ACE Advocates News

Molly Carlin and Kyle Pietrantonio, ACE graduates and current leaders in Catholic education in Atlanta, received coverage from the Georgia Bulletin newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The newspaper covered the fact that both of them recently received the Michael Pressley Awards for Excellence in Catholic Education at ACE's annual Commencement ceremonies. Molly was also featured as one of the Archdiocese's new principals, with a mention of her ACE background.

Dr. Michael Faggella-Luby, an ACE graduate who received the Michael Pressley Award for a Promising Scholar in the Education Field, received coverage in the Hartford Courant. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut.

This week we caught up with ACE graduate Jeffrey Kerscher. After three years of teaching in inner-city Washington, DC and a year serving as a dean of a Catholic high school in Florida, Jeff has just taken a job as a blended learning manager and school culture consultant for Seton Education Partners at St. Therese Catholic Academy in Seattle, Washington.

Walk us down the path of how you became involved in Catholic schools and the Alliance for Catholic Education.

I became obsessed with the idea of the achievement and opportunity gap when, as a sophomore in college, I ran a mentoring organization for inner-city kids at Xavier. I saw how much it meant for both the kids and their families to have exposure to faith-based role models. As a product of Catholic education and the child of a Catholic educator, I knew that serving in ACE would enable me to fulfill my social justice oriented mission of closing the achievement gap while ensuring that a faith based option existed for the less fortunate. In my work now at St. Therese, our goal is to create and expand opportunities for disadvantaged children to receive an academically excellent, technologically advanced, and vibrantly Catholic education.

Why do you value Catholic schools? What drives you to get up every morning?

I value Catholic schools because they provide a community unlike any other – a community grounded in faith that provides students with the tools to become morally, spiritually, and intellectually excellent individuals eager to serve the common good. They have a transformative power and there is no place where that power is needed more than America's inner-city neighborhoods. Every morning I wake up determined to bring that opportunity to every kid and family that wants a better life. I serve them not because they are Catholic, but because I am Catholic.

Explain how ACE has played a role in forming you as a leader, teacher, and person.

ACE allowed me to dedicate my life to an issue that I feel passionate about while giving me the opportunity to grow professionally and spiritually in the process. It has ignited a passion to learn and a desire to always find a way to do more for students.

To see a video about the work of Seton Education Partners, click here.

What do ACE Teaching Fellows, film-making, entrepreneurship, and Catholic schools have in common? Brick Maier. Over the last several years, the ACE 8 graduate has put his ACE teaching experience to work, honing his skills as a filmmaker and entrepreneur to create educational resources for community and classroom.

Of his years as an ACE teacher, Brick writes, "The actual experience of learning how to teach was very humbling." But the result was confidence. ACE taught Brick to take on new challenges boldly, knowing that "if I could survive the first couple years of teaching, I could do pretty much anything."

Most recently, that has meant developing tools that foster creative play and media literacy. Specifically, he has created a Tabletop Moviemaking Studio Kit, which enhances the power of story-telling. Catholic schools, he tells us, are particularly amenable to such a resource. "I have found that [they] are uniquely positioned to move quickly on implementing innovative ideas because the organizational leadership is nimble." Currently, Brick is raising funds for the production of these kits via a Kickstarter campaign.

The former Fulbright scholar with a heart for today's youth sees that Catholic schools are a powerful force for positive change, "especially in our inner city schools. From my teaching experience in Los Angeles to filming in Catholic schools in Haiti, I have learned that Catholic education, simply put, opens doors."

Support Brick Maier's work here. See his video about Haiti here. To order a Tabletop Moviemaking Studio Kit, click here.

Their backgrounds vary, and so do the reasons they took part in the ACE Teaching Fellows program. But these ACE Interns (above, L to R, Justin Novotney, Andrea Krebs, Kyle Pounder, Casey Flynn, and Jim Murphy) are united by their faith, their commitment to Catholic education, and their views about what ACE is doing for Catholic schools.

With a father who is a deacon and a mother who was in charge of RCIA at their parish, Andrea Krebs has been a practicing Catholic since her earliest years, Still, her first experience with K-12 Catholic education was in the year after college, when she served as a missionary in Mexico, and her second was as a teacher in ACE. Of that experience, she says she especially appreciates the freedom to talk about God in the classroom and is purposeful about teaching her students to enjoy that freedom, too. "I spend a fair amount of time helping kids develop ways to talk to God." She counts her ACE experience significant in preparing her for that. When asked about how ACE makes a difference in her school, Andrea says, "ACE provides an energy and motivation for all the school's teachers and students to keep improving, to keep learning more."

