Ursuline Educators visit Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

What a privilege to have been welcomed at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls this past week! I know that our entire group felt so happy and honored to be given the rare opportunity to visit this world famous school and to interact with the amazing faculty, staff and students.

The visit was all that we had imagined and more. Our host, Headmistress Anne Van Zyl, was most gracious and spent the first part of the visit giving us a short orientation and history of the school. We had a most enjoyable discussion about our common missions as educators of girls and also about the unique challenges faced by OWLAG as the first school of its kind. We were, of course, fascinated to learn more about the racial and cultural diversity of the students and how it is a huge challenge to bring these students together in a boarding school environment that is so radically different from anything they have ever experienced. I think that we could have listened to Ms. Van Zyl for hours as it was all so interesting!

Another thing that struck us from the moment that we entered the school was the beautiful and colorful art work - all from South Africa. If we hadn't known that we were in a school, we surely would have thought that we were in a museum. How wonderful that the school has showcased local art in this way - It makes for a truly unique and warm learning environment that would be a dream fulfilled for any girl.

One of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the school is the library. All must remove their shoes before entering this special space. It was nice to see students studying and gathered with friends in the library. In fact, the little lounges and round spaces built just for girls reminded us of our new FFC building back home in Dallas.

As with all schools, the best thing was meeting the students and learning about school life from their perspective. We were lucky to have two delightful student representatives, Lebo and Zoowa, give us a school tour. They are the same age as our senior students and this is their final year at OWLAG. As they showed us around campus they expressed how grateful they are for their education. They told us that they have recently  been helping out with the monumental task of testing the student applicants for next year and that their hearts really go out to all of the young students trying to attend OWLAG. We were later astounded to learn that over 10,000 girls are applying for 60 Grade 7 positions. What a difficult and heart-wrenching task it must be to make those selections!

Even though our time at this extraordinary school was short, we were greatly impacted by the dedication of the administration, faculty and students. All are working so hard to ensure the success of every girl. It will be wonderful to follow the progress of this young school and of the young women who are being formed for leadership in our world (another common mission). Thank you so much to all  at OWLAG for opening your door and hearts to us!

A beautiful hanging quilt in the Administration building

The Movie / DVD section of the Library

The Performing Arts Building

The Lovely Library

Our Ursuline USA Delegation with Headmistress Van Zyl.

Girls studying  together in the library - love that!

Day 8 in Chile

Today we met at the school for another cooking class. We learned how to make Alfajores, little Chilean cookies with a sweet "carmel like" goo in the middle. While cooking we all talked about our weekend adventures and everyone agreed that they had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing the beautiful country of Chile. The girls went to parties, the beach, and shopping in little craft markets.

 Squeezing orange juice

Separating eggs 

Mary, Katie, Maria, and Elizabeth

 Nicole and her Chilean sister switched uniforms for the day!

 Listening to a Chilean legend

Story Time!

My (Birthday) Weekend in Chile by Mia

Friday was my birthday, and I was so excited to celebrate it with my friends and host family! Mary, Cailtin, and I got to spend the afternoon and evening with Tere, my host sister, and a few of her friends. We got to eat pizza (I´ve been missing American food!) and we had a delicious tres leches cake!

On Saturday, I went to Tere´s friend's birthday party where I saw Maria, Bettina, and Mary! We had some delicious homemade cupcakes, and all of the Chilean girls were so nice and welcoming! After the birthday party, Tere and I went to her friend Amalia´s house, and we played JustDance and tennis on the Wii! Then, we went to a party, which was so much fun! There was food and dancing, and everyone was so interested in us because we´re American!

On Sunday morning, we visited Pueblo de los Dominiquos, an authentic Chilean craft market. Everything was so inexpensive and the jewelry was beautiful! I could have spent all day looking at the beautiful handmade items!

I had an amazing weekend and I´m so sad that we only have a few days left here in Chile!

Some Chilean candy and snacks!

What beautiful furniture!

Empanadas in an oven!

Texas license plates for sale!

What a surprise running into Mary!

