The Felician Sisters of the Chicago Province are dedicated to a number of educational ministries. Our sisters serve primarily in elementary and secondary school settings. We minister as administrators, teachers, campus ministers, librarians, tutors, catechists, administrative secretaries, bookkeepers, and supportive staff members.

We serve in rural areas and small schools with as few students as a total enrollment of 40 and in large schools of more than 1700 students. We're present in metropolitan areas, in the inner city, and in the suburbs.

As Religious educators we believe that we are called by Christ and that we are strengthened and challenged by Him through His Church and our work in Catholic Schools. Our emphasis is on the spiritual - to help form a learning community where human culture and knowledge enlightened faith is shared among faculty, students, parents and others in a spirit of freedom and love. We believe that the Christian message is revealed not only by word, but also by every gesture of our behavior. Our teaching, if authentic, is one that should both impart and reflect the Gospel and its values.

Among these values are dignity of person, loving concern for the poor and others who are in need as victims of injustice in any form, compassionate service and availability to share our time and talents. We believe our relationships, our teaching, should reflect these, as well as other values as our priorities, regardless of our role in the educational setting. What we do and say, how we stress certain issues or approaches, we shall inevitably reflect our values and priorities and communicate these to our students and others with whom we come in contact.

We believe that we have a responsibility to each person to help him/her recognize their unique giftedness and to encourage them to strive to reach their maximum potential. At the same time we realize that learning is a life long process. We recognize the human condition . . . that we all make mistakes. What is important is that we learn from the experience. We teach responsibility for one's actions. We hope to engender a love for learning, enthusiasm to seek knowledge, to question the status quo, to try to make things better... the fact that as faithful Christians we are our brother's and our sister's keeper.

We believe that each student

We believe that there are two lasting gifts that we can offer to those we teach. The first is "roots" - a sense of belonging, a sense of Catholic tradition and identity, a heritage grounded in a living, dynamic Church. The second gift is "wings" - the challenge to ever further explore their potential and expand their horizons.

We believe that parents are the primary educators of children and we all we can to support them in this responsibility. We encourage them to become involved in the educational process. We respond to their needs and assist through shared decision making. We provide for opportunities to discuss and evaluate the progress of their child or children.

We believe that our co-workers are professional, dedicated and caring individuals. We believe that collaboration is the best mode of interaction. We strive to be team players.

As Felician Sister educators we have pledged ourselves to the ministry of teaching. We affirm our dependence upon Jesus Christ, the Lord, to do what we know by ourselves we cannot do. However, we promise the parish/high school/daycare setting, our fellow teachers and those we are educating, our time to listen, our desire to learn, our talents to share, our dedication to serve and our faith to strengthen.

Our sisters are represented in the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL at the following schools (* Indicates a Felician Principal, Assistant Principal or Administrator):

In the Joliet, IL diocese at:

In the Milwaukee, WI Archdiocese at:

In the LaCrosse, WI diocese at:

Some of our sisters also provide tutoring services outside of a formal school setting. For example, one teaches English as a second language to some Polish-speaking adult parishioners of St. John Brebeuf Parish in Niles, IL. Another sister tutors an English-speaking adult in French. One sister assists a student who is being home schooled.