St. Ambrose University is proud to honor the mission and legacy of the Presentation Sisters by renaming its nursing department in their honor.
The university’s partnership with the Presentation Sisters began in 2023 when the sisters’ entrusted St. Ambrose University to carry on their mission of rural health care following the closure of Presentation College in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
The Presentation Sisters were founded in Cork, Ireland in 1775 by Nano Nagle. She was a woman of great courage who established secret schools for Catholic children barred from being educated. Nagle taught for long days, and at night she carried her lantern among Cork’s attics and alleyways, bringing comfort and hope to the city’s poor, sick, and elderly.
In 1880, the Presentation Sisters were invited to the Dakota Territory to teach the children of the Lakota people and French settlers. They started a school in Aberdeen, South Dakota and taught young children until the early 1900’s when the Mayor of Aberdeen asked them to help combat the diphtheria epidemic. This work eventually led to the opening of a Catholic hospital, St. Luke’s, which is still in operation today.
In 1951, the sisters founded Presentation College to fulfill their mission of rural healthcare through nursing education.
St. Ambrose is proud to carry on their legacy through the Presentation Sisters Department of Nursing and the Nano Nagle Online School of Nursing program, which provides a unique and flexible pathway from LPN to BSN.
“Our collective vision of an education rooted in person-centered care, enhanced by technology and deeply infused with our Catholic social teachings, finds a home in the Spirit of Nano Nagle, whose pioneering ministry was never bound by geography and who called all who served alongside her to be of service to others in any part of the world,” said Amy Novak, EdD, president of St. Ambrose University.
In a dedication and blessing ceremony on Oct. 17, 2024, St. Ambrose honored the Presentation Sisters for their $6 million in financial support and their longstanding legacy of nursing education and rural healthcare.
