The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) will once again welcome hundreds of visitors to the campus this summer for a unique series of conferences, all advancing ACE’s mission to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools.

The conferences, some of which are currently accepting registrants, constitute a growing part of the busy summer to be enjoyed by ACE participants. Hundreds of those participants will receive skills and personal formation to earn master’s degrees as K-12 Catholic school teachers and leaders.

Various units of ACE, which have multiplied during 19 years while remaining true to the original mission of service to under-resourced Catholic schools, host conferences that address today’s urgent issues. These include galvanizing top-notch teachers and school leaders; encouraging parental choice policies and informed financial strategies for Catholic school sustainability; promoting athletic coaching that ministers to young people; and introducing parents and South Bend-area educators to the summertime wellspring of Notre Dame’s commitment to K-12 schooling.

These are the conferences coming up:

ACE Teaching Fellows Annual Conference (June 5-10). Participants in the Melody Family ACE Teaching Fellowship program convene to assess and catalyze their growth as master teachers, educational leaders, and generators of problem-solving research. Several benefactor-supported fellowships support highly promising educators who wish to continue their careers in Catholic classrooms while pursuing advanced knowledge and skills. Fellows cultivate these leadership assets along with their mentors during the conference. Read more about the program.

Advocates for Parental Choice Symposium (June 15-20). This intensive formation experience gives participants a first-hand experience of people and places on the cutting edge in implementing school choice policies. Catholic school supporters will receive skills, insights, and working relationships to equip them as advocates in the parental choice movement. Major speakers and visits to Wisconsin and Florida will increase these future leaders’ understanding of the legal, social, constitutional, political, and moral dimensions of parental choice.

Play Like a Champion Sports Leadership Conference (June 22-24).

This annual conference, titled “Champion Character in Sports” for 2012, emphasizes developing the whole person through sports. Guest speakers offer professional development for coaches and athletic administrators at both the youth and high school levels. Hosted by ACE’s Play Like a Champion Today® experts in sports as ministry, the conference gathers representatives of parochial leagues around the country to network and share best practices. Go here to register.

Superintendents Strategic Leadership Conference (June 24-27)

ACE Consulting annually invites superintendents from dioceses across the country to hear expert speakers and conduct in-depth conversations about the many-layered challenges of leading Catholic schools. The goal is to help superintendents share best practices and obtain better tools to formulate and implement strategies that will sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic education. The conference is produced in collaboration with FACTS management company.

Principals Academy (June 26-29)

A four-day enrichment experience for Catholic school principal will focus on identifying and shaping a school’s culture to benefit leadership and learning. The values of a school, expressed actively and nurtured in a culture, provide a framework in which teachers can reduce students’ achievement gaps and leaders can promote continuous improvement in a school. This academy, hosted by ACE Consulting, will help principals develop action plans to improve and utilize their school culture. Register here for the Principals Academy.

Equitable Services Institute (July 8-12)

Students in Catholic schools across the country are not getting federally funded services to which they’re entitled; the Equitable Services Institute assists diocesan superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders to solve this problem. Attendees will receive updated information about complex federal funding policies plus practical roadmaps for the process of consultations by which educators obtain equitable shares for their students from Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Learn more here, and click to register.

School Pastors Institute (July 17-20)

Pastors whose parishes include schools are invited to this annual institute to learn to manage and leverage better the distinctive relationship between a parish and its school. The Institute develops many skills and perspectives that a pastor will need in overseeing a parish school, its people, and its finances. It provides insights for valuable reflection on the value of Catholic schools to the children and parents of a parish and to the future of the Church as a whole. 

ACE Parent Retreat (July 25-27)

Parents whose sons or daughters have just finished their first year in ACE Service through Teaching often have many questions about these first-year teachers’ experiences. ACE Advocates hosts a special retreat for these parents at Notre Dame to get their questions answered and to see the broader context of the journey their ACE teachers are taking. The retreat also allows these parents of the ACE 18 cohort to hear presentations, worship together, and swap stories. Learn more.

Mary Ann Remick Leadership Conference (July 13)

This conference, a capstone event for those earning their master’s degrees in educational administration through the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP), is a unique and informal venue for South Bend-area educators to discuss current research with ACE leaders and experts from across the country. The RLP participants present the action research they have conducted to help address key day-to-day issues facing Catholic schools, and local educational leaders attending free-of-charge may exchange useful ideas. Read about last year’s conference and read about the value of action research.

