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As I was finishing up my undergraduate studies, I felt God calling me to do something “more” with my life and newly acquired skills and experiences. After much discernment and prayer, I eventually applied to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and was accepted and placed in the New Orleans community. I had grown to love the city through my post-Katrina volunteer efforts, and I knew that if I was placed in New Orleans, it was because God wanted me to be there. In August 2008, I began my journey as a Jesuit Volunteer at the Good Shepherd School (GSS), and I never would have imagined that I would still be there six years later.  Least of all, did I expect to find myself serving in the leadership position that I now hold - but if I have learned anything in my time here, it is that God works in mysterious ways!

My first year at GSS was a wild ride, as I started as a teacher’s assistant and was teaching middle school religion full-time within only two weeks. By the end of the year, I had not only taught religion, but also middle school math and science, as well as kindergarten science. I was all over the place, but something in me loved every bit of it! The school went through a tumultuous change in administration and more than half the staff left at year’s end. On the principal’s last day of work, she pulled me aside and said. “Matt, I’m not sure if you’ve ever thought about it, but I think you’d make a great principal someday.”

As I began my second year of work, I found myself as a school leader that was and respected by elder colleagues and students alike. The new principal asked me to be a member of the administrative team and I have never looked back. After five years of teaching and various ventures into administration, I truly felt God was calling me into Catholic school leadership. I decided to apply to the Remick Leadership Program (RLP) after hearing about it from various participants and graduates working at Nativity Miguel model schools. Now having completed one summer of the program, I feel comfortable in my role as a school leader because RLP has complimented my experience at GSS by providing me with the skills, resources, and confidence to lead.  It has also provided me with an amazing network of Catholic school educators that I can reach out to or lean on at any given moment.

After finishing my first summer at Notre Dame in RLP, I came back to New Orleans with one week to prepare for the school year. Enrollment had greatly increased and half of the student body would be new students, while only two faculty members had more than a year of experience at the school. On top of these challenges, during the first week of school I was left as the veteran teacher and aspiring administrator, when our principal received the devastating news that her mother had passed away. While the stresses were great and the challenges were many, I embraced the challenge head on, and we made it through in one piece.

I am not sure I would have been able to handle all of the issues that arose with students, parents, and staff members without the first summer of preparation in RLP. Knowing that my classmates from RLP were going through similar struggles brought me strength that I in turn shared with my colleagues. The faith-centered community that we formed over the summer was a strong support then, and it became a strong spiritual support when I began work a few weeks after returning. In fact, my colleagues, students, and I have all embraced the oft quoted scripture that I learned to love through RLP last summer as our motto for this school year: “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Right now, at both GSS and in RLP, I feel that I am exactly where God is calling me to be at this stage in my vocational journey as a Catholic school educator and administrator.

This story is written by Mrs. Joanne Horne, who received the University of Notre Dame Sorin Award for Service to Catholic Schools during our National Bus Tour's visit in Denver. She is the grandmother of Meghan Hanzlik (ACE 13) and Gillian Hanzlik (ACE 18).

 The idea of the Ambassadors of Hope Program was sparked twelve years ago as I sat at a Seeds of Hope luncheon. Seeds of Hope is a charitable organization that funds over 1,000 disadvantaged children a year to attend a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado. 

As a proud grandmother of two ACE graduates, I have watched as the men and women of Seeds of Hope work tirelessly to raise money for this cause, and I thought there had to be something people of my age (50-80) could do.  What we have is time to donate.  With the help of the director of Seeds of Hope at that time, and our own St. Thomas More Parish, the idea of volunteering in these Catholic schools had its beginnings.

Twelve ladies from St. Thomas More visited St. Rose of Lima and St. Francis de Sales schools. We decided in one afternoon to send six of our group to St. Rose of Lima and six to St. Francis de Sales the following week as volunteers. Ambassadors of Hope was born!

Today, we have approximately 100 volunteers in seven of our area’s twelve inner-city and underprivileged schools!

