When Rocío Colón Cotto ’25 arrived at Notre Dame from her home in Puerto Rico, she knew she wanted to create art, but she also wanted a broader education that would allow her to explore other interests.

“I ended up thinking about the field of art conservation because I love history, I love museums,” she says. “Thinking that I could help preserve heritage and make sure history isn’t forgotten felt like the perfect combination of my passions.”

Now a senior, she’ll graduate with majors in art history and Chinese, with a minor in studio art. At Notre Dame, Colón Cotto has been able to combine art, history, and hands-on experience.

Colón Cotto is a Sorin Scholar, a research assistant in the Rare Books & Special Collections section of the Hesburgh Libraries, a gallery teacher at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, conservation assistant with the Hesburgh Libraries' Preservation Department, and a technical lead and announcer for WSND, the student-run campus radio station.

In her work with Rare Books & Special Collections, Colón Cotto processes Iberian and Latin American archives. “I’m helping the curator process some archives and do research,” she explains. “It’s been such a great way to explore primary sources.”

She is also a studio art minor who has taken painting and printmaking courses. “My favorite class so far has been printmaking,” says Colón Cotto. “We worked with all types of materials and printing processes—relief printing, etching, screen printing, lithography. I got to learn a lot about how paper and ink interact and how things used to be back in the day when there weren’t printers. It was just a labor of love and it was great.”

Colón Cotto has taken her interests around the world. After beginning to study Mandarin through a U.S. Department of State program in high school, she continued at Notre Dame and eventually spent a summer in Beijing.

“It was fantastic,” she says. “We had class five hours a day, every day, and we were living in the country, so it was full immersion. I learned so much and got so much better at speaking the language.”

The following semester, she studied abroad in London and interned at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. “I was commuting two days a week to go intern at this gallery,” she explains. “I helped with educational outreach and session prep for children, and I helped plan some events for upcoming exhibitions. It was amazing.”

Outside the classroom, Colón Cotto has built community through WSND student radio. She has a Spanish music radio show, alternately hosting in Spanish and English, with the music always being in Spanish. “I initially joined to strengthen my public speaking skills. Sitting down in the studio and talking into the microphone about the music I love has been one of the highlights of my time here,” she says.

Her hard work has been recognized on a national level. She is one of just 20 students across the country to receive the prestigious Beinecke Scholarship. She is Notre Dame’s 10th Beinecke Scholar and worked with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) to apply for the award.

“[The process] was very long, very challenging, but it was worth it,” says Colón Cotto. “There’s a lot of support here on campus. The staff work a lot with these fellowships and these grants. They know what people want to read and what they want to see. They helped me every step of the way.”

Looking ahead to post-grad life, Colón Cotto plans to pursue a pre-program internship and then apply to one of the highly selective art conservation master’s programs in the U.S. “Each program accepts about ten people,” she says. “Since there’s no one path, you can design your own path to get there. That’s a little scary, but also exciting.”

She encourages other students to take advantage of Notre Dame’s research and funding opportunities: “If you have a project you really want to do or if you really want to travel somewhere to learn a language, there’s usually something on campus that can help you out. You just have to ask the right people.”

Read More Student Stories

• J’nae Player ’27 on Sociology, Service, and Saying Yes to the Unknown
• Sports Broadcaster and Undergrad JJ López '27 is Writing His Story with the Fighting Irish
• Riley Carlin ’27: Engineering a Future in Innovation