How ACE South Bend Works
All members of ACE South Bend are full members in the ACE program. As such, they commit themselves to the program’s three pillars: becoming a professional educator, community life, and spirituality.
Teaching and the M.Ed.
Why an M.Ed.?
By joining ACE South Bend, you don’t just get the chance to serve a real need in a school – you get professional preparation that will enable you to make a deep and profound difference in the lives of the children you serve. The ACE M.Ed. intensively prepares teachers by integrating graduate level coursework with an immersion teaching experience. Following your two-year teaching experience in a South Bend area Catholic school, you will earn a cost-free Master of Education degree from the University of Notre Dame and will be eligible for state licensure as a teacher.
If I’m teaching full-time, when do I take the courses?
You’ll spend two summers living and studying with the larger ACE community at Notre Dame. The centerpiece of the summer program is an innovative teacher-preparation curriculum, taught by select faculty and experienced practitioners, combined with a supervised field experience in the local public and Catholic summer school programs. You will also take a limited number of distance-learning based classes during the year which directly relate to your current teaching experience.
What kind of support will I receive during my teaching experience?
While serving as a full-time teacher in your South Bend area Catholic school, you will have many levels of support for your teaching. You’ll receive on-site support from mentor teachers and principals and regular site visits by ACE staff and faculty. Furthermore, you will be in contact with your ACE supervisor every two weeks via online reflections that directly address your teaching experience.
Besides the M.Ed. are there any other benefits?
Click here to find out more information on the other benefits of ACE South Bend.
Community
Why is community so important in ACE South Bend?
ACE espouses a vision of community centered on the active promotion of the common good in a variety of social contexts: home, school, nation, and Church. Community in ACE derives from the Catholic conviction that all communities ought to strive to be examples of faith, hope, and love.
Year after year, the ACE community becomes a source of life and energy for the ACE teachers. It is our hope, and has been our experience, that the ACE South Bend teachers continue to use their community experience long after they graduate to build dynamic and life-giving communities of faith, hope, and love.
What does ACE South Bend community life look like?
Because ACE South Bend welcomes applications from both married and single applicants, participants are not required to live in community as in the classic ACE program. ACE South Bend participants form a supportive personal, professional, and spiritual community over the ACE summer and continue to meet regularly during the academic year to discuss their experiences as beginning teachers. Additionally, the ACE South Bend teachers contribute to and help form the larger ACE community of beginning teachers during the summer sessions.
Spirituality
What does spirituality in ACE South Bend look like?
The spirituality of ACE is rooted in the belief that we are called to an encounter with Christ Teacher, and it is the Holy Spirit who calls people, as the Spirit called the first disciples, to this encounter. Grounded in the Catholic faith, ACE South Bend emphasizes an invitational spirituality during the two-year experience and beyond. You are encouraged to develop your own personal spirituality and faith in the context of community, and to share with one another the journey of becoming committed Catholic school teachers.
ACE’s efforts at pastoral formation strive to meet you where you are and invite you to a deeper relationship with God and a deeper sense of how your service and life in community are connected to your spirituality. ACE seeks to form Catholic educators who integrate their personal, communal, professional, and spiritual lives in their journey to answer the Holy Spirit’s call to serve.
What opportunities for spiritual growth will I have?
An important goal of the program is to provide you with the tools to become a reflective professional educator and to live out your faith daily. First and foremost, as a Catholic school educator, you will have the opportunity to form and guide your students in their faith lives, which in turn will shape your own. Summers at Notre Dame offer a variety of opportunities for spiritual growth including coursework, retreats, Mass, and prayer services.
ACE South Bend members gather frequently during the ACE summer and at least monthly during the school year to reflect upon their personal growth as a teacher and a member of the various communities in which they live and serve. Participants create prayer experiences for and with one another so as to further solidify their roles as leaders in prayer. ACE South Bend teachers also take part in the full ACE retreat program, including the annual December Retreat off site.
