By Sister Carole Shinnick, SSND, Council Contact for Caroline House
I am a product of 12 years of education by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, as was my mother before me. Some of my teachers had been my mother’s teachers, which had its own challenges. My music teacher never tested me for voice and said I was an alto because my mother had been. Years later I found out I was a soprano after trying to sing low for much of my non-illustrious music career.
After my first profession and with very little education in pedagogy, I was sent out to teach the seventh grade – all subjects included.
I had a wonderful, patient teaching partner who mentored me in everything from SRA Reading Programs to tracking weekly milk money payments. I will be forever grateful for her mentoring.
After eleven years of teaching, and at a time when we were being encouraged to expand our experience of ministry, I left formal teaching and took a position as a caseworker at Catholic Charities in Newark. My supervisor there was a seasoned social worker whose career was spent at Catholic Charities. I was doing case studies for couples hoping to adopt what were unfortunately called “hard-to-place children.” Marcie, my supervisor, was wonderful - incredibly supportive and affirming. In fact, I soon realized that no principal had ever affirmed my efforts in twelve years as Marcie had in my first months as a case worker.
I never returned to teaching. I went to St. Louis University to earn a master’s degree in social work. I have ministered in a wide series of wonderful settings where my experience as an educator enriched my practice of social work. In retrospect, I see that no matter my job title, I have been an educator in all I did.
Key among my mentors for whom I am eternally grateful was my first and only seventh-grade teaching partner, Sister Joselle, and Marcie Meehan, my supervisor at Catholic Charities. They both taught me the value of patience, seeing potential in someone even when she does not see it in herself, and of the preciousness of expressed appreciation.
A former secondary school teacher and clinical social worker, Sister Carole served as a Provincial Councilor for 8 years in Wilton, CT.
After serving in initial formation, she was appointed Executive Director of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious (LCWR) and served for 6 years. Since 2008, she has been a consultant and facilitator, specializing in meetings, chapters of election and affairs, and team-building for leaders of religious communities of women.
