Clubs, sports, dances, pep rallies, special events—Dominican’s student life is all about experience, self-discovery, and spiritual growth. And, of course, it’s also about having fun! As soon as you put on those D socks and walk on down to Walmsley, you join a legacy of brave, energetic, prayerful, and loving young women. Dominican women go on to change the world, but they never forget the times they spent in saddle oxfords.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that Dominican doesn’t have a mascot. Our slogan, Veritas, means “Truth,” and one of our symbols that you may have seen around town is the saddle oxford. Sometimes, people think our mascot is the Debs, but that’s really the name of our stellar dance team. If you go to a Dominican game (you really should, by the way), you might see a student wearing a giant, fuzzy “D,” jumping up and down and promoting spirit among the crowd. So, if someone asks, you can proudly tell them that Dominican’s mascot isn’t the fuzzy “D,” and it isn’t the Debs, and it isn’t a shoe. Dominican doesn’t have a mascot, and we’re proud to continue this unique tradition.
Dominican’s colors are black and white, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t a colorful crew. Each grade level has its own special color: 8th graders are purple, freshmen are green, sophomores are yellow, juniors are red, and seniors are blue. Each student has a sticker with her class color on her nametag, and student council members receive special nametags that are printed in their class colors. In addition to class color PE uniforms, two grades have special sweaters to show off their class colors. Juniors wear red sweaters, and seniors wear a navy blue senior sweater. You’ll also see the full rainbow of class colors on display throughout the school year. On Spirit Week, at the Back to School Dance, on Rally Day, at Bleacher Swap—these colors play an important role in creating grade level spirit at these events, as well as in the day-to-day lives of Dominican students.
If someone offers you a “Toast of Praise,” don’t expect a piece of toast. This is the official Dominican fight song, and you’ll often hear it sung directly after the Alma Mater. In the beginning of the year, seniors teach the song to the new 8th graders during a special skit, and the song is sung at all athletic events. The next time you’re at a Mardi Gras parade and hear the Dominican band playing it as they march by, raise your fist in the air and stomp your foot with the rest of the DHS alumnae in the crowd. A Toast of Praise to the school we love—Dominicans are we!
Purple, green, yellow, red, blue: whichever class color you are this year, it’s time for you and your friends to find bright, colorful costumes and dance your way into the Sr. Ambrose Reggio Gym. The Back-to-School Dance—or, as every DHS student calls it, the BTSD—is the event to attend. It’s so fun that you won’t even think twice about not bringing a date. Your best Dominican pals are all you need as you take in everyone’s creative costumes and dance, dance, dance until you think you can’t dance anymore. Ready for a break? Good, because it’s time for the costume contest! Whether you decide to watch from the bleachers or enter the competition, it’s the perfect way to kick off the school year. Usually held within the first couple weeks of school, the BTSD acts as the grand finale of Spirit Week. As an 8th grader, it’s your big debut to show the other grades your creativity and class spirit; as a senior, it’s a bittersweet night with friends, laughter, and the culmination of five years of BTSD memories. No matter what color you’re rocking, the BTSD is always one of the most anticipated events of the school year.
A week before the seniors receive their official class rings, members of the junior class make special “pom pom rings” to serve as placeholders for the real deal. Juniors sew white pom poms to black elastic and present them to the seniors during a special homeroom assembly. The junior student council performs a funny, heartwarming skit for the seniors that provides a retrospective of the graduating class’ years together. Pom pom rings are a uniquely Dominican tradition, one that unites the senior and junior classes as they begin their final year together. The bond between juniors and seniors runs deep—on Rally Day, you may even hear the classes cheering one another on with, “Pom Pom Sisters, We Love You!” Before the juniors know it, it will be their turn to slip on their pom pom rings as they embark on their senior journey.
