News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  April 25, 2014

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

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) visits Tucson on Monday, April 28, to celebrate the vital role Catholic schools play in educating children from immigrant families and impoverished communities. Since 2001, Catholic school students in Tucson have experienced amazing success from Notre Dame’s investment to enhance student learning, increase enrollment, and form talented teachers and leaders. The Notre Dame ACE Academies, two thriving inner-city schools that serve predominantly Latino students, are a showcase for how Notre Dame’s involvement, increased community support, and corporate sponsorship can provide a high quality education for students in need across the country. The schools have closed the academic achievement gap for their students in just three years.

Notre Dame’s National Bus Tour will visit the Notre Dame ACE Academies schools from April 28 to 30 to celebrate their students, teachers, leaders, and achievements, and to honor local partners and champions who have come together to build a brighter future for the children in Tucson.

At St. John the Evangelist School, ACE founder Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., will present a University of Notre Dame Sorin Award for Service to Catholic Schools to Sister Rosa Maria Ruiz, C.F.M.M. An educator for 50 years who recently announced her retirement, Sister Rosa Maria has worked tirelessly as superintendent of Tucson Catholic schools since 1998 to strengthen the viability of its 25 schools. She has amended the teacher salary scales to reflect a just wage, initiated an endowment program, and helped to catalyze the innovative, comprehensive approach which transformed two under-resourced schools on the brink of closure into the Notre Dame ACE Academies.

Father Scully will also recognize and thank AT&T for the company’s exemplary leadership in support of Tucson students. Through its contributions to the Arizona corporate tax credit scholarship fund, AT&T has provided impetus for corporate support of education opportunities benefiting families in need. More than 300 students at St. John the Evangelist and Santa Cruz—all Notre Dame ACE Academies schools—have received scholarships thanks to AT&T’s generous contribution since 2012.

At a celebration Monday evening, Father Scully will present a University of Notre Dame Champion for Education Award to Richard Brady “Buck” O'Rielly, CEO of O’Rielly Motor Company and ardent advocate for the future of Tucson. Mr. O’Rielly has served in leadership positions for Junior Achievement of Tucson, the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, United Way, and the Southern Arizona Water Resource Association. A seventh-generation Tucsonan, Mr. O’Rielly has committed time and talent to the future of Tucson Catholic education, serving as a founding member of the board of directors of St. Augustine High School.

Sister Rosa Maria’s award and the AT&T presentation will take place amid the backdrop of the Bus Tour’s pep rally at St. John the Evangelist School. The school is led by a graduate of the ACE teacher and principal formation programs, Keiran Roche. A total of seven current ACE teachers serve students at St. John and other Tucson Catholic schools, and a number of ACE graduates have continued serving as teachers and leaders in these schools.

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program has received a $207,000 AmeriCorps grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to support 147 AmeriCorps members who will serve as teachers of record in rural and urban schools throughout the United States.

AmeriCorps members supported by these grants will serve in 50 cities in 14 states. This grant will allow ACE to expand its impact and to ensure the placement of carefully formed teachers in the most high need schools. This partnership with AmeriCorps enables ACE to recruit highly talented candidates, supports ACE’s cohesive, research-based high quality academic teacher training, and then enables ACE to place these members as teachers of record in urban and rural schools across the United States.

“AmeriCorps is an indispensable resource to help meet critical challenges facing our communities,” said John Staud, Senior Administrative Director of ACE. "We're thrilled that the Corporation for National and Community Service has recognized the value that AmeriCorps members serving with ACE offer to communities across the United States. These AmeriCorps members will meet pressing local needs as they develop civic and leadership skills that can last a lifetime.”

"AmeriCorps members are improving the lives of millions of citizens and having a positive and lasting impact on the toughest challenges facing our communities,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of CNCS. “While they serve others, AmeriCorps members also expand opportunity for themselves - gaining skills and experience to jumpstart their careers. As we mark the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps, we congratulate ACE for its strong application, and thank all AmeriCorps members for their dedication to service.”

The current year’s AmeriCorps grant cycle was highly competitive, due to the strong and growing demand by organizations seeking AmeriCorps resources. The 2014 competition prioritized investments in economic opportunity, education, veterans and military families, disaster services, and continued a new initiative for governors and mayors.

In addition to the grant funding, CNCS will make available $163 million dollars in education scholarships for the AmeriCorps members funded by these grants. After completing a full term of service, AmeriCorps members receive an award of $5,645 that they can use to pay for college or to pay back student loans.

