Sister is Valedictorian at PCCC

PATERSON  Graduating with the highest honors and a 4.0 GPA, Sister Monica Ama, of the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood in Paterson, had the honor of giving the valedictory address at Passaic County Community College (PCCC)’s 45th commencement May 18 to a class of more than 1,100, one of the largest in history.

Sister Monica received her Associate in Arts Degree in Liberal Arts/Early Childhood Education and she was also one of two winners of the college’s 2017 Early Childhood and Teacher Education Graduate Achievement Award.

“When I found out that I was giving a speech at graduation,” Sister Monica joked at the ceremony, “I started calling my friends, telling them that I am in trouble.” Many of those friends from around the world watched the ceremony live through the PCCC livestream.

In a valedictory address that was touching, inspiring, and humorous, Sister Monica related stories of her childhood in Nigeria. “Coming from Africa to America is like a dream,” she said. “In Nigeria, I had to walk miles between thick forests to go to school.”

Urging her fellow graduates to be fully alive in the pursuit of their dreams, Sister Monica quoted the Anthony DeMello “to be you, to be now, and to be here.” She told them not “to give the remote control of your life to someone else” and not to dwell in the past or focus so much on the future, but to “make use of the now,” and experience life “step-by-step and moment-by-moment,” with gratitude and faith.

Born in Nigeria, the eldest of nine siblings in a Catholic family, Sister Monica realized her vocation early in life. “I knew from the time I was about 4-years-old that I would become a nun,” she said.

She favored math and science at school and earned credentials in chemistry and computer science in 1998 at Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, a teacher-training institution located in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State, Nigeria.

After graduation, Sister Monica entered the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood congregation in Nigeria.

She made her first profession of vows in 2002 and came to Paterson the following year to live and work with the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood, teaching at the St. Michael’s Day Care Center, which is operated by her order.

She returned to Nigeria in 2008 to make the final profession of her vows.

Grateful for the support and friendship she experienced at PCCC, Sister Monica said, “I wish Passaic County Community College could be a four-year school. I would like to stay. I will miss it here.”

Sister Monica plans to continue her education this fall at William Paterson University in Wayne where she will study early childhood education with the goal of earning her bachelor’s degree.

[Information: www.pccc/edu/commencement2017.]