Sister Jean Faustman SSJ taught in elementary schools and high school, and as an adjunct faculty member at Chestnut Hill College before becoming a full-time professor in 1992. She obtained a Masters and Doctoral degree from Middlebury College in Vermont.  The Doctor of Modern Languages degree in French and Spanish included among other requirements a year’s study in Paris. Her main interests in French are culture, history, and the literature of France and of some Francophone countries of the Caribbean and Africa. Her chosen second language for doctoral studies was Spanish. In 2004, Peter Lang Publishing company published her dissertation thesis, Le creuset des cultures: la littérature antillaise.

Along with teaching, Sister Jean is the Faculty Athletic representative from Chestnut Hill College. The main role of the position is to assure the integrity of CHC’s academic program among student-athletes and to be the liaison between athletics and the faculty. It is a role that she thoroughly enjoys, establishing relationships with students she never would have met and working alongside the advisors for student-athletes.

Sister Jean spent three full years as a missionary in the Andes highlands of Peru, working in Santa Ana parish, with the poorest of the poor. From 2006-2009 she taught Bible classes, English classes to children and adults, and prepared children for the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.  She served as the parish liaison with the Children’s Shelter, the Special Education school, the prison and worked with the municipal social worker to aid many families.  She returned to CHC as a full-time teacher in 2009, but continued to spend five to seven weeks every year in Yauri, Peru.

She also volunteers at a local Safe House for women. She began volunteering there when she became aware that women trafficked from South American countries were living in the safe house. They were relieved to be able to converse with her in their own language.  Three students volunteered there with her until they mandated that volunteers had to be at least 21 years old.  

From 2009 to the present, students often comment that they loved hearing real-life stories from Peru, and several have been moved to help with donations, carrying out CHC’s mission of the dear neighbor. Also, two CHC students spent time with her in the parish in Peru, visiting the children, schools and the prison.  They do claim that the experience changed their lives.