We are delighted to welcome senior Ashley T. back to Ursuline. Ashley spent the last year as an exchange student in Muscat, Oman where she was one of only 50 American students given a scholarship by the US Department of State to spend a year in a country where Arabic is the primary language.
Humble by nature, Ashley tells us that she is not yet totally fluent in Arabic but is "proficient." She strengthened her language skills by living with a host family and by making friends with local students at The Sultan School, an IB (International Baccalaureate) and British school which she describes as a very close knit community. Like Ursuline, students wear a uniform at the Sultan school, but, in keeping with the cultural norms of Oman, it is a more modest uniform with long sleeves and a long navy jumper.
While in Oman, Ashley lived with a family of 10 children (wow!), a father who is a lawyer and a mother who owns her own tailoring business. Ashley's actual mother is a flight attendant so Ashley was somewhat accustomed to being away from her mother which was helpful during the many months that she was so far away from home. She had also travelled a lot with her mother in the past so she was already a seasoned traveler when she went to Oman. Ashley tells us that another big factor on her decision to be an exchange student was her experience as an Ursuline delegate. As a freshman and a sophomore, Ashley travelled to China and to Chile with Ursuline. Those short exchanges gave Ashley confidence in her abilities to live in another culture and inspired her to select a longer, more independent experience as a personal challenge.
Now Ashley is back in Dallas and is once again enjoying the company of her old friends and the rhythm of intense academic focus at Ursuline. Still, she misses the delicious multicultural foods of Oman (curries, rices and so much more) and the social aspect of being in a small class of 40 at the Sultan school. We at Ursuline are greatly enriched by Ashley's presence. We are looking forward to hearing more from her and to seeing her display of photos from Oman on Global Celebration Day.
Like all of our seniors, Ashley is contemplating her next steps. She hopes to study abroad again during her college years and may attend a university abroad full time. Ashley is also considering options for a gap year that would take her both to new lands and to new places in the USA. As a true young woman of Serviam, she now wants to find an experience (or experiences) that will allow her to give back even more to the community. We look forward to following Ashley's future and we know that she will be a success wherever her path may go!
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