A Mentor For Women

"Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up wonder wrinkles the soul." This quote is made up of multicolored letters and is sitting on her desk, surrounded by papers from her students, pictures, and books.

As Sister Sharon Kanis, a member of the religious studies faculty, looks around her office, she declares it "chaos." On the tour of the small room, she points out numerous things that have made an impact on her life. "It helps me remember how big my world is and what I am really about," she says. The subjects are mostly women and students she would like to meet from countries far away.

"Sharon is a mentor for women," claims Dr. Brian Berry, religious studies faculty colleague. "She is an example of a person of faith who also fully human and fully alive, modeling for women younger and of her age as well." Kanis has been a professor at CND for 19 years.

She specializes in women's spirituality and practical theology, the practice of faith. She started teaching science in women's high school in 1964, and during the next nine years she continued to teach while she worked on her bachelor's degree in chemistry during the summers.

"By the time I did that [graduate]," said Sister Kanis, "I knew that what I really loved teaching was religion."

"Sr. Sharon is a very effective teacher," says Katie Flowers, a junior and currently enrolled in Sister Kanis' Introduction to Spirituality course. "She uses a variety of teaching methods in our class, which is really important because spirituality is such a difficult subject to learn." During the instruction, traditional lecture took a backseat to informal discussions.

2005, Sister Kanis was awarded the Mullan Distinguished Teaching Award. Contrary to tradition, at the 2005 Honor's Convocation, President Mary Pat Surkamp did not give clues to lead up to announcing the honoree.

When they announced my name] my students just went wild. They were jumping up and down and everybody said to me afterward 'We never ever saw them like that'… and the warmth of that moment…and my students just touched my heart that day.

The lives that she has touched and that have touched her are evident through the pictures and gifts in her office.

Sitting on her bookshelf, there is a small picture of eight African women and Sister Kanis taken 18 years ago when she was invited to Ghana to teach SSND novices theology. "We got to be very good buddies and they decided I needed to get dressed in the native dress and they tried to cornrow my hair, which was quite a sight.

She said, "[All of these] are a constant reminder that we are about something really big. And on the days you feel like what you are doing is kind of thankless, I just remember that we are all in this together."