Sisters Serving

Sisters Serving Sr. Jane Francis Leandro, SS.CC., ’55

Through an almost life-long connnection to the Academy, Sr. Jane Francis Leandro shares important messages of living life to the fullest, appreciating your faith life and leading by example.

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SR. JANE FRANCIS LEANDRO’S almost life-long connection to the Academy began when she came to SHA for her last three years of high school. At the time, she didn’t know that she would eventually become the school’s principal herself, guiding the Academy into the 1980s.

Sr. Jane grew up on Maui and was inspired by her parents in her own faith development. She was able to come to the Academy because her father was going to take her mother to Lourdes during her senior year and proposed the idea of attending the Academy to her. She let them know that no one changes schools for their senior year, and so she persuaded them to let her start at the Academy earlier. She was able to live with her sister just up the street on 8th Avenue.

At the time she came to the Academy, Sr. Jane notes that Sacred Hearts was THE school to be at in Honolulu for young women. While the Academy was known

for its strong academics, when Sr. Jane arrived on campus, she quickly came to experience the distinguishing character of the school. “I didn’t know anyone when I came through the gates of the Academy,” she said, “But as soon as I was on campus I met a student who I would come to know as one of my classmates, and she was so friendly and welcoming to me; it really showed me what the school was about.” Sr. Jane shared that she was and continues to be a serious student, and that she was serious about her faith life as well, and so Sacred Hearts was the perfect place for her. “What impressed me at the Academy was the Sisters at Eucharistic adoration hour after hour in the Chapel.” And so each school day she would go to Mass at St. Patrick Church early in the morning and then come across the street to the Academy for the school day.

“I was a typical teenager for that time. I loved sports and particularly liked basketball. The Academy didn’t have interscholastic sports at that time, but we did have P.E. and intramural sports. Using the school colors, it was always the gold team against the white team.”

After graduation, Sr. decided to join the Sacred Hearts congregation and become one of those who had inspired her. In her early days as a Sister, she taught high school English at the Academy. In 1958 she was assigned to the Sacred Hearts community in Gardena, California, where she would stay for the next twenty years. She returned to Honolulu in the late 1970s, teaching first at St. Patrick School for a year before coming back to the Academy and teaching religion.

In 1979, Sr. Jane was appointed High School Principal. “I loved the students and talking to the students,” Sr. Jane said. She noted that at the time the school had just started off-campus retreats for entire classes, and Sr. Jane made sure to attend every retreat. “The students gave me life,” she smiled, “and I felt I could affect their lives more in that retreat setting.” She sees

Community service teaches students that we exist for each other and that we need to bring Christ to

each other through who we are.”

community service at the Academy as so valuable because “it teaches students that we exist for each other and that we need to bring Christ to each other through who we are.”

Sr. Jane believes that the most important work of the Academy is helping students in their faith journey. “Modeling faith life for them is critically important,” observed Sr. Jane. “Being like Christ … gentle, loving, concerned about them personally and their whole lives, letting them know that they are deeply loved and that that basic love comes from God … is so meaningful for them.”

There’s a saying of St. Francis that Sr. Jane particularly likes. St. Francis called on his fellow priests to “preach always … but only sometimes with words.” Sr. Jane said that when she was a girl at the Academy, that’s how the Sisters taught her … by how they lived: smiling, welcoming and concerned for others.

Sr. Jane has been staying at the Regina Pacis convent across 5th Avenue from the Academy during the COVID pandemic. Usually, though, her love of teaching continues, and she serves at the House of Formation for women who are preparing to make vows as Sisters of the Sacred Hearts Congregation in the Kamuning neighborhood of Quezon City in the Philippines.

Sr. Jane shared that her message for the Academy community is to recognize that life is a gift from God. She calls on us to “live life to the fullest, and appreciate your faith life, because it will lead you to fulfillment through meaningful relationships with God and each other.”