ACE in Chile Transcends Borders and Languages

In a world where the call to teach and learn transcends national boundaries, the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) has found a powerful synergy in teaching English as a New Language (ENL), whether the learners reside in the United States or in Chile.

ACE at the University of Notre Dame has been offering an ENL licensure program since 2006, with the aim of increasing the expertise of Catholic school teachers who teach English-language learners. The ENL program is an integral part of ACE's mission to help Catholic schools become more inclusionary for immigrant children.

The ENL program arose, in part, because ACE started to send some of its teacher-formation graduates to Santiago, Chile, to teach English at St. George's College, a K-12 school administered by the Congregation of Holy Cross, according to Rita Lyden, coordinator of the Chile ACE program (ChACE). These ACE graduates communicated their own need for further preparation in English language instruction. ‎Brian Green, Jennifer Hendrix, Michelle Cobb, and Joe Waln were the first Chile ACE program (ChACE) cohort, arriving in August 2001. They were followed by Patrick Fennessy, Townsend Bailey, Erin Kent(Lillis), Erin Luby, Jeff Nichols, and Jennifer Mullins Podichetty in 2002.

"We began with just three teachers at St. George’s in 2000,” says Lyden. The school’s leadership asked Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., co-founder of ACE, “to tap into the amazing talent, experience, and spirit-filled enthusiasm of the graduating ACErs and send a few to St. George’s to be English language teachers."

The ChACE program has grown and now generally sends a cohort of up to eight teachers to Santiago every year. Selections for ChACE 12 have recently been released. Once they commit, this cohort will teach English in at least four Catholic K-12 schools around the Chilean capital, including St. George's, during 2012-2013.

These teachers will have the opportunity to earn certification in teaching English as a New Language. Indeed, they will constitute about a third of the total number of students gaining ENL licensure eligibility through ACE during the academic year; the remaining two thirds will be current Catholic school teachers coming from the United States and around the world to start their ENL curriculum this summer at Notre Dame.

The ChACE teachers, chosen from graduates of ACE's ACE Teaching Fellows (STT) formation program or other UCCE programs, will have the extra opportunity to explore Chile and South America—and to become fluent in Spanish—during their year and a half of service. They also have the opportunity "to become meaningful mentors to the students they serve," Lyden points out.

Perhaps the boldest vision for ChACE, building upon the three pillars of professional service, community life, and spiritual growth that mark formation in the STT program, is for these ChACErs to become "a factor in invigorating the spirituality and faith life of Chile's and South America's future leaders," says Lyden.

The ChACE program helps the Alliance for Catholic Education to spread ENL teaching skills both in the United States and abroad, and it also enhances Notre Dame's vision of solidarity with and service in Latin America. This connection to the continent arises largely from the long-term presence of Holy Cross priests in Chile and Mexico. These two countries, along with Haiti and Brazil, are among the areas of greatest interest for Notre Dame as it shapes its future presence throughout the Americas.

"The bonds between the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame, and Chile are strong," Lyden affirms. "ChACE is just one of the manifestations of that."

As the institutional bonds grow over time, new relationships will soon be built on a personal level for yet another year. Preparations continue for the individuals who will carry out the mission of the ChACE 12 cohort.