Bridging Theory and Practice: How Notre Dame Student Innovation is Closing the Early Literacy Gap

At the University of Notre Dame, being a “force for good” is a commitment to translating academic excellence into tangible solutions for the world’s most vulnerable populations. This mission is the driving force behind the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), which works to provide pathways out of poverty by supporting the "whole child" physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively within the context of their family, school, and community.

In the GC-DWC-led course, Early Childhood Development and Poverty Alleviation: A Global Perspective, students are challenged to become a bridge between rigorous science and community-led solutions. Led by GC-DWC director and professor, Neil Boothby, the course equips future leaders to take the complex neuroscience of brain development and turn it into practical solutions. During the Fall 2025 semester, students applied this “science-to-solution” bridge across three distinct projects: a holistic intervention in Haiti, an educational initiative in India, and a culturally relevant school readiness project right here in South Bend at St. Adalbert Catholic Parish and School.

Project Spotlight: Empowering Latino Families at St. Adalbert

While the St. Adalbert community is vibrant and strong, many families on South Bend’s West Side face significant economic hurdles, with local poverty rates nearly double the state average. The student group working to support St. Adalbert designed a comprehensive activity package specifically tailored for Latino families with children ages 2 to 5. The project’s primary goal is to reduce developmental disparities linked to poverty by empowering parents to integrate neurological and nurturing practices into everyday life.

During the first 1,000 days of life, a child’s brain creates one million neurocircuits every second; a rapid development that can be easily disrupted by the chronic stress of poverty. By addressing these school readiness gaps early on through the home, school, and church, Notre Dame students are helping provide a critical anti-poverty intervention.

For Maura Green, a psychology major in the course, the project served as a reminder that the mission to serve begins at home. “Global health issues don’t exclude our local community,” Green noted. “There’s so much work to be done and so much need only 10 minutes away from Notre Dame’s campus.”

The students were mentored by Jose Martinez Quiroz, a Post-Baccalaureate Research Associate at the GC-DWC, who works directly with the St. Adalbert community. Martinez Quiroz emphasized the importance of ensuring these interventions are rooted in the specific needs of the families they serve. “We don’t want to change what already works,” says Martinez Quiroz, “rather, we want to enhance it and address families’ needs through simple strategies that can be incorporated easily to ensure our intervention is not only culturally appropriate but also sustainable.”

Beyond the Classroom: Continued Student Impact

While the course concluded last December, the commitment to St. Adalbert’s continues into 2026. Student interns who were originally part of the course have stayed on with the GC-DWC to lead the rollout of these materials in the community.

Ashley Flick, a senior studying Finance and Sociology, is focusing on parent engagement initiatives that strengthen the bond between families and the school. “Through my work, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of how everyday interactions between parents and children shape long-term growth and play a critical role in closing early learning gaps,” Flick shared. “It has reinforced that supporting children effectively means meeting families where they are, and building on the routines and relationships that already exist in their daily lives.”

Translating Science into Everyday Interaction

The student-designed package is rooted in a Theory of Change that emphasizes the power of everyday interactions to strengthen a child's brain development. This is particularly vital in addressing the "word gap" that can affect children in low-resource environments.

“Children that are not exposed to language enough can enter formal schooling with a 30-million-word deficit, and can be around two grade levels behind in literacy skills,” explains Green. “Because we know how important early language and pre-literacy skills are, we can develop ways to intervene for families at St. Adalbert’s, helping to close this school readiness gap early on.”

The resulting toolkit is a robust collection of bilingual (English and Spanish) activities designed to fit seamlessly into a busy parent's schedule. The curriculum is tiered by age to ensure developmental appropriateness:

• Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Activities like “Mi Arbol Familiar” (My Family Tree) help children understand their support networks, while “Match My Mood” uses mirrors to help toddlers recognize and name emotions.
   
• Pre-Numeracy: Using everyday items, activities like “Baila y Cuenta” (Dance and Count) and sorting games teach one-to-one correspondence, patterns, and mental math skills through movement and play.
   
• Pre-Literacy: Tactile tasks such as “Playdough Alphabet,” “Syllable Clapping,” and community-focused prompts like “Vamos a la Biblioteca” build the phonological awareness necessary for reading readiness.

One creative activity, "Drawing a Dog," encourages parents and children to work together. As Green describes it, “The child has a turn describing the dog... and then adding the drawing accordingly. This is intended to have the parents and children work together to be creative while also building vocabulary.”

A Mission of Developmental Justice 

By moving beyond the classroom, these students are participating in what the GC-DWC calls "Developmental Justice": the moral imperative to ensure every child reaches their full potential. For the students, the experience was as much about personal growth as it was about community impact.

“I’ve seen so much growth in my confidence, sharing my thoughts in class and even stepping up to take on leadership roles in my group,” says Green. The rollout of these activity packages ensures that the students' work continues to support St. Adalbert families, providing a sustainable bridge between academic research and the daily lives of South Bend’s youngest learners.

Support This Work on Notre Dame Day 

The GC-DWC is currently fundraising to support our South Bend neighbors and fuel the student research that makes projects like the St. Adalbert Activity Package possible. Your gift on Notre Dame Day provides critical resources, from $10 for children's books to $500 for parent empowerment workshops, ensuring every child has a foundation for success. 

Early giving is open! To learn more and to donate, visit: https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/the-global-center-for-the-development-of-the-whole-child

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) at 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

About the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI)

Founded in 1996, the Institute for Educational Initiatives consists of more than two dozen initiatives that strive to improve education for all youth, particularly the disadvantaged, paying special, though not exclusive, attention to Catholic schools. Through research, the formation of teachers and leaders, and direct service to educational systems, the IEI’s scholars and practitioners pursue interdisciplinary collaborations to better understand and improve PK-12 education in the United States and around the world.

For more information about the IEI and its initiatives, visit iei.nd.edu.