Sitting together at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with CUCG are: (L to R)
Brighid Blake, MA, H.Dip.ED, Sr. Kathryn Miller, SSJ, Assistant to the President for Administration and Special Projects, Chestnut Hill College, Sr. Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, President, Chestnut Hill College, Sr. Anne Myers, SSJ, Congregational President Sisters of St. Joseph, Sr. Lisa Olivieri, SSJ
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A partnership was sealed on October 31, 2013 with the prime goal to provide higher education for sisters in West Africa. Sister Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, President, Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and Professor James Hawkins Ephraim, Vice Chancellor of the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG), Fiarpe signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to offer online distance learning classes to women religious in Africa starting in the fall, 2014, when 18 sisters from Ghana and Nigeria will begin the program.
Representatives of the ASEC Board of Directors and the SLDI Advisory Board together with Chestnut Hill College Board Members, administration, faculty, staff and students joined Sister Carol for this historic event. Chestnut Hill College is one of the founding members of the African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC). Other members include Marywood University, Neumann University and Rosemont College together with congregations that founded these colleges and universities. ASEC’s Higher Education for Sisters in Africa (HESA) program, inaugurated in 2013 and funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, is providing opportunities for women religious to acquire higher education credentials through alternative means. Technology is rapidly changing the landscape of higher education as well as providing opportunities, particularly to these women who have longed for an education for years.