EDUCATION IN THE VISION OF THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION COMMENTARY:

1.EDUCATION IN THE VISION OF THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME

Subtitle: Our Story, Mission, CharismOur Educational Heritage, Vision, and Principles

2.WOMEN ON MISSIONThe story of the Sisters of Notre Dame begins in mid 1800’s with two young women, Hilligonde Wolbring and Elisabeth Kuhling, in Coesfeld, Germany. These young teachers met and became friends when they were teaching at a parish school in Coesfeld, Germany. Hilligonde Wolbring was originally from Holland. She was orphaned as a young child and came to live with her aunt and uncle in Germany. She actually wanted to be a missionary, but was persuaded by her family to serve local needs. Elisabeth was a dedicated teacher at the school. Both women were educated at the same TeacherTraining School which followed the educational philosophy and spirituality of its founder, Fr. Bernard Overberg.

3.SANDWICHPICTUREThe story goes…that Hilligonde shared a sandwich with a young child who had none and from that experiencecame to the realization that she wanted to do more than just teach. Having been an orphan herself, she wanted to care for orphans and children in need.She shared this desire with her friend Elisabeth who responded with “Let me help you.” So, they joined forces to teach and care for young children.

This picture is known as the “Sharing a Sandwich” picture.

4.MAP & STATUEThe two women, Hilligonde and Elisabeth, went to their parish priest, Fr. Theodor Elting, to discuss their ideas of taking in children. Through the discussions, Fr. Elting suggested to them that they consider making their work more permanent by establishing a religious community. Part of the impetus for the suggestion was that Bishop wanted a religious community for that area and in his diocese, since there no longer was one. Hilligonde and Elisabeth were open to the suggestion. So, the first seeds of the community were planted.

The map gives an idea of where Coesfeld is in Germany. The other 2 cities indicated here, Vechta & Muelhausen, are the two other cities where we have roots in Germany. The statue in Toledo is another portrayal of Hilligonde and Elisabeth.

5.FIVE PICTURESThis is our founding “circle” for the Sisters of Notre Dame. Top row—in the middle is Fr. Elting; to the right, Hilligonde Wolbring; to the left, Elisabeth Kuhling. Second row—the two who provided the basis for the religious community: St. Julie Billiart from whom we gained our formation in religious life and spirituality; Fr. Bernard Overberg from whom we gained our formation as Catholic educators with pedagogy and spirituality interwoven. More on Julie & Overberg a little later.

6.MAP: AMERFOORT & COESFELD As said earlier, encouraging these two women to add structure and permanence to their work was the local parish priest, Fr. Theodor Elting. He looked for a community that would match the spirit and direction they had. So, he connected these women to the Sisters of Notre Dame ofAmersfoort, The Netherlands. These Sisters of Notre Dame of Amersfoorthad received their training, spirit and rule of life from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, founded by St. Julie Billiart in France in 1804. Their charism of witnessing to God’s goodness, echoing the mantra of St. Julie Billiart “How good is the dear good God”, fit well with the spirituality Hilligonde and Elisabeth had embraced. Themain work on which St. Julie Billiart founded her community, the education of poor children, especially young girls, also matched the plan of Hilligonde and Elisabeth. So, several sisters traveled from Amerfoort to Coesfeld to give Hilligonde and Elisabeth their initial training as religious sisters. The two became novices on October 1, 1850, now celebrated as Foundation Day. Hilligonde became Sr. Maria Aloysia and Elisabeth became Sr. Maria Ignatia.

Because of the nationalism of the time and the desire of the Bishop to have the sisters based in Coesfeld, Germany, it seemed in everyone’s best interests to establish a separate religious community. Thus the Sisters of Notre Dame of Coesfeld, Germany began. They continued to grow as a religious community and as educators, expanding to 11 sisters and 22 novices with schools, orphanages, and a Teacher Training Program by 1855, when they became an independent religious community.

7.GERMANY TO AMERICAIn 1874, arriving in New York on July 4,nine sisters came to the United States because the Kulterkampf in Germany prevented them from carrying on their work as religious educators. So, after 20 years of growing as a religious community, establishing religious schools and training teachers in Germany, they established themselves in the USA.

