University of Notre Dame ACE Program Receives National AmeriCorps Grant
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 20th 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