Elizabeth A Elliott, August 16, 2016 | Global Sisters Report
Araceli Ontiveros was drawn to the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, California, because one of her aunts worked at the convent where elderly sisters who need special care are housed. “They are intelligent women, nurses, engineers, and use their gifts to serve others,” she said. Ontiveros had grown up outside of San Francisco, the oldest of three children in an immigrant family from Mexico. She was the first of her family to attend college, then went on to become a lawyer. “As a lawyer, I seek to do something meaningful with my degree, and I also want to serve others,” she said.
She had been discerning a vocation with the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael for about a year when the director of vocations ministries asked her if she would consider participating in the Vocation Ambassadors Program, which provides media training and communications skills to young adults to promote religious life in the church and to the public.
The Vocation Ambassadors Program is “about building and sustaining relationships on so many levels,” said Sr. Deborah Maria Borneman, a Sister of Saints Cyril and Methodius and director of member relations and services for the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC), which created the program.