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Volume 51, Issue 14 | Thursday, September 8, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
Companies, students converge at Expo More than 270 companies attend Fall Career Expo, provide networking opportunities for students By ALEXANDRA MUCK News Writer
Notre Dame’s annual Fall Career Expo was held Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Joyce Center. The event hosted over 270 companies, with 2,000 student attending. In a change from past years, the event, organized by the Career Center, only lasted one day. Additionally, the Backstage Pass Program, a chance for firsttime fair attendees to arrive at the fair early to see the layout of the event and get tips from some employers, was reinstated. Preparing for the event is a long process, Career Center director Hilary Flanagan said in an email. “Basically, as soon as one fair is over, we start planning for the next one,” Flanagan said. “While career fairs are just a small piece of our overall operation, they are extremely time-intensive and visible programs across campus.”
Flanagan said the event is important step for students looking to network with companies, as well as to get information about them. “We ... hope students will take the opportunity to learn more about the industries and organizations that interest them,” she said. The Career Center offered several tools for students to prepare before the event, such as listing the companies attending on Go Irish and offering resume reviews. During the event, recruiters who are Notre Dame alumni were given a ribbon to wear, allowing students to recognize recruiters who were also graduates. Freshman Charlie Maxwell said he thought chances were slim he would gain an internship from the career fair because he had just started his Notre Dame career, but he still saw a benefit in attending. see EXPO PAGE 3
New InsideND aims to improve user accessiblity By MEGAN VALLEY News Writer
Students returned to school this year to discover more had changed than the addition of two resident halls and the introduction of Smashburger in LaFortune Student Center: The insideND portal that was installed in 2004 had been replaced. John Hartman, who served as project manager for the Office of Information Technologies (OIT)’s Portal Replacement Project, said in an email that the old insideND’s vendor told the department that the product would not be supported after July 1. “We had no choice [but to switch], since the old portal was no longer viable from a technology standpoint,” he said.
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OIT conducted feedback sessions last fall with over 75 campus representatives from all major departments, faculty, staff and students to design a new portal. Hartman said the “top issues” were that there was no search function, the application wasn’t mobile-friendly, defunct links couldn’t be detected, cost and maintenance requirements were high, and high cost and the entire portal required password access. “The old portal required a netID and password to use,” Hartman said. “With the new portal, netID and password are not required until you access a link or function that require authentication. What this means is that it opens the portal, and thus campus services, out to see INSIDEND PAGE 3
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MICHAEL YU | The Observer
A student reviews informational brochures provided by visiting companies at the Fall Career Expo. The Expo, held in the Joyce Fieldhouse, allowed students to meet and interact with prospective employers.
SMC welcomes new campus ministry priest By MARTHA REILLY Associate Saint Mary’s Editor
Four months ago, Fr. Stephen Newton fell 20 feet off a ladder, breaking his back and neck. Newton said harrowing experiences such as this remind him to value life’s unpredictability and embrace its challenges, an outlook he will carry with him in his new role as the Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry priest. “There are no straight lines in my life,” Newton said. “Everything is kind of jagged. I’ve been through a number of things that brought me to the brink of hopelessness, and then, I broke through to hope.” Newton’s path to becoming ordained was far from straight and narrow, he said. He said he struggled with an addiction to alcohol that forced him to resign temporarily from the seminary, leaving him
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homeless and poor. Newton began to overcome his alcoholism when he found a dime on the ground one day, with which he was able to fund a pay phone call to an addiction center. He said seeking treatment strengthened his relationship with God and taught him the importance of remaining open to God’s plans. “Control is not success, but letting go is,” Newton said. “Living a life based on spiritual principles is a lot better than living a life on self-will or pride.” Newton said his application for re-admission to the seminary was accepted, allowing him to approach his studies with a renewed sense of purpose. “I used to thank God for recovery, but now I thank recovery for God,” he said. “Coming through all of that helped me
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with my faith. You learn so much about how we are not the center of the universe.” Newton said he now accepts change as a natural part of life, for it fosters personal growth and encourages him to take risks that could lead to increased knowledge. “We are always growing, and if we’re not, we’re not living,” Newton said. “I might define what I believe now, but if you said ‘Is that what you’re going to believe in five years?’ I’d say ‘I don’t know. It’ll probably be along those lines, but it’ll be deeper.’” When Newton fell from the ladder recently, he suffered no cognitive or peripheral damage, shocking the doctors who treated him. After four months of rehabilitation, Newton said the lessons he learned from the accident remind him see PRIEST PAGE 3
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