ACE Teaching Fellows

This season’s installment in Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series – the annual football home game played at a neutral site – took numerous fans to Chicago last weekend, where the Fighting Irish played the University of Miami. Given that Chicago has the largest concentration of Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) graduates of any city in the country, it was only natural that ACE also went on the road to be among the countless members of the extended Notre Dame family.

The ACE events began with an enjoyable evening at Gibsons Steakhouse on Thursday night. Around 100 people joined in a celebration of Catholic schools while gearing up for Saturday’s big game. There was a strong showing of ACE Advocates from the region—ACE alumni and other members of the movement in support of Catholic schools—along with a number of ACE leaders based at Notre Dame.

Friday brought an exciting opportunity to serve a Chicago-area Catholic school that is thriving in spite of seemingly huge challenges. St. Ann’s School, in Pilsen, is led by principal Benny Morten, a graduate of Notre Dame, ACE’s ACE Teaching Fellows, and the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Benny is also a recipient of ACE's Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education. Members of the ACE community offered support for the event, which was coordinated by the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

Service projects included some beautification work around the courtyard and playground, building picnic tables, and painting prayer rocks for the prayer garden that will be part of the school’s next big undertaking. The space, which will become the Father Don McNeill Garden, was blessed by St. Ann’s pastor and Chicago Auxiliary Bishop, the Most Rev. Alberto Rojas.

ACE welcomed gameday by hosting one of its largest tailgate parties. A great friend of ACE’s got a few of his buddies together to form a “tailgate committee”, and the product was an amazing time! ACE teachers, ACE graduates, ACE Advocates, parents of current and past ACE teachers, and many other friends and supporters of ACE and Catholic schools dropped by throughout the day

The decisive football victory at Solider Field on Saturday night was a fitting finish to a great weekend. Ultimately, ACE’s joyful participation in the celebration was possible thanks to all of the people who have helped to make Catholic schools such an integral force for good in the United States.

-- From Drew Clary, Assistant Director, Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives

Photo: Auxiliary Bishop Alberto Rojas blesses the McNeill Garden at Saint Ann's Catholic School, a Chicago-area site where ACE has had a significant presence and where the current principal earned two master's degrees in ACE formation programs for teachers and leaders. The garden is named in honor of Rev. Don McNeill. ACE members were among those providing services at the school on Oct. 5.

After being chosen as Arizona's Teacher of the Year, Hands Across the Border Teacher of the Year, and one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year, Rachel Moreno wanted to contribute her expertise to the next generation of teachers. So the 27-year veteran of public schools earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University and then fulfilled her lifelong dream of teaching in a Catholic school, taking a position at Kings College. After 3 years, she joined the faculty of supervision and instruction for ACE Teaching Fellows.  Dr. Moreno also teaches for ACE's English as a New Language program.

We asked Dr. Moreno, who lives in Tucson and works with ACE teachers in Notre Dame ACE Academies and elsewhere, to share some of her favorite examples of hope.

Hope surrounds all of the Notre Dame ACE Academies as they continue to be a "flagship" for the diocese of Tucson. I saw hope [when a gifted ACE graduate moved to Tucson] to work especially at an Notre Dame ACE Academies. I see hope when [two gifted ACE teachers] decide to embark on the journey to become administrators. [Another Notre Dame ACE Academies teacher] demonstrates hope each time he directs and produces one of his outstanding and kid-friendly plays at Santa Cruz, where he has taught for 12 years. [Still another Notre Dame ACE Academies teacher] had three job offers in big cities all over the country yet chose to remain here. And because she is so committed to promoting literacy she specifically requested to teach 1st grade. (If that isn't a story of hope, I don't know what is!) Finally, [Notre Dame ACE Academies teachers] give their students hope each time they remind them that they are not only preparing for heaven but for college.

Mi esperanza existe todos los dias de mi vida (hope is present every day of my life). Why? Because everyone I work with is fully committed to making God known, loved and served.

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.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at Notre Dame capped its annual "ACE Summer" of formation programs and conferences with a "missioning" Mass on July 27, sending forth more than 200 teachers and leaders to Catholic schools across the United States.

The Most Rev. Joseph P. McFadden, bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg and a prominent voice on education within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, presided at the Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to honor the "vocation" and "calling" of service in Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

"Your participation in the ACE program is a great blessing for the Church," he said in his homily. "As the chairman of the Bishops' Committee on Catholic Education, I thank you for your willingness to enter into this most important and essential work of the Church."

John Staud, ACE's Senior Director for Pastoral Formation and Administration, offered a fast-paced, wide-ranging introduction to the Alliance for Catholic Education on WNIT-TV's "Experience Michiana" show Wednesday, July 18. You can go to the archived video of the show and advance to the ACE segment about nine minutes into the show.

Just a reminder that "Experience Michiana" has hosted ACE and Institute for Educational Initiatives leaders a couple of other times in the past several weeks. ClarkPower, director of Play Like a Champion Today, talked about the Play Like a Champion hosted conference on character-building in sports. Karen Morris, who directs the IEI's program bolstering Advanced Placement science and math courses, talked about the recent STEM teaching conference.