Sister Susan Frazer building an enduring legacy

When the new $40-million Sister Susan Frazer, R.S.M. Educational Complex was officially opened recently at the St John Bosco Boys’ Home in Hatfield, Manchester, the 74-year-old nun in whose name the building is dedicated cried tears of joy.

After leaving the United States 48 years ago and giving decades of unwavering service to the home, Frazer knew she had reached the highlight of her life’s mission at that point on September 7, and was happy it came in the form of a state-of-the-art institution which will bring hope and a path of employment for hundreds of youth to come.

Opened by the Government, in partnership with Digicel Foundation, the Sister Susan Frazer, R.S.M. Educational Complex houses the St John Bosco Vocational Training Centre and will train persons of both genders – not just boys, as it was in the past.

At the opening ceremony, as the officials, including Prime Minister Andrew Holness, rose to thank Frazer for her sterling service to the nation, tears of joy streamed down her face.

She told them she was humbled by the honour and expressed the hope that, through the complex, her work will continue for many years to come, adding that she was grateful that its opening took place during her lifetime.

“This is a real gift to what I call our rural students. The Sisters of Mercy work even after they’re gone. We’re never at rest. We always have to work, right? If I were to be honest, I must admit that I was not looking forward to that day. Buildings that are dedicated to somebody with their name on it are usually dead … . I’m feeling very much alive. Dead is not where I’m at,” Frazer said before laughing.

Frazer added that she was grateful to the Sisters of Mercy and others from her mercy community who have supported her over the years to make her life’s mission a success.

In addition to the new Sister Susan Frazer, R.S.M. Educational Complex, the nun said she will use other donations already committed to the institution to construct additional buildings, which will include a hospitality training centre, a cafeteria and a tuck shop, which will be funded by other donors, one of whom has already pledged US$650,000 (J$99 million).

“Several people have asked me why after 45 years of running a residential home for boys, would I venture into something so large and challenging at this time? And this is only Phase One. We have at least four more to go,” she told The Gleaner.

She reflected on the glorious 50 years she has spent living in the island.

“Over these years, I felt the support of so many people, and especially in this region. The rural communities in Jamaica are alive and very well, and the rural community has been my life. We have looked after thousands of children in this home that used to be residential. This success here at St John’s Bosco is due obviously not to me alone,” the area administrator for the Sisters of Mercy, Jamaica, told The Gleaner.

She continued: “There are eight members of staff here, who are past boys who run the major departments in this school, one at the butcher shop, and one in the catering department. These are past boys, and one of the special features of this vocational school, unlike any other, is that we have saved 50 beds upstairs; one dormitory is left, and people say you can turn it into classrooms. I’ve held on to those 50 beds because I believe, being a rural girl, and having worked in a residential children’s home for almost 50 years, residential children are probably the centre of my heart.”

Frazer commits to remaining at St John’s Bosco Vocational Training Centre for years to come because she just wants to continue serving the needy children, especially boys.

“There are lots of boys still in our homes who need an excellent education, programme of City & Guilds for trades, the ability to get a job when they’re finished, and come out with their head held high, and we have been able to do that. And if they can’t come and go as our day students come and go, they can come and stay and we’ll still make it happen for them,” she said.

Frazer said that, in the last five years, with societal changes, it was with a heavy heart that she had to close two residential children’s homes, but was happy she could get the management to have females start coming to the previously all-boys St John’s Bosco Vocational Training Centre for training.

“It just seemed that the care for children in that style was over. We also, at that point in time, recognised that the female population, especially here in rural Jamaica, was in extreme need of skills training, which would make these young women independent and able to pursue work possibilities to feed themselves and their families,” Frazer said.

She added: “I must admit, after 45 years of boys, this has been a learning curve for me, but, so far, the girls have been patient with me. This move to admit young women at Bosco is not only happening here, but it’s also happening at our Alpha School of Music in Kingston.”

Core values

Frazer recalled that, over the years, instilling core values into youth under her care was more stressful than getting a new building for the institution.

