A common sports’ axiom which can be found on locker room walls is: “There is no ‘I’ in TEAM.” I believe we all understand the clever turn of this phrase stating that the team is that which is most important, not the player. Yet, maybe we need to take a look at this platitude.
Allow me to share a scenario. As we are preparing for the “Visiting Team” representing the Middle States Association, Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools, we have been evaluating all aspects of Notre Dame from our Mission Statement to our standardized test scores to the temperature in each classroom. We are also preparing to showcase Notre Dame in the best light. Our Internal Coordinators decided that a short video could be perfect. That group sent the task to our Marketing Committee and they recruited a few college film students to complete the task. These two fine young men, after listening to members of our Notre Dame family, decided to utilize the refrain, “I am N. D.” and each interviewed student, faculty member or administrator was to tell a story and end with, “I am N.D.”
Now you see the problem. If “I am N.D.” then what is, “We are N.D”? If there is no “I” in the N.D. team, then what are we saying? A conundrum at best.
Then the thoughts began to surface. What is Notre Dame and who decided? Notre Dame has had many teachers here for many years. Did each decide who or what is Notre Dame? Is Monsignor Bergamo N.D.? Is Mr. Gaa? What about A.M. in the a.m.? The answer is, yes, each is Notre Dame. Notre Dame is made up of each one of us, each “I” is part of the “We” and without the “I’s”, there would be no “We.” I know I had a difficult time saying, “I am N.D.” when my interview ended and I spoke to others who felt uncomfortable using that expression because each of us knows that it takes all of us to be N.D., yet it also takes each of us believing that we are N.D. in order to make us who we are.
So, maybe, Virginia, there better be an “I” and many “I’s” to make us who we are. So go on, say it: “I am N.D.” Me, too. (Check out our “I Am N.D. video on our webpage.)
Allow me to share a scenario. As we are preparing for the “Visiting Team” representing the Middle States Association, Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools, we have been evaluating all aspects of Notre Dame from our Mission Statement to our standardized test scores to the temperature in each classroom. We are also preparing to showcase Notre Dame in the best light. Our Internal Coordinators decided that a short video could be perfect. That group sent the task to our Marketing Committee and they recruited a few college film students to complete the task. These two fine young men, after listening to members of our Notre Dame family, decided to utilize the refrain, “I am N. D.” and each interviewed student, faculty member or administrator was to tell a story and end with, “I am N.D.”
Now you see the problem. If “I am N.D.” then what is, “We are N.D”? If there is no “I” in the N.D. team, then what are we saying? A conundrum at best.
Then the thoughts began to surface. What is Notre Dame and who decided? Notre Dame has had many teachers here for many years. Did each decide who or what is Notre Dame? Is Monsignor Bergamo N.D.? Is Mr. Gaa? What about A.M. in the a.m.? The answer is, yes, each is Notre Dame. Notre Dame is made up of each one of us, each “I” is part of the “We” and without the “I’s”, there would be no “We.” I know I had a difficult time saying, “I am N.D.” when my interview ended and I spoke to others who felt uncomfortable using that expression because each of us knows that it takes all of us to be N.D., yet it also takes each of us believing that we are N.D. in order to make us who we are.
So, maybe, Virginia, there better be an “I” and many “I’s” to make us who we are. So go on, say it: “I am N.D.” Me, too. (Check out our “I Am N.D. video on our webpage.)
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