Last May’s graduation day at the University of Notre Dame was bittersweet for at least two graduates. Though celebrating their degrees, Laura Hession and Robbie Matthews, natives of Ireland, were saddened that their time in South Bend was drawing to a close. For while they’d come for Notre Dame’s famed academic rigor, what they found was a big, warm Irish family that immediately wrapped them in a magical embrace.
It’s always hard to leave family.
Hession, a native of Aughrim, Galway, earned her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology. While researching graduate schools in Europe, one of her professors at the University of Galway suggested she consider Notre Dame and its ESTEEM Master of Science Program.
“What I noticed were Notre Dame’s strong academics and sporting tradition—and it’s very prestigious,” Hession says. “What really attracted me was the opportunity to work with industry startups and gain practical experience in the corporate world. That’s very valuable. The scholarships for Irish students made Notre Dame possible for me.”
Matthews grew up in County Cork and earned his undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from University College Cork. While he’d always planned on attending an American university for his master’s degree, he knew it wouldn’t be easy securing a spot at an upper echelon university.
“The United States is the hardest country to get into and it was made even more difficult by the global pandemic. I was also attracted to Notre Dame by the ESTEEM Program. A Master of Business Administration is not unique. A Masters in STEM-based entrepreneurship is very unique and I believed it would differentiate me.”
There was something else that sealed the deal. “I had started my professional career in finance in London. While the first six months were a great learning experience, I quickly felt siloed and unable to use all of my skillsets. At Notre Dame I would be pivoting to a biotech-based career track. That was an unparalleled opportunity. I wanted that first-hand experience,” he says.
The 11-month ESTEEM Program kicks off with the summer semester. South Bend’s heat and humidity proved to be a culture shock for Hession, who was used to Ireland’s cool summer months.
“There were six of us Irish students living in a house and the air conditioning was not working,” she recounts. “Campus was very quiet, but that gave us the opportunity to get to know our fellow ESTEEM cohort very well. When the undergraduates came back to campus, things got crazy.”
And crazy proved to be good, very good. Hession and Matthews played on a co-ed Gaelic football and hurling team, two traditional Irish sports. They recruited other Irish undergraduate and graduate students, and eventually brought home a national championship in Gaelic football by defeating the U.S. Naval Academy at a tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. Fighting Irish indeed!
Sports aside, Hession and Matthews eagerly dove into their ESTEEM curriculum, which included a capstone project where students are paired with a company to build out a commercialization roadmap for a new product or service within the company's portfolio. Both were teamed with biopharmaceutical companies, Hession with Amicus Therapeutics and Matthews with Ochre Bio, co-founded by fellow Irishman and Notre Dame alumnus Jack O’Meara.
Having worked with a regenerative medicine startup back in Ireland, Hession was excited to work with Amicus Therapeutics and was not disappointed. “Being involved in the inner workings of a company, I learned a lot about commercialization and taking a drug from lab to clinical trials. It built my knowledge of business and business acumen, which I did not have prior to coming to Notre Dame.”
To further develop their practical business knowledge, Hession and Matthews also entered the annual McCloskey New Venture Competition, the signature, nine-month pitch competition hosted by the IDEA Center at Notre Dame. Startups teams composed of Notre Dame students, alumni, and faculty vie for $600,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
Because of their shared interest in biopharmaceutical companies, Hession and Matthews were partnered with SpoRx Therapeutics, a startup based on technology created by two faculty members and licensed from Notre Dame by three pharmaceutical industry executives. The company has a pre-clinical drug candidate to address C. diff, a bacterium that causes severe diarrhea and colitis that’s estimated to cause about a half million infections in the United States each year. C Diff can progress to a fatal disease if not treated promptly.
“SpoRx really aligned with my goals,” Matthews says. “Our role with the company was to serve as fellows and research the commercial viability of the drug candidate. Laura and I were go-getters. The McCloskey Competition was a great way to put our classroom skills to work.Funny, you don’t realize you’re learning when you’re doing. The incremental small steps added up for us.”
With the luck of the Irish on their side, the SpoRx team, long with two other teams with Irish students, made the finals of the McCloskey Competition. When the dust had cleared, Hession and Matthews walked away with the Schurz Communications Innovation Award for best pitch, a $10,000 cash prize, and also a spot in a startup camp in Sunnyvale, California, valued at $50,000.
Today, with degrees in hand, Hession and Matthews are exceedingly grateful for their year at Notre Dame and the impact of being part of the Fighting Irish family on their lives and future careers.
Hession, who is considering staying in the Unites States, says the skills she learned will translate well to a corporate position and to a startup. “I learned how to pitch, to do public speaking and I gained confidence. A lot of us in ESTEEM were international students from really technical backgrounds. The program and the McCloskey Competition opened us up to business and a whole new world. It’s invaluable to be able to think and communicate in tech and business circles,” she says.
“I also formed strong friendships. Our cohort is another network I can use in the future. It was a great year!” she adds.
Matthews says his time at Notre Dame exceeded all expectations. “Shifting to a different vertical—finance to biotech—was a steep learning curve. I really wanted real work experience and got that working with Ochre Bio. I also created a base for the future. Being part of the Notre Dame family and network opens doors. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.”
Hession offers this advice to Irish students considering applying to Notre Dame. “Just go for it! Take a deep dive and immerse yourself.”
Matthews says, “It’s a no brainer. Eleven months and you have a master’s degree, friends for life and there is a lot of financial aid. Notre Dame is a special place to be.”