<p>Our child was recently admitted to this program. We do not know anyone who has attended this particular seminar so I am posting to see if anyone on this board could provide any feedback.
Thank you!</p>
<p>Hello and congratulations on your admittance to GIS!</p>
<p>I participated in GIS last year and found it to absolutely be one of the best weeks of my life. During the week, the 40 or so students listen to many speakers on many different ‘Global Issues’, some are ND Professors, Clergy, and one speaker worked with President Obama’s on Neighborhood Interfaith Dialogue. The topics range from terrorism to economic development to immigration to climate control, but they are discussed through the lense of Catholic Social Teaching. At the end of the week, students split up into groups to talk about the different issues through different viewpoints. For example, a group on economic development had one student representing Muhammad Yunus and another representing Jeffery Sachs. </p>
<p>There are also many activities throughout the week on the campus, movies, bowling, etc. </p>
<p>They put together a really great group of students. I, and all the other students admitted to this seminar, have a huge interest in Global Issues, so the chance to work with others who feel the same way was incredible. I don’t want to dwell on the academic side of it too much however, the social side of the week was tons of fun too. I still keep in touch with many of the other students, and though I had never thought of ND as a college choice before, I will be attending in the fall and GIS is responsible for that.</p>
<p>Any other questions?</p>
<p>jocon231, congratulations on your acceptance to Notre Dame! I hope you have a wonderful four years at the University. </p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughtful and informative response. I am glad to know you enjoyed the program so much. Our son is very excited to be attending. One question I would like to ask you is how much preparation did you do before the seminar?</p>
<p>Good question. They sent out a small textbook thing called Annual Editions: Global Issues, which was a collection of articles relating to the different issues. A couple of weeks later we were sent an email saying which articles were most important to focus on. I read pretty much all of them which wasn’t a huge task since they were interesting, but I definitely missed a few articles as well. A huge amount of preparation wasn’t required however, many other students barely read any and were just as fine, we weren’t ‘tested’ on anything nor were the articles necessary to understand the presentations. I would read as many as you can because they are informative, but do not stress about it all.</p>
<p>Glad to know there is not an outrageous amount of prep work needed before attending the seminar. Did you have a chance to tour the campus while there? We live pretty far away and I think this will be my son’s only chance to tour the campus.</p>
<p>Sorry for the delay in replying, I was able to tour the day I got to ND, but some students that arrived later in the day did not. However, we received presentations in the Mendoza College building, Science center, ate in the dining hall, went to mass in the Basilica, ate in the football stadium etc. so we got a pretty good feel for the campus, plus for a few hours each night everyone would hang around campus outside, so you get to know campus very well.</p>
<p>I know this is a year later but I got accepted for GIS 2012 and I wanted to know if they ever took you off campus during your stay?</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptance to the GIS program! </p>
<p>DS attended last summer and had an amazing week. Last year they did take the students off campus for a day in Chicago. I also believe they may have gone off campus for bowling one night but I am not sure. You should receive a packet of info that will describe the week, the outings they have planned for you and the appropriate clothes to bring for the week.</p>
<p>I hope you have a great time @ GIS. DS thought the seminar was top notch, he fell in love with ND and was thrilled to be admitted to the class of 2016. Go Irish!</p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>