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The Alliance for Catholic Education partnered with the Notre Dame Marching Band to create a memorable halftime performance during the Navy game on November 2, 2013. The act was part of ACE's 20th anniversary campaign to highlight the contributions that Catholic schools make to the rich education landscape in America and to civic society generally.

This blessed time of year prompts us to look back at cherished Christmas traditions and look forward to a new year—often considering plans for the future that reflect our deepest values. If these values include education, community, faith, and service to the Church and society, this is a good time to consider the life-transforming experiences of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Applications are now being accepted for the ACE Teaching Fellows program, which forms Catholic school educators, ready to serve at-risk children in under-resourced K-12 schools.

Those who already teach can apply for the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP), which prepares the next generation of transformational school leaders, architects who bring to life a compelling vision of a better future for the families and communities they serve.

These initiatives grant a master’s degree from one of the nation’s leading universities and offer an unrivaled combination of education, community life, and spiritual growth. On-campus coursework at Notre Dame goes hand-in-hand with online learning and the everyday life of serving in a Catholic school—an unmatched opportunity to build skills as an educator while working to transform and revolutionize Catholic schools.

Join us! Make a differerence in the future of our children and help build stronger communities for them to live. College graduates from around the country are eligible to apply.

Explore the “journey of an ACE teacher” in the ACE Teaching Fellows program. Enjoy videos describing ACE—our 20th anniversary, as well as our people, mission, and activities. The deadline to apply for ACE Teaching Fellows--in the ACE 21 cohort starting in summer 2014—is Jan. 21, 2014.

Apply to ACE Teaching Fellows

For teachers eager to develop advanced leadership skills for Catholic schools, a brochure describes ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Explore this program’s embrace of values through education, community, and spirituality. The deadline to apply for the Remick Leadership Program is Feb. 1, 2014.

Apply to Remick Leadership

By Caroline Lang

Senior director of the Alliance for Catholic Education, Stephen A. Perla, M. Ed., received the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award for his service to Catholic schools at the annual St. Paul Catholic Schools Consortium dinner on Nov. 7.

Since the 1970s, the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award has honored members of the community who have made significant impacts in the area of Catholic education.

St. Paul Consortium was established in 2007 to serve Catholic schools in North Worcester County, including Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner, Mass. Since then, the board of directors has recommended people for the Seton Award to the diocese, most recently including Steve Perla.

Perla joined ACE in June 2008 when he was appointed the first director of ACE Consulting. Before becoming the superintendent of Catholic schools in Worcester in 2004, Perla served for more than 10 years as the founding executive director of the Parents Alliance for Catholic Education, a Massachusetts group which advocates on behalf of students and Catholic schools. He has also served in a variety of administrative positions in higher education and as mayor of Leominster, Mass., from 1988 to 1992.

As a member of Notre Dame’s national Task Force on Catholic Education, he contributed to the report it published in December 2006, Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States. ACE Consulting developed as a direct result of this report in order to provide administrators and Catholic school advocates with high-quality, affordable consultative guidance in marketing, strategic planning, investing and other areas essential to school success.

Since ACE Consulting’s inception in 2008 under Perla’s leadership, the program has launched major initiatives and forged strong relationships with many (arch)dioceses, inclduing Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Tampa, and Tucson.

A Catholic parish in the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, has pledged an extraordinary $800,000 gift as a sign of solidarity with elementary school students from one of the nation’s most impoverished communities.

The pledge, part of a capital campaign to improve school facilities in the diocese, is a model other parishes may wish to follow. This show of support for two Notre Dame ACE Academies in downtown Tucson has been pledged by the people of Our Lady of the Valley Parish in the retirement community of Green Valley, Ariz., some 20 miles away.

The inner-city schools, now in their fourth year of partnership as Notre Dame ACE Academies schools, foster innovative opportunities for disadvantaged children to overcome the achievement gap that has plagued children in Tucson’s largely Latino south side neighborhoods.

