Chez
News
Notre Dame School
of Manhattan
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Letter from the President
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October 17, 2019
Dear Notre Dame,
We are often bombarded with news to the point where we want to unplug and disconnect. I urge you to take the time to read this edition of
Chez News
as it is a wonderful piece about your daughters or your
Chez Nous
sisters.
Before we turn directly to Notre Dame, I want to mention some news from Rome. On October 4, Pope Francis placed the Cardinal’s hat on Michael Czerny, SJ. In a recent
America Magazine
interview with Cardinal Czerny, he spoke about the Church’s support for full “integral human development.” “Our vocation is to help men and women to live their human lives and to live them to the full… This is the big mission. This is what it means to preach the Gospel and to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth.”
Clearly, this is the mission of Notre Dame’s founder, Anne de Xainctonge and, consequently, our mission at Notre Dame School. Inside
Chez News
, you will find some hints of how this mission is actualized in 2019. Newly published authors from the Class of 2022 are proud of their accomplishments thanks to their teacher, Ms. Lydie Kane. Members of the Class of 2020 enjoy memories of a unique experience of travel to New England. The Ignatian Solidarity Network remains close to ND as they interviewed ND student Brigid McCabe ’21 on her work for the Global Climate Strike. Ninth graders enjoy school and their first retreat experience under the leadership of Mr. Kevin McDonald. Future scientists conduct experiments under Mr. Besnik Bekteshi’s direction. Seniors take advantage of theatre productions of the Atlantic Theatre. Our fall athletes experience soccer victories, even against schools four times the size of Notre Dame.
The events mentioned are a sampling of life at Notre Dame. They are concrete ways of us living the mission of the Church and Anne de Xainctonge. We are helping young women live their human lives and live them to the full.
I invite you to come join us for a celebration of our diversity.
What is Black?
Celebrating Black American History through Music, Art and Poetry
takes place
Thursday, November 7th at 6:30 p.m.
in the Dolan Center at Notre Dame School. This is an occasion to celebrate life and the gifts and talents of so many from the ND Community.
I hope to see you November 7th
.
Warm regards,
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Dr. Virginia O'Brien, SU
President
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Members of Notre Dame's Class of 2022 are now published authors!
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Ms. Lydie Kane is known for taking creative approaches to teaching in her classroom. As an alumna of ND and 9
th
grade English teacher and librarian, Ms. Kane constantly uses innovations to motivate her students to strengthen their reading and writing skills. Last year, she devised an intriguing method for her students to learn about non-linear styles of storytelling. The 9
th
graders were required to read
The History of Love,
by Nicole Krauss
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The story involves a long-lost book that mysteriously reappears and connects an old man searching for his son with a girl seeking a cure for her mother's loneliness. The author’s style of multiple narratives occurring over various time spans was new and daunting to most students.
To deepen their understanding of this writing style, Ms. Kane had her students write their own essays on a topic of their choice, utilizing Krauss’s techniques. The girls came up with many imaginative and fascinating topics and took this assignment very seriously. Once completed, these stories were compiled into manuscripts in which the students had to edit and write prologues. Then, they were sent for formal publication over the summer.
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Sophomores Molly Nelson, Kate Sestak, and Keilani Collins reviewing their work
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The students, now sophomores, saw the fruits of their labor when the completed books arrived earlier this month. They hosted a reception inviting faculty and classmates to view and purchase their works. The students were enthusiastic about the project. “Getting the privilege to participate in such a unique and creative project was an amazing experience", stated Christina Valenti ’22. “These stories reflected each of our individual voices, but through this project, we put those voices together in unison to make them even stronger, just as we do in our
Chez Nous
community.” “Publishing this book was such an amazing experience,” said Molly Nelson ’22. She added,“throughout the process of composing my story, I learned more about myself as a writer.”
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Savannah Ortiz, Gwen Clores, Sofija Radakovic
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Ms. Kane was very pleased with the positive outcome of this project. She remarked, “I like to meld creativity with skill-sets and find a variety of ways to engage the students. It was wonderful to see the girls’ commitment and their outstanding finished products.” As an alumna of the school, Ms. Kane credits her Notre Dame English teachers’ enthusiasm for shaping her own love of literature, and she is paying it forward in her approach with current students. The results are positive proof of her dedication and the girls’ tenacious efforts.
