Undergraduates and Graduate Students
"Working with the Pulte Institute has been an amazing experience that has provided me with opportunities I would never otherwise receive on campus. Being able to conduct research internationally has given me a global perspective and I will always cherish the time I spent in Colombia, bringing clean water to the people of Arcabuco. It was a time of great personal growth and academic development, and being able to positively impact the local community was incredibly fulfilling." - Nicolas Saladino '21, B.A. in Civil Engineering
The Pulte Institute for Global Development offers a unique combination of experiential learning, academic, and research opportunities that allow students to study integral human development and contribute to projects that help reduce global poverty and inequality.
Below are specific opportunities for Notre Dame undergraduate and graduate students to engage with the Pulte Institute.
Experiential Learning
Each summer, the Pulte Institute Student Fellowship offers funding for students of all majors to spend 8 weeks interning with world-class development organizations. The Pulte Institute connects students with two programs focused on community development through social entrepreneurship:
- Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) is an immersive program where students work with historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs in the townships around Cape Town, South Africa, producing tangible deliverables that the entrepreneur can use to make their ventures sustainable.
- Social Entrepreneurship Corps (SEC) is an experiential learning internship program designed to sustain livelihoods and create opportunities in Guatemala and Ecuador, while enhancing interns’ empathy, adaptive leadership, collaboration and rapid problem-solving skills.
These two programs offer summer opportunities for students to be trained as social entrepreneurs through experiential learning on the front lines of development work across the globe. Students are also free to propose other international internship opportunities, provided that the internship focuses on social entrepreneurship.
This opportunity is primarily open to undergraduate students, but graduate student placements are also available. Please visit the Pulte Institute Student Fellowship page for more information and funding possibilities.
Academics
Pulte Institute faculty and staff teach a variety of courses on topics such as social entrepreneurship and innovation, global business, human-centered design, and proposal writing. You can also find our Professors of the Practice teaching in the MGA program, the IDS minor and the Moreau program. Specific opportunities that students may be interested in also include:
- Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor: The SEI minor exposes undergraduate students to an integrated approach to applying entrepreneurial principles, concepts, and tools to the world’s biggest social problems. Open to all Notre Dame undergraduates, this customizable minor offers a practical and experiential approach to making the world a better place. Students will strengthen their entrepreneurial mindset as they develop innovative solutions to global issues such as: poverty, clean water, human trafficking, racial and ethnic discrimination, domestic abuse, literacy, health care, and many others.
- Catholic Relief Services Student Ambassador: For extra-curricular activities, both undergraduate and graduate students may be interested in becoming a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Student Ambassador.
- Directed Readings: if there is a topic you are particularly interested in or passionate about that lies within our Pulte Institute portfolio, one of our faculty experts may be available to help you with directed readings.
Research
The Pulte Institute seeks to reduce global poverty and inequality by conducting research that informs policy and practice around the world. Globally-relevant research is a core element of the Keough School and, through the Pulte Institute, undergraduate students can become involved in a wide array of opportunities. In the past, undergraduates have supported projects that range from improving drinking water access in Colombia, to assessing medical supply chains in Belize, to understanding food insecurity in Mozambique, to developing tools for private sector engagement by development organizations.
Students who support research at the Pulte Institute learn how to support faculty and development practitioners as they develop and evaluate global projects in real-time. Project-specific support may include on-the-ground support for development projects, doing research for a grant, or conducting administrative activities.
These funded opportunities are advertised as they become available. Please register your interest online here if you would like to be informed about future opportunities.
Student Assistants
The Institute frequently hires on-campus student assistants at the beginning of the summer and fall semesters. If you are interested in being considered for a future opening, please submit your details online here.