After watching the Framing Our Future promotional video at the end of my junior year at Convent of the Sacred Heart, I was thrilled about the exciting construction project and all of the amazing new spaces that our community could use. The members of the Class of 2014 all sighed as they realized they would not be around to use the new buildings. I soon discovered that neither would my grade. For even the speedy one school year construction process would not be finished in time for members of the Class of 2015 to witness the ribbon cutting.
After re-watching the promotional video and looking over the Framing Our Future brochures and floor plans, I could not help but feel sad and perhaps a bit bitter. Couldn’t this project have started one year earlier so that my senior year could be spent using the new spaces instead of cramming into the existing ones?
Emily Hirshorn ’15
Now that we eat lunch in the Core Center, I get to observe the construction progress on a daily basis and imagine how beautiful it is going to look in just a few more months. I almost wish I could speed up the time lapse video to the end of the construction timeline.
When I went home to lament about not being around for the completion of the construction project, my mom reminded me that when she went here for high school, there was not even the “old” gym but rather a military-style Quonset hut.
But, thinking more about it, as a non-squash and non-basketball playing individual, I am more excited about the expanded student dining room with the indoor/outdoor fireplace and the new outdoor amphitheater for outside learning, rather than the large athletic complex.
The capital campaign, however, means more than the shiny new facilities, which I am sure students will enjoy for many years to come. Rather, the construction project signals how much our school is growing and flourishing with new energy and academic and athletic excellence.
The dining room was too small, so now there will be a beautiful, larger one. So many more students participate in sports that now there is a need for new basketball courts and squash facilities. Our school is also invested in unconventional learning, as reflected by the construction of an outdoor amphitheater. And, with the new spaces, now our whole community and guests can celebrate liturgies together with room to spare.
The Sacred Heart I am leaving, as I head off to the University of Notre Dame this fall, is a school with a rich history and a bright future. Our Catholic faith and strong moral framework will continue to stand as the true foundation of our school. Nevertheless, the new facilities will outwardly reflect the inward excellence of Sacred Heart and its legacy.
Although I won’t get to warm myself by the fireplace or discuss coursework in the outside amphitheater as a student at Sacred Heart, I know I will have many opportunities to admire the facilities as an alumna. This 25.5 million dollar project will truly frame the future of Sacred Heart for generations to come.
– Emily Hirshorn, Opinions Editor
King Street Chronicle
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Michael Baber • May 14, 2015 at 4:11 pm
Thank you for your honest reflection. While clearly the prime beneficiaries are the students, we have always looked forward to greeting alumnae out by the fire on the commons area. True to Sacred Heart, our vision of community includes those who have come before us and those who have yet to cross the threshold of Salisbury Hall!