May 3, 2022
7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
“As School Sisters of Notre Dame, we further Christ’s mission through our ministry as educators, drawing forth the full potential of others.” (from You Are Sent, the SSND Constitution, GD 31).
Women ages 18-45 are invited to this third of a three-part series about our call as educators and the educational vision that frames it. Part 3 will focus on our SSND educational vision as it relates to ministries around the globe. Hear from sisters native to Canada, Guam, Hungary, Mexico, Nigeria and the United States as they speak about service in their homelands and beyond. Bring your questions about our international congregation!
Sister Beatriz Martinez-Garcia was born and raised in Mexico and entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Dallas, Texas, professing vows in 1991. She has done pastoral ministry in parishes and dioceses in Arizona, Minnesota, and Texas. Currently, she represents the SSND NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) at the United Nations in New York.
Sister Mary Anne Owens has been a SSND for 58 years. She is originally from New York City where she lived with her three brothers and Irish immigrant parents; this influenced her ministry with the poor, immigrants and refugees wherever she missioned. Sister Mary Anne served as a Catholic school principal and as Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Dallas. She has lived in the Dallas area since 1973, except for ministries in Lafayette, Louisiana, and St. Louis, Missouri, when she served for eight years as provincial leader and traveled internationally in this role. She returned to Dallas in 2019 where she is currently on the Board of Directors for Cristo Rey High School and serves as President of the Board for Catholic Housing Initiative (CHI), a non-profit that provides affordable housing for seniors, families and homeless.
Sister Paulina Raymond is originally from the small island of Tamatam, in the Federated State of Micronesia. Within the past ten years, she has been on the island of Guam ministering in private and now in public school as an elementary teacher. In 2018, she took care of a two-day old unwanted baby for almost six weeks in the convent. During the early months of Covid-19, she stood on the roadside distributing hard copies of schoolwork and hot lunches for students and at the same time teaching online. Within the past year, besides teaching and community time, she became a seamstress, sewing and selling skirts to collect money for a new church and shelter for the people on Onoun Island.
Sister Yvonne Nosal, originally from Canada, has served in many roles in Latin America since 1976, mainly in Peru but also in Bolivia and Brazil. For 10 years, she worked in northern Peru as Coordinator and then Directress for 30 schools in the Rural Education Program. Over the years she returned to serve in Canada a few times, and even served at the Generalate in Rome for five years. She is currently involved in pastoral ministry and catechetics in Lomas Altas, Jicamarca, Lima, Peru. In 2023, Sister Yvonne will celebrate her 60th Jubilee as an SSND!
Sister M. Fidelis Nyul entered the congregation in 1999, professing final vows in 2008. After completing her studies, she spent a year in The Gambia, West Africa, where she taught nursery school and worked with the children at the parish. She then spent four years in Budapest, Hungary, and nine years in Makó, Hungary, teaching kindergarten and primary grades. In 2019, she went to Lima, Peru, as a missionary, working with the children there along with sisters from many other countries. In 2021, she returned to Makó (near the Romanian and Serbian border) to teach again and help the migrants from Ukraine.
Sister Nentaweh Wakger is celebrating her 25th year as a SSND! Nigerian by birth, she entered the novitiate and professed her vows in Ghana in 1997. After studying in Kenya, she has served in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Rome, South Sudan, then back to Kenya where she is currently serving in Nyalienga. She was the first sister from Africa to serve in the SSND Generalate in Rome. “These experiences have encouraged me to be more generous with my responses to the signs of our time and to the needs of the congregation,” said Sister Nentaweh.
Sister Monika Ulrik was born in Hungary in 1963. She joined SSND in 1982 and made her first profession in 1984. She participated in God’s mission through several ministries: education, community services, leadership and coordination of the events of the Year of the Consecrated Life in Hungary. The life of the international congregation is very present in her heart. She is presently a novice director for SSND in Rome, Italy.
Sister Mara Frundt was born and raised in Minnesota. Her early education was from SSND and from childhood she desired to love and serve in other cultures, specifically Africa. She joined SSND in 1966 at 18 years of age. After her college studies, teaching for four years and making her vows for life to God in SSND, she was missioned to East Africa in 1974, serving in Kenya 32 years and in Ghana for four years. She is presently a novice director for SSND in Rome, Italy.
> Watch the recordings of Transformative Education, Parts 1 and 2.
SSND Transformative Education Around the Globe
The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) invite women ages 18-45 to an online presentation Tuesday, May 3 at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT to learn about the SSND educational vision as it relates to ministries around the globe. Hear from sisters native to Canada, Hungary, Mexico, Micronesia, Nigeria and the U.S. who minister in Italy, Guam, Kenya, Peru and at the United Nations. Bring your questions about our international congregation! For more information and registration, visit ssnd.org/events/5-3-22.