The first locale of IHM Activity was Monroe, Michigan, where the sisters opened their first school for girls in 1845. The sisters first came to Northeast Pennsylvania in 1858, led by Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin,co-founder of the Congregation. In the 57 years of service preceding the opening of the University, the sisters conducted schools in the industrial towns of Pennsylvania, always seeking to foster the aspirations of working people's children. They sometimes operated academies for richer families and used the income to support their service for poor children in parish schools. Marywood College, as it was known at its founding in 1915, was a natural outgrowth of one of those academies, Marywood Seminary, which had been established on campus in the Motherhouse in 1902.

Since Marywood has from the start been dedicated to the education of working class persons, it has always pursued the dual goals of providing students with an outstanding liberal arts education and equipping them with preparation for satisfying and productive careers. Numerous professional programs have been created to enhance students' employment opportunities, many of them in the helping professions in keeping with the Marywood tradition of service. All programs in the Undergraduate School, whatever the major, share a single curricular purpose: preparing students to live responsibly in an interdependent world. Similarly, masters and doctoral programs develop leaders who exercise their professions with competence, commitment and compassion.

Since 1915, Marywood has continued to respond to emerging needs. Presently its four schools address a whole range of concerns - from College for Kids to the Senior Learners' Institute; from attention to the needs of families to ministry to regional migrant workers; from education in the most advanced communication technologies to the treasuring of the riches of the diverse cultures and traditions of the world. In every instance, Marywood is motivated by the founding IHM perspective: that a loving, personal God exists and that each person has a right to enjoy the world that God has provided and thereby come to know God's love ever more personally and intensely. We hope you will share in the benefits of the IHM/Marywood Connection.