Building on the Tradition of Innovation #TUSTime Is Now!
President Eileen Davidson Offers Update and Urges Action Touch the lives of generations of young women. Visualize the impact of new spaces for designing, inventing, connecting with others. Help create the environment for our students to achieve their dreams and better the world!
The Innovation Campaign has launched and construction has begun! The old lobby has been demolished but not before the school seal was carefully removed from the lobby floor and safeguarded. We can start to imagine the modern new Lobby and Welcome Center. The fundraising for this exciting capital project is also underway! Generous early donors have brought us halfway to our goal of $8.5 million. You now have the opportunity to be part of Ursuline’s future by donating or pledging to the Innovation Campaign.
Join us on this exciting journey. Thank you. Eileen Davidson H’12, P’90, GP’19
St. Angela, watch over us all our days. St. Ursula, protect our future.
Call and response said at daily morning prayer at school.
WELCOME to a modern, comfortable and secure lobby The new 2,400 sq. ft. lobby and welcome center will look out onto the Sr. JB Nicholson Commons and the iconic tower. The redesign of the school entrance will signal the exciting learning inside, communicate hospitality to visitors, and incorporate comfortable seating and gathering space, as well as provide enhanced security. The Bookstore will be expanded and moved to a more visible spot in the new lobby. Announcements and videos will be displayed on a message board on the outside of the Bookstore. The new Ann Clemente Admissions Suite will graciously welcome prospective students and their families.
A Security Center at the new entrance to the lobby will be home to Mr. William Childs, retired NRPD who joined Ursuline a year ago as our Building Security Officer. The Security Center will consolidate and enhance our security tools, such as screens that capture live video footage from entry points to the school. All visitors will continue to register at the Security Center upon arrival. This state-of-the-art lobby space will offer seating and still be large enough to be used for meetings and gatherings. After school, students will have “This exciting, bold a central space to wait for Capital Campaign will move rides.
Ursuline into the future on a sound and competitive footing. Our peers are implementing their own capital projects and we must successfully execute our plan for our girls for our future.” —Richard Nasti P’11
TUNE IN to students talking with each other rather than just texting Common spaces foster socialization and collaboration. The bright and open 130 seat Christina Jun Murphy ’22 Commons will be for eating, working or socializing. An ideal setting for life-long friendships to be forged and ideas to be developed. Picture students using this student commons throughout the school day — before and after class, during busy lunch times, and late into the afternoons.
ENVISION young women making whatever they can imagine The Maker Movement is a technological and creative revolution sweeping across education. Students can learn in amazing new ways through direct experience with high and low-tech materials using robotics, 3D scanners, vinyl cutters, and electronic building blocks.
through invention and construction. Students will use digital fabrication machines to turn their ideas into digital designs and then into physical things.
Envision Engineering students using the space one period, followed by Computer Science students, and then Classics students Ursuline has already invested in some of designing a Greek temple, these new tools and faculty have embraced English students tinkering with project-based teaching that incorporates character depictions, ending with these tools. Now we will build a 2,100 Biology students modeling ocean sq. ft. makerspace, which we call layers and light. the Innovation Hub or iHub. Every Ursuline student will have access to the iHub and tools so that she can develop her spatial ability
“The culture of creativity and innovation nurtured in the iHub will prompt students to seek solutions to the challenges the world presents.” —Edwinna Lucyk P’97, ’03 Dir. of Technology Integration
VISUALIZE students of all ages giving presentations and leading groups in a high-tech media environment Ursuline students improve presentation skills and build confidence when they speak in a public forum. Picture students presenting their Shark Tank proposals in their Economics for Life class or our Global Scholars sharing their capstone projects in the new modern Conference Center. They will confidently use the built-in speakers and large screen TV with wireless computer to access the internet. Or, imagine a U.S. Government & Politics class debating around the 40-seat seminar style table.
“The new Conference Center will allow us on the Mock Trial team to get more out of our practices, to Skype members who cannot make it, and allow us to have important one-on-one meetings with our parent coaches.” —Maggie Gordon ’22
SEE YOURSELF helping to bring about this transformation at Ursuline The Innovation Campaign is a community-wide project to raise funds in order to make major changes to the campus — changes that will benefit every student, changes that will expand the resources of every teacher, changes that will make every alumna proud! You can get involved by spreading the word and by donating to the Campaign. Every donor name will be listed on the Campaign website. All donors making gifts of more than $5,000 will also be listed on the Campaign Donor Wall. This build will have a lasting impact on the campus and all who study or teach in it. Your contribution can also be remembered in a lasting way.
