NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA–2020 is a historic year for the progress of women. This is the 100th year anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment and this is also the year, the country elected it’s first Madame Vice President in Kamala Harris. However, the Ursuline Nuns have had a 300 year-old start in the woman’s suffrage movement through their legacy of education. Ursuline Academy continues their legacy of innovation by unveiling their Jane Gisevius ’61 Leadership Center.
The center is designed to introduce STEM field interests to Ursuline students kindergarten through high school and comprises a SmartLab®, collaboration space, robotics lab, and video production studio. The curriculum provides personalized learning resources in Circuitry, Computer Graphics, Digital Communications, Mechanics and Structures, Robotics and Control Technology, Scientific Data and Analysis, Software Engineering, Sustainability, and Video Production.
Rebecca McLellan is Director of Enrollment Management and says, “Ursuline has a history of trailblazers and the way you get there is with innovation. This center is that manifestation of years of history. STEM and the arts are coming together here; we recognize that we need to activate both sides of the student’s brains. We are looking at future newscasters, there may be an astronaut or a novelist or two! Our foundress Saint Angela told us that when you see something and it needs to be changed, change it. There’s so often stereotypes when it comes to the sciences and the math and all of those stereotypes are just washed away here.”
