Jane German CoL

I grew up in a small town in rural Illinois, one of two children of older parents and grandparents. My father’s family were Catholics. All his family siblings married non-Catholics. I attended public schools and universities.

In high school I spent a year in Beaver Dam, Ky. There I learned a lot about my faith since I was only one of at most 10 Catholic students in the whole school. My Baptist friends would ask questions and I would go home at night to ask my father why Catholics did this or that.

I graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in math and science education, returning in the summers to get my elementary education certification. I taught on the Navajo reservation in Thoreau, N.M., for 30 years. During these years, I earned two master’s degrees in elementary and special education. My favorite teaching position was first grade. In addition, I taught in the Title I programs for reading and math as well as special education programs.

Beginning in about 1982, I met many of the New Mexico Sisters of Loretto while living in Thoreau, N.M., or attending Loretto activities with Angela Bianco. Angela then moved to Denver to begin the Loretto novitiate. Many Loretto sisters and co-members stayed with me when they came to visit or work with Angela Bianco SL after she made vows and returned to Thoreau to begin a non-profit Gathering Place for adult literacy, health services and a store for Navajo art. In 1990, I became a Loretto co-member with a celebration in Taos, N.M. In 2015, I celebrated my silver jubilee.

In 2003, I moved to El Paso, Texas, to become the co-educational pre-kindergarten through fifth grade elementary school principal at Loretto Academy. It continues to be a wonderful educational opportunity, developing future leaders grounded in faith, community, justice and respect. I work with dedicated, caring teachers, staff and parents as well as students excited about learning. It has given me an opportunity to share about the Loretto Community with the extended Loretto Academy community as well as participate in a larger Loretto Community of vowed and co-members.

I have spent more than 40 years of my life as a minority: first in New Mexico among the Navajos and now in El Paso with the Hispanics. They have given me a rich appreciation for different cultures.

I was involved in various Loretto activities in New Mexico, helping with various Loretto celebrations held in Santa Fe. My first leadership role was as a member of the Loretto Education Committee. Since then I have served on the 2009 – 2012 Forum and was part of the 2012 Loretto Jubilee Committee. I am a member of the Loretto Pakistan Mission Committee. During the 2015 Loretto Assembly, I was again elected to the Loretto Community Forum. I was re-elected to the Loretto Community Forum during the 2018 Loretto Assembly.

I enjoy working outside in the yard, reading and playing computer games.

A favorite quote of mine is the following: “Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.”   – Rainer Maria Rilke