Education has been the focus for Holy Cross Sr. Mary Ann

Friday, Nov. 07, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — Sister Mary Ann Pajakowski is celebrating 20 years at Holy Cross Ministries this month and 47 years as a religious in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. 

Sr. Mary Ann knew in high school that she wanted to become a sister, she said, and went to college at St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Ind. 

Sr. Mary Ann was drawn to the Holy Cross sisters in high school because they were bright, funny and very challenging, she said. “They knew if you were holding back and could do better socially, emotionally or academically,” she said. “I had a lot of respect for them. They were women of prayer and it was good to see that. It’s been a challenge and an interesting time to be a religious, but I’ve been fortunate.”

She took her first profession in 1967. 

“It appealed to me; it was just after Vatican II and at a time when our country was generating a spirit of support following President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address:  ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’” Sr. Mary Ann said. “It was a time of giving yourself for the other; we don’t just live for ourselves, we are part of something bigger and the contribution we can make.”

Sr. Mary Ann found community life stimulating and enjoyed the diversity of the other sisters; she learned from being around and working with different people, she said. 

“Our summer jobs were our ministries,” she said. “We taught typing to African girls in Washington, D.C., worked with migrant women and children in camps in Michigan and in food service. We would scramble to figure out how to do things. We worked with priests, brothers, sisters, lay people, Catholics and non-Catholics in urban and rural settings.” 

These experiences taught Sr. Mary Ann compassion and how to be nonjudgmental; “they were my formative years,” she said. “We were still in our habits then. It was all so new. Then we were told we didn’t have to wear habits; we had to make skirts and jackets out of our habits. We looked wretched for a few years before we could buy clothes, especially if we couldn’t sew. We often bartered with someone who could.” 

Sr. Mary Ann became a high school teacher and from 1971 to 1991 was assigned to the same high school she attended – St. Joseph High School in South Bend. “I loved teaching high school,” she said. “I also volunteered to teach catechesis to migrant children.”

In 1994, Sr. Mary Ann moved to Utah and to Holy Cross Ministries. “I taught English as a Second Language at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale and summer day camps, ESL classes two days a week in Ephraim and ESL classes at Saint Joseph Villa,” she said. 

In 1998 the After School and summer programs in Park City were started, which Sr. Mary Ann now heads. 

The School Readiness Program provides early childhood education to 80 at-risk students and provides parents with resources to stay involved in their child’s education, Sr. Mary Ann said. 

“We have two bilingual teachers and two teaching assistants in a program that provides low-income students with pre-literacy skills in English, as well as social and religious learning,” said Sr. Mary Ann.