What can you do with a global affairs degree?
It’s a common question asked by prospective students when they consider this relatively new major offered by the Keough School of Global Affairs. A conversation with three graduating seniors shows that diverse and exciting career paths await those who study global affairs at Notre Dame.
Tess Gilmore: From grassroots peacebuilding to the campaign trail
When she first arrived at Notre Dame, Tess Gilmore was undecided about her major. But the insights she gained from a pre-college seminar on peacebuilding strategies still lingered. Taught by Keough School professors Atalia Omer and Ernesto Verdeja, the seminar addressed everything from the war in the Middle East to the current refugee crisis, examining the role of peacebuilding actors ranging from the United Nations to grassroots community groups.
“I had never met experts like them, who were so knowledgeable about a topic I cared so much about,” Gilmore said. “From that point on, peace studies became a thread throughout all of my studies.”
While taking Keough School professor Josefina Echavarría Álvarez’s course on peace agreements, Gilmore traveled during spring break to Bogotá, Colombia, where she and her classmates met with those who both shaped and were victimized by the country’s decades-long civil war: former Colombian president and Nobel peace laureate Juan Manuel Santos, judges from the country’s transitional justice court, ex-combatants and mothers of children who disappeared during the conflict.
These encounters forced Gilmore to grapple with the fact that there are no easy solutions to most global conflicts, but she sensed strength and hope in the midst of this complexity.
“Seeing how people in Colombia are moving towards justice, being action-oriented and taking steps forward was inspiring,” she said.
While Gilmore’s studies took her overseas — including a semester in Toledo, Spain — a growing desire to make an impact closer to home led her to internships in domestic politics, including work for a gubernatorial campaign in Maine. She discovered that the same skills required to navigate international peacebuilding — being present, being prepared, and engaging in dynamic conversations informed by multiple perspectives — are essential for the high-stakes environment of political campaigns.
“Global affairs taught me to always be thinking about the different layers of a problem, and it was good for me to practice that,” Gilmore said.
After graduation, Gilmore will move to Washington, D.C. to work for HM Consulting, a boutique firm that focuses on fundraising for the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and gubernatorial campaigns.
Patrick Marshall: Navigating the ethics of modern warfare
For Patrick Marshall, the concept of "global" was never an abstract academic idea; it was a way of life. Born into a Navy family, Marshall grew up in Hawaii, Maryland, Germany and Alaska. While his upbringing gave him an appreciation for understanding diverse cultures, it also left him with a desire for a more rigorous understanding of the forces shaping the world.
Marshall chose Notre Dame specifically for its mission-driven approach to education and Navy ROTC program, opting for South Bend over the Naval Academy, despite deep family ties to the latter. At the Keough School, he found a community that challenged his assumptions.
"I thought I knew a lot, especially having lived in Germany," Marshall said. "But my professors pushed me to think critically about what I thought I knew." Mentors like professor Joshua Eisenman, a political scientist with expertise in U.S.-China relations, encouraged him to look beyond the surface of global events, recognizing that a political shift in Germany or an economic tremor in Europe is rarely an isolated incident, but rather a piece of a larger, more nuanced geopolitical puzzle.
Following his commissioning as a Naval officer, Marshall will move to San Diego to join a pioneering unit: a new unmanned surface vessel squadron. As part of this initial cohort, Marshall will be at the forefront of testing autonomous technology and developing the strategies that will eventually inform broad military doctrine. Following this assignment, he will deploy to the Pacific aboard the USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee.
Marshall said his education in global affairs has provided him with more than just strategic insight; it has given him a moral compass for the digital age. For his senior capstone project, Marshall chose to study the ethics and legality of lethal autonomous weapons systems because he believes that the future of military defense is as much about maintaining ethical leadership as it is about technological superiority.
"You can’t be a good officer if you’re not informed about ethics," Marshall said. “And there’s a critical need for a ‘human in the loop’ when dealing with AI that operates in binary code rather than human ‘gut’ instinct. I hope that I can use what I’ve learned about ethics to shape the Navy’s broader future military doctrine.”
Kaitlyn Kelly: Combining global policy and law
Growing up in Florida, Kaitlyn Kelly often observed her parents reading and watching the news. The lesson: What happens in the world is important. Kaitlyn took this perspective to heart and brought it with her to Notre Dame. Seeking a major that offered both flexibility and depth, she gravitated toward global affairs, drawn by the small class sizes at the Keough School and the opportunity to build close relationships with her professors.
“I’ve gotten to know my global affairs classmates quite well, and I’m more comfortable talking with people from around the world,” Kelly said. “Everyone is very in tune with what’s going on in the world, and it’s great to be able to converse with people with the same level of interest in things like the war in the Middle East.”
Kelly’s Notre Dame years have been defined by her high-level engagement not only with those professors but also with American policymakers. She served as a teaching assistant for professor Steve Reifenberg’s International Development in Practice course and interned in Washington, D.C., with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Working for the committee, which is led by Republican Senator Rand Paul, Kelly wasn’t just observing; she was conducting document reviews using AI-based eDiscovery software and analyzing government reports. Kelly’s internship experience at the nexus of legal research and public service solidified her desire to pursue a career in international litigation.
Kelly also interned in the Washington office of a senator from her home state of Florida, Republican Sen. Rick Scott. In this role, Kelly relied upon skills she learned in the classroom at the Keough School, such as drafting policy memos, which she learned from professor Joshua Eisenman.
“When our group of interns started, I was the only one who already knew how to write a policy memo,” Kelly said. “I felt like I had a head start.”
While on campus, Kelly also conducted global health research at Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health as part of a student team. Kelly and her teammates won the institute’s Global Health Case Competition for their research project on the mental health of frontline workers in Georgia. For the ensuing national competition, the team later researched stillbirth rates in Haiti.
This fall, Kelly will remain at Notre Dame to attend the Law School as a recipient of the Rev. Michael D. McCafferty, C.S.C. Scholarship. She chose to stay, in part, because of the community that has supported her for the last four years.
"It’s hard to give up a community I know and love," Kelly said. “And the Law School’s personal approach to advising and its London program align perfectly with my goals.” For the next three years, Kelly said she looks forward to building upon the foundational skills she learned in Keough School courses such as International Development in Practice and Global Politics and Policy. Having enjoyed the various public speaking opportunities she had as an undergraduate student, she said she looks forward to further developing those skills and using them in service of those who are marginalized.
“It’s important to me to stand up for others and to help people who don’t feel that they have had a voice.”