When Sister Hermana Yesenia stood in front of the Cathedral School junior high and high school girls in the gym Wednesday to discuss her “calling” to the convent, a junior high teacher whispered a tip from the sideline before the speech.

“Open minds,” Brandy Mann told the nearest group of teenaged girls.

Yesenia, who was likely also sensing the crowd’s predisposed disconnection to a nun that Mann sensed, tackled the stereotype head on.

“Did you expect to see a habit and a ruler in my hand?” said Yesenia, who was dressed in a button-down shirt, knee-length pencil skirt, with her shoulder-length hair hanging down.

Yesenia went on to tell the story of how she discovered she was meant to be a nun.

“God didn’t call me on my cell phone,” she said. “I didn’t have the idea to be a nun when I was 5.”

In fact, Yesenia said she was 23 years old, had a boyfriend, was going to college, and her life was great.

“Life was just perfect, but then something happened in 1995,” she said.

“I asked the wrong question to the right person.”

At confession, Yesenia, who didn’t know any nuns in her family or church parish, said she asked the priest what plan God had for her.

“He said to become a nun,” she said.

She initially thought the priest had it wrong, Yesenia said.

“I thought, I like men, I love to party and dance. I joke a lot. Are you thinking of my sister? She’s shy,” Yesenia said.

But the thought kept nagging her mind, so she checked it out.

She expected mean old ladies at the convent but encountered young people who actually seemed happy, Yesenia said.

And 16 years later, Yesenia has made a lifetime commitment to keep God as her partner, she said

Yesenia shared her story with the Cathedral girls as part of national Catholic Schools’ Week, which was recognized by Cathedral and Holy Family Early Learning Center last week.

Cathedral religious teacher and campus ministry leader Rusty Vincent said the purpose of the week was to celebrate and appreciate the Catholic education the children receive.

This year’s theme exposed students to ministerial careers with a focus on relationships, Vincent said.

By devoting her life to one spirit — Jesus — she can never be let down, Yesenia said.

Yesenia said even after 16 years as a nun and a lifetime commitment to God, just like the students, she too, questions herself and has problems of her own.

“Just like in a relationship when you need something, I tell God when I need his help,” Yesenia said.

And unlike anyone else on the planet, including the boyfriend she chose to leave behind in her 20s, God never lets her down, Yesenia said.

Vincent said the hope of introducing speakers such as Yesenia was to expose students to careers devoted solely to ministry, so they can apply that scope of faith to their own life.

Andrew Carter, a Cathedral senior who listened to a priest speak about his vocation with the other boys in high school and junior high, said he appreciated the exposure to a different life experience coming from someone who’s given their life to ministry.

Carter, who has been attending Cathedral since seventh grade, said his Catholic education has influenced him to handle problems differently than once did.

“I look at life in a different way instead of selfishly,” Carter said.

While some schools stray from prayer and religion, Cathedral uses Catholicism as a lens through which students learn everything, Vincent said.

Vincent said teaching morality and character development will help the students in their practical futures and their spiritual destiny.

“Faith kind of empowers (the students),” he said.

When students speak out at retreats or take charge in organizing a service project, their leadership gains strength from their faith, Vincent said.

“When you have faith, it gives you a confidence — Grace from God,” he said.

That confidence, along with a solid education, will help students be ready for college.

“We’re trying to prepare them from being away from home, out of their comfort zone,” Vincent said.

“Faith helps us know we have God to go to, and it gives (students) strength to be themselves.”

And that confidence from faith should be nurtured from the youngest age, said Sister Bernadette McNamara, the financial advisor at Holy Family Early Childhood Center.

McNamara said the children pray throughout the day. If they ask the class to pray for their grandparents, for example, or someone they know who is sick, the class prays for them.

“They’re comfortable in their faith,” McNamara said.

McNamara said Holy Family tries to give the children a solid start in building moral character.

“They need character all their lives, and the earlier they learn it the better off they are,” she said.

At Holy Family, God is involved in the lessons, whether it’s about sharing, trusting others, the religious aspects of Halloween and Thanksgiving or doing chores, McNamara pointed out in the 3-year-olds’ textbook, “Discovering God’s Child.”

Allowing God into the classroom makes for a positive atmosphere, she said.

“They know they’re loved by God because they’re told that all the time,” McNamara said.

Among other activities for Catholic Schools’ Week, Holy Family invited the community to participate in reading to the children Friday for community service.

Instilling ministry through community service is one of the foundations of the Catholicism, Vincent said.

All high school students must complete 40 hours of community service a year, he said.

“Every day they get exposed to (moral lessons), and I hope one day they act on it,” Vincent said.

Vincent and McNamara said Cathedral and Holy Family, respectively, do well in preparing students for a successful career and home life.

“Christianity is a good basis for education, and I believe when they leave us they’re ready to fly,” McNamara said of the 2-5 year olds.

But more importantly, Vincent said, he hopes the Catholic education students receive, even for the more than 70 percent of those who are not practicing Catholics, is that the influence helps them thrive beyond this world.

“It’s more than having good job, a nice family,” Vincent said. “It’s about success in the next life.

“If they’re not progressing toward heaven — all that other stuff — it’s not as significant,” he said.