Catholic School Advantage

Throughout Catholic Schools Week 2020, we'll be sharing some of our favorite Catholic Schools Week reflections that ACE graduates, team members, and friends have submitted over the years. The below reflection is from Laura Reynolds and was originally published in 2012 when she was administrator at San Juan Diego Catholic School in Austin, Texas.

Pens need to be vertical. Every teacher knows that. When a student’s wrist goes limp and his pen falls to the desk, it’s trouble. It’s the sign of despair, the sign that the mental willpower to tackle a problem has been exhausted.

Throughout Catholic Schools Week 2020, we'll be sharing some of our favorite Catholic Schools Week reflections that ACE graduates, team members, and friends have submitted over the years. The below reflection is from Patrick Couch and was originally published in 2017. 

How do you survive without community? You can’t.

Well, at least I can’t.

My roommates are my lifeline. My sanity. And, most importantly, my JOY.

Throughout Catholic Schools Week 2020, we'll be sharing some of our favorite Catholic Schools Week reflections that ACE graduates, team members, and friends have submitted over the years. The below reflection is from Deacon Nick Senger and was originally published in 2013. 

An empty Catholic school is a lonely place, and when students go home for the summer the atmosphere changes drastically. It's quieter, of course. There are no screaming kids at recess, no buzz of conversation down the halls, no tramping of feet before the beginning of daily Mass.

Mentor principals have played a critical role in the success of the Latino Enrollment Institute (LEI) since the program’s inception in 2012. The experience, accountability, and personal attention that these leaders provide has been a defining characteristic of the LEI, helping Catholic school principals—and their teams— institute lasting changes. 

After schools attend the LEI summer conference, mentor principals maintain regular contact with the 4-6 school leaders in their group through monthly video conference calls. These conversations, which focus on various themes related to Latino outreach, recruitment, and enrollment, are an opportunity for school leaders to learn from one another and receive real-time consultation and feedback from their mentor on some of the things that they’re doing in their school. 

The commitment of our LEI mentors, most of whom are still active Catholic school principals themselves, is truly the engine that drives the LEI. 

This month, we highlight one of those mentors, Jo Jones, former principal of Corpus Christi Catholic School in Holland, Michigan, and now the Executive Academic Director at Notre Dame Prep in Towson, Maryland.

As we enter into a new year, we also look back on the past year and our most popular news stories and blog posts.