News & Events News
As the 2017-2018 school year starts to pick up the pace, so do the extra-curricular activities that go along with it. With representatives from 25 clubs, 10 interest groups and many other co-curriculars present, Friday's club fair marked the first time students were exposed to all the opportunities for involvement at Notre Dame.
A writer for Notre Dame's Crown & Shield publication, Isha spent the summer diving into the world of journalism with an internship at India Currents. You can read about her experience here.
At Notre Dame, what many consider integral life skills have been woven throughout the curriculum, ensuring that students graduate with critical thinking, teamwork and self-awareness skills, among others. This year we've taken it one step further, with #LifeSkills workshops that help prepare students with additional skills that ensure life success.
Women of Impact honoree Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, Susana Garcia (vice principal of enrollment and public relations) and Mariana Haro '19 were interviewed for a segment of Comunidad del Valle, a public affairs show that airs weekly on NBC Bay Area. Tune in on Sunday, September 10 at 9:30am on NBC Bay Area and/or at 11:30am on Telemundo! NBC will be featuring a third segment so stay tuned!
As the Class of 2021 embarks on many first-time experiences, the rest of the ND community is ready to support them––from setting aside freshman lunch tables during the first week of school to the overall friendly nature of the rest of the faculty and students, the freshmen are already learning about the inner workings of ND.
Auxilio (Auxie), a graduate of Notre Dame’s Class of 1936, was 102 when she passed away peacefully on August 16, 2017. We were blessed to spend some time with this wonderful woman, her sister Acela (Class of 1942) and daughter Lydia (Class of 1964) when they visited Notre Dame last year and shared her story in our annual report of giving, which you can read here.
Each year Notre Dame’s Rene Lepiane Leadership Award is presented to an incoming freshman student who exemplifies the qualities of a good leader. The recipient is chosen, in part, based on her written essay. Holly Petermann, this year’s recipient, shared her ideas of what makes a good leader. “A quality that I think a good leaders should have is the ability to do what is right even if they are doing it by themselves and it is not the popular thing to do,” shared Holly.
Over the summer, Emily Tieu '20 attended the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive program in Windsor, Connecticut. The program, presented by the Russian American Foundation and designed for students 9-15 years of age, includes intensive ballet instruction as well as language classes and other activities.
We’re very excited to announce that Notre Dame High School has been ranked as the number one Catholic school in Santa Clara County and third in the state by Niche, the largest website for researching K-12 schools! In addition, the school was named the number two all-girl's school (#5 in California) and number one in diversity among private schools. We recognize that we are ranked among outstanding schools and are thankful for this distinction.
Congratulations to the 30 Notre Dame alumnae under 30 years old who have been nominated and selected by their peers for significant accomplishments in their professional and/or personal lives. We look forward to recognizing them at this year's Women of Impact Luncheon on October 5, 2017 where we will be honoring Lisa Sobrato Sonsini and Kelly Powell '88 Bruno.
Senior April Alger recently spoke with the San Jose Mercury News about her experience raising and showing animals at the Santa Clara County Fair.
Notre Dame's Class of 2020 battled faculty and staff in what has become a well-loved tradition - an epic water balloon showdown! Auctioned off to the highest bidder at Notre Dame's annual 'party of the year' benefit, the rights to participate went to the freshman class this year. In addition to being a whole lot of fun, the water balloon battle raised $2,500 for tuition assistance and program development.
Congratulations to alumna Mary Quilici Aumack '75 who was honored at the Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence dinner last week. There to cheer her on and volunteer at the event were our future women of influence, seniors from the Class of 2017! Also joining us were Sister Rosalie Pizzo, SNDdeN from the Class of 1952 and board member Katie Zazueta '87!
Last week the Notre Dame community gathered for the last all-school mass of the year in the Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph. This joyful liturgy included the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Working with The Tech Museum, seniors Jasmine Gupta and Mallika Yelswarapu focused their Senior Service Learning project on girls in STEM. More specifically, on creating long term support systems to help girls stay involved in STEM fields.
The Notre Dame community of parents, friends and alumnae gathered at The Glass House in downtown San Jose for Cirque de Lune - this year's annual auction - last weekend. Attendees opened their hearts and raised their paddles, giving more than $150,000 in support of tuition assistance and program development.
Notre Dame's downtown campus was filled with the newest members of our community, the Class of 2021 and their families, as they joined us for Freshman Welcome Day.
Spanish Three Honors class visited the Day Worker Center in Mountain View to learn about immigration and the lives of local day workers. The class will use this information to create “Stories of Hope,” a bilingual book about the day workers. The ultimate goal of the project is to bridge cultural divides and educate the community about the lives, struggles and joys of the day worker community.
Notre Dame’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) traveled to Sacramento to take part in the state-wide event, Muslim Day at the Capitol recently. The 6th annual event was attended by more than 600 participants from all over California. The delegation had the chance to voice their support for various legislative bills by talking to their state legislators.
At Notre Dame, all sophomores study the Holocaust across English, history, and religious studies as part of an integrated curriculum. Students read several accounts of the Holocaust as part of their studies, but the key cornerstone of that learning experience is hearing the testimony of a survivor. This year’s sophomore class heard a moving account of a childhood of hiding and loss from George J. Elbaum who was born in Poland only a year before Hitler invaded the country.
Holly Jackson '18 was awarded the Grand Prize - Best of Championship in the Synopsis Competition for her project, "Unlocking History: An Algorithm to Virtually Unfold 3D Computed Tomography Scans of Unopened Historical Documents.” Her project also recently won first place at the California State Science Fair. Also earning awards at the event were Riana Karim '17, Sharon Truong '17, Shruti Sridhar '20, Maya Nayak '20, Sophia Barwegen and Kami Richardson '20.
Since its inception in 2003, San Jose's Downtown Doors project has featured 31 student artists. This year, Pauline Nguyen '17 joins the list. Her artwork was chosen from more than 180 submissions.
A group of students and chaperones recently traveled to New Orleans as part of Notre Dame High School’s Justice Immersion Program. The months of preparation, reading personal accounts of Hurricane Katrina, watching documentaries and reviewing maps of the damage, although helpful and informative, still do not adequately portray the devastation still facing the region. In this story, Anna Giubileo ‘18 shares her reflection on the experience.
Students, faculty and staff enjoyed a morning walk to our downtown place of worship, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph for a Holy Week service featuring a recreation of the Stations of the Cross. Deacon Ruben Solorio also blessed participants of this year's justice immersion trips, asking God to "Open their hearts to be as wide as the world and let their service be a light that shatters the darkness."
As part of Notre Dame's Career & Life Success Program, students visited Santa Clara University's Law School and learned, first-hand, from women in the field of law.