Like many eager young students, Tahirah will be starting college this September. Unlike most co-eds, however, she will be kicking off her college career just 18 months after arriving in the United States from her native Bangladesh with a ninth-grade education. Tahirah was 21 years old when she first set foot in the U.S. in January of 2024. Resolute in...Read more

by Sister Meg Umoh Ministering with the people of Sierra Leone, particularly among the youth at the University of Makeni as the head of the Public Health Department (HOD) and director of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education and Research, has filled my heart with deep affection for the people I work with and a sincere...Read more

Sister Joan Pikiell has begun her term as the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) representative to the United Nations. Her work will focus on bringing the urgent needs of the global community to the attention of UN member states and bringing the SSND charism and Gospel values to bear on the deliberations and decisions of the United Nations. Sister...Read more

Alumnae files from Academy of Our Lady (AOL), a Catholic girls’ school owned and operated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) for nearly 125 years, will be transferred this fall to the SSND North American Archives (NAA) in Milwaukee. The school, known informally as Longwood Academy from the name given to the area in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood where...Read more

On the morning of August 14, School Sisters of Notre Dame and members of the SSND staff from the Atlantic-Midwest and Central Pacific Provinces took part in a one-mile walk in prayer through downtown Atlanta. This group of SSND pilgrims joined several hundred Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) assembly participants, filling the streets with readings, songs, and silent contemplative...Read more

Two SSND-sponsored universities, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) in Baltimore and Mount Mary University (MMU) in Milwaukee, are collaborating to address staffing shortages in education with a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the universities that will allow students to transition seamlessly into advanced degrees. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to empowering students, supporting faculty, and creating a...Read more

Members of Dr. Margaret Flanagan’s lab, which continues work on the Nun Study at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s & Neurodegenerative Diseases, presented at the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) held July 27-31 in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Flanagan presented a new project that she co-leads called the Brain Digital Slide Archive (BDSA), which helps scientists share and study...Read more

SSND sisters, associates, ministry partners, and friends gathered on June 24 with individuals from religious congregations across the United States at the Sisters Speak Out Prayer and Public Witness Gathering at the U.S. Capitol. The focus of the event was to uplift Gospel values, challenge destructive policies, dispel disinformation, and embody compassion and hope. Participants prayed for justice for immigrants facing...Read more

On Scholars’ Day, May 7, 2025, visitors at Mount Mary University had an opportunity to play an alternative reality game that put together elements of an escape room and scavenger hunt. The game, developed by students in the advanced writing for new media class taught by Dr. Casey O’Ceallaigh, featured five “Spirits of SSND” who helped players advance through the...Read more

On November 11, 1962, Typhoon Karen devastated the island of Guam. Eleven people were killed, and 95% of homes were destroyed, leaving 45,000 people, mostly Guamanians, homeless. Fifty-three School Sisters of Notre Dame, eight postulants, and ten aspirants living in four locations on the island lived through the storm and recorded their experiences in letters, chronicle entries, oral histories, and...Read more