Latest News // ACE at Notre Dame

Father Ronald Nuzzi Shares Catholic School Views in Ireland

Written by William Schmitt on Monday, 13 February 2012.

Ireland marked Catholic Schools Week recently with a national conference hosted by Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, ACE’s senior director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, was invited to keynote the gathering with a talk titled “Catholic Schools as Eucharistic Communities.”

The participation by Father Nuzzi, who is an author and frequent speaker on the mission and meaning of Catholic schools in the United States, was the latest sign of the relationship that has grown between Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education and many of Ireland’s educators.

"I learned a lot from their experiences, and I shared a few of my own,” Father Nuzzi said of talks not only at the national conference but at additional events with religious orders and other patron groups, or trusts, who sponsor and support Catholic schools in the country.

Remick Leadership Retreats and Renews

on Tuesday, 31 January 2012.

"The word 'retreat' has military connotations," admitted Fr. Ron Nuzzi in a Sunday homily to members of the Remick Leadership Program's tenth cohort. He continued, though, "To retreat is to surrender temporarily, but in order to gather the resources that you need in order to return to the front."

When it comes to resources, what tops the list for a Catholic school leader? Not books, not the latest technology, not funding for athletics and fine arts programs--though these aren't unimportant. What tops the list for these committed educators is a sense of faith and mission that guides their daily work. The most cherished, most necessary "resource" to have on hand in the principal's office is a nurtured relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is why the Remick Leadership program gathers its participants, all of whom are engaged in the daily administration of Catholic schools, for an annual winter retreat.

First-year program participants met in January, soon to be followed in mid-February by their second-year counterparts. Every year, the resounding chorus of feedback affirms that the weekend provides a replenishment of those much-needed resources: precious time for quiet reflection, re-connection with one another, prayer, and a motivating charge as they return for the second semester.

Our Catholic schools are blessed by the efforts of these faith-filled men and women. Join the ACE community in praying for them and all Catholic school leaders, that with each new challenge they face in their service, they may be continually strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

ACE Missioning Sends Forth Teachers

on Monday, 01 August 2011.

The Most Reverend Jaime Soto, Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, joined the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) in a rite of “missioning” on Friday, July 22, invoking blessings for more than 200 educators set to teach in Catholic schools around the country.

The group being sent forth from the University of Notre Dame included recent college graduates pursuing graduate degrees in education in ACE’s ACE Teaching Fellows program and certified teachers pursuing graduate degrees in educational administration in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Teachers in ACE’s English as a New Language (ENL) program and field consultants in ACE’s campaign to increase Latino enrollments in Catholic schools were also missioned.

“It is for all of us together a privilege to share in the teaching ministry of Jesus,” Bishop Soto told the ACE gathering at the Missioning Mass in Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. He urged the teachers, “Do not be timid about your desire to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus. Let this light shine because it is the Lord’s light shining in you.”

ACE conducts a range of initiatives, including formation programs and professional services, to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic K-12 education. ACE Teaching Fellows, ACE’s original formation program founded in 1993, is sending 173 teachers to Catholic schools in 26 dioceses around the country, including Bishop Soto’s Sacramento Diocese. The missioning caps ACE’s summer of on-campus studies for the formation programs but serves as the prelude to continued study and classroom experience.

The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, which prepares teachers to be principals and other leaders in Catholic education, sent forth 54 educators to schools where they will continue their formation. Certificate programs in ENL and Teaching Exceptional Children (TEC) together enroll about 50 educators every year.

The “Catholic School Advantage” campaign has formed partnerships with seven dioceses, consulting with schools to double Latino enrollments.

ACE’s traditional “missioning” events also included a prayer service on Thursday evening. ACE co-founder Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., cited Gospel references about light and the Christian mission. “If Catholic schools are about anything,” he told ACE teachers, “it’s to proclaim this truth to your students, to your families, to yourselves: ‘You are the light of the world.’

106 Graduate at ACE Commencement

on Tuesday, 26 July 2011.

July 9, 2011 – The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) conducted its 16th Commencement exercises Saturday, July 9, with a U.S. Department of Education official addressing the 106 graduates. See WNDU-TV coverage.
Juan Sepulveda, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, delivered the keynote address, thanking the ACE graduates for serving as educators in under-resourced Catholic schools “at a very critical time for us a country” when all children must be globally competitive.

He urged the educators to be innovative, asking themselves, “How can I create schools that maybe haven’t even existed before, because that’s what it’s going to take for our kids to be successful.”

The graduates comprised 81 members of ACE’s “ACE Teaching Fellows” class, which prepares young adults as teachers in Catholic schools around the country, as well as the latest 25-member class from ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, focused on the formation of Catholic school principals.

The former group earned the Master of Education degree, while the latter group earned the Master of Arts in Educational Administration degree. They received the degrees from Notre Dame Vice President and Senior Associate Provost Christine Maziar, who served as master of ceremonies at the afternoon Commencement.

Also as part of the event, John and Patricia O’Brien received the 2011 Notre Dame Award for Catholic Education. Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., a founder of ACE and director of the University’s Institute for Educational Initiatives, credited the O’Briens with a lifetime of “seeking better educational opportunity for children in need.”

Two members of former ACE graduating classes—Norma Nelson and Joseph Womac—were this year’s recipients of the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education. An inaugural Micheal Pressley Award for a Promising Scholar in the Field of Education went to another ACE graduate, Peter Miller.

Since its inception some 18 years ago, the ACE ACE Teaching Fellows program has grown from a service initiative composed of a handful of Catholic school educators to a movement that has commissioned 1,400 teachers to serve Catholic schools throughout the United States. The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program has prepared more than 170 educators now serving as school leaders in 41 states.

ACE and the Institute for Educational Initiatives, a Notre Dame academic unit of which ACE is part, undertake numerous formation, research, and professional service initiatives to support and strengthen K-12 education.

Contact: Bill Schmitt, Communications/Media Specialist 574-276-0340.