new high school principal

New Principal Eager to Bring Students to Christ

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 5/17/07)

When the doors of the new diocesan high school in Dumfries open next fall, Nashville Dominican Sister Mary Jordan Hoover, member of the St. Cecilia Congregation and newly named principal, will be ready and waiting to serve.
“I think that school leaders have to be servants if we’re going to imitate Christ,” the 41-year-old Pennsylvania native said. “As a consecrated woman, my life is for Christ and His Church.” Becoming principal of the new high school is “part of God’s will for me,” she said.
The first-time high school principal has a long line of teaching and administrative credentials, starting in public school and moving to private when she joined the Dominicans in 1991. In 1993, she became a member of the Order of Preachers (O.P.) in the same congregation.
With a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and social studies from Millersville University of Pennsylvania; a master’s degree in educational administration and leadership from Northwestern University of Louisiana; a partially completed degree in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio; and catechetical certification from the Diocese of Nashville, Sister Mary Jordan is a longtime learner as well as educator.
Since 2004, she has served as principal of St. Henry School in Nashville, as well as on the advisory board for the Endowment of the Advancement of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Nashville.
Before entering the convent, she taught global studies, world geography, sociology and psychology at Northeastern High School, Manchester, Pa., from 1990-91. Since entering the Dominicans, her assignments have included assistant principal and teacher, St. Cecilia Academy, Nashville, Tenn., 1991-92 and 1993-97; teacher, St. Thomas Aquinas Regional School, Woodbridge, 1997-98; principal, St. Mary Star of the Sea School, Hampton, Va., 1998-2000; principal, St. Vincent de Paul School, Denver, Colo., 2000-03; and teacher, John Carroll Catholic High School, Birmingham, Ala., 2003-04.
“All of those relationships and experiences in various dioceses have helped me to be where I am today,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “Currently I’m in a wonderful school with a very supportive pastor. I’m sure that I’ll continue to grow as a person and administrator in the Diocese of Arlington.”
Raised in Harrisburg, Pa., Sister Mary Jordan said her eyes were first opened to her vocation when she spent a “semester at sea” traveling to many developing and foreign countries, including India, China and Japan. This experience was life-changing, she said, “because it enabled me to think outside of my own neighborhood and outside the U.S.
“During that time I started to listen to God,” she said. “During that time my desire to serve the Church as a sister increased.”
Sister Mary Jordan has “an energy level that’s surpassed by nobody,” said Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools, who has met with the new principal on many occasions. “She carries the Dominican Charism and has a wonderful vision for what a Catholic high school should be.”
Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, O.P., member of the general council of the Dominican Sisters, has known Sister Mary Jordan since 1990, when she was discerning her entrance into the congregation.
Sister Mary Jordan is a person “of great vision, of spiritual depth and a wonderful ability to connect with people,” Sister Catherine Marie said. Her sense of humor, understanding of human nature and zeal for teaching all guide her in her vocation. “She’s true to her religious vocation and that brings an energy on its own. She’s a person who knows who she’s about.”
The new principal will be in Northern Virginia by July 1 and will stay at Aquinas Convent in Woodbridge with other members of her congregation. Over the next year and a half she will busy herself with planning the curriculum, hiring teachers and purchasing books.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to build something,” she said. “I’m excited to know the people of the area and to know the families. I’m looking forward to meeting the students because the students are the heart of the school.”
Sister Mary Jordan has already begun piecing together the school’s specialized bioethics curriculum with the help of fellow teacher Sister Terese Auer, O.P.
“When I heard about the school having an emphasis on bioethics, my wheels started turning,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “This seems like a wonderful tool for the new evangelization — to bring our students closer to Christ.”
She added that it will be valuable for the students to understand the challenges that are posed in the medical world today and how faith and reason work together.
“We seem to be bombarded by secularization,” she said. “We’ll really be training our students to be thinking with the Church for the future. To be able to help people understand the truth is part of our vocation as Dominicans.”
Sister Mary Jordan said she looks forward to expanding the working relationship that the sisters already have with the diocese.
“I hope it’ll be the beginning of another relationship with the diocese for years and years.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.