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Adrian, Michigan, May 30, 2025 – Seven students from Siena Heights University in Adrian and eight students from Barry University in Miami, Florida, extended their learning beyond the spring semester, but not in classrooms or lecture halls. They were participating in the 2025 Environmental Leadership Experience (ELE) at the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus. Both universities were founded and are sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Students in the ELE program learn about environmental sustainability practices and offer a significant service to the Adrian Dominican Sisters and the Congregation’s permaculture area.

During the week, May 12-17, 2025, the students planted 170 trees, cleared areas of the permaculture site of invasive plants, and took samples of pondwater to analyzed. The students also had time to study the vernal pool at nearby Heritage Park, tour the Motherhouse grounds and the nearby ProMedica Gardens, meet and speak with the Sisters formally and informally, experience the new Canopy Walk at Hidden Lake Gardens, and generally come to know one another through meals and other shared time.

The students came to the ELE with multiple levels of knowledge and experience in working the land, and with diverse majors: from environmental sciences and biology to child psychology, art, and nursing.
  
During the week, several students took time to discuss the highlights of their experience, what they had learned, and their hopes for applying what they learned to their future work or everyday lives.

“I’m becoming more environmentally conscious about how everything I do has an impact,” said Kaiden Moss-Moultrie, a Barry University student majoring in clinical laboratory science. “I hope to take this information back home to my friends and family so they can learn how they can affect the environment.” Kaiden also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of the Sisters and hopes to start a garden at home, using the techniques she learned at the ELE.

Many students were emotionally affected by their work in planting trees. “My highlight has been planting the trees, knowing that such a small plant can grow to be something bigger and that each of us are contributing to something greater for the Earth,” said Neissa Rousseau, a biology major at Barry University.

Zoe Ornelas, an art and biology major at Siena Heights University, was also struck by the impact of planting trees. “I feel like every time I plant a tree, a piece of me is with it,” she said. She was surprised to learn that tree roots slow down the erosion of the land around them.

As with past ELE participants, this year’s students met during the week with their university group to discuss the sustainability project they would bring back to their campus in the fall. 

The 2025 ELE program was organized and facilitated by Brad Frank, Director of the Office of Sustainability and Mike Walters and Brandon Howard from Permaculture. Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, General Council liaison to the Office of Sustainability, also facilitated the program and participated in every aspect during the week.  

Sister Corinne said the Environmental Leadership Experience began in 2017 when, during a sponsorship meeting, faculty members from Siena Heights University and Barry University brainstormed the idea of bringing students from their universities to the permaculture area of the Motherhouse for service and learning. This is the third year since the pause in the program during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. “It’s both a learning experience and, to be honest, a great service project to us.” 

 

Caption for above feature photo: As part of the 2025 Environmental Leadership Experience, students from Barry University in Miami and Siena Heights University in Adrian clear the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ permaculture site of invasive plants and weeds.

May 28, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Like many other people throughout the world, Adrian Dominican Sisters expressed joy, hope, and a sense of connection after the election on May 8, 2025, of Pope Leo XIV, a native of Chicago and the first U.S.-born pope. He has ministered largely in Peru and has dual U.S.-Peruvian citizenship.

Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC), an organization of U.S.-based congregations of Dominican Sisters, happened to be in Rome during the conclave of Cardinals who elected the pope. 

“It was truly a remarkable experience for me to be in Rome during the election of Pope Leo XIV,” wrote Sister Xiomara. “Receiving his blessing in person at St. Peter’s Square was such a special moment.” She said the election of the Augustinian also “deeply resonates with our Dominican Order’s spirituality, especially as we follow the Rule of St. Augustine, just like the Augustinians.”

Sister Xiomara also has a special connection to Pope Leo XIV: both are graduates of Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago. She said the name of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, sounded familiar. “Later that night, I reached out to an Augustinian friend and classmate from CTU who immediately confirmed my suspicion. It was indeed the same Bishop Robert Francis Prevost who came from Peru to preside over [her friend’s] ordination nine years ago.” She added that she had been impressed at the time by his “gentle presence, simplicity, and his ever-present smile.”

A native of the Dominican Republic, Sister Xiomara noted that “hearing him ask for permission to speak in Spanish brought me immense joy. His call for peace, justice, unity, and love has truly renewed my hope, not only for the Church but for the entire world.”

Some 4,765 miles away, several Adrian Dominican Sisters and Co-workers gathered in the lobby of the Dominican Life Center at the Motherhouse in Adrian to await the revelation of the new pope. They also responded to this revelation with great joy.

Sister Linda Bevilacqua, OP, who attended this watch party, found the election of a cardinal from the United States to be “very exciting and extraordinarily surprising.” She described Pope Leo XIV as a “highly educated Friar … a global citizen, having traveled broadly, linguistically gifted … a missionary to the core, a citizen of the U.S. and Peru and a proponent of Pope Francis’ environmental agenda.”

Sister Linda also saw particular significance in his name. “The name he chose speaks clearly to the importance and relevance he has and will continue to place on Catholic social teaching.” Pope Leo XIII, in his 1891 encyclical (document) Rerum Novarum, is credited with beginning the modern tradition of Catholic social teaching by addressing the social issues arising from changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Some of the principles of Catholic social teaching include the dignity of the human person; call to family, community, and participation; option for the poor and vulnerable; the dignity of work; solidarity; and care for creation.
   
“I trust that our pope will guide and encourage us by his living, teaching, and preaching, so that, with our focused engagement, all persons will live in just and peaceful societies, and all creation will flourish,” Sister Linda concluded.

Some Sisters spoke to their connection to Pope Leo XIV through their own roots or involvement in Chicago. “Not only is he the first pope from the United States but also someone with whom I share common roots in Chicago,” Sister Mary Flan Fleischaker, OP, said. “In addition, Pope Leo XIV seems to have the heart of a shepherd and holds many of the same priorities as Pope Francis. All of this gives me great hope.”

In her response to the election of the pope, Sister Jean Tobin, OP, reflected on her own background in Chicago, growing up in a middle-class neighborhood where neighbors looked out for one another. She described a similar spirit in Pope Leo XIV. “I loved seeing him on that balcony, taking it all in and waving and accepting the love and joy emanating from the crowd,” she said. “I can also appreciate his missionary spirit, love of people, willingness to learn their languages and sense of justice.”

Perhaps one comment by Sister Mary Fran sums up the feelings of many of the Sisters and of many people throughout the world: “We have been given a surprising and timely gift in Leo XIV.” 
 

Caption for above feature photo: Sisters and Co-workers gather in the Dominican Life Center lobby to watch the announcement of the new pope.