New Blog for 2011-12

It's a new school year and we have a new blog : http://www.uadodge2011-12.blogspot.com/ 
 Please follow us!

UA Brazil Sciences Class 2011

Tomorrow we will depart Dallas with a group of 5 young UA scientists to Brazil. We invite you to follow our UA Brazil Sciences blog at http://www.uabrazilsciences2011.blogspot.com/ .....

GYLI's Living in a Flat World Global Conference, Costa Rica

Last weekend, we had the honor of presenting some of Ursuline's Experiential Learning opportunities at the GYLI (Global Youth Leadership Institute) "Living in a Flat World" conference in Costa Rica. It was a marvelous event which brought together global educators from all over the world. We were so happy to see many of our old friends who have visited us at Ursuline as well as to make new friends among the many distinguished attendees including the GYLI board members and the leadership of NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools).

In addition to sharing information about our Brazil Sciences class and our Cape Cod Sea Camp, we also presented information about how to prepare students for traveling to Africa. Of course, the setting on the campus of Earth University was perfect for our own experiential learning. GYLI made sure to give us special experiences including visiting a banana plantation, a dairy farm and a swine farm. As you might imagine, there were some unforeseen challenges (such as ant piles and lost luggage) but the many positive encounters (including one with a giant grasshopper and another with a tree sloth) made it all worthwhile.

A million thanks to our friends at GYLI for the invitation to beautiful Costa Rica!!

Summer Happenings...

We'd like to remind everyone that all sorts of wonderful things are happening over the summer .. We just welcomed back to Dallas our first-ever delegation to our sister school in Wimbledon, England. Today, students are participating in leadership conferences through GYLI (Global Youth Leadership Institute) in New Mexico and Costa Rica.

If you'd like to read more aboout the adventures of our Wimbledon delegation, please check out Ms. Alexander's blog at http://www.twoursulines.blogspot.com/

More summer updates coming soon! Please stay tuned....

Ursuline Global Conference in Brazil

Our third stop traveling through South America was an Ursuline Global Conference on "Fraternity and Life on the Planet." We were the very honored international guests at this fantastic meeting of Ursuline educators from all over Brazil. The conference was held at the very beautiful Ursuline school in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo. The conference participants were full of enthusiasm for Ursuline education, Saint Angela and global friendships. We also had the great joy of reuiting with many of our friends from our sister school in Bahia, Nossa Senhora da Piedade, who were also in attendance at the conference. The best news from the conference is that we at Ursuline Dallas have been asked to collaborate on an Ursuline Global Youth Conference to be held in Septemebr 2012 in Brazil. We hope that Ursuline students from all over the world will attend! More on this event will be coming soon! In the meantime, we treasure our wonderful experience in Ribeirao Preto and we look forward to gathering together with our students in 2012!!

Greetings from Chile

Greetings from Chile where Ms. Bourgeois and I (Ms. Nipp) have spent the weekend. We had a wonderful time at our sister school in Lima, Peru last week and now we are here in Santiago, Chile preparing to visit our Chilean sister school. Yesterday was really cold and rainy (it was 37 degrees - 70 degrees colder than Dallas!). However, today was clear and cold and crisp - and completely beautiful! The Andes, which surround Santiago, are snow-covered and have offered us spectacular views all day - what a magnificent surprise! Our dear friends from Colegio Santa Ursula, Andrea Raczinski and Soledad Villarreal, accompanied us today as we attended Mass at the Ursuline school and then toured a bit of the city. It was a grand day and we can't wait to visit our sister school as well as the Ursuline school in Maipu tomorrow!

Serving and Visiting Colegio Miramar

On our second full day in Peru, we visited the Ursuline School, Colegio San Jose, in the Miramar district of Lima (the school is generally known as Colegio Miramar). This school is in a very humble area of Lima so the Ursuline school provides not only a wonderful education for the children but also a sanctuary away from the difficulties of life outside the walls of the school. In fact, the sisters are very important to the life of the entire Miramar community as everyone knows them and is so grateful for the help and education that they provide. The children eat very well at school because the Sisters know that sometimes they lack food at home.
Our Ursuline students joined the girls from Colegio Santa Ursula in preparing snacks and lunch for the children and they also played with the youngest children on the play ground. It was a wonderful experience and the girls were excited to know that they will return to the Miramar school next week to help some of the older children with homework.