One Story: Siena Thrasher

Sitting there listening to NDP junior, Siena Thrasher talk about “her life, her passions, and her faith,” I am reminded for all the world of The Little Flower, Therese of Lisieux. For starters, Siena bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Therese. She is a 21st century version of the 19th century saint: pretty, dark-eyed, and […]

Stone Soup and Other Tales of Advent

It is December, and the noise level is deafening. Not even a major snowstorm could muffle the holiday clamor. Everywhere, Christmas has been cranked up and marked down, blared and blasted, misappropriated and misunderstood. Hark! The herald… If somewhere an angel sings, it is impossible to hear above the din. These are the darkest days of the […]

The P in NDP

Lest any of us forget, the P in NDP stands not for preppie as in 50 shades of khaki, but rather for preparatory as in college and beyond. It is highly unlikely that anyone in the greater NDP community would – or could – forget. College prep is, after all, Notre Dame’s raison d’être. From […]

The SSND’s: Call and Response

The last thing Headmistress Sister Patricia McCarron does each morning before she heads out the door for NDP is to make sure she’s wearing her School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) lapel pin. It is a tiny accessory, smaller than a postage stamp, yet it represents something quite significant. To those who wear it, the […]

Pick A Club, Any Club

File this one under: “Something for Everyone” or “Learning In and Outside the Classroom” or… “Pick a Club, Any Club.” In an era where cutbacks for even the bare essentials have been made throughout nearly every public school system in the country, any student who attends a school where those very same essentials are protected […]

(Young) Women Rising

That Doonesbury strip, written back in the 70’s during the height of the still nascent Women’s Movement, is one of my all time favorites. At that time, the character, Joanie Caucus, ran the local daycare center where she watched over, among other 3 and 4 year olds, young Ellie. Joanie was also a new and […]

NDP: One of a Kind

Recently, Notre Dame Prep launched a new Capital Campaign under the banner, Honor Tradition, Value Change, Fund Her Future. As prelude to the campaign, I conducted separate interviews with quite a few members of the greater NDP community about what Notre Dame means to them and why they think it’s important to assure her future. Those […]

Girls and Science: Fully Capable

Those involved in the nurture, training, and education of children sooner or later refer to the concept of a child’s potential: ‘Every child has great potential.’ Or, ‘Every child should be given opportunities to reach his or her full potential.’ It’s a noble concept and a worthwhile goal. But it has echoed out there for […]

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 […]

Déjà Vu All Over Again

June 2013: School is out. Camp is in. There were at least three camps in full swing at Notre Dame this summer: Sports Camp for prospective middle-schoolers, Laptop Camp for incoming freshman and Camp Umoja, a full out day camp for children from Baltimore City’s inner city neighborhoods. The Umoja campers ranged in age from […]