(NewsNation) — An American nun was abducted in West Africa, where she has been stationed as a missionary since 2014, according to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

According to Bishop Theophile Nare of the Kaya Diocese, Sister Suellen Tennyson was abducted by armed men overnight between April 4 and April 5 from the parish in Yalgo, Burkina Faso.

The 83-year-old was taken to an unknown destination without her phone, doesn’t have her glasses and doesn’t have necessary medication, according to her fellow nuns.

Dawn Chiappetta, a former student of Tennyson, said she hasn’t kept in touch with the nun, but Tennyson significantly impacted her life.

“She actually inspired me to become a school counselor so that I could love and protect children the way she taught me to,” Chiapetta explained.

Chiapetta said her memories of Tennyson date back to when she was in grammar school.

“I was actually the first kindergartner at the school where she was an assistant principal for the first time. There was not a time that I would pass her that she did not get down on her knees so that I could run up to her and hug her,” she recalled.

Chiappetta continued: “I can’t tell you how, how nice that was that someone in your school community and adult made you feel so important and so loved, And what that does for a child in her formative years.”