The two Tucson schools slated to receive this generous investment in their students’ future are St. John the Evangelist and Santa Cruz. Standardized tests already show academic achievement rising under a transformative partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

A new fund-raising campaign aims to improve the school facilities even as the partnership has already energized the Catholic identity and student-teacher interactions inside the buildings.

A bold response of $800,000 in pledges to the campaign came from the parish of Our Lady of the Valley, which has no school of its own. Many Green Valley residents are retirees.

These parishioners made a gesture of hope and solidarity needed throughout the Church and the Diocese of Tucson. The diocesan campaign continues through 2014, with a goal of raising $5.7 million.

“Our Lady of the Valley Parish stands as a beacon of inspiration for all people of good will who can answer the call of Pope Francis and the Lord’s piercing question about how we are serving the least of our brothers and sisters,” said the Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of the Diocese of Tucson.

“This generous contribution in support of the Notre Dame ACE Academies embodies the parishioners’ ‘yes’ to the Lord, to the educational mission of the Church, and to the entire Tucson region,” Kicanas said. “These students will benefit from the Catholic school advantage, which increases their likelihood of college and career success while making them more engaged citizens and more faith-filled Catholics.”

Notre Dame’s own “Catholic School Advantage” campaign, which has sharply increased Latino enrollments in the Notre Dame ACE Academies, is working to bring those benefits to students in schools around the country.

“I hope parishes everywhere will emulate Our Lady of the Valley,” said Catholic School Advantage campaign director Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C. “The people of Our Lady of the Valley understand how vital Catholic schools continue to be to the future of the Church.  Our schools continue to be the Church's best arm for the New Evangelization.  Children who attend our Catholic schools will learn of the Catholic faith and the joy of the Gospel.  We need to keep our Catholic schools strong and welcoming to kids of all economic backgrounds.  I am deeply grateful to the people of Our Lady of the Valley Parish for their tremendous generosity."   

Rev. Francisco Maldonado, pastor of Our Lady of the Valley, said he believes the pledges parishioners have made reflect the parish’s own faith-filled community. “These good folks saw Catholic schools and the Catholic faith bring graces to their own families, to their own lives, and to their own parish and neighborhood,” Maldonado said. “They’re accepting their responsibility to pass along the power of love—really the message of the New Evangelization—to the next generation, and our parish will be among those blessed by this.”

Photo: Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of Tucson, with students from Notre Dame ACE Academies partnership in his diocese.

Fr. Tim Scully CSC recently announced that John Schoenig and Amy Wyskochil have been appointed to two new leadership positions in Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) and Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI).

John Schoenig has been appointed director of teacher formation and education policy for ACE.  He has directed ACE's Program for Educational Access (PEA) since its inception in 2010. In his new role, he will assume leadership of pastoral and administrative dimensions of ACE's ACE Teaching Fellows Program and work closely with Sr. Gail Mayotte, SASV and faculty colleagues in the M.Ed. Program. He will continue to oversee the development of the PEA and other policy related work in ACE's portfolio, as well as to serve as a member of the ACE faculty.

Schoenig taught at Holy Rosary School in the Diocese of Shreveport as a member of the ACE 5 cohort. He served as Associate Director for ACE Teaching Fellows for four years, and earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 2010.

Amy Wyskochil has accepted a position as the director of operations for IEI. In this role, she will help manage the expanding programming portfolio for the IEI, which includes an international portfolio of formation, research, and outreach efforts improving educational opportunities for marginalized children. She will continue to work closely with ACE Teaching Fellows in areas such as retreat programming and ACE's partnership with Americorps.

Wyskochil taught at Sacred Heart Catholic School in the Diocese of St. Petersburg as a member of the ACE 10 cohort. Prior to her time as an ACE teacher, she served in Notre Dame Admissions and in the University's Office of Campus Ministry. She has served on the ACE staff since 2005.