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It’s amazing the effect one teacher can have on his or her students—inspiring confidence, providing wisdom, and giving hope for a better future. It’s usually not an isolated moment—the way a teacher carries him- or herself, the way he or she interacts with his or her students students, those are the ways teachers change their students lives. But for one teacher, one simple offer changed one life, and in doing so, made a difference for hundreds more.

ACE Comes to Texas

Raised in Texas, Colleen Knight Santoni said she was excited when she found out she’d be returning to her home state to teach in ACE in the winter of 1996.

“It was great to be back in Texas after being at Notre Dame,” she said. “We were the first group to come to Fort Worth and they treated us like rock stars. They were really open-arms in welcoming our community. . . . People brought us into their homes and into their lives as if we were family; it was beautiful.”

ACE had served only communities in the southeastern United States up until that point, and so coming into a heavily-Latino population gave Colleen and her housemates a different experience than any of the ACErs that came before them.

“The interesting thing was that, when I started, I was 21 years old, and within a few months, I had parents who were coming to me and saying, ‘What can I do? As a parent, how can I help my child?’ That’s very much a cultural thing—the teachers are given much respect and much authority when it comes to the children, so as a 21-year-old, I was treated as if I had this great wealth of knowledge about children. It really made us step up to that; we really had to learn and grow in a way so that we could respond.”

For two years, Colleen and her housemates threw themselves into the Fort Worth community and were embraced wholeheartedly by the community there.

An ACEr in the Making

Patricia Salazar Harty was a seventh grader when Colleen and the other members of ACE 3 came to Fort Worth. She said that even before the ACE teachers arrived, excitement was building.

“Their arrival was definitely a part of a lot of excitement,” Patricia said. “We had just heard these rumors about these amazing teachers who were coming into our community. We were really excited. I remember my mom saying, ‘There’s going to be this new teacher here and she’s coming from somewhere . . . she’s not from Texas, she’s from Indiana.”

Patricia said that she was impressed with Colleen from the first moment they met, impressed with her as a teacher and as a spiritual leader.

“When I first met Colleen, I just remember thinking she was incredible. She has this amazing spirituality about her and she always did really well in bringing it to the classroom. She taught us to pray, she taught us that mass could be a different experience instead of just going in and being receptive. She renewed mass and spirituality for us in that she just brought so much energy to it.”

Colleen had made such an impression on both Patricia and her family that when Colleen offhandedly offered to take students with her on a return trip to Notre Dame, Patricia took her up on the offer.

“When I got into the car [after school], I was like ‘Mom, the teacher said that we could go to Notre Dame with her!’” Patricia said. “At that point my family had formed a personal relationship with [Colleen], and my mom thought really highly of her because I would always talk about her when I got home. We just had this great bond, so my mom was like, ‘Why wouldn’t I let her go?”

“I said that thinking, ‘of course, no one’s going to be able to go, it’s the next day,’” Colleen said. “But after school, Patricia and her parents came up to me, and her mom said, ‘Are you serious? Would you really take Patricia?’ She was probably the only student that I would have said ‘absolutely yes’ to right then, so I bought her a ticket, she packed her bags, and we went.”

Passing Along the Torch 

When it came time to choose a college, Patricia decided to attend Catholic University in Washington, DC. She fulfilled her wish of attending Notre Dame four years later when she, like Colleen before her, was accepted into the ACE program.

“[Colleen]’s the reason I wanted to be a teacher, definitely, and the reason I wanted to do ACE,” Patricia said. “I remember thinking when I was a seventh grader, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be like her, I wanted to help kids out like her. I wanted to have that energy, that spark; I wanted to inspire kids.

“She actually wrote my recommendation for ACE. I had been planning on it since seventh grade—I had no idea other programs existed. I was so focused on, ‘I want to do ACE; I want to do the program that my teacher had done.’ I knew I was going to do ACE, I just knew I was going to get in. It was just in me—it was just part of my life and I felt almost destined to end up there.”

Patricia taught in Washington, DC as a part of ACE’s 13^th cohort, and continued to keep in touch with Colleen. When Patricia got engaged to be married, she wanted Colleen to be involved in a special way.

“[My husband and I] asked [Colleen and Francisco] to be the patrinos,” Patricia said. “That’s something that’s usually reserved for family, but I wanted to include her in a very special way because she’s not just a friend, she’s not just a teacher. She’s definitely more. Our relationship definitely goes a lot farther than that. With the things she instilled in me as a young adult, I just hope to always be a little like her.”

Colleen said her relationship with Patricia is just one example of the reasons she loves teaching and loved teaching in Fort Worth.

“I think I loved teaching there because the students needed you, the families depended on the teachers in different ways from even where I teach now,” she said. “The students really needed the role model and the mentoring. I'm really just grateful to ACE because it really helped me find my vocation. I’m still teaching and every day I’m so grateful for what I do. It’s such a gift.

