Li and Sister Margaret Ann did not speak the same language (Yang served as an interpreter), but their shared common values and love for students translated easily, leading them to forge a strong friendship and school partnership—one Ursuline Academy considers its flagship global collaboration. There are hundreds of Ursuline schools around the world—on every continent except Antarctica. All are independent schools with a shared philosophy of service and inspiration from the legacy of the foundress of the Ursuline Order, St. Angela Merici.
That first meeting between Li and Sister Margaret Ann led to an agreement to form a formal partnership in 1997. About a decade later, as the newly established Dean of Diversity and Global Education at Ursuline in Dallas, I had the opportunity to attend the first international gathering of Ursuline school leaders of the Americas in Rio de Janeiro. Surrounded by dozens of sisters, I began to make connections that would ultimately lead to the development of new partnerships and the expansion of our global program.
Today, Ursuline Academy of Dallas has education and cultural exchanges with 11 sister schools around the world, fully living our school mission of “educating young women for leadership in a global society.” Our students travel to sister schools and stay with host families, and our Academy hosts student delegations from our sister schools. While the past couple of years required us to reimagine the core experiences of our program, we’ve kept our mission at the forefront, continuing to draw inspiration from the words of St. Angela who, in the 16th century, encouraged her female followers to “prudently change with the times” and to be “like a piazza, open, gracious, hospitable, and engaged in the world.”
Setting the Foundation
Before the pandemic, the Ursuline global program was in constant motion. Based on a decade of student exchanges with Huaxia Girls School of Beijing, we modeled new exchanges with the flexibility to recognize each country’s unique culture. Every school year, we were hosting and traveling with at least a dozen delegations with about 12 students in each.With sister schools in China, Peru, Chile, Brazil, England, France, South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, and Jordan, we found that short exchanges––three weeks or less––provided the best opportunities for international students and host families. When students visited us in Dallas, we connected them with their host families as did our sister schools when our students went abroad. Each day, visiting chaperones and teachers spent time with their students as they attended classes, participated in cultural activities, and taught lessons about their home countries. At the end of each exchange, we surveyed each participant and debriefed with the chaperones as well as the students.
But like the world around us, everything changed for our global program in 2020. When travel and hosting was not possible, I found inspiration recalling the words of Sister Margaret Ann, who often said when people had difficulty accepting changes that were needed, “We don’t change who we are, but we might change what we do.” And throughout the pandemic, we have worked to maintain our commitment to global education through a message of hope and our relationships around the world.
Evolving the Program
Early in 2020, we began using the hashtag #WeStayGlobal on every tweet, every social media post, and announcement from our global department. We shared news about our activities, such as virtual speaker events; updates from our sister schools; cultural highlights, including holidays around the world; and images and stories from previous travels and visits. We said #WeStayGlobal aloud at every opportunity. That simple phrase has resonated with our students, and I have even heard them telling prospective families “Unfortunately, we can’t travel to our sister schools right now, but we stay global.”More students applied to join our Global Advisory Council (GAC), which previously had 14 members who served as student mentors for others interested in hosting or traveling. We opened GAC applications to any student who had an interest in international issues or experience with traveling or cultures. In the past two years, we have welcomed 134 new members. During the first week of April 2022, GAC held an in-person global market, and the proceeds went to an all-girls Catholic school in Kenya. This past March, we celebrated Nowruz, the Persian New Year, for the first time on our campus. GAC members screened a Nowruz animated film, and attendees enjoyed traditional Persian snacks.
In 2020, before we were able to meet in person, we hosted two virtual gatherings in collaboration with Junior World Affairs Clubs in nearby schools—a discussion about pollution and recycling with Stella Matutina, our sister school in Taiwan, and a virtual tour of Rio De Janeiro along with a cooking class with our sister school Colegio Santa Ursula in Brazil. Our annual Global Week, held in January 2021, was completely virtual with speakers joining our classrooms from all over the world. The purpose of Global Week is to connect our students to peers and speakers from around the world and to celebrate world cultures.
It is critical that we know, understand, and build relationships with one another. Although we have not been able to travel, we have worked to maintain connection and stay in touch with our sister schools in other ways. Some of our students attended a virtual conference focused on leadership sponsored by our sister school in Jordan. Our Australian sister school sent us handmade felt hearts at the beginning of the pandemic, and we sent Dallas postcards back to them as well as to other sister schools. A couple of weeks ago, we made a happy birthday video for our sister school in Wimbledon, London, on their 130th anniversary.
As restrictions have begun to ease, we plan to welcome some of our sister schools to our campus starting in fall 2022. While we are excited to return to our traditional exchange program, we have learned that virtual experiences can also have an impact. We have widened our circle to include globally minded students, not just those who travel or host, and we want that openness to continue.
We are all connected. The timeless counsel of St. Angela Merici ring true: “Be bound to one another by the bond of charity, treating each other with respect, helping one another …”