We started with the idea that we would do anything the schools needed, and we have not wavered from this commitment.  Today we are librarians, teachers’ aides, math and reading tutors, office helpers, and anything else these schools need that we can provide!  Jeanne Courchene, who was principal at St. Rose of Lima when the Ambassadors began, says, “The Ambassadors of Hope are loving and caring and willing to do whatever is needed. They gave extra help to struggling students, graded papers, read to students, and in general became "Grandmas" in the classrooms.  The children loved the volunteers and were loved in return.  It's hard to say who benefited the most–the students or the volunteers. The program was a smashing success, and it didn't stop with classroom aides. These savvy volunteers saw other needs in each school and stepped up to solve them. St. Rose of Lima's beautiful library is the direct result of this program.”

We are there to serve and in “no way to be served.”   We have gained much! Of the original twelve volunteers, ten are still volunteering, while the other two have stopped only due to health constraints.  As Lee Murphy, one of the original twelve volunteers said, “I understand that the schools feel we are helping them, but no one can express how much these children, teachers and principals have done for us.  It is a wonderful feeling to know in our later years we still have something to give, which is our time and love to these dear children.”

Ambassadors of Hope costs nothing to join, for either the volunteers or the schools.  It is a win-win proposition!  We love the children and they love us, and we feel like we are doing something worthwhile in our later years for future generations. The only requirements needed are the love of the mission of Catholic schools and time. We are inspired and feel called to serve by the Gospel of Matthew 19:14:  “Let the children come to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Seeds of Hope has estimated that our Ambassadors have provided over $250,000 of volunteer hours to these schools annually.  What these schools have provided to us in return is priceless! Find some volunteers, contact your local Catholic school, and Ambassadors of Hope can be serving your schools too!

Gillian Hanzlik (ACE 18) is currently a kindergarten teacher at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy in Denver. “The ambassadors are the perfect expression of St. Therese's 'small things with great love,'" she commented. "These volunteers are here to do anything we need, with the greatest love in their hearts for our children. Each ambassador is a blessing to our school.”

Photo: Educators Gillian Hanzlik (ACE 18) and Meghan Hanzlik (ACE 13) are granddaughters of Joanne Horne, our University of Notre Dame Sorin Award for Service to Catholic Schools winner. Horne is seen holding the award, in front of Father Lou DelFra, director for spiritual life in ACE.

Adding to what had already amounted to the largest and most significant set of gifts to support the University of Notre Dame’s efforts to strengthen and transform Catholic K-12 education, Mary Ann and Jack Remick, of Rochester, Minnesota, have made an additional $10 million leadership gift to the University’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

This most recent gift will more than double the endowment of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, the nation’s preeminent formation program to shape a generation of faith-filled and talented principals for America’s Catholic schools. The gift also ensures that ACE can attract the nation’s top talent to successfully engage the challenges that face contemporary Catholic schools, fully integrating executive management and instructional leadership, imbued with the spirit of the Gospel.

“This wonderfully generous gesture from Mary Ann and Jack adds to the already remarkable foundation that Notre Dame has built to sustain, strengthen and transform Catholic schools,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “In thanking Mary Ann and Jack for this gift, I am deeply mindful of Pope Francis’ expression of gratitude to the University Trustees on our recent visit to Rome, for ‘the commitment which Notre Dame has shown over the years to supporting and strengthening Catholic elementary and secondary education throughout the United States.’ ”

“Transformational school leaders are world-builders, architects of the soul who bring to life for the members of their Catholic school communities a compelling vision of the core values and goals of a Catholic education,” said Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and founder of ACE. “Though the challenges faced by Catholic schools have changed rather dramatically in the current American context, the core values and goals remain ever the same: to invite our students to an encounter with the living person of Jesus Christ while at the same time engendering a deep love of learning.”

Jack Remick earned his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame in 1959, and his support of the University began almost immediately after graduation. While at the same time engaged early in his career with IBM, Jack became a founding partner of the Fastenal Co., an exceptionally successful construction supply and services company based in Winona, Minnesota.

Jack currently serves as chair of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering Advisory Council. Among the many gifts he has made to his alma mater is Stinson-Remick Hall, the state-of-the-art engineering building near the entrance to Notre Dame’s campus.

Mary Ann Remick earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the College of Saint Teresa, whose campus is now part of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona. After a successful career in nursing, Mary Ann became increasingly involved in the Catholic schools in Rochester and ultimately joined the board of trustees of St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in 2004. Combining her passion for quality education and increased access to under-served children, Mary Ann created an endowment that enabled the founding of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program in 2008.