“This (instilling core values) is, for me, where the rubber meets the road and our goal is to help our students embody those core values and know that they are the kind of students that, when they leave here, anyone that they meet is going to know that there is something special about them,” she said.

Frazer noted that her goal at St John’s Bosco Vocational Training Centre is not to make things easy for students, “but we do make easy happen through hard work and learning”.

“Nothing in life is easy,” she said frankly.

The St John’s Bosco Vocational Training Centre is a City & Guilds-approved centre and offers vocational training and apprenticeship in the culinary arts, butchering, animal husbandry, food preparation, farming, greenhouse technology and barbering.

For his part, Holness hailed Frazer as a visionary who has always been dedicated to enriching the learning opportunities for all students and expanding their skillsets through work-integrated learning opportunities in Manchester.

He also reflected on and recognised Frazer for 48 years of dedicated and selfless service to thousands of Jamaica’s most vulnerable young people and the community of Mandeville at large.

“Sister Susan is a great leader. I get the sense that she is also a strong leader, and I picked that up when I was about to enter her greenhouse and she looked at me and said, ‘You have to take off your shoes’,” Holness, who met Frazer seven years ago after visiting St John’s Bosco, said before laughing.

“She is very hands-on and I noticed that because, when she took me on a tour of the piggery and other places, it was clear that she knew the shop. She knew what was happening on the shop floor. She knew the details of the operation, so I guess it’s safe to say that this is her life, and we thank you for giving us your life,” the prime minister said during the opening ceremony.

LIFE'S JOURNEY

Marcia Tai Chun, chief executive officer of Sisters of Mercy, Jamaica, shared some facts on why the building was dedicated to Sister Susan Frazer.

“Sister Susan Frazer was born in Hancock, Michigan, and as she likes to clarify, upper Michigan, in 1948. She went to high school at McAuley High in Cincinnati, and that is where Sister Susan fell in love with the Sisters of Mercy and their mission. She speaks of the Sisters who inspired her and lit the fire of the vocation of living out God’s call to love one another and to be of service to one another as a Sister of Mercy,” Tai Chun said.

She added that Frazer entered the Sisters of Mercy community in Cincinnati in 1966, the same year she graduated from high school.

“After finishing her social science degree in 1971, her mentor and spiritual advisor at the time sensed that a young Sister Susan not yet finally professed, needed a totally unfamiliar place, unfamiliar circumstances, and different culture to help her to discern what her calling was. The place chosen was Jamaica, which had a vibrant community of Sisters,” she said.

“In 1971, Sister Susan found herself in a place she had not heard of before and was placed immediately into service at Alpha Girls’ School and thereafter Alpha Boys for three years. She returned to the US in 1973 to make her final vows. While there, she worked for four years as a social worker in hospital ministry in Cincinnati until 1977,” Tai Chun said.

She continued, “During that period, she says she could not ignore the call to return to Jamaica to serve, so, after 48 years of service, here we are, grateful that she did answer the call.

“Sister Susan epitomises service above self. Her placing her whole self in everything she does is, at times, exhausting to watch; her dedication to the mission of the Sisters of Mercy and their mission to educate young people, to have young people move to self-fulfilment as they are made in image and likeness of God.”

In 1977, when Frazer returned to Jamaica and to Bosco, she took on the task of trying to make St John Bosco self-sufficient in providing food for the 180 boys in residence.

Frazer and another nun ­– Sister Noreen – started animal rearing at St John’s Bosco, with two pigs from Bodles, which they carried, after purchasing, in the back of a van. Those two pigs started what is now a state-of-the-art piggery with 300 pigs and a retail outlet at St John’s Bosco.

It has been further expanded with a 3,000-fowl chicken house, two greenhouses producing excellent yields, two catering halls, and the Fall’s Restaurant and Bar.

For her service, Frazer was previously awarded the Women Who Inspire Award from her alma mater, McAuley High School; the Rotary Club of Mandeville’s Paul Harris Award; an RJRGLEANER Honour Award; Manchester Chamber of Commerce award for service to the community; Mercy Action Fund honour; and the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer from the people of Jamaica. She has also racked up accolades from the Manchester Cultural Development Commission for her service in social work.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com