Our History

In 1929, six Sisters from Ohio traveled to China to build a Notre Dame educational network in the country. The foundation of their work was Good Counsel Girls' Small School in Wuchang. As WWII raged around them, they were expelled and sent to a detention camp in Burma. After the war the Sisters returned to China only to be driven out by the Communist government.

Back in the U.S., we continued to open new schools - often with a focus on special needs. In 1948 we established a religious vacation school for poor African Americans in Mississippi and also a school in Cincinnati for children with behavioral problems.

In 1950, Sisters from Ohio moved west to teach in parish schools in Arizona. In evenings and on weekends, they taught religion classes to the children of migrant workers from the camps in the Phoenix area.