Day 5 in Chile

Friday was Mia´s birthday so our day started with cupcakes in her honor!  Then we spent the morning working at a hospital for children who are in state custody.  Students from Colegio Santa Ursula start visiting this hospital as 3rd graders and each class goes once a semester.  Visiting these children was a wonderful experience and made us all realize how lucky we are.  We played and helped feed them lunch. 


Kelsey describes her experience:
"Yesterday we visited SENAME, a foster care home and hospital for children. We boarded the bus and made our way over there, which took about 15 minutes. As soon as we got there, we were split into groups. My group went to into one of the hallways, where we were instantly greeted by many young smiling faces. We immediately felt welcome and appreciated for coming to spend time with these little three to five year olds. They were so cute!! They ran up to us with hugs and requests for us to pick them up. The kids liked holding our hands and each of us had two kids assigned to us. Then, the Ursuline girls, the kids, the caretakers of the kids, and the teacher Claudia from Colegio Santa Ursula boarded a bus to drive around Santiago while watching Disney-Pixar music videos. It was nice to see more of the city and watch the kids' faces light up at the sight of all the playgrounds, fountains, and Chilean flags. Some of the little girls started singing the Chilean national anthem when they saw the flag! We drove for about an hour and then went back to serve lunch to the group of kids. Although some of them initially resisted the meal of chicken-noodle soup as an appetizer and rice and beef as a main course, once we held the spoon up to their mouths they were happy to open up for us. Unfortunately we had to head back to Colegio Santa Ursula after that, but it was obvious that all of us made the kids' days a little brighter. It was a great feeling to share some joy and love with the kids, and we were happy to help!"

After returning to the school, the girls went back to class with their host sisters for the final class of the day.  At Colegio Santa Ursula, the school day ends at 1:45 on Fridays!  The teachers checked in with the girls and everyone seemed excited for the weekend.

Happy Birthday Mia!

Day 4 in Chile - Visit to Bicentennial Park

Today we were supposed to go see downtown Santiago, but the trip had to be postponed until Tuesday.  However, the teachers from Colegio Santa Ursula directed us to a huge park right across the street built for the bicentennial two years ago.  We all enjoyed a long walk, saw Vitacura city hall, and had lots of good opportunities to take fun pictures!  Caitlin describes the day below:

"This morning, despite not being able to go to downtown Santiago, was really enjoyable. We took an impromptu walk to the park down the road where we all posed for cute pictures. I keep telling everyone that I love the geography of Chile because everywhere you go there are always mountains in the distance, beautiful flowers and trees everywhere, and therefore great photo ops. As we strolled along, we discovered a playground unlike the ones in the US. It had two giant spider web rope contraptions. We all took our cameras and climbed all over the contraptions, taking pictures of the mountains in the distance. The sun started beating down on us and it was a lot of fun. After that we continued walking when a "quiltro" (stray dog) started following us. We named him Bah and he followed us all the way to a little cafe where we stopped for some muffins and fruit juice. Later, Bah still followed us until he saw a girl dog and left. But then Baby Bah, a smaller quiltro that looked like Bah showed up and followed us all the way back to school. Lots of fun this morning!!"

The whole group in the park

Maria and Mary feeding the ducks

 

Things to climb on!

More human statues

St. Ursula's School Krugersdorp

Oh what a welcome we received at St. Ursula's school in Krugersdorp on Tuesday! And what a warm and welcoming school it is! We were overwhelmed with the hospitality from each of the levels within the school! We weren't there 2 minutes and the Upper school choir was singing to us! One of the beautiful songs that they sang was "Oh Happy Day!" - How appropriate!! Later the middle schoolers and the preschoolers honored us with more songs and performances. It was so very humbling and meant so much to our group to be welcomed in this way.

We enjoyed the day in Krugersdorp so much! At the end of the day, the Ursuline sisters came over from their convent to greet us and they even brought their dog, Max - a great poser as you will see from his photo below. We were especially happy to see Sr. Diane who we know from several international Ursuline educator meetings.

