Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

Pat Bassett, president of NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) shared this festive video with students and educators at the annual People of Color / Student Diversity and Leadership Conference. My favorite quote from the video is "The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader..." I share it with you for your reflection. What do you think?

Apply NOW to host & travel in Spring 2011 !

UA Students, this week is the final week to apply to host a student from our sister-schools in Chile and in Peru. Both groups will be visiting us for 2 1/2 weeks in January! A new friend is waiting to know you and your family! Come by the Global Village to pick up your Host Student Application today!

Also, we are now accepting applications from Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors who wish to join the 2011 Spring Delegation to our sister school in Chile. The group will travel in March, over Spring Break and the week following. These applications are also waiting for you in the Global Village! See Ms. Vander Linden to pick up an application - She and Ms. Nipp are available to answer any questions. We look forward to receiving your applications for these life-transforming events!

POCC Closing Day

Our last day at POCC was fantastic! We began with an adult / student dialogue about diversity in our schools (we paired up with our friends from Parish Episcopal). Then, we attended the spirited closing ceremony with keynote speaker and Latino activist, Roberto Lovato. We learned a lot from him about standing up against oppression and about having the courage to speak truth to power. He brought our attention to The Dream Act and to the exceptional young people who are working to make The Dream Act a reality. Another highlight of the Closing Ceremony was the POCC choir - their performance is a highlight every year!

We spent our last two hours in San Diego at the San Diego marina, shopping for souvenirs and enjoying our last taste of the fresh California cuisine. We were thrilled to discover an almost empty flight home which gave us a most relaxing trip back to Big D.

We return home strengthened, challenged, informed, empowered and grateful for the time spent at POCC. We are eager to share the lessons learned with our school community and we are already looking forward to POCC 2011 in Philadelphia!

POCC & SDLC 2010!

At last, here we are at the 2010 People of Color Conference and Student Diversity Leadership Conference, sponsored by NAIS (The National Association of Independent Schools). The theme this year is Catching the tides of change, Riding the waves of opportunity, Coast 2 Coast, Seek to see, Anchoring ourselves in the community harbor. The feeling this year is bright and energetic - full of optimism and hope!

We are staying next to the San Diego Convention Center at the beautiful Marriott Hotel and Marina so we have spectacular water views which serve as reminders of our wavy ocean theme. We immediately got swept away in the excitement during the opening session when we were welcomed by mariachis to his grand event. The opening keynote speaker was author Phoebe Eng who spoke to us about the evolution of The United States and about how the American dream has evolved beyond a dream that one has to accomplish alone - now we know that teamwork and collaboration are also admirable paths to a bright future. I was struck by Ms. Eng's focus on the skill of fluency which she describes as a person who can understand different cultures and can serve as a bridge between people of different cultures. She was dynamic!!

Since the opening session, the students and adults have separated into the 2 different conferences and we will all come together again for the closing session tomorrow. One speaker who both groups were privileged to hear was Mr. Ernest Green, a member of the now famous "Little Rock Nine" students who were the first students to integrate Central High School in 1957. It was a tremendous honor to hear Mr. Green and to learn more about his experience as one of the major figures of the US Civil Rights Movement. I was particularly struck by his humility and about how he knew at a very early age that education and excellence would serve to combat racism. It was an emotional moment for so many educators of color to be in the presence of Mr. Green, knowing that we were able to attend schools and now lead schools today because of what he and other brave people accomplished for us decades ago.

Other highlights of our time at POCC have included networking with our colleagues from Dallas as well as all over the USA. Additionally, we are bringing back ideas for future school assemblies and readings. One person who we hope will visit us at UA is Ms. Sarah Culberson. Sarah's story is a fascinating tale of discovery and identity... Sarah was a multiracial child adopted by a loving family from West Virginia. Unbeknownst to Sarah, her biological father was from a royal family in Sierra Leone and she is actually considered a princess in Sierra Leone. Since making this remarkable discovery, she has traveled to Africa to meet her extensive family and is today helping to rebuild a school in her father's country. She is today an actress, an educator and an author. We were lucky to have the opportunity to chat with Sarah today (she was so kind and gracious to us!) and we told her that we hope she'll consider coming to Ursuline to meet and inspire our students.

Well, there have been numerous other impactful sessions and discussions over the past two days - and it's not over yet! We are looking forward to another wonderful day of conversation and the closing ceremonies tomorrow!

Greetings from San Diego - Day 1

On Tuesday, a jovial group of 10 UA students and 3 adults left Big D for the beautiful destination of San Diego, California. Now we are in sunny California attending the annual NAIS People of Color Conference and Student Diversity Leadership Conference.

We have much to report about the conference but first we want to report on this fantastic city where most of us have never been before. Because we arrived one day early for the conference (due to an astronomical difference in airfare for the earlier flights), we had the special thrill of a one-day exploration of San Diego. After registering for the conference (which was super easy and smooth since we arrived ahead of the other 3000 participants), we headed directly to the San Diego Zoo - known more accurately as the World-Famous San Diego Zoo.

Well, we soon discovered why it is known as the one of he best zoos (if not THE best) in the world! It was magnificent and HUGE! How we walked! And when we couldn't walk anymore, we rode the express bus and the Sky-fari where we enjoyed fantastic aerial views of Balboa Park. Of course, the most thrilling part of the day was being so close to the animals and to see them in natural environments. Among our favorites were the pandas, koalas (by the way, they're marsupials, NOT bears), polar bears and giraffes! And other than the hour that we lost Ms. Estes on the Monkey Trail due to being distracted by gorillas, it was a flawless day!

Our day ended with a festive Baja California cuisine dinner and review of our conference program in anticipation of the big day ahead!