What Did I Learn in School Today?

It has been nearly two years since I was first invited to create a blog for Notre Dame Prep. What began as a marketing tool for NDP quickly became a labor of love for me. What a great gig. I spent the better part of the past 24 months interviewing those people who represent the […]

Divine Mystery Revealed?

There are certain questions one expects to hear bandied about in an academic environment. “What is the square root of 125? Why is the sky blue? How many lines in a sonnet?… Where’s your homework? …Will this be on the test?” As a student progresses through school the questions get harder and the answers more […]

The Class of 2000: Paying It Forward and Then Some

It’s true what they say. You really can pick out the NDP girl in a crowd. And no, not because of the iconic blue dress. I’m talking about long after the uniform’s been traded in for individual style. Long after graduation. I’m talking about NDP alum. Case in point: Bluenote made a deal with the […]

One Story: Minnie Jang

Senior Minnie Jang has a system for applying to schools that has worked quite well for her. Essentially, it boils down to this: You pick the school you want to go to… and apply. That’s it. No second, third, or fourth choice. No back up plan. No safe bets. Just go for it. That’s what […]

Say Yes to the Dress

It is admissions time at NDP. With that in mind, the following is a re-print of one of our most popular posts on this theme, previously published in 2013. 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 […]

One Story: Amanda Abraham

I don’t know if they keep such accounts, but if they do, then NDP senior, Amanda Abraham, surely must hold the record for the fastest talker on the planet. I should have tape-recorded our interview together. Instead, I arrived armed with only a note pad and pen and became positively giddy trying to keep up […]

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 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 […]

(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 […]