During Lent this year, the ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools are offering a series of brief meditations based on the Stations of the Cross. Sent twice a week to your email, each begins with a short Scripture passage, followed by a few words of reflection and then a brief prayer.  You can view the first station "Jesus is condemned to death" here.
 
Sign up now to receive these Lenten reflections.

Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) graduate Beth Burau is taking her passion for Catholic school teaching to the next level, along with her desire to give disadvantaged children excellent educational resources. Her efforts are taking her deeper into the world of digital information, with help from a new fellowship program.

An ACE program, now in its second year, is assisting her cyberspace explorations while reaffirming her enthusiasm to stay in the classroom. This pilot program, called the Melody Family ACE Teaching Fellowship, strives to enhance the leadership potential of ACE graduates. That's a goal particularly advanced by the international network called ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools, where the Fellowship program is housed and where Beth's entrepreneurship has found a helping hand.

Beth is one of the first ACE Teaching Fellows, receiving a range of support thanks to a generous gift from the Melody family of Houston. The Melody family has partnered with ACE to support highly talented Catholic school teachers in their commitment to teaching, learning, and leadership.

Ireland marked Catholic Schools Week recently with a national conference hosted by Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, ACE’s senior director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, was invited to keynote the gathering with a talk titled “Catholic Schools as Eucharistic Communities.”

The participation by Father Nuzzi, who is an author and frequent speaker on the mission and meaning of Catholic schools in the United States, was the latest sign of the relationship that has grown between Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education and many of Ireland’s educators.

"I learned a lot from their experiences, and I shared a few of my own,” Father Nuzzi said of talks not only at the national conference but at additional events with religious orders and other patron groups, or trusts, who sponsor and support Catholic schools in the country.

Nancy McAdams, an educator who has helped to give countless young people transformative experiences of learning and teaching, will retire as associate director of Notre Dame's Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS) minor program, effective Feb. 14, 2012.

Nancy's eight years in her crucial role with ESS—neither her first nor last term of service in education—have included teaching, advising, and otherwise assisting Notre Dame undergraduates who pursued the popular, interdisciplinary minor housed in the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI).

"My best experiences have been with the students, talking with them about their classes and their goals for the future," Nancy recalls. Among the approximately 100 enrolled in the minor, about 40 go into teaching after graduation, and she watches the entire group become "very knowledgeable and passionate about education."

Recently, we asked Marisa Foyle, ACE Service through Teaching (STT) graduate and now a second grade teacher in the ACE English as a New Language (ENL) program, what difference these experiences have made in her life. Here is what she told us:

My ACE experiences over the past few years have truly blessed my life. I look forward to the challenges and the exciting discoveries I share with my students and colleagues each day in the classroom. I appreciate that I continue to learn more about myself and the world around me than I could have ever imagined. And I cherish the relationships I have built. Some of my ACE classmates have become my closest friends, and I readily turn to these people with my prayer requests, challenges, and success stories.

So far in my teaching career, I have worked primarily with students who are English Language Learners. This has sparked in me a deep desire to teach them well: to implement "best practices," to read the latest legislation, and to learn teaching strategies that serve my students better. This desire was the driving force behind my application to the ACE ENL program.

Through the program I am learning strategies and implementing assessments that I've found are beneficial not only to my ENL students, but to all of my students. In a sense, all of my students are English Language Learners because they are still learning the rules that govern our complicated language.

Through the program I am also collaborating with and learning from many other dedicated teachers throughout the country. As a result, this semester I will be forming a professional development plan to bring this information to more of the teachers at my school.

I am truly grateful to be a teacher, and I owe much of my thanks to ACE, which has given me the tools I need to refine my teaching practices and to continue to learn from and with my students each day. My students never cease to amaze me, with their eagerness to learn and explore. When I see their faces light up with smiles at their "aha!" moments, when I witness them praying, sharing, and laughing with each other, my heart fills with joy.

The Catholic School Advantage Campaign works with (arch)dioceses to open up the possibility of a Catholic education to more students. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, St. Collete has seen a record 13% growth after working with the CSA Campaign. Read more about the wonderful story of St. Collete and other great news from Chicago Catholic schools in the Spanish newspaper Catolico. St. Colette.

Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C., director of university-school partnerships in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed a consultant to the Committee on Catholic Education of theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Father Corpora, who is working to boost Latino enrollments in Catholic K-12 schools in his role as director of ACE’s Catholic School Advantage campaign, will consult with the bishops’ committee for a term extending to November 2014.

The committee provides guidance for the educational mission of the Church in the United States in all its institutional settings; its scope includes Catholic elementary and secondary schools as well as Catholic colleges and universities.

