Featured Story

Sandria Morten serves on the faculty of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program and earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at Loyola University Chicago.

When I was in my third year teaching in a Catholic school in Chicago, my principal asked me to be her assistant principal. In typical Catholic school fashion, this added an additional title to my fifth-grade teaching job but didn’t come with any extra release time and only with a modest stipend. I was thrilled, and shocked, at the invitation. I remember asking her why she asked me; we had many more experienced teachers on staff. She told me, “I always see you poking your head outside of your classroom, asking how things work and offering ideas. You are going to be a principal one day.”

Join the Program for Inclusive Education (PIE) each month for "A Little Slice of PIE"! You'll meet members of the PIE Team, as well as friends of PIE, and learn practical strategies to help welcome, serve, and celebrate all students in your school community!

Looking back, it almost seems like Liz Richotte was destined to be a Catholic school educator. Liz, the middle of five children, drafted her two younger sisters to be her first pupils in a classroom she had set up in the basement. 

“I can remember going to the book fairs and searching for the teacher editions so I could take them home and use them with my sisters,” said Liz, who attended Catholic schools for 13 years. 

Photos provided by Archbishop Shaw High School

“English class is an opportunity for students’ voices to be heard,” stated Joe Crowley, an ACE 26 teacher at Archbishop Shaw High School in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“That is really important, and I think the only way students experience that is to have a teacher who is willing to journey with them.” 

Mary Frances "Frankie" Jones serves on the faculty of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, as well as the Coordinator for Teaching and Learning for the Notre Dame ACE Academies. 

We live in a time when many feel broken and hopeless. For Catholic educators who believe every child is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore made for greatness, resignation is not an option. In the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, we cannot submit to despair; we are compelled to act.