“Turn my ring! Turn my ring!” As seniors in white graduation gowns and bright blue fuzzy slippers stampede past classrooms in St. Mary’s Hall, students and teachers wait patiently to turn their senior rings. From 8th grade to junior year, every Dominican student follows the same routine during her fourth class on a Friday in September: she follows her teacher and classmates to the hallway, stands in front of the lockers, and watches as seniors run through the halls, showing off their rings. As a senior, it’s finally your turn. You get to wear your white graduation gown and attend a Mass with your class and parents. You receive your shiny new senior ring, place it on your finger, and then, after dismissing from Mass, go straight to Siena, where you switch your white heels for something flashier. Fluffy slippers, sequined sneakers, blue-painted shrimp boots—the comfier the better as you prepare to race down the halls in search of your little sister, pom pom sister, favorite teachers, and friends. Maybe you want your ring turned the same number as your graduation year, or maybe you just want to get as many turns as you can. The choice is up to you. The beautiful thing about Ring Day is that, while it is the seniors’ big day, it’s also a day for the entire school community to join in celebration. For a Dominican alumna, it’s one of the most special and memorable days in her high school career.
Whether you’re an 8th grader, a new ninth grader, or a transfer student, one thing is for sure: the Dominican community wouldn’t be the same without you in it. That’s why every year, all new students are officially welcomed into the DHS community at Induction. While new ninth graders and transfer students attend with a student buddy, 8th graders join their senior big sisters in this special ceremony steeped in tradition. The ceremony, which celebrates Dominican’s rich heritage, culminates with the seniors lighting their little sisters’ candles, inviting them to carry on Dominican’s traditions throughout their five years on
Walmsley Avenue. After lighting their candles, all new students receive an official Dominican pennant and sing the Alma Mater with their Dominican sisters. At Induction, the past meets the present as we welcome the future of Dominican into our family. Just as our founders—seven brave sisters from Cabra, Ireland—journeyed to a new world with the promise of new experiences, so, too, do our new students, and the Dominican family is here to support and love them every step of the way.
Take the energy of a Saints playoff game, throw in a whole lot of pink and a heap of Dominican spirit, and you have the annual Pink Game. While many sports support breast cancer awareness throughout October, the volleyball team’s annual Pink Game is one of Dominican’s main events. In the weeks leading up to the Pink Game, the student council holds pep rallies to get the school pumped up with special performances by the cheerleaders, Debs, Color Guard, and band. The team also sells pink t-shirts for the big day, and students are allowed to wear them to school as well as to the game. As soon as the bell rings to end the school day, students pour out of the building and into the courtyard, where they put on pink face paint, pink tutus, and pink ribbons. The campus becomes the scene of a spirited tailgate party, with special snacks for sale, like snowballs and popcorn. The 8th grade and JV teams play first, and then the Varsity takes the court to show off their athletic prowess for their loyal Dominifans. Don’t let your school spirit stop there, though. Dominican has tons of sports that you can support, from swimming to softball to gymnastics, and every game is an exciting event. Before you know it, you’ll know every cheer. Go ahead and risk losing your voice from cheering so loudly. It’ll be worth it.
Sometimes, you just need to swap your saddle oxfords and plaid skirts for heels and satin. The annual winter dance, Neat-n-Sweet, is just the occasion to get into the holiday spirit while dancing the night away with your best friends. 9th-12th grades are invited to this dance (8th graders have their own special Christmas celebration), and each grade level elects two students (three for seniors) to the Neat-n-Sweet court. Nominees uphold the true spirit of Veritas, are helpful and friendly to everyone, and make her classmates proud as a representative of her class. Of course, she is also someone whose uniform always looks “neat and sweet.” The lucky court members receive flowers and recognition at the dance, and everyone who attends enjoys an elegant evening of fun before semester exams.
Explaining Rally Day to someone who has never experienced it is not an easy task, but anyone who has ever worn a headpiece and clapped on beat with her classmates to a two-minute skit totally gets it. Rally Day is a friendly competition where each grade level performs a skit based around a theme. While the majority of the class sits in the bleachers and sings the skit while performing hand motions, eight of their classmates—cheerleaders—perform a dance routine while a student mascot pantomimes and another student holds a handcrafted spirit stick. If all of this sounds completely confusing, don’t fret. Once you’re in the gym and experiencing it for yourself, it all makes so much sense. In fact, it feels like home.
