The Alliance for Catholic Education Honored with Seton Award for Serving Nation's Youth

The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) will be recognized by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) with the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Award on October 5, 2015 at a gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the award in Washington, DC. The award celebrates those individuals and organizations that have shown a lifelong devotion to serving our nation's youth through the apostolate of Catholic education.

“Catholic schools have for more than a century distinguished themselves as indispensable vessels of transformative grace in the lives of our students and families,” Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and founder of ACE, said. “It is truly a blessing to share in this important work of the Gospel.”

Fr. Scully and Rev. Louis A. DelFra, C.S.C., will accept the award on ACE’s behalf on October 5. ACE joins a number of other organizations and individuals receiving this year’s Seton Award, including the Archdiocese of Washington and Bishop Paul Loverde from the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. The NCEA also awards scholarships to deserving Catholic school students in the honorees’ local communities.

Named after Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, in recognition of her lifelong dedication to teaching and children, the Seton Award is presented annually to individuals and organizations whose support and service impact Catholic education and the well-being of our nation's youth. This the 25th anniversary of the Seton Award, a landmark event for the NCEA and its members.

ACE has, for more than twenty years, sought to strengthen and transform Catholic schools around the country and internationally in numerous ways: recruiting and forming the next generation of teachers and leaders; establishing networks to extend the Catholic school advantage to thousands of new families; and developing an array of other programs to give disadvantaged children the opportunities they need and deserve. ACE’s graduates and programs have reached 70 percent of US dioceses, 412 Catholic schools, and more than 180,000 children.