Teaching young women - Notre Dame Secretarial College: interview with Sister Patricia Landry

Sister Patricia Landry recounts the evolution of the Notre Dame Secretarial College run by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.

She recalls how it all began back in 1907 in Pointe Saint-Charles, under the direction of Sister Saint Catherine of the Rosary. A secretarial class was offered to young women to provide them with employment opportunities other than working in factories for little wages. This course, taught at the Mother House on Sherbrooke Street the following year, soon became recognized by business people in Montreal who admired it for its quality training.

Through the eyes of Sister Saint Catherine, the Secretarial College needed to contribute to the development of women; this was equivalent to what today we call “liberating education.” The Sisters of the college encouraged the students to continue their studies. McGill, Concordia and Université de Montréal gladly admitted them given the complementary classes they had taken at the Congrégation.

At the College, the students had an opportunity to learn not only skills but values as well. They learned to be conscious of the needs of others and to share with the less fortunate. For example, beginning in 1937, they participated in a Christmas baskets activity.