The Academy of Notre Dame de Namur is a Catholic, independent, college-preparatory school for girls and young women in grades 6 through 12.

A Catholic, Independent, College Preparatory School for Young Women, Grades 6 through 12

Academy of Notre Dame de Namur: Inspiring Young Women Since 1956

Global Classroom

"I feel like the students really had a chance to discuss literature across cultures and also get to know friends in another culture. My students shared some of the conversations they had - everything from food and school to racism and social justice. These are lessons that they couldn't have learned the same way if we had just talked about them in class. And reading texts chosen by students from a different culture, who were able to explain the cultural significance, allowed us to open our minds to new literature and understand it in an authentic way! It also gave us the opportunity to think about what we value and what texts represent us and who we are as Americans." -Ms. Cirone, Grade 9 Teacher

For the past two years, students in our Design Thinking & Entrepreneurship courses have collaborated with students at St. Nicholas Girls' School on solving problems that affect people in both countries, but perhaps in different ways. They engage in the five-step design thinking process to discover the similarities and differences in the problems they hope to address together. These projects last 3-4 weeks and culminate in live, virtual presentations. Topics range from academic stress to the UN's sustainable development goals to COVID-19 problems.

World Literature with Singapore

Ninth grade students participated in live Global Classroom sessions with St. Nicholas, our sister school in Singapore. One of the novels they read was made up of vignettes, and they shared one of the vignettes with their St. Nicholas friends. They also shared a short story with the St. Nick's students ("The Bet") with some reflections, and St. Nick's shared the short story "Everest" with us.

For their next meeting, the theme is "Recommend for a Friend." Each group chose a poem from their culture to share, and they will meet to discuss the poems in their small groups.

The students' enthusiasm around this exchange and the cross-cultural communication and friendships that have been sparked are at the heart of The Center for Global Leadership's vision.

Sketchbook Exchange 

Kate Rupertus, Kara Luzi & Julie McNulty collaborated with the art teacher at our sister school in Montréal, The Study, on a sketchbook exchange between our two schools and across various grade levels. This involved having many students consider the question "What matters to you most?" and answer it through artistic expression in a sketchbook which was sent back and forth between the schools every three weeks by, yes, snail mail! 

TEDx Countdown on Climate

Our 11th grade religion classes collaborated with our Canadian sister school, The Study on a TEDx Countdown Watch Party, which aims to address the climate crisis by inspiring people around the world to take ACTION. We curated a video of talks by influential people including Al Gore, Pope Francis, Christiana Figueres, Amanda Gorman, Prince William, and more! Plus, our students weighed in on the importance of these issues in the video. After the watch party, our students will be working on their own Environmental Action Plans, some alongside students from The Study.