“IN GLOBAL STUDIES, THE PROFESSORS TEACH YOU WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A GLOBAL CITIZEN, RATHER THAN AN AMERICAN ONLY.”
Keep Smiling
Kendall Davis '11 gets ready to slide at a "Heifer Carnival"
held by students to raise funds for Heifer International.
Kendall Davis '11 is always optimistic. The Los Angeles, Cali. native, with a sunny disposition possesses serious dedication to a number of causes.
She is a member of Sisters of Nefertiti, a student club dedicated to celebrating African-American history and heritage, and the Communicative Disorders Club. Kendall also works as a teacher’s assistant at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) located on the Saint Mary’s campus.
She supports her fellow classmates in their endeavors on campus as well because she knows they are all working hard to make a difference in the lives of others. She says, “Saint Mary’s has helped in opening my eyes and supporting causes that can change the world.”
After changing her major twice, from nursing, to elementary education, to communicative disorders with a minor in intercultural studies, Kendall is sure of what she wants now. “I chose communicative disorders because I can help people, work with children, and help them regain a sense they lost or were born without (sense of hearing).” After graduation, she hopes to work with the deaf community, in the field of audiology.
When she’s not out making the world a better place, Kendall is marching in time with the Notre Dame band. She says she’s “not musically talented,” but that didn’t stop her from getting involved with the “Greatest Band in the Land,” as she likes to call it. Kendall is a manager for the marching band, and while she doesn’t play an instrument, she has made music a part of her life in other ways.
Kendall is part of what she calls “a group of ‘closet ballerinas’ taking dance professor Indi Diekgrafe’s introductory ballet course. It is her favorite class. “The closet ballerinas that compose the class have minimal or no dance training, but that does not stop us from jumping around the room from first to fifth position like professionals,” Kendall says.
Kendall has discovered more about who she is through her campus activities. The experiences she has taken part in and people she has met have offered her an understanding of herself as someone who is kind and committed to the causes that are important to her—or as she describes herself, “the smiling face that can be stubborn but optimistic always.”
—Sarah Sheppard '11