ACE Teaching Fellows

New York Times religion commentator Samuel Freedman offers a look at the ACE Teaching Fellows faith community in Tucson in a piece published on Oct. 19.

Freedman writes: "Devoting themselves to society’s overlooked and left-behind, voluntarily accepting a wage of $1,000 a month that is roughly at the federal poverty line, living in intentional Christian households, the 1,600 teachers produced by ACE in its 19-year history have formed the 21st-century equivalent of the sisters and brothers from Catholic religious orders whose sacrifices for decades sustained the American parochial school system."

The Year of Faith begins on October 11th and goes through November 24, 2013. There are many things that we can do during this time, but the most important is to take time to reflect on our lives and where we can discover God's presence in our lives. I look at it as a retreat which we are on for a year. It is a different type of retreat in that we do not go away, but that we look at our daily lives. I would suggest that we ask one question in this journey. Where is God in our lives?

I am writing a faith blog during this year in which I will take stories from the ACE community and explore where God is in the story of a member of the community and connecting it to the gospel.

I was talking with an ACE teacher recently who shared a story. She had been accepted into the ACE program and a similar program at another school. She made the decision to join ACE because she was going to teach Spanish K through 8, and that was what she wanted to do. She came to Notre Dame for ACE summer and, near the end, she received some news that was upsetting. Her principal needed her to teach fourth grade—and not Spanish. You can imagine how she felt. She felt angry, disappointed, and betrayed, and she considered quitting because she was not going to do what she wanted to do. She decided, through the encouragement of her mother, to accept the new assignment, although she was not happy.

I was talking with her a year later and she told me that she could not be happier teaching fourth grade. She loved her students last year, and this year as well. She felt that it was very important to have faced this decision and to have been able to say "yes."

If we look at this story from the perspective of faith, we can see something of Mary's "yes" to become the mother of Jesus. It was not what Mary expected, but she is a role model for facing questions and doing the will of God.

As you think about your life, what challenge have you faced and how do you look at it as an invitation to follow Christ more closely? Let us pray that we can discover in our stories a connection to doing what God is calling us to do. Through our "yes," we can say like Mary, "my soul proclaims the greatness of God."

May God bless you in this Year of Faith.

Carl Loesch is one of seven children whose combined years in Catholic schools total more than 100. It's not hard to see how these schools have formed him. There's his deep commitment to the faith and to service. His strong academic training in math. Two Theology degrees from Notre Dame. And a career dedicated to Catholic education.

"I just wanted to give back," he says when explaining his decision to become a Catholic school teacher. And so he has. For nine years he taught and coached in Fort Wayne and then, at the invitation of Bishop D'Arcy, pursued a position in administration through the ACE Teaching Fellows and Remick Leadership programs. Today he serves as the highly respected principal of Marian High School in South Bend.

Of his experience in ACE, Carl points out that both programs prepared him not only academically, but spiritually and socially, too. "The emphasis on forming us as Catholic educators is exactly what we need to be prepared to educate and care for the precious souls entrusted to us. The emphasis on prayer and the sacraments as necessary for our ministry help sustain me in my daily work. Finally, the emphasis on community taught me to share my gifts with others and to be open to learning from others."

Carl Loesch is still giving back to the Catholic schools he loves, and it's clear the schools are still forming him, too. He recently shared this story about what he learned from a courageous transfer student with autism and the student body that accepted him: "On his first day at Marian, the student walked very nervously into the cafeteria and sat down at a table by himself. He began to eat his lunch, and then a beautiful thing happened. A couple young men came over and invited him to sit with them. From that point on, I knew he was going to be okay. This young man went on to serve the school as a manager for two varsity sports. I could barely hold back my tears of joy at the end of his senior year when I got to place a state runner-up medal around his neck for his support of a team in their run to state.

This courageous young man and our welcoming student body taught me how to see the good in others. As St. John Chrysostom said, 'What greater work is there than touching the minds and hearts of young people.' More often than not, they are the ones teaching me."

Notre Dame students approach their residence hall rectors with all sorts of questions. If they're wondering about a possible career in teaching, and especially if they happen to live in O'Neill Hall, their rector Ed Mack is an ideal source of answers.

Because he spent 33 years as a Catholic high school teacher before arriving to head the O'Neill staff ten years ago, and because he wants Notre Dame students to be well supported as they pursue a profession he loves, Mack's answers about teaching always point toward the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

He says he often has chances to "plant a seed" about ACE in his conversations with first-year students, perhaps because they're considering teaching among their future options or their parents are teachers.

"I tell them, if you're thinking about teaching, ACE is a super, Catholic mission-oriented way to get your master's degree and teaching experience through Notre Dame," says Mack. His "street cred" as an educator—still today, he's an adjunct professor across the street at Holy Cross College—combines with his empathy toward individuals as a rector who's "plugged into the lives" of residents in the dorm.

He winds up having more detailed conversations with seniors who may be considering different pathways into the teaching profession, and he can acknowledge to them that the first couple of years in the classroom will be challenging.

"I always tell them about the enormous support system you get through ACE—not only in the summers when you're studying here on campus, but the visits to your school and to your ACE community home [by ACE faculty and staff] during the school year," Mack says.

"You're living in a community of people your age, with similar ambitions, hopes and dreams, decency and integrity. Plus there's a support system not only from Notre Dame, but also in the school where you're teaching—from your mentor teacher and your principal."

These aspects of ACE Teaching Fellows make a difference, he says. They clearly carry some weight with the students: About a dozen alumni of O'Neill Hall have applied and successfully completed the formation program.

Mack derives such joy from seeing excellent, caring people pursue the vocation of teaching that he regularly serves on the ACE interview teams who meet with applicants every February. He doesn't leave campus to interview the many applicants graduating from colleges across the country, and he doesn't participate in the interviews of students from O'Neill.

Nevertheless, the connections to young people through the call to teaching can span time and distance in remarkable ways. Mack in particular remembers Brad Cake, whom he taught in high school—in his Freshman Honors English class in 2000-2001. Brad did not attend Notre Dame as an undergraduate but suddenly appeared in the summer of 2008, having successfully applied to ACE.

"It was a pleasure to have him here for the two summers." Brad stayed in Austin, where he taught as an ACEr. He's married to a young woman he met while teaching in Austin, and he has continued a career in Catholic school teaching. Mack stays in touch with both Brad and his parents, with memories that hark back to his own days as a high school teacher. "ACE just has a way of interweaving in people's lives," he observes.

As a teacher at heart, Mack is glad that extraordinary young people are coming into ACE and entering the profession: "I'm always so impressed by the quality of the people" from across campus and across the country. He's not the only rector helping to interview applicants, and he's certainly not the only rector helping to point the men and women of their dorms toward ACE.

Indeed, ACE is grateful to Mack and to all the rectors whose wide-ranging discussions with Notre Dame students occasionally involve this vocational choice. It's a comfortable conversation about the values and virtues of this home away from home, he explains. "The best thing about ACE is that it's at Notre Dame."

Rachel Hamilton, a 2012 graduate of Notre Dame and now a Catholic school teacher in Tucson through the Alliance for Catholic Education, reflects on her personal ACE story in a commentary for the Notre Dame Alumni Association e-newsletter, ND Today. She describes the support and fellowship she experiences in a ACE Teaching Fellows community--becoming a win-win for her and her students. "I feel at peace," she says, "because of the love and kindness of the ACE community and the Notre Dame community I have found here in Tucson."