English as a New Language

Name: Dan R. Walker Jr.

Title: English as a New Language Director/Spanish Teacher

School: Corpus Christi Catholic School in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Diocese: Diocese of Colorado Springs

Name: Maria José Olmos

Title: 2nd Grade Teacher

School: St. Luke Catholic School, A Notre Dame ACE Academy in Palm Springs, Florida

Diocese: Diocese of Palm Beach

Welcome to Press Play, ACE’s new segment highlighting the latest and greatest publications coming out of the Institute for Educational Initiatives.

Spoiler Alert: We look forward to sharing a bit about the book and its author – just enough to pique your interest – then we’ll race you to the bookstore.

See you on the last page!

This is our latest installment of the English as a New Language Program’s Moments with Multicultural Saints, intended to provide useful classroom takeaways that will help you to broaden perspectives, teach about the universal Church, and find inspiration from saints from around the world. This month, we highlight the life of Saint Anna Wang. You will find two different versions below, tailored to the appropriate age range of your students.

The February after I graduated from ACE Teaching Fellows, I stumbled into a social justice position at the University of Kentucky’s Newman Center. My timing was fortunate as the Diocese of Lexington’s bishop, John Stowe, OFM Conv., had recently appointed three parishes to serve as places of welcome for the influx of Catholic Congolese refugees to the United States escaping the horrific violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our Newman Center was to be one of them.