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The Class of 2020 takes on Cape Cod!
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Mr. Stordeur wears many hats at Notre Dame School. In addition to chairing the History Department and teaching classes, he is also the Director of the Saturday Academy Program and moderator for both the Student Council and the Yearbook Committee. One of his favorite jobs on campus, however, is his coordination of the Senior Class trip. Mr. Stordeur has planned and led this annual adventure for the past eight years. The Senior Trip takes place at the beginning of each new school year. The goal of this annual field trip is to help the graduating class bond and become strong unified leaders and role models for their younger classmates. The destination changes every year and provides an opportunity for the girls to leave NYC and experience various parts of the country. In previous trips, Mr. Stordeur has taken classes to Washington DC., Williamsburg, and Montreal. This year, the Class of 2020 had the wonderful opportunity to visit Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
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Cape Cod Learning Tours brings the marine biology classroom to the beach.
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Mr. Stordeur explained that he takes a long time to determine the location and is already beginning the process for September of 2020. He says, “I want to give each Senior Class a unique experience that can bond them together for the year ahead.” After several consecutive destinations in metropolitan locations, he thought it was time to have the girls get out of an urban setting and see a more rural way of life. The trip this year included, but was not limited to, a boat excursion to Martha’s Vineyard, a whale watch, and a traditional lobster bake dinner.“My goal for each trip is to have a well-balanced combination of fun and education, with a full range of experiences and activities”, he added. He was certainly successful in achieving this goal. In addition to these excursions, Cape Cod Learning Center came to their hotel and taught the students a Marine Biology curriculum with the beach as their classroom! The Class of 2020 also spent an afternoon at the Kennedy Museum. Located in Hyannis, this museum includes a thematic panorama of photographs, archival films, artifacts, text panels, and oral histories of John F. Kennedy and his family. Of course, there was ample time for shopping and ice cream in the beautiful New England town of Falmouth.
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Let the sea voyage begin!
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The Class of 2020 were lucky to see so many whales!
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For some seniors, it was their first time in the countryside, and for them, the highlights were seeing the brilliant constellations in the clear night skies, and listening to crickets and cicadas every evening at dusk, (and how to eat a lobster correctly!) The students and faculty chaperones all agree that it was an exhilarating, educational, and memorable adventure, and they came back invigorated and excited for a great new school year. Now, where to next year, Mr. Stordeur? Stay tuned!
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Ignatian Network Live Stream
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Brigid McCabe '21, representing Notre Dame, on ISN's Facebook Live
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Following the Global Climate Strike on September 20, The Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) hosted a question and answer session led by ISN Director Chris Kerr on Facebook Live. The ISN is a national social justice education and advocacy organization inspired by the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Its mission is to organize schools and universities in the United States in training and advocacy for social justice leadership. Among the three schools selected to participate in the discussion on Facebook Live was Notre Dame.
Brigid McCabe ’21 represented Notre Dame and proudly told of our students’ work regarding Climate Change. In addition to being well represented in the strike, every Notre Dame student participated in discussions and action steps in their Anne’s Leaders small groups. Anne’s Leaders are juniors and seniors who are part of our leadership program at ND. These girls guide the younger students in small group activities to strengthen their appreciation for the school’s values, including being good stewards of the Earth.
The driving force behind this advocacy was the student-led group S.T.A.N.D. (Solidarity Throughout All of Notre Dame). Students were asked to fill out a questionnaire voting for their top social justice concerns to focus on. Climate Change was chosen most often as one of their social justice concerns, and students were invited to contact their Senators who sponsored the Climate Accountability Act.
This Act prohibits the use of federal funding to advance the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, and calls upon the President to develop and submit a plan for the US to meet its nationally determined contribution under the Agreement. ND students thanked Senators for their support and asked Senators who had not done so to support the Act.
