The Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program

The Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program is a comprehensive, merit-based scholarship and leadership-development initiative that seeks to attract, encourage, and equip extraordinary students capable of having a transformational effect on the Notre Dame community, the Church, and the world. It's named for Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. — Notre Dame's president emeritus and a noted educator and social justice advocate — and cultivates leaders in that same mold. It is not a full-ride scholarship in the strictest sense; it's a partial, renewable award paired with intensive, structured co-curricular development across all four undergraduate years.

$25,000 per year toward tuition, for up to four years of undergraduate study (up to $100,000 total)

Awarded independently of any other financial aid a scholar may separately qualify for

Four fully-funded Summer Enrichment Experiences, one per undergraduate summer:

1. Wilderness Leadership (an Outward Bound canoe expedition in Minnesota's Boundary Waters)
2. Social Justice
3. Global Inquiry
4. Professional Venture

Ongoing mentorship, guidance, and intellectual community from dedicated programme staff and faculty mentors

Access to a scholar community and alumni network

Must be an incoming first-year (freshman) applicant to Notre Dame — this is not available to current students or transfers

Open to students in any college or major at Notre Dame

Must demonstrate: outstanding academic achievement, commitment to service, demonstrated leadership ability, and exemplary moral character

Must apply for Notre Dame admission via Restrictive Early Action (Nov 1) or Regular Decision

Once awarded, scholars must maintain full-time enrollment and good academic and disciplinary standing — probation, dismissal, or failure to meet requirements results in automatic loss of the scholarship, with no reconsideration