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The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) is planning a cross-country celebration of Catholic schools that will mark ACE’s 20 years of service to under-served children and to the Church’s mission of educating hearts and minds.

“Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Schools” is the message that will literally roll out from the Notre Dame campus this fall, when ACE leaders, faculty and staff will travel by bus to events in nearly 50 cities, advancing their mission to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools.

Spanning the 2013-14 academic year, the bus tour will be part of a 20th anniversary campaign highlighting the contributions that Catholic schools make to the rich education landscape in America and to civic society generally. An ACE-themed bus will visit communities where ACE has been privileged to send forth faith-filled teachers and school leaders, as well as enter into a variety of innovative partnerships, since it was founded in 1993 by Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., and Rev. Sean McGraw, C.S.C.

“We want to express our gratitude to the teachers, leaders, students, and families that enable Catholic schools to develop the God-given talents of each child, and we hope to draw greater attention to the amazing legacy and bright future of these schools that form engaged citizens and advance the common good,” Father Scully said. “After 20 years of providential growth that has allowed the Alliance for Catholic Education to work with so many communities, dioceses, schools and partners, we want to stand alongside them to renew our commitment to serve more children and families through Catholic schools.”

An array of events are scheduled at Notre Dame and across the country to convene supporters of Catholic schools to pray together, to honor local leaders, and to celebrate the profound contributions of Catholic schools for the Church and the nation. To reflect ACE’s work in scores of dioceses, a specially outfitted tour bus, provided by a generous benefactor, will bring a Notre Dame presence to cities big and small—from New York and Washington, D.C., to Tampa, Tucson and Dallas; from Baton Rouge and Memphis to Chicago, Stockton and Los Angeles.

The bus tour will come home to the Notre Dame campus for events on the weekend of the Notre Dame-Navy football game in early November to commemorate the first ACE recruiting meeting, on Nov. 4, 1993, when students learned of a new opportunity to serve as teachers in under-resourced Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Those students constituted the “ACE 1” cohort and began their preparation for teaching following their graduation from Notre Dame, in the summer of 1994. The “ACE 20” cohort, consisting of about 90 graduates competitively selected from colleges and universities across the United States, begins its two-year formation experience this summer.

Segments of the bus tour will continue in spring 2014, and the broader celebration will culminate that summer.

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, notes ACE’s strong connection to the University’s values: "The mission of the Alliance for Catholic Education uniquely embodies the University's mission to ‘create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.’”

Learn more about the upcoming celebration at a special section of the ACE website: http://ace.nd.edu/20. See ACE’s digital annual report at http://ace.nd.edu/annualreport, and visit the Institute for Educational Initiatives website to explore Notre Dame’s broad commitment to the future of children and schooling. More information is available by visiting Carole Sandner Hall, home of ACE on the Notre Dame campus, near the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Main Building and the Grotto.

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If one were looking for stories of generous, caring hearts from this holiday season, ACE teacher Liz Chaten reports two from the classrooms of Saint Joan of Arc School in New Orleans.

Liz , a member of the newest cohort of teachers in ACE Teaching Fellows, has already reported two additional sources of inspiration seen in the classrooms of Saint Joan of Arc.

One is happening during the week of Jan. 7, even as Liz resumes teaching middle school language arts following the Christmas break. A group of undergraduates from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, is visiting her inner-city school to serve as tutors for children as part of the college's Winter Break Alternative Trips initiative.

Students from Saint Anselm have been returning annually for that tradition of service since they made their first trip to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They're a reminder of the passion that many undergraduates around the country have for service to disadvantaged children through Catholic schools.

Whether through new initiatives or existing traditions, the movement of the Alliance for Catholic Education continued its mission to sustain, strengthen and transform Catholic schools in 2012.

As we move closer to our 20th year of service to Catholic education, we've sifted through all the exciting news stories of this past year to put together this list of the ten most-visited ACE stories:

1. ND Launches New Partnership Program in St. Petersburg, FL, Area

The University of Notre Dame partnered with two Catholic schools in the Diocese of St. Petersburg to form the second site of Notre Dame ACE Academies.

2. Michael Pressley Awards Go to Three Outstanding Educators

Three outstanding educators committed to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools received the 2012 Michael Pressley Awards from the Alliance for Catholic Education's ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools.