AmeriCorps engages more than 75,000 members in intensive service annually to serve through nonprofit, faith-based, and community organizations at 25,000 locations across the country. These members help communities tackle pressing problems while mobilizing millions of volunteers for the organizations they serve.

2014 marks the 20^th anniversary of the AmeriCorps program. 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.

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ACE is a leading program of the University of Notre Dame that recruits, educates, and supports talented college graduates who serve as teachers in under-resourced schools across the United States.  ACE teachers simultaneously participate in an innovative two-year Master of Education degree that prepares them for the rigors of the classroom and to become the next generation of educational leaders for America's elementary and secondary schools. For more information, visit http://ace.nd.edu/teach/ .

AmeriCorps is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, the Social Innovation Fund, and the Volunteer Generation Fund, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit www.NationalService.gov

Contact: Kathleen Fulcher, 574-631-7052 and

You're invited to join ACE at the annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) in Pittsburgh between April 22-24. More than 20 ACE faculty, staff, and graduates will share their expertise for Catholic school leaders and teachers. The full list is below:

A cocktail reception for all graduates and friends of ACE will follow the opening day's activities. You can RSVP here.

Tuesday, April 22

Blended Learning in Catholic Schools
Fr. Nate Wills, csc - ACE Faculty - 1PM, Room 303

Reaching Non-Catholic Students in Catholic Schools
Amanda Cody, ACE Mentor Teacher - 1PM - Room 336

El Padre Latino Inmigrante/The Immigrant Latino Parent: Encouraging Parent Involvement 
Thom Suhy and Tricia (Sevilla) Baumer - RLP Graduates - 1PM, Room 306

ESEA: Get the Latest!
Michelle Doyle - ACE Consulting - 2:45PM, Room 410

Ensuring the Development of CatholicvIdentity in Your School
Mary McDonald, EdD - ACE Consulting and Author - 2:45PM, Room 318

Developing the Champion in Every Child: Catholic School Sports Program
Kristin Sheehan, Ronald Bowes - Play Like a Champion - 2:45PM, Room 316

Applied Behavioral Sciences in the Art of Cultivating and Soliciting Donors to Advance the Mission of Your School
Steven Virgadamo - ACE Consulting - 2:45PM, Room 327

Wednesday, April 23

Play Like a Champion: CHAMPS Program
Anne Stricherz, Kristin Sheehan, Play Like a Champion - 8:30AM, Room 330

Increasing Latino Enrollment in Our Catholic Schools
Megan Adzima, Boston ACE Advocates - 10:15AM, Room 306

On My Honor: The Honor Code in Catholic Middle and High School
Michael Mauthe, RLP Graduate - 10:15AM, Room 327

Assisting New Students and Parents in Catholic Schools: Embracing Families with Limited English
Cristy Carmen Jordan, RLP Graduate - 10:15AM, Room 409

Classroom Engagement: Practical Resources and Teaching Strategies that Inspire Young People to Learn, Love, and Live Their Faith
Jared Dees, ACE STT Graduate - 12:45PM, Room 405

Student Spirituality in Catholic High Schools: Jesuit High Schools and the National Study of Youth and Religion Project
Michael O'Connor, ACE STT Graduate - 2:30PM, Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom

Thursday, April 24

Towards a Bright Future: Current Research on Catholic Schools Part 3 and Towards a Bright Future: Current Research on Catholic Schools
Jim Frabutt, ACE Faculty; Meghann Kirzeder, ACE Advocates - 9:30AM, Room 410

Thou Shall Not Cheat? How High School Students Think about Cheating
Monica Kowalski, ACE Consulting - 9:30AM, Room 330

Title II, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Equitable Services to Private School Teachers: Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education
Amy Huber, Notre Dame - 9:30AM, Room 408

Agents of Evangelization: Fostering Catholic Identity in the Classroom
Gayle Ohrenberger, RLP Graduate - 9:30AM, Room 307

Reimagining the Principalship
Fr. Ronald Nuzzi, Director, ACE RISE - 11AM, Room 335

Creating a Home Learning Environment for Toddlers
April Garcia, ACE STT and RLP Graduate - 11AM, Room 306

Research Roundtable Presentations: Topics on Catholic Education
Mark Kirzeder, ACE STT and RLP Graduate - 11AM, Room 315

The next several months will see four new members welcomed to the ranks of the ACE Team. Meet Christie, Dan, Erica and Matt:

Christie Bonfiglio, Ph.D., will join the ACE faculty and serve as Director of Professional Standards, effective July 1. As director, she will provide leadership in all matters related to state accreditation for ACE's teacher licensure programs.