Plenty of fans came to Notre Dame on the weekend of April 20-22 for a preview of next fall's Fighting Irish football season, but the annual Blue-Gold Game was hardly the only campus event introducing a mix of friends to a future of opportunity and teamwork.

This was the weekend of the traditional April Retreat hosted by Service through Teaching, the signature teacher-formation initiative of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE). Some 87 members of the recently selected ACE 19 cohort came to taste what it will be like to be an ACE teacher for the next two years.

"It's really the start of the whole ACE experience," says Chuck Lamphier, director of ACE Advocates, who remembers his own attendance at an April Retreat when he was a new member of ACE 10. The schedule of events is traditionally a dynamic mix of the three pillars of ACE formation—professional service, spiritual growth, and community life.

A highlight of the retreat focused on the ACE community that each new teacher will join in the diocese where he or she has been assigned to serve in a local Catholic school. Fellow members of ACE 19 who have been assigned to the same community, soon to be sharing a house and offering each other moral support in their formation, are introduced to each other.

The bonds of fellowship established at the retreat will extend through the two years of the Service through Teaching experience—and often for the rest of the community members' lives.

Additional important relationships were initiated over the weekend because participants also included superintendents and other leaders from the dioceses where the new ACE teachers will serve. No fewer than 46 diocesan and school administrators came to campus from all around the country to meet the ACE teachers they will be hosting and overseeing.

Tom Doyle, senior director of the Service through Teaching M.Ed. degree program, gave the ACE 19 newcomers an overview of the academic rigors set to start this summer.

Many of these ACErs are poised to receive their undergraduate degrees from the University of Notre Dame or Saint Mary's College this spring, just before they start their first ACE summer. But the cohort consists of graduates from over 40 different colleges and universities, including Dartmouth, Duke, Fordham, Gonzaga, Harvard, Marquette, and the Congregation of Holy Cross institutions St. Edward's University and King's College.

"Some ACE 19 members are entering their two-year commitment to Service through Teaching after a year or more of post-graduate international service," adds Sarah Greene, associate director in the Service through Teaching pastoral team. "Two came to the April retreat shortly after returning from post-graduate service-teaching in Japan and Korea, respectively. One is finishing a year of service in a medical clinic in Costa Rica, and one served with the Peace Corps in Benin. We also welcome two new ACE 19s from Ireland."

The April Retreat, which also offered opportunities for Mass and other prayer, ended on Sunday in time for many of the participants to head back to their usual Monday workload in various dioceses and schools. Whether they resided far away or elsewhere on campus, they closed their weekends better connected to ACE's past, present, and future.

Students entering grades 2 through 8 in the South Bend and Elkhart areas will have expanded opportunities this year to extend their learning into the summer months through a partnership of local Catholic schools and the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

The "Catholic Schools Summer Camp Educational Program," co-sponsored by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and ACE, will offer day camp-like learning experiences at five schools—two more than last summer. Students are being invited to register at St. Jude Elementary School in South Bend and at St. Vincent de Paul School in Elkhart, in addition to last year's lineup of South Bend schools: St. Adalbert, St. Anthony de Padua, and Our Lady of Hungary.

Each school will offer two sessions, one spanning three weeks in June and the other spanning three weeks in July. Different grades will have different focus areas, generally covering math or language arts. The sessions are mornings only.

Registration for the sessions is open to students from all schools and backgrounds, with one entire session costing $80 and both sessions costing $150. There are discounts for registration by May 7, and financial aid is available. Information about financial assistance comes from the individual school where a student is enrolling.

In addition to these sessions, the partnership is again offering its "Catholic Schools Summer Science Educational Program," which is specifically for students entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. This program also offers June and July sessions but is based at Christ the King School in South Bend.

The morning sessions in June will emphasize ecology and life sciences. The sessions in July will feature forensics and early engineering concepts. Lab periods are built in, with lots of hands-on learning. Student experiences will include building a roller coaster, launching your own rocket, and growing your own plants.

Registration costs for the science program are the same as for the broader educational program.
More information and a downloadable registration card for the general camp program are available at http://ace.nd.edu/summercamp. You can also contact Caitlin Cameron of ACE at 574-631-9332.

The Alliance for Catholic Education forms college graduates to be teachers serving in Catholic schools around the country. These teachers in formation, studying at Notre Dame during the summer as part of the highly selective Service through Teaching program, serve alongside current Catholic school teachers to lead the summer camp experiences, yielding an optimal teacher-student ratio and frequent individual instruction.

