Who We Are Wednesdays: Educators in All We Do

School Sisters of Notre Dame are "Educators in All We Do." The Second Vatican Council called all communities of women and men religious to go back to their roots and reinvigorate their way of living out the vows within their particular charism. For the SSNDs, this led the community to several important conclusions and to changes. One of these was that the community's work of education, with a focus on educating girls in order to empower them to better their lives and the lives of their communities, could be accomplished outside the traditional classroom as well as within it. Since then, School Sisters of Notre Dame have been ministering as educators by a variety of means and in very diverse settings. Some SSNDs still teach in classrooms, from preschool through graduate school. Others run ESL programs for recent immigrants, retreat centers, and pastoral counseling practices. Some coordinate programs that seek to promote peace, justice, and the integrity of creation. There are SSNDs who are doctors, dentists, and lawyers, and even one who serves as the community's representative to the United Nations (the SSNDs are an officially recognized UN-NGO - more on that later!). In all of these and many other ministries, School Sisters of Notre Dame are "Educators in All We Do."