Brigid and all the students involved worked tirelessly on this initiative, and felt that their efforts, combined with those of thousands of others involved, certainly made a difference. Notre Dame’s participation in the Global Climate Change Issues was most impressive and is one more example of our students’ commitment to social justice and service to others.
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The Class of 2023 bond during their first retreat as a class
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Reflection and prayer are foundations of a Notre Dame education, and retreats are an important part of this introspection. Each year, a 9
th
grade retreat is organized through which the incoming class can meet, bond, and pray together. Notre Dame is proud to have welcomed 94 new freshmen to its campus on September 5. These girls come from all five boroughs of NYC, as well as Long Island, Westchester, and many areas in New Jersey. This retreat was an opportunity to gather them all together in an environment separate from their daily classroom life to get to know each other.
The retreat was led by twenty members of the Senior Class. Mr. Kevin McDonald, who teaches Theology and World History, is the Retreat Director. Each year, he invites juniors to apply to be part of the Senior Retreat Team for the following year. Applicants are interviewed, and a group of twenty is selected and trained to be leaders and moderators. Their role is then to plan and run this retreat, as well as the 10
th
and 11
th
grade retreats later in the school year.
The retreat team did a stellar job with the freshman class. The 9
th
Grade Retreat took place on the campus of the General Theological Seminary, a center of theological education located on West 21
st
Street. Their beautiful grounds were a perfect setting for the students’ activities, and even though the weather was a bit gloomy and wet, spirits were high and a fun time was had by all.
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Senior Retreat Leader Emma Hanks gives her talk on friendship
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After a brief introduction to the meaning of a retreat by Mr. McDonald, the senior leaders led small groups of 9th graders in various activities. One of the goals of the annual retreat is to offer an invitation for the ninth graders to reach out and meet new friends beyond their class groupings.
The results of these retreats are profound. It is evident that lifelong friendships are forged at Notre Dame. This retreat day provided a focused opportunity for the Class of 2023 to learn from their new classmates and senior leaders to trust each other more and share the value of friendship with each other, and with God.
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Sophomores Helena Stuhr and Lili Mei Granda-Argianis in Mr. Bekteshi's chemistry lab
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Experiential education is a key component of the Notre Dame curriculum, and it could not be more evident than in the science classrooms these days! In chemistry, Mr. Bekteshi recently had his students make blue copper sulphate crystals. In this experiment, students were reacting insoluble copper oxide with a sulfuric acid to form a soluble salt. They had to learn two vital separating techniques, filtration and evaporation, in order to collect the final product. Although some were a bit skeptical about their lab skills, their results were successful and they were thrilled with their outcomes
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Hannah Delaney, Christina Valenti, and Holland Drew
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Meanwhile, other ND scientists were hard at work in the school’s 3D Lab. 3D printing is still a new and evolving scientific advancement. This is a process through which a three-dimensional object is built from a computer-aided design model, usually by successively adding material layer by layer. Notre Dame is at the forefront of this technology with Ms. Ioana Donose’s 3D Engineering and Design course. Recently, her students were asked to design something they were passionate about in the program called TinkerCad. Some students designed their projects by using the shapes found in TinkerCad, while others drew their own shapes, filled them in with some more color and printed those. This was their first project, and the students learned to use the scale and determined the correct size for all the designs. The girls were dazzled by being able to actually create and ‘copy’ exact duplicates of these shapes. The future is NOW!
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Seniors Chanel Torres, Lina Prroj, and Charlotte Symons, hard at work in 3D engineering and design class
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Florentina Kolic, Nicoleta Alexander, and Bria LeFlore
show the results of their 3D printing
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‘Opportunity’ is the theme of this year’s school year at ND, and these hands-on learning opportunities have given our girls exciting chances to experience cutting edge science and technology applications. How lucky are they to have such access!
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Notre Dame prides itself on integrating learning with educational opportunities in a culturally-rich urban setting. NYC is our classroom and Notre Dame takes that to heart. Our girls are constantly out in the surrounding areas, not only for academic and social justice reasons, but for artistic ones as well. Mr. Scott Vasey, Chair of the English Department, is the one who makes sure that happens. Each year, he brings the seniors to local theatrical performances. He collaborates with The Atlantic Theater Company, an Off-Broadway non-profit theater on West 20
th
Street, whose mission is to produce great plays in a “simple and truthful manner”.