Picture it: For months, you and your classmates prepare by writing the skit, practicing hand motions, painting posters, and hot gluing feathers to cardstock. You come to school on Rally Day, wearing your class color PE uniform and brimming with anticipation. The day begins with Mass as a school community. After Mass, you follow your classmates to your homeroom, and the preparations begin. Back in the gym, cheerleaders stretch and practice flips, mascots adjust their costumes, and spirit stick holders fix any last-minute details on their spirit sticks. In homeroom, you help a classmate French braid her hair while your homeroom teacher secures your cardboard headpiece with bobby pins. The room is a flurry of sounds: excited chatter, staplers snapping headpieces together, hands clapping as you practice your cheer one last time. Soon, it’s time to return to the gym, and you run with your classmates to your spots: 8th graders and freshmen in the freshman bleachers, sophomores and juniors in their grade level bleachers, and the seniors on the stage. Hanging from all corners of the gym are five posters, hand-painted by each grade’s student artists. As the festivities begin, the alumnae judges are introduced, and student coordinators open with a prayer. In a touching moment of tradition, the senior class coordinator passes the torch to the junior coordinator. Finally, the moment you’ve waited for: each grade level will perform its skit twice and play two rounds of relays. By the end of the day, your ears are ringing, and your headpiece might be hanging on by a lone staple from so much jumping, but you’ve had the time of your life.
A big part of Rally Day is, of course, the competition, and every grade level takes it very seriously. At its heart, though, Rally Day is about more than who wins poster or who can run a relay the fastest. The magic of Rally Day happens when, for two minutes, over one-hundred classmates become one, singing and moving in unison, working together to achieve a common goal. When you think about it, Rally Day isn’t really about competition at all. It’s about finding sisterhood, celebrating a diversity of talent, and sharing the love of being a Dominican student. It’s about the family you find within your high school halls and how that family changes you.
After the seniors graduate, there’s a change in the air. Suddenly, juniors seem like seniors, and the 8th graders and freshmen aren’t so little anymore. All things change, and at Dominican, we celebrate the transition from one grade level to the next with Bleacher Swap. Every grade level has a set of bleachers, and on Bleacher Swap, everyone moves to her new set of bleachers for the following year. 8th graders flood the freshman bleachers, decked out in green; freshmen wrap themselves in yellow tape and jump on the sophomore bleachers, ready to be that much closer to upperclassmen; sophomores arrive on campus in red sweaters and red lipstick, excited to finally have the junior bleachers for Rally Day; and the new seniors enter the gym with great fanfare, wearing blue t-shirts and cheering on the gym floor for the first time as the top dogs. Each grade level comes up with a short cheer that they perform for the rest of the classes, and afterwards students take photos in the courtyard in their new attire. As one era ends, another one begins, and Dominican celebrates it all.
Friendly competition doesn’t only happen on Rally Day. Throughout the year, grade levels can challenge each other to a Color Challenge! These events are held in homeroom and planned by the student council. Throughout the year, grade levels can earn “color challenge” points through these homeroom events as well as by participating in other events throughout the year.
Dominican Masses are a true celebration of the Eucharist as the Dominican community gathers in prayer and thanksgiving. The liturgical choir, Laudare, leads the school in song, and students serve as readers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, altar servers, and student preachers. One of the highlights of Mass is singing “Light the Fire.” Students stand and clap as they sing, radiating joyful praise. One of the most anticipated Masses is the Social Justice Awareness Mass, which kicks off the annual canned food drive. Each grade level works together to donate the most food to Second Harvest Food Bank, and there’s always a theme to encourage students to donate. Through their participation in school Mass and their generosity during events such as the canned food drive, Dominican students truly embody the pillars of prayer, community, and service.