A Fresh Cohort of Notre Dame Students Prepares to Drive Global Solutions for Vulnerable Children

A Fresh Cohort of Notre Dame Students Prepares to Drive Global Solutions for Vulnerable Children

As a new Fall semester begins, a fresh cohort of Notre Dame students is stepping up to turn developmental research into real-world solutions through a unique course led by Professor Neil Boothby, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC). Building on the momentum of previous cohorts, in this course, titled Early Childhood Development and Poverty Alleviation: A Global Perspective, students learn how the science of early childhood development can break cycles of poverty, and then apply that science to hands-on projects across the globe. 

Drawing 29 students across diverse disciplines—including Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS), Neuroscience, Psychology, and Global Affairs—the course equips students with a deep understanding of how the earliest years of life shape lifelong cognitive, emotional, and social well-being. Far beyond typical classroom study, this semester’s students not only master the science, but also conduct extensive research to inform their theory of change, project design, and evaluation protocol—moving beyond theory to translate classroom knowledge into action through hands-on projects that advance Notre Dame’s mission to be a force for good and address poverty locally in South Bend, and globally in India, Haiti, and Tanzania.

“These student translation projects demonstrate the Center’s core mission of translating evidence-based research into impactful and sustainable programs,” says Professor Neil Boothby, Director of the GC-DWC. “By partnering with existing GC-DWC initiatives, students will produce final deliverables that are not theoretical papers, but actionable toolkits designed for immediate deployment by teachers and parents on the ground.”

Fall 2026 Student Translation Projects:

• India: Preschool Teacher Capacity Development: Building on prior student work that helped design a new pre-primary curriculum for the Ministry of Education in Telangana, India, this semester’s students are building a scalable, professional development model for pre-primary educators. With pre-primary classes being added in schools, the demand for teacher support has increased significantly, and traditional pre-service pathways alone will not be sufficient to meet that demand. Students will think through the design of a largely online professional learning program, including content modules, classroom demonstration videos, reflection activities, coaching mechanisms, and knowledge and practice assessments or check-ins.  The output will be a prototype course structure that will be hosted on one of the Ministry of Education’s virtual learning platforms.
   
• Tanzania: Eden Academy & St. Felista’s Parish:
   
  • Curriculum & Teacher Development: Students refine pre-primary curricula tailored to local culture, creating contextualized lesson plans grounded in developmental science while facilitating professional development sessions with local Eden Academy teachers.
     
  • Parent Empowerment: Grounded in the GC-DWC’s "Home, School, and Church" framework, students build interactive monthly workshops that integrate science and faith to promote positive parenting and school readiness.
     
  • Sustainable Nutrition: Collaborating with GC-DWC nutrition specialists, students design a homestead poultry intervention aimed at increasing egg consumption for pregnant mothers, infants, and young children during critical early developmental windows.
     
• Global Catholic Research and Learning Collaborative: Supporting an initiative sponsored by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, students work alongside GC-DWC faculty and staff to co-create a domain-specific "Church-Led Nurturing Care Framework.” Bridging Catholic Social Teaching with developmental science, student deliverables will help to equip the Church to lead lasting change for the world’s most vulnerable children across five continents.

As a new group of students embark on these global initiatives this semester, they follow in the footsteps of previous cohorts who experienced firsthand the power of translating research into action.

Reflecting on her time in the course, Prakriti Shakya, a Research Associate at the Ford Program and former course student, shared how the experience shifted her perspective on academic work. “We weren’t mere students in the classroom, but were trusted with responsibilities as professionals and so were able to embody Notre Dame’s mission to be a 'force for good,'" Shakya noted. "By co-creating solutions with the involvement of local people, we can envision solutions that sustain growth and development."

That commitment to community-driven impact resonated equally for students working closer to home. Looking back on her group’s collaboration with partners at St. Adalbert parish in South Bend, Psychology major Maura Green (‘29) recalled a key takeaway that guided their efforts: "Early in the semester, one of my professors told me that global health issues don’t exclude local issues. That was a phrase I thought of a lot... Notre Dame has given me the opportunity and resources to truly do something about it. By partnering with leaders at St. Adalbert’s, my group has made an effort to include the school and its cultural traditions to make early childhood education relevant and clear for families."

By blending academic rigor with meaningful global partnerships, the course continues to demonstrate how Notre Dame students translate classroom learning into impact for vulnerable children and families worldwide.

Stay tuned throughout the Fall semester to see how this new cohort turns developmental science into real-world solutions!

About the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC)

The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), housed within the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame, collaborates with researchers and practitioners to ensure the well-being—physical, emotional, social, and cognitive—of children and adolescents in low-resource and conflict-affected settings. Established to serve as a coherent platform for the Institute for Educational Initiative’s growing portfolio of global child development and learning programs, the GC-DWC creates environments that foster resilience and encourage children and adolescents to thrive. Using an innovative Whole Child Development (WCD) approach tailored to context-specific needs, the GC-DWC translates research into timely and thoughtful action, adapts research tools to improve the development of learning programs and policies, and activates systems (families, schools, communities) to lift children and adolescents out of adversity.

Learn more about the GC-DWC’s work to transform child development globally: iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc