in a world of catastrophe? What is the relationship between nature and faith? How can writing change the world?
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You've Made it to College... Now What? Navigating Academic Rigor and Staying Whole in the Process
None of us can continually "do more" to "stay ahead"... that strategy is simply not sustainable. You are invited to come explore some common internal challenges many of our students have faced in their transition to university life.