We can't thank all of the lovely members of the St. Ursula community enough for the heart-felt welcome and for all of the love and attention that we received on our visit!

Day 3 in Chile

We spent today at the school attending classes.  The highlight of the day was cooking class and learning how to make empanadas.  You all would have been so impressed with the girl´s cooking and dish washing skills!  Two of the girls also volunteered to share their experiences of arriving in Chile and meeting their host family for the first time and the visit to Maipu so you can hear the student´s impressions of Chile instead of the teacher´s today!

Arrival in Chile by Grace:
"Our first Chilean adventure: driving to el Colegio from the airport.  While driving we saw the huge mountains all over the place, stray dogs, and beautiful, green plants growing everywhere!  When we arrived at the school our host sisters were waiting for us wtih signs and a big welcome.  After customary "hello" kisses on the cheek, they invited us in the school for some Chilean cookies and the most amazing pineapple juice any of us have ever had (except Sra. Vargas I´m sure)!  Then we took a tour of the school which included a song from the adorable kindergarteners and ended in class with our host sisters.  After school we all went our separate ways to our host families.

My host dad drove my three host sisters and me home where my host mom was waiting excitedly to greet me.  I talked with them for a little while, doing my best to explain the plane ride in Spanish.  Then the girls had their after school snack and did homework while I took a much needed nap after the plane ride.  After that we played Wii Mario until dinner.  Then we talked and played with their 5 pets (a dog, cat, rabbit, and birds) and little brother Diego until 12:30.  I told them all about Ursuline, explaining the different grades, senior privleges, what we like to do on the weekend, and all my extracurricular activities.  They were shocked to hear that I can drive and have a car.  When I told them about the "freshmen dance" created by the seniors to embarass the freshmen, they started laughing, saying it sounded just like the movies.  By that time it was 12:30 and we were all muy cansadas and had to go to bed."

Visit to Maipu by Katie:
"All the Ursuline girls had so much fun today [Tuesday]!  We went to a museum with colonial and revolutionary relics from Chile.  There was an entire room dedicated to gorgeous carriages that were important in Chilean history like one that the Queen of England rode in.  We also visited the remains of a church which Bernardo O´Higgins had dedicated to La Virgen del Carmen as a result of Chile´s successful revolution.  As he did not have the funds to complete the construction, it remained only a skeleton structure.  Unfortunately an earthquake destroyed parts of this structure.  Therefore, the Chileans built a massive church near this original structure.  After visiting these Chilean landmarks, we went to a second Ursuline school called Colegio Santa Ursula de Maipu.  We loved spending time with the girls and getting to know them.  Overall, it was a wonderful second day in Santiago!"

Pictures from today´s cooking class:

Grace feeling very powerful with the rolling pin!

Erin and Allie preparing the dough and cooking onions

Allie and Elizabeth

The whole group hard at work!

Katie working hard kneeding the dough and Grace looking on!

Mia, Maria, and Mary

Kelsey and Nicole

Brittany, Mary, Mia, and Maria all enjoying empanadas after their hard work!

Brescia House School - Johannesburg

Hello from Johannesburg, South Africa! As many of you know, we, along with 2 colleagues from Ursuline Academy in St. Louis, are currently visiting South Africa while our student delegation is in Chile. So, you will be hearing from 2 different continents over the next few days. Our first day at Brescia House was splendid! We met teachers, administrators and, best of all, some really wonderful (and extremely well-mannered) students. In the High School, we attended fascinating classes in subjects such as Zulu and Afrikaans and we loved seeing the little ones in the Primary School. These photos show a few of the highlights about what makes Brescia House such a special place!

Welcome to Brescia House School! 



Sr. Notburga presents an Athletics trophy at the Monday morning assembly

The Brescia House formal uniform includes this stylish hat!

Students arrive at 7:30 am and line up for the morning assembly

Student Art - so creative and vibrant!

Happy Ursuline girls - in the Summer Uniform (yes, it's summer here :) )

A playful moment between Mrs. Escamilla and Sr. Notburga



Eager to Learn!