Partners: School Sisters of Notre Dame

SSND History

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) was created to address the educational needs of women and children during the 19th century when Germany was in a time of poverty and political strife. As a result of these difficulties, children, primarily girls, were deprived of any type of formal education and as a result lived their lives as illiterate adults. To address these social and political issues, the School Sisters of Notre Dame was founded in 1833 by Caroline Gerhardinger (Mary Theresa of Jesus) to offer a remedy to the issues through the means of education. Caroline, along with the help of Father Michael Wittmann, took over the school and chose the Christian education of girls as the vital service her religious community would offer.

Today, while many of the sisters are still teachers, they do not all work in the classroom. Instead, they continue to focus on prayer, community life, ministry and education while spreading Jesus' message of love and unity throughout the world.

SSND Defining Characteristics

As a response to the call of Christ, SSND sponsored organizations pursue a Christian vision of what the human person is called to be. This is characterized by:

a conviction that educational excellence empowers those served to reach their full potential as individuals and enables them to direct their giftedness toward transforming the world;
a sense of responsibility for the world, especially the needs of women, youth , and other persons who are marginalized;
a commitment to work for unity in a divided world, unity that is evidenced by inclusivity, internationality, and community building at all levels;
openness to radical transformation, responding to issues of justice, peace, and integrity of creation, as well as to working for systemic change, as appropriate.

Sponsorship

As a sponsored organziation of SSND TYME OUT attempts to express and embody the defining characterisitics. We do so by:

Striving to help youth reach their full potential, created in God's image,
Sharing a sense of responsibility for the world particularly in caring for youth,
Being committed to healing a divided world by being open to all we serve, building community and serving a diverse population of youth
Working to radically transforming every person who participates in a TYME OUT retreat.

We treasure the charism and defining characteristics of SSND.

Other SSND Sponsored Organizations

The School Sisters of Notre Dame sponsor three organizations in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. They are Mount Mary University and Notre Dame Middle School.

For more information about the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province please visit www.ssndcentralpacific.org