Over the past three summers, ACE Summer Camp Programs have served more than 1,100 students in the greater South Bend area.

America's K-12 schools, both public and Catholic, are in crisis, said NYU historian and education scholar Diane Ravitch in an April 10 address at the University of Notre Dame. But she pointed out that both have their enduring strengths, and she warned against some of the most popular solutions being proposed to their current problems.

Ravitch, whose talk entitled "Is There a Crisis in Public Education?" was part of the year-long "Notre Dame Forum" series exploring issues in K-12 education, expanded on the arguments in her best-selling book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

Pointing out that public education has come under sharp attack by a movement pushing privatization and free-market disciplines for schools and "de-professionalization" for teachers, Ravitch acknowledged that schools need to solve a range of problems today. But "they are not declining and they are not failing."

"I'm a member of Tex-ACE" writes Theresa Yerkes (above, bottom far right), who lives with seven other ACE teachers in Brownsville--"as far south as you can get in the continental United States!" The fourth grade teacher tells us this week about what led her to the Service through Teaching experience.

"I have never felt as strongly called to something as I felt called to ACE. I was drawn to the program because of its commitment to serving children through education and supporting teachers through faith-based community.

"Going into ACE I prayed that I would be challenged and stretched so that I would grow from this experience. I had no idea my prayers would be answered so strongly.

"ACE has been the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is also an incredible source of character development. I am learning more and more about what it means to give selflessly, what it means to work tirelessly for a mission I very much believe in, and what it means to humbly accept my own shortcomings and receive the gifts of others."

To learn more about ACE Service through Teaching, click here.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) is honored to be part of the career stories of three educators who were saluted by the White House on Jan. 25 as "Champions of Change." A fourth educator who was spotlighted is another supporter of ACE, as seen in the formation for leaders in her diocese. ACE is pleased to join in thanking all ten of the champions of Catholic education who were spotlighted in the Washington, D.C., ceremony. They share in ACE's commitment to offer all young people, especially the disadvantaged, the opportunity for a high-quality Catholic education.

Among the honorees was Joseph Womac, a graduate of ACE’s Service through Teaching program. In recent years, he has served as executive director of the Fulcrum Foundation, a Seattle-based organization whose fund-raising has helped more than 10,000 low income students attend Catholic schools.

Sister Rosa Maria Ruiz, C.F.M.M., superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Tucson in Arizona, was also one of the honorees. She noted that her purview includes an in-depth partnership with the Notre Dame ACE Academy initiative, in which ACE and Notre Dame are working with local educators to strengthen three diocesan schools.

A third honoree was Yvonne Schwab, principal of St. James the Less Catholic School in Columbus, Ohio.  As the White House press release noted, “Mrs. Schwab and her staff have worked closely with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education. This connection has provided the staff with necessary training for the new population” of her school, which is largely Latino. A recent news story posted at ACE’s website described the school’s adoption of ideas from the ACE Catholic School Advantage campaign.

Annette "Mickey" Lentz is chancellor of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Among the steps leading to success in this honoree's schools, the Archdiocese has built partnerships with higher education institutions to help teachers earn advanced degrees. "Reflecting Mickey's ardent support of ACE, her archdiocese has sent more candidates to the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP) —preparation for a principal's duties and other leadership roles—than any other diocese," said Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, senior director of the RLP.

The salute to the ten educators included individual comments and panel presentations giving voice to the honorees' love for Catholic education. Womac, in his reflection, said that preserving the American dream for millions of American families involves preserving Catholic education.

"I saw this first-hand teaching in Catholic schools in Louisiana as a part of the University of Notre Dame's service program, the Alliance for Catholic Education," Womac told the White House audience. "I see it first-hand every day at work in the hopeful lives of thousands of students attending school with Fulcrum's assistance."

Recently we asked Grainne Carroll, who hails from Ireland, to tell us about her experience with ACE. Grainne is a graduate of ACE Service through Teaching (STT, cohort 16) and has completed one semester of ACE's Teaching Exceptional Children (TEC) program. Here's what she had to say.

My experiences with ACE and ACE TEC have been truly wonderful. From the joyous moment I received my letter of acceptance to the master's program in 2009, to sunny summers of intense studying at Notre Dame, to late night TEC assignments this fall, ACE has truly challenged me, pushing me to reach my potential as a teacher and minister of Christ.

