Next spring, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) Women’s Leadership Luncheon will recognize and celebrate all women as educators. Attendees will listen to the perspectives of women who through their careers and by their example educate and lead in both their personal and professional lives.

SSND are no doubt included in the category of professional educators. The congregation’s long held and esteemed reputation as teachers and classroom educators is undeniable. Many sisters dedicated decades as teachers, principals and professors from preschool through the university level.

“In a certain sense, I have always thought of myself as a teacher,” said Sister Mary Anne Schaenzer. Sister Mary Anne, a 2025 Jubilarian, taught primary grades for many years, followed by time as a hospice chaplain and now working as an editor for Pentecost Today magazine. “Even as a child, when we played school in our neighborhood, I was often the teacher.”

As teachers, SSND bring a special life and creativity. Sister M. Cabrini Bongivanni, for example, enlivened education by including puppetry, magic, music and art into her lessons. In addition, as an international congregation, SSND offer a world view to their students, with some even embarking on ministries teaching in other countries.

It is worthwhile to consider, however, the way many SSND minister as educators without ever stepping into a classroom. Within the congregation’s history and current members, there are sisters who are doctors, nurses, authors, artists, lawyers, advocates, spiritual directors, retreat leaders, homemakers, caretakers and more. Each of these roles presents their own opportunities for teaching. Whether compassionately guiding a patient through a treatment or explaining their care plan or helping to inspire and enlighten a retreat attendee, SSND are educators at their core, no matter where they are or how they are serving.

“I have taught on spiritual topics. I have taught items related to being a hospice volunteer. I have taught about grief. I have taught in Bible Study,” said Sister Mary Anne. “As SSND, we continue to teach, even outside of the classroom. Especially, any of us may have experienced something ourselves and then have the privilege of helping another to understand what it is that they may be experiencing for the first time. Or we may walk with another, navigating a new path. As teachers, we often teach just in the way that we explain something.”

“Since the majority of our sisters are retired, our educational endeavors are as volunteers, tutors, board members, committee members and participants in advocacy efforts which always include education as a transformative process,” said Sister Kathleen Storms.

“As a community organizer, my work has been to engage mosques, churches, synagogues and other religious communities in social change work in their communities,” said Sister Barbara Pfarr. “I train leaders in those institutions to identify common community problems. I then help them to research to learn who has the authority to correct the problem, devise a strategy and narrative to convince that public official that it is in his/her best interest to correct the problem, plan a public meeting with that person, and fill the meeting room with members of the congregations that raised the initial problem. We don’t generally meet in classrooms, but we educate many people on a variety of levels.”

“Formal education in elementary schools was my focus and involvement for the first 20 years after graduating from Notre Dame College,” said Sister Joan DiProspere. “During those years I realized that being an educator was not just in a classroom but anywhere.  How I relate to others, how others see me relating to others is my ministry of education wherever I am, in whatever I am engaged in.”

“Teaching is a gift that we continue to receive and continue to offer to others,” said Sister Mary Anne.

We invite you to join us at next year’s Women’s Leadership Luncheon to consider the ways SSND, and all women, are educators.

Find the Women’s Leadership Luncheon nearest you and learn more about each speaker