DADYO meets at UA for Prom Night in Mississippi

What a stellar turn-out we had this evening at UA for our DADYO (Dallas Area Diversity Youth Organization) meeting! In addition to hosting our sisters from Chile (who now have LOTS of new Facebook friends), we were thrilled to be joined by our friends from other local independent schools including ESD, Greenhill, Parish, Jesuit, St. Marks and Hockaday. In fact, we had over 125 students present!!

Our evening began with a fiesta quesadilla dinner in Haggar Center for the whole community (served beautifully by our UA dream team). Then, we came together in the KIVA to view Morgan Freeman's award-winning Documentary, Prom Night in Mississippi. This documentary focuses on a small Mississippi town which has maintained the tradition of having separate high school proms, one for black students and one for white students - and what happens when the seniors decide to have an integrated Prom for the first time, courtesy of Morgan Freeman. Our discussion afterward was led by our UA students and they made us very proud in the way that they explored the documentary themes of opportunity, change, fear, love, tradition and more.

Many thanks to all of the students and educators who attended our DADYO meeting and who helped make tonight a fantastic evening of learning and sharing!

Our Chilean Sisters Out & About in Dallas ...

The last two days have been most eventful for our Chilean guests. As you will recall, they enjoyed a uniquely American experience yesterday at the Hard Rock Cafe. And today, they visited the beautiful Meadows Museum at SMU (Southern Methodist University) which houses the finest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain. They enjoyed their time at the museum with Mrs. Escamilla as their personal docent. An added bonus to the visit was a tour of SMU given by our dear Ursuline alum and current SMU student, Ingrid Castillo. She and our own college counselor, Ms. Estes, shared lots of information with the girls about SMU and about colleges in the USA.

After such an active morning, all were very hungry and ready for a fabulous Italian feast at Campisi's restaurant - a Dallas favorite! In these photos, you see our guests on the move, having fun at the Hard Rock and enjoying lunch with Ingrid. Tomorrow they will be back in class and will also go on an evening service project - another busy and exciting day!!

Downtown Dallas Visit

After two full days in classes at UA, our guests were ready to go out for a learning excursion today! Our Chilean friends enjoyed their chilly but fun-filled visit to Downtown Dallas. First, they were officially welcomed by the City of Dallas at Dallas City Hall. They toured City Hall where highlights were visiting the Flag Room (note the displayed Chilean flag in the photo - that's NOT the Texas flag!) as well as the room where the Dallas City Council meets and makes important decisions about the governance of our city. We'd like to send a special Thank You to our friends in the office of Dallas Protocol for welcoming our Chilean sisters so warmly (and also for the fabulous photos)!

After the visit to City Hall and after the official "Mr. Smith" security tour of Downtown Dallas, everyone was ready for an authentic American lunch. And what better place for that experience than the Hard Rock Cafe? Along with the rock and roll music of the 50's, 60's and beyond, our group enjoyed lots of hamburgers, chicken strips and brownie sundaes!

The last stop of the day was the Dallas World Aquarium where our guests thawed out from the Dallas cold weather and pretended that they were in a tropical rain forest.

A big thanks to Mr. Smith, Ms. Alexander and Ms. Vander Linden for joining our guests on this awesome day of discovery and adventure!!

Bienvenidas Amigas Chilenas!

Today was the culmination of a dream that we have had at Ursuline Dallas for five years! Yes, for the first time, students from Colegio Santa Ursula in Chile have come to visit us! We were thrilled to welcome our sister school guests, including two educators, our friends Andrea and Soledad. The group arrived at 6 am and was full of energy all day - until they weren't! Hopefully all are resting well tonight and will be ready for their first full day of classes tomorrow.

!Bienvenidas!

UA prepares for Chilean guests!

It's a new year full of excitement and new possibilities! Even before classes resume, our GAGAs(Girls Assisting Global Awareness) have been hard at work preparing for our upcoming delegation visit from our sister-school, Colegio Santa Ursula, in Chile. On Thursday morning, we will welcome 8 students and 2 educators from Santiago, Chile. Yesterday we met with the very excited Host Families and today we worked on the hospitality room. Thursday can't come soon enough!!

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!