Blessed Is She Who Steps Out of Her Comfort Zone

All the Hemispheres by Hafiz […]

One Story: Lauren Tomasic

Can essence be quantified? And if so, what is its unit of measurement? For NDP, the answer is easy. What is essentially Notre Dame can be calculated by an accounting of each individual girl. Take NDP junior, Lauren Tomasic, class of 2014, for example. While I was interviewing Mrs. Chris Kaiser, the Dean of Students, […]

Chris Kaiser: Loving Tenderly

On any given day, a steady succession of girls parades in and out of the office of NDP’s Dean of Students, Chris Kaiser. As Dean, Mrs. Kaiser’s responsibilities include overseeing all student activities and schedules as well as enforcing the school’s disciplinary policies. So there are any number of reasons why a student might drop by…or […]

Say Yes to the Dress

I am the oldest of four girls. We all went to NDP for high school. Because we’re all close in age, for much of that time my parents had 2 or 3 private school tuitions due in the same academic year (we also have an older brother who graduated from Loyola). That was a lot of […]

NDP Nerve Center

It’s an unpretentious little outpost. If you were to take a tour of Notre Dame, it’d be easy to miss. But tucked away on the lower level of the West Wing – in what used to be the old exercise room (and before that, the girls’ locker room) – is the very nerve center of […]

One Story: Meghan Stromberg

Currently, there are 739 girls at NDP. That’s 739 Works in Progress. 739 Unique Individuals. 739 Stories to Tell. There aren’t enough days in the year to tell them all. So…where to begin? Rather randomly, as it turns out. Which is not to say objectively. I spent a lot of time at NDP last year […]

Excellence By Design

‘Peer evaluation’. There’s a term that’ll send a shudder down the spine of any garden-variety neurotic: Employer questionnaire: Please evaluate your co-worker, Susie B. Employee answer: I’m so glad you asked. I’ve been wanting to bring this to your attention for some time now. I feel that Susie B. can be very insensitive (I wouldn’t […]

NDP Open House: The Joint Was Jumpin’

One of the things I am most impressed with whenever I visit Notre Dame is the joyful energy of the school. It’s always buzzing with activity and the kids seem genuinely happy and engaged. I’ve visited on many occasions over the years and my experience is always the same. I’ve even been back to film […]

Art For More Than Art’s Sake

Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…Romans 12:2 There is nothing more thrilling than connecting in a very personal way with a work of art. Imagine how thrilling it must be for the artist to create it. To take the mundane material of life, run it through […]

Blue Ribbon Year

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle. Does excellence matter? In an era where we give our kids trophies for striking out and kudos for feeling good about themselves (if not their actual skills) it begs the question…does excellence matter? The U.S. Department of Education thinks […]