Finding Friendship

Experience the Episode

Presented by

Friday, July 4, 2025 12:00 pm

In the first episode of Pod Quad, explore friendship in the era of social media. Friendship can seem harder–and maybe weirder–than ever. How can each of us create and cultivate life-giving friendships and walk away from toxic ones? Fr. Pete McCormick, C.S.C. ’06 M.Div., ’15 EMBA, and Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C., Ph.D. ’99, ’03 M.Ed., .05 M.Div. chat with ACE faculty member April Garcia ’05, who helps shed some light on the important topic of friendship.

Want more from the Pod Quad crew? Click below.

• For Good: Hall Masses, Hoops, and Holy Cross Tradition with Rev. Pete McCormick, C.S.C.
• Everyday Holiness: Fr. Pete McCormick, C.S.C.
• Think. Pair. Share.: Fr. Nate Wills—Education, Blended
• Everyday Holiness: Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C.

Meet the Host: Fr. Pete McCormick, C.S.C. '06 M.Div., '15 EMBA

As Assistant Vice President of Campus Ministry within the Division of Student Affairs, Father Pete McCormick, C.S.C. ’06 M.Div., ’15 EMBA oversees a staff of some 30 clerical, religious and lay ministers tending to the spiritual needs of all Notre Dame students.

A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., Father McCormick attended West Catholic High School. Following his graduation from Grand Valley State University in 2000 he entered Moreau Seminary and two years later professed his first vows in the Congregation of Holy Cross.

While in the seminary, Father McCormick worked at St. John Vianney Parish in Goodyear, Ariz., directing its Confirmation program, teaching mathematics in the parish school and coaching 5th and 6th grade basketball. Returning to Notre Dame, he earned a master’s degree in divinity in 2006 and was ordained a Holy Cross priest the following year. He received his Executive MBA from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in 2015. From 2007 to 2013 he served as rector of Notre Dame’s Keough Hall. He also served as associate vocation director for Holy Cross from 2007 to 2010. He served as associate director of Campus Ministry until January 2015 before becoming director, and serves as chaplain to the Notre Dame Men’s Basketball team.

Meet the Faculty: April Garcia '05

April Garcia ’05 serves as an assistant teaching professor in the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. April graduated from Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Business Administration in management consulting. She earned her Master of Education degree from ACE’s Teaching Fellows Program while teaching in San Antonio, where she remained in the classroom for several years. She then began her work as a teacher and leader in South Los Angeles while completing her Master of Arts degree from ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Her research led to her role as the founding director of Onward Readers, a toddler through middle school literacy initiative through the Department of Catholic Schools and the Smet Foundation. She recently completed her Doctor of Education through the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

Meet the Host: Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C., Ph.D. '99, '03 M.Ed., .05 M.Div.

Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C., Ph.D. ’99, ’03 M.Ed., .05 M.Div., serves as the Director of ACE’s Blended Learning Initiatives, and on the faculty of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program.

Wills was a member of the 8th cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows, and later served as an associate pastor at St. Joseph Parish in South Bend. He teaches the educational technology class in RLP; his research and scholarship in the area of blended learning in K-12 Catholic schools support ACE’s understanding of how technology and other levers for change can help Catholic school teachers and leaders have an even greater impact.

Wills was ordained a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross in the spring of 2006. He completed his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying technology policy in Catholic schools.