Kyle Pounder agrees. "ACE is bringing young, enthusiastic, and," he adds with a grin, "naively ambitious people into Catholic schools." Unlike Andrea, the faith was not a big part of Kyle's life until he attended a Catholic high school with a largely non-Catholic student body. There he became a Christian when friends took him to a Methodist church. He also met a teacher who graduated ACE. By the time this service-oriented youth graduated college, he says, "I felt like I had received so much from people, things I didn't deserve, and I wanted to give back." He talked with his former teacher, who steered him toward ACE. Today this Protestant is passionate about Catholic schools, saying, "In addition to providing good academics, [they] provide a place of belonging for students. They are concerned about the overall well-being of each student."

Casey Flynn and her family exemplify that fact. Her dad helped start a Cristo Rey school in the Washington, DC area and now sits on the board, while her mom serves as volunteer coordinator there. And when Casey graduated from MIT, she says, "I was looking for a faith-filled service program and wanted to do it in education because that has been such a big part of my family's life." ACE filled the bill. About the program, Casey says, "[It} provides great, well-educated, young, spiritual role models for kids across the country. Each school is different, and each needs different things, but the unifying factor for all 180 ACE teachers is that they are role models."

She took the words right out of Jim Murphy's mouth. "ACE teachers are young," says the son of two Catholic school educators, "Kids see that they're comfortable with their faith." This, in addition to their emphasis on academics, makes them uniquely valuable in the lives of students. "ACE gives students both academic and spiritual role models, reinforcing learning and intellectual development as well as strong and public faith lives." Jim emphasizes that value in Catholic education writ large, too. "[It] gives students a chance to connect faith life with academic life, so instead of faith becoming a part of what they do, it becomes a part of who they are."

Justin Novotney put it this way, "Catholic education forms the whole person." Justin particularly appreciates the historical rootedness of the institution. "I believe in Catholic education," he says, "because I trust those who came before me." A product of Catholic schools, Justin graduated college with the desire to become more involved in the community and the Church. "ACE fell into my lap in the most wonderful of ways," he says, recounting his casual decision to apply after hearing an announcement about it at Mass one night. His simple thought was, "if I get in then I will do it." Now that he's finished with ACE, he speaks about the difference it is making "because it is bringing talented, enthusiastic individuals into Catholic education who otherwise might not be there. Over time, that influence adds up to supplement what the Catholic school system in America has going."

Justin, a former middle school science and math teacher, will be a student at Moreau Seminary this fall. Jim will teach world history, government & economics for a third year at a Catholic high school in Los Angeles. Casey, a math teacher, will join the faculty of a Catholic high school in Chicago. Kyle, also a high school math teacher, will begin doctoral work in math at the University of Arizona. And Andrea will return to her high school in Los Angeles, teaching Science and math.

ACE 17 Student Commencement Address
Given in the Monogram Room, Edmund P. Joyce Center
University of Notre Dame
July 13, 2012

On behalf of the graduating class of ACE 17, I want to thank all of you for being here tonight. Thank you to the ACE M.Ed faculty, pastoral staff, and all who make ACE what it is for their for their guidance and wisdom these past two years. Thank you also to all of the friends and family members who have travelled to be with us this weekend, and for their support and encouragement over the course of our ACE experience.

And on a personal note, I want to thank my fellow ACErs — my fellow masters, my allies in Catholic education, my dear friends, my brothers and sisters for giving me — a lowly Spartan — the opportunity to speak for a few minutes tonight on their behalf and to represent Our Lady's University in this capacity. I say with all sincerity that this is the honor of my life.

I'm a little bit intimidated to be up here right now. Fr. Scully and Doc are tough acts to follow and to "piggy-back" off them, and even attempt to "unpack" their remarks is a high task indeed. Many of you are perhaps expecting me to briefly and succinctly encapsulate the ACE experience. Grandma Rita in the back perhaps might be wondering what it's like to be an ACE teacher, or perhaps Cousin Herschell wants to know about the academic rigors of the M.Ed, and Aunt Esther might just want some more clarification on why her sweet niece or nephew was sent to Plaquemine, Louisiana in the first place, or even where or what a Plaquemine is.

