Visitation Academy forges a future while staying true to the past

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Bill Ryan⁄The Gazette Fifth-graders Bianca Hoch and Natalie Bellanton search for rodent bones in an owl dropping during a science lab at the Visitation Academy in Frederick on Monday.

‘‘I thought this would be gross, but it’s really fun,” student Michelle Holcomb said.

Holcomb, whose mother teaches the fifth-graders at Frederick’s Visitation Academy, was not alone in her appreciation for the treasure hunt that unearthed tiny claws, skulls, vertebrae and other bones that likely belonged to a small rodents called voles.

The girls, clad in red plaid jumpers and navy school blazers, talked over each other to explain that barn owls eat rodents, but cannot digest the bones, so they spit them out - much like a cat does with a hairball. The girls carefully hoarded their finds in plastic bags to reconstruct the skeletal remains later in the week.

Last week, they swabbed their cheeks for cells so they could have a look at their own DNA.

‘‘It was awesome,” one student said.

Honoring the past

The 159-year-old Catholic school serves girls from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Steeped in tradition and history, it is one of only six Visitation schools left in the country. But, it cannot survive and thrive on its illustrious history alone. The school staff strives to meet the educational needs of young women in the modern world.

For most of its history, the school was home to the cloistered nuns of the Visitation Monastery. The four remaining nuns and their Mother Superior, all in their 90s, left this year and the monastery closed.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore and a newly formed board of directors are helping the school transition to a place where math and science take center stage. Funding is private and tuition is $4,800 per year.

The Georgetown Visitation Sisters took over the school in 1846 from the Sisters of Charity, who had established a school for girls in 1824.

Honoring the past and looking to the future are not incompatible goals, according to Principal Bernadette Emerson. Emerson has been principal for 13 years. The soft-spoken administrator believes that adherence to the philosophy established by the Sisters make the academics aspect easy - a great reverence for God pursued through gentle strength.

‘‘We not only teach that philosophy, we live that philosophy ... children learn not necessarily by words, but by example,” she said.

Not only are girls expected to grow into polite, kind young ladies, they are expected to pursue their studies with enthusiasm and a love of learning.

And that is more easily accomplished at an all-girls school, say Visitation staff and parents.

‘‘What impresses me most is the high benchmark for academics that are set. Regardless of how a student does, that benchmark is never lowered. Girls are coached and taught to reach that benchmark. To me, that is how every school should be run,” parent Carol Minnick said.

Her daughter, now a fifth-grader, started at Visitation in pre-kindergarten. One of her two brothers attends an all boys Catholic school near Baltimore.

Single-sex education works

As visitors enter their classroom, all 10 seventh-grade girls rise and greet them in unison: ‘‘Good afternoon!”

Their math teacher, Ann Marie Lyons, is at the front of the classroom demonstrating algebraic equations. The pace is fast, and the students are eager to give the right answers.

‘‘Ooh, I know!” one student yelps.

Outside their top-floor classroom is the oasis, the secret garden that grows behind the brick walls of the academy. In the distance are the rooftops and spires of downtown Frederick. The world beyond the gates is noisy, boisterous and busy.

A former nurse, Lyons returned to college for a master’s degree in education, where she did a research project on the value of single-sex education.

‘‘Girls at single-sex schools are six times more likely to pursue careers or degrees in math and the hard sciences,” Lyons said.

She makes math relevant, regardless of her students’ career goals, she said.

Looking around her classroom, Lyons pointed out that every leader, everyone who is best at something in an all-girls school, is a girl. It inspires a ‘‘can-do attitude,” and they feel they can succeed at anything, she added.

Holcomb, the fifth-grade teacher, is a former scientist. She did an informal research study on the same topic, but said she does not need research to prove what she sees before her eyes.

Referring to her science lab, Holcomb said if there were boys in the class, the students would not be as focused.

‘‘Girls learn better in a calm, quiet environment,” Holcomb said.

She eschews critics who say that girls in single-sex schools are at a disadvantage when it comes to socializing with boys.

Her daughter was the only girl to try out for a community soccer team. She made the team and the experience heightened her confidence.

‘‘The public school girls were standing around the field. None of them tried out,” she said.

An emphasis on math and science at the all-girls school is reaping rewards.

Comprising just 1 percent of the Frederick County student population, with 150 students, Visitation took 25 percent of elementary and middle school -place prizes and 50 percent of the second-place prizes at the county’s 24th annual Science and Engineering Fair last year.

Her role as a teacher, Holcomb said, is to help girls find their voices, to teach them how to learn.

‘‘If you know how to learn, you can do anything,” she said.