Alliance for Catholic Education
Lenten greetings from yet another snowbound day at Notre Dame...
I hope you all are well and that you're feeling prepared to enter into this spirit of sacrificial giving, prayer, and fasting. Please know of our prayers for each of you during these 40 days.
In ACE, this is the season of discernment and admissions. We have a strong applicant pool of prospective Remick Leaders - many more than we could possibly accept - and last week we began the difficult process of selection. We made a significant change to the process this year that I want to share today, as I think it's already making a big difference in our admissions process.
Last year we followed the lead of John Schoenig and the ACE Teaching Fellows team to see if we might be able to identify the most important traits we see in the teachers and leaders who are most successful in our formation programs. We also thought about what skills and mindsets are absolutely necessary in a new candidate. And of course, we thought through how these traits aligned with our root beliefs and our core values to seek, persist, excel, love, and serve.
We identified seven characteristics that we believe are important to develop in aspiring Catholic school teacher and leaders: Grit, Zeal, Self-Awareness, Gratitude, Integrity, Organization, and Openness to Spiritual Growth. We drafted a short description for each of these, which we've included in a section of the newsletter below.
Instead of asking applicants to solicit three or four generic letters of recommendation, we asked recommenders to rank the top three of these character traits that are strengths for the candidate, explaining why each is a strength, and we invite the recommender to elaborate on any of the other traits as well, including potential areas for growth.
The result is that we are no longer getting dull, generic letters of recommendation. Instead, I've been reading thoughtful, personal, and targeted letters. For the first time, I'm reading rec letters that actually tell me something that I want to know about the person I am reading about. We are also finding that patterns in the rankings are meaningful - when all the recommenders identify the top strength as "grit," for example, we know we have someone who understands what it means to seek and persist.
I share these traits with you this week not just because they are on our minds as we select RLP 14 but also because we hope these are the traits you find yourselves developing during your time as a Remick Leader.
As always, I'd welcome any thoughts this reflection might trigger and if there are other traits that you think we ought to be looking for, please don't hesitate to let me know. These aren't carved in stone - we're going to try this new model out this year, we'll see how it goes, then we'll revise it and do it better next year. I'm excited about what I'm seeing so far - if only because rec letters always used to put me to sleep! I'm sure we'll find ways to improve it, and we welcome your thoughts about how we might do so. As one of my heroes, Stan Lee*, always says,
Excelsior!
Christian
*I have already exposed myself as a Star Wars nerd to many of you; I suppose it's time to come clean about Marvel Comics too...thanks in advance, JJ Rees and Aaron Brenner, for your solidarity.
The First Station: Jesus is condemned to death
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
Mark 15:12-14: [Pilate brought Jesus outside and said to the people], "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" "Crucify him!" they shouted. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
Reflection: Jesus stands before Pilate, accused of crimes he hasn't committed, and He who is without sin mutely accepts the blame for the sin of all. Yet, Jesus fully trusts in God's plan—the promise of resurrection and salvation. This was the light that led him through the darkness.
Prayer: Jesus, help us to see your acceptance of blame not as weakness or resignation, but as the ultimate example of self-sacrificing trust in God. Give us that same trust so that, when we see wrongs we did not perpetuate or messes we did not make, we step in to offer your healing, comfort, and hope.