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Wukie found out last April that she was one of the three students chosen to be a leprechaun. She spent the summer preparing for the role, including figuring out how to make it her own.

\"We have done our best to keep the tradition but adapt it to me being female,\" she said. \"I still have a suit, but the pants are cuffed instead of cinched and both the coat and the vest are shorter so it’s more of how a women’s suit would look.\"

\"I wear an ascot type scarf, but I can also wear the tie if I want, it’s my choice,\" Wukie added.

The Notre Dame leprechaun is one of the few collegiate mascots whose costume does not include a head piece. For many years, the leprechaun role came with gender and height requirements and required the ability to grow a beard, according to Delayna Herndon, a University of Notre Dame cheerleading coach.

\"So far the reaction to having a female portray the leprechaun has been overwhelmingly positive,\" Herndon told \"GMA.\" \"[Wukie] truly is a role model for so many young men and women wanting to strive for whatever they're passionate about.\"

\"PHOTO:
University of Notre Dame
PHOTO: Lynette Wukie made her debut as Notre Dame's first female leprechaun at a women's volleyball game on Aug. 31, 2019, in South Bend, Ind.
>

Wukie and her fellow mascots are considered student-athletes and train with the school's cheerleading team. One mascot is chosen to cheer at Notre Dame football games, while all three, including Wukie, cheer on the school's other sports teams, from soccer to volleyball and basketball.

Wukie said her fellow students recognize her on campus and she has already experienced young girls running up to meet her and give her high fives. The reaction is a far cry from the controversy she feared as a barrier-breaker.

\"I think it’s something that’s natural with anything like this, when there’s a first, especially with gender, that something will come up,\" she said. \"Also being a woman of color, I feared there would be a lot of controversy, but I’ve heard only positive things both here and back home.\"

\"I hope that having a female leprechaun continues as a tradition,\" Wukie added. \"I hope I won’t be the only one.\"

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