Rose the Rebel comes to Notre Dame

By Maria LeDoux  

CFP intern  

Is it a golden retriever? Is it a sunflower? These were just two of the guesses that Notre Dame Academy students had when anticipating the arrival of their new mascot. No, it’s Rose the Rebel – a roughly six-foot-tall girl with green and gold hair, sporting an NDA athletic uniform.  

Notre Dame Academy has always been home to the Rebels; however, the institution never had a physical mascot. That all changed on March 4, during a celebration to unveil the long-anticipated Rose the Rebel. The idea of Rose came about in 2021 as a part of a strategic plan for the all-girls, private, Catholic middle/high school. According to Lisa Mancini, NDA’s head of school, the strategic plan was “designed to guide, reimagine, and strengthen NDA’s impact on the lives of our students, we challenged ourselves to bring the NDA Rebel to life.”   

     The 11-month long process of creating Rose necessitated much thought and creativity on the part of the working group consisting of Mrs. Mancini, Caitlyn German, athletic director; Caitlin Lubelczyk, director of marketing and admissions; Susan Butler, principal, and Kate Pagano, a 2010 alumna and member of the marketing and development committee of the NDA board of trustees and account director at Pagano Media.     

     The name of the new mascot was first discussed with students, alumnae, trustees, and the NDA diversity, equity and inclusion committee. Rose is named after Marie-Rose Julie Billiart, later known as St. Julie Billiart – the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the religious group that founded Notre Dame Academy. St. Julie was her own kind of rebel, she came to know the Catechism by heart at 7 and took the time to explain it to others. Also, during the French Revolution she housed priests fleeing from danger. St. Julie was paralyzed from a young age and remained that way for 30 years. In 1804, one year after founding the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, she was healed of her paralysis. St. Julie is often depicted with a sunflower as she said, “Be like the sunflower that follows every movement of the sun, and keep your eyes always turned towards our good God."  

Despite the inability of a mascot to speak, Mrs. Mancini stated that the goal of Rose was “to be a significant storyteller of the NDA brand. We wanted to create a tangible representation of the NDA Rebel spirit in an original way.”  

When researching the perfect mascot, the working group found that there were not very many female mascots. As Mrs. Mancini said when addressing the Notre Dame community that the only option then, in true NDA spirit, was to “rebel” from the norm.   

Mrs. Mancini stated, “With overwhelming support to embrace the NDA Rebel, we began to brainstorm about characteristics of the Rebel. We researched mascots, especially females, and their characteristics … and envisioned how we could manifest a physical being that conveyed our mission, vision, tone, and colors. 

“Working with Pagano Media and ProMo Costumes we began the process to bring her to life in sketch format,” she said. “With many iterations to alter features and her outfit we knew when we finally had the female Rebel mascot that represents the NDA Rebel and moved to fabrication.”   

     At the unveiling, students dressed in green and gold, holding signs and waving glow sticks, flooded the gymnasium, along with faculty and staff. Mrs. Mancini spoke of the characteristics needed of a good NDA mascot. She exclaimed that Rose “is a leader, a challenger, an innovator, a change agent, a hard worker, a risk-taker, and a collaborator. She is strong, respectful, colorful, open-minded, generous, confident, purposeful, inspirational, results-oriented, and fierce … A Rebel is kind and authentic.”  

When asked how they felt about a new mascot, two seventh-graders, in unison, said “It is awesome!” 

Paula Isakson, the religious studies lead, director of campus ministry, and the director of the middle school, said that when she looks at the mascot, she “sees any one of our students. I love that she is human … Rose embodies our mission at NDA to be a spiritual seeker, a compassionate global citizen, and a lifelong learner.” 

“A Rebel spurs excitement, seeks out novel ideas, and embodies a vision that others find inspiring. A Rebel generates the friction needed to find new ways of doing things that often lead to needed change. She understands the ‘what’ but digs deeper to uncover the ‘why,’” Mrs. Mancini said during her speech.    

The first action Rose the Rebel took was one of service to the Worcester Boys & Girls Club with a donation of books. A key component of NDA’s curriculum is service work exemplified in the junior and senior “Love in Action” projects.   

During the celebration Rose was also joined by local Worcester-area mascots, including Smiley from the Worcester Red Sox, Arthur from the Worcester Pirates, Jake from the Worcester Bravehearts, AMCAT from Anna Maria College, and the Pioneer from St. John’s High School.   

Mrs. Mancini concluded by saying, “Although Rose the Rebel has long lived in the hearts of NDA community members, she is now a physical representation of our community and will serve to inspire the NDA mission and vision for years to come.”