What Did Your Parents Say When You Told Them You Wanted to Be A Nun? In the latest installment of our continuing video series Ask A Nun, Sister Nancy Dawson, General Superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, answers the question “What did your parents say when you told them you wanted to enter the Convent?” Sister Nancy Dawson: I’m Sister Nancy Dawson, an Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, Ohio, and the question for today is: “What did my parents say when I told them I wanted to go to the Convent? Well, I started to ask the question of myself with a spiritual director, Father Malone, and at that time I was only about 17 or 18, right after high school. And when I asked my dad, who was not Catholic, if I could go — or should go — to the Convent, he said, “Well, why don’t you wait until you’re 21. Sometimes people don’t have a brain in their head until they get a little bit older.” So at 21, I went back and said to my dad, “I think I really want to be a nun!” And my dad gave me his blessing. My mother, of course who was Catholic and my primary role model, she loved to say the rosary, and I think she was responsible for my entering the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown. I would also say that the Sisters who taught me in grade school at Immaculate [Conception] and at Ursuline High School were an incredible influence on my life. They were always happy. They were always generous. They were compassion. I was put out of school twice and they took me back, and I thought that was a miracle that they performed. And so I’m very happy that I’m an Ursuline Sisters today. And I hope that God will continue to bless our community with young people who would come into our life, which is a really exciting and wonderful encounter with Jesus and with all those that we serve. Contact the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown at [email protected] or 330-792-7636.