Loretto educates for the times – Donna Day SL: Learning along the way
Posted on February 27, 2026, by Christina Manweller
Photo: Jean M. Schildz
The best teachers are the ones who show you how to use your heart.” * Donna Day SL shares this quote that reflects her deepest belief about teaching.
To Donna, teaching and learning are intertwined. Like other teachers, she knows that she has received as much or more than she’s given. She says that while she taught in a formal classroom setting for just two years, “along the road of various missions I became a lifelong learner as director of religious education programs in several cities and towns. The Hispanic communities in Illinois, Wyoming and Colorado opened my heart and urged me on in spiritual growth and personal development. The Loretto and BVM Sisters I lived with taught me about service, new cultures and ways to use my talents. They taught me how to use my heart.”
Donna also served on Loretto staff in healthcare for many years, service she treasured, as she loved the contact with so many in the Community.
But it was as director of intercommunity housing at Pillar Place that she was really stretched. “Working in a new culture — in the African American community,” Donna says, “I learned about my own prejudice, people’s joblessness and real poverty. It was eight years of struggle, growth and joy.”
Donna shares a list of those from whom she’s felt blessed to learn:
- Every person I met in every parish I worked in fed me bread in Jesus’ name
- Every member on Loretto’s Executive Committee, staff
- and the Communications Team who urged me on
- Every kid who asked for a book, every parent who cried with joy
- Every Scripture and Sacramental Theology class I taught
- Every Sister and all teammates who were a model of Christ for me
- Every friend from 68 years on mission
Like all great teachers, Donna says, “I am still learning.”
*Quote from Gabriel Andreas of Story People
From 2004 to 2012, Donna served on Loretto’s Executive Committee. Today, she serves as an adviser to Loretto’s Communications Team. She not only influences the team’s output with her wisdom and practical advice, but her insightful writing may be found on Loretto’s website, in social media posts and elsewhere.
Read all of the articles in the winter 2026 issue of Loretto Magazine here.
