Sacred Heart senior pitches ‘global publishing center’ at world congress

Bloomfield Hills — Usually, attending the annual AMASC World Congress is reserved to those who have graduated from a Society of the Sacred Heart-affiliated school.

Lauren Dumas, a senior at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills, may have gained permission to skip this step, but she’ll graduate in a few months, and besides, this sole student-participant had good reason to attend the November 2014 congress.

Dumas wished to propose a “global publishing center,” based at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, to collect the various “day in the life” stories of Sacred Heart students from around the world.

Geared toward second-, third- and fourth-grade students — or the equivalent in each country — the stories would follow a template designed by Dumas, and be sent to the Academy of the Sacred Heart’s student-run publishing center for organization and redistribution.

The stories would include fun questions, from “what time they wake up, to their favorite thing to eat for breakfast, to how they get to school in the morning,” said Dumas, “all in an attempt to see what life is like for our counterparts across the world.”

The academy’s student-run publishing center would then organize the stories into a “library” accessible to their fellow international students.

Dumas called the congress, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., this year, “very eye-opening” and “a wonderful opportunity.”



“AMASC” is a French acronym, and stands for “Association Mondiale des Anciennes et Anciens du Sacre-Coeur,” which essentially means the “world association of alumnae and alumni of Sacred Heart schools,” said Sr. Bridget Bearss, RSCJ, a religious sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart who heads the Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart.

Sr. Bearss, along with fellow faculty member Korin Visocchi, accompanied Dumas to the congress, which “united tens of thousands of alumnae and alumni as part of an international family of Sacred Heart schools,” said Sr. Bearss. She added that the Arizona congress was “the first time in my lifetime it was held on this continent.”

Currently, Sacred Heart schools exist in 41 different countries, she said.

A few years ago, Dumas applied for and received a grant through the Micheline Wentworth Global Scholars Program that enabled her to create the academy-based publishing center with the eventual goal of sharing Sacred Heart students’ stories from across the globe.

However, after unsuccessful attempts to connect with other Sacred Heart schools, Dumas’ overall plan was stalled.

Currently, the publishing center produces stories just from within the Academy of the Sacred Heart, though Dumas and her peers have been successful in producing stories on that scale.

Dumas said the center also publishes stories for patients at Beaumont Children’s Hospital, and will soon begin publishing a series of Spanish-to-English translation stories for service trips to the Amazon and Dominican Republic.

Dumas held on to hope for a global publishing center, however, and discussed the dilemma with Sr. Bearss.

“I knew the congress was happening; it seemed like a natural way to connect face-to-face so that the digital community can happen as well,” said Sr. Bearss.

So Dumas went, and presented her global publishing center concept to the congress.

Dumas’ unique presence “was completely embraced,” Sr. Bearss said.

“Women and men we met from around the world, as well as our (religious) sisters, were really delighted, and it will continue to be something that will grow and evolve,” she added.

Dumas will attend Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., this fall, and is open to expanding the publishing center beyond the unit of the Academy of the Sacred Heart. Sr. Bearss pointed out that St. Louis does have two Sacred Heart schools, so it’s a possibility.

“I think that the hope for the future and vision for our Church and for our faith is held in the hands of young people like Lauren,” said Sr. Bearss, “who have the imagination for ways to connect hearts and minds together.”