When Christy Burgess started the Robinson Shakespeare Company at Notre Dame's Robinson Community Learning Center in 2008, skeptics told her the local kids - the children of professors, of police officers, of felons - would never willingly study or perform Shakespeare.Fast forward several years and the Robinson Shakespeare Company just returned from a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of the famous bard, and led a workshop at the Globe Theatre in London. Needless to say, their enthusiasm for Shakespeare is unparalleled.But perhaps even more success has come from how it has changed the performers. They've learned skills in communication, confidence, working as an ensemble, and stepping out of their comfort zones. As Notre Dame's international Shakespeare scholar Prof. Peter Holland believes, they've proven the lessons of Shakespeare transcend all barriers and that Shakespeare's messages of love, hate and division still ring true today.Learn more: https://fightingfor.nd.edu/2017/fighting-for-shakespeare-for-all/
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting for Better Cancer DetectionIn the United States alone, there are nearly 240,000 breast cancer diagnoses each year, and one in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. To date, mammograms are the best diagnostic technology for breast cancer. A mammogram’s ability to detect tumors at early stages has made breast cancer one of the most treatable forms of cancer, but there are still almost 50,000 missed diagnoses every year.For many women, that missed diagnosis comes from having dense breast tissue which prohibits clear results from a basic mammogram. Notre Dame professor Ryan Roeder is working to reduce the number of missed diagnoses in dense breast tissue by using gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles can be injected into the breast and attach to indicators of cancer, like microcalcifications. Because gold is a heavy metal, in an X-ray or mammogram it will be seen clearly, even in dense tissue.Roeder’s project is far from the finish line, but optimism in this fight against breast cancer is high. With luck, partnerships and persistence, the best way to think pink may involve thinking gold.
- 2:07Fighting to Protect the InnocentThrough collaboration with the National Immigrant Justice Center, Notre Dame law students are able to participate in an NIJC externship program allowing them to work on asylum cases of immigrants entering the United States.Law School alumnae Stephanie Torres and Christina Shakour took on the case of Maria and Ariel, immigrants from El Salvador seeking a safer life after receiving threats of violence from gangs. The team worked up to 30 hours a week on top of their course work to help the family in need. In total, they filed more than 300 pages of documentation to prove that the family qualified for asylum. After hours of preparation, Shakour and Torres presented the case before Immigration Court and obtained asylum for Maria and Ariel in the United States.*Because the well-being of Maria's daughters is still in jeopardy in El Salvador, and because gang retaliation could still occur in the U.S., actors were used in this What Would You Fight For video.*
