FACULTY PROFILE

Even after all these years, Sr. Regina Siegfried, A.S.C., continues to hold warm feelings for her teaching career, “There’s still magic in these classrooms.”

Siegfried has been teaching Saint Louis University students about theology, history and life.

She has been an adjunct staff member of the theology department at SLU since 1993. “Students don’t care that I’m part time,” said Siegfried. “All they’re looking for is a good teacher.”

Siegfried knew that she wanted to teach since she was in high school. “I’ve always wanted to teach. I need to be with real people.”

“My whole family is teachers: my father, my brother and my sister,” Siegfried said. “We don’t have family reunions, we have faculty meetings.”

This member of the holy order Adorers of the Blood of Christ believes that teaching is an endless cycle.

“Every teacher has teachers behind them, who inspire them,” Siegfried said, referring to teachers who have impacted her life.

One of those professors was Fr. Walter Ong when she was attending SLU. “He taught me how to write,” Siegfried recalls. “I still remember the final; I learned how to write concisely and stretch margins, back in the day when all we had was typewriters.”

Siegfried decided to enter the teaching profession about the same time as chose did to devote her life to God.

“I knew when I was real young that I wanted to become a sister-eighth grade, I think,” she said. “We would never encourage that decision at such a young age today.”

When talking to students about the religious life, she tells them to think about it and consider it. “It’s a challenging and rewarding lifestyle,” Siegfried said. “We are a community with a mission.”

Siegfried’s popular teaching style is a combination of treating students with respect and challenging them.

“I like to teach intro classes so students get a good taste of the Church from the beginning,” she said.

However, she may not be as sweet and good-natured as she appears. She admits playing mind games with her students: “I fool students into studying and questioning their beliefs.”

As advice to students, Siegfried tells students to take the stuff they’re really interested in and the courses they want to learn.

Siegfried has had her fill of being taught, as well as teaching. She received her bachelor’s of English from SLU in 1966.

She had been teaching prior to receiving her degree. “Back in that day, nuns were allowed to teach without the proper instruction,” Siegfried said. “Nobody ever thought anything about it.”

In 1972, Siegfried received her master’s of English from the University of Wisconsin. She then received her master’s of spirituality from Creighton University in 1979.

Her education was completed with a doctorate in American studies at SLU, with a concentration in American religious history.

In addition to her life of teaching and religious life, Siegfried has been a block captain for more than 5 years.

This position allows her to deal with people on her block and learn the neighborhood system.

“Somebody needed to organize things, keep an eye on things,” she said. “I don’t put up with nonsense,” said the petite lady, grinning.

Siegfried boastfully described an incident where she, along with the help of other block captains and members of the neighborhood, actually got a drug dealer kicked off the block.

“It was several years ago; we just kept an eye on him and kept calling the cops until finally they took him away,” according to Siegfried.

When not fighting crime on her block, Siegfried said that her parish, St. Vincent, plays an integral role in her life.

At St. Vincent, she helps with the meal program and also meets with a female ex-offenders group. It is the ex-offenders group that has changed her life.

“These women teach me so much about my faith,” she said. “I teach theology here, but I learn it there.”

Siegfried described the women as strong, faithful and full of wisdom.

In fact, she has been composing profiles on these women for the last year and a half.

Along with Fay Abram, a member of the School of Social Work and a member of the St. Vincent staff, Siegfried has been writing a book on their stories.

“These women are working on advocacy work for alternative sentences for mothers,” she said. “These are not violent criminals, but people who have written bad checks and that sort of thing. They should be helped and not punished.”

When not feeding the hungry and listening to the outcasts of society, Siegfried enjoys gardening.

On her block, she and two neighboring households have a large, communal garden. “We all garden together and share the profits,” Siegfried said, smiling.

“If I wanted tomatoes, I would just walk over and get some, and my neighbors do the same for anything of mine.”

As a member of the Shaw neighborhood, Siegfried gets to see Micah students in action. “They work with kids on the block and do a great job,” she said.

With her busy schedule, this professor rarely gets to practice one of her most treasured hobbies: writing. She professes her love for historical research, especially the history of U. S. women religious, the history of her own community.

“I love the dead-nun files,” Siegfried said. “I find the secrets for the future in our past.”

According to Siegfried, women of the past have messages for people living today. “We have to just get in there and find them,” she said.

In the future, Siegfried plans to pursue her interest in writing and research. But her teaching career is not over with yet.

“I figure that I have a few years of teaching left,” she said, chuckling. “I’ll know when it’s time to leave.”