Bringing faith to the fore

The Business Honors Program (BHP) positions itself as a student-driven community. For Sylvia Garcia (BBA ‘24), this was a big draw of the program. She saw it as an opportunity to meet more of her fellow business classmates.

Sylvia Garcia, Business Honors Program student

But what surprised her was the program’s emphasis on Catholic social teaching. Although she knew Notre Dame was a Catholic institution (because it was a significant reason for choosing the University), Garcia hadn’t considered how those two different pieces – business and her faith – would come together.

“My faith is really important to me. So being in an honors program that puts God at the center and asks us to consider how faith fits into your business career — that was something I didn’t realize I needed to hear.”

As someone very much engaged with her Catholic faith, she really values the BHP’s weekly Masses and the dinners that follow. The program’s courses, such as Theology and the Noble Vocation of Business and regular colloquia, play a large role in bringing faith to the forefront of her education.

One moment that has stuck with her was when Harry Kemp, senior vice president at Lear Corporation, discussed during a colloquium his experience discerning between two job offers. Kemp shared how he would go to holy hour regularly to help him decide.

“He relied on faith to determine which job would help him do his best work and which would allow him to do the most good,” said Garcia. “It was a reminder for me how my faith and my career are not two separate worlds. They should go together.”

Garcia developed a love of accountancy from her mother, who studied accountancy in Mexico before immigrating to San Antonio with her husband. Now, Garcia is happy to be studying the same field at Notre Dame (majoring in Accountancy and Economics and minoring in Latino Studies), involved in Coro Primavera, the University’s Spanish choir at the Basilica, and learning how to keep her faith and career entwined through the BHP.