Author Archives: steve

The Notre Dame Club of San Diego is looking for a volunteer to serve as the next Communications Chair. The primary duty of the position is to promote the activities of the club via our website, email, and social media. While it might be helpful at times to have some technical experience with website development or maintenance, it is certainly not a requirement of the position. The communications for the club have been streamlined over the last year or two, making it easy to push out content updates for the club.

If you have any questions about the position or might be interested in serving the club in this capacity, please contact the existing Communications Chair, Steve Ratay, at sratay@ndsandiego.org. Thank you!

If you are a Notre Dame alum you can participate in the Notre Dame Alumni Association’s Board of Directors election. The representative for Region 3, which includes the San Diego area, will be elected this year. The candidates for Region 3 are Manuel Grace (’79) of Pasadena, CA, and Joseph P. Mayer (’64) of San Diego, CA. Submit your vote online at mynotredame.nd.edu/vote before the deadline of February 23.

The board is pivotal in communicating alumni views and opinions to the University administration and setting the goals for the Alumni Association. The board president and the president-elect also sit on the University’s Board of Trustees.

Biographies and election statements for each candidate are available at mynotredame.nd.edu/candidates. Alumni can vote for one candidate in each geographical region as well as the Young Alumni category.

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Cost: free

“Compassionate Presence: Faith-Based Peacebuilding in the Face of Violence”

We live in what Peter Berger called a “furiously religious” world that has served to justify and at times promote violence. Reflecting back across three decades of peacebuilding, John Paul Lederach, professor of international peacebuilding at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, will trace the faith-based resources that contribute to what he calls compassionate presence and reflective spirituality, which underpin his engagement with protracted conflict and cycles of violence. Building from his book The Moral Imagination, the lecture will explore the disciplines of a practitioner-scholar committed to nonviolent social change.

John Paul Lederach, Ph.D.
Professor of International Peacebuilding
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame

Widely known for his pioneering work on conflict transformation, Lederach is involved in conciliation work in Colombia, the Philippines and Nepal, and countries in East and West Africa. He has helped design and conduct training programs in 25 countries across five continents.

He is the author of When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, The Journey Toward Reconciliation, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies and Preparing for Peace: Confliction Transformation Across Cultures.

Lederach holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado.

For more information about the event and to RSVP, visit the page for this event on the USD website:
http://www.sandiego.edu/about/news_center/events/events_detail.php?_focus=40562

Come join us at the La Jolla Country Club on Saturday, December 17th at 11:30 AM for a morning of Mass, brunch, Christmas music, and holiday cheer! Family and friends are welcome to attend. This brunch had over 80 club members attend last year, and a good time was had by all.

Regular club members – $39.99
Regular non-members – $45.99
Young alums (’02 and later) and current students – $26.99

For additional information about the event and to register, please visit our club website: http://ndsandiego.org/activities/annual-christmas-brunch/.

We are also very fortunate that our own alum, Tony Alessandra ’69, will serve as emcee at this year’s Christmas Brunch. Tony began speaking professionally while still a doctoral student in the late 70′s. He was inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame in 1985 and is a member of the Speaker’s Roundtable – a group of 20 of the world’s most recognized professional speakers. Dr. Alessandra engages his style as both a performer and a professor. Tony grew up on the streets of New York City, where he intuitively began his study of people and their behaviors, their diversity and their loyalties. His sense of humor developed from those humble beginnings as much as his ambition to succeed. He has a street-wise, college-smart perspective on business, having worked his way to success as an entrepreneur, business author, and keynote speaker.

The annual Hesburgh Lecture is only a week away. This free event is Wednesday, December 14th, at 6:30 PM on the University of San Diego campus. Professor George Lopez, Chair of the Peace Studies Program at Notre Dame, will deliver a presentation entitled ”The New World of Peacebuilding.”

If you plan to attend, we ask that you please RSVP to Kevin Reisch at (619) 992-6315 or hesburgh@ndsandiego.org so that the correct amount of appetizers and beverages can be ordered. Please indicate the number of attendees and their names in your RSVP.

Additional information about the event can be found on our club website at: http://ndsandiego.org/activities/hesburgh-lecture/.

Our Club will host the annual Hesburgh Lecture on Wednesday, December 14th, at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) on the campus of the University of San Diego. Admission is free and open to all members of the public (no affiliation with Notre Dame is required). If you are able to attend, please RSVP to Kevin Reisch at (619) 992-6315 or hesburgh@ndsandiego.org.

For additional information about the event, visit the event page on our website: http://ndsandiego.org/activities/hesburgh-lecture/.