Of the few schools in the QuestBridge college admissions program to offer architecture, only one is Catholic. For Chioma Oparaji, this made the college decision process much easier.

Faith is a guiding principle for Oparaji, a native of Houston, Texas, and a QuestBridge scholar. Faith led her to Notre Dame, which, in turn, led her across the globe as a representative of her University. For Oparaji, Notre Dame’s combination of classical architecture studies and general Catholic education has turned this campus into a home.

“Being able to learn about my faith in class, and being able to talk about it openly among my peers and with my professors, has been really refreshing. It’s really something that I care deeply about, because I think that there’s so much good and beauty in aiming for that higher good of the glory of God, and it is so ingrained in education,” Oparaji said. “I think that Notre Dame does a great job of merging the two.”

The Moreau First-Year Seminar, a program designed to help students explore fundamental questions about identity, relationships, and their role in the world, allowed Oparaji to base her studies on charitable principles and remember that buildings are meant to serve people.

She remembered learning, during the seminar, a line from one of Blessed Basil Moreau’s letters: “The mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.” Her takeaway was that her education was “not just focusing on training the mind to learn new things, which I’m doing in architecture, but also forming the heart to be a better person, to be more charitable. And not just living in a void, but learning how I can give back to others because of the model that Christ has always given for us.”

Going global, staying grounded

Studying architecture has taken Oparaji to three continents, including a high school excursion to Chile and a Notre Dame project in India. She spent her third year of undergraduate studies in Italy with the Rome Studies Program and extended her time through a funded research project in Ravenna analyzing Byzantine mosaics and early Catholic symbolism.

“I really came to appreciate those spaces when they were first built. Sometimes they didn’t really think about how long they’re going to impact people. But these buildings in Rome have been standing for such a long time, and it’s a testament to how they’re built. They’re built with great construction methods and reliable, sustainable construction materials, but they’re still standing because the people were using them for their everyday living. These are buildings that people loved and wanted to continue and sustain.

“So thinking about that architecture, I do want to be able to take those methods, take those practices, and start building sustainable buildings that are going to last a long time,” Oparaji said. “So not just like this one-and-done, very cheap construction.”

She also wants to create buildings that are “for people,” she said, “so they can use them in their everyday lives, and they’ll be comfortable and want to preserve these buildings and want to use these buildings.”

Her plans after graduation will take her to Atlanta to work for an architecture firm specializing in custom residential design. She anticipates that the one-on-one work with clients will be the most rewarding aspect of her career.

“As architects, you can build in a way that is first and foremost giving back or putting the people who are going to be using it first, instead of just building to satisfy my own creative ideas of what I think the building should be like.”

Though her subject focus may be shifting to more familiar buildings, sacred architecture will always hold a place in her heart. “I think that’s one of the highest forms of architecture, because it’s like all the details are going back to serving God . . . and to serve the people of God.”

Oparaji is well-equipped to put these charitable values into practice. And she has already. Not just on local projects stateside, but also across oceans.

A Rudy moment

Even 8,000 miles from campus, key Notre Dame values followed Oparaji. An architecture course trip took her to India to work on a historic fishing dock redevelopment for the Mumbai Port Authority. The night before her group’s presentation, her team gathered for final preparations.

“It was such like that moment before a football game, or like in those football movies where they’re in the locker room trying to make a play . . . they’re down but they’re trying to make that final push.”

It was a success, and though her classmates stopped short of carrying each other out of the presentation room on their shoulders, Oparaji stressed how important this experience was.

“Taking in all these different challenges that the people are facing on a human level and trying to solve that on an architectural level was such a real-world, relevant thing, because that’s exactly what architects are supposed to be doing: hearing the need and hearing what people need,” Oparaji said. “But they’re not like philosophers or theologians, they’re architects, and so their method of solving these problems is through building and being able to use that skill to try to solve these problems, to better the people’s lives. It was very meaningful.”

Oparaji said her time in India was “such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” an experience that could happen “only at Notre Dame.”

Sacred spaces

Oparaji has found peace in sacred spaces on campus—the Grotto in particular. This grounding place of contemplation has become one of her fondest spots at Notre Dame. “Whenever I go to the Grotto, it’s always a moment of reflection on what’s happening, even in really stressful times and my happiest times,” Oparaji said.

She has not yet fully reflected on her entire collegiate journey, but she said a few instances stand out: “Those little moments when I’m not in architecture . . . those little moments where I just press pause.”

With tears in her eyes, she reminisced on those sacred times at the Grotto and what that space truly means to her.

“The fact that we have that at this University is such a beautiful statement of faith, and I want students to be able to take everything that they have from their education, their activities, and unite it with Our Lady on the Dome.”