Flag Ceremony Celebrates Woodlands Academy's Rich Cultural Diversity

The Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart community gathered to celebrate its multicultural makeup during the annual Flag Ceremony and Mass of the Holy Spirit Friday, Sept. 7, at the all-girls college-prep high school in Lake Forest.

The flags of 19 nations - Austria, Belize, Canada, People's Republic of China, Colombia, India, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela and Vietnam - were carried into the chapel during the Procession of the Nations and will remain on display during the entire school year as a visualization of the breadth of Woodlands Academy's cultural diversity. They represent nations where either a student or faculty/staff member was born or where they hold dual citizenship.

"One of the many blessings that we have at Woodlands Academy is the richness of our cultural diversity," Global Education Director Amy Perlick said at the beginning of the Mass. "This is one of the many forms of diversity which Sacred Heart schools seek and cherish. For as our knowledge and experience of new cultures and peoples expand and deepen, we come to more fully understand ourselves, our world and our global interconnectedness."

In her Call to Worship, junior Andrea Pulaski, of Waukegan, expressed the hope that "this Mass will bring us together as we explore the differences of our backgrounds as we come together as one community."

Students and faculty/staff representing 12 countries also offered prayers in their native language during the ceremony.

"This is very much the educational vision of Sacred Heart Schools, as articulated by the foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, who said 'To influence our world we must understand it,'" Perlick added.

The Rev. Matt O' Donnell, of St. Columbanus Church in Chicago, presided over the Mass and commissioned eight seniors as student Eucharistic ministers for the 2018-19 school year: Grace Allen and Paige Bartusiak, of Lake Forest; Kathryn Bettuzzi, of Park Ridge; Erin Bowler, of Lake Bluff; Christa Ingabire, of Kigali City, Rwanda; Genevieve Makowski, of Arlington Heights; Xitali Ochoa, of Waukegan; and Mary Clare Scalise, of Glencoe.

Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women, and part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org