News & Events News
To further their discussion around inclusion and exclusion, a key theme for the year, the entire junior class recently ventured to Angel Island. Now a California State Park, Angel Island served as a “holding place” in the early 1900s for primarily Chinese immigrants after strict immigration laws severely restricted them from entering the United States. It functioned as both an immigration and deportation facility, at which some 175,000 Chinese and about 60,000 Japanese immigrants were detained, generally from two weeks to six months, before being allowed to enter the United States.
Forty juniors joined the Class of 2023 for one of Notre Dame's time-honored traditions, Freshman Sleepover. The big sisters took charge of the event, helping the newest members of the ND sisterhood with games and activities that, ultimately, lead them to voting on the colors and mascot that will identify them throughout their high school years and even as they join the more than 8,000 alumnae in the ND network! We're excited to introduce the Purple & Mint Green Jaguars!
More than 150 students from 17 Bay Area schools gathered on the Notre Dame campus recently to compete in parliamentary debate. Click on the title above to view a video and learn more!
Two Notre Dame seniors, Shruti Sridhar and Maya Nayak, were recognized over the summer for the work they have done in the community through non-profits they founded. The Jefferson Awards Foundation was created in 1972 by the American Institute for Public Service. The Jefferson Awards are given at both national and local levels. Local winners are ordinary people who do extraordinary things without expectation of recognition.
Notre Dame seniors Annie, Kayla, Srija, Shruti and Katelyn recently joined a prestigious group of high school seniors recognized as National Merit Semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. Because of their truly superb performance on the PSAT, all five young women will be considered for National Merit, college and corporate-sponsored scholarships if they move to finalist status, notification of which is made in the spring.
Three graduates of the Class of 2019 were featured in the media this summer presenting their Perspectives on KQED. Morgan Brumm, who is attending the University of San Francisco, spoke about gardening giving us the power to create life. Swathi Ram, now studying at the University of Illinois, shared her thoughts about needing to understand where you came from to know where you're going and Christy Maly, a UC Berkeley student, shared her perspective on rights of passage.
We’re very excited to announce that Notre Dame High School has been ranked in the top ten Catholic schools in the state of California for the third consecutive years by Niche, the largest website for researching K-12 schools!. It is once again ranked as the most diverse private high school in Santa Clara County and the number two all-girl's school in the San Francisco Bay Area.
With summer 2019 coming to an end, the Griffins, Tigers, Raptors and the Class of 2023 made their way back to school, filling the campus once again with laughter and excitement. Before all their classes, students made their way to JB Hall for the start-of-school assembly. Student leaders opened the year with the theme of Belonging at the assembly. ASB student body president Neha Jain ’20, introduced the Belonging theme in her opening address, encouraging her ND sisters to take extra steps this year to ensure everyone feels included.
Notre Dame's Robotics Team, the Janksters, hosted their seventh annual bootcamp for current and incoming students earlier in August. Through a series of workshops, games and other hands-on activities the students learned about the robotics program and make some new friends. For the leaders it was an opportunity to further develop their communication and leadership skills.
Last night we celebrated the Class of 2019 Vipers and their many accomplishments at the Senior Recognition Ceremony! At this morning’s assembly, their Notre Dame sisters cheered and shed a few tears as the Vipers left Julie Billiart Hall for the final time and officially joined the global network of Notre Dame alumnae.
Notre Dame's Class of 2020 is already following in the footsteps of their viper sisters with a long list of awards and honors. The Scholarship Committee recently awarded Junior Book Awards and Medals to some very deserving young women.
More than 300 seniors, juniors and their guests enjoyed a beautiful night of laughter, dancing and great food at this year's prom. The event, held at the Corinthian Grand Ballroom featured a red carpet!
Last week the Notre Dame community gathered for the last all-school mass of the year in the Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph. This joyful liturgy included the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. Notre Dame was pleased to welcome the Most Reverend Oscar Cantú, bishop of San Jose for his first liturgy with the school community. Bishop Cantú became the third bishop of San Jose on May 1, 2019 upon the retirement of Bishop Patrick J. McGrath.
More than 400 guests spent a beautiful sunny morning on the Notre Dame campus last weekend, coming together for the first time as the Class of 2023. Joined by their family members, our newest students met with faculty and staff to learn about life on campus and the many co-curricular opportunities.
Sahithi Madireddy ’19 and Samskruthi Madireddy ’21 had a scientific research paper entitled “The Role of Diet in Maintaining Strong Brain Health by Taking the Advantage of the Gut-brain Axis” published in the Journal of Food and Nutrition Research in January. Sahithi has been published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine and has presented at the Western Medical Research Conference and American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Samskruthi is a member of the California state’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission’s (MHSOAC). She also serves on Stanford’s Allcove (Headspace) Youth Advisory Group and the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE).
Shurthi Shyam '19 recently had a scientific research paper published in the Young Scientist's Journal. Her research was entitled: Effect of Antioxidants N-Acetylcysteine and α-tocopherol on Colorectal Cancer Cell Invasion + Migration in a Scratch Assay. Shruthi has gained research experience at leading genomics labs and at Brown University. She has presented papers at American Geophysical Union and at Synopsys State Science Fair. She has been involved in New York Academy of Science’s Junior Academy and currently serves as a board member on the youth advisory board for Stanford’s Headspace.
Students, faculty and staff enjoyed a morning walk to our downtown place of worship, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph for a Holy Week service featuring a recreation of the Stations of the Cross. Ms. Quiazon, director of campus ministry, and senior Isabel Solorio presided over the service through which seniors shared their reflections on condemnation, compassion, cruelty and courage.
Notre Dame’s diverse student community is filled with different talents, skills and passions. The artistic talent of two of these students, Annie Chang ‘20 and Manasa Sundaram '20, is being recognized by the San Jose Downtown Foundation, who chose their artwork for their Downtown Doors project from a record 200+ submissions from 22 different schools.
Juniors Shruthi Sridhar and Shreya Garg were awarded second and third place in the Amgen Bay Area BioGENEius Challenge, the premior competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding research and innovation in the biotechnology field.
We invite you to join us as we gather in support of tuition assistance and program development. Our annual event will be held May 4 at The Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. Tickets and additional information are available here.
Notre Dame was well represented by the Janksters as they competed in the Silicon Valley Regional. The Robotics team handled the challenges of competition with excellent teamwork, collaboration and communications and were also recognized with two awards.
Hilary Hendershott, financial advisor and wealth management guru, recently spoke with seniors about their financial future as they get ready to embark on the next chapter of their lives. Hilary’s mission is to motivate women to be financially empowered and support women in their financial journey.
Students Sahithi '19 and Samskruthi '21 recently won several medals at Science Olympiad competitions across the state. Founded in 1984, Science Olympiad is one of the premier science competitions in the nation, providing rigorous, standards-based challenges to nearly 8,000 teams in all 50 states. The organization hosts 450 tournaments annually on college campuses.
Notre Dame's Robotics Team, the Janksters, revealed their 2019 robot to an enthusiastic crowd last weekend. The team has worked tirelessly since January 5 when FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) revealed this year's team challenge, Destination: Deep Space to brainstorm, prototype and build this year's robot.
Notre Dame was pleased to welcome Carl Wilkens, the author of I'm Not Leaving, to campus recently. His personal account of surviving the Rwandan genocide brought a new level of understanding to students who have studied the subject across the curriculum. In this article, Ava '21 shares her personal reflection on the experience.