PLYMOUTH, Minn. — Sister Amelia Hueller of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee, is on a mission at Providence Academy in Plymouth that is unique in the Dominican Sisters’ work in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and around the world.
Its central component is not to teach a particular class, but to provide a religious sister’s presence throughout the school. The genesis of that presence, and its fruits, is the story of how a religious sister’s consecrated life in the halls of Providence Academy is transforming school life.
In her early years as a Nashville Dominican, among various teaching assignments, Sister Amelia served as a campus minister at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. She met students at coffee shops and bookstores, engaging in conversations about God’s call in their lives.
“I felt like a Navy SEAL — like I was asked to parachute in and just make things happen,” she said, adding, “I love that kind of mission!” She was sure she would never love another assignment so much, but a surprise was coming her way.
In 2023, after several other assignments, she was told she would be the first Dominican sister at Providence Academy, a pre-K through 12th grade school in Plymouth, living in the Stillwater Dominican convent.
There was no job description. “I realized, with joy, that it was another Navy SEAL assignment — they primarily wanted the presence of a religious at the school,” she told The Catholic Spirit, the archdiocesan newspaper.
Sister Amelia hit the ground running.
“The Lord says, ‘I called you by name,'” pointed out Todd Flanders, Providence headmaster, “and about six weeks after her arrival, she had already miraculously learned 500 or so students by name, through interaction with them and study of our annual school pictures.”
The school’s full-time chaplain, Father Michael McClellan, secured an office for her in a high-traffic hallway, where she keeps her door open whenever possible, and spends several hours a day just talking to students.
“The kids perceive me as available, and so the traffic is nonstop,” Sister Amelia said. This unstructured “presence” time constitutes approximately 85% of her typical day at Providence, she added.
Sister Anne Catherine, vicaress general of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia in Nashville, said she believes this aspect of Sister Amelia’s assignment is unique in the work of the religious order.
Typically, Sister Amelia has two or three scheduled visits and five to 10 she doesn’t anticipate. Students find the visits especially irresistible because of the coffee, tea and hot chocolate stand in her office corner.
Sometimes they want to talk about questions of faith or challenges at school, and they also know she’s good for a little pick-me-up.
“Sometimes Sister (Amelia) will be passing by and she’ll ask, ‘How are you doing?'” observed Oliver Jurek, a Providence senior. “If we mention we’re having a hard or challenging day, she always assures us that we’re in her prayers.”
Sister Amelia also meets with small groups of students to reflect on a particular reading.
Senior Michael Newman, for example, said he enjoyed dropping in to discuss sections of Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologica.” Marianna von Dohlen, a junior, recalled the richness of discussing “The Soul of Civility,” a book about the lost art of manners, with Sister Amelia and two other students.
Eloise Allen, a Providence junior, said she had grown in faith by participating with Sister Amelia in a small group reading and discussion of “Mulieris Dignitatem,” St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter on the dignity and vocation of women.
Sister Amelia expands her outreach by joining students at meals. In addition, a Spanish teacher offers extra credit to those who have a 20-minute lunch conversation in Spanish with Sister Amelia — a fluent Spanish speaker — and she uses that opportunity to get to know students who might not otherwise stop by her office.
Marianna von Dohlen said she enjoys Sister Amelia’s “Salty Fridays” lunch speakers. Recent talks featured a Zoom address by the University of Notre Dame football team’s chaplain, and an Army captain — a Providence alumnus — who spoke on why men should pray the rosary.
Sometimes, said Sister Amelia, she’ll offer high school students time for something as simple as reading aloud by the fireplace and inviting those present to talk about the story.
She also leads retreats and extended trips for students. These have included the March for Life in Washington and the recent National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. There, her energy and joy were on vivid display, according to von Dohlen.
“About 10 of us were trying to cross a street in Indianapolis, and a car was about to turn,” she recalled. “Sister (Amelia) walked right in front of the car, gave the driver a huge smile, and extended her hand to stop him.”
Von Dohlen described the incident as “classic sister.”
“Many of the trips are real hands-on, face-to-face service experiences,” explained Jurek. Recently, Sister Amelia took him and others to work alongside Missionaries of Charity sisters in poverty-stricken areas of Minneapolis.
“We not only got to help make food,” recalled Jurek, “we went into tent cities and under bridges, speaking with those to whom we gave the food.”
Michael Newman plans to join Sister Amelia and others on a Holy Week trip this year to build houses in Appalachia. Other opportunities abound. For example, Eloise Allen accompanied Sister Amelia and other students on a retreat trip to the Dominican mother house in Nashville.
In addition to working with upper and middle-school students, Sister Amelia regularly visits pre-K through fifth grade classrooms. There, for example, she might do a lesson on the Dominican habit, or a photo story of the Nashville Dominicans’ mother house — including what the rooms and cloister look like.
“I asked the children to guess what room we never bring technology into, and many guessed the chapel,” Sister Amelia said. “I said actually, no — someone might appropriately have a camera there.” The answer is the cell where the sisters sleep and technology is not permitted — an answer that’s sure to provoke thought and conversation, she said.
On a recent morning, Sister Amelia spent 25 minutes in a third-grade class taught by Brian Dudley. The students were rapt as Sister Amelia explained how to appreciate an icon of Mary and the infant Jesus that Dudley projected on the wall.
“The usual depth of a picture — looking inside of it — is reversed!” she explained. “In an icon, the picture is flat. Instead, the picture looks inside of your heart!” The third graders were wide-eyed, and hands shot up everywhere with answers to Sister Amelia’s layered questions.
Sister Amelia’s duties also include several hours of teaching per week: seventh grade religion, focusing on sacraments and morality. “The lead teacher and I weave the two together, talking about how a life of grace as accessed through the sacraments helps us to live a good life,” Sister Amelia said.
Another blessing for Providence: In April of 2025 a second Dominican Sister, Sister Anne Therese, was assigned to teach second grade at Providence.
Flanders couldn’t be more pleased with the results. “Sister Amelia and Sister Anne Therese are force multipliers,” he suggested with a smile. “Any force for the good at the school they multiply.”
Father Michael McClellan is a former chaplain at the school, and he said that every evening for the entire eight years he was in that role, he prayed religious sisters would come to Providence.
“If we want priestly vocations, we need priests in schools. If we want women’s religious vocations, we need sisters in school. No one is going to join something that they do not know,” remarked the priest, now pastor of St. Joseph in Miesville and St. Pius V in Cannon Falls.
Flanders agreed. “It is essential to show young people that a religious or priestly way of life is not only a plausible thing, but a beautiful, joyful thing.”
Angela Jendro, a Providence religion teacher, believes the key to Sister Amelia’s influence is the special grace of her spiritual motherhood as a consecrated bride of Christ, to which the students are particularly receptive.
“Because we’re consecrated and set apart,” noted Sister Amelia, “God is always doing something deeper with our presence.” She pointed to the example of a chalice or altar, which takes on unique and deep significance when consecrated. “Likewise, there’s a special grace that precedes and goes with a sister when she’s assigned to a school.”