8.IN CLEVELANDSix settled in Cleveland, OH at the invitation of the Bishopand three went on toCovington, KY at the invitation of Bishop Tebbe, who had a sister in the congregation. Within the next four years two hundred sisters came from Germany to teach children of immigrants. By 1924, they expanded to establish separate provinces or centers, in Covington, KY (1924) and Toledo, OH (1924). In 1960, the Cleveland province moved its center to Chardon, OH. Then the fourth US province was established in 1961 in Los Angeles, CA, and is now located in Thousand Oaks, CA. The sisters tended to be in schools that were part of parishes. Because that was the usual set-up in Germany, they expected the same kind of connections in the USA.

Go through the dates listed on the slide.

(Add dates of founding, etc. relevant to the audience.)

9.IN USAWe have four provinces with this number of sisters in each one.

The sisters are connected to these provinces as home bases, but minister in many different places and states.

In education, we have a group known as the Sisters of Notre Dame National Education Partnership to support ND education in schools where we minister. One part of this organization includes the schools sponsored by the SNDs. These are schools we once owned and operated and are now separately incorporated with governing boards. We make sure that we have a lot of connection to these schools. In Cleveland, we sponsor the only SND college in the congregation. In Kentucky, we also sponsor a medical center and a nursing care center.

10.AFFILIATED SCHOOLSAlso part of this partnership are schools which are parish schools or high schools which the sisters staffed and often even started when the parish started. These schools, while we never owned them, have a long history of Notre Dame education. There may or may not be any sisters at these schools anymore but the staff has embraced Notre Dame education and remains connected with us. This list represents the number of schools that have actually joined the Partnership at this time.

We also have sisters in many other ministries where they can bring, in their own way, the values of Notre Dame education.

11.THROUGHOUT THE WORLD Today, with headquarters in Rome, Italy, the Sisters serve God’s people in 18 countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mozambique, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, South Korea, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam.

12.2010 Here is where we stand today—about 2200 sisters throughout the world engaged in a variety of ministries and touching the lives of thousands of people. Now, the Sisters and their colleagues minister in many ways to youth, to the poor, to the elderly, to the dying, but education in some form continues to underlie all that they do.

13.OUR CHARISMThe impetus for our lives and ministries, which is called CHARISM, comes from our founding women. St. Julie Billiart profoundly experienced God’s Goodness and continually expressed “How good is the good God” throughout her life. Hilligonde and Elisabeth resonated with this experience as they were trained in religious life. They added their experience of God’s loving and provident care, strengthened in their Overberg training. So, as SNDs of Coesfeld, we reflect on and WITNESS TO God’s Goodness AND Provident Care in our lives.

(Share—or not--understanding of witness—I used Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James and story of my niece & gift.)

14.OLD & NEW CLASSROOM An important emphasis in the early days of the congregation was the training of the sisters as teachers in the Overberg philosophy. That is where Hilligonde and Elisabeth began and also wasthe focus of St. Julie Billiart who said that education was “the most important work on earth”. Education has been at the heart of the SND community from its beginnings. Especially as the sisters came to the United States and grew in membership, becoming strong educators was an important part of their training.

15.FIVE PICTURES & NAMES So, again we look at the “founding circle”. These 2 women, Hilligonde, Sr. Maria Aloysia, and Elisabeth,Sr. Maria Ignatia, had strong influences on the dual commitments they made as both religious sisters and educators. As teachers, both of them were formed in the educational pedagogy including a deep spirituality at the school of Reverend Bernard Overberg, who established teacher training in the 1780’s.

Then, Fr. Theodor Elting became a catalyst in the founding of a new religious community. Through his encouragement, they began formation in religious life with the SNDs of Amersfoort, who were an independent offshoot of the SNDs of Namur, Belgium, founded by St. Julie Billiart, in 1804. From these influences, they developed their own rule or direction for living religious life.

There are whole stories on each person pictured here which can be part of future presentations, but for now we are concentrating on their part in education.

16.OVERBERG LEGACY Fr. Bernard Overberg had developed his educational philosophy and pedagogy as a result of his own inability to learn when he was a child and, consequently, his inability to teach in the traditional manner of the day. His educational philosophy was coupled with a spirituality focused on living life to the fullest by trusting in a provident and caring God and projecting this to the students as they were being taught.

17.MINISTRY OF TEACHERS For Overberg, the teacher was the key to the success of the student. He expected teachers to high professional and moral standards, but always with love for the children.

