Ursuline Academy of Dallas

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Ursuline Academy of Dallas
Image:Ursuline Dallas Seal.PNG
Serviam
Established 1874
School type Ursuline, Private, Catholic, Single-Sex
President Sr. Margaret Ann Moser, O.S.U.
Principal Ms. Elizabeth C. Bourgeois
Location Dallas, Texas, USA
Students 800 girls
Faculty 82
Athletics 11 sports
Mascot Bear
Campus 27 acres
Website www.ursulinedallas.org

Ursuline Academy of Dallas (commonly referred to as "Ursuline" or "UA") is a Catholic high school for girls located on Walnut Hill Lane by the intersection of Inwood Road in North Dallas, Texas. Ursuline Academy was founded in 1874 and is credited with being the oldest school in the city as it has been in consistent operation since its founding. Ursuline Academy's mission is based on that of the Ursuline Sisters.

Ursuline enrolls approximately 800 students every year and employs approximately 80 faculty members. Approximately 80% of the student body is Catholic and approximately 25% are minorities.

Ursuline provides its students with a rigorous college preparatory curriculum.

Ursuline shares close ties with its brother schools Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas and Cistercian Preparatory School.

Contents

[edit] Mission statement

Founded in 1874, Ursuline Academy of Dallas is an independent Catholic college preparatory school for young women sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters.

The mission of Ursuline Academy is the total development of the individual student through spiritual formation, intellectual growth, service to others, and building of community.

Ursuline Academy educates young women for leadership in a global society.

The Ursuline motto Serviam (Latin), translates to, "I will serve."

[edit] History

The mission and rich heritage of Ursuline Academy are rooted in the vision of St. Angela Merici, who founded the Order of St. Ursula in Brescia, Italy, in 1535. At a time when the talents and abilities of women were largely forgotten, Angela realized the crucial role of women in the church and the world, as expressed in her writings: "Love your daughters equally; do not prefer one more than another, because they are all creatures of God. And you do not know what He wants to make of them."

Angela's vision and mission quickly spread throughout Europe and the education of girls became a primary ministry of the Ursuline order. The first religious order to reach North America, the French Ursulines founded a school in Quebec in 1639. They opened a convent and academy in New Orleans in 1727, and built their Galveston, Texas, house in 1847.

In 1873, Monsignor Claude M. Dubuis, Texas' first Catholic Bishop, determined that the fledgling city of Dallas needed the Ursulines. On January 28, 1874, six Galveston Sisters, led by Mother St. Joseph Holly with $146 in their common purse, arrived in Dallas by train to establish a school in the frontier town. Their luggage had been lost and they had not been able to sleep. Incredible hardships lay ahead.

It was an unusually severe winter and the four-room frame house Bishop Dubuis had built for them supplied little shelter from the weather. Water froze indoors and broke pitchers on the washstands; rain and snow dripped through the roof, soaking the beds, bedding and other furniture; only one room had a stove. Nonetheless, the Sisters set about their work. On February 2, less than a week after they arrived, the Ursulines opened their school with seven day students.

By the end of the first term, Ursuline Academy had grown to 50 students and the Sisters borrowed money to erect a better two-story building. By 1875, the Ursulines were able to establish their new convent and a day and boarding school. But they would still have to deal with and transcend the hot Texas sun, which had burned vegetables in the ground that summer; the bitterly cold winter that followed - so cold that the rock foundation crumbled and had to be replaced - and the nationwide economic depression of the 1870s.

In 1882, the Sisters began construction of their third building on a 10-acre site in East Dallas. In 1883, work was completed on the handsome Gothic structure designed by Nicholas J. Clayton, who had planned many of Galveston's beautiful structures.

News of the Ursulines' presence in Dallas quickly spread to other areas and newspapers praised the Academy and its curriculum. In 1878, Ursuline Academy of Dallas was chartered by the Texas State Legislature. By 1890, the Academy was drawing students from many states and Mexico, as well as from some of Dallas' most prominent families. The Ursuline Academy Alumnae Association was formed in 1899.

In 1950, Ursuline moved to a new building at 4900 Walnut Hill Lane in North Dallas, site of the present-day campus. Growing steadily over the years, the Academy's expanded facilities now include 16 buildings beautifully situated on nearly 28 acres in the park-like setting.

Ursuline Academy has been an important part of the Dallas community in many ways. The Ursuline motto is Serviam, Latin for "I will serve." A key goal is for students to embrace a lifelong commitment to community service. Ursuline alumnae have earned an excellent reputation for service to the community, not just as students but also later in life.

Progressive methods of education are characteristic of the Ursuline tradition. Today every student has a laptop computer, an approach that has broadened the educational venture, in and out of the classroom. In 1996, Ursuline was one of six schools in the United States to pioneer the "Anywhere, Anytime Learning" program in partnership with Microsoft and Toshiba. Through e-Serviam, student teams now create Web sites for non-profit agencies that do not have funds to develop their own.

