Sister Amelia Stenger, OSU - "Sister Amelia is a very humble, talented, and gifted woman."
       

        ”Sister Amelia possesses a great deal of energy and never tires of trying to accomplish any task that is given to her or any challenges that come her way.”
        The Most Reverend John J. McRaith, bishop of the Owensboro diocese, made that statement as he talked about Sister Amelia Stenger, an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph, who worked seven and a half years for the bishop as superintendent of Catholic schools in the Owensboro diocese.

       Sister Amelia’s tenure in the diocesan school superintendent’s office was just one stop in her journey from a small town in Missouri to the director’s office of the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center. There were many challenges along the way and she met those challenges – three and a half years of classroom teaching were followed by school principalships in Owensboro, Earlington and Bowling Green, associate superintendent and then superintendent of schools for the diocese of Owensboro and then superintendent of elementary schools for the Archdiocese of Louisville.
      That small town in Missouri is Glennonville, a farming community in Dunklin County, Sister Amelia’s hometown. She was born the next to youngest of eight children (four sons and four daughters) of John and Mary Stenger. “My dad used to call me Lucky 7,” Sister Amelia recalls. Her father was a blacksmith and a farmer. “He could take anything and make it into something else,” Sister Amelia says. “Blacksmithing is a creative art, but he used his skill to make plowshares and horseshoes because that is what people needed. Daddy was a very creative person.” That trait was passed on from father to daughter, as Sister Amelia is well known for using creative, artistic talents in her work.
       Mary Stenger was a stay at home mom. “She was a wonderful, sensitive, caring woman,” says Sister Amelia of her mother. “She could can any kind of fruit or vegetable and could sew anything.  She made all of our clothes until I was in the sixth or seventh grade when I got my first bought outfit. She taught me how to quilt.”

       Sister Amelia’s education began at Saint Theresa Grade School in Glennonville, where she was taught for eight years by Ursuline Sisters from Mount Saint Joseph. They made quite an impression – she remembers them all: “Sister Jean Gertrude Mudd in the first and second grades, Sister Monica Aud in the third and fourth grades, Sister Amanda Rose Mahoney fifth and sixth, Sister Cecilia Mary – who was also the school principal – in the seventh, and Sister Elizabeth Ann Ray in the eighth.”  Sister Elizabeth Ann is now a resident of Saint Joseph Villa.
        Following graduation from grade school, there was little doubt where Sister Amelia would continue her education. “I got into a car, left home, and came to Mount Saint Joseph Academy,” she says.
        Her coming to the Academy was part of a plan that began back in the second grade when she says she began “playing” teacher and sister. She was really hooked in the second grade when Sister Jean Gertrude let her teach first graders on a number of occasions. “I really loved that,” says Sister Amelia. “It made me want to become a teacher.”
        She made her final decision to become an Ursuline Sister in January of her senior year at the Academy. She recalls, “I had a long talk with Mother Joseph Marian (Logsdon) and told her I had decided to try the convent.”

        When she told her parents and siblings of her decision they told her they weren’t surprised, they knew all along that she was going to enter and they all supported her from the beginning.
        In the fall of 1967, Sister Amelia began her postulant year at Mount Saint Joseph. She began taking Brescia College liberal arts classes on campus at Mount Saint Joseph. Later, during her third year – her vow class – she moved into town for classes on the Brescia campus. “We were the first class to go into town for classes during our vow year,” she says.
        Sister Amelia’s longtime dream of teaching children materialized a little earlier than expected. She recalls, “I still needed eight hours to graduate and was walking across campus when I passed Mother Joseph Marian and said ‘good morning.’ She responded by saying ‘I think I want you to go to Precious Blood to teach fifth grade.’ I was very excited to go there for my first year of teaching. I only needed student teaching and speech to graduate so I used my first year of teaching for student teaching and then finished my last class during the next summer. That first year was great. I loved it! I really wanted to teach. I taught 35 fifth graders everything – religion, science, reading, math, history, geography, music, and even phys ed.” She still remembers some members of that first class and has stayed in touch with some of them.

        After earning her degree in elementary education, Sister Amelia continued teaching fifth graders at Precious Blood. During her third year of teaching, she took on additional duties, teaching science to fourth, fifth and sixth graders. She served as acting principal for half a year when the principal took a leave of absence.
        Then-superintendent of Owensboro schools Father Henry O’Bryan often took Sister Amelia to the Army surplus store. She says, “We purchased shelves, paint, paper, anything to display our science projects. We made all kinds of things out of recycled junk – creative art activities, creative science activities.”  Those comments sounded almost identical to those she made earlier about her father and his creative abilities as a blacksmith.
        In the middle of her fourth year at Precious Blood, Sister Amelia received a call from Mother Superior Annalita Lancaster that would change the course of her professional career, moving her into administration.
        Mother Annalita asked Sister Amelia if she would take on the duties of principal of Immaculate School in Earlington. She said yes and became principal at Earlington where she also taught fifth and sixth grades.

        She spent seven and a half years as principal at Earlington/Madisonville, finished her master’s in elementary education along the way and began work on her master’s in administration. While there she helped plan the construction of a new school at Christ the King in Madisonville and saw the student enrollment increase from 70 at Earlington to 224 at Christ the King.
        Sister Amelia moved on to Saint Joseph Interparochial School in Bowling Green where she served as principal and eighth grade religion teacher for two years and continued work on her administrative master’s. Those two years proved to be her last in the regular classroom.
        She was asked by Bishop McRaith to return to Owensboro and became associate superintendent of schools for the diocese of Owensboro. Father Henry O’Bryan, her old friend from her first teaching job at Precious Blood, was still superintendent and served as her mentor. In September of the following year she replaced Father O’Bryan and became the first woman superintendent for the diocese, a position she held for seven years.
        One of her first responsibilities as superintendent was to begin a search for retirement and insurance programs for the paid employees of the diocese who were mostly teachers. She found the Christian Brothers Retirement Services and the Insurance program. Today, the retirement program continues to serve the diocesan employees and she serves on the Board of Directors of CBRS.    