For Patricia, she said Colleen was able to bring out of her a passion for helping people, a passion that has become her vocation.

“I want to help people in poverty,” Patricia said. “I have a passion for kids, and I really love teaching. I thought teaching was a really good way to do all of those things—to help people in poverty because that’s the one thing that gets people out of poverty, teaching them, educating them. I was really able to discover my talents because she was really great at posing those questions to us, even as seventh graders.”

Amid nationwide contentions among public, private, and charter education sectors, Indianapolis has seen unprecedented cooperation between historically unlikely partners that have been working together to create high quality education options for the city's children. The University of Notre Dame brought together leaders from these various sectors on Friday to discuss the changes Indianapolis has seen and the national implications of those changes.

Crossroads of America: Indianapolis's Bold New Vision for K-12 Education featured national and local education reformers who discussed the unique circumstances, policies, and lessons learned in Circle City schools -- a cohort of reformers many said would not have come together in the past.

"This group of people in this room would not have happened five years ago," Mickey Lentz, Chancellor for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, said.

Representatives from private organizations, charter operators, and Indianapolis Public Schools alike stressed the importance of bringing high-quality talent to the school system, which is now abounding in Indianapolis.

"Indianapolis is a dramatically different city today in terms of the pool of talent we work with," David Harris said. Harris is the founder and CEO of The Mind Trust, an organization launched in 2006 to help create an educational landscape in Indianapolis that would give every child the opportunity to receive an excellent education.

"Building on our teachers' capacity, empowering our leaders—it's amazing what that can do," Tammy Bowman, curriculum officer for Indianapolis Public Schools, said.

Talent, along with accountability and choice, were highlighted as important aspects of effective education reform. The panelists said they see opportunities arising all over the country for positive change in the world of education.

We're gaining ground [in Illinois] in ways we never thought possible," Myles Mendoza, executive director of Ed Choice Illinois, said. "We're finding some great success."

Amid discussion of the importance of a culture of choice, solid accountability standards, and an influx of talented teachers, the conversation repeatedly came back to ensuring the constant improvement of local schools, as 76,000 Indianapolis children do not have access to a quality school.

"I see this tri-sector approach growing, where it's really about good schools, whether public, charter, or private," Mendoza said.

"Accountability and talent don't happen without choice," Derrell Bradford added. Bradford serves as the executive director of NYCAN. "There are really only two types of schools in the end—those you want to send someone you love to, and those you don't."

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Additional Coverage of Crossroads of America:

State Impact, Education Panel: To Improve Education State Must Address Poverty

Chalkbeat Indiana, Charter Advocates Call for More State, Philanthropy Funding

Fr. Timothy R. Scully, CSC, the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, recently penned a letter on school choice to the editor of Education Week that was featured on their website and print publication. 

Read the Letter Here

In April 23, 1879, a massive fire destroyed the Main Building of the University of Notre Dame and destroyed virtually the entire fledgling university. In what would become an iconic moment of Notre Dame’s history, Father Sorin addressed the stunned survivors: “If it were all gone, I should not give up.”

It is this same spirit of zeal and hope – especially in the face of adversity – that has characterized the Congregation of Holy Cross and the University of Notre Dame throughout their histories. This same spirit enlivens the work of the Holy Cross community and Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) in their efforts to rebuild and renew education in Haiti.

Today, four and a half years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti destroyed Holy Cross schools and infrastructure, Notre Dame and Holy Cross have rebuilt, bigger and better than ever.  With more than $1 million in support from the Notre Dame and ACE communities, Basile Moreau School, which had been reduced to rubble, has been reconstructed. This shining new facility now serves 1,000 K-12 students, twice the number as before the earthquake.  Situated in a slum neighborhood of Port-au-Prince called Carrefour, the beautiful school and campus present a stark contrast to the shacks, tents, and trash of the surrounding neighborhood.  In the words of Rev. Rosemond Marcelin, C.S.C., the principal of Basile Moreau, “We rebuilt this school to be beautiful and expansive so that the children who come here could see beyond the trash and squalor that they live in and dare to have beautiful and audacious dreams for their lives.”

Advancing Basile Moreau School’s mission to serve the poorest children and families in this community, one third of the students receive major tuition assistance, and another third attend the school at no cost.  ACE, working with generous Notre Dame benefactors, has provided 100 scholarships for each of the next five years to increase access for the poorest students. ACE has also partnered with benefactors to beautify the campus, with landscaping and the addition of a soccer field. 

Holy Cross and ACE leaders are now adding new computer labs, strengthening the English language curriculum and instruction, and developing a health clinic to serve the students, many of whom lack access to regular medical care, eyeglasses, and adequate nutrition.  This summer, Basile Moreau hosted more than a dozen Notre Dame faculty, staff, students, and alumni, including ACE graduates leading English language camps and a medical team coordinating a health screening of nearly 1,000 students and teachers. 