My attempts to do this have, quite frankly, terrified me for the past few weeks, and I've come to the conclusion that —alas! — it can't be done. For those who have completed ACE, no explanation is necessary and for those who have not, no amount of explanation will suffice. The story of ACE as a whole is too big for one man to explain. It is, alas, not my story to tell.

But this burden nevertheless left me afraid. Afraid, much like the apostles were in the reading we just heard. Scripture says a strong wind was blowing, and the apostles of Christ were frightened. And when Christ appears, walking on water, what does he say but, "Do not be afraid"?

"Do not be afraid" — says the unsinkable man.

At first, this reading did nothing to allay my fears. If I'm afraid to sink, why should I listen to Jesus, as he is buoying on top of the sea?

But when the apostles stop being afraid, when they recognize what is happening — their Lord defying the laws of nature and physics — they let him into the boat...and they are amazed. They forget their fear, and they just live in awe of what they just saw.

I think, as ACErs, we can all relate to being afraid at one point or another. And maybe, when we strip away the pomp and circumstance of this weekend, we might get afraid again. Speaking for myself, I have been afraid numerous times as an ACEr but, upon reflection, I realized that this fear quickly melted and become something very different.

The first time I was ever afraid in ACE was, of course, Day One at Most Pure Heart of Mary. After going through my classroom procedures, I was left with a class full of students, and a 55 minutes lesson plan that was completed in about 35 minutes. I was absolutely terrified. So of course I had the students ask me anything they wanted to kill the time.

One student raised his hand and asked "Midda Faw, is you a real teacher?"

I said, "Yes."

And that was the first lie I ever told my students.

Another student, sensing my fear, asked a follow up: "So where'd you teach before this?"

"Mishawaka, Indiana," I said. Not a lie.

But one student, the most curious and thoughtful of them all, said — "MISH-A-WAKA, Indiana?! So you be like, teaching in tee-pees?!"

This kid, bless his heart, either thought I was teaching in India, or teaching Natrive American Indians, or something I really don't understand. He was a little confused but I applauded his critical thinking skills. And in an instant, my fear disappeared, and I became amazed.

From that day forward, my students called me by the affectionate "Midda Faw" — which I love — and more or less believed that I was a real, qualified, teacher. Which I gradually became.

The only other time I can really remember being that scared was in my second year, when I was a basketball coach for the 5th and 6th grade boys basketball team. I — and a look at me the past two years at ACEstore would tell you this — suck at basketball. To use people-first language, I am a person that does life sucking at basketball. So to coach young kids in this game, even with a highly qualified fellow ACE teacher and all-around baller, Alec, still terrified me.

Now the coaching position for the team had been very transient in the past and a few years back a man — a very well meaning man, but nevertheless a man with just a bit of a dyslexic tendency, was in charge. He took it upon himself to brand all the new equipment himself and label it.

Our school and team mascot was the lions. So imagine our surprise when we saw that the balls, bags, and other assorted equipment we inherited all said "LOINS" on them.

This is funny, but exacerbated by the fact that the name of our school was "Most Pure Heart of Mary." So, our equipment would have you believe that we were the "Most Pure Heart of Mary Loins." Or just, "Heart of Mary Loins." The first thing I was afraid of was that our uniforms would bear this dreadful typo, but, thankfully they did not.

The second thing I was terrified of — and I think any coach out there would agree — was losing our first game. I was OK if we lost a game, or a few games, but I just didn't want to lose the first game. Parents can be very unforgiving.

I was pretty much worthless on the bench and Alec did most of the sideline coaching. But as soon as the game started, my fear once again disappeared. These students, whose other areas of their lives were by most accounts very messy — messy home lives, messy school lives, messy social lives — became stars on the court. And I had nothing to do with it. When they played well, they really shined. And I was amazed.

To briefly go back to the Scripture reading, many of us might recall that there's a slightly different version in Matthew's gospel. The apostles are still in the boat, the wind's still blowing, and Jesus is still walking on the sea. They're still, obviously, terrified. But one guy, Peter, has the audacity to try out the very amazing thing that Jesus is doing. He ain't afraid. So he steps out, onto the sea, and it works. Peter walks on water too.

