The Mother Cabrini Center provides a pathway for International Religious Sisters to become teachers in Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. The Center is located on the first floor of Mount Sacred Heart School. Religious Sisters interact daily with students in the school and in the Mother Cabrini Center classroom!
“I would not be as prepared to be a teacher in the US without this program.”
-Sr. Manju Vettikkuzhiyil, Servants of the Poor, May 2022
Catholic schools have historically flourished under the wisdom, compassion, and leadership of our religious sisters. With a decline in the number of sisters available to teach in our schools, and a national teacher shortage, the Archdiocese of San Antonio has opened the Mother Cabrini Center to educate and train international Religious Sisters to teach in our classrooms.
“International Sisters of today followed in the footsteps of generations of sisters who preceded them, leaving their home countries to minister in new lands for the sake of the Gospel.”* The Religious Sisters in the Mother Cabrini Center bring to us their personal gifts and experience, the values of their cultures, and their charisms of their religious communities to enhance the beauty in becoming a teacher in a U.S. Catholic School.
Through the Mother Cabrini Program, Religious Sisters will be given the opportunity, through a three-phase model, to enter into a teacher formation program that will guide them to learn the American student and teach in an American Catholic School.
Within the Teacher Formation Program, the sisters will be guided by the Mother Cabrini Center Director through the details of each phase, including exposure to high-yield strategies, student interactions, guided lesson planning, teaching small/large groups, and so much more!
Participants will be accompanied by the MCC Director and other mentors throughout the the three-phase process The mentors will include a local religious to share the life of the global sisterhood. Participants will be asked to share their story to the Mount Sacred Heart school community, including the richness of culture, and the Catholic faith from their country of origin. Participants will begin a Teacher Formation Program that will offer support in language acquisition, academic knowledge, and teaching competencies. Sisters will begin experiencing a cultural encounter of the American student and gain an understanding of the diverse Church in the U.S. They will begin to see the pastoral vision of the Archdiocese of San Antonio and what it means to be a Catholic School Teacher in the United States.
Phase III participants are on track to be an independent teacher! Participants will be assigned a first-year teacher mentor as support. Religious Sisters will enter into a Ministry Agreement (teacher contract) in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. School and grade/subject level placement will be determined by interest, experience, and qualifications. Phase III first-year teachers will be provided continued guidance through the teacher formation program which will support professional educational practice. The MCC Director will serve as an instructional coach for the sister throughout this phase.
“I have already learned so much and I just arrived in May [2022].” – Sr. Josna Kurjur
St. Joseph of St.-Mark (SJSM), August 2022
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Archdiocese of San Antonio
2718 W. Woodlawn Ave., San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: 210-734-2620
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