CHRONICLE - STUDENT LIFE

Activities Inside and Outside the Classroom

A BUSINESS PROPOSAL
A first for the Business Honors Program Annual Ball

As the Jan. 27 dinner attended by nearly 290 students, faculty and staff members came to a close, Business Honors Program director Jim Otteson, the John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics, stepped forward to deliver a few closing remarks. He then invited senior Andrew Daigneau to step forward.

Daigneau’s journey during the past two years had been a rough one. A near-fatal motorcycle accident during summer 2022 caused catastrophic damage, including the severing of his femoral artery and nerve of his right leg, resulting in amputation. (Read “Remarkable Recovery” in Mendoza Business 2023.)

As he fought to recover, facing multiple surgeries and the eventual implant of a new prosthetic, Daigneau had one major goal in mind — to walk across the commencement stage with his class in May 2024. 

“I had always wanted to come to Notre Dame,” said Daigneau. “I remember feeling the excitement and the deep community as I attended football games in my elementary, middle and high school years. I dreamed of obtaining my degree from a beautiful university so close to home, but I had no idea that Notre Dame’s location would become so vital. I also had no idea just how much of an impact the people here would have on my life.

During the ball, he thanked the many people in the BHP for their support during his ordeal. He encouraged the crowd to think of those people in their lives whom they deeply care about. Then came the moment. He called his girlfriend of five years, Madison Boothe, to the front of the room, knelt and asked her to marry him. (She said yes.)

“Had I gone to any other university, in any other location, with any other community, I highly doubt that I would be graduating this year,” Daigneau said. “I have felt love and support at a level I’m not sure I can even explain. Being here with my friends and mentors is my favorite place to be. Notre Dame, Mendoza and the BHP have been present for some of my highest highs and lowest lows. I saw it as incredibly fitting to include this amazing community in another one of my big moments.”

Photo by Jennifer Mayo

BLACK EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Kayla Seepersad (BBA ’24) and Bernice Antoine (BBA ’26) were recipients of the 2024 Notre Dame Black Excellence Awards. The awards honor those who have lived as Martin Luther King Jr. lived, demonstrating noteworthy achievements, making a positive impact or fostering change in the community. The awards were celebrated at a dinner during the University’s Walk the Walk Week in January.

Photo provided

‘MINDS FOR HIRE’

Members of the Irish Consulting Club offered services free of charge to local businesses and nonprofits with a twofold purpose: to help the organizations take advantage of new opportunities and solve tough problems and to provide service-learning opportunities for the several hundred student members. 

Isabelle “Summer” O’Bryan (BBA ’24), a management consulting major from suburban Washington, D.C., is co-president of the club along with Michael Lynch (ND ’24), an economics major from Detroit. The club hosts regular meetings where students can learn about careers in the consulting industry, including the particulars of the recruiting process and how to approach job interviews.

Photo by Barbara Johnston

STOCK PITCH STARS

As a team of one, Ellie Wyshner (BBA ’25) won the fifth annual ND Stock Pitch Competition hosted by the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing and the Notre Dame Investment Club. The competition was held Feb. 29 in conjunction with the Women’s Investing Summit. The judges included Kim Flynn (BBA ’99) of XA Investments, Kate McShane (BBA ’97) of Goldman Sachs, Jenni Lanktree (BBA ’02) of Junto Capital Management and Stephanie Rosen of Junto Capital Management. The stock pitch competition was open to all Notre Dame students. Wyshner won with a pitch for buying Perimeter Solutions.

TRIPLE WINS

The Notre Dame Investment Club (NDIC) scored three notable wins in recent undergraduate stock pitch competitions:

Jack Viscuso (BBA ’25), Jack Wayman (BBA ’25) and Ellie Wyshner (BBA ’25) took first place in the Undergraduate Stock Pitch Challenge at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business.

Kathleen Mark (BBA ’25), Grace Hibey (BBA ’25) and Peyton Richardson (BBA ’25) took first place in the Undergraduate Women in Investing Conference Stock Pitch Showcase hosted by SC Johnson School of Business. 

John DeLuca (BBA ’25), Connor D’Aquila (BBA ’26), Maximillian Lau (BBA ’25) and Connor Kleiderer (BBA ’26) won the ENGAGE Undergraduate Investment Conference at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, beating out 24 teams from across the country.

RETAIL SCHOLARSHIP

Marketing major Michelle Lee (BBA ’24) was one of the top five finalists in the National Retail Foundation Next Generation Scholarship Competition, a prestigious competition for students of various academic backgrounds with previous retail experience who have demonstrated leadership skills. Lee was recognized in January during the NRF Honors Gala in New York.

“Although I was not the top recipient of the scholarship, I am proud to have represented Notre Dame for the first time in the competition,” said Lee, who received a $10,000 scholarship as a finalist.