Strong women, you say?

Last week, Annette Holgado became St. Mary's Rose Festival Princess. After having her in my TA for four years, I was so pleased to see such a kind, elegant, intelligent and funny young woman represent the students of St. Mary's in the Rose Festival. It will be sad to see her go early, given that with all of her duties as Princess she must graduate early, but she deserves to have a wonderful time on her journey in May. I have known Annette for a long time, and I want to commend her for her outstanding presence and cunning personality, and wish her well the next few months.

The International Woman's Day assembly touched my heart. It opened with students discussing the cultures of their families, and women within their culture/home country that they admire. Students praised women for their political, social and economic achievements around the world, recognizing the importance of women in global communities. The main speaker of the assembly, a Lutheran mother of a freshman at the school, discussed figures ranging from Esther in the Old Testament to Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. She related modern and aged stories of the strength of women, commenting on the lack of dialogue about important women in our history and sacred works. Her discourse on strong women accomplishing feats not receiving worthy recognition reached every person in the auditorium. The assembly was wrapped up with a beautiful dance performance by our contemporary dance group, ending a powerful hour for everyone involved. It was very well put together on behalf of Mrs. Salvi and made for a very impactful assembly.