Before Claire Fyrqvist (’05), Teresa Hodgins (MTS ’12), Laura Zambrana (MDiv ’13), and Katie Smith (MDiv ’14) worked together to form a community for Endow; they worked together developing community at Notre Dame. Notre Dame’s focus on educating both the head and the heart is engrained in this group of women, and they bring that experience to the mission of Endow. Endow unites the intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church with an intentional community through the creation of study guides and assisting women in finding small groups.
Claire Fyrqvist is a mother of five who got her start with lifelong learning and writing in Notre Dame’s Program of Liberal Studies. She is returning to South Bend from a year in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where her husband grew up, and she is looking forward to plugging back into the university’s Catholic intellectual life. She has loved working with Endow and its mission by women for women in the Church. Someday she hopes her daughters will be in their study groups!
Teresa Hodgins is a writer and grant manager for Endow. After graduating from the Master of Theological Studies program in 2012, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, which is still home base for many adventures with her husband and three small children. While at Notre Dame, Teresa loved all of the opportunities, both in academics and in the community, to engage Theology with other subjects and the secular culture. In many ways, Endow was her chance to continue this engagement–she discovered and joined Endow when looking for ways to deepen both her spiritual life and her connection to her community and loves working to help others do the same. She loves that Endow allows women to take on the rich intellectual tradition of the Church while also helping them to form authentic friendships as they wrestle with these truths.
Laura Zambrana currently works as the Director of Content at Endow. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Master of Divinity program. She was delighted to study at Notre Dame, combining both the head and the heart, following in Bl. Basil Moreau’s educational philosophy. Laura is also an avid Notre Dame football fan. During her time at ND she joined the co-ed football team and had the privilege of playing in the intramural championships in the Notre Dame Stadium and winning! Laura has been a member of the Endow family since 2010. When the opportunity to join the Endow team arose in 2018, she was delighted to join a mission so closely tied to her own – formed the hearts and minds of women to be beacons of light in the world. Laura and her husband James have three future Domers – Peter, Helen, and Jane – and live in San Gabriel, CA.
Katie Smith is the Executive Director of Endow. Before attending Notre Dame, Katie worked as an Operations and Program Manager in technology. After graduating from Notre Dame with a Masters of Divinity, she set out to combine her operations experience with her theological education to serve the Catholic Church. Education of the head and the heart is one of the things that attracted Katie to Notre Dame, and she loves carrying on the tradition through her work at Endow. She and her husband live in South Bend with their little one on the way and their dog, Henri.
To find out more about Endow, and the amazing work these four ND graduates are doing, visit endowgroups.org.