She recently stated: “It has been a distinct privilege for Jack and me to share in the work of those in the Alliance for Catholic Education and to assist in the formation of leaders for Catholic schools throughout the country. In our view, there is nothing more essential to the survival and success of a Catholic school.”

Four years later, Mary Ann made possible a new home for the Alliance for Catholic Education, providing the resources for the renovation of the historic Institute for Educational Initiatives Building, including the very popular Remick Commons, at the heart of campus adjacent to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Grotto and the Main Building. To mark and celebrate the Remicks’ most recent gift, the University announced the renaming of this landmark Sorin-era building as “Visitation Hall,” in honor of the encounter between two women whereupon the church was born.

Jack and Mary Ann are the parents of five children, three of whom are Notre Dame graduates.

The Alliance for Catholic Education has been serving under-served Catholic schools for the past 20 years in communities across the United States and abroad. Each year, the mission of ACE impacts the lives of several hundred thousand children by preparing high-talented, faith-filled teachers, principals and administrative leaders while offering an array of professional services to strengthen and transform Catholic schools. ACE works to ensure that children in these communities, many of them from low-income families in high-poverty areas, have access to the highest quality Catholic education. Mary Ann currently serves as a member of the ACE Advisory Board.

Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., Hackett Family Director of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives, received a prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) at a ceremony in New York on Saturday, May 10. He also provided the invocation at the event.

NECO presents the Medals of Honor every year to a group of American citizens who live a life dedicated to helping others; preserve and celebrate the traditions and values of their ancestry group; encourage tolerance and acceptance among ethnic, racial, and religious groups of the world; and share their gifts for the benefits of humanity, “proving themselves valuable citizens of the United States.” Past medalists include six U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, and leaders of industry, education, the arts, sports, and government. NECO honors those who make freedom, liberty, and compassion a part of their life's work. 

Father Scully was recognized for his exemplary service and commitment to Catholic schools through his founding of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at Notre Dame. Since its founding, ACE has prepared thousands of Catholic school teachers and leaders to serve as teachers and school leaders in predominantly under-resourced schools. ACE strengthens and transforms Catholic schools through an array of research-based programs, including the innovative Notre Dame ACE Academies which have closed the achievement gap for inner-city students. ACE's efforts also include building support for Catholic education at the national and local level. 

The Medal of Honor ceremony took place on Ellis Island, the iconic gateway through which 12 million immigrants passed during the first half of the 20th century in their pursuit of the American Dream. For more details: http://www.neco.org/medal-of-honor/

Photo:Father Scully is pitured with a member of the Joint Service Color Guard, who presented him with his Ellis Island Medal of Honor during the Saturday, May 10, ceremony. Courtesy National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

Contact: Bill Schmitt  / 574-631-3893

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 2, 2014

Contact: Bill Schmitt, Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) /

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) visits the Diocese of Stockton on Monday, May 12, 2014, to celebrate the vital role Catholic schools play in educating children from immigrant families and impoverished communities.

Visiting more than 50 cities during the 2013-14 academic year, Notre Dame’s Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour will visit Our Lady of Fatima School in Modesto, CA, to celebrate the students, teachers, leaders, and achievements of the school and parish. Representatives of Notre Dame, including ACE founder Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., will also honor local education champions who have come together in a partnership to build a better future for all the schools and children of the Stockton Diocese.

"We want to draw greater attention to the amazing legacy and bright future of these schools that form engaged citizens and advance the common good," said Fr. Scully.

The partnership between the Diocese of Stockton and Notre Dame in 2013 began with an in-depth strategic assessment of 11 diocesan schools. The assessments conducted at the request of the Most Rev. Stephen E. Blaire, bishop of the diocese, included an analysis the schools’ Catholic identity, academic excellence, institutional governance and advancement, enrollment and demographics, and financial considerations.

“The Catholic schools in our diocese are an important resource, as their continued success can help our community break the cycles of poverty, violence, and social injustice,” said Bishop Blaire in announcing the assessment initiative in late 2012. “ACE Consulting will help us discern how to enroll more students in better schools—schools that can offer both a values-based and a rigorous academic education.”

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) sustains, strengthens, and transforms under-resourced Catholic schools through leadership formation, research, and broad support to ensure that all children, especially those from low-income families, have the opportunity to experience the gift of an excellent Catholic education. ACE is marking its 20^th Anniversary with the Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour.