Notre Dame’s Student Leadership Awards Banquet took place Monday evening at Legends where Hall Presidents Council (HPC) announced Stanford Hall as its Hall of the Year. Men’s Hall of the Year and Women’s Hall of the Year were also announced with Carroll Hall and Farley Hall taking home the awards respectively.
HPC co-chair Christina Fernandez said the halls were selected through an extensive evaluation process.
“The halls throughout the year submit seven Rockne reports, which adds up to one a month, in which they detail events they have, who attended [and] what the purpose of the event was,” she said. “All [the halls’] presentations detail the work that they’ve done this year — what were their goals, did they achieve them how did they do so, how did they impact residents personal growth.”
Fernandez said each dorm’s unique approach to residence life was crucial in selecting victors.
“Each hall caters to its residents’ needs differently and that’s something very valuable for us,” she said.
Andrew Foster, president of Hall of the Year recipient Stanford Hall, said the dorm made strides in growing an already strong community this year.
“It was really just everyone getting out, everyone really forming that good group of people in Stanford Hall — people who are proud to be there,” he said.
Stanford Hall vice president, Matt Geenen said a new mantra help to motivate the dorm to be its best.
“We had the mantra of ‘record year’ and everyone just really got behind that and it went towards everything we did,” he said. “... I think it was the whole mentality of the dorm, everyone just really rallied behind it.”
This spirit, Geenen said, was shown in events put on by the dorm throughout the year.
“I think our new signature event, the Irish Iron Classic, went super well,” he said. “We raised over $1,000 for the center for the homeless. Just having guys from across campus come and lift weights, something they don’t get to do or compete in often I think it was a really great event we did this year.”
A similar sense of community helped motivate Carroll Hall, the Men’s Hall of the year, to stage new events and make its community tighter. This growing bond was easy to forge despite changes in the hall, Carroll vice president John McCormack said.
“The fact that we had a new rector, two new [assistant rectors], a new cleaning lady … that was just by the wayside,” he said. “[The hall] was [about how] we’re a family, we’re a community and we’re going to take this place to heights it's never been.”
Carroll Hall president Andrew Rebholz said new events were key in helping with the changes.
“It’s a lot about making sure the events that we have — we have a lot of events, maybe three a week — are good opportunities to bond,” he said. “[We want to make sure] people come to those and make those the best activities that they could be.”
Rebholz said these events were more constructive than in years past.
“I would say that if anything changed it was having events based not just on having fun but having discussion events,” he said. “We added a lot of dialogue in Carroll this year which was awesome to see because people could bond on a more spiritual and mental level which is pretty nice to have.”
Carly Gray, vice president of Women’s Hall of the Year recipient Farley Hall, said successful execution of the dorm’s signature event was key to Farley’s success.
“I think we really pulled off an incredible Be Fine Day,” Gray said. “We were really proud of how much progress we made in terms of that signature event.”
A shared sense of community was also cited by Gray as a source of pride for the hall this year.
“We work[ed] with hall staff to really create a bond between Farley sisters,” she said. “It’s … people having strong relationships within the hall and caring about the hall so they come to events and participate in the community. You felt a really great presence on campus this year.”
Stanford Hall recognized as 2016-2017 Hall of the Year
Photo courtesy of Janet Stengle
Members of the three winning halls, Stanford, Farley and Carroll, pose with plaques honoring their dorms’ achievements. The Hall of the Year winners were announced in an event held at Legends.
