Brazilian student pursues her passions at ND through a triple major—and an 80s rock band
Ask Júlia Andrade de Barros Jorge what the highlight of her undergrad years at Notre Dame was, and she’ll be quick to answer: “my band!” Keep talking to her, and you’ll be surprised that she even had time to be part of a band between taking classes for her three majors. What’s more, Júlia came to Notre Dame as an international student from Brazil, knowing very few people and navigating a new country and culture. But nothing was going to stop her from what she set out to do.
Júlia always knew she wanted to study abroad. From the time she was little, it was part of the plan. She learned about Notre Dame through her mom’s friend, Thaïs Burmeister de Campos Pires, who happens to be the director of Notre Dame São Paulo. “I went out for coffee with Thaïs, and then she put me in touch with a bunch of Brazilian students and alumni. I basically just talked to them about their experience at Notre Dame, and overall, it seemed like a really positive experience.”
Their positive testimonies align with what the numbers show. Brazilian students make up the largest number of first-year undergraduates from a single country this fall, and there are over 100 Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled and studying on campus. These students’ connection with Notre Dame follows them back home to Brazil, where a growing, active alumni club awaits. The Notre Dame Club of Brazil regularly hosts events and gatherings for alumni, current students, and all those affiliated with Notre Dame in Brazil.
Júlia noted that the other topic that came up in conversations with those she talked to was the warm and welcoming campus community. It reminded her of her dad’s stories of going to school in their small town in Brazil: “He had this very specific experience of a smaller campus that had its own little community that was pretty strong. Since I used to hear those stories all the time when I was growing up, it was the kind of university I wanted to eventually go to one day.”
When Júlia came to Notre Dame, the plan was to follow in her mom’s footsteps and major in psychology—which she did, but she didn’t stop there. She enjoyed taking the two theology classes required for Notre Dame’s core curriculum so much that she decided to take another theology class, and then another, and ultimately decided to add on the major. She was also currently studying for a Classics minor, which she shared was “more for fun” because she had had a personal interest in “everything related to Rome” ever since she was young. But the deeper she delved into the Latin and history classes, the more she wanted to take. As she was already on track to graduate with two majors, it would be tricky. But she was determined to make it work.
“One day, I sat down and I made this big schedule of all my possible classes for the next few semesters to figure out if it would be physically possible for me to turn this into a full major. And in the end, it worked out.” She showed her schedule to her professor, he approved it, and on she went to secure her third major.
The care and support of professors also fed into Júlia’s drive to take advantage of all the opportunities in front of her. She shares that because of Notre Dame’s status as a top academic institution, she expected the professors to be good. But she was surprised by how often they went the extra mile to support her well-being and student experience. For example, when she got sick the first week of the semester and ended up missing classes for a while, her professors worked with her to rearrange deadlines for assignments, pass on notes and presentations, and even met with her over Zoom to fill her in and talk through questions.
“I was expecting that they would help, but not that they would be so willing to listen and give me a hand when I really needed it,” she says. “Alll of my professors were incredibly helpful, and it really did feel like they enjoyed the classes they were teaching us.”
In her limited and precious spare time, Júlia was pursuing another passion: music. The idea for starting a band began back in Brazil. Júlia learned that a friend of hers also got admitted into Notre Dame, and through conversations with him and another friend who was already at Notre Dame, they decided to start a band when they were together at the University. “We were all rock fans and we liked similar bands, and all of us played different instruments,” she says, but notes how “it was a journey” to get it off the ground. After a few attempts, Júlia found her fit as the singer in an 80s rock band on campus during her sophomore year. They had gigs both on and off campus, to crowds of students and South Bend locals alike. “Those memories are very, very special to me,” she says, sharing how fun it was to play live music for excited audiences.
Through her band, her classes, and her interactions with professors, Júlia found what she was promised by the Brazilian alumni and students she talked with: a welcoming community to call home. And after four years, she wasn’t quite ready to leave yet. Thanks to a particularly engaging archeology class, Júlia changed her path from a career as a psychologist to being in academia. This fall, she’ll begin her master's program in Classics with a concentration in archaeology.
“It's not just that I would be happy studying this and working with this, it's that I could dedicate my life to this,” she says, commenting on how she felt after taking the archeology course. “Going into archaeology was the new part of the plan that just completely changed last year. It was very much a big plot twist, and I don't regret it at all,” she says.
The advice Júlia has for all students is reflective of her experience: don’t get stuck in your plan. Come to campus with open arms and let yourself be surprised by what you discover. Try new things, from clubs to classes. When you find something you like, dig in and keep pursuing it, maybe even do a thesis on it. After all, you never know where following your passions will take you. For Júlia, it led to graduate school—and, fortuitously, another year or two of rocking out with her band.
Originally published by at saopaulo.nd.edu on July 24, 2025.