Threshold - Winter 2005

Missionaries to the Heartland: St. Andrew's, Tecumseh, Nebraska
by Antonia Ryan, OSB

In the small town of Tecumseh, Nebraska, two sisters from Mount St. Scholastica are practicing their Spanish.

Sisters Mary Ann Dice and Mary Ellen Auffert have been teaching at St. Andrew’s parish school in Tecumseh since the fall semester began in August 2004. They teach 30 children now — there were 17 when they started — spanning from preschool to sixth grade. All the children come from immigrant families; most students’ parents work at the chicken and meat processing plants in Tecumseh (pop. ca.1700) or surrounding towns. Students generally speak Spanish at home and have to learn English when they start at St. Andrew’s in preschool or kindergarten.

Sister Mary Ann said she thinks the students appreciate a small school that gives them individual attention. “I think they’re the sweetest children on this side of the globe,” she said. “When they play together they play … with all the ages from pre-K to sixth grade. They include all grades in their games. They’re very imaginative.”

Their typical day, says Sr. Mary Ellen, is busy — “any teacher’s day in school.” The two sisters teach multiple grades along with another woman, Pam Sikora, who is the preschool and kindergarten teacher. A fourth woman, Denis Kelly, rounds out the school’s tiny staff, doing secretarial work and helping with Spanish translations. St. Andrew’s Pastor Bernard Lorenz also speaks Spanish.

Along with the language challenge, Sisters Mary Ann and Mary Ellen put their creativity to the test when it comes to providing supplies for the small school: computers, for instance. “The middle grades on up in the Lincoln diocese require reports on computers already,” said Sister Mary Ellen, but many of the children they teach don’t have computers at home. They recently received 19 new computers from the Lincoln diocese, thanks to grants given to the diocese for information technology purposes. They even have a computer program that helps the children learn English. “We’re very happy to have new computers,” Sister Mary Ann said. “Ones that move!”

The sisters also took advantage of a $10,000 grant from the Mount St. Scholastica ministry fund, which was a big help in getting materials and textbooks. “I know I ordered twice as many books as I would have ordered if we hadn’t gotten that grant,” said Sister Mary Ellen.

They’re bringing life to this little school due to a request from Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Lincoln diocese, who contacted the Mount’s Sister Barbara McCracken in early 2004 to ask her if she knew of anyone who could come to teach. The diocesan Marian Sisters who had staffed St. Andrew’s before were asked to teach somewhere else two years ago. Sister Barbara is the coordinator of Mount St. Scholastica’s “befriend-a-bishop” program, in which sisters write to particular bishops; she’s the “pen pal” to Bishop Bruskewitz. Both Sister Mary Ann and Sister Mary Ellen taught previously in primary grades, and they rose to the occasion.

Sister Mary Ellen said that Bishop Bruskewitz, like most bishops in the United States, recognizes the need to reach out to the immigrants in his diocese. These two devoted teachers are part of that outreach. As Sister Mary Ellen put it, helping these children achieve an education and learn English, and thus opening their way to better jobs, “is missionary work right here.”


The cake was not for Sister Mary Ellen’s golden jubilee, but for the Feast of the Birth of Mary. Kindergartners got to blow out the candles for her.


First and second graders draw the creation story.


The students, dressed as saints, told the story of their saint to their pastor, Father Lorenz.








Halloween at St. Andrew’s: Sister Mary Ann stands behind excited children after their visit to a pumpkin farm.















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