ACE Teaching Fellows

Friends of the Alliance for Catholic Education—graduates, partners, benefactors, faculty and staff, other supporters, and children whom ACE has been blessed to serve—assembled on the evening of Jan. 24 to launch an unprecedented celebration of the gift of Catholic schools.

Plans for the wide-ranging celebration, spanning about 18 months and including events in dozens of cities around the nation as well as locally, were outlined in a news announcement made earlier in the day.

But the short-term agenda for the evening’s festivities was to celebrate, with a Mass and reception, the community and shared mission that have energized ACE since 1993. That founding date makes this a 20^th anniversary year for ACE. The Thursday event, convening about 160 people, reflected the ACE movement’s enduring love for Catholic schools that bring hope to under-served children.

At Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Rev. Lou DelFra, C.S.C., director of spiritual life for ACE, pointed to love as the unchanging centerpiece of the mission to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools. In his homily for the vigil of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Father Lou said the Lord’s love provides grounding for the whole ACE family as it prepares for the activities of a cross-country celebration.

“We need to start here, at the still-point,” which is “the love of God for us that never changes,” Father Lou told those gathered in observation of the feast that highlights St. Paul, a great evangelizer. The love of God, reflected in the ceaseless generosity of Jesus, is the part of our lives “that gives us the courage and the confidence to engage the world.”

Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., co-founder of ACE and a concelebrant in the Mass, prayed in gratitude for the University of Notre Dame and for the members of the ACE family, and he prayed for continued outreach in loving service to all children for whom the "need of a decent education” has not yet been met.

Concelebrating along with Father Scully and Father DelFra were Rev. Joseph Carey, C.S.C., ACE’s chaplain; Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C., director of university-school partnerships; Rev. Thomas Doyle, C.S.C., a Fellow of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives; Rev. Dan Groody, C.S.C., who has assisted in ACE’s Catholic School Advantage campaign; and Rev. Richard Warner, C.S.C., Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The joy of the Mass was enhanced by the singing of the student choir from St. Adalbert School in South Bend.

Following this start of the celebration of Catholic schools, a reception in the Remick Commons at Carole Sandner Hall, ACE’s home on campus, featured Irish music, lively conversation, and food including a 20^th anniversary cake.

Leaders in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) outlined crucial steps to strengthen under-resourced Catholic schools when US Catholic magazine interviewed them for a just-published article, "Investing in Futures: New Ways of Paying for Catholic Education."

Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C., director of university-school partnerships for ACE and an education consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, highlighted "five keys to turning around the decline in Catholic schools," as reported by Kristen Hannum in the magazine's February 2013 edition. One of those keys is the growing trend of stewardship in the form of large-scale endowment support.

John Schoenig, director of ACE's Program for K-12 Educational Access, expanded on the theme, stressing that at-risk schools often need to implement broad, sustainable changes. "This is the hour that laypeople with vision can effect a systemic transformation in our schools," he said.

The article also quotes the perspectives of these ACE graduates: Elizabeth Brands; Joe Womac, executive director of the Fulcrum Foundation in Seattle; and Erik Goldschmidt, director of the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College.

This Johns Hopkins graduate just finished his first semester in the ACE Teaching Fellows (STT) program, and so far, so good. "The first few months have been really rewarding," he says.

Teaching fifth graders in Rio Grande City, Texas is a far cry from studying political science in Baltimore, Maryland, where Sam earned his bachelor's degree last May.  Just the same, the STT experience has been positive for him, largely because of the people he's met. 

Sam speaks highly of his students. "They are great," he says, "and I really enjoy learning from them as much as I (try to) teach them. They have been so welcoming of me into the Mexican culture; it has really helped me to understand them and genuinely made me happy."

At the same time, the native Texan and his fifth graders enjoy a mutual love for the Lone Star State. "We have really come to form this bond," he says, "through sharing where we come from and where we want to go." In fact, some of his best moments so far have taken place outside the classroom, just swapping stories with his students.

Sam speaks highly of his peers in the STT program, too. "Getting to know so many amazing people is my favorite part of ACE. It really is an honor to be in such great company."

To learn more about the ACE Teaching Fellows program, click here.

Every teacher hopes for bright and alert students who are excited to participate in the day's lesson plans. It's a special challenge to deal with students who seem uninterested, bored, and unwilling to participate.

Here are two questions that you can ask your students. The first is likely to prompt excitement, while the other will bring blank stares—but it's still worth asking.

The first question: When is your birthday? Everyone will respond and talk about how they celebrate this important day.

The second question: When were you baptized? Most people don't know.

Although your students may not know the answer—and you may not know the answer for yourself—I want to suggest that it is important to know. Asking this question is a way we can connect our lives to Christ and the Church in this Year of Faith.

This Sunday, January 13, we will celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We will hear the Gospel of Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus and then hears a voice say, "You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased."

Think about those words and the power they have. They are the inspiration that called Jesus to begin his public ministry. Jesus begins to invite others to follow him, to teach and heal people and forgive sins. These powerful words and this ministry are at the very foundation and beginning of the Church.

We need to hear these words, as well. Listen and receive them in your heart: You are my beloved son or daughter; with you I am well pleased.

We encountered Jesus in the same way in our own Baptism. This is what calls us to be the Church and to be walking into a classroom to teach. If we have reflected on our own blessedness, we can give this same love to the students, and they can pass it along to others.

So go ahead: Ask the Baptism question. Since most students won't know, ask them to find out—and then celebrate your blessedness together. 

If one were looking for stories of generous, caring hearts from this holiday season, ACE teacher Liz Chaten reports two from the classrooms of Saint Joan of Arc School in New Orleans.

Liz , a member of the newest cohort of teachers in ACE Teaching Fellows, has already reported two additional sources of inspiration seen in the classrooms of Saint Joan of Arc.

One is happening during the week of Jan. 7, even as Liz resumes teaching middle school language arts following the Christmas break. A group of undergraduates from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, is visiting her inner-city school to serve as tutors for children as part of the college's Winter Break Alternative Trips initiative.

Students from Saint Anselm have been returning annually for that tradition of service since they made their first trip to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They're a reminder of the passion that many undergraduates around the country have for service to disadvantaged children through Catholic schools.