John Babbo, a senior from Oak Park, Illinois, will graduate this May with a major in the Liberal Studies Program and minors in Constitutional Studies and Business Economics. Babbo started college with an economics major, but quickly realized the importance of a liberal arts education and transferred to the Liberal Studies Program during his first semester at Notre Dame.
Babbo took his first Constitutional Studies class with Raúl Rodríguez, a postdoctoral scholar in political science, during the spring of his freshman year. Professor Rodriguez encouraged Babbo to take an undergraduate class with Professor Susan Collins on Aristotle’s political thought. Babbo acknowledges that these classes pushed him to think about the bigger issues and the extremes of government.
Babbo took several constitutional studies classes, including “Sexual Morality and the US Constitution” and the Core Texts sequence with professors Vincent Phillip Muñoz and Patrick Deneen, which Babbo says was his favorite educational experience.
“The only way to counter the pathologies of our American regime is to understand them, and through my experience in this year’s Basic Texts sequence, I have begun to learn the art of being free,” he said.
Charles Yockey, also a 2023 Tocqueville Fellow, introduced Babbo to the fellowship, selling it as a “society of people who like to discuss politics and justice and the bigger issues.” Babbo joined the community immediately.
For one of his first acts as a fellow, Babbo participated in a colloquium on freedom of expression. He recognized the colloquium as a unique experience of interacting with students who were willing to engage in academic discussions on weekends, and participated in several other colloquia on liberal education topics and Tocqueville and Neitzsche.
This spring’s CCCG conference from professors Ben and Jenna Storey on liberal education and the restless soul was motivating for Babbo, especially as she saw many of her peers struggle to discern the direction of their careers after studying something that really they didn’t care He felt confident in his choice to pursue a liberal arts career because he was able to “see the bigger issues” and look for the good before entering the workforce, he said.
Although Babbo spent his semesters reading the great books, he used his summers to gain hands-on experience in the industries he found most interesting. During the summer before his junior year, Babbo interned at Compounding Labs in Boston. The following summer, Babbo worked at the private equity firm, LLR Partners, on their healthcare deals team. After graduation, Babbo will return to Compounding Labs as a full-time investment analyst.
Babbo hopes to one day start his own business and perhaps attend law school or pursue higher education.
“The CCCG has provided me with some of the most enriching academic experiences I have had at Notre Dame,” he said. “It’s introduced me to a lot of like-minded people, which I really appreciate, who share my ideals, and it’s given me the opportunity to think about a lot of important questions about politics and the ultimate goals.”
Article contributed by CCCG co-editor Merlot Fogarty.
Originally Posted by at constudies.nd.edu activated June 26, 2023.
