When she’s not busy working, Sister Dorothy Kundracik, left, still enjoys learning. She recently visited former SCOPE client Mary Ann Williamson of Newton Falls, who taught Kundracik the art of making kolache.

If there’s a theme that’s occurred through Sister Dorothy Kundracik’s life, it’s learning and teaching.

Growing up on the South Side of Youngstown and graduating from Ursuline High School in 1958, she entered the Order of Saint Ursula, a teaching order.

During her working years, Kundracik, 84, and now retired, educated and assisted people of all ages in Northeast Ohio and at Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation.

She taught second through eighth grades and later assisted the elderly population at Trumbull County SCOPE.

At age 66, Kundracik earned her master’s degree in theology.

Once she decided to leave SCOPE, she provided home care for the elderly.

CHANGING HABITS

The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown order is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Kundracik, who has lived at the Ursuline Motherhouse in Canfield since 2003, has seen the number of nuns dwindle from 200 to 26.

At the time Kundracik entered Saint Ursula of Youngstown order, the sisters were living a cloistered, monastic life and wore the habit that originated in France.

That all changed in 1968 when Pope John XXIII called an Ecumenical Council during which the order’s roots were examined, Kundracik said.

The council decided that the sisters’ style of dressing, which was like that of their foundress, and their way of following Jesus should be more closely aligned with the way the people in general, and women in particular, were dressing in society.

The transition was gradual, with most older sisters only knowing and following the order’s traditional ways.

There was a grand exodus of sisters who felt the need to move faster, and like their foundress, wanted to respond to the needs of the time, Kundracik recalled.

Steel mills were closing and the area’s population was declining, resulting in diminished school attendance. Kundracik said that it was time for the Ursuline Sisters to diversify from only teaching.

A TEACHING JOURNEY

Times were changing and Kundracik’s world was opening exponentially. She went on two pilgrimages to Brescia, Italy, the city where her order was founded.

She immediately felt a connection.

“Did you ever go to a place and feel the vibes of the past?”

That same feeling happened again after a mission group she was with at the Big Horn Mountains of Montana entered a cave where the Native Americans convened in the Native Prayer Lodge. She spent time in Montana off and on between 1990 and 2003.

The Ursuline Sisters started a mission in Montana in the 1890s. Kundracik spent over seven years on Montana’s Crow Reservation between time spent working back in Ohio.

While in Montana, some of her work involved teaching GED classes and math lessons, tutoring students in algebra and participating in programs for recovering addicts.

Then, in 2007 at age 63, Kundracik gave up teaching to spend her time working with senior citizens. At the same time, her focus shifted from teaching to learning.

She received training in home care for the elderly and was hired by SCOPE in Trumbull County, where she was employed from 2007 to 2020.

Kundracik was part of a program that worked with healthy seniors where the focus was on socialization, exercise and dance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she made supportive phone calls to homebound seniors.

CONTINUING

EDUCATION

“Ursulines are lifelong learners,” Kundracik said.

She’s managed to tie together some of her career skills. Still learning, sometimes Kundracik’s lessons look a little different.

Although she is retired, she still visits Mary Ann Williamson, a SCOPE member in Newton Falls, who taught Kundracik how to make kolache.

To suggest a Friday profile, contact Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com or Features Editor Ashley Fox at afox@tribtoday.com.