Scholar Spotlight: Brynn Howard '25

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Brynn Howard
Brynn Howard 2025

Brynn Howard '25 just returned from a 3-game club softball series in Chicago when we spoke. She loves that she can keep up a sport that she has played since she was 8--especially impressive since she is a catcher. The team won all three games and she bat 1000. Knowing Brynn, this is not surprising. She excels in most things she sets her mind to doing.

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Catching up with Elicia Dennis ’18 ’23

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Elicia Christmas Card Photo 2020 1

Elicia Dennis ’18 ’23 has curated a wildly full life for herself. She is the web content strategist for the College of Arts and Letters, a graduate student, a board member of Thrive! (Notre Dame's employee resource group for female employees) and on the advisory council of the AnBryce Foundation. Her current bustling schedule is a far cry from her time immediately after graduation--a time she speaks honestly about to scholars worried about their future.

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Catching up with Teayanna Leytham '21, ESTEEM '22

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Teayanna

Teayanna Leytham '21 has always made the most of her time at Notre Dame, in the classroom as she pursued her Chemical Engineering degree and outside of it, leading clubs and studying abroad in Ireland. In particular, she maximized her summers during college. After freshman year, she was a Fulbright Summer Institute Scholar in Scotland (and also traveled to Rome with the College of Engineering). The following summer she headed to Washington, DC to take part in consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton's Summer Games

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AnBryce Scholar Wins Bud Ahearn Leadership Award

Author: Sarah Kubinski

 
Marilyn Zizumbo
Marilyn Zizumbo 2022

AnBryce senior, Marilyn Zizumbo, a Environmental Engineering major from Corona, California, is the latest winner of the Bud Ahearn Leadership Award. This award is named in honor of the late Joseph "Bud" Ahearn, Notre Dame alumnus and supporter of the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) Internship Program. Award winners exemplify Bud's principles of leadership, selflessness, service to others, and commitment to fostering meaningful relationships.

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Senior Spotlight: Odalis Gonzalez Reyes '21

Author: Sarah Kubinski

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Odalis Gonzalez Reyes, '21, is a ray of sunshine from American Falls, Idaho. Before arriving on campus, she really had not been much of anywhere outside of Idaho. That Freshman fall, when she drove cross country with her high school teacher, Mrs. Caroline Wight ('04), she began the adventure that would be 4 years of growth and challenge and change at Notre Dame. …

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AnBryce Partner Spotlight & Conversation: Elise Rudt, CUSE

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Elise Rudt
Elise Rudt, National Fellows Coordinator, CUSE

The Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarship Engagement (CUSE) a campus resource gem. We shared our original digs in Brownson Hall for many years with them. But even as our programs changed homes, CUSE to Bond Hall and AnBryce to Haggar Hall, our relationship strengthened, thanks to a shared commitment of assisting scholars with acquiring valuable tools to enrich their time at the University and beyond. AnBryce constantly seeks out experts in their fields to provide support and networks for our scholars. CUSE is one such resource, with its commitment to scholarly discernment as it relates to experiential learning, research planning and funding, and application support for national and international fellowships. Recently, we sat down with Elise Rudt, National Fellows Coordinator at CUSE, to talk about our long-standing partnership.…

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AnBryce A Day in the Life: Amanda Hammond

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Amanda  Hammond
Amanda Hammond, Program Manager

Ask anyone who knows about AnBryce at Notre Dame and they'll tell you the heart of the scholar's program is Program Manager Amanda Hammond. With the program from its inception, she holds the collective memory but also the collective soul of AnBryce. We wanted to check in with her to see what a day in the life looks like in COVID times. …

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Senior Spotlight: Isel Otero Torres '21

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Isel Otero Torres

Isel Otero Torres' ‘21 trip to college three and a half years ago was a short one. A graduate of South Bend's Adams High School, she appreciated that Notre Dame would challenge her  but also allow her to stay close to her family. Isel is the first to admit that when she arrived at ND she did not have a specific plan for her business degree, but she hoped, by graduation, to be prepared for several jobs in that sector. Open attitudes like this are perfect for AnBryce's networks at Notre Dame and beyond.

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Scholar Profile: Building and Supporting Healthy Communities

Author: Sarah Kubinski

“Today, after our warm up, I’ve got a pyramid for you guys: three sets of the first group, two sets in the second group and then one for the last exercises. I’m going to put the sequences in the chat, in case you get ahead of me. And remember to ask for modifications if you need them. You got this!” Groans and smiles came from the grid of faces on the screen. It was Tuesday evening and time for Get Fit with La, a three-times weekly HIIT/cardio blast workout session run by sophomore Carlondrea (Lala) Petty. Staff, scholars/alums, family and friends were logged in and ready to get fit. Program Manager, Amanda Hammond approached Lala in the Spring to start workouts and mental wellness breaks to connect with students who were wound tightly from trying to do Notre Dame’s rigorous curriculum from their bedrooms. Greatly surpassing the original idea of quick drop-in workouts, Lala created an amazing community of friends getting mentally and physically stronger and more confident in what their bodies could do. 

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Scholar Profile: Building and Strengthening Social and Professional Networks

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Tarik Web

Sophomore Tarik Brown, does not believe in wasting time. Like many, he arrived on campus ready to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible and by any standard, he definitely has done so. What sets him apart, however, is that he intentionally looks for ways to include others. Perhaps a testament to his background in computer science, he can visualize networks in all aspects of his life. He tirelessly works to connect people and opportunities, be they small (connecting a new AnBryce Scholar to the Notre Dame Band) or large (expanding activities as President of Notre Dame's Questbridge chapter). Frequently, students share internship opportunities across different fields, all of which they learned about from Tarik.…

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Scholar Profile: Dedicated violinist's brush with musical greatness during Global Immersion

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Travon DeLeon (’20) joined the AnBryce Scholars Initiative last fall and by all accounts had the shortest commute of any incoming scholar. Travon is a graduate of Penn High School in Mishawaka—which along with Granger, Indiana forms a triangle of communities with South Bend, the home of Notre Dame. In the summer before college he had the opportunity to be part of the United States’ National Youth Orchestra. He played at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Smetana Hall in Prague and Trivoli Hall in Copenhagen. He has played for renowned conductors Valery Gergiev and Christoph Eschenbach and with soloists Emanuel Ax and Denis Matsuev. “

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Scholar Profile: It's okay to be different, if it means being yourself

Author: Sarah Kubinski

Before Notre Dame, Logan McAbee-Thomas (’19) grew up in Boyceville, “a little tiny town” in Wisconsin. He and his sister lived with their legal guardian, who he refers to as mom, having lost his biological mother when he was young. His high school days were spent playing sports and participating in band and drama.

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Scholar Profile: The importance of being honest about who you are

Author: Sarah Kubinski

2013 Anbryce Kassidy Lawrence

 

Kassidy Lawrence ’17 decided in the second grade that she was going to be a lawyer. “When I was in elementary and middle school I was convinced that my grades would be considered when I applied for law school.” This self-awareness and drive have helped Kassidy establish a strong work ethic. Part of the Questbridge Scholars Program, Kassidy matched with Notre Dame. She also received a letter to apply for the inaugural cohort of AnBryce Scholars. “My family’s worries about how to afford and navigate college were put to rest.”

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Scholar Profile: Using time in college to delve into poverty, past and future

Author: Sarah Kubinski

In the first cohort of students, Nat Thomas '17, has been making the most of her time at Notre Dame and
with the AnBryce Scholars Initiative. “As a first-generation student, you often don’t have a precedent for college navigation, and you often lack social and cultural capital.”

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