ACE Advocates News

“Running has taken me on adventures great and small, at home and around the world. It has provided me with hope and perseverance on days when I had none—and even, once every great while, warmed me with that fleeting ray of sunshine known as glory.” —Martin Dugard

For Stephanie Becker, no step on her journey as a Catholic educator has been alone. As she has worked to become the Academic Dean for Mt. Carmel-Holy Rosary School, a Catholic school that is a part of the Partnership Schools Network in New York City, she has found that each stop on her way has been supported by those who inspired Steph to a fuller and more joyful participation in the mission of Catholic education.

For Danielle Gonzales, a graduate of the eighth cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows, education has always been personal. Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Danielle worked diligently to make the most of her education. She realized from an early age that education would be the key to achieving the changes she desired, both on an individual and national level. Danielle did not attend the most well-resourced schools in the country for primary and secondary school, but she made the most of the resources available to her and earned college scholarships and went on to earn a college degree. 

We seek to create a unique communion of joy among students, their families, and our faculty and staff, in the context of a pre-eminent pre-K through 12^th grade Catholic college-preparatory school. We want to prepare our students for a lifetime of happiness by inculcating in them three foundational virtues: faith, prudence, and magnanimity.  

So proclaims the mission statement posted on the website for Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta, Georgia. Like most ACE Teaching Fellows in their second year of ACE’s M.Ed. Program, Kyle Pietrantonio found himself in deep discernment about what God was calling him to do next. Law school perhaps? Maybe he was being called to pursue public policy? As he studied for the LSAT and completed law school applications, Kyle couldn’t shake what seemed, at that moment in his life, an even deeper desire: to remain in the classroom, where he could continue to hone the art of teaching.

As 2016 draws to a close, we look back on the past year and our 16 biggest stories and blog posts.