My name is Sister Jane McHugh. I was born during the post-war Baby Boom at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California. I am number four of the eight children born to Frank and Theresa McHugh. My hometown is South Gate, which is located in southeast Los Angeles. All eight of the McHugh kids went to St. Helen School where I first met the Sisters of Notre Dame.
I asserted my independence from my two older sisters by choosing St. Matthias over Pius X for my secondary education. Little did I know this was God's way of keeping me with the Sisters of Notre Dame who staffed the new high school in Huntington Park. Towards the end of my junior year I read an article posted on the bulletin board in the room where I was taking journalism. The title of the article, "Who is the Type?," caught my eye, while the message shook my heart. What type of person does God call to the religious life?... . He calls ALL types!
The seed was planted. Perhaps God was calling me! I knew then, that I had to give religious life the benefit of the doubt. I needed to enter and see if this was what God wanted of me! Well, I entered the Sisters of Notre Dame (since this was the only community I knew), and it is now over forty years since that first step was taken. It's been a good forty years!
I have spent the majority of these years in the field of elementary education. I've taught second through sixth grades, all subjects, and music and mathematics in the junior high. During these first 11 years, I also volunteered to help teach the religious education classes in all of the parishes where I have served. I next became the principal of four different schools: St. Paschal Baylon in Thousand Oaks, St. Rose of Lima in Maywood, St. Francis of Assisi in Los Angeles and St. Julie School in Buseesa, Uganda.
Yes, the last school in the list should have given you the idea that I was a missionary. I was blest with the grace of founding our community's African mission in Uganda. I served God's people there from 1995 until 2005. My 89 year-old mother wanted me home, so I returned to the land of my birth in March of 2005. I am now teaching the fourth grade at St. Dominic School in Los Angeles.
I was raised with the understanding that you must do your best to follow God's will. I have experienced such joy and peace in my life that I am led to believe that I really am doing what God wants of me. One of my greatest joys is helping others pick themselves up by their own bootstraps. I'm happy to proclaim that my life as an educator has seen a lot of that! Yes... it' s been a good forty years!
Sr. Jane Marie McHugh