As part of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, the CYO of Johnson & Wyandotte Counties is home to over 5,500 kids who represent their parishes while participating in football, volleyball, basketball and track each year.

When Peter Piscitello became the executive director of the CYO in 2010, he saw an opportunity to reshape the way these children, their parents and coaches interact with youth sports. "Youth sports are a tremendous vehicle for spiritual, physical and even cognitive growth," he notes. "It's important that in our Catholic parishes and schools we recognize the impact sports can have in a young person's life and treat it as a ministry, as an extension of their Catholic education." In the face of a society that can take youth sports too seriously and create poor environments for children, this meant finding a way to give parents and coaches the tools to lead a revitalized approach to youth sports.

Peter's search for a partner in the formation of coaches and parents led him to Notre Dame and the Play Like a Champion program. This past fall, the CYO implemented the "Sports as Ministry" and "Parent Like a Champion" workshops for coaches and parents. The response has been fantastic, with every coach in the organization attending along with a parent from nearly all of the participating families. "You can see the impact right away," Peter says, "the program helps parents and coaches to see sports as a way to develop their kids' relationship with Christ and grow as individuals. The feedback from parents and coaches has been fantastic and the environment at games has been great." The partnership has helped the CYO be a leader in providing an authentically Catholic opportunity for kids to participate in sports.

Peter developed his passion for this ministry at an early age, as he knows first-hand the impact of youth sports. A lifelong fan and competitor in a variety of sports, Peter came to the CYO from work in collegiate athletics. He met his wife Tessa while an undergraduate at Benedictine College and is thrilled to be settled in Kansas City with his family.

Last night, February 2, the Boston Advocates hosted a Happy Hour for all Catholic school faculty and administrators. On February 9, the group will host FACTS Night at St. Rose School, helping families complete FACTS forms for financial aid.  And on February 11, the community will have its monthly Mass and dinner, beginning at 4:00 pm at St. Cecelia Parish.

Coming up in Chicago this spring is a community-building Happy Hour and the region's annual Fundraiser.

Denver Advocates held their annual Happy Hour Fundraiser in January. Regional chair Sarah Grey reports, "[It] was a huge success! We raised $2,624 for Annunciation Catholic School, $700 more than last year!" Special thanks goes to the Denver ND Club for its generous donation.

On Saturday, February 18, the Indianapolis Advocates will hold a service project at Holy Name School. Gary Asher, the region's chair, said that when the principal of Holy Name told a local contractor what the Advocates are planning, the contractor offered to donate paint and labor to the effort. Gary said, "We love it when the Spirit inspires others to join our service to Catholic Schools."

In Richmond, Advocates will attend Mass together tomorrow night, February 4, at St. Joseph Parish, followed by a talent show and silent auction at that school.  They will cap off the night with a visit to the Convent, where the Richmond-based ACE teachers live.

As previously advertised, our Austin and Dallas Advocates will enjoy a weekend retreat together later this month at Balcones Springs.

Our active Advocates community in Tucson will hold an NDAA soccer tournament next month at St. Ambrose, and a one-day Lenten Retreat at Picture Rock. The group continues its bi-weekly Community Night at Santa Cruz, where they begin with Lectio Divina prayer at 5:30pm, offer free classes until 7:30pm, and then enjoy a shared meal.

"The word 'retreat' has military connotations," admitted Fr. Ron Nuzzi in a Sunday homily to members of the Remick Leadership Program's tenth cohort. He continued, though, "To retreat is to surrender temporarily, but in order to gather the resources that you need in order to return to the front."

When it comes to resources, what tops the list for a Catholic school leader? Not books, not the latest technology, not funding for athletics and fine arts programs--though these aren't unimportant. What tops the list for these committed educators is a sense of faith and mission that guides their daily work. The most cherished, most necessary "resource" to have on hand in the principal's office is a nurtured relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is why the Remick Leadership program gathers its participants, all of whom are engaged in the daily administration of Catholic schools, for an annual winter retreat.

First-year program participants met in January, soon to be followed in mid-February by their second-year counterparts. Every year, the resounding chorus of feedback affirms that the weekend provides a replenishment of those much-needed resources: precious time for quiet reflection, re-connection with one another, prayer, and a motivating charge as they return for the second semester.

Our Catholic schools are blessed by the efforts of these faith-filled men and women. Join the ACE community in praying for them and all Catholic school leaders, that with each new challenge they face in their service, they may be continually strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The University of Notre Dame has named two Catholic schools in the Diocese of St. Petersburg as Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) schools.

The NDAA partnership marks a significant deepening of the relationship between Notre Dame and K-12 schools in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, begun in 1997 when the university first provided teachers to local Catholic schools through Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Service through Teaching program. 

