RuthieBarrett
While living in a flyover state, it can be easy to feel stuck in a small Nebraska bubble. Students interact with the same people and the same community day in and day out. Because of this, it can lead to feeling like there might be something bigger out there that you are missing out on.
The boys from Creighton Prep have fellow Jesuit schools around the globe and girls from Mercy have connections to other schools sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Marian is part of something bigger, too. Marian is a Servite school, founded by the Servants of Mary.
Marian’s Servite Connections ensured that Marian girls realized how important the Marian core values were to communities all over the world. The International Servite Schools Network (ISSN) was started in 2008 in hopes of creating a bond with other Servite schools that share similar values and history.
In 2014, Marian hosted a student-led conference with four other Servite schools from all over the globe. Students and staff from Servite High School from Anaheim, California, Servite College from Perth, Australia, College Servite from Quebec, Canada, and Blanche de Castille from Paris, were all in attendance.
During this conference, students worked together to learn leadership skills and had an opportunity to build relationships with each other. English teacher Mrs. Megan Gillespie helped to moderate this conference and the relationships between the schools. She said, “ISSN gave Marian girls an opportunity to see differences, but also similarities on how we live a similar mission and how we hold the same values closely.”
In addition to the conference that was held at Marian, Marian girls were given the opportunity to visit two of these schools. One group of girls went to the school in Anaheim, while another group went to Australia to visit the Servite school there.
Math teacher Miss Megan Han had the opportunity to visit Servite High School in Anaheim during one of her spring breaks as a student. Not only is this school different because of its geographical location, but it is also an all-boys school. Miss Han and her group stayed with host families and attended school for a week. Miss Han said, “It was a chance to experience a different school and get out of the Marian bubble.”
Another group went to Australia to visit Servite College in Perth in the summer of 2012. They had a similar itinerary to that of the Anaheim group, in that they stayed with host families and attended school for a week while they were there.
Mr. Greg Golka, a theology teacher, was a chaperone on this trip and said this trip gave Marian girls a “sense that we are not alone, that there are others out there.” This trip reminded the Marian community that the Servite mission is “bigger than just Marian,” added Golka.
This program unfortunately started to fizzle out during 2016 and 2017 due to changing administration and logistical challenges. However, faculty and administration are considering reconnecting with these schools in hopes to strengthen the global Servite mission.