Notre Dame students have the opportunity to attend four shows throughout the school year. Before each one, the Atlantic Theater’s Director of Education invites the girls to a workshop to discuss the inner workings of the production and to give them insights to the creation of each show. Just recently, the seniors attended a performance of
Sunday
, a play written by the Tony Award-winning writer, Jack Thorne, which delved into the lives of five ‘twentysomethings’ trying to navigate the murky waters of early adulthood. The students expressed that the workshop beforehand helped them understand the provocative show and allowed them to truly enjoy the experience.
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Grace Transon ’21 showing her theatrical skills at the Atlantic Theater Company
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Natalie Misyak '21 and Ava Orpilla '21 acting out a scene on Atlantic Theater's stage
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Mr. Vasey coordinates these field trips as part of his curriculum. He feels strongly that having students view written works in theatrical productions brings their literary understanding to a deeper level. “Drama is one of the greatest genres of literature”, he states, "I want my students to be able to see how language works when it comes to life.” The results are evident in subsequent classes in which the students continue to share and explore topics from the show. They are already eagerly awaiting the next outing in their ‘NYC classroom’!
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There is more than singing going on in Ms. Nicole Wakabayashi’s music classes at Notre Dame. Not only does she bring out the best in our students’ vocal abilities, but she makes sure they understand the important role that music and the arts have played in the history of our country and our world.
In this vein, she has worked with her students to produce a show highlighting notable artists and entertainers. We encourage all families and students to attend a special performance on November 7th at 6:30 pm. The evening will be comprised of song, dance and poetry, celebrating some of the most prolific Black musicians, artists and writers! There will be performances by Glee Club,
Chez Nous
Steppers,
Chez Nous
Dance Crew and more! We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to celebrate Black American history and our students’ talents.
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Fall sports are in full swing at Notre Dame, and all teams are working hard to hone their athletic skills.
There were two noteworthy victories this month for the varsity soccer team. The first was a win over Archbishop Molloy in a AA CHSAA league game by a score of 2-1. Molloy is currently in the lead in the league, and the victory showed the progression and potential of the team for the rest of the season. The second was Notre Dame's victory in The Green and White Cup. The Green and White Cup is an annual soccer game and fundraiser for Make-A-Wish, an organization that helps make dreams come true for children with critical illnesses. The fundraiser was created to honor the memory and legacy of a St. Vincent Ferrer parent, Dermot Breen, who passed away last October. He was a retired NYPD Detective, a first responder on 9/11, and a devoted father and husband. His family asked that this annual fall rivalry be used to raise money for Make-A-Wish in his memory. Dermot's daughter, Julia Breen '19, was the Ferrer goalkeeper. It was a great night and for a worthy cause for both schools!
In other sports, the Cross Country Team recently competed in the Xavier Invitational, and placed 9
th
out of 14 freshmen teams, 15
th
of the 16 scoring JV teams, and 12
th
of the 17 Varsity teams in the more competitive race. Many of the runners set personal bests for their races. Lily Roemischer ’23, had a time of 12:21, which was 40 seconds faster than two weeks prior on the same course. Annie Piscitelli ’23, broke 13 minutes, 12:57, in her first attempt at the 1.5 mile course; and Lucia Snajdr ’23, ran a personal record of 13:03, over 30 seconds better than previously.
All of these teams continue to grow stronger as the season goes on, and we look forward to many more wins in the near future! Go ND!
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Varsity soccer battles Archbishop Molloy
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The Green and White Cup trophy belongs to ND!
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OPEN HOUSE AT NOTRE DAME
Sunday, October 27th from 2:00-5:00 pm
We invite 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls and their parents to take a personally guided tour with a Notre Dame student, meet teachers, administrators and families of Notre Dame. No reservations are required.
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Contact Information
Elizabeth Bixenman
Director of Development &
Alumnae Relations
(212) 620-5575, Ext.317
bixenmane@cheznous.org
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ANCHORING LIVES
for
GENERATIONS
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