Sister Sarah shares science knowledge at Bishop Heelan

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

A former electrical engineer is student teaching a variety of science courses at Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City this semester.

And a big bonus – she happens to be a Missionary Benedictine.

Sister Sarah Elizabeth McMahon, OSB, is teaching Physical Science Principles, Honors Chemistry and Honors Physics at Bishop Heelan as she completes her bachelor’s degree in 7-12 science education at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.

“This year is going by very quickly and I’m learning a lot,” said Sister Sarah. “I enjoy the students and staff at Bishop Heelan. It’s good getting experience in a larger school.”

Previously, she had some observation hours at Norfolk Catholic High School for her current degree. Sister Sarah also taught religion for two years, 2018-2020, at St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Nebraska.

A native of Hartford, South Dakota, she graduated from West Central High School before attending South Dakota State University for a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and engineering physics. Following college, she worked as an electrical engineer in Sioux Center for a year.

After discerning a call to religious life, she entered the Missionary Benedictines in 2014.

“I have felt the Lord led me to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters because my spirituality is very Benedictine,” said Sister Sarah, who noted she had been involved in FOCUS and the Newman Center during college. She discovered Bible studies and the atmosphere of prayer and fellowship provided by the two ministries helped her grow into her faith and make it her own.

Reflecting upon when her vocation story began, she said the summer between her last two years of college stands out. She had been in a two-year relationship with her boyfriend and felt a lack of peace with the relationship as well as with her chosen field of study. Over the next year or so, a silent retreat, mission trip to Mississippi and a nun run to visit various religious communities provided opportunities for discernment.

She felt God calling her to religious life, but “the anxiety of where, when, how and a million other questions struck.”

After graduating from SDSU, through “prayer and spiritual direction, I determined it was still God’s will to take the job I had accepted” as she continued to discern where God was calling her.

It was her aunt who was a Benedictine Sister in Yankton, South Dakota, that suggested checking out the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in Norfolk.

“When I came to visit in January 2014, every person and idea about this way of life that I metSister Sarah with the homeroom class on a service day in September. made my heart ring yes,” said Sister Sarah. “The life of community and balance of work, prayer, leisure that I had been striving for on my own was here in the midst of a multi-cultural community.”

To firm up her decision, she visited a second time before officially applying and entered the community as a postulant on Sept. 24, 2014. She made her temporary vows on Sept. 2, 2017.

Since entering the community, most of her time has been spent in Norfolk. The Norfolk Priory of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters is part of an international community of monastic women who participate in the missionary service of the church by seeking God through community, prayer and ministry. There are over 1,200 Missionary Benedictine Sisters serving in 16 countries throughout the world.

While in Sioux City, Sister Sarah has been in residence at the Missionary Benedictine Sisters Holy Cross Convent.

As she is working toward her graduation in December for her latest degree, Sister Sarah has found student teaching to be very beneficial.

“There is a lot that they don’t teach you at college that student teaching allows you to learn before you have your own classroom to manage full-time,” she acknowledged.

The Missionary Benedictine noted that in the past, her religious order in the states operated or taught in a number of schools.

“Working in a Catholic school, I am able to share the faith and the love of God with students. Teaching allows me a space to also experience spiritual motherhood with students besides teaching them the facts about science,” said Sister Sarah.

In her time at Bishop Heelan, she has witnessed that most of the students are striving for excellence in many ways and that has been encouraging for her to see.

“Bishop Heelan is a good school where faculty care deeply about their students and try to set them up for success,” said Sister Sarah.

With her student teaching at the school concluding in December and her graduation from Wayne State that same month, she is uncertain where she will serve next as the leadership of her religious community is presently undergoing change.

“This life so far has led me to far more joy and growth than I could have ever imagined, and I doubt that God is done with me yet,” she said.