Sister Ann Regan Retires

During a season of change at the Academy, Sister Ann Regan, SNJM, retired from her role as mission effectiveness coordinator in the fall. Though her timeline shifted due to the pandemic, Sister Ann says the abrupt transition “allowed me to become more contemplative, to live in the present moment and look for surprises each day. It’s not a bad way to spend my retirement.”

Sister Ann attended the Academy of the Holy Names in her hometown, Rome, New York, from 1st through 12th grade. Because she formed a close relationship with the SNJM teachers, she entered the novitiate in Rome at 17. “I grew up in an Irish Catholic family, where becoming a nun assured you of getting an education and becoming someone,” Sister Ann said. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Marywood University and a master’s degree in education from The College of St. Scholastica. She later received a ministry formation certificate from the University of Notre Dame. Sister Ann served as a teacher in Liverpool, New York, and Key West, Florida, before becoming the principal at Tampa’s Sacred Heart Academy. She then taught English in AHN’s junior high and high schools and served as the Elementary School principal.

After leaving the Academy for nine years to teach 7th and 8th grade at St. Peter Claver, Sister Ann returned to teach high school theology. In 2013, President Art Raimo created the part-time mission effectiveness coordinator position, so when she wasn’t teaching, Sister Ann’s job was to share the SNJM mission. Sister Ann then spent a year as interim principal in 2015-2016 and finished her career as the mission effectiveness coordinator.

“There are still kids that keep in touch with me, and I love it. I know that I made a difference in some people’s lives.”

“I was an old-fashioned, strict teacher, but the kids sensed they were going to learn, and every now and then, laugh.”

Through it all, Sister Ann’s favorite role was a teacher. “I was an old-fashioned, strict teacher, but the kids sensed they were going to learn, and every now and then, laugh,” she said. “There are still kids that keep in touch with me, and I love it. I know that I made a difference in some people’s lives.”

While she has seen many physical changes to the campus, its heart has remained the same for Sister Ann. “Mother Marie Rose really told us that our job is to answer the needs of the day, and I think our school has changed with the needs of the day. … We’ve done what Blessed Marie Rose told us: ‘Open up your eyes, see what’s needed, and then answer it.’ We did it in the buildings; we did it in our curriculum. In all of that, it’s all about the students. Let’s be sure the students are getting what they need.” According to Sister Ann, the school’s mission is what sets the Academy apart. “Blessed Marie Rose really made it clear that we were to provide excellence in education. But this excellence was so that our students would be prepared for their professional future and their spiritual future. I think our emphasis on preparing students to make it to heaven by stressing the Sisters’ core values, which include excellence in education and in their faith, is really what makes us special. It’s what makes the flavor in the school,” she said.

SO, TO SISTER ANN:

The mission at the Academy is alive and well, and we will work to keep it as such.