Dear Ursuline Families,

As we enter the third month of the school year, it becomes incredibly important for student’s well-being and academic success to feel a sense of belonging and connection with one another. As Ursuline educators, we aspire that each of our students feels her voice, her experiences, and her gifts matter to those around her. For the past three years, during October, we have engaged in an advisory activity that touches on a relevant and timely community topic.

This year, the theme was “The Power of Sisterhood.” The Community & Inclusion student leaders discussed the vision of our foundress, St. Angela, in sixteenth-century Italy. Angela gathered women and girls of varying ages and socioeconomic backgrounds offering them access to learning, especially sharing stories of the Bible with each other. In her time, schools did not exist, so Angela created informal circles and opportunities, which a century later in France developed into schools for girls. St. Angela’s vision, as we understand it today, was to give these women an option to serve out in the world not by being cloistered but by being a part of the world. Each advisory engaged in a conversation to discuss how they experience sisterhood and how students and advisors can contribute to a sisterhood that makes us proud and a sisterhood to which we want to belong. Sister Lois made an appearance to remind us of the legacy of St. Angela and reminded us of her words:

“My last word to you is that you live in harmony, united together (Insieme) all of one heart and one will: Be bound to one another by the bond of charity, esteeming each other, bearing with each other in Jesus Christ.”

As a keepsake, each student and advisor created a bracelet of unique design that included a word significant to each advisory. The girls’ problem-solving skills kicked in as letter beads were limited. Some students learned the skill of bartering with other advisories and got creative! My advisory decided on the same word but in different languages to ensure enough letter beads for all 13 of us.

Activities like these are intentionally crafted as part of an Ursuline experience to foster a sense of belonging. Belonging is a concept that may be challenging to define, and yet we know it is a fundamental human need according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Studies highlight the following about belonging:

• Belonging can be defined as “a subjective feeling that one is an integral part of the different systems in which we exist, including family, friends, schoolwork environments, communities, cultural groups, and physical places” (Hagerty et al. 1992).
• Others report that our need to belong is hardwired into our human biology, making it as essential as the food we consume and the oxygen we inhale (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Maslow, 1954).
• More recent research highlights the importance of belonging during adolescence (Abdollahi et al., 2020; Arslan et al., 2020; Yeager et al., 2018) and is further defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow and Grady (1993).
• Other studies confirm a positive relationship between belonging and well-being (Karaman & Tarim, 2018; Kitchen et al., 2015) and persistence in academic studies (Akiva et al., 2013; Hausman et al., 2007; Moallem, 2013).

Given the information above, it is no surprise that we take our students' experiences of belonging with the seriousness it deserves. Activities such as “The Power of Sisterhood” provide a unifying experience, an opportunity to bond with one another, to share aspirations, and to potentially be vulnerable about our desires to connect in our advisories and beyond authentically. This type of activity not only allows students to exercise their voice and practice sharing what they value in their relationships but also has a direct impact on our community. It provides an opportunity for self-reflection and to intentionally choose how we show up each day.

Yours in Serviam,
Estela Ayala