The 2011-2012 school year has been an outstanding year for student achievement in the arts. Twenty students received awards at this year's Boston Globe Scholastic Art Competition. Please open the full story for a link to view artwork.

Congratulations to seniors Lea Cunningham and Gillian Pentheny who won double honors at music competitions this month. Lea and Gillian competed in the South Shore Conservatory Concerto Competition winning third and first place respectively. They also competed in the highly competitive All State Music Festival Auditions. Both girls earned seats in the All State Symphonic Band and will attend the festival in March which concludes with the concert at Symphony Hall.

It's not every day that you have the opportunity to speak to an actress from an Academy Award-winning film, but last Friday students in Ms. Rafferty's Theater classes met Erica McDermott of The Fighter and heard about her unlikely career in show business.

Isabella DiMare broke the freshman class record for the 55 meter dash (ran 7.50) as well for the 55 meter hurdles (school and freshman record). She is ranked number one in the state as a freshman, and ranked in the top five freshmen in the country. Amanda Reilly broke the 55 meter dash sophomore class and school record (ran 7.38). She is currently the number one ranked sophomore in the state and is ranked in the top 10 sophomores nationally.

The Robotics Team “Girls Like 'Bots” competed in the First Tech Challenge Massachusetts Qualifying Tournament at Boston University Academy. The team came in third place in the preliminary rounds and went on to advance to the semi-finals. The team received the Motivate Award for their spirit and efforts to motivate others in their community to participate in robotics.

NDA is well known for its excellence in athletics. We teach our young women that playing on a team is much more than the “win." So we are pleased to announce that NDA has won two sportsmanship awards: MIAA Sportsmanship Honor Roll and the Neil Singelais Award.