“When I give, I feel proud and honored. We are building on the great resources we already offer at Ursuline.” —Belinda Palmer P’14, Trustee
Naming Opportunities can honor your connections to Ursuline and reflect your interests! Perhaps the Innovation Hub captures your imagination and you would like to donate or pledge $25,000 for equipment in that room. Maybe the Security Center is important to you and you would like to donate $50,000 for the opportunity to name that space. Or the new Bookstore, to be situated in the lobby, may be foremost on your mind and you can pledge $250,000 for the opportunity to link your name to it. Perhaps you and a group of friends or classmates would like to be connected to a specific space. Engraved, hand-crafted hexagons that will be permanently displayed in the new iHub are also a naming opportunity for $5,000 (large) and $2,500 (small). There are many other possibilities, as listed here, and detailed on the Campaign website www.tusinnovationcampaign.org/ naming-opportunities.
Everyone can be part of the Innovation Campaign! We know that budgets vary and donations are very personal decisions, yet we encourage you to stretch a little because this is a unique opportunity to help transform the Ursuline campus. To help that stretch, pledges may be paid over three to five years. Outright gifts of any size, paid in full, are always gratefully accepted. It is participation from our whole community that will guarantee the success of this Campaign!
Naming Opportunities – Leave Your Mark $2,000,000
$150,000
$25,000
Interior Lobby
Large Conference Room
Assistant Principal Offices (SECURED)
$1,500,000
$100,000
Technology Suite
Admissions Suite (SECURED)
$1,000,000 Innovation Hub aka iHub iHub Drop-in Room Student Commons (SECURED)
$500,000 High-Tech Media Conference Center
$250,000 Administrative Suite TUS Book Store
Entry Corridor Lobby Furnishings (SECURED) Main Office (SECURED) Main Corridor (between new Student Commons and existing cafeteria) Principal’s Office
$50,000 Counseling Suite Furnishings for Student Commons (SECURED) Security Center Small Conference Room (SECURED)
Athletic Director’s Office (SECURED) Counseling Offices (1 SECURED, 2 available) Equipment for iHub (6 available) Equipment for iHub Drop-In Rm (6 available) Equipment for High-Tech Conference Center (7 available) Registrar’s Office Technology for Lobby (6 available)
$5,000 Large Named Hexagon in iHub (40 available)
$2,500 Small Named Hexagon in iHub (42 available)
$1,500 Paver on the Sr. Jean Baptiste Nicholson Commons
*All gifts in excess of $5,000 will also appear on the Campaign Donor Wall
A message from . . . I am very happy and honored to open the “Building on the Tradition of Innovation” $8.5 million campaign. I entered the 9th grade in September 1937. In order for you to visualize those early days, please hop on my Time Machine. The original school building opened on 1354 North Avenue for grades K to 12 in 1929 — architecturally, a beautiful structure. K-8 grades had their classrooms on the first floor. The high school met on the second floor with our library overlooking
Mary Jane Kann Reddington ’41, P’72 Innovation Campaign Chairwoman the beautiful apple orchard. The auditorium/gymnasium was the large space on the left where dumbbells lined the room. Mother Rose conducted our assemblies with students standing for them — there were no chairs! Only those who weren’t feeling well or faint could escape.
When this campaign was brought to my attention, I was convinced right then and there why Ursuline is such an important investment for both today’s and tomorrow’s students.
Much has changed. More important, let us look at all that has not changed at Ursuline since I first entered its portals back in 1937. Our school continues to be a faith-centered, valuesbased community. Ursuline has always made young girls into women for all seasons. Where students are provided with a solid education that will enable them to become globally competitive at college and beyond. Another defining aspect of the school is the dedicated faculty who teach students to become life-long learners. As alumnae, we still practice Serviam that was introduced to us as students and the importance of rendering service to others.
My heartfelt thanks for any part you may play in this campaign. With your important assistance, you will continue to make Ursuline graduates tomorrow’s leaders. Because the heart of a donor is not measured in size but, in the depth of the commitment to make a difference in the lives of others. Warmly, Mary Jane Kann Reddington ’41, P’72
“Ursuline invests in us, its students, Alumnae, special news for you! and by donating to this project you all have contributed to generations of girls’ futures. The magnitude of this project’s impact will surely be something to watch, and I cannot wait to see how the girls of my class and every class to come will utilize the collaborative spaces, design studios, high-tech equipment and When you make a Campaign contribution in any amount up to conferencing centers to $25,000, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar by the Thomas and fuel their own dreams.” Dorothy Leavey Foundation, up to a total $500,000. Your gift of —Daphne Banino ’22 $50 becomes $100 for Ursuline, a donation of $500 becomes $1,000, and $5,000 becomes $10,000!
LEAVEY ALUMNAE CHALLENGE GRANT
Will you accept this challenge?
Thank you for your generosity.
Questions? Our Director of Philanthropy, Cathy Fay McCarthy ’84, is happy to answer any questions you may have about donating to this Innovation Campaign. Cathy may be reached by email at cathfmcc@ursulinenewrochelle.org or by phone at 914-636-5169.