Dr. Bonfiglio currently chairs the Department of Education at Goshen College. She is also an associate professor of education, director of special education in the department, and director of accreditation and licensure.

Trained as a school psychologist, she has taught classes in ACE's Teaching Exceptional Children (TEC) initiative, and will continue to contribute to the program as part of her faculty duties. Her broad knowledge of teacher education, including the particular requirements that govern teacher education in Indiana, have helped prepare her to lead ACE's accreditation efforts.

Dan Faas, M. Ed., has joined the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program as admissions coordinator. In this new position, Dan will be responsible for increasing the size and quality of the Remick Leadership Program applicant pool, securing scholarship support for highly qualified candidates serving in schools aligned with ACE's mission, and generally raising the program's profile in the Catholic school and education reform communities.

He is a 2010 graduate of Michigan State University. Following graduation, Dan taught middle school Language Arts and Religion at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic School in Mobile, Ala., as a member of the ACE 17 cohort in ACE Teaching Fellows. He recently completed the ChACE program in Chile, a 16-month curriculum in which he earned English as a New Language (ENL) teacher licensure.

This winter, when ACE and the Institute for Educational Initiatives hosted 30 Brazilian teachers of English for an intensive experience of the United States and ENL pedagogical skills, Dan assisted our Brazilian guests as one of their language coaches.

Erica Vesnaver will join the Notre Dame ACE Academies as associate program director beginning this summer. In that post, she will provide administrative, pastoral, and communications support to advance the mission of the Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative.

She is currently teaching middle school science, English, and physical education at All Saints Catholic School in Richmond, Va., as a member of the ACE 19 cohort in ACE Teaching Fellows, from which she will graduate with her M. Ed. degree. She holds a B.S. in Pre-Professional Studies and a major in theology from the University of Notre Dame.

Earlier thoughts of a possible career in medicine gave way to her dedication to Catholic education following experiences such as service as a mentor-in-faith for the Notre Dame Vision program and a junior year of studies in Mexico.

Matt Wilsey will join the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education as associate program director in July 2014. As part of the Center, Matt will divide his time between working as a research assistant on the Evidence for the Classroom project, coordinating the summer STEM camps, helping with science teacher formation and professional development, and administering other programs.

Mr. Wilsey graduated from the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Biology and German. He completed the ACE Teaching Fellows program in Brownsville, Texas, teaching middle school science and math. For the past two years Matt has been teaching physics, chemistry, and forensic science at St. Rita of Cascia Catholic High School in Chicago, IL.

Matt has been involved as an ACE mentor teacher, a summer science and engineering camp instructor, and has designed curricula that engages students in the central ideas and practices of science.

Last month, the Catholic School Advantage Campaign (CSA) released a monograph entitled Renewing Our Greatest and Best Inheritance: Our Historic Opportunity to Empower Latino Families through Catholic Schools. This informative booklet is available to the public and can be ordered or downloaded as a PDF.

Since the CSA Campaign was launched in 2010, it has become abundantly clear that the opportunity and challenge of increasing Latino participation in Catholic schools is among the top priorities in (arch)dioceses throughout the country. This document, the vision for which evolved out of recognition that episcopal and pastoral leaders possess a unique authority to articulate both the urgency and importance of this mission, synthesizes the insights of four cardinals, three archbishops, eleven bishops, and five pastors. Renewing Our Greatest and Best Inheritance focuses specifically on the integral role that bishops and pastors play in extending the Catholic school advantage to Latino families.

The insights offered by the bishops and pastors who contributed to this work are guided by three overarching themes:

1. We must convey and embrace the urgency – the data on sacramental participation, educational outcomes, and civic engagement all indicate a “demographic imperative” that the Church more effectively serve Latinos through K-12 Catholic schools.
2. We must celebrate the opportunity – empowering Latino families through our Catholic schools represents an exciting new chapter in the Catholic Church’s tradition of service to newly arrived people and communities.
3. We must provide authentic witness – our efforts to increase the participation of Latino families in Catholic schools are most effective when they are fully embodied by our pastoral and episcopal leadership, encountering the people of the emerging Church on a direct and personal level.

We are deeply grateful to each one of the bishops and pastors who so generously offered their experience and well-informed perspective on this historic opportunity facing the American Catholic Church today. Our hope is that this document will be most instructive as we forge a strategy to position Catholic schools as indispensable instruments of the New Evangelization and make them accessible to the Latino families who have so much to gain from them. There is so much at stake. May God continue to bless this work that he has entrusted to us.

Download the CSA Monograph

Order the CSA Monograph