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Ensuring Ursuline’s mission for generations to come

Ensuring Ursuline’s mission for generations to come

by Dr. Colleen Melnyk, president

In 1897, the Ursuline Sisters established The Ursuline School in New Rochelle with a clear mission: to educate young women in faith, intellect, leadership, and service. For more than a century, that mission has remained steady, even as the world around us has changed.

The Ursulines have always been thoughtful and forward-looking in their leadership. They founded schools for girls when few believed it necessary. They adapted through wars, pandemics, and profound social change. They entrusted this school to those who would carry the mission forward in new ways and new seasons.

We are the beneficiaries of that foresight, and we carry it forward together.

Today, there are no Ursuline Sisters teaching in our classrooms. That shift has taken place gradually and as part of thoughtful succession planning. The Sisters remain actively involved in the life and governance of the school, continue to guide us in matters of mission and identity, and currently serve as our sponsoring body. Through the Ursuline Education Foundation, they are ensuring that sponsorship will continue in the years ahead and that The Ursuline School remains authentically Catholic and Ursuline in mission and practice.

Over the past year, with the guidance and in partnership with the Ursuline Sisters, The Ursuline School has applied for membership in the Ursuline Education Foundation. We have now completed the first two phases of that process. This exploration reflects our shared long-term planning and our commitment to ensuring that Ursuline education remains authentically Ursuline well into the future.

The Ursuline Education Foundation is a national network of Ursuline-sponsored schools. Membership connects The Ursuline School more formally to other Ursuline communities across the country and strengthens the shared mission and sisterhood that define us. It affirms that while Ursuline schools may be geographically distinct, we remain united in identity, values, and purpose.

Our mission and Core Values remain constant. Our commitment to forming young women in faith, intellect, courage, and service remains unchanged. What we are doing now is ensuring that Ursuline will always be Ursuline.

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