Sisters help Guatemalan kids get Benedictine education

Fort Smith convent and school raising scholarship funds to sponsor young students

Published: October 15, 2013

By Maryanne Meyerriecks
Fort Smith Correspondent

Benedictine oblate Mary Adams (center) and Father Hugo Lopez, OSB, visit the one-room home of an 11-year-old scholarship student at Esquipulas, Gua-temala, in March.

Benedictine oblate Mary Adams (center) and Father Hugo Lopez, OSB, visit the one-room home of an 11-year-old scholarship student at Esquipulas, Gua-temala, in March.

FORT SMITH — Even though they no longer operate schools, the sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith are continuing their educational ministry in a new way.

Through the Partners in Benedictine Education Scholarship program, the sisters sponsor 13 scholarships for students at Colegio San Benito (St. Benedict School) in Esquipulas, Guatemala, which blesses both the students and sisters.

During their 134-year history, the nuns operated St. Joseph Orphanage from 1907-1978, St. Joseph Day Care from 1979-1997 and St. Scholastica Academy from 1924-1968; and also taught elementary school in numerous parishes in Arkansas and neighboring states.

Sisters Dolores Vincent Bauer, Kimberly Prohaska and Rosalie Ruesewald, OSB, have visited Esquipulas and ministered to infants, children and elderly residents of the town. Oblate Mary Adams, who traveled to Esquipulas with a youth group from Sacred Heart Church in Charleston in March, sees that blessing imprinted in her heart each day.

During her visit, Adams, Oblate Kathy Jarvis and Sacred Heart parishioner Jennifer Verkamp visited a young scholarship student’s home with Father Hugo Lopez, OSB, superintendent of Colegio San Benito. Adams, who makes rosaries, gave one to 8-year-old Karol, who lives with an extended family of four in a one-room home and aspires to become a veterinarian. Karol accepted the rosary and, standing on tiptoes, kissed her two fingers and blessed Adams with the sign of the cross.

A tearful Adams later wrote a haiku about the experience.

Her vestments were

The play clothes of a

Humble girl. The blessing solemn.

With only 50 sisters, including two novices, the sisters are in a rebuilding period, which Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB, likened to “embers under the ashes” in a recent homily to sisters and St. Scholastica alumnae. Their partnership with the monks at the Abbey of Jesus Christ Crucified in Esquipulas, sponsors of the school, has ignited not only their community but also the students at Trinity Junior High School and parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Charleston. Haymée Giuliani’s Trinity Spanish classes designed a T-shirt to support the project and collectively raised enough money for two $400 full-tuition scholarships. Sacred Heart parishioners have gone on one mission trip to Esquipulas and hope to bring other youth groups there in the future.

“Partners in Benedictine Education allows us to build bridges of solidarity and support through education. Inspired by the values of the Gospel and the Rule of St. Benedict, girls and boys at San Benito can become the future actors of positive change for the country and undertake the struggle against poverty, marginalization and indifference,” Father Lopez said. “The children of Arkansas will grow in sensitivity to the reality outside their ordinary environment and in their understanding that there is a different world that is often ignored but needs their support.”

In addition to sponsoring the scholarship fund, the sisters have agreed to be a channel for outside donations and to assume all administrative costs so that 100 percent of outside donations will go to scholarship assistance. In January, five additional girls, residents of Hogar Esquipulas, an orphanage operated by the Religious Franciscans of San Antonio, will begin school at San Benito with scholarship assistance from the sisters.

“All of these girls like to study,” Dina Guadalupe Mejia Rivera, Hogar Esquipulas director, said. “The efforts of the benefactors will be well-utilized. We are grateful for this gesture of solidarity with our girls.”

“We feel a close affinity with the Benedictine school in Esquipulas, Guatemala,” prioress Sister Maria DeAngeli said, “as it continues our ministry and importance of the education of mind, heart and soul of young people helping them to discover their God-given talents.”

The sisters are making presentations about the Partners in Benedictine Education program to local churches, schools and civic groups. Donors can sponsor full scholarships for $400 a year or $35 per month, and donations in any amount are accepted.

To schedule a presentation or learn more about the scholarship program, contact Sister Rosalie at (479) 783-4147. To learn more about the education program, click here.