The Ridge Report for November 2015

The The RIDGE RIDGE

Report November 2015

Dear Friends of Forest Ridge, I returned recently from a gathering of all the Heads of Sacred Heart Schools in the United States and Canada, held in St. Charles, Missouri. Twice yearly we gather not only to learn from one another but to reflect with one another on how we can better live the Goals and Criteria in all aspects of our work—in our schools and in our work together as a Province.

Why St. Charles? A good question! St. Charles is the home of the Society of the Sacred Heart’s first school founded by St. Rose Philippine Duchesnein 1818. With little more than a recalcitrant cow and a strong will, Philippine inaugurated the work of the Society as a global apostolate. With the opening of the doors of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Catholic education was born in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. From that first Academy we now have 24 schools in the United States and Canada — all educating to the Goals and Criteria.

With the founding of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in

1907 to the Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart of today, the Society continued its mission of educating girls in the Pacific Northwest. We are proud to be part of a long history of Sacred Heart education not only in the United States but throughout the world.

Your daughter is part of a long and sacred history that began in this country with a handful of girls and continues now on this campus with students from our local communities and from around the globe.

She is part of a unique experience that grounds her in skills necessary to thrive in our world today and the world we imagine for tomorrow. While we educate for a world that is unpredictable, we are confident that your daughter will leave us with her voice and with a vision of purpose—all grounded in values that promote justice, peace, care for others and the environment, and the gift of a reflection to be all she is determined to be.

So, I ask you to spread the word about Forest Ridge and your daughter’s experience. Time and time again we learn that the best form of advertisement is from a current family—so thank you and please continue it!

We want to make a Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart education available for even more girls.

Thanks for trusting us with your daughter on this amazing journey rich in history and even richer in promises.

Sincerely,

Mark Pierotti Head of School

It’s a SHCOG year!

SHCOG is a term you will hear a lot in the next year and a half. The SHCOG process will give us a chance to look into the mirror and talk about what we see; it will change the way we look at the Goals and Criteria; it will transform our interactions with one another; it will CHANGE OUR LIVES – ok, not really, but this is an exciting time!

What is SHCOG?

SHCOG stands for Sacred Heart Commission on Goals. It is the accreditation process used by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Every five years, Sacred Heart Schools in the United States and Canada have the opportunity to engage in a community-wide year of reflection on how they are living the Goals and Criteria. Following this reflection period, we will produce a self-study that will bring together the voices of our various constituencies. We will identify our strengths and areas for improvement. A visiting team made up of Sacred Heart educators from around the country will visit us next November to discuss our progress. They will give us commendations and recommendations based on what they see and read. A SHCOG Steering committee has been assembled to design the reflection process and lead our community in this effort.

Wow! That sounds like exciting work! How can I get involved?

Don’t worry – everyone will be involved! “Community” includes faculty and staff, students, parents, alums and members of the Board of Trustees. If you fall into one of these categories, you will be involved!

Let the SHCOGing BEGIN!

Slow down! The Steering Committee, under the direction of music teacher Alison Seaton, is currently meeting to design a process that will fit the needs of all our constituencies. There will be opportunities in the coming year to gather together to do this work in small and large groups. The reflection process has begun with the faculty and staff at our retreat before school began, continued with students during Chapel Ed classes, and will include everyone else in the coming months. Look for more information in the Ridge Report, PostIt, grade level portals and your email inbox.

Tanya Garcia, Campus Minister 2

Living the Goals One Pillar at a Time

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he Goals and Criteria define the foundational principles underlying a Sacred Heart Education. They are part of our New Parent Education and New Student Orientation. As foundational principles, they guide the daily short-term as well as strategic long-term vision of Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.

During this academic year we are called as a community to once again reflect more deeply on how we live these goals both in our teaching and learning, as well as in our strategic mission and vision as a wider community. Every Sacred Heart School is accountable to the Society of the Sacred Heart for adherence to the Goals and Criteria. Schools formally demonstrate and document that adherence every five years through a process called Sacred Heart Commission on Goals (SHCOG).

In the case of Forest Ridge, the commencement of our 108th academic year coincides with the beginning of another SHCOG process. Aptly, our theme for the year is Living the Goals; as a community we are challenged to interact closely with each goal and its criteria, engaging in a personal as well as communal reflection.

At its core, I view the SHCOG process as a celebration and an invitation. We celebrate the charisma of the Society and its powerful impact on its schools, alumni, students, and supporters. This deep engagement with the Goals and Criteria exemplifies what it means to be a Sacred Heart educator, especially the profound commitment to invite and welcome. We are uniquely poised to celebrate each community member; to value and learn from each person’s “personal and active faith in God” (Goal I).

For Forest Ridge High School, I connect the goals and the wisdom found in their criteria to our three pillars: Peace and Reconciliation; Resources and Sustainability and Global Health. First associated with the Women as Global Leaders initiative, these pillars have long worked themselves into the fabric of curriculum and instruction across the subject areas, offering a framework for interdisciplinary learning.

