Catherine Paris '27

Biography

Catherine Paris ’27 is a Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame, originally from Summit, New Jersey. She is pursuing minors in Computing & Digital Technology Studies, Foundations of Business, and Gender Studies. Catherine is drawn to high-impact work that bridges business, policy, and community needs. She first discovered this passion while serving as a consultant with the Notre Dame–IBM Tech Ethics Lab, where she co-developed an AI adoption framework for the City of South Bend. Working closely with city leadership, she delivered a practical implementation guide tailored to department-specific use cases and experienced firsthand how thoughtful innovation could shape public policy and improve local governance.

Building on that foundation, Catherine has led two impact consulting projects through Notre Dame’s Student International Business Council in partnership with Deloitte. These projects not only deepened her interest in social impact but also revealed another dimension of her work that she values just as highly: mentorship. Guiding a cross-functional student team to design a digital outreach strategy for Montaña de Luz, an HIV/AIDS nonprofit, she found purpose in helping peers grow while advancing a mission-driven project. This same passion for mentorship and community building has carried into her leadership as Program Assistant for the Masculinities & Authenticity division of Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center. In this role, she oversaw peer educators, developed campus programming, and supported outreach to expand the group’s impact on gender equity initiatives across Notre Dame.
Catherine credits her success in business domains to this blend of analytical rigor and people-focused impact—a combination she brings even to situations that do not explicitly demand it. Drawing on this approach, she earned 1st place in the Deloitte Consulting Undergraduate Case Competition, where she and her team were selected as one of 17 finalists nationwide out of 182 teams.