Eight Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart students (two from each class) and one faculty member received third quarter Sacred Heart awards Feb. 3 in recognition of living the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria in a most visible way. Goal Two, “Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to a deep respect for intellectual values,” was chosen by the Woodlands Academy student government as the basis for these awards. Freshmen Tate Reilly and Salome Rojas-Diaz, sophomores Natalia Kozic and Sophia Gammel, juniors Lily Hinojosa and Lillard Preschlack, seniors Hailey Denton and Kayla Imanzi, and science/mathematics teacher John Denman were recognized for their efforts in living out this goal. 

Powerful remarks from someone who befriended Nelson Mandela under somewhat unusual circumstances provided the framework for this year’s “Open Hearts: Be the Change” day at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. Students, faculty and staff set aside the usual classroom routine Jan. 27 to focus on exploring ways of building bridges toward greater inclusion and equity in our society by grounding themselves in the Sacred Heart values of community and relationships. The theme for the day was Understanding Implicit Bias and Becoming Allies for One Another. Keynote speaker Christo Brand emphasized the importance of finding common ground with people we might believe to be unrelatable. At age 19, Brand was a prison guard to Mandela. To his surprise, Brand realized the two had much in common and they became close friends.

Grier Wilt, deputy director of NASA's operations in Star City, Russia, gave Woodlands Academy students lots of inspirational advice and interesting insights during the Jan. 25 program of the school’s “Imagine Yourself in the C-Suite” series. This was the first program in the multi-year series to be initiated by a student. Senior Safia Karimi met Wilt when Karimi ran a Young Women Leadership Conference program in Kabul, Afghanistan. In response to a question about the challenges of being a female in a NASA leadership role, Wilt said she’s definitely seen a shift in the agency’s culture since she started working there in 2008. She was quick to note the recent all-female spacewalk at the International Space Station. Wilt also said NASA’s goal of returning to the moon in a few years includes having a woman be the next person there.