Sharing gospel vision and values, Ursuline educators around the globe empower their students to be a transforming presence in today's world. With strong support from parents, alumnae and friends in the community, Ursuline Academy of Dallas continues its mission to prepare young women to be strong Christian leaders. St. Angela Merici's dictum - to treat each young woman individually - is still the time-honored approach to education at Ursuline Academy.

[edit] Campus and School Administration

  • President: Margaret Ann Moser, OSU
  • Principal: Elizabeth Bourgeois
  • Chief Financial Officer: Jim Koehler
  • Facilities Director: Tom Kelly
  • Communications Advisor: Valerie Oates
  • Director of Technology: Susan Bauer
  • Director of Directors: Sean Howard
  • Academic Dean: Birgitt Lopez
  • Dean of Students: Jennifer Kolling
  • Director of Admission: Michele Synder
  • Director of Student Affairs: Daniel Schmeltz
  • Director of ROTC: Mark Wester
  • Dean of Diversity and Global Education: Cecilia Nipp

[edit] Uniforms

The Ursuline uniform consists of a red, white, and navy plaid skirt. Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior students wear white shirts, navy sweaters, and white socks. Seniors are given more uniform choices: navy shirts, white sweaters, and navy socks. All students wear saddle shoes with white laces every day. Blazers with the official school crest are worn on days when the school attends Mass or for other important school assemblies.

Appearing on the blazer are school pins, which are given out to all students at Freshman Convocation and the Sophomore Serviam celebration, and also to student members of organizations such as National Honor Society, Ambassadors, and the Eucharistic Ministers.

[edit] Traditions

[edit] Big Sister/Little Sister Program

The incoming Freshman class is paired with a Junior at the beginning of the year. They decorate each other's locker and have a Big Sis/Little Sis picnic on the lawns of St. Joes.

[edit] Powderpuff

The week of Jesuit's homecoming, the juniors and seniors gather on the Jesuit football field to play a game of flag football. It marks the first competition between classes and makes way for Intramurals.

[edit] Intramurals

One of the high points of the Ursuline school year is Intramurals. Intramurals occur in November in the last week before the Thanksgiving holiday and are a chance for each class to show whose spirit is the strongest. Each class chooses a theme to base their spirit around and is represented by a color:

  • Freshmen - Green
  • Sophomores - Yellow
  • Juniors - Red
  • Seniors - Blue

During Intramurals, students compete in a variety of ways:

Spirit 
The main competition. The score is graded on amount of cans collected in the can drive, amount of cheering and/or class effort during volleyball games, ability to sing the Alma Mater, amount of cheering during hallway decoration, and amount of cheering during lunch periods, etc. Points are deducted from the final score of each class for offenses such as uncleanliness (ie, dirty tables left after lunch, feathers or other decorations left in hallways, etc) and unsportsmanlike behavior.
Hallway Decoration 
Each grade is given a section of the hallway to decorate using their color and theme. The score is determined more by creativity and effort than by artistic merit, although it is an important factor in the final score for it indicates effort.
Volleyball Games 
Each class's volleyball team plays the others'. During the volleyball games, there is absolutely no silence, as each class cheers as loud as possible for their volleyball team. The winner is determined in the same manner as a typical round robin tournament.
Skit 
Each grade makes a skit relating to their theme and performs it for the school. Each class must involve every member of their class in the performance, as well as include the themes of the other four classes in their own. Audibility is a major factor in score determination, as well as humor, creativity, etc. Crude or cruel jokes result in disqualification of the class.
Mural 
Each class creates a mural of their theme and depicts the other grades as well. Artistic merit is the most important factor in this competition.
Can Drive 
Collecting cans for spirit points. The Class of 2006 collected over 11,000 cans during the 2005 Intramurals.

A pep rally occurs outside the school one morning. Members of each class also wear clothing (sometimes excessively decorative) according to their color with their Ursuline skirt instead of the typical uniform shirt.

[edit] Snowball

Snowball is the formal dance for Ursuline seniors, held in December before the Christmas Holidays.

Males are only allowed to the dance if they have a date. Males are normally asked in creative ways, some of which include writing the question on his car or unveiling a large sign at a school function.

Another unique aspect of Snowball is the selection of queen and court. Unlike typical homecoming celebrations, the queen and court are not selected by a popularity vote; instead, Ursuline uses a unique random selection method. Members of the senior class each receive a cupcake, some of which contain nuts, and one in particular contains a walnut. The recipient of the walnut-filled cupcake is crowned queen, while the court is made up of those who receive the other nut-filled cupcakes.

[edit] Freshman Convocation, Sophomore Serviam Ceremony, Junior Ring Ceremony

Services for the three classes that mark them as members of the Ursuline community.

[edit] Serviam

Serviam, meaning "I will serve", is a major part of Ursuline life. Girls are required to perform a set number of hours each semester, adding up to a total of 100 hours by graduation. Most students exceed the required number of hours. During the 2005-2006 school year, students performed over 630,000 hours of service in both local and international communities.

