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Deborah Loewenberg Ball, one of the nation’s leading teachers, scholars and visionaries in the field of education from elementary school to graduate school levels, served as the keynote speaker at the 2016 Commencement Ceremony of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) on Saturday, July 9.

ACE Teaching Fellows has received a $135,000 AmeriCorps grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to support 154 AmeriCorps members who will serve as teachers of record in rural and urban schools throughout the United States.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) has announced and welcomed the members of its newest cohort of teachers joining ACE Teaching Fellows—a group of ninety-five recent college graduates who have distinguished themselves with a record of academic achievement, dedication to serving marginalized communities, and zeal for empowering children through Catholic schools.

This year’s ACE class includes graduates from top colleges and universities around the country—including Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, University of Virginia, The Catholic University of America, Vanderbilt, and Gonzaga—nine first-generation college students, twenty-five students of color, and twenty-three teachers who served as resident assistants during their undergraduate careers. Members of the 23rd cohort of Teaching Fellows hail from thirty-two states and forty-seven universities, including fourteen new partner institutions.

Through their two-year teaching fellowship, each member will earn a fully-funded graduate degree from Notre Dame while serving as a classroom teacher in one of ACE’s partner schools and living in an intentional community with other ACE Teachers. ACE partners with more than 100 Catholic schools serving marginalized populations in more than 30 cities throughout the country. Since the program’s launch in 1993, ACE has formed nearly 1,500 such teachers—approximately 76% remain in K–12 education, while others have gone on to successful careers in business, engineering, medicine, law, and the academy.

“We believe that nothing is more important to the future of our nation, our Church, and our local communities than the development of schools that are worthy of the children entrusted to our care—and nothing is more important to the development of such schools than the formation of talented and committed educational leaders,” John Schoenig, ACE’s senior director of teacher formation and education policy, said. “This new cohort of ACE teachers represents a tremendous sign of hope for Catholic schools and students throughout the country. We are confident that they are willing to do whatever it takes to help place their students firmly on the path to college and heaven.“

On May 11, when St. Francis International School in Silver Spring, Maryland, celebrates its weekly Mass for more than 400 students—kids who trace roots back to 54 countries—one Scripture verse might be ideal for shared reflection:

“See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way; in the wasteland, rivers.” (Isaiah 43: 19)

Photo courtesy St. Francis Cabrini Regional Catholic School

A network of 15 Catholic schools serving Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods, collectively called the Independence Mission Schools (IMS), is striving to balance independence and centralized initiatives in its new steps toward academic excellence, building upon financial equilibrium it’s already established.