During my undergrad years in Dublin, Ireland, where I gained my bachelor's degree in education, and the two years I spent in Texas completing my master's degree, one area that really intrigued me was special education. In my few years of teaching, I have encountered so many beautiful and talented children of God who have been denied their right to an equal and adequate education, specific to their individual needs. This reality hit home when one of my students in Texas left for the public school system due to insufficient funds and resources available at our Catholic school. It was heartbreaking to realize that we were unable to provide that student the education he needed in a Catholic environment. During this time, I decided to apply for ACE TEC.

ACE TEC has been a tremendous gift to me. It has provided me with the tools and information needed to actually make a difference in my classroom and in my school. Many times in my (short) teaching career, I felt unsure and unaware of the best approach to take with a student with special needs. But after just one summer and one semester of ACE TEC, I feel a greater sense of comfort working with these students, because ACE TEC has given me strategies that can help them succeed. For example, I am now a member of my school's Intervention Assistance Team, which exists to provide support of and/or guidance for teachers and parents of students with special needs. In the first two quarters of the year, our team met to address the unique learning needs of seven different students. We created implementation strategies for the teachers and parents to help these students achieve success.

ACE TEC has reinforced my belief that teachers must be equipped to address the unique needs of every student, because all students are special. I am grateful for the tools and encouragement the program provides so that an equal and excellent Catholic education is available to all.

As a product of Catholic schools, Caitlin Wrend (3rd from right, above) was drawn to the mission of ACE when she applied to the ACE Service through Teaching (STT) program. "I wanted to work to make the gift of a Catholic education a reality for all children," she says, and become "part of this group that is wholeheartedly dedicated to the mission of strengthening Catholic schools."

Now in Tucson at San Xavier Mission School, Caitlin has one semester of 3rd grade teaching under her belt. Already she is aware of how the ACE mission applies in areas large and small. "This experience has opened my eyes to the many challenges our education system is facing today," she tells us. At the same time, it has narrowed her focus to the children. "It really is all about the kids," Caitlin says.

The "17 smiling faces" that greet her every morning remind her of the beacon of hope a Catholic school can be. And no matter the teaching hurdles she may cross on a given day, it's the students' "little ah-ha moments that make it all worthwhile!"

Some may wonder how soon young STT teachers know they're making a difference, especially because the job can be, as Caitlin says, "daunting and overwhelming." But Caitlin tells of a day in October when she saw that her instruction was taking hold. "My mom came to visit my classroom, and while she was reading with one of my students, my mom misunderstood something that had happened on the previous page. My student looked up at her and patiently said, 'Mrs. Wrend, you need to back up and re-read.' I realized that my students really are learning and using the strategies I am teaching them."

Click here to learn more about this program that brings hopes to schools, students, and teachers alike.

This blessed time of year prompts us to look back upon cherished Christmas traditions and to look forward to a new year—often considering plans for the future that reflect our deepest values. If these values include education, community, faith, and service to the Church and society, this is a good time to consider the life-transforming experiences of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Applications are now being accepted for ACE’s Service through Teaching program, which helps to form Catholic school educators, ready to serve at-risk children in under-resourced K-12 schools. Those who already teach can apply for the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP), which prepares the next generation of Catholic school leaders, ready to serve as principals for dynamic communities educating the mind and the heart.

These formation initiatives grant a master’s degree from one of the nation’s leading universities and offer an unrivaled combination of professional preparation, community solidarity, and spiritual growth. On-campus coursework at Notre Dame is integrated with online learning and the everyday life of serving in a Catholic school—the matchless opportunity to build skills as an educator while sustaining and strengthening the precious treasure of a Catholic education that gives children faith, hope, and love.

Consider sharing this unique experience and joining this supportive community.

Explore the “journey of an ACE teacher” in the Service through Teaching program. Meet a recent STT cohort of students and see some of their experiences in a video presentation. The deadline to apply for Service through Teaching is Jan. 24, 2012.

See the brochure that describes the Remick Leadership Program. Watch an introduction to the program from the director. The deadline to apply for the Remick Leadership Program is Feb. 1, 2012.

For Greg Rustico (pictured with his community, bottom-left), service was the draw to join ACE Service through Teaching. "Jesus' message in the Gospel clearly commands us to think first of others," he says. "I felt that I could most effectively serve by being a teacher."

Now, after a semester on the job, he adds that teaching is unique as a type of service. "Teaching requires patience," he says. "The results aren't immediately apparent like other forms of service." Thus, Greg has to remind himself now and again that he is making a difference, whether or not he can see it.

