Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., knows what it’s like to have more than your chances of being admitted on your mind when applying to college.

“When I was accepted to Notre Dame, tuition was much lower, but still out of reach for my family,” he said during his inauguration as the University’s 18th president last September. “My mom, the head of a single-parent household, knowing that it was my dream to attend Notre Dame, refinanced our house and took out loans to send me here. Decades later, it’s just not realistic to expect people to do what my mom did.”

Even with extraordinary financial aid, Fr. Dowd noted, rising costs have deterred far too many talented young people drawn to the University’s mission from pursuing a Notre Dame education. That’s why during his inaugural address, he announced the University’s move to make financial aid loan-free and admissions need-blind for all undergraduate students.

Now, in the spirit of this commitment, a group of campus units led by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning (ODL) are building another kind of pathway to the University for students who might not otherwise envision themselves as candidates to attend. It is an initiative made possible through a collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab, which partners with top universities to deliver actual college credit-bearing courses and supports to scholars in low-income high school classrooms across the nation.

Working with the Ed Equity Lab, Notre Dame will offer a course titled Responsible and Ethical AI to approximately 250 students at Title I and Title I-eligible high schools—those with large populations of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—on a pilot basis in fall 2025. There is no cost to the students to take the course, and they will earn college credits and a transcript from Notre Dame upon finishing it.

High schoolers who successfully complete this or any other Ed Equity Lab course can typically apply their credits to the pursuit of a degree at any college or university at which they are accepted and subsequently enroll. In addition to contributing to the general college readiness of all students who take its AI course, Notre Dame’s participation in the program is expected to inspire a number of harder-to-reach students with immense talent to apply to the University.

“Our collaboration with the Ed Equity Lab is very much in keeping with Fr. Dowd’s call that we should build bridges for deserving students, regardless of their socioeconomic background, to be able to attend Notre Dame,” said Ron Metoyer, vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning. “I’m grateful to the many individuals on campus who have teamed up to turn a great idea into what promises to be a meaningful educational experience.”

Designed and developed by learning professionals in the ODL with faculty in Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society, the Responsible and Ethical AI course will be considered a University elective and delivered entirely online.

“As AI continues to have a profound impact on the workforce, the environment, and public trust in media, it is imperative we give students the opportunity to thoughtfully examine its societal implications as early as possible,” said Nitesh Chawla, Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Lucy Family Institute’s founding director. “Introducing college-level coursework to interested high school students and engaging them in these thoughtful conversations can benefit not only their futures, but all of ours.”

Valya Kuskova, a professor of the practice and associate director of the Lucy Family Institute, will serve as the course’s instructor. In addition, current undergraduates in the Lucy Family Institute’s iTREDS (Interdisciplinary Training and Research in Ethical Data Science) Scholars Program will work with the high school students weekly as teaching fellows while a high school teacher will support scholars directly in the classroom.

The list of Notre Dame campus contributors doesn’t stop with the Lucy Family Institute and the ODL. The Office of the Registrar, Academic Advising, the Office of Pre-College Programs, and Undergraduate Admissions have all played essential roles in the pilot process. So, too, has the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI), which will partner with the Lucy Family Institute and the ODL to evaluate the impact of the course.

“A project of this scope truly requires that we think and work together as an institution,” said Sonia Howell, director of the ODL. “That collaboration will continue both in the delivery of the course itself and as we in the ODL work with the IEI to explore expanding the list of high schools the Ed Equity Lab serves. The goal there is to create pathways for more high-achieving students in under-resourced Catholic schools in particular to attend Notre Dame and other leading colleges and universities.”

Through this pilot, Notre Dame joins Howard University, Brown University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Stanford University, Wesleyan University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Arizona State University, and others as part of the Ed Equity Lab consortium.

“We are thrilled that Notre Dame will be joining our consortium of top colleges and universities offering college courses to scholars from low-income communities across the country,” said Ed Equity Lab founder and CEO Leslie Cornfeld. “We are especially inspired by Notre Dame’s deep commitment to expanding college access. They aren’t just saying the right things, they’re rolling up their sleeves and moving to action to enable the American Dream.”

Originally published by ND Learning at learning.nd.edu on May 05, 2025.