Notre Dame Academy is a school full of hardworking and determined girls. Give them a goal and they are sure to meet it and so much more.

A local radio station had held a contest they called ‘Kick It with Liam’ to collect lightly worn shoes for the foundation Big Brothers Big Sisters. The school that collected the most pairs of shoes would win a free concert from Liam Payne, a former member of the pop band One Direction. Kaitlin McCormick, a member of the Class of 2019, brought the contest to members of administration requesting for NDA’s involvement with the shoe drive. After the approval, McCormick, members from student council, and many others helped organize and collect the shoes. Every day, girls would bring in trash bags full of shoes. Soon the gymnasium was full of hundreds of bags all filled with shoes. On November 17, 2017, Notre Dame Academy was declared the winners of the competition after bringing in over 4,000 pairs of shoes. This meant that Liam Payne would be giving a concert to all the NDA student body. On December 7^th, the NDA auditorium was filled with screaming girls as Liam Payne took the stage to sing two of his latest singles. This is sure to be an opportunity that the NDA community will never forget.

The Medallion had the exciting opportunity to meet and interview Liam Payne. Check out the interview down below.

How do you choose the charities you work with?

“I think it’s important to choose things that are close to your heart and mean the most to you, so I would pick things that are around my age and do different things that are close to home for me. So, just things that mean something to me I guess.”

What is advice you would have for a high school student

“I think young people have a lot of pressure on themselves these days with everything that goes on online. So, my main thing would be just to enjoy yourself and work hard. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. There’s a lot of life you haven’t lived yet. And choose your heroes carefully.”