This fall, Sister Dianna Higgins, FMIJ, is going back to Saint Margaret Regional School, Woodbury Heights.
Almost 40 years after arriving there as a religious postulant, to teach fifth grade, she has returned as its new school principal.
“I’m excited for the challenge, and for the new year to begin,” Sister Dianna said. “I feel at home.”
Her return to the community comes after a career as an educator and mentor to youth throughout the Diocese of Camden, and a lifelong love of learning fostered while growing up in Atlantic Highlands.
Sister Dianna attended Saint Agnes Catholic School in her hometown before moving on to Mater Dei High School (later Prep, in Middletown). She graduated from Glassboro State College, earning a degree in special education.
After graduation, she taught in a program for high school-aged boys with special needs in the Henry Hudson/ Keansburg school district for a year, before entering the convent of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Infant Jesus in 1987.
From 1987-1988, she taught at Saint Margaret’s while discerning her vocation, joining the sisters at the school that they established in 1963.
The same year Sister Dianna made her first vows, 1990, she began to teach all grade levels at Archbishop Damiano School in Westville, continuing to serve children with special needs until 2006. She made her final profession of vows in 1995.
Next came time as a director of religious education at Christ the King Parish, Haddonfield (2006-2008); as a religion teacher at Paul VI High School, Haddonfield (2008-2022); and most recently, the high school’s director of campus ministry, from 2022 until this past school year.
Throughout it all, she earned a degree in religious studies, with a concentration in Scripture, from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia; a master’s in special education and a certificate in educational supervision from Rowan University, Glassboro; and a master’s in Franciscan and medieval studies from New York’s Saint Bonaventure University.
“I love learning; it expands our horizons and helps us know ourselves and the world better,” Sister Dianna said.
As a longtime educator, she sees the value in helping the young Church connect to the Catholic faith not only for themselves, but for the larger community. “We can teach them how to live a Christian life, knowing that we’re all created in God’s image and likeness, worthy of respect and honor. We pass along to them a moral compass.”
Father Joseph Pham is parish pastor of Infant Jesus, located adjacent to the school. He says there’s excitement among the community for Sister Dianna’s new position, as many are already familiar with her work as the parish youth minister from 2020-2022.
“Sister Dianna puts her heart and soul into her work, with zeal and dedication, for love of the students,” he said.
It’s this latter point that Sister Dianna wants her staff to remember as the school doors open in a few weeks. “Love the students, first and foremost,” she stressed. “They’re the young people that God, and their parents, have entrusted to us.”
Sister Dianna and the Saint Margaret staff have been busy preparing for the first day of school, and she has found pleasure seeing “the excitement in the teachers as they decorate their classrooms prepare lesson plans and come to me with ideas for the new school year. I appreciate their enthusiasm.”
“I’m looking forward to the building being full of teachers, students, learning, excitement, enthusiasm and fun,” she continued. “That’s when the school is alive.”
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