Martha Hall Kelly, author and Notre Dame alumna, delivered an address to graduates at the 2018 Notre Dame Academy Commencement. She related her own process of discovering the story of Caroline Ferriday, a socialite who became obsessed with rescuing a group of concentration camp survivors. Kelly’s research would ultimately lead her to write Lilac Girls, a novel that has spent over a year on The New York Times bestseller list.

Kelly told the graduates not to wait as long as she did to start doing what she truly loved and, like Ferriday, to always be on the lookout for ways to help other people. And, never pass up an opportunity to explore something that interests you, she told them.