Sister Clara Stang
On Wednesday, May 23, Ayan Omar from our Christian/Muslim Dialogue Group presented
the Sister Tonie Rausch Social Justice Scholarship to Hieu Trau at Tech High School in St.
Cloud. She said, “Sister Toni Rausch, a Franciscan nun, created the Interfaith Dialogue Group
of St. Cloud in 2005. She led with her faith, bridging a growing community through eff ective
listening, relentless love and with a response fi lled with compassion and hope.” After she passed
away in 2017, our dialogue group wanted to amplify her life somehow. So we started a yearly
scholarship.
Hieu Trau, the recipient of the scholarship, lived with his sister and mother in Vietnam. He
wrote, “I want to become a medical researcher and practitioner to help unlucky communities.
I know that whether it is in my home country, the U.S., or any other country around the world,
there are still many groups of people who never have access to health care or have standard
health care systems. These people are orphans, homeless, farmers in remote areas, or lowincome
workers in the heavy industry sector. I witnessed poor people living in slums suff ering
sickness and death because they could not aff ord medical services. Thus, having access to free
medical services like those of Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India, is something I’m interested in.
If I’m not able to do such a great thing for humankind as Mother Teresa, I will serve where
there is severe need.” The photo was taken at the reception at which all agreed to come to
our Motherhouse to visit with Sister Rose Mae and the sisters to continue to celebrate this
achievement.
L-R: Greg Spoff ord, Father Tony Kroll, Hieu Trau, Hieu’s mother, Sister Clara Stang and Marilu Sommers
