Stories feature student, faculty research

‘What Would You Fight For?’ a series of two-minute videos featuring the efforts and accomplishments of Notre Dame researchers recently finished its 18th season on November 16, 2024. The shorts aired during football games on the jumbotron and played as shortened advertisements on live television.

Broadcast on NBC, the videos are produced by Beth Grisoli, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Communications at Notre Dame. According to the project website, the series showcases Notre Dame’s commitment to “take action to find solutions to humanity’s most pressing challenges.” In the past, the series has focused on issues such as water sustainability, the opioid crisis, renewable energy, and literacy.

Every year, six videos are produced and aired before the second half of home football games. They are later archived on the project’s website and accompanied by in-depth articles that include interviews with faculty members, students, and those helped by Notre Dame’s research.

This season, the series featured six videos: “Fighting to improve education policies”; “Fighting to combat America’s mental health crisis”; “Fighting for those with rare diseases”; “Fighting for NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] babies and their families”; “Fighting for religious liberty”; and “Fighting To Serve Others Before Self.” 

Since the series’ start in 2007, it has become a nationally lauded project, receiving a Sports Emmy in May 2024.

One of this season’s highlighted projects, “Fighting for those with rare diseases,” features Professor Santiago Schnell, the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science, and the story of Annie Hamilton, a Notre Dame student with Friedreich’s Ataxia. 

Hamilton, a junior at Notre Dame, was diagnosed with the rare disease at the age of nine. Since then, her parents have dedicated their lives to finding a cure for Friedreich’s Ataxia.

“Notre Dame is fighting above its weight class in the rare disease space,” Annie’s father, Tom, says in the video. “It’s bringing in world class researchers and working closely with patients like Annie. … Their patient advocacy program is teaching undergrads to be their voices and hands for those in need.”

In an interview with the Rover, Schnell emphasized the importance of research motivated by an understanding of human dignity, saying, “At Notre Dame, our efforts in rare disease research and advocacy are rooted in the belief that every human life is sacred and irreplaceable. Rare diseases challenge us not only scientifically but also morally, calling us to embody the values of compassion, perseverance, and hope.”

Schnell continued, “As Catholics, we are called to cherish life, even in its most fragile forms, and to stand against solutions like euthanasia, which abandon those in need rather than embracing them with love and care. Through our research and advocacy, we seek to honor the dignity of every individual and to illuminate the nobility of the human spirit in the face of profound challenges.”

Another video this season, titled “Fighting for NICU babies and their families,” highlights the work of multiple researchers as they seek to improve conditions in neonatal intensive care units. The video describes the story of Jay and Elizabeth Tipton, NICU parents who were helped by Notre Dame’s research when their twins were born.

“We knew NICUs weren’t set up in the best way for the care of babies, so we decided to make changes,” says Doctor Bob White, a neonatologist, in the video. “We were the first NICU to provide rooms where mothers and babies could receive their care together.”

White, who started the NICU at what is now Beacon Children’s Hospital in South Bend, worked with other Notre Dame researchers to explore how issues like hospital lighting, bedsharing, and breastfeeding affect children in the NICU and their families.

Other contributors to the NICU project include Kathleen Kolberg, associate dean of the College of Science, and James McKenna, a Notre Dame Emeritus professor of anthropology and the director of Notre Dame’s Mother-Baby Sleep Behavior Laboratory.

When asked about the scope of further work to support NICU babies, McKenna told the Rover,  “Two big issues come to mind: the absence of adequate paid leave for parents of newborns or for taking care of elderly ill parents. The other related issue I would fight for is more active support and education for breastfeeding, obviously related to the leave issue, but deserving of more visible educational programs.”

According to many of the researchers, increasing public knowledge about such issues is essential to their research and the personal impact they hope to make. The ‘What Would You Fight For?’ project has not only helped to highlight the importance of hidden issues to its viewers, but has also served to increase funding, resources, and, most importantly, a sense of passion, for the causes they fight for.

Rachel Dubbink, a freshman computer science major, commented on the series and the issues it highlights, saying, “I think it’s special how Notre Dame is unlike any other college, with the fact that they’re willing to put their money towards protecting God’s creation and the dignity of human life.”

Dubbink continued, “I think them being so open about it and willing to broadcast it at their football games for all to see really just sets the stage for what everyone else should be doing … protecting life at all stages, since it’s all God’s creation and we’re called to care for it and protect it.”

Another student, a freshman anthropology major, commented on the diversity of issues covered by the series, saying, “I appreciated the broad scope of fields that the series focused on. I was especially struck by the ‘Fighting for religious liberty’ segment because it highlighted the importance of solidarity and using Catholic principles to fight for social and political justice.”

‘What Would You Fight For?’ is set to continue in the next year, with new videos airing during the upcoming football season.

Abby Strelow is a freshman theology major who wrote an entire article but couldn’t think of a byline for it because she was tired. Help her out at astrelow@nd.edu.