SSNDs connect their experience with "He Named Me Malala" screening
During a campus screening of “He Named Me Malala” Monday night, the themes of transformation and education resonated with audience members, who connected strongly with this message.
The documentary was shown in preparation for a campus visit Tuesday, March 28 by the co-founder of the Malala Fund, Shiza Shahid. She will present the keynote address at the University’s Voices of Leadership event. (Note: this event is open to the public).
A number of School Sisters of Notre Dame attended the event. Afterwards, they shared their impressions in a discussion session with students, faculty and staff.
“For me I felt a connection,” said Sister Comfort Anum, SSND, who is from Nigeria. She said that in Nigeria, she encountered parents resistant to educating their daughters. As a sophomore studying early childhood education at Mount Mary, she opposes this mindset.
“You can choose to stay silent or to speak,” she said. “I stand for the truth.”
A number of SSNDs drew the parallel between Malala’s mission and the SSND Constitution, titled “You are Sent.”
“We are called to the transformation of society not by doing, but by being,” said Sister Sharon Roedl, SSND.
She said this means living the spirit of the mission shared by the SSNDs and Mount Mary, founded and operated by the SSNDs.
“We are called to be present, not just by doing, but also by being,” Roedl said.
The 3,000 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame are active in 30 countries around the world. The School Sisters of Notre Dame founded Mount Mary in 1913; it is the first four-year, degree-granting Catholic institution for women in Wisconsin.
SSND Constitution, “You Are Sent”
"Urged by the love of Christ, we choose to express our mission through ministry directed toward education. For us, education means enabling persons to reach the fullness of their potential as individuals created in God’s image and assisting them to direct their gifts toward building the Earth. Like Mother Theresa, we educate with the conviction that the world can be changed through the transformation of persons. Thus, our ministry demands a Christian vision of what the human person is called to be and what the world is destined to become."