[edit] Athletics

Ursuline Academy offers:

  • Basketball
  • Crew
  • Cross Country
  • Golf
  • Lacrosse
  • Soccer
  • Softball
  • Swimming/Diving
  • Tennis
  • Track
  • Volleyball


[edit] Athletic Facilities

The Jane Neuhoff Athletic Center, completed in 1996, is used for home volleyball matches/tournaments, basketball games, summer camps and DPL play-off/all-star games for volleyball and basketball.

A softball field is also located on campus, just south of the gym and it is used for home softball games/tournaments, summer camps and DPL play-off games.

Other facilities used by the Athletic Department are at Greenhill (swimming, soccer), the Village (tennis), Jesuit (soccer, lacrosse, track & field), Loos Natatorium (swim/dive, soccer), Bachman Lake (crew), Norbuck Park (cross country) and University of Dallas (lacrosse).

[edit] Soccer

Ursuline Academy's nationally renowned soccer team has won seventeen consecutive state titles, the first in the streak having been won in 1990. The program is currently ranked number one in the nation.

[edit] Laptop program

In 1996, Ursuline joined a program called Anytime, Anywhere Learning. As part of this program, all incoming students purchase a laptop from the school manufactured by Toshiba. Currently, any necessary classroom software is included with the laptop, along with a four year warranty, on-site service, the ability to get a "hot spare" loaner laptop during repairs, and wireless access throughout the school.

[edit] The Cave

The CAVE is a large closet located on campus in the "Club Hallway" of the school, so named for the large club bulletin boards lining the hall. Ursuline students and faculty are invited to bring their laptops to the CAVE where a Toshiba authorized technician maintains and repairs the finicky laptops. The technician (BUck the Caveman) is renowned throughout the school as for saving many laptops since the program's induction in 1996, including a class of 2006 laptop that caught fire in the fall of 2002.

[edit] Wireless access

The Ursuline campus is fully wireless. The school is currently in the process of transitioning from a system created by an Israeli company, BreezeNet, to the IEEE 802.11 standard. Students may access the Internet as well print to printers located almost everywhere in the school - at least one in every classroom and more in the library. In August of 2006, all BreezeNet wireless routers were removed after the last class to utilize the BreezeNet internet cards graduated.

[edit] International Affairs

The Ursuline name, known globally, has been brought in a unique way to Beijing, China. In June 1997, Ursuline Academy of Dallas formed a partnership with Huaxia Academy of Beijing, the first private girls school to open in China since the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. The unique partnership was formalized in a written agreement, the first of its kind between private secondary schools in the U.S. and China. The agreement calls for five steps of educational and cultural exchange:

  • Principal visits
  • Student communications
  • Exchange of curriculum and technology ideas
  • Use of technology to expand joint communications
  • Teacher and student exchanges

Ursuline Academy has served as a model in the development of Huaxia, providing the pattern for educational features ranging from curriculum and structure to the design of school uniforms. In establishing the partnership, the Huaxia school leadership found Ursuline's long heritage particularly appealing, as well as its emphasis on moral education, academic excellence, and tradition. The exchange has also built friendships and understanding across cultures and continents.

Huaxia Academy was founded in 1996 with just over 100 students. Today the Beijing school has an enrollment of more than 1000 young women.

To date, there have been five delegations of Huaxia students, teachers and administrators to visit Ursuline; approximately every other year, a similar delegation from Ursuline has visited Huaxia. During these visits, schools exchange ideas about curriculum, student life, and school management. Members of visiting delegations attend classes, tour historic landmarks, and participate in other activities to learn more about the distinctive culture of the host country. Visiting students reside with host families and students during their stay.

[edit] Graduation

Ursuline graduation is the culmination of four years of "spiritual formation and faith development, respect for the uniqueness of the individual, development of the whole person, development of a nurturing community spirit, a commitment to peacemaking, and Serviam (I will serve) as a lived reality" (from the Ursuline mission statement.) Each year at the end of May, the young women of Ursuline Academy don their final Ursuline uniform, a long white dress meeting many explicit requirements.

The graduation ceremony is an incredibly formal affair, with Ursuline students performing a deep Southern curtsy on the front lawn in front of the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The school provides a white, wide-brimmed hat and a dozen red roses for each student. The graduating class is also asked to sing a song of their choosing.

[edit] Accredidations and Affiliations

Ursuline Academy is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS), the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department (TCCED).

The Academy is affiliated with Ursuline Education Services (UES), National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), and The College Board, and is a member of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS).

Ursuline's pioneering approach to the use of laptop computers has been a model for schools across the U.S. and around the world. The Computerworld Smithsonian Awards named Ursuline a 1998 Laureate as an "innovative user of information technology." Ursuline's case study was entered into the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology and Society in Washington, D.C. The program was also recognized in 2000 as a Selected Program for Improving Catholic Education at the 1999 SPICE Symposium, sponsored by NCEA.

In 1993, Ursuline Academy was designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a "Blue Ribbon School."


[edit] Notable alumnae

[edit] External links

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