The following is an excerpt from “The Northeastern Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Wilton, CT, 1989-2005,” which was written in 2008 by Sister Kay O’Connell.
On the stationery of Holy Family School, Rochester, NY, seven sisters wrote to the provincial council on April 26, 2003. Sisters Evelyn Breslin, Janice Nadeau, Rita Marie Habecker, Lorraine Burns, Stephania Walczak, Mary Lou Brien and Mary Smith signed themselves the “Rochester committee for the Wilton corporate venture,” and proposed Lorraine Burns become the responsible person to carry out the preliminary work for the establishment of an urban center for underserved women and children, to be opened in January 2004.
Sister Lorraine left 17 years as principal of Holy Family School to devote herself, as coordinator, to finding a place for the new ministry and establishing it. As first, she worked from an office in St. Boniface School, through the courtesy of Sister Mary Smith, principal. In June 2004, Lorraine was joined by Sister Mary Louise Brien, who had left her ministry as remedial match and reading teacher at St. Joseph School in Penfield to become program director. A large, attractive room on the third floor of the Charles Settlement House, a private social service agency on 71 Parkway in Rochester, was located and made available on January 5, 2004.
The sisters determined through research in that area that women had local resources available to them, and that the greater need was for personalized tutoring for children who might be in danger of falling behind in reading and/or math, thus losing interest in school. One-on-one tutoring during afterschool hours, especially in language arts and math, became the focus of this new ministry.
On March 1, 2004, Notre Dame Learning Center opened its doors. In Fall 2005, Volume 1, Number 1 of its newsletter, edited by a volunteer named Joe Brown, described the opening:
“From its beginning with three young girls and one tutor, the Center has grown so that today over 100 children and three women have been tutored by SSNDs and over 30 other volunteers. Several of the tutors are from neighboring high schools, and the others are teachers, as well as retired men and women from all walks of life.”
The accompanying mission statement read in part: “Our mission is to unlock the reading and match ability of women and children, providing them with a key to their future.” A flyer later published read, “As educators, our mission is to provide educational opportunities for women and children in order to enable them to reach the fullness of their potential and become successful and productive citizens.”
The Center, by this time, had expanded to three rented rooms and was in the process of forming a board of directors. In Fall 2005, Sister Alma Caroline Staff brought the wealth of her previous teaching experience and became the third SSND on staff. The November 2005 Current newsletter included this description of the Center’s success:
…the Center continues to thrive. It serves 40 children from Catholic elementary and junior high schools, charter schools, and five women – all with the help of 32 tutor volunteers. We have a waiting list which is [serviced] as soon as another generous person volunteers to help us.
A good part of the Center’s success in attracting and retaining tutors was the training given to them. Staff members prepare detailed one-hour lesson plans and go over them carefully with each volunteer before he/she meets with the student. Thus, each volunteer who is not a professional teacher is enabled, made to feel confident and well prepared. No class time is lost, and SSND teaching standards are maintained. One gentleman in his 90s came for his lesson one day each week, and then met with his student on another day.
The Center was funded in the same way at the Notre Dame Educational Center in Queens, NY, with three grants from the province totaling $105,000. On December 5, 2005, just before the close of the Wilton province, the council sent a check for $10,000 “from funds designated for educational purposes.”
The Council letter continued, “As we close the Wilton province at the end of the calendar year, we are giving a gift in this amount to each of our four sponsored institutions: Holy Angels, Caroline House, the Educational Center in Queens, and the Learning Center in Rochester.
“Feel free to use this money in any way you think best to further the excellence in education that goes on day after day in the Learning Center. We are very proud of the work you are doing and wish the entire ND Learning Center community abundant blessings in 2006.”
Speaking in 2008, Sister Lorraine was convinced it was the blessing of Mother Theresa that has made the Center succeed. Each evening, she and Sister Stephania, with whom she lives in community, offer the Litany of Blessed Theresa for it. Lorraine believes that the seeds sown in Rochester in six schools by SSNDs in the 1850s and 60s are still growing. Their flourishing comes back to help the Center, as SSND graduates make donations and help in other ways, usually mentioning fondly some sister who had taught them.
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The Notre Dame Educational Center still survives today, although SSNDs are almost all gone from Rochester schools. If you would like to join the Rochester sisters in celebrating the 185th anniversary of their congregation’s founding, please click here to see the invitation.
The Center accepts PayPal donations at this link.