         During her tenure as superintendent, Sister Amelia worked with the parishes to consolidate the Catholic schools in the Owensboro area, helped to organize the Committee for Total Catholic Education, served as chairperson of the Mid-South Catholic Leadership Conference, helped create the Kentucky Non-Public School Commission, which she chaired for 10 years, served on the executive board of CACE (Chief Administrators of Catholic Education), served on the Kentucky Board of Accreditation of Universities and Colleges,  gave talks on principalship and leadership to numerous diocesan and principal groups, and wrote a book (Principalship: An Outline for Action).
        Bishop McRaith was bishop of the diocese during Sister Amelia’s tenure as superintendent of schools and has worked with her often since then. “ In my years of working with Sister Amelia, I have found her to be a committed religious sister, hard-working, very creative and gifted with many talents,” he says. “She is willing to work tirelessly to accomplish the mission of Jesus, whether for her community or the entire Church.”           
        After seven and a half years in the office of superintendent of schools for the diocese of Owensboro, Sister Amelia headed east for still another challenge. She accepted the position of superintendent of elementary schools for the Archdiocese of Louisville.  Again, she was the first woman to hold this position.

        The Louisville archdiocese was beginning a major development program in preparation for a campaign to build an endowment for Catholic schools. Sister Amelia was asked to work with the schools to develop communications programs with their parents and alumni and eventually go through a process of long-range planning in the schools. The process included all areas of the curriculum, finances, board responsibilities, and a long-range planning process.
        “For seven years everything we did centered around improving the schools, helping them get accredited and preparing for the major campaign,” Sister Amelia said.
        In 1996-1997, the archdiocesan campaign took place, resulting in a $20 million endowment for the Catholic schools.
        In May of 1997 Sister Amelia learned her ministry was about to take on still another major challenge. Sister Michele Morek, then a member of the Leadership council, paid her a visit and asked if she would return to Mount Saint Joseph as director of the conference and retreat center and raise money needed to complete the major renovation of the new center complex.

        “After thinking it over, I told her I’d do it, but I couldn’t start until January,” Sister Amelia said. “I had a number of obligations in Louisville and on the state level to take care of before I could leave that position.”
        In August she began working both jobs, spending time on her new job at the Center and time in Louisville, finishing up her obligations there. In January of 1998 she came back to the Mount and took over permanently as director of the conference and retreat center, overseeing the renovation of the complex, began expanding programs offered by the center and accelerated its fund-raising efforts.
        In January of 1998 Sister Amelia began an endowment for the Center with the building of a memory garden in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the Ursuline Sisters at Mount Saint Joseph.
        Just over six years later – in August of 2004 – one of Sister Amelia’s finest ideas became a reality – the reenactment of the flatboat journey of the five Ursuline sisters down the Ohio River from Louisville to Owensboro en route to Maple Mount to establish a school for young Catholic girls. Dressed in 1874-era habits, five sisters (a number of them took turns along the way) traveled the route on a recreation of an 1874-era flatboat, attracting nationwide attention. Almost 100 television stations used the story on their newscasts, complete with video of the sisters in the flatboat. National Public Radio talked live with two of the sisters along the way. There was local coverage along the way by numerous newspapers and radio stations.
        The adventure, which took place from Aug. 11-15, resulted in over $100,000 in donations sent to the community from admiring spectators from across the country. The money went to the work of the many ministries of the Ursuline Sisters.

        By 2006 the memory garden had been completed and the demand for bricks outnumbered the bricks available to the donors, so a rosary walk was added to the complex west of the Center. It, too, was an immediate success. People can walk and pray the rosary in a quiet, pleasant atmosphere.
        Donations have been made for the mysteries of the rosary and for all of the rosary “beads.” Donations have totaled over $100,000 and donations can still be made.
        The construction of the rosary walk was twofold. In addition to adding to the endowment for the Center, the garden enhances the prayerful atmosphere for those attending retreats at the Center.
        Now five months into her 11th year as executive director of the Center, Sister Amelia continues to look for new ideas. She said, “We have touched many lives over the past years with the retreats and programs we have offered, and as we begin our 11th year we are in a period of renewing our commitment to our spiritual programs and we are in the process of developing a number of new retreats and programs.”   

        Sister Carol Shively, superintendent of schools for the diocese of Shreveport, La., is a longtime friend and a member of the conference and retreat center’s board of directors. “Amelia is a very humble, talented, and gifted woman in our community,” she says of her friend and fellow Ursuline. “Her work ethic and tenacity are equal to her deep love of community.” Sister Carol adds that she is impressed with Sister Amelia’s work with the Center. “For the past four years I have served on the conference and retreat center board and it is a treat to attend these meetings and witness Amelia in action,” she says. “Amelia constantly keeps the mission of the Center in focus and she invites everyone whom she meets that the mission of the Center can be theirs too, if they care to join by sharing their wit, their wisdom, and most certainly their wealth!”
        Sister Amelia has earned a reputation as an outstanding administrator, earning numerous accolades for her work as a principal, superintendent and director of a large conference and retreat center.
        When asked what she feels is her major accomplishment at this point in her life, she answered without hesitation, “being a teacher. It’s been a privilege to work with students from children in kindergarten to adults in graduate school.”
        She continued, “I am grateful for being able to share the gifts God has given me in so many ways with so many people. The best part of being a teacher is learning so much from those I’ve taught. I have learned much more than I ever taught.  I’m very proud to be a part of the wonderful tradition of Ursuline education.”