They are evident in science labs, statistical evaluations in mathematics, or even the selection of literature in an English course. Similarly, they can be spotted in a student’s mounted art exhibit or heard during a concert.

In short, the learning is deepened through a framework of the pillars that invites students to engage in the Goals, showcasing each student’s individual and unique “deep respect for intellectual values” (Goal II). When students participate in the Global Health outreach through Seattle’s Neighbor Care program or return from an intensive Resources and Sustainability experience to the Arctic Circle, they return having deepened their “social awareness” (Goal III) while actively supporting the “building of community as a Christian value” (Goal IV).

Last year, the high school staff began a long-term collaboration with Mr. Drego Little. Drego Little is on the faculty of Rainier Scholars (rainierscholars.org) where he teaches literature and writing. As a presenter he also guides institutions through hard conversations around race, society and justice. A curriculum and instruction expert, Drego supports teachers becoming more intentional as they develop curricula and lessons reflective of their students’ wide variety of experiences.

During one of our first work sessions together, I recall Drego reminding us that “the coach doesn’t have to be more gifted. The coach has to be able to bring out the best in everyone else.” That growth mindset is a challenge to all of us “to educate to personal growth” (Goal V). As educators we are called to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, to intentionally step away from the very human trait of seeking comfort or ease, so that we can practice, model and teach the practices that lead to Peace and Reconciliation.

Living the Goals and Criteria for Sacred Heart School also means embracing the three pillars of Peace and Reconciliation, Resources and Sustainability and Global Health – one Goal and one experience at a time.

Dr. Carola Wittmann, Director of High School 3

Learning From Labradors

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nviting a Labrador Retriever into a family is one of the great joys for a dog lover. We all know the story of Marly and Me, about a misbehaving puppy who grew into a mischievous loveable dog that wrecked all the furniture he ever sat in. We often see these large creatures lumbering across the campus, owners in tow, or hanging out a window of a car, tongue sagging and eyes bright in hopeful longing. And what do we always say about our labs? “They are always happy to see us, always ready to play, and whenever we have a bad day, our labs greet us with the same accepting, loving smile for which they are known.

There’s a lot to be learned about life from a Labrador retriever. And if you’re like us, you need the Labrador messages over and over again. Here are some we, Julie and Regina, have gleaned from our labs, Chevy and Brinky: • Cleanliness is NOT always next to godliness.

• When we’re hardest on ourselves go find your dog; s/he will be thrilled to see you and always want to give you a kiss.

• A sad puppy is one of the cutest, even if pathetic, scenes you’ll ever encounter. Treat it as a gift, then help the puppy feel better. (This one pertains directly to our children and sometimes our spouses.)

• Use imploring eyes to your advantage.

• Food takes care of so many issues. Present it on time and in large quantities.

• Drinking out of the toilet is sometimes necessary.

It’s a bad habit which nonetheless often provides comfort and security. We recognize it as unhealthy, but we needn’t be ashamed.

• Sensitive ears hate loud noises. Be gentle in our speech. And don’t run the vacuum cleaner any more than is necessary.

• Build community and say hello to everyone you see.

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• Wag more, bark less.

• To get attention wag more, bark more.

• Test your boundaries; sometimes you have to in order to get what you want.

• Flopping oneself and curling up onto a bed; is a pretty good way to end any kind of day.

• Sometimes you just have to enjoy the ride and let the wind flow through your fur.

It occurs to us as we read down this list that Labradors seem to have been schooled in Sacred Heart goals and criteria.

1. Active faith in God: The lab has faith always, no matter what 2. Pursuit of intellectual values: Labs are conniving critters, always thinking up something new and fun.

3. A social awareness which impels to action: Here again, the lab wants to spread love everywhere, often times in the seediest places imaginable where no one else will go.

4. Building of a community: Labs are always looking for new friends and are happy to spend time with them.

5. Wise freedom: Oh well, four out of five ain’t bad.

Regina Mooney, Ph.D. Director of Institutional Advancement Julie Lundgren Alumnae Director

A spirit of authentic welcome and inclusivity A

t every School of the Sacred Heart across the country and around the world we know that each member of community, every adult and child, is a Child of the Sacred Heart. New middle school students at Forest Ridge learn about what it means to be a Child of the Sacred Heart beginning on the first day of school. Children of the Sacred Heart live their lives in a way that cherishes and celebrates our planet and all of the people living here with us. We are all responsible to love deeply as we share our many gifts with the world. Seen in big and small ways every day, we come to know that living our mission as Children of the Sacred Heart results in powerful change.

As we opened the 108th year of Sacred Heart Education at Forest Ridge, the middle-school students and I specifically talked about how our call to use gracefilled leadership as Children of the Sacred Heart requires us to practice an authentic welcome and a spirit of inclusivity in all that we do. Operating every day as a person who is authentically welcoming goes beyond reaching out to new friends or classmates; it includes welcoming new ideas with the full knowledge that each idea might be changed or expanded as a result. It means stretching ourselves to welcome a new habit, activity or skill.

