When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August, 2005, and the 17th Street Canal levee gave way, the Lakeview community, home to Mount Carmel Academy, a 110-year-old girls’ high school with an enrollment of approximately 1,250 students, flooded. Many of Mount Carmel Academy’s teachers and students lost their homes. The school sat under six to ten feet of water for weeks.

Sister Camille Anne Campbell, Mount Carmel Academy’s president/principal, and Beth Ann Simno, the Academy’s vice-president, were in Atlanta attending a conference when Katrina struck. They immediately returned to New Orleans, knowing they needed to rebuild the Academy in order to continue their ministry of educating young girls and to serve as a catalyst to encourage the remainder of the community to also regroup and rebuild.

With the city’s water system shut down, an 800-foot well was drilled to supply the necessary water so the cleanup and rebuilding could begin. Thanks to the resilience, dedication, and hard work of the school’s leadership, alumnae, parents, and countless volunteers from around the country—and the water provided by the well—the school reopened on January 17, 2006, with more than eighty percent of the pre-Katrina enrollment in attendance.

Sister Camille Anne will explain how she and Beth Ann Simno coordinated the rebuilding of Mount Carmel Academy, demonstrating that with strength, determination, and teamwork, anything is possible, including bringing a community back to life.