His ACE community "of 8 awesome people" in Brownsville, Texas helps him in that regard. So, too, does the recognition that the impact of his service reaches beyond the middle school social studies and language arts he teaches. "I sense that many of my students, especially the boys, are starting to look up to me," he says. "I hope that I can be a strong role model for them."

Click here to learn more about the ACE Service through Teaching program.

One of ACE's longest traditions—and a rich source of memories for ACE teachers—will be convened for the eighteenth time in early December. Members of the ACE 17 and ACE 18 cohorts in Service through Teaching will gather at a retreat center outside Austin, Texas, for the annual ACE December Retreat.

About 170 teachers serving in 26 dioceses will mark the half-way point in the school year with experiences of prayer, personal reflection, community-building, and fun during the three-day weekend, starting Dec. 2.

They will be joined by numerous ACE faculty and staff members who support the teachers throughout the year. They will also be joined in spirit by ACE alumni for whom the retreat served as a milestone in their formation.

"ACE is unique," says Emily Lazor of the STT community in Jackson, MS, "because it allows you to perform a much-needed civil service while also furthering the Church's mission of evangelism—a combination I found difficult to find in other long-term service programs."

This high school Spanish and Religion teacher has thrown herself into both service and mission this year—and speaks eloquently about what she has gained.

Being an ACE teacher is challenging, she says, but she deeply appreciates her students' excitement about learning Spanish and growing in their faith. "It is wonderful to see the world opened up to them, or to see their confidence grow as they can suddenly speak to you in another language," Emily says.

She continues, "Teaching in a school where prayer is not only accepted but also encouraged has taught me a lot about how acutely aware these students are of others' needs - both locally and around the world. They care deeply for one another, but also for people they have never met and will never meet, and I think a lot of that has to do with the formation they are receiving from a Catholic education."

While she's not been teaching long, Emily testifies to how she has grown from the experience—academically, professionally and spiritually. Much of the credit goes to her students, who have brought her deep joy both in and outside of the classroom. "I try my best each day to offer them something meaningful," she says, "but I am always humbled that more often than not they are teaching me about what is important, true, and beautiful about life. Being able to thank them and in turn affirm them for that is truly a gift."

His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, recently retired leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, celebrated Mass with the ACE community in Carole Sandner Hall on Monday, October 31, 2011.

Cardinal Mahony, a long-time friend of ACE who has welcomed ACE teachers and ACE's Catholic School Advantage campaign into his archdiocese, spoke in his homily about Jesus' remarks in the day's Gospel reading.

In Chapter 14 of Luke, Jesus attends a dinner and gives this instruction: "When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Cardinal Mahony reminded the ACE congregation that "all are welcome at the table of the Lord," and he has seen how joyful the poor can be because "they sense the providence of God in their lives."

He said ACE teachers "bring great hope" to the schools serving the disadvantaged. Thanking ACE, he said, "The work that you're doing is basically setting up more tables."

As a young girl, when ACE 17's Christie Hjerpe heard her grandfather sing, "It's a great day to be alive," little did she know that years later, it would become a kind of theme song in her classroom!

Christie teaches third grade at Santa Cruz Catholic School, a Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) in Tucson, Arizona. True to the upbeat nature of that song, the Rhode Island native is an enthusiastic ACEr, who says that "ACE had my heart" from her earliest days as an ND undergrad. Christie is also an enthusiastic NDAA teacher, saying, "I feel so blessed to have the support at NDAA that I do; [it] has definitely made the transition into teaching easier and more enjoyable."

Christie is especially enthusiastic about literacy: "It's almost become an obsession. I want all of my kids to read at grade level or above, no excuses." It can be a challenge for any classroom, but Christie Hjerpe remains undaunted. "With NDAA we're developing a stronger school culture, with shared beliefs that all of our kids can make it to college and heaven."

So, whenever her students are tired, Christie cheers them on with, "Work hard, get smart...no excuses." And whenever she gets tired, her students start to sing, "It's a great day to be alive!" With the semester just half over, Christie reports that she has seen tremendous growth in her readers.

"If NDAA teachers and staff can really make kids feel like it's a great day to be alive, and help them to see God in all things, we will achieve our goals of sending these kids to college and heaven." She continues, "I feel so blessed that I can wake up happy to go to work in the morning, knowing that I'll have 24 smiling faces at my door waiting to say 'Good morning!' 'I love you!' and 'Miss H., we're ready to learn!' Now, what could be better than that?"

Listen to Travis Tritt sing "It's a great day to be alive!"

Click here to learn more about the ACE Service through Teaching program.