Choosing to be authentically inclusive requires risk and stretch for each of us. To be inclusive means to make space for the needs and hopes of all members of the community, not just your own. When we are all working hard to be authentically welcoming and inclusive, the result is a stronger Sacred Heart community.

My hope for each of us this year is that we embrace our collective identity as Children of the Sacred Heart by using our grace-filled leadership skills to welcome and include our classmates, families, ideas and activities with true authenticity. Creating both a schoolwide community that operates from inclusivity and welcome, strengthens our ability to use our gifts and bring profound change to our wider communities.

I am grateful to each of the students, teachers, staff members and families as we work together this year in a spirit of authentic welcome and inclusivity.

Julie Grasseschi Director of Middle School

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WOMEN AS GLOBAL LEADERS – Our year ahead T

his year, Women as Global Leaders will continue to travel with students in the Middle School and High School in further exploration of global issues.

As we continue our commitment to fostering young women to be confident, ethical and resilient global leaders, we find ourselves growing our international community of partners who believe in our mission and our students and continue to embrace our pedagogy with generosity and enthusiasm. It’s inspiring to see the growing number of our faculty and staff who have committed themselves to learning alongside of our students in these experiences. I have had the honor of travelling with each of these talented and experienced educators and I feel honored and humbled by their willingness to grow our experiential leadership curriculum. The below list reflects current faculty and staff who have participated to date:

Judy Pettet (Peace and Reconciliation) Inga Aesoph (Peace and Reconciliation, Australia Scoping) Maritza Tavarez-Brown (Peace and Reconciliation, Rwanda Scoping) Palie Cantu (Peace and Reconciliation) Concepcion Lindgren (Global Health) Cheri Higman (Resources, Sustainability and Climate Change – Global Health) Heather Mirczak (Resources, Sustainability and Climate Change) John Fenoli (Resources, Sustainability and Climate Change) Tanya Garcia (Peace and Reconciliation) 6

Melissa Jones (Peace and Reconciliation) Rebecca Wilson (Rwanda Scoping) Mandy Underhill (Rwanda Scoping) Michael Smith (Australia Scoping) Regina Mooney (Rwanda Scoping) We are moving forward with two (2) out-of-state experiences in the high school through Women as Global Leaders this academic year. The below listed experiences have been posted to the website and the school calendar. Please note, these experiences are separate from the Women as Global Leaders opportunities that are local to Seattle and Bellevue as well as the experiences that are currently offered to faculty only (like Rwanda and Australia).

We have made the decision to change locations for our Peace and Reconciliation immersion experience.

We will offer a travel opportunity in the 2016-17 school year. After four consecutive years travelling to the Holy Land to study the dimensions of an enduring conflict, we feel it is time to offer an opportunity in a place where reconciliation and peace making is an active part of the cultural dialogue. We are considering many different opportunities, and as we build out our next phase of Peace and Reconciliation immersion, the community will remain informed through the Ridge Report, Mes Amis, and our website.

These student experiences are separate from the Women as Global Leaders opportunities that are local

to Seattle and Bellevue as well as the experiences that are currently offered to faculty only (like Rwanda and Australia).

Resources, Sustainability and Climate Change – Arctic Circle June 10-17, 2016 – Limited space available to Frosh, Sophomores and Juniors interested in a 7-day immersion in Denali and the Arctic Circle with special emphasis on climate change and natural resource management across cultural boundaries. Trip cost is $2200 includes all travel, transportation, room and board. Financial Assistance is available. APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE. For more information please email kpalmer@forestridge.org Global Health – Dominican Republic –June 2230, 2016 – Limited space available to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors interested in a 7 day immersion in the Dominican Republic to study health care access and delivery in a developing country. Trip Cost is $2500 and includes all travel, transportation, room and board. Financial Assistance is available.

APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE. For more information please email kpalmer@forestridge.org.

Kisha X. Palmer, Director of Women As Global Leaders

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ello, we are your 2015-2016 Parent Association Board. We have enjoyed meeting many of you at our Welcome Back Coffee and Back to School BBQ! We look forward to more fun events and showcasing Forest Ridge staff members/programs throughout the year. At each of our general meetings and through communications like PostIT and Ridge Radar, we will share information about all of the exciting opportunities and educational enrichments available for your daughter.

Join us for our next general meeting January 7, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. in the Sacred Heart Center. In the meantime, visit the Parent Association web page on the FR website for a full calendar of events, meeting information/documents, PA leadership contact information and a list of volunteer opportunities.

Spread the word…..

Forest Ridge School Open House Tuesday, November 17, 2015 3:30–5:30 p.m.

As a member of the school community, we consider you, as parents to be our most genuine and credible spokespersons for Forest Ridge.

Therefore, we very much appreciate your help as we look to recruit an incredible class for the 2016-2017 school year and beyond.

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