3. An Array of ACE Programs and People Energize Summer at ND

The summer break at the University of Notre Dame surged with energy as the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) began its peak season.

4. Dan Faas Delivered STT Student Commencement Address

ACE 17 Student Commencement Address given in the Monogram Room, Edmund P. Joyce Center
at the University of Notre Dame on July 13, 2012.

5. Your Future in ACE: Consider the Possibilities

This blessed time of year prompted us to look back upon cherished Christmas traditions and to look forward to a new year—often considering plans for the future that reflect our deepest values.

An early childhood literacy program that April Garcia has established this fall at her Catholic school in inner-city Los Angeles meets a research requirement for her studies in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, but it aims to accomplish much more than that.

The program gives toddlers an early exposure to literacy and gives their parents tips on how to nurture reading-related skills. It reflects the kind of "action research" that the Remick Leadership Program emphasizes, April says—a rigorously academic endeavor born out of a school's Catholic identity, aiming to solve problems, potentially providing a model for other schools, and hoping to improve lives in and out of the classroom.

"Everything we do here is for the sake of bettering the community," explains April, who is vice-principal of Mother of Sorrows School, serving a disadvantaged, largely Latino, neighborhood in South Central L.A.

Her aspiration for a career in Catholic school leadership prompted her to enter the Remick Leadership Program, and her recognition of a need led her to propose the toddler-and-parent outreach as action research. "I noticed that a lot of kids who had not gone to preschool really struggled with reading in kindergarten," a pattern which can hinder learning in later grades, April says. Hence, she wanted to explore early gains that might be made among children aged 2 and 3.

One of the longest traditions in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) was convened for the nineteenth time on Nov. 30, 2012. Members of the two current cohorts in ACE Teaching Fellows gathered over the weekend at a retreat center outside Austin, Texas, for the annual ACE Advent Retreat.

About 170 teachers serving in 26 dioceses marked the half-way point in the school year with a three-day experience of prayer, personal reflection, community-building, and fun. They entered the Advent season together as their Sunday liturgy began the new liturgical year and opened up a season of expectancy.

The ACE 18 and ACE 19 cohorts were joined by numerous faculty and staff members who support them throughout the year. Current teachers in the Alliance were also joined in spirit by alumni for whom the retreat has generated many good memories in the past. This annual gathering is a milestone for everyone formed as a Catholic school educator in ACE Teaching Fellows.

"Any ACEr, thinking back to their time in formation, would happily recall the December Retreat, now explicitly the ACE Advent Retreat," says Chuck Lamphier, director of ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools. The tradition goes back to the Alliance's first cohort, formed in 1994, he says. It is inseparable from the character of this initiative to serve children—and the movement that has grown from it—because "ACE is so based on relationship, on knowing each other."

The annual tradition starts on Friday with a focus on reuniting—a renewal of friendships that grew during the summer of ACE courses at the University of Notre Dame. Alongside the individual get-togethers, people celebrate that they are part of a broad ACE community. Events of the day alert people to the latest news of the ACE movement and nurture everyone's professional and spiritual growth.

Much of Saturday is devoted to a mix of recollecting, preparing for the future, and embracing the formation journey within the Alliance for Catholic Education family. Teachers' discussions look back at the experiences of the first semester, look ahead to career planning for life after ACE, and address the challenges of community life.

ACE teachers live in intentional faith communities in houses near the schools where they serve. Community and spirituality complement professional service as pillars of ACE, and all three are affirmed during the three days.

Teachers gather again Sunday morning for Mass, celebrating the Advent spirit of welcome for Jesus in their hearts, in their classrooms, and in the Christmas season.

Then, the retreatants must start getting back to their local communities—in Florida and California, in Texas and Tennessee, and many places in-between—in time to welcome schoolchildren back on Monday morning.

The Austin area has been the site for these retreats since 2004, largely because it is within reasonable driving distance of many ACE partner dioceses. Whatever means of transportation they use to attend the retreat, participants' expenses are paid for by ACE because it is such an important part of every teacher's formation.

The ACE Advent Retreat of 2012 again offered testimony to the diverse experiences and pastoral care that make ACE a unique, supportive preparation for teachers and a providentially gifted instrument for sustaining and strengthening Catholic schools. Like Advent itself, it's a time for looking ahead with hope.