Late last spring and throughout the summer our Student Development committee, a volunteer group of co-workers, began meeting to brainstorm new ideas for fostering community amongst our Ursuline students. As the idea of a House System began to come together, little did the committee know that the timing of such an initiative would fall on a school community experiencing so many changes and firsts. It almost seemed like the perfect time.
Thus the House System planning began. Rising seniors applied and were selected as House Captains, with other seniors had the opportunity to be leaders in their respective advisements. Each house is composed of a group of Advisements as a way of building new relationships while continuing to foster already established Big/Lil Sister and family units in the advisements.
The four houses took influence from the Academy’s Italian roots through St. Angela Merici and were named for the core values of Ursuline as they are read in our daily Ursuline prayer, “Give us the grace to model the Ursuline values of service, courtesy, loyalty, and courage by attitude and action.” From there the houses were born: Servizio House, Cortesia House, Lealtá House, and Coraggio House. Each house has two Senior house captains, plus leadership positions for Juniors, Sophomores and Freshman to come. Similar to our previous Student Council elected positions, students will have the opportunity to fulfill leadership positions in their house at all grade levels.
“We are very excited about the House System and how it will foster our community by providing opportunities for service, friendly competition, team-building activities, social events, leadership, and building school spirit,” said Joni Mullen, Ursuline’s Assistant Principal. “It is the mission of the House System to strive to give every member of the school community a place to belong, grow, and thrive with a nurturing community spirit.”
Meet our 2020-2021 House Captains:
Servizio House
Mrs. Stinehart – House Dean
Erin Fagan ’21 – Captain
Annie Ganninger ’21 – Captain
Cortesia House
Mrs. Lang – House Dean
Frannie Benoist ’21 – Captain
Lilly Gardner ’21 – Captain
Lealtá House
Mrs. Woodward – House Dean
Maggie Naeger ’21 – Captain
Maria Cavato ’21 – Captain
Coraggio House
Mr. Bratkowski – House Dean
Becca Sudholt ’21 – Captain
Maggie Michalski ’21 – Captain
