During Walk the Walk Week each year, Notre Dame students, faculty, and staff participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.Dorothy Day’s life is a powerful witness to faith lived in service of others.In 1972, the University of Notre Dame honored Day with the Laetare Medal. As Father Ted Hesburgh said, she embodied “the most radical approach of all: Christian love.” As co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Day united faith and action through hospitality, justice, and solidarity with the poor.Her legacy lives on in South Bend through ministries like St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House and Our Lady of the Road, and in more than 220 Catholic Worker communities worldwide. In 2012, U.S. bishops recommended her for canonization. Today, she is recognized as a Servant of God.“We are working for ‘a new heaven and a new earth, wherein justice dwelleth.’ We are trying to say with action, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’” - Dorothy Day

What can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.Show links: • Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/) • The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/) • ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/ ) • Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)

During Walk the Walk Week each year, students, faculty and staff at Notre Dame participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.Born into slavery in Missouri in 1854, Augustus Tolton became the first recognizably Black Catholic priest in the United States. After escaping to freedom as a child and overcoming racism that barred him from U.S. seminaries, Tolton was ordained in Rome in 1886 and returned to minister in Quincy, Illinois, and Chicago.Known as “Fr. Gus,” he founded St. Monica’s Church for Black Catholics and preached a Gospel of unity that drew together Black and White, rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant during an era of segregation. Declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2019, his cause for canonization continues to inspire the Church today.In July 2025, the University of Notre Dame hosted a convocation of Tolton Ambassadors dedicated to advancing his sainthood cause and sharing his enduring witness of faith, courage, and reconciliation.

Twenty-five panels. Forty-nine tiles each. A total of 1,225 student-made tiles come together to form one 105” x 105” artwork to show Notre Dame.In this collaborative project at the University of Notre Dame, the Sister Thea Bowman Center partnered with the Moreau First-year Seminar invited students to work alongside a visiting artist to create individual panels that reflect who they are in this moment of their lives. Using carbon paper to trace a shared design, each student added personal symbols of identity, culture, faith, home, and memory.Learn more about the Sr. Thea Bowman Center: https://bowmancenter.nd.edu/ Learn more about the Moreau Seminar: https://moreaufirstyear.nd.edu/ Learn more about Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman: https://youtu.be/6QO6NHF-L2k

What can extreme cold teach us about the human body—and ourselves?In this episode, Director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and anthropologist Cara Ocobock takes listeners inside her research on human adaptation, from subzero fieldwork in Finland with reindeer herders to lab studies on metabolism, cold exposure, and hunting unicorns.She also unpacks popular cold-plunge trends, what science actually says about them, and how lessons from our ancestors can help us understand resilience, wellness, and the remarkable ways humans have survived across time.Show links: • Episode page (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/cold-plunges-and-unicorns/) • The Winter Olympics, equality in sports, and exercising in the cold (https://fightingfor.nd.edu/podcast/the-winter-olympics-equality-in-sports-and-exercising-in-the-cold/) • ‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history (https://news.nd.edu/news/woman-the-hunter-studies-aim-to-correct-history/) • Women’s higher resting metabolic rates in cold environments could be thyroid requirements for pregnancy, researcher says (https://news.nd.edu/news/womens-higher-resting-metabolic-rates-in-cold-environments-could-be-thyroid-requirements-for-pregnancy-researcher-says/)

On Feb. 2, 2026, more than 2,000 students gathered on North Quad at the University of Notre Dame for an evening of faith and community at a Candlemas Mass in St. Olaf’s Ice Chapel—a sacred space built entirely from snow and ice by students over dozens of hours.

Sung with full heart and voice 🎶More than 1600 students braved the 19° temperatures tonight to join the Coyle Hall community for Mass at St. Olaf’s chapel, which members of the residence hall and others across campus constructed out of ice and snow.

During Walk the Walk Week each year, we participate in events designed to foster deeper belonging and inclusion on campus and beyond. This work continues year round, and we can draw inspiration from the examples of those in the Church who have come before us.A Black Catholic religious sister, teacher, musician, liturgist, and scholar, Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman was known for her deep faith and fierce commitment to human connection. Through her words, music, and ministry, she challenged racism and worked to bridge racial and cultural divides—calling people to listen, to understand, and to reject the fear and prejudice that separate us.Sister Thea spoke on Notre Dame’s campus and, in 1990, received the University’s Laetare Medal in recognition of her profound impact on Catholic life in the United States. Now on the path to sainthood, her legacy continues in the welcome, work, and purpose of the Sister Thea Bowman Center on campus.More on the Sister Thea Bowman Center: https://bowmancenter.nd.edu/Image: Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration | https://www.fspa.org/content/about/sister-thea-bowman

Student Government is proud to host the 4th Annual Black Excellence Dinner on Thursday, January 29, from 7:00–9:30 p.m. in the Dahnke Family Ballroom. This black tie formal dinner celebrates Black excellence in all aspects of Notre Dame campus life. The evening will feature a plated dinner, a keynote address, and the recognition of outstanding Black students, staff, and faculty at Notre Dame.

On Monday, January 26, 2026, students, faculty and staff gathered at the Main Building Rotunda for the Annual Candlelight Prayer Service for Walk the Walk Week.