Sister Michele Morek to intern in New York with UNANIMA

Sister Michele Morek, who concluded her six-year term as congregational leader of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph in July, will be spending the first quarter of 2011 in New York City as an intern with UNANIMA International.

Sister Michele was one of three sisters from member communities accepted for an internship with UNANIMA, the nongovernmental organization that works with the United Nations to shape international policy, particularly those promoting the welfare of women and children.The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph are one of 19 congregations who are members of UNANIMA, and the only Ursuline members.

UNANIMA has focused on human trafficking in recent years,but has recently added other major areas, including earth care issues.

Sister Michele Morek spoke at the "Step It Up National Day for Climate Change" rally at Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky.

“I probably will be working with UNANIMA on UN issues involving global water resources and climate change (especially as they affect poor women and children throughout the world),” Sister Michele said in a letter to her sisters. “The internship will pay my room and board, and provide a small monthly stipend for other expenses.” The internship is for three months, but Sister Michele was invited to stay an extra month so she can attend a conference in May on sustainability. She will leave in mid-January and be gone through mid-May.

Sister Michele has a doctorate in biology from the University of Notre Dame and was a professor of biology at Brescia College/University for 27 years, wrapped around ministries that included being academic dean at the college for six years, and eight years serving on the Ursuline leadership community in the 1990s, prior to her election as congregational leader in 2004.

She has been active in the Kentucky Water Watch program and the Tradewater/Lower Green River Watershed Watch program. She will begin her 49th year as an Ursuline Sister in 2011.

“This feels like the job of a lifetime for me,” Sister Michele said.