Ursuline celebrates Catholic Schools Week

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Junior Gwen C. makes her contribution to Penny Wars, dropping pennies into the Junior collection jug.

February 8, 2010 • Mary M. '10  
Filed under Features

Along with Catholic grade schools and high schools nationwide, Ursuline celebrated Catholic Schools week from Jan. 27 through Feb. 3 through a series of special events planned by student council.

An all-school Mass to celebrate the feast of St. Angela Merici on Wednesday kicked off the festivities. During the service, Sister Lois Castillon, standing principal of Ursuline Dallas, spoke, encouraging students to be “Pilgrims of Christ,” just as St. Angela was.

A fundraiser for St. Katherine’s school in Kenya, Penny Wars also began on the 27^th.

“As part of Catholic Schools Week, we wanted to do something for other schools,” said sophomore class president Maggie M. ’12.

By inciting friendly competition among the classes to see who could raise the most money by donating pennies, student council hoped to raise enough money to provide scholarships for girls to attend St. Katherine’s. Five hundred dollars is enough to support one student for one year; last year, Ursuline students raised a total of $800.

Thursday, January 28^th was Self-Affirmation Day. Sophomore student council members covered the bathroom mirrors and wrote on them positive slogans such as “love yourself!” and “appreciate your inner beauty.”

“The objective of Self-Affirmation day is to get students to appreciate who they are and not what they look like,” said Maggie.

Personal counselor Tanya Hamilton also offered yoga classes on Self-Affirmation day to encourage students to get in touch with their inner selves.

Designed to honor the teachers in Catholic schools, Teacher Appreciation Day was Friday, Jan. 29^th. In recognition of their hard work and dedication, the faculty received special baked treats and Kirstie C. ’10 and Brittany C. ’10 put together a Faculty Appreciation Video.

Student Council also sponsored a Teacher Trivia game, in which students had to match the correct teachers to their corresponding interesting fact.

“The most interesting teacher facts were some unexpected ones,” said Michelle M. ’10. “Mr. Bauroth’s one mile Canadian ice-pushing experience was awesome. As was Ms. Obranovich’s three marathons. And Mrs. Frasco’s 17 cats was absolutely hilarious,” she said.

Catholic Schools week concluded on Wednesday, Feb. 3^rd with a pep rally for all the Bear’s sports teams and a dodge ball tournament.

“The dodge ball teams were composed of teachers and students from all four classes to inspire school-wide unity,” said Natalie R. ’10.

With a week’s worth of community-building events, Ursuline celebrated its Catholic identity as part of a network of hundreds of other Catholic schools across the nation.

“To me, Catholic schools week is about coming together as a community to celebrate why are different from other schools: it’s not that we wear uniforms or take hard classes, it’s that we’re Catholic. And of that, we should be proud,” said Michelle.

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