2009 Recognition Ceremony

The School of Architecture honored its largest graduating class to date—46 undergraduates and 20 graduate students—during its recognition ceremony on Saturday, May 16 on the front steps of Bond Hall. The School also conferred its first two dual Master’s degrees—Aaron Helfand and William Dowdy each earned a Master of Architectural Design and Urbanism and a Master of Architecture.

There were three valedictorians—Howard Kelly in the undergraduate School of Architecture; Aaron Helfand in the professional graduate degree program; and Kalinda Brown in the post-professional graduate degree program. Excerpts from their remarks at the recognition ceremony are below.

Many members of the class of 2009, which includes graduates from 26 states, Taiwan, Ecuador, Republic of Korea and Cayman Islands, featured prominent Washington, DC sites on their traditional mortarboard designs in honor of University of Notre Dame commencement speaker, President Barack Obama.

Kalinda Brown
Post-Professional Degree Graduate Valedictorian
"In order to build community, we must always have the greater good in mind. We must work tirelessly to contribute to something that is much larger than ourselves. We must keep the reaches and limitations of our work in perspective.  We must strive to understand how what we do affects individuals, the community as a whole, the built world, and our environment.  It is through this understanding of part-to-whole that we find our place in the world."


Aaron Helfand
Professional Degree Graduate Valedictorian
"We have heard over and over again this year, from many architects who have been in our position before, that in difficult economic periods, it is up to us to keep our minds and our pencils sharp, even if our daily occupation is merely quotidian. We have been told to make work for ourselves, to enter competitions, to invent projects. We have also received this advice from Stephanos Polyzoides after he attended the final thesis jury for the graduate students. He reminds us: 'The Renaissance was started among a handful of friends of the Medici around the dinner table at Poggio a Caiano. The Congress for the New Urbanism was willed by 6 people. Twenty people can become a cultural tsunami. … Stay together and to try to act as a group whenever possible.'"


Howard Kelly
Undergraduate Valedictorian
"Our whole experience in this community will prove especially poignant for us as we graduate from this particular School and University. Architects are constantly asked to dream, and to dream big. We are taken to empty lots, to abandoned warehouses, to developing nations, and tasked with creating an inspiring vision for the future. As architects from Notre Dame and from this School, we are asked much more than to simply propose a design that suits a client. Notre Dame challenges us in its mission statement 'to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good.' The School of Architecture teaches us to take these words to heart, asking us to consider the important questions of the world, even as we make the smallest design decisions."