“The transformation at Basile Moreau School is simply breathtaking,” said Rev. Tim Scully, C.S.C., founder of the Alliance for Catholic Education.  “From the rubble, a beautiful school has emerged and is now bustling with activity and exciting and innovative programs.  Basile Moreau is a beacon of hope and a testament to the power of the Gospel in service to our most vulnerable children.”

But knowing the needs of their country, the Holy Cross leaders in Haiti and their partners in ACE have not stopped at rebuilding Basile Moreau School.  They are making great strides in constructing a new school in a growing neighborhood of Port au Prince called Tabarre, located near the international airport, with funding and construction management from the Digicel Foundation.  The new school will have an innovative English focus and will open its doors this September, eventually growing to serve an estimated 1,000 students.  This school will become the 16^th that Holy Cross priests and brothers operate in the country, serving over 5,000 students, with a reputation for excellence.

ACE’s work in support of Holy Cross schools is only a small portion of the powerful impact ACE is making in Haiti.  ACE’s initiatives include working with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Haitian Catholic Church to train thousands of teachers, as well as transforming educational outcomes through an innovative literacy program that benefits over 7,500 students in impoverished Catholic schools.  Notre Dame’s ACE Haiti effort and the work of its partners represent perhaps the largest, most impactful, and most promising set of projects currently under way in Haitian education. 

The ACE in Haiti website illustrates the breadth of initiatives transforming this hard-hit country’s future through quality education for its next generations. Notre Dame’s Committed to Haiti website describes the University’s even broader efforts, integrating education, health care, and overall sustainability to support human development in Haiti.

Contact: Bill Schmitt 574-631-3893 /
Alliance for Catholic Education

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) sent forth 254 Catholic school teachers and leaders to serve in more than 175 schools around the country, capping a summer of intensive study, community formation and spiritual fellowship on campus.

ACE’s annual missioning Mass, held at 9:30 a.m. Friday (July 25) in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, served to celebrate and bless the teachers and leaders as they return to the communities they serve across the country.

The Most Rev. Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, presided at the Mass as well as the missioning ceremonies that were held at 8:30 p.m. Thursday (July 24) at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. He joined Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C.; Rev. Sean McGraw, C.S.C.; and Rev. Lou DelFra, C.S.C., founders of ACE, in sending forth 178 teaching fellows, 54 participants in ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program and 22 teachers in the English as a New Language program.

The missioning Mass marked the close of ACE’s summer programs of graduate-level coursework; leadership formation for Catholic school principals, superintendents and pastors; and professional and spiritual rejuvenation for Catholic educators on Notre Dame’s campus. During its first 20 years, ACE has gained national recognition as a leading provider of talent and resources to sustain, strengthen and transform Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

ACE teaching fellows earn a master of education degree after two summers of coursework and two academic years teaching in under-resourced Catholic schools. Most are also members of the ACE’s partner organization, AmeriCorps. Remick Leaders also earn a master of arts degree in educational leadership in a 25-month program, while ENL teachers earn ENL/ESL/ELL certification in their respective states.

Mobile, led by Archbishop Rodi, is one of 27 dioceses and archdioceses around the country that have invited ACEteachers to serve locally in their schools. A product and strong supporter of Catholic education, Archbishop Rodi attended Catholic elementary and secondary schools in his hometown of New Orleans before receiving a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from Tulane University. In 2008, the National Catholic Educational Association awarded the archbishop the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award for his work in rebuilding Catholic schools after Hurricane Katrina in the Diocese of Biloxi, where he served as bishop.

As a part of the missioning events this year, ACE also presented the 2014 Notre Dame Award for Outstanding Service to Catholic Education to Scott Malpass, vice president and chief investment officer at Notre Dame.

Malpass received the award in recognition of his lifetime commitment to Catholic schools and to the mission of the University of Notre Dame, and for his support of the Alliance for Catholic Education since its founding. Inspired by the call made by the Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Education in its 2006 report, Malpass has been the driving force to create Catholic Investment Services, a fund offering Catholic organizations the opportunity to invest with a world-class organization committed to Catholic values.

The Alliance for Catholic Education impacts the lives of several hundred thousand children nationwide by preparing highly talented teachers and school leaders, while offering research and broad support for Catholic Schools in the United States — the world’s largest private school system. ACE works in partnership with hundreds of schools to ensure that the students in their communities, many of them from low-income families in high-poverty communities, have access to a high-quality education.

AmeriCorps engages more than 75,000 members in intensive service annually to serve through nonprofit, faith-based and community groups at 25,000 locations across the country. This year marks the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps. Since 1994, more than 830,000 Americans have provided more than 1 billion hours of service addressing critical challenges from poverty and hunger to disasters and the dropout crisis.

Contact: Bill Schmitt, 574-631-3893,