BELIEVE. Conference 2025

Students of IHA recently attended our BELIEVE. Conference at Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg, NJ on August 6-8, 2025. This year’s theme was, “Beloved, you belong.” As part of this theme of being rooted in the identity of being a daughter of God, students were reminded that they belong where God has placed them, and that IHA continues to make our school a place where everyone knows they belong to our amazing community of sisterhood.

At this year’s conference, students celebrated this sisterhood and participated in prayerful reflection, inspiring discussions, and so much more! Over the course of three days, students strengthened their relationship with God through prayer and thought-provoking workshops. They attended Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, listened to touching guest speakers, and of course, took advantage of the beautiful facilities at Crystal Springs Resort.

Part of the BELIEVE. Conference included a special dinner that focused on the gifts of community and sisterhood. Students decorated a gift bag with their name on it so that their fellow sisters could write a note describing the amazing gifts and talents they see in their sister. By the end of the weekend, everyone had a bag full of affirmations! Another favorite activity was teaming up with prayer partners. Each student received a prayer partner to keep in mind and pray for throughout the weekend in private. The students also made a friendship bracelet with a word that described a gift they saw in their prayer partner. At the end of the weekend, all the students traded bracelets with their partners as a way to reveal who they had been praying for and to celebrate the ways in which they each share their gifts with the IHA community.

Another favorite activity at the conference was the Sisterhood Circle, which is meant to provide the students with a space to verbally affirm each other. Students volunteer to enter the center of a circle to call out the good that they see in a specific sister. According to Emily Ash ’19, theology teacher and service coordinator at IHA, “It is so beautiful to witness our students embrace the theme of BELIEVE. and be so eager to carry all that they have experienced back to IHA. By embracing this message and their identity as beloved daughters, our students continue to create a culture of belonging at IHA. Whether it is praying for their friends, making friendship bracelets, or just encouraging each other — students not only know they belong, but strive to ensure their sisters know the same.”

Another captivating part of the conference was the keynote speeches from Emily Ash ‘19; Veronica Marrinan, co-founder and creative director of Litany NYC, a Catholic fashion company; Ms. Nicole Clermont, theology teacher at IHA; and Mrs. Lauren Meyers, theology chair and teacher at Marian High School in Indiana and former teacher at IHA.

Mrs. Meyers spoke to students about this year’s BELIEVE. Conference theme, “Your identity as beloved is not a prize that you win by your own righteousness. It’s not a status that you achieve. It is a gift of the Father who delights in you, who even in your failures is not just patient with you, but is pleased with you.”

Thank you to the IHA administration and Ms. Emily Ash ’19 for this inspiring Gospel-centered weekend! We are also grateful for the many chaperones and keynote speakers who devoted their time to help foster this amazing community of sisters.

Click here for a photo album from the event.