Bishop Robert Lynch invited ACE to consider St. Petersburg as an NDAA site, and St. Joseph (Tampa) and Sacred Heart (Pinellas Park) were selected after a comprehensive feasibility study showed strong local support for the partnership and affirmed the schools’ capacity to serve area students effectively, particularly through the opportunities created by Florida’s private school tax credit. “These schools make an important difference in the lives of hundreds of families,” said Bishop Lynch.  “We welcome Notre Dame’s support for our efforts to extend the advantages of Catholic schooling to as many children as possible in our diocese.”

By designating Saint Joseph and Sacred Heart as NDAA schools, ACE and the diocese seek to sustain long-term, comprehensive excellence in these schools by implementing a unique model of Catholic schooling.  The NDAA model is built on the three pillars of ACE: educational excellence, the experience of community, and faith formation in the Catholic tradition.

The mission of the NDAA initiative is to provide a Catholic education of the highest quality to as many children as possible by mobilizing the resources of the University, the diocese, parental choice programs, and local communities. ACE faculty and staff will work closely with the NDAA schools and diocesan leaders in Tampa Bay to boost enrollment and enhance school leadership, curriculum, instruction, professional development, financial management, marketing and Catholic identity.  According to NDAA director Dr. Christian Dallavis, “We share Bishop Lynch’s vision of creating opportunities for more families to choose a Catholic education of the highest quality for their children.  We are excited to work in these Tampa Bay communities with dynamic teachers and incredible school leaders to help put more kids on the path to college and heaven.”

“These schools bring hope for the future to families, communities, and the Church. We at Notre Dame are honored to work alongside many caring people to buttress that hope and to support the Catholic school mission that serves our children so well,” said Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., founder of ACE and director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at Notre Dame.

St. Joseph principal Brenda Henson Budd added, “As St. Joseph Catholic School approaches its 116th year, we are overjoyed with our new partnership with Notre Dame. This new alliance gives us confidence that we will inspire academic excellence and form young people in faith in West Tampa for another 100 years to come.” Andy Shannon, principal of Sacred Heart, endorsed the partnership as well, adding, “We are thrilled for Notre Dame to join Sacred Heart’s mission of preparing children for a life lived in service to Jesus, the Church, and the community.”

These schools represent the first expansion of the NDAA model, which began when a pilot cluster was established in Tucson, Arizona, in 2009.

The NDAA initiative is funded by a generous grant from the Walton Family Foundation, with support from the partner dioceses, the University of Notre Dame, and private benefactors.

This announcement takes place during Catholic Schools Week 2012, which is celebrated nationwide January 29-February 5.

For more information about the Notre Dame ACE Academies, visit http://ACEacademies.nd.edu.

Contact:Christian Dallavis, Dallavis.1@nd.edu 574-631-4962

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."

At St. Benedict's Catholic School, in Blue Island, Ill., near Chicago, principal Susan Rys (pronounced Rise) and parents at the school are articulating a growing connection to their community. One of the parents, Roberto Reyes, reflects how the school has found its voice to call others into cooperation—and how that voice has acquired a Latino accent—with assistance from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Roberto is one of the school's "padrinos," part of a team of padrinos y madrinas (godfathers and godmothers) who help the school extend an invitation to local families. This team, inclined and trained to offer mentoring services and authentic hospitality while also recruiting children for the school, has come about as the result of training in ACE's Catholic School Advantage campaign.

"The best resource we have is the human resource," says Roberto, explaining that good relationships among the people in the area—many of whom are immigrants—are the best way to get the school's messages across. The Catholic School Advantage campaign, in which St. Benedict's is one of ACE's many partners in the Archdiocese of Chicago, helps schools become more accessible to Latino culture even as they convey the strengths they offer to local children in need of educational alternatives.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) is marking National School Choice Week, which spans January 22-28, 2012.

Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, ACE supports school choice policies, also called parental choice policies, that give all children effective options for obtaining a high-quality education.

Official Church teaching has repeatedly and consistently reaffirmed the vital importance of Catholic schools and school choice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own personal convictions." The Catechism adds that "public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and ensuring concrete conditions for its exercise" (CCC #2229).

As part of our support for principles of school choice, ACE's Program for K-12 Educational Access (PEA) is dedicated to empowering low-income families with access to a quality education, with a particular focus on parochial schools. PEA advances educational access through teaching, research, and outreach, and it seeks to cultivate data-driven, parent-centered education reform.

The Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) initiative, currently operating innovative, in-depth partnerships with three Catholic schools in the Diocese of Tucson, strives to remove the cost barrier for families whenever possible. As a result of Arizona's parental choice policies, allowing scholarships funded by tax credits, NDAA schools can provide tuition assistance to families facing financial hardship.