18.OVERBERG CLASSROOM This kind of classroom atmosphere is significant and was radical when Overberg promoted it. Most learning was recitation. As recent as within the last 10 years, Sr. Regina Alfonso who is a retired professor from Notre DameCollege went to our school in Africa to teach teachers how to teach. They were still doing rote memorization and recitation of what the teacher was teaching.

19.BILLIART LEGACY A contemporary of Overberg in France, Julie Billiart started as a child herself teaching bible stories to children. This turned into catechetics as time went on. Her educational focus is comparable to that of Overberg. The young community of Coesfeld got from her through the community ofAmersfoort, independence from being in one diocese, under one bishop or in one country. Julie herself moved her community headquarters from France to Belgium to keep governance within the community of sisters and not with the bishop.

20.WOLBERG LEGACY Hilligonde Wolbring, Sr. Maria Aloysia, brought together both of those influences and carried them out in her own quiet way in teaching and caring for children. She was never a major superior in the community. She came to the USAin 1874, volunteered to stay even when some sisters returned to Germany,and died here in 1889. She is in a common grave in St. JosephCemetery in Cleveland, OH.

The cross in this picture is the Coesfeld cross. It is in the parish church where the first sisters prayed. It is a significant symbol for the congregation.

21.EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE Mother Mary Vera, an American who was the general superior of the whole congregation, called for an educational institute in 1950, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the community. She had the insight to realize that a formalization of the educational philosophy needed to occur. The sisters needed to put into words and writing all that was being passed down by word-of-mouth tradition and mentoring of teachers. There also needed to be ways of assessing our education.

22.CORNERSTONES These Cornerstones of Education were the fruit of this conference, though these actual phrases were made popular at a later time. You may be more or less familiar with them in this form, though the concepts should not be unfamiliar in your educational venue. They basically lasted as such for 50 years.

23.IEC, 2007 In January, 2007, Sr. Mary Sujita, the general superior of the whole congregation, opened the International Education Conference with the words written here. By the 2007 conference, the community had branched to 10 more countries. All countries were represented, sharing their educational issues and needs. It was found that the USA was the strongest in promoting the four cornerstones. It was also found that “cornerstone” was not meaningful for many of the countries now. After the conference, all were invited to give feedback on the results of the conference and eventually a final form of expressing our Notre Dame education in the 21st century came into being.

24.EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES The following statements are the renewed response and commitment of not only the sisters, but all who embrace and carry out Notre Dame Education.

You can see the connection to the 4 cornerstones in concept, but the new language broadens them and expresses the direction, especially toward social justice, that we have been living out in more recent years.

25.EDUCATIONAL VISIONAlso accompanying these principles is the Educational Vision. Take a moment to read and reflect on.

(Depending on what else you are doing with the group, i.e. giving the booklets out in another session, let them give impressions here or say more will be done with this later.)

26.SND NATIONAL EDUCATION OFFICEIn order to support our schools as they integrate Notre Dame Education, the four provinces in the USA established a national education office. This office works with all the schools in the Partnership, both sponsored and affiliated, and administers the Distinguished Graduate Award Program, in which many schools participate. There is a website that is a work in progress as we continue to add more information and support materials.

(If connected to the Internet, click on the link to the website. The password for the Resources section is “coesfeld” small “c” ).

You can see the members listedwith links to their school websites and find some symbols and more extensive background information. Keep checking back often and use the contact ability to ask questions and/or offer suggestions for what would be helpful.

27.OUR CHALLENGE As we all continue in this great work of education, our challenge is to appreciate what came before and to shape our education for today’s students and needs.

28.THANK YOU(Allow them to read the slide themselves as it unfolds.) For anyone in education, but especially in a Catholic school, teaching is not just at a job. We so appreciate your commitment to your school. Something at your school strikes a chord in you, resonates with you and lets you know this school is the right fit. So, together we support each other in any way we can to bring the students we work with in so many ways to grow into their best selves. THANK YOU.

A few notes:

--The arrow indicates a need to click for next info on slide to appear.

--With personal comments interspersed, this is probably about 45 minutes in length.

--As long as the screen is readable to all, people appreciate NOT being read to when they can read the screen themselves.

--Slide #8—adjust to your venue. Use dates from your province if significant to the group; add the founding dates of the school and/or other significant dates to the group.

--Other places—exchange pictures for those relevant to your school.

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