Commitment to education for the Sisters so that they may be well-qualified for their ministry as educators. After persistent requests, Mother Thomas succeeded in her efforts to have Fordham University open its doors to the Sisters in 1920—the first and only women on their campus, becoming a model for other Jesuit universities to admit Sisters and eventually other women. At the same time, the Sisters affiliated our St. Agnes Normal Institute with the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, so that the young Sisters could complete prescribed courses for admission to the University and any affiliated college.