Teach a Sister…Touch the World
“Impelled by Christ’s love, Assumption College for Sisters, through education and community, forms servant leaders who transform lives. Teach a Sister…Touch the World.” (Mission Statement)
Assumption College for Sisters (ACS) has roots that reach back over a century and a half to Paderborn, Germany, where a saintly woman, Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt, founded the Sisters of Christian Charity. Convinced of the surpassing value of the ministry of education, she required her young Sisters to become as qualified professionally as their lay counterparts. Simultaneously intent on their religious formation, she provided an integrated program of spiritual, intellectual, and cultural development. When the Congregation, suppressed in its native land, sent Sisters to new foundations in America in 1873, she retained her commitment to a holistic education of the young Sisters.
When the North American Eastern Province was established in 1927, the superiors immediately integrated the academic development of the young postulants and novices with their religious formation. Seton Hall College (now University) allowed the Sisters to function as an extension of its institution. Encouraged by Seton Hall, the Society of the Sisters of Christian Charity replaced the extension with Assumption Junior College, approved by the state in 1953.
In 1961, this institution, newly entitled Assumption College for Sisters, was incorporated as a separate legal entity, authorized to confer appropriate academic degrees on women religious and those in the program of religious formation.
The college remains the embodiment of the heritage of Blessed Pauline. who was convinced that the Sisters should be well-prepared both spiritually and professionally to spread the Kingdom of God through sound education, from which, in her words, “flows the temporal welfare of the individual and society.”
In recent years, ACS has welcomed Sisters from Vietnam and some developing African nations as full-time, resident students. The Sisters represent numerous religious communities, many of which are unable to provide such an educational opportunity for their Sisters due to lack of resources as well as social or political challenges in their homelands. They join the student body of those religious women who belong to congregations here in the United States.
The 20 international Sisters are fully sponsored (tuition plus room and board) at ACS due to a strong development program and generous benefactors of the College. The education received at ACS provides the Sisters with the formative and professional skills needed to further advance their education and prepare them for their apostolic works. The majority of Sisters who graduate from ACS continue their studies at other institutions of higher learning, having received a solid academic foundation at ACS. They then return to minister in their native countries.
When the Sisters return to their countries they are involved in a myriad of apostolates, all of which utilize their newly acquired skills, especially that of leadership. They are the director of a clinic, the nurse in a hospital, the formator in their house of formation, the teacher in classroom, the pastoral visitor in a remote area of the village, the founder of an enterprise to employ young people to serve the indigent poor. And the list goes on.
Most of us will never travel nor minister in a developing country, although the need is great. But by partnering with us, through our students, we make a difference in the lives of others,
ACS is licensed by the Commission on Higher Education of the State of New Jersey and accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It is an approved member of the Student and Exchange Visitor System of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
We invite you to visit our website for more information www.acs350.org