My father recently returned to the University of Notre Dame’s marketing department faculty after a more than three decade hiatus.  Last week, my 7 year-old daughter, Sydney, and her cousin/bff, Ellie, had the opportunity to play hooky from second grade and attend their first college class together with Professor Grandpa (as they were instructed to call him).  They took the same quiz as the rest of the class and I’m told that although they did not pass the true/false exam, they did reasonably well for not having attended the first two months of the Principles of Marketing course.  After class, the girls got a personal tour of one of the women’s dormitories courtesy of Maddie and Amelia and were ready to move in; the free chocolate chip cookies may, however, have had some influence on them.

I decided to take the afternoon off, myself, and join the girls and Professor Grandpa for lunch at South Dining Hall.  The afternoon was nostalgic to say the least and reminded me of my many visits as a kid to Notre Dame, the University of Central Florida and Western Michigan University’s campuses to attend class with my dad.  Long before anyone thought up Take Your Daughter to Work Day, I had the very regular experience of attending college with my father, an experience that, as a child, I probably could not appreciate the extent to which it would shape my later ambitions and sense of being able to accomplish anything if I pushed myself hard enough.

I’m sure this is one of many trips Sydney and Ellie will make to Notre Dame.   Their first exposure to college life definitely left a lasting impression.