Called to Action: A School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Podcast

In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 9: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself we welcome Sister Stephanie Spandl who discusses her ministry work with immigrants and refugees, and how that community has been affected by ongoing immigration enforcement surges in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. 

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In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 8: Breaking Down Language Barriers we welcome Sister Jean Ellman who was recently honored with a Distinguished Service Award for her dedication to bilingual education and Hispanic ministry at the Notre Dame School of Milwaukee. Sister Jean shares with us her experiences educating both students and adults to help them be more successful in communicating with their family and in their community. 

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In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 7: Educating Girls for Life! we welcome Mary Elizabeth Grimes, President at Marian Middle School. Marian Middle School is the only all-girls private middle school in the St. Louis community serving urban adolescent youth in a faith-based environment. Mary Elizabeth shares with us how Marian Middle School invests in the success of young girls, from 6th to 8th grade and onward through their life to assist them with getting into a college and finding a career.

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In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 6: Helping Immigrants Thrive we welcome Jane Rydholm, Executive Director, at MORE. MORE is a an affiliated SSND ministry that provides support to the wider St. Paul refugee and new immigrant community. Jane discusses how MORE empowers their students to thrive by providing language skills and access to support services, while offering a place of connection and community. 

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In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 5 we welcome Ben Brzeski, Ministry Office Director, to discuss his role working with SSND’s 17 sponsored, co-sponsored and affiliated ministries. We also explore how unique the ministries are and how they all share the same goal of carrying on the SSND mission of charism. 

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On Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 4: Vocations we welcome two members from our North American Vocations Team (NAVT), Sister Carol Jean Dust and Laurie Lindauer, who walk us through what vocations means from a religious and life standpoint. They also explain what the culture of vocations is and what the mission of NAVT is when approaching conversations with young people about their calling in life.

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Called to Action Season 6 Episode 3: Ministry Work in Guatemala is available! On this episode Sister Gladys Courtade joins us to share stories of her time in Guatemala, what inspired her to do ministry work there and how living with the community impacted her life. We also discuss the roots of SSND and how working with less fortunate communities is what inspired the Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger to start our congregation.

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Called to Action Season 6 Episode 2: Women's Leadership Luncheon is available! On this episode Debbie Rohrich-Tyler, Manager of Donor Relations and Events, joins us to discuss her 34 years of tenure at SSND, how much sisters have impacted her life, and how Women's Leadership Luncheon has grown to be her largest event every year. We also discuss the 2026 Women's Leadership Luncheons happening in St. Louis on March 3, Milwaukee on March 5, Dallas on March 25 and St. Paul on March 26. We hope you join us for this informative episode about an event that is dear not only to SSND but to everyone that sponsors the event or attends.

You can find Called to Action wherever you listen to podcasts including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio.

Called to Action Season 6 Episode 1: Faith and Community is available! Sisters Cindy Weber and Patricia Gravemann join co-hosts Adam Schicker and Sister Jan Berberich to discuss how important faith and community are when working through transitional periods in life. As community leaders at Sancta Maria in Ripa they share how sisters value the importance of living in community, and how that community extends to those around them. 

You can find Called to Action wherever you listen to podcasts including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio.

In the last episode of Called to Action Season 5, Episode 10: Corporate Social Responsibility, we welcome Sister Ann Scholz to discuss her role at SSND working with corporate investing. Sister Ann advocates for better manufacturing and business practices affecting social issues like labor trafficking. This discussion rounds out our five-season series focused on SSND’s commitment to Shalom’s Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation ministry.