Sr. Michele McQueeney
Director of Adult Education
San Diego, California

I first became acquainted with the Sisters of St. Francis when I was quite young and would hear my aunt, who was a nurse at Mercy Hospital, talk about Sr. Joan Alice, Sr. Aurelia and some of the other sisters and how kind they were.  Later during high school I worked at the hospital as a nurse's aide and got to know some of the sisters.  Eventually, after graduation, I studied at St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing and found the sisters to be so full of life and approachable.  After my first year of nurse's training I entered the novitiate and eventually went into teaching.

I taught at the elementary and high school levels in Syracuse and Long Beach, CA and served as vice-principal and principal of high schools in Santa Barbara, CA and Honolulu, HI.  In 1991, I started a second career as director of a private, non-profit agency that provided money management and case management services for the elderly and disabled.  Never having worked with this population, it was an eye-opening experience and one that I truly loved.  Working with elderly who had no family, and mentally ill and drug addicts, many of whom were homeless, was extremely rewarding.  During these nine years I think I experienced my greatest satisfaction.  Seeing how much the elderly and disabled appreciated someone from the agency who would take time with them, being able to help people who were financially abused, being able to obtain needed services and just being there for so many in need, made me realize how God works in strange ways.  One of the things I will always remember is having the agency finally recognized by the Honolulu legal, elderly and human services community through the Hawaii Women's Lawyers Association.

As much as I loved Hawaii, an island does get small so in 1999 I moved to San Diego with two other sisters.  In San Diego I have worked as a social service director in a skilled nursing and retirement facility and as an eligibility technician for San Diego County and presently am director of adult education at San Rafael Parish in Rancho Bernardo.  As I look back on my life, I am grateful for the many and varied experiences and opportunities I have had and how each has brought me closer to God and made me realize how much God can do if we let Him.