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Possumus Fall 2007 |
Leadership |
PASSING THE TORCH.
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The two women sit across from each other at the conference table, eyeing the tape recorder somewhat uneasily. One is a small, quiet, 85-year-old nun named Mary Martin Nelson. She has been a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 60 years. The other is Angie Van Den Hemel, an outgoing 23-year-old who is currently participating in the St. Joseph Worker program. They are here to talk about leadership skills among the CSJs.
Sister Mary Martin and Angie work together at The Vineyard English Language School in Frogtown. They tutor two classes of adult Hmong and Vietnamese. It’s clear that they share mutual respect and admiration. But while it may be obvious to an outsider that Sister Mary Martin is helping to develop leadership skills in Angie, neither woman seems to want to make it the cornerstone of her experience. |
 | “I didn’t join the Sisters to be a leader,” Sister Mary Martin says modestly. “It was a religious calling that brought me in. I’ve had leadership positions in the past, but I don’t really think of myself that way most of the time.”
Angie adds, “Leadership skills are important, of course. But that’s not why I became a St. Joseph Worker. I didn’t think of it as a course in leadership. I thought of it as a great opportunity to effect social change.”
Leadership is one of the core values of the Worker program (along with Social Justice, Spirituality, Intentional Community and Living Simply). In fact, this is one of the few volunteer opportunities in the country that focuses on training women to become leaders for social change. Yet Angie and Sister Mary Martin have difficulty talking about it. Could it be that the culture of equality and humility these two women share prevents them from discussing a subject as self-aggrandizing as leadership? Or is leadership simply a difficult topic for anyone to articulate?
It’s a little of both, says Doug Menikheim, expert in the principles of leadership (see article on page 10). “The Sisters’ culture does leave them with an unusual reluctance to label themselves as leaders. But even in other walks of life, the most successful leaders aren’t exactly sure what made them that way.” Continued...
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