Devin Ugbaja, a junior sociology student at Henderson State University, crossed the room at the McNair Scholars conference in Florida, hoping to pick up a pen, or perhaps a T-shirt for his father. A devoted Fighting Irish football fan, his father had made sure Ugbaja grew up watching Rudy. Instead, Ugbaja walked away from the University of Notre Dame recruiting table with an opportunity that would eventually bring him to campus as a researcher.
Coming from a small university in Arkansas, Ugbaja had always assumed Notre Dame was out of his league. But when Notre Dame recruiter Jenipher Akuku Huisman encouraged him to apply for the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP)—a 10-week program that gives undergraduate students hands-on research experience and preparation for graduate study—there was something about the conviction in her voice that stayed with him. “It was how serious she was,” Ugbaja recalled. “She was looking me in the eye, telling me, ‘This would be a great fit for you!’”
Akuku Huisman knows that, for students weighing opportunities at highly competitive institutions, a few words of encouragement can make all the difference. “Sometimes students simply need someone to remind them that they belong,” she said. “That their research goals are possible and that they can knock on closed doors.”
Ugbaja began the application process and later reconnected with Akuku Huisman at a conference in Maryland, where the two worked on it together. Months later, he arrived beneath the Golden Dome as a member of Notre Dame’s 2026 SROP cohort. At the center of the experience that would transform how he viewed his future—and himself—was Steven Alvarado, associate professor of sociology at Notre Dame and Ugbaja’s faculty mentor.
For Alvarado, the opportunity to give back was special. A first-generation Latino college student whose parents immigrated from El Salvador without legal status, he had participated in SROP at the University of Chicago early in his own academic journey. The experience changed the course of his life. Years later, he recognized that those experiences could shape the kind of mentor he became. “I recognize what I can contribute as a mentor and faculty member from an under-resourced background,” Alvarado said.
From their earliest conversations, Alvarado recognized Ugbaja’s research curiosity. “He arrived with the raw material of intellectual curiosity, and I wanted to give him the tools to apply that curiosity to research ,” Alvarado said. Alvarado brought Ugbaja into his research team, where they began analyzing 1.9 million student administrative records from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to identify patterns of student exposure to firearms on school grounds.
But the mentorship was about more than completing a research assignment. Alvarado treated Ugbaja not simply as an undergraduate, but as a developing colleague. “You are shifting your role from simply being a student to being a colleague in training,” Alvarado said. “That’s something I think is really important to impart to students once they’re making this transition and thinking seriously about graduate school.”
For Ugbaja, that meant being invited into meetings, included in conversations he might not understand, and given the time to learn unfamiliar terminology and research methods. “It was so cool to see how selfless he was and how much he cared about me as just an undergrad,” Ugbaja said. “He took his time explaining things to me. He never made me feel like I was a burden.” That patience mattered during Ugbaja’s first days at Notre Dame, when he was wrestling with imposter syndrome and still trying to imagine himself as a researcher.
“Research wasn’t something I ever thought about doing,” he said. “I came to college as a student-athlete, and all I thought about was playing football. Once I gave it up, I started taking school more seriously.” At Notre Dame, Alvarado helped him understand that he had earned his place. “He made me realize that I belong here,” Ugbaja said. “I have a brilliant mind, and I shouldn’t feel out of place. I’m here because I belong.”
Over the 10-week program, Alvarado watched Ugbaja begin to talk, work, and think like a researcher. The shift became especially clear after Ugbaja mastered a complex set of research skills in a matter of weeks. “There was a period during the summer when he had been working with one of my graduate students and showed up able to navigate a federal education statistics database, download the data, identify the variables, and use specialized software to create these incredible spatial maps,” Alvarado said.
As his skills and confidence grew, so did Ugbaja’s vision for the future. Before coming to Notre Dame, he planned to earn a master’s degree in social work and to pursue his professional license. His mentor challenged him to consider a path he had never seriously envisioned. “He challenged me to think about the possibilities if I were to pursue a Ph.D.,” Ugbaja said. “He challenged me to think outside the box and get the most out of this opportunity because he realized how much an experience like this had done for him.”
By the end of SROP, Ugbaja had conducted research, presented his work, prepared for the GRE, explored graduate programs, and worked on his application materials. He left Notre Dame with a list of more than 15 schools to consider and a new vision of himself earning a doctorate and someday mentoring another student the way Alvarado had mentored him. “Now I see myself going into academia for another four or five years, getting my Ph.D. and maybe instructing another student like me through SROP, whether at this institution or somewhere else,” he said. “I see myself with ‘Dr.’ in front of my name.”
As Ugbaja heads back to Henderson State in the fall, he has been invited to continue working remotely with the research team as the project moves forward. “I appreciate him so much,” Ugbaja said. “I made sure he knew every week how thankful I was for him and how much he was doing for me.”
For Alvarado, that connection offered something difficult to find in academic research—an immediate, deeply personal sense of impact. “It enriches my life because it allows me to give back,” he said. “In my field, we can wait years to publish a piece. This is the kind of experience where, after one conversation, you can change a person’s life. It is validation that what I’m doing is actually important.” He hopes Ugbaja leaves Notre Dame understanding that academia is a place where he belongs and that his intellectual curiosity can carry him far. “I see him at the launch pad, ready to go,” Alvarado said. “He’s going to be a star. He’s going to succeed. I’m just trying to give him a little more fuel.”
Alvarado also sees SROP as an important way for Notre Dame to attract promising scholars who might not otherwise envision themselves at the University. “SROP is a tool to attract top students who might not otherwise give Notre Dame a chance,” Alvarado said. “It is an important program for the University as it continues its journey toward becoming one of the world’s premier research institutions.”
By summer’s end, Ugbaja's own words suggested that the experience had changed how he saw himself. The program’s most important lesson was deeply personal. “To not underestimate myself or sell myself short,” he said. “Whatever the highest accolade is, I’m capable of achieving it.”
He came to a Notre Dame recruiting table hoping to find something for his father. He left the program carrying something far more consequential: a new vision of himself, a continuing place on a research team, and the belief that “Dr. Devin Ugbaja” is within reach.