Duchesne Center | About Us

Welcome to the Duchesne Center!

On behalf of the entire Manhattanville College family and the communities we serve, I welcome you to our website where you can learn more about our five core service areas, sign-up to serve with over 50 one-time and repeating programs, and join our growing network of over 500 student volunteers.

Thank you all for making the difference! Visit our home page for quick links to opportunities, our calendar, and much more!

Respectfully,

Karen King-Sheridan

>> Mission Statement

>> Rose Philippine Duchesne - Biography

Mission Statement

Manhattanville College serves as the coordinator, catalyst, and incubator for community outreach, cultural, leadership, and spiritual initiatives across the campus and beyond. Our service experiences and programs are tightly linked to our academic curriculum to ensure students are building the intellectual framework and acquiring the skills to make them effective and responsible members of their communities.

The Duchesne Center endeavors to create a climate in which all Manhattanville College members will value:

	A sensitivity to an appreciation for the differences among us;
	A heightened awareness and understanding of social justice issues and their responsibility for taking a leadership role in local as well global community issues;
	A deeper sensitivity of, appreciation for, and interest in the components and challenges inherent to today's leaders, and
	A deeper understanding of, appreciation for, and involvement in the spiritual and religious dimensions of life.

We aim to provide Manhattanville students with opportunities that actualize the College’s mission. The profile of an “ethically and socially responsible leader” is a student who:

	Is perceptive and cooperative in the area of human relations;
	Exhibits a sense of self-worth and encourages it in others;
	Desires to learn about and respect differences in people and cultures;
	Endeavors to promote unity;
	Criticizes, when necessary, in a constructive way and when possible, suggests alternatives or solutions;
	Demonstrates and inspires in others awareness, involvement, and leadership skills through service and civic activities; and
	Aspires to support the College’s mission.

Rose Philippine Duchesne - Biography

The Duchesne Center is named after the inspirational French pioneer, Rose Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ. Her legacy as a religious sister is that of a "missionary of the American frontier" within the Catholic Church.

Rose Philippine was born in Grenoble, France, in 1769. She was educated by the Visitation nuns and entered the Visitation Order in 1788, in the middle of the French Revolution. During the Revolution, she cared for the sick and poor, helped fugitive priests, visited prisons, and taught children. After the Revolution, she entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart community and answered the call for nuns to assist the emerging immigrant Church by the bishop of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1818.

Rose Duchesne was sent to St. Charles, Missouri, where she immediately opened a school; then at Florissant, she built a convent, an orphanage, a parish school, a school for Native Americans, a boarding academy, and a novitiate for her order.

Duchesne was a model and inspiration to those around her, facing all the hardships of pioneer work. She died on November 18, 1852, at the age of eighty-three and was canonized in 1988.

Meet Our Staff

Director

Karen King-Sheridan

(914) 323-7178

kingsheridank@mville.edu

Duchesne/Academic.htm

Community Service Coordinator

Craig Donnelly , Jr.

(914) 323-5223 donnellyc@mville.edu

Duchesne/Community Service.htm

Global Citizenship Coordinator

Paolo Tagatac