For a moment.

He looks around, notices the storm and, like a brick, begins to sink. He calls out to Christ, who offers him his hand, and catches him. Like Peter, I too have tried to walk on water, thinking I could do it, only to sink promptly thereafter.

For example: Once, I was in our upstairs hallway and my housemate Kelly was walking toward me. She mentioned she would be late for dinner, because she recently started coaching volleyball. I, like a good community member, wanted to support he and share my excitement for her, so I started to mime a little invisible volleyball in the hallway. I jumped up, attempting to smack an invisible ball (and get this, I actually yelled "ACE!" as I did it) and punched right through the glass covering the light bulb. My hand and wrists were sliced, and I howled all the way down to the kitchen, where we eat, to tend myself.

While Kelly cleaned up the blood, Colleen, my other housemate, hearing me cry out, came to the rescue, calmed me down, and tended my wound. What I did not know, was Colleen is extremely squeamish around blood. So while I sat happily being aided by two nurses, Colleen was doing everything she could not to vomit. When she was done, Colleen offered me her hand, her help, when I started sinking, and for that, I am amazed.

No ACE talk would be complete without a reflection on all four — excuse me, three — pillars, so I have just one more story.

I was teaching the sacraments in religion this past year and we were talking about the Eucharist — that is, the sacrament that Catholics recognize as the real presence — body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. I explained this to my students, and saw their faces kind of contort — first in confusion, then in understanding, then in shock. Many of my students, non-Catholic, didn't understand how people could really think this. And then Shauntai, in the back, asked a question I'll never forget:

"So, Midda Faw, if you think that Jesus is REALLY the bread, then why you not be amazed, like, ALL THE TIME?!"

And I didn't have an answer for her. Still don't.

And I think, maybe, that's why I was so afraid of this talk. Not just because I have to get up in front of 500 people. I taught middle school, I can handle 500 people. But because you all amaze me so much, and I don't want to disappoint.

My mother, when she finished the parent retreat last year and met so many of the ACE 17 class, couldn't stop gushing. "Oh Dan, they are like, the best group of people. They are just so smart, and so nice, and so attractive...!"

And I can't disagree with her. If you disagree with her, she's right there and she'll fight with you over it. These people, my classmates, who I get the honor to address, are the greatest group of people I have had the pleasure of knowing.

And I wondered for a long time why this was. What makes the ACE class so great? It's more than just being nice, or smart, or good-looking (which we all are). And at the risk of sounding like a Gather hymnal, I figured it out.

You all remind me of Christ. All the times when I have been amazed by this program and the experiences of it, I have seen Christ. I'm going to be super ACEy for a second and quote Gerard Manly Hopkins. He writes,

for Christ plays in ten thousand places

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his,

To the Father through the features of men's faces.

I admire, I respect, and I love ACE 17. Because they remind me of Jesus, they introduce and reintroduce me to Jesus, and they show me what he's all about.

When I get a hug from Andrea Krebs, it's like getting a hug from God. When James Cahill dances or when Nick Cuomo wobbles at the Backer, I feel Christ's joy. When Kyle Pounder laughs — I hear Christ laugh. When Mary Lefere and Patrick Kirkland smile, that's Christ's smile. I see the face of Christ in the Face of ACE — Tim Malecek, and in the faces of all of you. And when I listen to the sound of hoping, the singing of Stephen McNamara and Patrick Kincaid, I hear the very voice of Christ.

I see him in all of you, and in all of the good that we've done.

It's easy to be afraid, especially in times like this. We are moving to new places, and schools. We have new vocations, new spouses, new fiancees, new roommates, new careers.

But when I think back to all of you all, and how I have seen Christ in you and in all of the work and the pain and the struggle and the joy and the good, the real and lasting good that we've done — together: I am not afraid.

I am amazed.

And, like Shauntai's question, I really don't know why I wasn't amazed the whole time. I should have been. And now, looking at all of you, finishing this difficult and beautiful experience, I know I will continue to be amazed for a very long time.

Thank you again for selecting me for this honor, and for keeping me afloat these two years. I couldn't have done it without you, and I love you all very much. May Christ, through his Mother, Notre Dame, bless us for the rest of our lives.

Amen.