This Year’s Theme: Women of the Word

Every summer, the NDP religion department creates a theme for the upcoming academic year. It is not just a clever phrase used to kick off the new year in style. The theme is displayed on bulletin boards and easels throughout the school as a sort of “thought for the day”…every day. It is also woven into […]

The Person You’ve Become; The People We Are

In 2006 I had the distinct honor of delivering the commencement speech at Notre Dame. In preparation for the event, I spoke with a few of the graduates-to-be about their NDP experience and the road ahead. One of those young women was Chas Dunnaville, undeniably the brightest of stars in an exceptional class. While at […]

One Story: Sydney Tommins

NDP senior, Sydney Tommins is delightfully and blissfully ordinary, which is meant to be taken as the highest of praise. In an era where teenagers are depicted – at least by the mass media – as overly experienced and world weary, jaded and full of sullen ennui, it is heartwarming to meet someone like Sydney […]

The Class of 2019: Going Up!

It made sense at the time. Interview a group of 6th graders towards the end of the school year and find out how their first year at Notre Dame went. There were several flaws in the plan, however. For one thing, I dropped by to conduct this hard-hitting bit of investigative journalism on a day […]

One Story: Jamie Watson

Senior Jamie Watson comes bounding down the hallway towards me, her hair bouncing sideways, left to right and back again, in rhythm with her gait. Only Perky Girl hair bounces like that. Jamie is perky. Jamie has the opposite stride of a runway model; in this case, a good thing. Runway models lead with their […]

Blessed Is She Who Steps Out of Her Comfort Zone

All the Hemispheres by Hafiz […]

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 […]

Why a Religious School?

Before the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tidal wave that washed over Indochina and Sri Lanka, I had never heard of the term ‘tsunami.’ Since that devastating event, however, the word has become part of my vocabulary and turns out to be the perfect metaphor for contemporary culture. A tsunami has a momentum […]

The Age of Innocence

It’s getting harder to believe in innocence anymore. I’ve seen too many 6 year olds going on 16 and 16 year olds going on 30. What’s the hurry? The most popular TV shows among teenagers have titles like Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girls, and The Secret Life of an American Teenager. Each has a plotline […]

Dame Maggie Ward

Yes, this is a post about Maggie Ward, NDP’s drama coach for more than 30 years, but don’t expect something out of Glee. NDP is no William McKinley High School of TV fame (thankfully), and Maggie Ward is neither a Will Schuster-wanna-be, nor a diva in her own right. In fact, the only theatrics she […]