NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY OF NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL- KYOTO, JAPAN

St. Louis, MO — Notre Dame High School has always enjoyed a special relationship with their sister school in Kyoto, Japan. For each of the past five years, ND- St. Louis has hosted one student from Kyoto as part of a year-long student exchange program.

Therefore, it came as no surprise when Notre Dame-Kyoto invited Dr. Michelle Emmerich, SSND, Principal of Notre Dame-St. Louis, as an honored guest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their school. Dr.Emmerich joined Mrs. Yoshiko Kurimoto, high school principal, and Sister Maureen Wada, SSND, president of the Board for SSND schools in Kyoto to address the faculty, students, parents, board members, SSNDs, and friends of Notre Dame-Kyoto who gathered on October 12, 2012 to celebrate 60 years of educating young women.

Notre Dame- St. Louis presented Notre Dame Jogakuin High School, Kyoto with an engraved  diamond shaped acrylic plaque to honor the school for “advancing international education and exchange and growing together in the SSND spirit of becoming one in mind and heart”.

The school celebrated their anniversary with a 3-part celebration that consisted of an address, celebration of a Mass, and a concluding concert that featured Notre Dame-Kyoto’s 100 piece orchestra and 250 member choir.

While in Kyoto, Emmerich also met with the former Notre Dame-St. Louis exchange students and their families. Emmerich said that she enjoyed seeing the amazing things that these former Notre Dame- St. Louis students are accomplishing. One is a medical student at Kyoto University, another is majoring in International Business Management in Boston, MA, and another, a current high school senior, has just been accepted into Sophia Jesuit University in Tokyo for a major in Linguistics, seeking to become an international interpreter/translator. All said that they felt prepared for their future careers, due in part to the time they spent at Notre Dame- St. Louis.

“The mother of one of our former exchange students reflected her gratitude for the international exchange with Notre Dame St. Louis because their family sent their daughter to St. Louis not knowing what to expect, and we returned to them a confident young woman with a sense of mission for life,” Emmerich said.

For more information on Notre Dame High School, contact Meredith Metzger at metzm@ndhs.net or 314-544-1015 x1102.