During the past year, the state of Indiana—where ACE is headquartered as an initiative of the University of Notre Dame—has been a center of action on school choice through a new voucher program.

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program experienced unprecedented success in 2011. National experts indicate this is the most successful first year implementation in the history of the parental choice movement. More than 3,900 students across the state have received Choice Scholarships, and more than 2,500 of those are now attending Catholic schools. The new program's benefits were most deeply felt by the families facing economic struggles, as 85% of voucher recipients qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunch.

Support for the principles of school choice, or parental choice, finds affirmation in Catholic thought.
In 1965, the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Christian Education stated: "The public power, which has the obligation to protect and defend the rights of citizens, must see to it, in its concern for distributive justice, that public subsidies are paid out in such a way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience that schools they want for their children."

In 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressly communicated that "whenever the State lays claim to an educational monopoly, it oversteps its rights and offends justice.... The State cannot dwithout injustice merely tolerate so-called private school. Such schools render a public service to civil society and therefore have a right to financial assistance."

The 2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church focused attention on the lack of public funding for non-public schools: "The refusal to provide public economic support to non-public schools that need assistance and that render a service to civil society is to be considered an injustice."

Pope Benedict XVI, in a 2008 Address to Catholic Educators, declared: "Everything possible must be done, in cooperation with the wider community, to ensure that [Catholic schools] are accessible to people of all social and economic strata. No child should be denied his or her right to an education in faith, which in turn nurtures the soul of a nation."

You can find out more about the official events and messages accompanying National School Choice Week at http://schoolchoiceweek.com.

Antonio Ortiz, a graduate of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) who has embodied a commitment to Catholic schools throughout his career, will become president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, effective June 25, 2012.

The school's board of trustees and presidential search committee announced recently that Tony had been elected to succeed Rev. Jim Garland, S.J. The announcement is headlined at the school's website.

Cristo Rey Jesuit, founded in 1996, enrolls more than 500 students. Located in the Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood, it serves low-income Latino communities. The school is part of a distinctive network of Cristo Rey schools that offer a college preparatory education to children for whom other private schools are not a financial option. Indeed, the Cristo Rey school model started at this Chicago site, and there are now 24 Cristo Rey schools across the country, of which Cristo Rey Jesuit High School is the largest.

"If you look at the education and experience that have prepared me for this very important responsibility, I would have to credit Notre Dame—both my undergraduate studies and the ACE Program—as having inspired me to focus on the mission of Catholic schools," Tony commented following the Cristo Rey announcement. "As enthusiastic as I am about the opportunity, I'm also a little bit nervous to be the first lay president. However, I know I have the ACE Program, resources, and ACE Advocates to lean on for support and prayers!"

Tony previously served at Cristo Rey Jesuit for ten years, with titles including Associate Principal and Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations. His experience in the ACE Service through Teaching program, during which he earned a Master of Education degree, included teaching for two years at a Catholic grade school in the border area of Mission, Texas. He graduated from ACE in 1999 as a member of the program's fifth cohort.

In 2010, Tony received ACE's Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education.

"I was raised in a family where my parents emphasized Catholic education as our absolute number one priority," said Tony in his recent email. "My experience in the ACE Program shaped my value system, work ethic, and spiritual life. I am now eager for the opportunity to return and continue advancing [Cristo Rey Jesuit HS] as one of the most important works of hope and opportunity for so many families who simply want the best education for their children."

Tony was among the ACErs profiled in the 2010-2011 ACE Annual Report. At that time, he was serving as director for partnerships and outreach at the Big Shoulders Fund. The fund provides millions of dollars annually for scholarships, instructional equipment, and facility improvements in Catholic schools in Chicago's neediest areas.

In the profile, Tony described his vision of ACE's future—providing more and more graduates the opportunity to enter leadership positions in education and public policy and giving more children access to the transformational benefits of excellent schools.

"The most important expression of ACE's mission," he said, "will be when traditionally underserved students, who have benefited from ACE teachers, reach their personal and professional dreams, as well as improving the quality of life for families and communities."

Tony holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago. He and his wife Brenda have two children, Gabriela and Antonio.

Using the Cristo Rey model adopted in other cities, Cristo Rey Jesuit utilizes the Corporate Internship Program. All students participate in this work-study program, through which they work five days per month in entry-level jobs in Chicago firms. In this way, they fund a majority of the cost of their education.

ACE congratulates Tony and joins in prayers for his continued success in service to young people through Catholic education.
# # #
Photo above: Antonio Ortiz at center.